Decadence

[alekksandar]

I instantly recognized those drums in the titlemap music.

Yep! Though the midi version sounds a lot less intense, and a lot more... morose.

Loving the art style.

Thanks!

Also - Another update to fix an oopsie:

- Last wave in Arena 1 shouldn't lag anymore because some of the projectiles now actually disappear. They weren't disappearing because the frame length was -1.
- Added a Sword,
- Added a Golden Staff
- In arena 2, you now spawn with a sword, and you get a gold staff later on.
- nails may now ricochet off walls sometimes
- melee weapons make sound when you hit an enemy

[galvahad]

Great demo thus far.

Just a few thoughts:
A lot of the nail weapons seem inaccurate, and I think it's because the enemies need a damaged effect/sound since I can only really tell I'm hitting them if they're dead.
It's very easy to cheese the arena levels by circle-strafing and having the big guys draw aggro. That may be the intended effect but it made it a lot easier once I figured it out.
I used the default settings given by switching the user-name of the settings config to my desktop username.
The jumping puzzle murdered me, lol. If not just for the free-doom voice effect of jumping. Which is so bad after a while. I don't really have any comments except maybe don't use flying enemies and instead use walking ones, those are more predictable and don't ambush you at the last second before making a jump. The level itself also is a bit long and asks a lot for a timed event. Potion management, monsters, and pretty precise jumps. Kinda indifferent on it.
I just loved the art by the way, and the enemy/arena designs themselves

Hope to see more soon!

[alekksandar]

Great demo thus far.

Just a few thoughts:
A lot of the nail weapons seem inaccurate, and I think it's because the enemies need a damaged effect/sound since I can only really tell I'm hitting them if they're dead.
It's very easy to cheese the arena levels by circle-strafing and having the big guys draw aggro. That may be the intended effect but it made it a lot easier once I figured it out.
I used the default settings given by switching the user-name of the settings config to my desktop username.
The jumping puzzle murdered me, lol. If not just for the free-doom voice effect of jumping. Which is so bad after a while. I don't really have any comments except maybe don't use flying enemies and instead use walking ones, those are more predictable and don't ambush you at the last second before making a jump. The level itself also is a bit long and asks a lot for a timed event. Potion management, monsters, and pretty precise jumps. Kinda indifferent on it.
I just loved the art by the way, and the enemy/arena designs themselves

Hope to see more soon!

Heya! Thanks for taking time to play and review the demo! I will see how it will work out if I turn the infighting off on those maps - it will be a lot more difficult, I imagine.
I have to agree on the jumping puzzle map. The monsters were originally added to further annoy the player, but after dying a bunch of times while playtesting, I think they served their purpose a bit too well, and I think I'll indeed replace them. Agreed, the potion placement on that map is atrocious. In the end however, the jumping puzzle and the arena maps aren't my first priority, as I'm focused on creating story maps and quests.

Again, thanks for playtesting, the project is indeed still being worked on!!

[alekksandar]

Updated, now there's 12 linear levels (spread across 3 'episodes'), 3 arena maps, and a tower map.

The 'open world' idea has been shelved due to my poor programming / scripting skills for now, but it's still possible to find vendors in some maps.

In any case, check the OP post for the download link, I hope you have fun !

[Valken]

Beautiful game and going to play this over Christmas weekend! Congrats on the release and Merry Christmas!

[Matt]

This feels like what Hexen should have been.

Has the non-fullscreen status bar been fixed? And what, technically, is preventing compatibility with current versions of GZDoom? (I just dragged Decadence.ipk3 into my Doom folder and the status bar thing is the only thing I've noticed that was a problem)

[alekksandar]

This feels like what Hexen should have been.

Has the non-fullscreen status bar been fixed? And what, technically, is preventing compatibility with current versions of GZDoom? (I just dragged Decadence.ipk3 into my Doom folder and the status bar thing is the only thing I've noticed that was a problem)

Glad you feel that way !
Err, I remember trying it out on one of the subsequent versions and getting really awful FPS drops. Maybe whatever was causing that issue was fixed. The status bar isn't supposed to be visible - the game's supposed to be played with the screen size all the way up - - mainly because i didn't know how to make a custom HUD/statusbar, to be honest, and i couldn't find a way to permanently make it fullscreen.

[Matt]

IIRC the simplest way (SBARINFO only no ZScript) is to just copypaste the fullscreen hud info into the regular statusbar and then do some size stuff to make sure the "bar" itself is as invisible as you can get it.

The second with ZScript is to make it do exactly the same thing for both situations.

[spoone]

Apparently my computer seems to think there's a virus in this file.

[alekksandar]

Apparently my computer seems to think there's a virus in this file.

Probably because of the gzdoom exe, I wouldn't know. I'm not getting any reports from windows defender.

I'll update the OP with just the iwad file, but then you'll have to keys for jumping and reloading, and such.

[Void Warrior]

Greetings, Alekksandar! I played your project. Very beautiful, interesting, but very simple! The plot is boring to pass, which can not be said about other episodes, except for the Tower. I can see that you put a lot of work into this game. I want to ask you one thing: "Do you plan to do the second part of the story, or will this be your only project?"

By the way, cool art on your site! Are there any more drawings on other resources?

[Captain J]

Oh man finally playing this awesome TC! I must say, i really love the art style. It's cute, immersive and totally fantastic. I really love the custom dialogue screen and food items i'm getting. They all look so delicious! So yeah, i just finished beating it. Mind if i help you with the feedback?

---

- First of all, it appears to be i can reload every single weapon i possess despite they're already filled up. And whenever i switch my weapon, the text would show up and clutter up the console which i would like not to clutter it so i can check out which items i obtained.

And speaking of which, the reloading sounds in general gets cut off by item pickup sounds.

- Feels like the enemies giving too much food items to me. Ammo items are fine sure, but it gives the side effect of making the game a lot forgiving since it has no difficult setting. They even drop a BIG basket of fruits and god knows where they hid all of them.

- Is there any way to skip the intro at the first episode called Story? I think the order must be well-organized like Episode 1, Episode 2 and Episode 3.

- Vampyr Veil, Small Armor and Large Armor Shard plays no pickup sound.

- So i'm keep picking up a lot's of Gold. But i can only buy Nails, Bolts, Potions and that's about it. I would like to buy more like Crystals and Ooze in the future update.

- It's clever that you fire Nails out of your guns and such, but it's projectile based so it travels kinda slowly. And in dark places, it's hard to see them because they're not bright nor loud enough to check if my shot is a hit or miss. Also the nails play no sound if they hit the enemy.

- I just noticed that you still can drink both Portable or Pickup Health Potions at full health.


- In Sea of Trees, This pillar goes down rather slowly.


- For some reason enemies actually can survive from long fall, making 100% kill impossible sometimes.


- So let's talk about thin platforms including breakable one. I know it's an experimental stuff but enemies usually shoot me above and it actually hurts me. And when breakable platforms are above me and too close, they fall right into me.


- At Deeper Dungeon, there's this nail trap that is COMPLETELY invisible and caught me off guard. Can you give it a hint at least?


- Vice versa, but with Fireballs.

- Boss fight with Val was neat and kinda challenging, but my computer would get laggy if the battle goes long. I'm suspecting that it's because of massive scorch decals coming from Val's Fireballs.


- At Courtyard, the snow somewhat go through the castle ceiling. I guess the sprite size is massive. And are those really a snow? Thought the Episode 1 ended in a middle of Desert.


- At Obruch of Mystery, I'm afraid this arena here, is random as hell, lost a sense of navigation and i have no idea what is going on. There's a lot of snow ponies sniping me and there's also small dragons? Throwing knives, buttload of knives under there it hurts me. A lot. Would be hella nice if i could get myself a Revolver or Crossbow since this level doesn't give you any! Also in this picture, that pony is stuck and can't move.


- This Tank boss fight was hilarious and exciting, but it had no health bar unlike Val's. And Episode 2 in general lacked shops, making Gold worthless.


- In Base of Operation, this Elevator has two Switches.


- The same thing goes for this lift in Storage.


- These moth dudes got stuck in Sandstorm.

- Captain Maddie boss fight was really good and creative too. However after beating him the game says "Divide by Zero in Script 10".

And that's about it! This is very aesthetic and fun to play. It just needs some polish and extra episodes to conclude with. Hope my feedback helped you!

[An00bus]

This looks amazing, and I have just extracted the game and am about to play!

I'd have to get people to redo most sounds and music for me since most of it was borrowed from other sources.

I'd totally be willing to help you out with music! I do a few different styles, maybe check out my soundtrack demo reel on Soundcloud? I'm not incredibly experienced with sound effects, however I have made a few, including all of the ones for my own mod, so I'd be willing to give it a try if you'd like!

[hakrosinteractive]

Very nice, i've included it on my app.

[alekksandar]

Oh man finally playing this awesome TC! I must say, i really love the art style. It's cute, immersive and totally fantastic. I really love the custom dialogue screen and food items i'm getting. They all look so delicious! So yeah, i just finished beating it. Mind if i help you with the feedback?

---

- First of all, it appears to be i can reload every single weapon i possess despite they're already filled up. And whenever i switch my weapon, the text would show up and clutter up the console which i would like not to clutter it so i can check out which items i obtained.

And speaking of which, the reloading sounds in general gets cut off by item pickup sounds.

- Feels like the enemies giving too much food items to me. Ammo items are fine sure, but it gives the side effect of making the game a lot forgiving since it has no difficult setting. They even drop a BIG basket of fruits and god knows where they hid all of them.

- Is there any way to skip the intro at the first episode called Story? I think the order must be well-organized like Episode 1, Episode 2 and Episode 3.

- Vampyr Veil, Small Armor and Large Armor Shard plays no pickup sound.

- So i'm keep picking up a lot's of Gold. But i can only buy Nails, Bolts, Potions and that's about it. I would like to buy more like Crystals and Ooze in the future update.

- It's clever that you fire Nails out of your guns and such, but it's projectile based so it travels kinda slowly. And in dark places, it's hard to see them because they're not bright nor loud enough to check if my shot is a hit or miss. Also the nails play no sound if they hit the enemy.

- I just noticed that you still can drink both Portable or Pickup Health Potions at full health.


- In Sea of Trees, This pillar goes down rather slowly.


- For some reason enemies actually can survive from long fall, making 100% kill impossible sometimes.


- So let's talk about thin platforms including breakable one. I know it's an experimental stuff but enemies usually shoot me above and it actually hurts me. And when breakable platforms are above me and too close, they fall right into me.


- At Deeper Dungeon, there's this nail trap that is COMPLETELY invisible and caught me off guard. Can you give it a hint at least?


- Vice versa, but with Fireballs.

- Boss fight with Val was neat and kinda challenging, but my computer would get laggy if the battle goes long. I'm suspecting that it's because of massive scorch decals coming from Val's Fireballs.


- At Courtyard, the snow somewhat go through the castle ceiling. I guess the sprite size is massive. And are those really a snow? Thought the Episode 1 ended in a middle of Desert.


- At Obruch of Mystery, I'm afraid this arena here, is random as hell, lost a sense of navigation and i have no idea what is going on. There's a lot of snow ponies sniping me and there's also small dragons? Throwing knives, buttload of knives under there it hurts me. A lot. Would be hella nice if i could get myself a Revolver or Crossbow since this level doesn't give you any! Also in this picture, that pony is stuck and can't move.


- This Tank boss fight was hilarious and exciting, but it had no health bar unlike Val's. And Episode 2 in general lacked shops, making Gold worthless.


- In Base of Operation, this Elevator has two Switches.


- The same thing goes for this lift in Storage.


- These moth dudes got stuck in Sandstorm.

- Captain Maddie boss fight was really good and creative too. However after beating him the game says "Divide by Zero in Script 10".

And that's about it! This is very aesthetic and fun to play. It just needs some polish and extra episodes to conclude with. Hope my feedback helped you!

Oh God aaaa I didn't actually expect anyone to go this much in-depth!!!! I'm glad you liked it! The game's been sitting here forgotten for a while and I was sure nobody would ever mention it again. I was just happy to be done with the project as I've been working on it for a long time.

As for the feedback, Thanks! A lot of these are caused by my lack of coding / map / game design knowledge - the code was cobbled up haphazardly and looks atrocious. I had issues implementing the difficulty settings when the game was supposed to be open world (difficulty would reset upon traversing levels) and in the end I figured - - a game with a lot of health and ammo is more fun than otherwise.. I'm an artist first and foremost, I was learning decorate and such as I was working on this project. I lack the know-how of how to fix most of these, save for the couple of (bad) map design parts. I'll see if I can address a couple of the small issues when I have the free time. Really glad you like the look of it and the various little things!! Thanks again for going out of your way to try and help improve the project. Cheers!

Greetings, Alekksandar! I played your project. Very beautiful, interesting, but very simple! The plot is boring to pass, which can not be said about other episodes, except for the Tower. I can see that you put a lot of work into this game. I want to ask you one thing: "Do you plan to do the second part of the story, or will this be your only project?"

By the way, cool art on your site! Are there any more drawings on other resources?

Hi !!! Thanks for playing, glad you liked it!!! Sorry for the late response!

By the time I finished the story levels, I learned a little bit more about some map design tricks; therefore the story levels might be a little bit stale compared to the rest

I don't know if there'll be a 'sequel' anytime soon - at first I was going for an open-world experience with a hub-world and quests; that fell apart however since I know absolutely nothing about coding and scripting. I sunk a lot of my time into this project, and a lot of the content went unused. It's demoralizing. The more I worked on it, the more I realized that I don't know anything about game making. I learned as I worked on this, and unfortunately that much is obvious. I guess, to answer your question, I'd make a sequel if I had a team to work with, and that doesn't seem likely to happen.

Uh, as for my arts, I really have to update my site, I made a whole bunch of new stuff that I hadn't uploaded there yet! It's updated now. You can check out my twitter, where I post some of my 3d models and such - - twitter.com/alekksandarART . Thanks for inquiring, I appreciate it a lot !!

This looks amazing, and I have just extracted the game and am about to play!

I'd have to get people to redo most sounds and music for me since most of it was borrowed from other sources.

I'd totally be willing to help you out with music! I do a few different styles, maybe check out my soundtrack demo reel on Soundcloud? I'm not incredibly experienced with sound effects, however I have made a few, including all of the ones for my own mod, so I'd be willing to give it a try if you'd like!

Thank you ! I really like some of that stuff there - I will keep you in mind if I start working on a new similar project like this. I'm trying to wrap this one up.

Very nice, i've included it on my app.

This launcher looks interesting! I'll have to take a look at it when I get home .