Game is sounding very cool. I'm also glad to see that you have not gone into a very common pitfall for indie developers where they have a very small team and then get too ambitious, overwhelming themselves. In my opinion, your game would turn out much better if its "min maxed" on what it's doing, as in, its better if it does the one thing really well than if you try to make it into a complex, multifaceted and multilayered game. Of course, I do not know how game developing works so I don't know if it is accurate but basing myself on general life experience it seems to be accurate and I've heard actual game devs talk about it.
Thank you for your kind words, yeah thats exactly it. I wanted to take a step back before it was too late to make sure the game is not going to over ambitious to the point where a single developer can't make it themselves. The gameplay is still very much like Kingdom Hearts but the world design had to be adjusted to be something more realistic for a solo developer to create 🤔
Heyo! First of all, very excited about your project and (as one solo dev to another) it’s super impressive all you’ve done. The climbing mechanic seems to be working really well! I will say though, I think you seem to be underestimating the amount of work required for an open world game when you compare it to linear levels like KH. Open world level design is at least as difficult, just hope you’re prepared that it’ll be a challenge either way! Good luck whichever direction you choose to go! Lastly, I do think that it’s a little inconsistent to say that you removed the KH glide for being too similar to your inspiration, but then you’re replacing it with a paraglider that’s seemingly identical to the BotW paraglider. With that, climbing, and the change to open world, I think it’s probably safe to just say that you’re changing it because you got inspired by BotW and you think it fits your new design better :) I know some people were really complaining on your videos when you revealed the change to be more like BotW and less like KH. You just do you, and keep doing what’s best for your game. Good luck! And keep up the videos :)
The main inspiration was A Short Hike and how the developer kept things simple and clean and was able to create a mini-open world game as a solo game dev. As for the gliding ability, I felt it was too much like Peter Pan ans Kingdom Hearts. As for the glider look, it won't be a simple paraglider in the final game and will change to be something related to the story and the world 😉
So a small scale Breath of the Wild-esque world with Breath of the Wild exploration, but inspired by Kingdom Hearts in other game systems. I'm about it! A world to explore akin to BotW but with KH combat mechanics and whatnot, that sounds great! Just no breakable weapons please 😂
you could still use flying like Kingdom Hearts & have the updraft work too as a way to fly higher up (at higher elevations) that way it won't look too much like BOTW & Genshin Impact, since there are a ton of BOTW-adjacent games these days, which isn't a bad thing, I'm just making a suggestion for diversity's sake. 💜
Maybe add an effect on the hands and feet for a look of hovering using a form of magic that isnt just FLOAT. But anything is better than the paragliding stuff.
Thanks, I think so too, much more manageable in my opinion. I mean I would have love to make worlds like Kingdom Hearts but as a first game maybe I should take it slow and not go too ambitious 😅
I’m supportive of your vision but I think you have to understand people being skeptical. I’ve seen a thousand fan projects die before ever getting close to finishing and honestly I’m not convinced that this one will be any different. I’m excited to see where it goes but I don’t think it will ever be a serious game.
I thought it would be a cool idea to have the glide pop out of the guard of the sword, and the character would hold on to the sword like a horizontal stick
A game that I believe is the first style of kingdom hearts is Napple's Tale for dreamcast. The plot is that of KH1 and gameplay is a side scroller with elements of 3d world. Again highly recommend, dream drop spirits factor I believe inspired from this game heavily. Also she uses a key as a weapon and her outfit has kh2 soras outfit type of vibe!!!!
I'm worried that this went from a KH clone to a BotW clone and thus wouldn't have a personality of it's own. That board you showed looked massive so I hope it's just that the video was a brief overview but please make sure you also come up with cool new ideas; or at least if KH and BotW are going to be your inspirations, combine them to make something that feels new rather than simply grabbing stuff wholesale from one or the other source.
I mean even KH2 clones are Rare and very few. BOTW clones are everywhere and the novelty of "Everything breaks" "Climb Everything" and "Paraglider" has over stayed their welcome.
Yep, thats pretty much the plan, I'm taking inspiration from different games while adding my own twists to them 😁 I did feel I was going too KH-like and that one also one reason I took a step back and reevaluated the game and thought about how I can make it more unique and it's own thing. Rest assured I'm moving towards making it more unique 😁👍
I just hope the game doesn’t stray too far away from the kingdom hearts inspiration of combat. I doubt it and whatever happens, I’m glad he gets to make the game he wants.
I think It could be fun if the character spun his blade around like a helicopter to serve as a glider or have the blade transform into the paraglider. It's the little details that make the game have its charm y'know?
I been watching your dev logs and it's awesome you're getting some inspiration from Kingdom Hearts because I love those games as well. One day I hope to play your game on stream! I also can't wait to see what you come up next!
This is cool and all, but I was stoked on the kingdom hearts inspired game more than another botw clone. And with this dramatic shift in game play, it makes me unsure of what's to come.
Same I prefer KH gameplay over BOTW clones any day of the week. Open worlds are also a blight if you ask me. Boring plain and no cohesiveness compared to levels.
Oh don't get me wrong, this is still very much a Kingsom Hearts inspired game, but in order for me to realisticly make this game, I had to made this kind of adjustment. It would just be unfeasible for just me to make worlds like Kingdom Hearts. But in terms of gameplay this game is still very much a Kingsom Hearts-inspired game 😁👍
Honestly, my problem with Breath of the Wild was that's the base gameplay of controlling link and the combat worth a very interesting. So I've always thought that Breath of the Wild with Kingdom Hearts would be a perfect combination.
Trigger events is how Kingdom Hearts "opens up" it basically ensures that after different events hapen and q conditiom is met that different assets load into the game.
You know, it's probably best to work on open areas or mini/small open worlds for indie games of this style. For the most part it really time consuming even for a solo developer. There is the potential of doing so much for so little with the unnecesary empty space between treks, for example. So keep a more focus appropiatetly scale worlds like some of the inspiration games you shown.
The easiest way to handle multiple paths is to create states and limit activity or zones to each state. You can change states with checkpoints along the way.
I wonder if studying Genshin Impact might help with this open world aspect. I'm just slightly worried pulling from all three, it may start to become a little too reflective of the wrong source material if it's going to stay a Kingdom Hearts fangame.
First of all, I really like your work so far, and what you have achieved is impressive. As an indie game dev myself, I want to share my thoughts about your topic. I fully understand your thought process about this theme but also have another opinion. I think it is very hard-wired to the fact of what game you intend to design, with what game I mean the style, genre, or type of game. Especially world building is the key word in that case, at least in my opinion; it differs between how you generate your world or game, which means a contrast between building your game up around the world you want to develop or build your world around the game itself. Those are two different ways to make your game; that is what I think. On the other hand, both options are well bound together and correlate. So what I think is, yes, you may save up some time if you design an open world with little restrictions to follow, besides from new abilities or something like that; for me, it is somehow more beneficial or simpler to build restricted areas like you mentioned. I think that comes from the perspective you see the world on its own, so what I want to say is an open world as one big area comes as one, but you always have the option to slice that world into pieces and have borders. And that slices are nothing else than restricted areas as single pieces. With that pieces, you can always work out the world and path you want to have, you can have it more open or more restricted, and you always have the option to change stuff or open new areas depending on the progress a player made. The only thing that may hinder you with that way of world-building is that you really need to have everything you want to be planned out with certainty, that you don't want to have profound and significant impactful changes of your systems or what so ever. I hope you understand what I mean, I think that topic is really huge to discuss and I only sliced it up.
Yeah thats the tough part, it's really hard to have everything planned out from the beginning with the expectations that it will work out later. So I chose a more flexible approach where I can adjust the world more on the fly 🤔
If I may put my opinion out there, please don't make every surface climbable. Platforming in itself is enjoyable, but being able to scale any surface really detracts from the sense of adventure. Having to look around for a way to get up something and finally doing it is a rewarding experience.
Mh, honestly, the paragliding system looks too mainstream, i get why you don't want to copy kh, but maybe something in between might be better, like, the character growing magic wings or simply being able to levitate and gliding like in kh but while standing on his feet, and a dropping system like kh3 would be cool, that remind me also of skyward sword when jumping from the loftwing
Yep true, for now I made it a paraglider as it's the easiers to understand but eventually I'll have it more tied with the story at which point it probably won't just be a generic paraglider 😉👍
I understand many of the sentiments in the comments posted on how similar it was to BtoW and Genshin. I just wanna commend on the mechanics looking very on point. While I enjoy, the climbing anywhere, paragliding , and swimming, please let us swim infinitely. I also think to not be 1-for-1 paraglide, have the weapon (not necessarily has to be the weapon) turn into a glider that can be upgraded to fly. Similar to the car in ffxv. Free flying could be an midgame to endgame experience. 😂 who doesnt love fast over-world vehicles. Xenoblade Chronicles X comes to mind with its Skells being part transport and powerhouse combat option.
It's really cool to see your game growing and I wish you the best in the future, but imo the shift from KH styled game to BOTW while understandable, as BOTW is an amazing game, kills any interest for me as there are already too many games currently out with that style of play. Though it will be nice to see a non-gatcha game version of it.
mmmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan shoutout to ejazz he's been there since the beginning frfr. congrats on the gamerjoint vid btw been a big fan of his was superstoke to see you get a shoutout. love to see it. stay on that grind man💪
That's a lot of planning on the gliding i think its depending more on the lore aspect is Luminous Realms closer to a more magical setting like kingdom hearts or a more medieval fantasy like Zelda, if it more realistic I would say closer to zelda, how ever this is cross over like kingdom hearts I would say use both gliding for far away objects or platforms but for high ares in liner areas use the glider
I don't really like the Zelda gliding system, I don't like how it takes forever to turn. I much prefer the Kingdom Hearts system. Just wanted to give my feedback.
Thanks for the feedback, yeah i agree. The slowness can be quite annoying. I've actually switched back to linear style world design which is more similarto KH, check out my latest video to see all about it.
My friendship with Kingdom Hearts inspiration ended, now Breath Of The Wild is my best friend. 😤😂 No but seriously, you tick one HEAVILY inspired ability off and replace it with another HEAVILY inspired one.
as someone who started following this project for its similarity to kingdom hearts, the move to an open world design not only baffles but disappoints me - not in the sense of objective quality, but personal taste the argument that creating one large open world rather than smaller worlds/levels being LESS work doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but above all the completely different approach to not only gameplay but the story and narrative style that i love about kingdom hearts feels like it shifts the project too far from the core KH experience it was initially inspired by. instead of a KH-inspired game, this is looking to be a BotW clone with the KH battle system. i'm not calling false advertising, but as a fan of Kingdom Hearts and NOT a fan of open-world games (including BotW), i don't think i'm looking forward to this game anymore. i'm also not saying you should change your mind, it is of course your game and your vision, just expressing my opinion on where the project is going from the perspective of a KH fan.
Tbh you should a different function then a gulider, they're over used right now something more cool and anime like, like hover boots or maybe a like a air boost sigle that flings and maybe holds the player in the air would be interesting. Or of course something that I wish more game developers add in games a grapple hook. Like all three ways make in more interesting for how you design the Map and make it more intuitive on how players now will have to get around it.
Have you ever played a game called Dual Hearts before? Sans the progression of the game I feel like the way that games world is laid out might be something you'd be interested in.
@@YahyaDanboos Yeah, it's basically like Legend of Zelda only instead of just traditional dungeons you go into other characters' dreams and sometimes this can be some linear obstacle courses with a mixture of combat, puzzle solving, and platforming and sometimes they can be more open fields with your objectives scattered about.
This is amazing!!!!!!❤❤❤🎉🎉🎉What kind of worlds are you thinking of adding to your game? Will they be fictional or original? Or both. What do you think? Just curious.
What's name of software you use to plan? My advice will be to make a vertical slice before adding too many feature. Once prototype is done, add or remove necessary elements. Keep it simple which you complete in time.
It's called Miro, really useful web app to plan and brainstorm ideas. Yes you're absolutely right, that's what I'm currently working on. Once I'm done with it I'll be sharing it with my discord community to try out and playtest so I can get feedback on how I can improve it 😁👍
Careful. Your inspiration started as Kingdom Hearts and it looks like it's turning into breath of the Wild and it 100% shows. I love what your doing but i wonder if the new additions are a bit much?
Hey hey. It sounds strange, but I love the idea of your project. And here's what I wanted to ask: You seem like a talented programmer and I really want to help you music-wise. Yoko Shimomura is my most favourite composer and I would compose music for you since I also love Kingdom Hearts. I would love to talk with you and help you if you want. If you're interested, please answer! :D
Had the same question. It looks incredibly helpful being able to lay everything out like that. Would love to know what you included in your plans and how you laid everything out.
It's a website called Miro, perfect for planning ideas and brainstorming. You can even use it with other people at the same time and see their changes in real-time 😁
So... You expect your character to climb while holding a sword? Bro with breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom people are going to be sick of climbing You need to limit yourself if you want to finish your game
Highly disagree here. Open World is difficult, really difficult. In open worlds, the player can explore any corner of the map and if these "any corners" doesn't have anything interesting to show, the open world can very quickly feel lazy and boring. Still, if you can fill this world with interesting stuff, it can turn out really good. For gliding, have you seen treasure planet? some hoverboard/surfboard would look badass
Yes you're right about that if we're talking about massive open world games. But I'm sticking to more smaller kind of mini open world like A Short Hike and Lil Gator Game like mentioned in my video. And yes any kind of open world game will get boring if it's not filled with content to keep you interesting, so that will be a challenge I have to go through. But the idea is that if I go more the linear route, there can be a lot of limitations like once I have a level design done and polished it's incredibly hard to change things because everything is already set in stone and if I do change things I'll have to redo a lot of the level. Basically what I was trying to say in the video is that I'm switching the style of designing my levels to a more open style using more terrain rather than greybox blocks because with terrain it's really easy to do quick adjustments on the fly. I'd recommend checking out the GDC talk of A Short Hike in which the creator goes into details of how this approach can make things much more manageable and feasible for one developer to create.
Since you're going open world now, you might find this lecture useful: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-HZft_U4Fc-U.htmlsi=3GktnVYV6RJMMn4w
Ohh nice, yeah I've actually watched this before, really interesting. But I've actually switched back to linear style world design, check out my latest video to see all about it.
![Is Making OPEN-WORLD As An INDIE GAME DEV Possible? [Devlog]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
