Ascension (Part 1: Rebirth)

[Crystalgate]

3) I know the story sounds kinda cliche. I'm convinced the story in full is interesting and not unoriginal, but it doesn't show in that summary. I'll rewrite that summary so reflex the real story better.

A small tip here, there are often ways to covey that your story will be worth one's time by paying attention to details. For example, another project also had a character who wouldn't talk about his past. However, the author also let us know that he was forbidden to talk about his past by his superiors. It was easy to imagine a lot of reasons as to why that character's superiors would tell him to keep his past to himself, some of them not even requiring there to be anything out of the ordinary about his past at all. Basically, it made perfect sense and let me know that the author had thought things trough here. Had she just told us that he has a past he doesn't tell anybody about and not added the extra detail that he's forbidden to talk about the past, then for all I know the author may just have added the secret past because she consider it trendy or something.

 

[gRaViJa]

Okay, i'll change this topic where it should be. I'm also going to look into the art thing. Vampdzl, i'll pm you and maybe contact some other artists too. lastly, i'll think about releasing this game in 4 smaller part instead of 2 larger parts. Thanks for the feedback, that's what this forum is all about.

 

[gRaViJa]

Okay, I changed the original post according to the given feedback.

Also,i want to add that some people might have understood the "10 minigames" part. It was not explained well on my part, so let me rephrase it: The game will have only 1 real minigame, being the Triple traid minigame. Players decide by themselves how many time they invest in it. The other "minigames" are actually adventure/platform elements. For example: in a certain tomb, there are trenches and arrow flying around. The player has to jump and evade. The player has to evade objects or special attack events by button mashing events. At a certain point in the game, the main character hides in a tower during a battle. Then a "minigame" starts were the player can shoot down ennemies with his bow from the tower, like a sniper instead of regulary battle them. There are also all kind of puzzles. These are not in any way timefillers, but are an essential part of the gameplay.

The updates:

changed Luke's and Sokin's character description.

Edited the Custom Systems part and explained the idea behind the battle system.

I filtered some writing mistakes. More importantly, a decent writer will check all dialogue in the game and correct the misstakes. So, there's no need to worry about badly written dialogues inside the game.

Changed the release dates to be more realistic. I Might decide to release the game in 4 parts instead of 2.

Lowered the gameplay to 15-20 hours per game. The previous statement was actually a typo :p

Story synposis has been rewritten.

As regi commented, the size of the animations has been scaled down to fit the battle scene better

I'm also contacting artists who can create the lineart for the characters and pictures instead of Mathijs. Mathijs will still
do the coloring.


Improved?

 

[valdred]

I am Norwegian and I have never heard the name Sogna before. P_P

 

[gRaViJa]

I am Norwegian and I have never heard the name Sogna before. P_P

isn't there a province/region in norway called Sognadal? I decided to use that name ages ago, and after checking some things: it is actually an italian surname just check facebook for it :p i probaply mixed up the norwegian region sognadal and the italian surname sogna.

anyway, i renamed the character's name to Ahto, derived from Finnish myhtology. Sogna actually does sound silly like Sailerius said.

Back on topic now?

 

[Crystalgate]

isn't there a province/region in norway called Sognadal?

Well, there's one called Sogndal.

 

[gRaViJa]

Time for an update:
------------------------------------------
1:
So far the main point of complaints was the character art. After looking into this feedback i came to the conclusion that the character art indeed wasn't up to par. I started talking with some drawing artists and i decided to work together with Nekopia. He is pretty great in my opinion, but i want to have your feedback too. How much of an improvement is this art? is it good enough for a videogame/visual novel? etc.

(for now it's only a sketch):

------------------------------------
2:
We are now officially looking for betatesters for the demo! If you want to be part of the betatesting team, you have to become a member of the facebook group (If you have Facebook of course:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ascension ... 960?ref=ts

And/Or follow this link to the subscription thread:
http://www.gravity-games.org/forum?vast ... pic&t=11.0


Feedback about the game in general is also still very much apriciated!

 

[Zankoku no Yami]

Nice new direction for the art! I figured the art was a very important aspect (especially around here, geeze! People dont seem to care much unless there is something pretty...). So it is awesome you got a new team together for just that!

Things are looking pretty nice (dang you and being good at maps AND having another awesome mapper on your team!). I'll withhold a lot until I see the demo; because personally, actions speak louder than works. So I HATE to make judgments or speak about things until I see everything in action. But I can say I like the new art style and I would definitely take it further! Just as long as the artist can really bring it out, than it should be more than suitable for the game. Only the final product can say! And the game looks pretty solid from here.

Looking forward to the demo!

 

[gRaViJa]

Thank you! These comments really boost me

last update about the art:
colored version of Luke:

Next updates will be about the demo etc.

And we are fully looking for betatesters now! There are still plaes open, so if you wnat to play the game, just visit our forums at http://www.gravity-games.org/forum

comments, shoot! No, really, please, shoot :D

 

[Zankoku no Yami]

That turned out VERY nicely! Yeah, that is definately a great art direction to go. That quality is not seen too much in these games, so stick with it.

 

[gRaViJa]

Some news about the original soundtrack. The talented Takahashi Kym is making custom music for Ascension. I pray on my knees every night because he is helping me, he's really that good :p

From now on i'll be posting a song from the OST about once a week on YouTube. Here is the first one: Fading Away. (You can also see the new character art for Luke and Sokin)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD_tAjE_RiA

If you subscribe to the channel, you can hear all the songs! (*wink, wink, hint, hint*)

http://www.youtube.com/user/WWWGravityG ... ature=mhum

 

[GiveMeASpicy]

Wow. That track was great. Very impressed with the musical quality gravija

 

[gRaViJa]

Thank you Takahashi will be glad to hear that ^^ Here's a new, more epic song of the OST:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxOxjwrsmO8

(Last song i'll upload in this thread for now)

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

The battle system seems to lag a bit. Is that because of the program you used to make the video? Also, the window graphics seem a bit squared, if you know what I mean. I love the battle animations, but the overall graphics user interface seems kind of dull. Finally, great music. Where is it from?

EDIT: The original sound track is amazing, mind-blasting, epic, you name it.

 

[gRaViJa]

The lag is purely because of the recording program. It's true that the user interface is a bit dull at the moment. I change these graphics like once a week. With every update it looks better though :p Now i'll make an update with more round graphics, i'll post a screenshot soon

And yes, the composer (D33JNES on YouTube) is an amazing guy and he became a good friend of mine. He will definitly have a succesfull career in music. I hope these songs can help him in achieving that goal.

 

[gRaViJa]

I changed the battle windows again, as promised. Improvement?

 

[GiveMeASpicy]

I like it. It's not harsh on the eyes at all. Blends very well with the map

 

[Juan J. Sánchez]

I changed the battle windows again, as promised. Improvement?

Amazing improvement, but I still don't like the RTP icons. Good job.

 

[gRaViJa]

That's the next step. As i said, it's something that evolves the entire time ^^ Thanks for the feedback.

 

[gRaViJa]

Okay, I planned to post only 2 tracks of the OST, but since people are liking it, i'll post the 3th one too. Sorry :p

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6d3ZnVcLIU

The first two chapters are 99% done. So the betatesters should get a message soon. (not sure if anyone from hbgames has subscribed)