Okay but Light Bulb as the working title is already so cute, cozy and a perfectly accurate name. Onion being the hero? of the game thus the "heroic light" of the story and ayo that sure is an Onion Bulb of a head. Obviously as you build the game out more, via gameplay and lore I think you'll stumble into the title you think fits just right. Also I'm always down for cuter smaller sprites, that's just a little guy, a little dude! Such a wonderful update can't wait to see what's next!!
Game name: The Legend of Onion: Tears of the Kitchen I was worried when I saw the title because your art definitely does not suck, but I'm relieved to see how everything turned out. I know it's all still in development, but that floaty jump looks suspicious. I think quick jumps with variable height usually feel the best. Good luck!
Love these videos! Feels like we are actually in the process so we get to follow along step by step, but it is still relatively "short" and holds my attention throughout
I feel like a good name could be "Layer by Layer" because of the various layers/ levels one usually explorse in metroidvanias. Exploring deeper and deeper learning more about the world, and y'know, onions 🧅
You perfectly captured the cozy, yet slightly eerie vibes of Over the Garden Wall with your update. The lighting is perfect and the forest scene is impeccable. I just want to jump right in and explore this world! It's been great seeing how much the game has grown and evolved since that first iteration of it. Really hyped to see where it goes next and ready to try a demo when it's ready. Also, Merry Belated Birthday! May this be a great year for you!
The artwork reveal at the end hit me RIGHT in the chest with the same feeling that Over the Garden Wall does - incredibly cozy and beautiful, would 100% play just for the aesthetic honestly.
That's really great work on the protagonist, they look really good and it's really fun watching the development process. I'm not good with names, I'd probably make tears and layer puns like other commenters. All I can really say from a game reviewer perspective is to make sure that your game is approachable in terms of difficulty and make sure you try to give some kind of hint on where to go next, not necessarily outright saying where to go of course but you should give a nonverbal indication somehow, that's what makes Metroidvania games tricky to design. Metroidvania games are eaten alive by game journalists I'm afraid and game reviewers review 5-10 games a week and will drop your game if they can't figure out where to go within a few minutes - in fact, anyone will drop and refund your game if they get lost. One hilarious example was David Jaffe, the creator of Twisted Metal and God of War, who streamed Metroid Dread and got lost and stuck because he didn't know there were breakable walls. People criticized him too for not being able to pick up on nonverbal cues but there is some truth to it. One more tip is to have a good mapping system in-game, it would be nice to have a map that's easy to bring up and zoom in on, etc, but also would be useful to show areas you can return to later. Whatever you do, don't put in teleporting mazes into a Metroidvania game though that's just me, I played a game called Tevi recently that did that and boy was it a completionist nightmare. Having a poorly designed in-game mapping system would ruin any Metroidvania game nowadays.
This is all fantastic advice and Ill likely come back to this comment as we start to get into the meat and potatoes of a game. We probably wont make a mapping system until post demo. But I wholeheartedly agree the map needs to be good, readable, and the player should feel empowered by it and not the opposite. Cheers!
Art work did improve, glad about that. I think that adding more enemy world interation and mid combat reaction would one up hollow knight. Like if you jump over the zombie, the zombie looks up and stumbles tring to turn for example. Altho complexity could backfire. It might be better off simple.
The game looks great! Love the art direction you guys are taking it! Also when you guys get to making the music, you should definitely use the songs you used in this video as references for the style and feel of the music in game. It just felt like it meshed so well it was meant to be.
I think both of the art look beautiful. The first one too, I hope that the first model isn't 100% erased because I think it will be such a waste to see a cool design like this not be used
I reeally love how the design of the character and atmosphere is coming along, verrry cozy Over the Garden Wall esque. As you said this game is still trying to find its voice, with elements like enemy and envioment feeling a biit too similar to Hollow Knight. I think a great approach that would help bolster the game's creative vision would be to _really_ lean into the aesthetic of fall for the design of the enemies, envioment, and lore. For example maybe in place of tall grass around the village, there are patches and bundles of wheat as villagers begin their harvest, ..and whenever there's wheat you need an old windmill, thems just the rules. In addition to wheat there could be varying piles of leaves the player can run through, cut through, or jump into. Dry leaves could also be easily used to create puzzles where the player or enemies must set them on fire. Lanterns/candles are commonly associated with fall, for their warmth, their light, and symbolic connection to the soul. So perhaps ghastly enemies resemble jack-o-lanterns with their eyes sunken in and fire in their mouths, which they exhale to try and burn the player. Crows as well are a commonly associated with fall and death, feasting on the remains of rotting food/remains. I'm sure theres a lot you could do with crows or even a scarecrow for enemy design. Settling on and doing research into a specific time period could also really help with ideas surrounding the nature of the world, the people that live there, and the threats they face or fear. In terms of name suggestions? ..I think "harvest" in respect to it's correlation to the season, as well as the potential connotation of death could make for a great name and narrative theme. Something like "The Last Harvest," "Harvest Hero," or "Lament of the Harvest King." Hope any of that was useful, I'm always open to spitting ideas.
@@MrChambers Did not expect that but I probably should have expected that. lol Don't know when / if you'll create a discord channel, but I'd be interested in sharing more ideas depending on how much spitballing you can tolerate.
this game's vibe feels like a over the garden wall version of hollow knight. If i had to suggest a title, it should be more about bulb boy's world more than him, so maybe something like Withertomb
Bulby Boi? In all seriousness though, this is looking super cool. Very clearly inspired by another popular metroidvania but really just makes it more approachable.
hey, i loved your game, here are some suggestions: in the walking animation, make he go up and down a bit, it looks like he's just sliding on the ground, it would look less static and would help if you want to add a footsteps sfx for him. this is something i never did, but i guess it would look cool: make the camera go up and down when he's walking, the camera is a little too static just with the godot smoothing property. and please, don't give up, i really love your game art and the gameplay looks cool too, wish you the best
Cool! I didn't know about this project, until I saw your post on the r/metroidvania/. And I like what I'm seeing, I absolutely love Hollow Knight, and if you're taking inspiration from it, I definitely would like to see where this goes from. I like the art, and I feel that it's probably one of the most important, or maybe the most important aspect on a game, since it's first thing a player sees, and I appreciate what you did already. I'll subscribe and keep track of what is going on.
What ab smn related to crying Idk the plot of the game but Tears of the Kingdom if it takes place in a castle maybe. Or if the Onion is a demon, Devil May Cry. Or maybe just The Tear. All jokes aside, Im happy to have found a new metroidvania to look forward to :) It looks amazing!
Art is looking good, the more chibi style improves it overall along with making movement easier to read for the player. I feel the next thing that needs some more work are the animations & movement of the player as it feels off right now, is kinda floaty with the animations not quite matching the movement properly IMO.
I feel like the title could use the term "Layers" for the onion, possibly could be a in game mechanic in some way, would give it a hook, imo. Not entirely sure what you could do to interpret "layers" into the gameplay, but figured I'd throw out the thought lol
Okay. So I know you've been waiting for me and Darren to spit ball names. So here we go: Sir lan-shalot Gourdy Walk in the woods Little onion Onion boy - shrek- donkey quote Alhallows Steve (the onions name is Steve) Hallows hollow Hazy hollow Hallow haze Light layers attack of the gourds Oh my gourd Syth night (is that his weapon? No it's a sickle..) Sickle night Little sickle Tickle my sickle...no Straw whore..no No more tears (he's an onion) Make them cry (dark.) Shed tears (lol) Onion night Spit ballin' words that come to mind when I look at it.. Maze, loop, dream, nightmare labyrinth, confusion, knot, dazed, horror, folk tales Knot woods Thicket ... In the thicket Lost in the thicket Hallowed onion verb. sickled; sickling ˈsi-k(ə-)liŋ transitive verb. 1. : to mow or reap with a sickle. Onion reaper Wow trying to come up with a title is shallot harder than we thought it'd be. (Heh) What's the purpose, what's his mission.. is he... Reaping what he sows (HA) is he just peeling away the layers of the map (peeling, a good onion word), is he lighting the path... ❤
You could call the game "Layers".... cause a common fact about onions is that, like ogres, they have layers. A couple fantasy/early Americana inspired names: Twilight Tidings Whistlewind Woods Tales from the Enchanted Thicket or you could use the genius of an onion in the name since it sounds like the name of something from early Americana: Allium Allium Hollow or Allium woods, or even Allium Thicket or like you could just up and use the name of the cemetery from over the garden wall, Eternal Garden Cemetery Naming things is hard, especially when you really want it to be good. My advice is not to dwell or stress on it until you absolutely have to, but do think about it often.
well its cool to see another studio pop up, but as of now i dont see anything unique about the gameplay, see in the world of game design you either aim for a new or out of the box mechanic to hook players in, or you choose some aspect of the game to perfect it, in your own way, the latter being quite more difficult from a developing standpoint, as of now i dont see either, so you dont relly have anything to dintinguish yourself from the crowd in a gameplay perspective, thought aesthetically the game looks quite different and well made.
We have only been working on the game for a few months, so we're just now finally finishing base systems. But we are 100% leaning into the art/world as much as we can. What I tend to look for in a Metroidvania is an interesting world, the gameplay and mechanics kinda are less important (but still have to be fun 100%). Also, I'm not a coder, I'm an artist, so I'm trying to lean into my strengths here. As long as the game is fun to play and the world is interesting I'm a happy camper. All that being said... we have some very unique systems (that 100% will set us apart) in mind, but we are just not ready to talk about them because we are still figuring them out. Thanks for the feedback, I hope you continue to follow our progress and hold us to a high standard. Cheers!
@@MrChambersok good, its just as a game designer i often see many people trying to make a game and only focusing in a single area, and then end up with a crude game in the end because they didnt develop more than basic nessesities, which by extension makes the game not enjoyable for a majority of people, and then they never get to see the parts you worked so hard on, cause they leave early, just keep that in mind.
@@ethanbuttazzi2602 I agree this happens so much. Which is why we dont have too many bespoke systems to show just yet. We want to make sure the base systems and design are working well before we decide to push the envelope
Hi there, loving the art style of this game! I was wondering if you needed a composer for the game, or if you already have one on your team. I'll keep watching these videos, I'm excited to see how this turns out.
It’s *literally* not that. Hollow Knight is obviously a big influence here; however, the same can be said about most contemporary Metroidvanias. At least this guy paid homage to the game and its soundtrack in the video. To paraphrase French New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard, “It's not where you take inspiration from - it's where you take it to."
Since the player is an onion why not something along the lines like "Cry No More" or maybe something cutesy and related to gardening as a whole depending on the tone you're going for.
So i dont think this will be too helpful and its probably been brought up internally but onions are a type of Lilly which is a very nice name. Also theyre from the family allium which leeks and chives and such are from. I dont think allium adventures sounds good but this is the best i can do on short notice.