Skullz 2

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Pizzatime

you're right crambo. called the game an adventure with rpg elements for the first time last night and immediately got asked if it was being made with RPG Maker and if it was going to be another samey boring game made with that. so I'll stick with the incredibly smart term Choose 'n Pick adventure then.

# ? Nov 3, 2015 11:09

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# ? Apr 16, 2024 15:04

Pizzatime

copy pasted this in a couple places specific for video game marketing but guess it can't hurt to ask you guys as well

quote:

I have a very premature general question. I'm working on a game that I want to submit to Steam Greenlight eventually.

I have no idea at what point in development to do that, though. Early, to build a fan base? Late, to not lose any anticipation over time and have a lot of content to show from the get-go?

Here is a gif that you can click on for a video with sound and more stuff to see:

Judging by that state of progress, what'd you say?

# ? Nov 3, 2015 12:15

Pizzatime

Someone asked me why the name change from Skullz 2 to Skullz 'n Skeletonz. Here's something to read if you're into walls of text:

The change might seem like a whim, but there's a laughable amount of thought put into it.

Skullz 2 didn't work cause it'd have confused whoever didn't hear of the original game. People would've been put off 'cause they might've thought they'd need prior knowledge of a prequel, which doesn't even exist in that sense. The game isn't gonna be a traditional sequel. Big parts of the original are gonna be retconned and remade as parts of the new game. This game might end up being in a whole different league than the original flash game, so it didn't feel right just tacking a 2 at the end.

Obviously, just "Skullz" didn't work either, 'cause it'll be constantly confused for the original game.

Still, I would need the word Skullz in the name to have a clear connection to the original game for people that did play it, or would eventually stumble upon it, so I couldn't just call it whatever. I didn't want to just add an arbitrary adjective to the title, like "Lost Skullz", as I'd have to design the game around that word to make it have any meaning, and I didn't want to have to fit the whole game to a single adjective. Same with a verb, it'd just be too descriptive. So, I was left with a noun.

To elaborate: At least in my thinking, "noun & noun" means you just have to have both of that in your game, whereas "adjective noun" forces you to have all of the "noun" be "adjective" to fit with the title. Same with a verb, the "noun" would've to "verb", if that makes any sense.

So with two nouns, the game'd just have to have an equal amount of whatever that noun would be compared to the titular Skullz.
Now that there's gonna be a bunch of characters having actual bodies instead of just the player character, it seemed obvious - Skeletons. Though, Skeletonz, as I wanna drive home the fact that I'm in love with that silly Z. Then came the trouble of connecting those words. Skullz & Skeletonz, Skullz and Skeletonz...
I took a cue from Ghouls 'n Ghosts, a title whose name I didn't ever hear getting any particular amount of flak, and went with the 'n. The naming convention would mean that some people might surely think of the Ghouls 'n Ghosts series when hearing of this game, though, so I hope they won't be too disappointed when it's not a second Maldita Castilla, but an adventure game instead. I hope that'll be mitigated somewhat by the relation of the subject matter, though - ghouls, ghosts, skullz, skeletonz...

# ? Nov 4, 2015 15:17

City of Glompton

sounds reasonable to me.

thank you PSP for the beautiful spring sig

# ? Nov 4, 2015 15:37

alnilam

Pizzatime posted:

Skullz 2 didn't work cause it'd have confused whoever didn't hear of the original game. People would've been put off 'cause they might've thought they'd need prior knowledge of a prequel, which doesn't even exist in that sense.

I only read to here it sounds like a good reason

# ? Nov 4, 2015 15:44

Moola

why not just Skeletonz though?

# ? Nov 4, 2015 15:58

Pizzatime

Moola posted:

why not just Skeletonz though?

That part:

Pizzatime posted:

I would need the word Skullz in the name to have a clear connection to the original game for people that did play it, or would eventually stumble upon it

# ? Nov 4, 2015 16:01

Pizzatime

another thing is that the game's gonna be split into two parts, with the one part being basically a remake of the first game, in which also nobody has bodies, and the other part being basically the sequel, in which everybody does have bodies, making the full game Skullz 'n Skeletonz. That's what I was eluding to by saying it's not gonna be a sequel in the traditional sense.

# ? Nov 4, 2015 16:05

Moola

sounds neat!

# ? Nov 4, 2015 16:34

Pizzatime

which e tho

# ? Nov 5, 2015 13:03

Pizzatime

in action

# ? Nov 5, 2015 13:10

City of Glompton

Pizzatime posted:

which e tho

the top e, with white space

# ? Nov 5, 2015 23:48

alnilam

help nelp pebbles quaint

# ? Nov 5, 2015 23:56

Pizzatime

that's 3 to 1 for top, I think. Anymore opinionatos?

# ? Nov 6, 2015 12:23

Pizzatime

testing some stuff

# ? Nov 6, 2015 15:53

Pizzatime

if you were wondering

# ? Nov 7, 2015 21:57

Pizzatime

proly gonna write a bit about the dialogue system this evening which I spent the last two days unraveling

nicer image size for the forums

# ? Nov 8, 2015 16:33

Pizzatime

Starting now I wanna try having somewhat lengthy and structured devlog entries to post weekly.
As per game development creed to clean up behind oneself, I'll start by winding up the rat-tail this project is sporting.

DevLog #01 - 08|11|15

I was gonna roll it all up in one shot, but it's quite a lot and I don't wanna be sloppy.
I'll split this cleaning up portion up into parts, having one DevLog entry for Music, Visuals, Code and Notes each.

I'm an unorthodox person, Skullz is an unorthodox game, this is an unorthodox DevLog. Along with cleaning up the current Skullz 'n Skeletonz state of affairs, I'll lay this project bare. This is both for me to not forget any vital parts as well as make this all not just be in my head, along with a lot of other reasons. I'm aware that anticipation is raised by mystery and we'll get to that.

Music

Instead of presenting you with huge walls of text dicussing all the songs, I've decided on just keeping a Bandcamp album with all the music that I'm considering part of this project. It's sorted newest to oldest, with the names indicating the rough time frame the tracks were made in along with their working title.

I will try to update this album as I go, in order to have a nice place where the music's all laid out for me as well as everybody else that might be interested.
All of it is somewhat WIP but also fairly refined. Saying that, the only track that I've actually decided on where and how to have in the game is the very first one. There is also no option to buy or download it.

To dicuss the content real short: As stated, the first song is already decided on how and where to have it in the game. Barring changes to the progression of the game, it's the first song that plays in the game. Apart from that, everything marked new is from the time period in which I've picked the project back up, so it reflects my current skill and vision of the project. Everything marked mid was before that time and uses a different synthesizer, does fit with the newer alright though. Everything marked old is back from when I first worked on this game about a year ago and needs some further evaluation. I'm considering Old_04 as the next track after the currently first one though, so everything's possible.
Oh, of course there's also the soundtrack of the first game that I will have to dig into.

There are no sound effects yet as I'd have to handle them differently as the sheer amount of them would quickly blow up the album structure of Bandcamp, so there's some thinking to be done as well.

That's it for now. Thank you for reading and expect similar posts coming up.

# ? Nov 8, 2015 21:21

dogcrash truther

uoahhok i'm gonan ask you something and i'm sorry if it comes across as harsh but why are you making the music for this game, is it just because you can't find someone else to do it or what because the music is not as good as the graphics, like different ballpark if you ask me. I'[m not going to push this point any more than this but, the songs, they are not quite right, theres something off about them and i don't mean "off in a good way because it makes it creepy" i mean "off in a way where they feel unfinished and or arbitrary instead of contributing to a particular mood without calling too much attention to themselves"

there are some better ones, songwise, in there, so it's not a total loss at all, it's just that the gap betwen what you're doing in one medium and what you're doing in the other one is noticeable, to me, a guy who knows nothing about any of this so maybe I'm totally wrong? i don't want to be discouraging, because i think theres a lot of potential, i'm just actually interested in the answer.

# ? Nov 9, 2015 01:11

Pizzatime

Huh, really? I'm very critical regarding the art. I'm always struggling for days before I'm satisfied with it. The music, though, I never thought had to be improved. Personally, I'm really into it, don't struggle making it and think the quality is beyond the art.
What do you think about the first game's soundtrack? I think that one was received pretty well, but then again I didn't get the praise the game got at all so I dunno.

# ? Nov 9, 2015 11:34

Pizzatime

maybe you listened to a lot of the real powerful ones that I'll all be using for bossfights and thought they'd just run while doing chill adventure game stuff, who knows. It'll probably all come together once it's put together.

# ? Nov 9, 2015 11:46

Pizzatime

Keep getting caught up in petty details. Is anybody but me even seeing what's the thing?

# ? Nov 9, 2015 17:13

Pizzatime

Updated the Skullz 'n Skeletonz web presence along with a short video.

Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=496701562
IndieDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/skullz-n-skeletonz/

# ? Nov 9, 2015 18:35

Moola

I loving love the Betamaxx track

# ? Nov 9, 2015 18:40

Pizzatime

haha, I've actually been trying to remix that for I don't even know what reason anymore.

Here, uploaded just for you: https://soundcloud.com/pizzamakesmusic/betaremaxx-wip

# ? Nov 9, 2015 19:57

Pizzatime

couldn't decide between the file 1, file 2, file 3 and new game/load way of doing main menus, so I decided to have them both.

it took me forever to make this work, it shouldn't have taken me forever to make this work

# ? Nov 10, 2015 01:42

Pizzatime

http://pizzamakesgames.itch.io/skullz-n-skeletonz

this is were there'll eventually be a demo or beta to snag. trying to figure out how to go about this.

# ? Nov 11, 2015 15:48

Pizzatime

dogcrash truther posted:

uoahhok i'm gonan ask you something and i'm sorry if it comes across as harsh but why are you making the music for this game, is it just because you can't find someone else to do it or what because the music is not as good as the graphics, like different ballpark if you ask me. I'[m not going to push this point any more than this but, the songs, they are not quite right, theres something off about them and i don't mean "off in a good way because it makes it creepy" i mean "off in a way where they feel unfinished and or arbitrary instead of contributing to a particular mood without calling too much attention to themselves"

there are some better ones, songwise, in there, so it's not a total loss at all, it's just that the gap betwen what you're doing in one medium and what you're doing in the other one is noticeable, to me, a guy who knows nothing about any of this so maybe I'm totally wrong? i don't want to be discouraging, because i think theres a lot of potential, i'm just actually interested in the answer.

honestly, I feel like the music is one of the strong points of the game. got a video ready to support my claim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIZyzAwwBmw

does it sound better to you in conjunction with the game or does your point stand?

# ? Nov 11, 2015 16:28

dumb crambo: Can't post for 3 years!

id try for a more ambient feel... i dont know though

# ? Nov 11, 2015 16:46

Pizzatime

really now? hmm, well...I appreciate the input, though I swear I can't hear it. Like, I'm not one to pat my own back, but that music is sending shivers down my spine, so I'm at a loss here.

# ? Nov 11, 2015 16:50

dogcrash truther

Pizzatime posted:

honestly, I feel like the music is one of the strong points of the game. got a video ready to support my claim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIZyzAwwBmw

does it sound better to you in conjunction with the game or does your point stand?

still stands, id be happy to talk more about it specifically but i dunno if you want suggestions on the music, which is ok! it's ok if you don't! i just don't want to spend time talking about it if you're 100% committed to it the way it is. that will justmake us both feel bad and honestly i think this game and this thread is interesting so i dont want to do anything to gently caress with that

# ? Nov 11, 2015 17:19

Manifisto

Pizzatime posted:

honestly, I feel like the music is one of the strong points of the game. got a video ready to support my claim: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XIZyzAwwBmw

This sounds pretty cool to me and I like a lot of the tracks in the depository. I do sort of see the point that many of the tracks have a lot of presence, and might be most effective as kind of a punctuation to a more ambient, unobtrusive tone in spots--but maybe that's what you have in mind.

ty nesamdoom!

# ? Nov 11, 2015 20:25

Pizzatime

dogcrash truther posted:

still stands, id be happy to talk more about it specifically but i dunno if you want suggestions on the music, which is ok! it's ok if you don't! i just don't want to spend time talking about it if you're 100% committed to it the way it is. that will justmake us both feel bad and honestly i think this game and this thread is interesting so i dont want to do anything to gently caress with that

That's super interesting. I've been thinking about what others think about my stuff way too much ever since having the goal of eventually selling it. Learning to just accept contrary opinions without acting on them might help me a lot in the long run. Very interesting points, thanks!

# ? Nov 11, 2015 20:45

Pizzatime

Manifisto posted:

This sounds pretty cool to me and I like a lot of the tracks in the depository. I do sort of see the point that many of the tracks have a lot of presence, and might be most effective as kind of a punctuation to a more ambient, unobtrusive tone in spots--but maybe that's what you have in mind.

pretty much that, yeah. I'm sure it'll work out nicely

# ? Nov 11, 2015 21:14

Moola

Im sorry, but I still dont care for the name

I understand the logic and reason behind it

but it doesnt have the simplicity of Skullz

I still like u tho...

# ? Nov 11, 2015 21:18

Pizzatime

I get that, though I'll have to console us both with that game being split into two parts and each having their neat simple skullz / skeletonz name thing

# ? Nov 11, 2015 22:15