theIndieAccord

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Bloom is the Accord’s homage to N64 platformers. At its heart it is a love letter to exploration adventure games of years past. Play as James, a boy who has a way with plants. James and his sister Jasmin act as the guardians of the vast world of Arlon. When Jasmin is kidnapped by Salty, the king of the foxes, James sets out to save her. James will need to work together with a beauty queen elephant, a lazy mole, and a completely insane mayor to save Jasmin, all while discovering and helping various plants bloom. Features:

4 unforgettable zones

225 Objects to collect (and a secret ending for those who collect them all)

10 characters with unique personalities

N64 platformy goodness!

An original soundtrack composed by Samuel Widzy

A magical storyline focused around James and Jasmin, two siblings from the world of Arlon

Bloom [Mac/Win] DOWNLOAD

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Iktsua v0.1.9

We are proud to announce the newest version of the Iktsua alpha (v0.1.9)! This version had a heavy focus on graphics, effects, and level look/feel. The changes include: Weather Weather Effects

Changed weather according to biome

Added in new weather effects

Added antialiasing

Added color correction

AI Wolf Pack Attack!

Optimized AI behaviour based on distance to player

Randomized enemy size (effects speed of enemy and drops)

Added herd AI

Optimization Top Down View of the Tundra

Optimized big room

Removed snow from village

Balancing

Changed camera back to normal

Decreased bear boss difficulty

Animals slowed down in snow drifts

Changed the way you throw your spear

Misc

New HUD

Added berry sound

Enemies can no longer spawn on top of you

Fixed texture in bear room

Added ability to zoom camera

DOWNLOAD

The next update will focus on the Husky! Puppy!

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Iktsua gameplay screenshot!

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Wallpaper Wednesday!

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trains. of thought.

What a wicked web she weaves, to turn something so sinister into something so radiant.

Book of History Volume VI

-Mortimer the Historian

Mathias sat in an abandoned castle reading poetic lore by candlelight. He had found this particular book, and many more dusty volumes just like it in the dank basement. His father, Mathias the first (who in all actuality it was his adopted father, but it is far simpler to address them this way), had told him this castle had once housed troops in the fabled reaper wars, but now it lay in ruins. To Mathias it had always been a play place, where him and Benviolo would come to play as they grew up.

It was a dark and stormy night, and Mathias had decided sleeping in the tower would be easier than walking home through the downpour. His candle was beginning to burn down, and instead of lighting another, he allowed himself to ponder what he had been reading. This particular passage had been about the landing of the Eteras on Lottian shores. Eteras were supposed to be beings of great power, not burdened under the unrelenting load of death that humankind is forced to carry. It was said that they had landed hundreds of years ago at the very place where Mathias's hometown of Kaepe now stood. It was common knowledge now that these histories were all fables-- that is, containing truth, but not true through and through.

Mathias let his mind wander further away from the book. What would a being like an etera look like in a world of mortals? How would one act if they did not have to worry about the day to day worries of the world, and instead thought in centuries and millenniums? The possibilities were endless, the sheer amount of knowledge that would be gathered was staggering. With the power of eternity, Mathias though, the most careful plans could be laid and carried out.

Mathias was jolted from his ponderings by a sudden clanging in the next room (Or was it the next next room? The castle's echoes made it impossible to tell). He was not immediately alarmed; in all probability it was a swamp rat taking shelter from the storm. There were hundreds of the pests, from here to kaepe. It was simply part of the marshy environment. It did turn Mathias's thinking in other directions though. Why was the little nation of Lotte built in such a harsh environment? It seemed that every building built instantly begin sinking into the unforgiving marsh. The people of Lotte did not seem to prepare for it either. They simply built attachments, adding floor upon floor to their sinking houses. It created a peculiar sort of architecture, with buildings never finished, and construction constantly reacting to the will of the swamp. When Mathias was young, the town hall had leaned and eventually fallen into his own home's roof. Instead of removing towers, his father had built them into their home, creating a network of passages. It was simpler than removing them, and would save money and space. The entire town had been constructed in a similar manner. Since the Lottians knew that whatever they built would sink underground eventually, they built high instead of wide. Kaepe towered above the rest of the landscape.

Mathias had read in the histories of mortimer that there had been a great slaughter the very first day the Eteras had arrived. They had fled to this world, landing at kaepe, while being chased by a dread force, it was said that they had made a stand, and had broken free from the evil, but not without great cost. The books numbered the dead into the thousands, with detailed lists of strange names taking pages on pages. Mathias began to think that it was as if the swamp pulled life down into it and the Lottians were trying as hard as they could to stay as far away from it as possible. They actually did quite a good job, between the ever growing spires and interconnecting buildings, you could go about your daily business without touching a toe to the wet muddy ground.

While Mathias sat in thought the rain slowly turned to snow and the deep silence snow brings entered the castle. Mathias' thoughts wandered down stranger and stranger paths before he finally began to doze.

Another bump in the night.

Mathias stirred. This sound seemed much louder and Mathias decided he had to investigate. He pulled himself out of the chair, and lit another candle. Leaving his makeshift study, he began down the hallway toward what had been a pantry. If it was a rat, it would be there, probably chewing on some piece of moldy bread left over from long ago.  

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SOG2!

Welcome to Elette: State of the Game Pt 2. If you have not yet read the first part and would like to, please feel free to visit here.

Part 2 is all about the mechanics, under the hood, and major changes that have occurred to Elette. Since the last State of the Game, the Elette Alpha has been released and can be downloaded on gamejolt!

  In Elette the enemies will attack you with various strategies in order to push you back. Should they succeed twice, it is game over in theory. What we introduced in the Alpha is a looping system that allows the player to continuously battle the swarms of enemies and gather upgrades until you can easily overcome them. This allows for each level to become easier as it is replayed. This also will allow for a more dynamic approach at the game, making each play-through a bit more unique than the previous. Whether you prevail on your first attempt or become stuck in an endless battle is your decision.

  One of the biggest features of Elette is the ability to find multiple endings depending on how you play the game, and how you level up Mathias. Below is the level select screen. As you play through the game, winning a level will move you up and forward a level and losing will move you down. If you lose more than twice the game ends and you see one of the five endings. However, just because you have reached an ending does not mean the game is over. Each skill you earned in the levels will carry over if you restart the story. So even if you lose miserably twice in a row you will have made some bit of progress. The rough outline of the current skill tree can be seen below:

  In addition to helping you reach the ultimate ending playing through the levels with newer and newer skills will allow you to unlock new features and content in the game. There are many combinations of skills, many have prerequisites to unlock the stronger and more deadly combination attacks. 

Elette is expected to launch this October just in time for Halloween. We hope you will play the Alpha and give us feedback so that we may make the game even better for you! Thanks for reading the State of the Game and we shall see you on the front lines!

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State of the Game 1: Elette

Greetings from The Accord. This is somewhat of an exciting post due to the amount of changes we have prepared for Elette, which is expected to be released this October. This is the first State of the Game that are releasing for Elette, so don’t expect all of the changes at once!

The first and most improved aspect to Elette is that it will now be headed to multi-platform instead of the original idea for just PC. In this day and age the mobile market is one that should not be ignored and we have done just that. We have also expanded the desktop environment to ensure that there are no gaps within platforms of a specific format.

Watch for Elette on PC, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, and Metro devices.

The next exciting change is the High Definition we decided to bring to Elette. Originally the cutscenes and graphics were pixel quality, as you can see on the left hand side. We thought this delivered no justice to the hand-drawn art style that we used.

The cutscenes now are rendered in complete 720p at 24 frames per second. This allows much more detail to be seen and gives the story a great new breath of fresh air. The artwork in game has been increased to match the style of the cutscenes. Enemies are rendered at 1080p and exported to give the same style and feel of the cutscenes.

The gameplay has been further updated to supply a more fun environment. Now more visually appealing and responsive, Elette HD is a totally new and better feel from the original demos.

The story has been freshly ironed out and all of the endings planned to ensure a most satisfying outcome. Whether you win, lose, or a mixture of both, the fate and outcome of Elette is totally in your hands.

The next State of the Game will continue more into gameplay mechanics and changes to the leveling system as well as more detail into the story branching.

Thanks for reading and we hope you will enjoy Elette when it releases this fall! Stay tuned for the second State of the Game!

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What I learned today was...

if you are using a javascript prompt like this:

var name = prompt("Please enter your name:","name");

and the user presses cancel, the value of name will be null regardless of what it was before the prompt. Be careful to code in an error catch for this case!

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Before + After

What the cutscenes in Elette looked like before and after the move to 2.5D rendered art.

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Elette

  After the events of the Reaper Wars, Lotte had become a shattered nation. Under the rule of Mathias, the citizens managed to rebuild some of their once proud nation. It had been years sin...

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Game Design

Preface: We needed to design the structures for our top view tower defense game, Kaepe. We wanted them to add an element of strategy to the game, instead of simply having the game be an upgrade fest, like so many other TDs. We had before this already planned them to be "extendable" but we did not do much else planning.

:

iamscissors: Hunter

iamscissors: lets talk about factories

Hunter Dubel: agreed

iamscissors: I remember specifically deciding how they would be built

iamscissors: but not what the extensions did

iamscissors: -.-

Hunter Dubel: Oh boy

Hunter Dubel: Not good

Hunter Dubel: I'll find it

Hunter Dubel: I would have bet we wrote it down in docs

Hunter Dubel: Okay well each factory did some sort of bonus

Hunter Dubel: The trick was there was a greater selection than you can build

Hunter Dubel: and I believe certain selections work better together

iamscissors: oh, hmm

iamscissors: well

Hunter Dubel: to an overall factory boost

iamscissors: we have 4 options, NSWE

Hunter Dubel: So let's cap it at either 2-3 buildable

Hunter Dubel: Leave the front open?

iamscissors: maybe just side by side?

Hunter Dubel: So 2 max?

iamscissors: that lets you see everything best

Hunter Dubel: agreed

Hunter Dubel: So 4 options

Hunter Dubel: 2 buildable

Hunter Dubel: Certain selections will give better bonuses together

:

Hunter Dubel: ---side note

Hunter Dubel: What if you built like 2 factories next to each other. Should we make a small "neighbor" radius so that factories can aide each other?

Hunter Dubel: Like 1 factory has two of type 1 upgrade

Hunter Dubel: other one has two of type 2, they can work together to be more "efficient"

iamscissors: So its like an industrial zone?

Hunter Dubel: Yeah

iamscissors: we can make it kill trees

iamscissors: xD

Hunter Dubel: A house there could either benefit/hurt depending on the factory next door

iamscissors: interesting

Hunter Dubel: House can supply more workers, but less room?

Hunter Dubel: Or the factory can't work at a full potential due to pollutants?

iamscissors: hmm

iamscissors: how would the mechanic look in the actual game?

Hunter Dubel: I feel the actual game is bland, so we need little strategic "battles" that you must plan around

iamscissors: like you cant build the upgrade without a house near to the factory for workers?

Hunter Dubel: That could work nicely

iamscissors: interesting

iamscissors: so you need to plan the industrial sector

Hunter Dubel: mhm

iamscissors: I like the strategy

iamscissors: building combos would be a cool feature

Hunter Dubel: and if we do factories working together, they have to be touching

Hunter Dubel: So no U F U F U

Hunter Dubel: It has to be U F F U

Hunter Dubel: (Upgrade, Factory)

iamscissors: so literally, one upgrade would be another factory

Hunter Dubel: yeah

Hunter Dubel: So, upgrades

[9:39:29 PM] Hunter Dubel: Coin Bonus, Attack Bonus (Radius), Defense Bonus (Radius), Factory, House, &

Hunter Dubel: (House is more of a requirement)

iamscissors: I think you should not be able to build any upgrades without a house

Hunter Dubel: mhm

iamscissors: like, when you hit upgrade

iamscissors: it pops up a warning

Hunter Dubel: But I see houses being able to be placed North or South

iamscissors: yes

Hunter Dubel: since upgrades are only East and West

Hunter Dubel: There was one more upgrade

Hunter Dubel: Ohhh

Hunter Dubel: Wait

Hunter Dubel: the last one was an actual tower

Hunter Dubel: We had one as a wall to defend the factory center

Hunter Dubel: another was like a "catapult" that launches attacks slowly

iamscissors: mhmm

iamscissors: like a guard tower type thing

iamscissors: East+West: Coin Bonus, Attack Tower, Defense Bonus (Radius), Factory

North+South: House

Hunter Dubel: Yes

:

iamscissors: This is an important idea

iamscissors: the planning of building placement

iamscissors: Is there anything else we can do with this idea?

iamscissors: like having houses near enemies lowers production?

iamscissors: and we already have houses near avatars increase production

Hunter Dubel: Well I'd say enemies attack houses first

Hunter Dubel: Maybe if an enemy line is next to a house, it becomes "abandoned". That is until the line moves

iamscissors: well, the enemies go for your base first, but randomly shoot buildings if they can

Hunter Dubel: Technically, that house is in a warzone

iamscissors: interesting

iamscissors: that's a good idea

iamscissors: it makes the wall placement important (shields houses from enemies)

Hunter Dubel: yeah. makes them important again

:

iamscissors: ok

iamscissors: this is good

iamscissors: ill go implement it

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The upgrade screen gets upgraded! It is still not very pretty, but it is a lot easier to use. (You mouse over the character you want to upgrade)

I am still looking for an artist to draw the portraits for a couple characters (like Hermielle)

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The main character from our upcoming game, bloom.

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Zombie Cutscene Created Live in Blender

Recorded live on June 22 at 9:19pm.

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REDWING

REDWING is a little action game made in Unity. You must avoid obstacles while trying to fly as far as you can. It is the first time our team had used Unity, 3D graphics, soun...