Lestac, a non-linear 2D exploration game
lestac.net
lestac.net
Factoids:
- It's the first commercial game fully made in ooc
- It's sold only on itch.io (which recently made HN frontpage)
- It was originally a Ludum Dare submission
- We just released a Christmas update!
- It's lame because the game is not about killing stuff!
if so, can you share any thoughts on how that affected the development process? Any quirks? Any features that made it much easier?
Thanks!
Well, it's interesting that ooc returned to its roots, because when I first started working on it, it was for a small simulation game project at university.
I'll try to be as unbiased as can be, though.
Here are the reasons I liked writing it in ooc:
- I find it hard to write bad ooc. The language is smart,
but not too smart, so you can write code that's concise
yet not too confusing.
- Moving up from C, having a single tool manage the build
of your whole project is really cool. I recently added
cross-compilation support, so I produce the Windows, Mac,
Linux 32-bit & 64-bit builds from the same machine.
I have a simple Makefile for tasks like packaging so
releasing a new build is a 'make deploy' away!
- Recent versions of rock have gotten relatively good at
error checking (there's still plenty of room for
improvement), but it's often a lot more helpful than
well, most compilers I've seen. (Clang isn't bad, but
it's C, so it can only help you on a low-signal level).
- Most of the libs I wanted to use (SDL2, SDL2_mixer,
OpenGL 3.x) already had bindings, and for the others
(stb_image, etc.), well, I wrote'em. It's usually a
matter of neatly organizing C functions into an
object-oriented-ish interface.
As for the downsides, well, there are things I know to work around, language features I know I'd better avoid, and the occasional compiler blips. But for a project of that scope, I got away with "using my toy language" relatively scot-free!
I still remember the very harsh comments when I first presented ooc to HN a few years back. Forunately I was in a high at that point so I didn't care. Had I listened to them, I would never have gotten where I am now. So: stay positive, everyone!
Either way, not a good way to sell something. :(
Basically — environments to explore, set to an original soundtrack. That's really the selling point. The actual gameplay, so far, is mostly finding items, bringing them to characters, in exchange for other items, so that you can find your way to the exit!
Since the Christmas update, there are two separate worlds with different 'quests' - the latter being a snow/winter/Santa-themed world.
We definitely plan to add other gameplay mechanics, but we think the "charm" of the game is already there. We're happy with how Early Access is working, and totally understand if people don't like that niche and/or want to wait until there is more content / gameplay arcs.
To shed some light on the "non-linear" qualifier I used in the submission, allow me to refer you to the Ludum Dare Postmortem for Lestac: http://amos.me/blog/2013/lestac-the-making-of/ — which explains some of it.
As a side note, to anyone on HN who is interested in following the development of Lestac right from the devs' mouths, let me know, I can totally give out a few http://devsofa.cc keys for the Lestac channel.
These controls are actually explained in the LD levels (door on the right in the very first screen of the game), which you're encouraged to play first!
Still early access, thanks for bearing with us.
Finding items that you can collect would be a useful feature for some people.
Finding items that you can collect, and use to modify your "home" or similar would be cool too.
Anyway, buying to support, and wishing you success.
1. Include a 'save' feature or save automatically when a person steps through a door or transitions from one screen to another.
2. Maybe allow a person to adjust how much left/right movement happens to a degree in the options. The guy seems a little 'floaty' to me, and I had trouble not over-shooting my intended jumps. Of course, a max would be needed pretty close to where he's currently at, and a min would be needed that's still enough to play the game.
3. Allow it to support controllers and/or customize the controls.
4. Make picking up items more forgiving. It's currently a little too picky, in my opinion.
And 3, I definitely want in. If only because I enjoy playing platformers with controllers so much. The only "problem" is that controllers are so wildly different from one another -chances are, most customer complaints we would have gotten would have been about that! It's definitely slated for an upcoming build.
As for 1, that's a non-trivial feature do to how levels work, but it's also definitely something we want as the game expands. As it stands now, with two separate worlds, it's not too hard to finish each in one go, yet saving would be nice, especially as more complex quests get added and potentially spawn multiple worlds.
I have to admit I'd probably have made an impulse purchase if there hadn't been that small hurdle (and, for me, moral dilemma).
( For reference see https://www.humblebundle.com/ )
The game looks nice though ! It's exactly the kind of "quirky" indie game I love :)
I'll take a look and see what our options are. Thanks for the kind words!
edit: Stripe does support France, but in closed beta — just signed up, we'll see when/if we get in the beta!