Hazelnut Bastille is a topdown, Zelda-like ARPG, presented in a rigorously-period 16 bit style. Hazelnut is available to back again for a limited time. Our expectation is for orders to be charged when Dawnthorn, the 8-bit sister game to Hazelnut is first released to backers.
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We now have enough funds to deliver the Switch Digitals and Physicals much sooner! We are super glad to make this goal, as we know so many of our backers are intensely interested in Hazelnut as a Switch title! Also a huge thanks goes out to our three new backers who pledged at 1000 USD, and at 2500 USD, as this was instrumental in getting us here this early!
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Our newly revealed 200,000 USD Stretch goal is the Quest Randomizer, which mixes up items, locations, enemies, and the difficulty levels of various game elements (some things get harder, some easier) for a new experience everytime! A big nod to the modern favorite!
We are also about to announce the Fan-Art contest winners when we get a free moment, and we should have the free mystery gift (which every backer in any tier 5 USD or higher is entitled to) revealed when everything is in order for it!
Also worth noting is the new 250 USD tier, which grants copies of the Sheet Music Booklet signed by Hiroki Kikuta, and of course the 50 USD tier for Physical copies, which we added mid-campaign!
HUGE Thanks to everyone who helped push the campaign so far, and we can't wait to see where it ends up in the final days! We are incredibly thankful that things have managed to get this far already!
For a change of pace, here is an update not at all about Hazelnut, but rather about some of the really incredible indie projects hiding in the underbrush, which are totally worth the time and effort to check out!
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/koruldia/koruldia-heritage-a-pixel-painted-adventure-rpg
From the devs:
Koruldia Heritage is a story-driven RPG with merciful fights and non-linear progression. The game combines various exploration views in a unique pixel-painted experience. Koruldia Heritage is coming to Windows, Mac and Linux and will be available in English and French. With the support of the community, we aim to accelerate its delivery… and go on Nintendo Switch and Sony PS4 consoles! Support us today and unlock rewards that will help us reach our stretch goals.
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Koruldia looks to be a complex story told from several perspectives and artstyles at once, and all of them lovingly hand-drawn! The core gameplay appears to rest on standard JRPG-style turn-based combat, with a very involved story threading it all together! This KS started with a modest goal, that it looks like they should meet, but they will probably need a bit of help reaching a level which will really allow them to relax and focus on development fully!
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/326257143/gigabuster-fiery-action-platformer-demo-available
From the Devs:
Liz must stop mergers with the GEC, a monopoly funding "Happiness."
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Gigabuster is rendered in a stunning-stylized character, featuring flat-tones laced with texture and atompsheric effects. It sort of resembles "Guacamelee" in its result. Gigabuster bills itself as taking inspiration from Megaman X and Zero, and it also bears some resemblance to the gameplay of Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night, and features an open hub-world design.
These guys are off to a slow start... let's give them a push to get them on track! This is really stunning and vivacious work that deserves to be recognized!
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1199039590/aethyr
From the Devs:
Aethyr is an action-adventure RPG that features unique character customization, fast paced position based combat, extensive skill system, and an expansive world filled with secrets, dungeons, and temples to explore.
Set in a world ruined by an arcane apocalypse as humanity faces it’s final days; an unforetold hero seeks to uncover the mysteries of the past, delving into forlorn temples built to honor eldritch gods.
Ability based combat allows you to create and customize your character to your own personal play-style. Choose from over 100 different abilities each governed by one of 21 different skills.
Aethyr is a passion project that I, Labyrinth, have been working on for 5 years. My goal was to create a game that evoked all the same emotions that the games I cherish elicited in me when I first played them. A sense of creativity, exploration, challenge, and immersiveness. Initially I started the project alone, but later joined together with Andre Sargeant; an extremely talented artist and animator. Together we've poured our hearts and souls into Aethyr to make it the best game we can. With the game's engine nearly feature complete we look forward to building the content within the world and making rich and beautiful environments to explore, and this can only be achieved with your help on Kickstarter.
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Aethyr is an incredible project, 5 years in development, which features some rich ARPG combat, and which I am sure some fans of Hazelnut may also connect well to! The trailer, even without sound, is absolutely captivating, and casts a spell. I can't wait to see what this project becomes!
Aethyr is also off to quite a slow start. Help them to turn that around quickly!
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/eniko/lore-finder-a-cosmic-horror-metroidvania
From the devs:
Become K.C. Morgan, paranormal investigator, and search a New England mansion for your missing father. Battle the forces of corruption infesting the mansion armed only with your wits and an old .38 revolver, and gather scrolls of forbidden lore.
But the more you discover, the more warped and twisted the world – and you – become.
Uncover the story of Lore Finder, a 2D metroidvania and a modern queer reimagining of the cosmic horror genre. Coming to a PC near you on Steam.
Try the demo right now in your browser, or download the PC Windows version.
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If Aethyr didn't fill your desire for Eldritch, Lovecraftian horror about the depths of creation, maybe a whole game dedicated to it may! Lore Finder seems to be an entire experience built around the exploration of dread, both figuratively and literally!
Lore Finder is being headed by a decorated team with numerous credits collected about some indie favorites, and the campaign is off to a decent start! May they go far!
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https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1286599243/monster-sanctuary-monster-taming-metroidvania
From the devs:
Monster Sanctuary is a monster-taming RPG with party-based combat and metroidvania-like exploration. New monsters provide additional strategic options in combat and allow you to overcome obstacles to explore new areas and find hidden treasures. The turn-based combat focuses on team synergy and combos, distinguishing Monster Sanctuary from other popular monster collecting games.
As the youngest heir of an ancient bloodline of proud Monster Keepers, you step out into the world to follow in your ancestors' footsteps. You will gather a party of monsters to grow and train. Meanwhile, a series of unsettling events worries the experienced Keepers of the Monster Sanctuary. This is the beginning of a journey to unravel the cause of a mystery that threatens the peace between humans and monsters.
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And of course, a project which is about to end on a high note, but which is still worth checking out, if you haven't seen it yet, is Monster Sanctuary, a game which combines metroidvania, RPG turn-based combat, and monster training! These guys have it all worked out!
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Continuing our series of indepth looks at special areas of production, today we are going to cover the custom level editing tool which was developed just for this project!
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Hazelnut Bastille is programmed in the Unity3D Engine, which is a well known enigne which really excels oddly enough at 2D work in particular, due to its robust set of existing tools and extensibility. We've been scripting the project in C#, which is one of the two major languages Unity supports, the other being Javascript. Mark has developed a series of editors right into the base system of Unity itself, which are keystone elements of the framework developed for this title.
The level editor is comprised of three main subsystems: The Area Editor, the Room Editor, and the Node Editor.
The Area editor is the highest level of organization within a scene, and allows for the creation of rooms. These rooms are built around a controling unit size, which is half the length and width of a full screen, therefore meaning the smallest possible room is 2x2, and a room where you can scroll the screen halfway more in either direction is 3x3. This unit size gives us the opportunity to move completed rooms around the area grid should we need to later, to re-arrange content. Low-granularity module size is a pretty common feature of designing rooms in 2D games, and it gives the level designer a lot of flexibility.
The Room Editor is what we will spend most of our time dicussing today, and it is pictured below.
It has a few regions: The tileset window, the room space, the configuration inspection (bottom left), and the layers and subsystems hierarchy (right column).
The tileset window allows us to set our brush to any tile or rectangle of tiles from any tileset in the project.These can be applied as either paintcan fill, or simple click brushes, which also support drag clicks. The hierarchy column gives a list of the discrete layers of tile art, and places them in their order of depth, so we control what renders above or below other art. This column also allows us to divide the room into "floors", where each floor has its own collision and enemy space, so you could go under a bridge, as an example. This column also handles animation layers and event scripting layers for each floor.
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Going through the inspector in bottom left, there is a checkbox to show every graphic layer of the room at once, in proper layering, which helps with some art tasks; with it off, you only see the current layer and below. The next checkbox allow us to darken all but the current layer, to differentiate what new material each layer has over the previous. Next is a grid overlay checkbox. After that is an option to hide all graphic tiles. Next is an option for "depth tiles", which are a special kind of overlapping tile we only use in rare instances. Next is the option to show animated layers, and player spawn points. Under that, is a slider to show some of the adjacent room edges, in case some art needs to line up between two rooms with continuity. Under that are selection boxes to pick the tileset and room music, and to set the floor level of the currently selected floor.
The current mode the editor is in below is the system for animated tiles, which also allows the user to set the number of frames the chosen animation has, as well as the intended framerate each element should have, so the user can have the same animation in the same scene in multiple instances, but have it play at different speeds for each.
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Above, we have a second layer of animation applied over the first; this allows us to animate the surface of the water and the water fringes separately. Each of these layers is set to their own depth in the scene, with their own 6 frame animations, set to a gentle 2 frames per second.
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Now the next layers are graphic tile layers. I've used a large number of these to keep the scene organized, so I can place like elements together. The editor has a special feature though, where it will take all of these layers, and then combine them into a single layer for each floor, rendered as an image. It will then combine the images from every floor, and use a second image channel to apply depth to each pixel much like a height map applies height to a terrain file. This makes the game easier to run as it greatly reduces the number of game objects which require unique draw calls.
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The process continues, and after the elements which define the main collision spaces are in place, we start adding aesthetic elements and overlaps.These are the flourishes that lend the scenes their liveliness, and in some sense the arrangement of the scene takes their future inclusion into account, but the primary concern before this is creating a space which best serves the gameplay design.
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Next we define the collision elements, matched to the bounds described by the graphic tiles. Each kind of collision tile has full tiles, and partial ones. Black indicates high colliders, which block all enemies, projectiles, and the player. Gray are low colliders, which block walking enemies and the player, but allow flying enemies and projectiles to pass. Blue is for deep water. Light blue and light green are for two kinds of shallow water, which the player and walking enemies can pass over, and which create water effects. Red tiles are for doors, to keep enemies from walking out. Orange are for damage dealing hazards. Yellow is a special tile that relates to certain items the player obtains. Red X tiles are places enemies are not supposed to go, when we want to pen them into certain regions, or keep them off stairs.
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Next we have an enemy generation layer. We can define arbitrary spawning regions, and then populate each region with a certain kind of enemy or enemies that is meant to spawn randomly somewhere in that region. We will also likely have additional means of spawning enemies added later.
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Next is the event system. This layer handles things like stairs which transition the player to a higher or layer level, doorways / locked doors, buttons, timer systems, scripting logic for puzzles to use, based on variables, boolean logic, and other systems, chests, special hazards, and many other features. Right now you can see an event being planned that involved breakable grass, which can also trigger an uprising of the bushmen. In this particular event, each grass piece is given a certain chance to trigger the event, and then each piece also has a second variable to determine its own likeliehood to participate once the trigger is thrown.
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Next is our pathing sytem, where we can define noded paths for various actors to follow. This allows us to add things like a trap which follows a certain path, or a dungeon element which follows a track. It also lets us give NPC's a path to follow for certain story elements.
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Finally we have our Node editor. This is the system that we use for scripting dialogue sequences, gameplay cutscenes that happen in the normal playspace, and several other things. The user can setup dialogue trees as well, which allows the player to make choices during discussions.
This is also where we configure our trading system, which is one of the major gameplay elements we have; the player is able to obtain all manner of commodities from NPC's, by trading certain collections of items for other items, and each NPC offers different sorts of trades at different moments in time, which may also be contingent on past trades and certain global game conditions.
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We hope this little look into our room editor gave everyone a bit more insight into our general systems and practices!
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And Here is a project now in its final hours, which is probably worth supporting!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dreamprismpress/yooka-laylee-and-the-kracklestone
We are happy to announce that the Hazelnut Bastille Kickstarter has fully funded in only 38% of the time! We raised over 65,000 from 1800 backers! At the time of this writing, we are now up to 81,700 USD, from 2070 backers, meaning we have already smoked the Stretch Goal which adds more content, and have almost met the second Stretch Goal for Localization, without even slowing down! There was so much to do in the wake of meeting reserve (and more to be done still), that we are only just now getting to you an update to publicly recognize the event!
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Another important statistic is that we are only 45% into the campaign now, and yet we are 75% the way toward reaching our important Stretch Goal related to the Nintendo Switch!
This Stretch goal will help us deliver Digital and Physical copies for the Switch much sooner! The costs associated with fully realizing Hazelnut on the Switch platform are substantial. Hitting the Switch Stretch goal helps that get financed quite a bit faster, taking an estimated 8-12 months off the delivery time for Switch Physicals in particular!
We are incredibly thankful for the love and support our big community has shown this work, and we can't wait to get back to work delivering the full experience for everyone!
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Stay tuned for a couple new stretch goals about to be revealed!