A Winter Wonderland (with zombies)

OK, a lot of new stuff since last time.

New map. Thaddeus painted these tiles a while ago actually, I finally got around to mapping them into a substantial level. Nevertheless, this isn't strictly what the level is going to look like. We actually had another form of joining them but I wanted to show off some features for the video so I sorta improvised with the mapping.

New moves. The character is much more rounded now, Aaron has been up to his head with animation work but he is done quite well in getting them out.

The character (and the enemies, more on that later) can be stunned in a combo, or be knocked down by an attack, standing up after a few seconds. He can also now block enemy attacks, and if timed well, it can stun the enemy attacking leaving them open for a counter attack.
We also got a backflip in, which was a last minute inclusion, as we are going to have a forward dash to compliment it too but we couldn't get it done in time.

New effects. I added a fog/steam like effect for this level. Like melting snow. Gives the impression the level is set in a volcano, which isn't what we were aiming for, but it looks good I think.

Reflective wavy water. Personally I am not that thrilled with it, I'll have to work on it some more. I'll have to add some splash particle effects for traversing it.

Blood. The zombies seem to have a disease where each one pumps enough blood to supply a blood bank for a good while. Not very realistic (I don't think zombies are either, hmmmm) but I think it looks pretty cool. Especially when they die.

We have some fullscreen distortions ingame too. They kick in when a character does an attack that knocks another character down, or after a successful block. Special thanks to Alex Okarof for his tutorial on Ziggyware on displacement maps.

Blocking the zombie's claw also yields some electric sparks from your blade. Not that noticeable anymore since I got the distortions in, will have to tweak it a bit.

There's a fog effect covering the entire level. Weird thing is, when I change the resolution of the game it changes thickness. Will have to play with that somewhat. We probably won't use it in the final version of this level anyway, so no rush.

The zombie marks our first enemy in game, and I think it came out pretty well. The AI needs some work, currently it only lumbers left and right and goes for the occasional slash, eventually it will be more aggressive. The look is great for it though.

Maybe I should have written this at the top, given how few of you will make it all the way down here, but if there are any sound effect designers and musicians who'd like to join are troupe we would love to hear from you. Our musician has gone MIA, and we really need some sound effects and songs.
Preferably we are looking for a single person talented in both making sound effects and composing songs, but we would consider getting two people for the job. While we want someone who is talented in these fields, what is most important is that you are sociable and easy going. We are a very tightly-knit group, and we'd want like minded additions to the team.
Anyone interested post a comment here, send me a PM on the forums, or shoot me an email (address in my profile).

Fire and Brimstone

A small demonstration of the particle effects in game. A port from the Particles3D xna sample. The system has worked really well, had some speed issues but after a few tweaks I can get a fair few instances running at once.

I'd also like to announce that the game is now known as Parasītus. We'll reveal more as to the new direction of the story/theme of the game soon.

Wall jumping and bloom

Hopefully a more substantial video for you guys to enjoy. The sections aren't necessary planned to join like so, just connecting them for testing purposes.

New things to look out for:
-Improved animations
Some of the animations have been expanded. For example, the fall animation loops now.

- Slight Motion blur
Due to the compression it's hardly noticeable in the video (it's very subtle in game anyway) but the layers below the object layer (player, enemies, interactable objects etc) have a motion blur applied to them.

- Wall Jumping
The main character has learned the ways of the ninja and can now jump from wall to wall. Aaron did a great job on the sprites I think.

- Adaptive blooming
When going from a dark area to a bright area, the screen will go very bright for a moment while it adjusts to the new area's brightness. When going from a bright area to a dark area, the bloom will take time to brighten.

Crates, crates, and more crates

The humble crate has long been an icon in the video gaming world. What better way to demonstrate some of the new features in the engine with a whole, errr.... crateful of them?

Aaron has been busy churning out animation after animation, while I've been doing my best to code them in. In this brief video, we knock some crates around and do some super mario galaxy style gravity flipping.

Enjoy!