Elementals

[Celticguardian]

Remember the game I said I was working on in my introduction post? Well, this is it. The game is called Elementals, it is a side-scrolling SSB-style fighter, hopefully with multiplayer.

In the game, the character controls one of the five main characters (four available from the start and one available after getting about halfway through single player mode) and the Villain (available after completing one-player mode)

The characters are the Elementals, spirits of power, meant to keep the elemental balance and prevent the world from falling into chaos. The elementals are Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, and Light. They work together to try to stop the sixth elemental, Dark, from tipping the scales in favor of chaos.

The game starts in a sort of medieval-meets-mechanical world, a la FFVII, with a group of five teenagers (around eighteen years old) who are summoned to have a council with the Sages, the leaders of their nation. The sages tell them the story of an ancient order, who kept the balance among the elements, between good and evil, and how these Elementals held power for a thousand years, before having to either pass it on willingly to someone else, or have the powers explode out of them and scatter around the world, until a worthy host was found. The teenagers are not too interested in this story, until the Sages reveal that they are the Elementals, and that they have near reached the end of their thousand-year reign as Elementals. Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind pass their powers on to four of the five, but Light had, many years before, refused to pass on his powers, letting the powers consume him and shatter to the corners of the globe. Now you, as the player, must embark on a quest to retrieve the shards of Light in order to restore balance to the world.

The gameplay is similar to Super Smash Bros. in the fact that there are no complex combos in the game, and all moves can be done with a direction and a button. Each player has two status bars, health and power. Health does not refill unless a pickup or power increases it, power, however, refills slowly over time (faster if the Elemental is exposed to large quantities of their element) Power is used to execute special attacks. Falling off of the arena or into another type of hazard is instant death.

Single player mode consists of selecting where to go, similar to Megaman level selection, and hunt for the shards of light. Most levels have a boss of some sort, usually a mech or monster that had managed to get a hold of a Shard of Light. Many levels allow you to select an Elemental, but others you are restricted to one particular Elemental. After collecting the shards, you are only halfway finished. Dark reveals himself, and takes over the minds of the world with a mind-altering spell he calls "The Plague" Now, the newly re-united Elementals team must stop Dark's plague and destroy him to bring order back to the world.

And now, concept art of the Elementals:
Water
Wind
Fire
Earth
Light
Dark

What do you guys think? Questions/comments/criticisms/suggestions welcome!

[Gizmonicgamer]

Doesn't seem to bad. Any idea when you'll a demo available?

[Celticguardian]

As soon as I can get a spriter (I'm horrible at sprite work) A friend of mine (who, incedentally, drew the concept art) Is taking a computer graphics class, but since it is summer, I either have to wait three months or find an illegal copy of whatever program he uses. (should be easy enough, but my internet is the suck and it would take forever to download)

[deadimp]

Seems like it'll be a good game.
I'd say something else... But I can't think.
Have you began development yet, or are you waiting for your resources? And how detailed of a storyline do you have?

NOTE: Damn... My mind went to Inuyasha (shards), Avatar (elements), and Final Fanatasy (as you said) when I read the summary.

Good character sketches. The only one that really seems outta place is Water. I dunno what it is, maybe just how the hair doesn't seem to 'flow' as does water... Meh, I'm ignorant.

[Celticguardian]

Yea, water doesn't seem to fit, but my artist drew him after a nineteen-and-a-half hour Soul Caliber 3 binge, and that design was all that came to mind.

I haven't actually started coding it yet, but I have almost the whole game planned out.

[Uziel]

Well, Celtic, have no fear. Your project is taking a few more steps. I'm almost done with the water character's sprite. I tweaked the head from what I sent to you before, but I have the body drawn but not colored. Which leads me to the following question: How do you want the robes to look? A particular design? What colors do you want? His hair, eyes, and tattoo are already blue.

[Gizmonicgamer]

Oh so this is actually getting somewhere then? Thats good to hear. As soon sa you've got some screenshots or something, I'd appreciate it if you posted it.

[Uziel]

Screenshots? Hell, I have one sprite mostly done. I still need to know what Celtic wants for the guy's robes.

[SketchMan3]

Oh, the woes of spriting for another person. We always have to ask "Do you want it like this? Do you want it like that? I need direcTION! ", and hardly anything gets done. At least, that's been my experience.

But I often don't even finish my own sprites/projects, so that probably won't happen here.

I like the idea. It's kind of, Power Rangers meets FF meets Pokemon meets SSB.

Your game looks forward to killing me, soon.

[Ragamuffin]

This thread seems a bit old, I'm not sure if it's supposed to be dying or not >.> But, regardless of the consequences, I offer this.
It be what I first thought of when I read that there would be a dark elemental. Consider it pre-humus fan art.

[Uziel]

Hmm...Don't count me out quite yet. I think I might be onto something now.

[Celticguardian]

Well, the game has actually made progress. The creation has started. I found an artist, the more fine details have been written down (instead of just in my head) and developement has started...



...for the Xbox 360. That's right, the game will most likely become a buyable Community game, and, if I win this year's contest (which, if I finish, is pretty much guaranteed to happen) it will become a full-fledged arcade game alongside games like Alien Hominid and The Dishwasher: Dead Samurai. It's not in demo stages yet, and distributing a demo would be a bitch, but I'll keep everyone posted.





Also, glad to see the forums back. I missed this place.

[Gizmonicgamer]

Any screenshots or examples of the artwork, out of curiosity?

[Dr. Slouch]

a link to examples, images, or a website of the artist would be cool too, if those things are possible to provide

[Celticguardian]

Well, the art hasn't started, per se, we've just started fleshing out the animations (stick figure wireframes, pretty much). The artist is the guy who did the concept art, he doesn't have a website (at least, I don't think so), I might have some sprites up in a few weeks (graduation's coming up next week, so neither of us have much time to work on the art)