BRAMBLEWOOD

a game about a soul bound to this earth. /// currently in development! links!

[bramblewoodgame]

UPDATE 12/3/16 -- not quite dead!

it's been a hot minute since ive worked on bramblewood, but with the semester coming to a close, i'm preparing to start up again. some goals, under the cut:

create and test new god sprites + environments. 

finally tackle the coding Monster that is randomizing player experience. 

create new tilesets for different environments in bramblewood. 

further develop color schemes. 

begin constructing NPC settlements in bramblewood (or, at least, conceptualizing them) 

 for those of you who are still hangin on despite the lack of action: i greatly appreciate it. my biggest apologies for the inactivity, and i hope to be producing some really great stuff over the next few weeks!

[bramblewoodgame]

First of all, wowza, that DEMO was great!! First some great aspects: The music was spot on, and I'm actually humming it in my head right now, also the color scheme and characters looked clean and very aesthetically fitting. Some not as great aspects: There is a split second lag when changing direction while moving, and finally it would be nice to be able to walk diagonally. For a first demo though, it looks unbelievably polished! I really can't wait to find out what happens next!!!!

ooomggg first of all!! thank you for playing through and giving feedback! 

ill try and see what i can do about the lag, that might have something to do with the sprite sheet itself - it’s about 3 frames in each direction, so i might try and add a plugin that allows for a bit more mobility with that!

about the diagonal walk, i’m not sure if that’s something that the game engine allows? i’ll definitely look into it, because i think it would be nice to walk diagonally! thanks for bringing all of this to my attention, and im really glad you enjoyed it!

[bramblewoodgame]

The Bramblewood demo is officially available!

>> MAC DEMO HERE << >> WINDOWS DEMO HERE <<

If anyone runs into any trouble, please let me know!

*A quick note to Mac users: Make sure your security settings are set so that you can open apps from anywhere so that you can actually open and play the demo!

[bramblewoodgame]

who’s this?

[bramblewoodgame]

lil gif of the soul’s new sprite + in-game idle movement!

[bramblewoodgame]

10/7/16 - some small updates (with more to come over the weekend!)

a SMALL demo may be available at the end of the weekend!

reworking grass textures/colors and sprites for the soul at the moment

sprites for the gods will be underway shortly (and will hopefully be implemented in time for the demo)

above all, i’d really like to thank everyone who follows this blog... it means so much to have the interest and support of yall, especially when development at the moment is so slow.

also, check out this SWEET art @cipherking drew for my birthday!

[bramblewoodgame]

@chemtrailer honestly im intentionally making them symmetrical (for the most part, there are some asymmetries, albeit small)

mostly because asymmetries in design stand out far more to me than symmetries do when repeated over a couple of tiles!

[bramblewoodgame]

also i was thinking! after editing the sprites for the soul (presently theyre more of a placeholder than anything) id love to do a lil walkthrough video! especially now that im beginning to draft up item sprites for some of the objects in the game!

[bramblewoodgame]

progress has been so slow the last few weeks!! not to mention i discovered there’s a pretty critical flaw in the grass tilesets (as i was trying to make a small modification) so i’m redoing those now but… while everything still looks nice in the engine, i’ve managed to add and test some new trees (which you can view under the cut!)

generic tree/burned tree

birch/recolored generic

oak tree/Special Tree

all of the trees together on the test map!

i know that the outline of the birch tree takes some guesswork… darker grass and soil is on the way, hopefully!!

[bramblewoodgame]

sorry for the inactivity!

school has just started back again and i’m working on bramblewood where and when i can, but progress will probably slow within the next few months.

some general updates under the cut:

updates as of 8/27/2016

starting area mapped (more or less)

first draft of tree sprites are implemented in-game

foliage variations are soon to come! including different kinds of trees, rocks, flowers, etc.

a few basic textures/tilesets have been drafted as well (including some animated tilesets)

small edits to the soul’s sprite design

5/15 possible endings written thus far

[bramblewoodgame]

speaking of gods and such... i should have some rough sketches or designs for the gods within the next few days!

[bramblewoodgame]

big ol’ earth god tree = finished!... for now

[yarbsale]

Yo okay so I keep hearing all over the place about this sick ass (game?? I Think???). Bramblewood right? Cool. What do you get to play as? (Like what's your avatar?) Is it a side-scroller? What's the setting? Give me some of that Lore™.

bramblewood is a Game i’m developing!!! you should check out the blog for it here >:)

to answer your questions tho:

you play as a dog! but in reality you are playing as a soul inside of a dog. you’re controlling the soul that’s controlling the dog. if ygm

it’s not a sidescroller… but it is a non-iso rpg (i can’t seem to think of a better term for this!) it’s also point and click so the gameplay is fairly streamlined (i think)

the setting is bramblewood, a (perhaps, conceptually but not actually within my power to implement) endless woodland-type area where the gods send souls - that are not Quite ready to ascend to what one might consider “heaven” - to learn from their past and move on. as far as geography goes, expect your run-of-the-mill forest with some caves, rivers, hills and valleys!

i don’t wanna give away Too Much LoreTM but i will say this… there are two types of lore: lore of the past (the soul’s memories and actions in their previous life) and lore of Bramblewood and the Gods. the lore of latter is constant, but the lore of the former is quite variable, and based on the choices that the player makes!

[yarbsale]

Are there any characters besides the soul that you can tell us about without getting into spoilery territory? :3c

ohoh! absolutely. i could talk about the indebted spirits (a better name is tbd) or the gods or the local bramblewood critters… i’ll give a quick, vague, non-spoilery writeup of all three!

the indebted spirits are sort of companions for the soul. they help the soul in battle, mostly. as their name implies, they “owe” or are indebted to the soul for some reason or another. said reason is individual to the story that the player uncovers for the soul, and thus is unique in the same way that the soul’s is! 

there are 6 gods: 3 of which govern physical realm (sun/moon/earth) and 3 of which govern the metaphysical or intangible realm (time and memory/space/balance). some of these gods appear in game, some gods serve as bosses, and some actually serve as a sort of player function (workin on possibly incorporating that into the UI right now actually lmao). 

the point is tho that gods are kind of meant to guide and test the soul to ensure that it’s learned its lesson based on past deeds ! each one ofc has their own personality and their own sort of dwelling within the world of bramblewood (on the condition that they are, in fact, in the plot of the game like that)

as far as the bramblewood locals, i plan on having NPCS (TBD on species, but i’m thinking mostly woodland creatures (bramblewood is more or less a forest) so rabbits, deer, mice, squirrels) that may be more or less aware of what, exactly, bramblewood “is”. they exist on the same level as the soul (that is, they are all on individual journeys within bramblewood to uncover their pasts and learn from them.)

some are friendly and others are not so much, as it goes yknow. 

[yarbsale]

Will we be able to customize our character in the game?

no, i don’t think i’ll be able to implement something like that (regrettably) but… a feature i’m working on is a somewhat-customizable past for the player.

because the plot of bramblewood is mostly about uncovering the “soul’s” past, having different interchanging bits of what this “past” actually is, in a player’s specific save, should create a more varied game experience! 

this is to say that, depending on certain choices or discoveries that the player makes will shape the overall story of the soul’s past.

[bramblewoodgame]

Are you going to use Unity to build Bramblewood? (This game looks awesome btw!!) Also will it be point and click or more like Undertale style or sidescroller? (I know this might be too early to tell but I'd love to hear your thought process and reasoning!)

i… have been wanting to break into unity but sadly i have not yet. i’ve tossed around the idea of maybe making bramblewood something more of a platformer, which unity would be great for! but, the more i develop the different plot lines, the more i think i should structure it strictly as a non-iso rpg (considering i don’t know much about organizing platformer-esque rpg games)

this being said! i’ve designed most of my graphics to be used in RPG maker MV… so unless something that makes more sense to use comes along, that’s the engine i’ll be sticking with.. i have an okay amount of experience with older versions of RPG maker and since this is my first major project, i figured i’d start there.

it will be point and click, yes! i think that’s the most intuitive way to do this sort of game (i could be wrong though) and it just sort of makes the most sense for a game with as much lore as i’m planning to implement, plus the way i intend for the player to interact with the world of bramblewood.

[bramblewoodgame]

i wanted to work on some objects bc ive been doing tilesets for the past few hours and... im very proud of how this tree is looking right now.