Dwarf Miner [WIP] [On Temporary Hiatus]

Sift

  • Posts: 47
Beautiful game! But if you enter the cave, mine out the gems, and then get killed by the goblin, the scene reloads itself and the score is the same. Therefore you can get infinite monies.

Other than that, it's a beautifully orchestrated demo. All the mechanics are introduced straight to the point.

ChunkyMonkey

  • Posts: 430
    I love the art and gameplay. Are you planning on implementing weapon shops, potion shops, and mining shops that you can spend your hard earned money on?

    When I was playing this I thought, "I wish I had a bow and arrow" which I know isn't something miners carry around, but I think that would be something cool to be able to buy.

GameZone

  • Posts: 160
Beautiful game! But if you enter the cave, mine out the gems, and then get killed by the goblin, the scene reloads itself and the score is the same. Therefore you can get infinite monies.

Other than that, it's a beautifully orchestrated demo. All the mechanics are introduced straight to the point.

Yep, that happens to me, too. But, you don't have to be killed to do that. You can also exit and re-enter the cavern to get infinite gems as well. Oh, and, tristonhopkins, the enemy should be killed if the pickaxe seems to collide with it visually. And, occasionally when a rock gets mined, some small gems get stuck in the ceiling.
How can you be enjoyed when you are an immature annoyance in at least ONE way?

tristonhopkins

  • Posts: 69
Thanks for reporting these issues.  I am already aware of them, however, but this way there is a recorded post about the issue and that keeps me accountable to fix it. ;)

I haven't touched the game in around two weeks, mostly because I was so involved in working on it before that I hit a wall and couldn't think of any ways to improve upon what I had or what to add to it.  Now that I've been away from working on it the ideas are starting to flow again and I should resume work on it soon. Though, I am considering waiting to do any actual work aside from brainstorming until Stencylworks 2.0 is released.

GameZone

  • Posts: 160
Hmph. Well, at least your only putting it off until you have better stuff to work with. Or will there be something further? ???
How can you be enjoyed when you are an immature annoyance in at least ONE way?

tristonhopkins

  • Posts: 69
In my opinion the game is pretty bare in terms of content at this point.  There is quite a lot left to be added before I'll be happy with it.

At some point I would like to have a working inventory in place, so that there are multiple "weapons" that can be swapped.  There also needs to be more varied locations to go to, because a grassy area and a cave just won't cut it on their own.  I have some ideas, but I'm trying to keep them mostly to myself in the event that I decided to cut some of it out at a later point in time.

Perhaps later today or tomorrow I will finally sit down and put together a list of what I would like to add, order it by importance, and when Stencylworks 2.0 comes along get to work on the list.  Before I hit this creative wall I was planning to make the current demo longer, but I couldn't justify it because there wasn't enough varied content to make it worth it.  I couldn't think of what to add at the time so I had been putting off working on it altogether until that wall broke down.

GameZone

  • Posts: 160
How can you be enjoyed when you are an immature annoyance in at least ONE way?

tristonhopkins

  • Posts: 69
Hm. Alright. :-\
Is there something wrong with what I said?  o_O

I would imagine more content would be a good thing..

GameZone

  • Posts: 160
No, I'm fine with it. But what I'm REALLY worried about is the Stencylers that do not have the virtue of patience. They'd be rather pissed that you wouldn't update Dwarf Miner until Stencylworks 2.0 comes out. They'd be throwing rants and being no-brainers, such as saying; "tristan when will u update dwarf miner i really really love it and i want the full game NOW!!1" and "u suck triston. if you don't complete dwarf miner soon, i'm gonna unfollow you and stop playin yur games. >:(" Just as examples.
How can you be enjoyed when you are an immature annoyance in at least ONE way?

ChunkyMonkey

  • Posts: 430
^Ya...


No. I doubt timing will be a problem.

P.S.
u suck triston. if you don't complete dwarf miner soon, i'm gonna unfollow you and stop playin yur games >:(

tristonhopkins

  • Posts: 69
Well too bad for them!  I'm working on this purely for fun for now, so if it takes a long time to complete, then so be it.  ;)

Strasteo

  • Posts: 323
Anyone that seriously gets upset with the person who is, y'know, making the game that they like, and threatens them are petty people.

These additions you mention sound great, and I think it'll really prolong the time people play the game and have them come back for more. I do caution for you to not make it too complex, as most game creators sometimes lose sight of their original intent and add more and more until it overwhelms them with work. I've faced this scenario many times myself.

In any case, looks good. Can't wait to see more.


tristonhopkins

  • Posts: 69
Wow, has it really been nearly three months?

Thanks to the release of Stencyl 2.0, I had the chance today to poke around at Dwarf Miner again.  Since I last updated everyone on the status of the game, I've had a few ideas floating around that I stupidly didn't put to paper, so I might have to dig around in my mind to conjure them up again.  However, I'm going to spend some time reacquainting with Stencyl in general as well as all the new features 2.0 has to offer, and when I can truly begin worthwhile work on Dwarf Miner, I will announce it here.  I have some additional things I worked on in Dwarf Miner before I stopped work that I can likely release when I announce officially working on this again.

However, something that just came to mind while typing this post is a way that can work for both reacquainting myself with Stencyl and furthering development of Dwarf Miner at the same time.  While I'm proud of the enemy AI I created from scratch, there is a lot left to be desired, and I'd like to make that AI extend to more than just enemies in the future.  I think as my "reacquaintance" project with Stencyl, I will take a stab at updating the AI, however I will do it in a new test game from scratch.

We'll see how this goes. :)

tristonhopkins

  • Posts: 69
Dwarf Miner is a nominee in Kyattaro Games' Bundle-in-a-Box Indie Dev Grant!
You can learn more about Bundle-in-a-Box and the Indie Dev Grant at http://bundle-in-a-box.com/!

If you'd like to vote for Dwarf Miner, you can do so at http://www.kyttarogames.com/?page_id=8

Thanks!  :)

Lympha

  • Posts: 30

First of all, I'd like to say that the art style is looking fantastic. It really brings me back in the day, I really love the 8-bit colors you used, it looks extremely promising so far.

Now for the critique part... The game is called Dwarf Miner, this insinuates that the game is about mining. This on it's own isn't really a bad thing, except for the fact that this has been done so many times it becomes rather cliché. I enjoyed mining games, like Minecraft, Terraria or the smaller Flash games with a similar idea, but it starts to get just really unoriginal. That said, I do think you should be fine if you implement some of your own original features.
The game-play seems very slow paced at the moment. Even though I understand that this might be a game that's made for more casual purposes, a bit faster gaming would be nicer. Only fastening your movement slightly could make it a much better game. In my opinion that is.
Although I praised your artistic side before, it does have a big flaw; the styles don't blend well. Right now, the heart really looks off, as do the mountains. What I would have done is perhaps erase some colors and try to keep to shading a bit more basic.

Overall, it's looking quite good so far, although the demo is really short so far, it's looking great. Please don't take my criticism too harsh and keep in mind that all I've said is just my opinion and I don't speak for others.
Keep doing what you're doing.
Need criticism on a game? Don't hesitate to PM me.