Overflo Game (Platformer Adventure Puzzle) - WIP

Overflo Game
(Computer)
http://www.ruckusgamestudios.com



The 2D platformer and puzzle genres are in my opinion without doubt the most interesting of the video game genre's. There's so much focus centered around the players movement and the players problem solving abilities which trigger the brains exciting timing and puzzle solving areas to kick in gear in a different way than shooter games, 3d games, etc.

What i've hoped to accomplish with Overflo Game is a fun, almost throw back to the era of when games were still fun to play and not so much about winning as enjoying the experience.

Pitch:
The protagonist visits the town of Overflo where he discovers many friendly town people that are exceedingly worried about a mystery involving the towns water supply becoming contaminated with toxic sludge. Strange things are happening and YOU must find out how this has happened to the wonderful people of Overflo.

You're a sewer engineer with a trusty wrench, that can also double as a boomerang, zipline, and.... more



Videos:

Updated 8/23 - Overworld music made for Overflo Game by Tanner Thayer of Dolphin Defense #VR game on Steam
Music + Glitching out

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Critique and feedback is a must! I will attempt to incorporate any suggestions/changes.

Ruckus Game Studios headquarters
http://www.ruckusgamestudios.com

Please see development logs on Overflo Game at IndieDB
http://www.indiedb.com/games/overflo-game

Please follow me on Twitter and Facebook
https://twitter.com/RoccoCastoro
https://www.facebook.com/overflogame

Email:
rcastoro@comcast.net

Thanks for reading!

 

@Magnumstar I like the quirky art style, it's like Mario's hillbilly brother!

Some thoughts:

• Combat is a neat addition, reminds me a little of Maplestory.
• Are you going to have more than just a wrench or is that your only tool? I'm assuming by "boom a range" you mean boomerang?
• I can't view the third video
• It seemed weird/clunky that the lawn mower would wait until you got down from the platforms to keep going. Why are there platforms there in the first place? Seems weird with the game mode.
• The lawn mower is a bit over-the-top--why is it a lawn mower?
• It's hard to tell what time this game takes place. There's the lawn mower but then the crates and old style houses.
• What's the real difference between this an Super Mario Bros? Being essentially a plummer seems like this is meant to be a knock-off
• The mountains in the background make the buildings look more like outposts and less like part of a town. Consider adding buildings into the background while in the town.

 

Thanks for the feedback bradshep. I agree the art is whimsical and quirky and thanks for the typo catch. You could say this is inspired by the games I played growing up as a kid in the 90s including Mario Bros, Zelda, and others, but to call it a knock off would be a bit of an overstatement. While this game has a plumber that's where the similarities end, and I'm actively trying to remove any similarities beyond that.

The game will feature combat with and without weapons (movement), which was a difficult choice for me because the game was primarily intended to be an adventure with physics puzzles (which is a bit of a contrast from Mario). I'm working on a few new physics puzzles similar to the ones found in Limbo, if I can. The player will collect items, money, and pipes.

Along the way the money can be used to upgrade the abilities of tools, collected pipes to construct/repair incorrectly routed or incomplete sewer pipes using a click and drag user interface that is still in development. This get's you closer to saving the town and solving the mystery. The wrench is just one tool, we are working on more. Overflo is meant to be dark hopefully almost macbre with gore and "game over" animations on player that are more realistic.

Not sure why you cannot view video 3 but here's a new link: https://twitter.com/RoccoCastoro/status/767756306291781633

The town is old, the times are not. Overflo is an old town, (and the crate art is placeholder). The lawnmower doesn't wait while you're on the platform it's driver is attacking you from the ground! He even rises up on stilts to throw toxic mutated plant seeds at you which grow man eating plants. It doesn't get much better than that. Also, that part is a WIP with a new scene done and I will post soon.

The reason why there's a lawnmower chasing you is part of the secret that you'll have to play to find out, and I hope you will.

Also, game is very early stages of development. Much much, much more work to do and with me being the only programmer, I hope I can finish this in the next year or two, thanks for the feedback!

 

@Magnumstar great, thanks for the link to the video. It says that you have to log in to view it.

Sounds like you have thought about the future of this game quite a lot! I can relate to the lone programmer aspect of this project, and placeholder art is good for now. Looking forward to new features and how this game progresses.

 

Thank you, will keep post updated

 

Hey Magnumstar - the art style is - I like the word your used - quirky. It's different - and I think that is a good thing. It reminds me slightly of Ren & Stimpy and another cartoon of that era I can't quite remember which. Maybe Ed, Ed & Eddie.
I think increasing the amount of 'stuff' moving around in the scene would really improve the user experience. I liked the birds flying up - similar to that - except (stupid saying) push it all to 11+. Give the users more stuff to see than they are able to look at when playing the game. Make the scenes feel alive and - even more quirky!

Just my thought - I may be suggesting based on my bias as an animator - with the desire to see moving objects and non-essential stuff going on all over the place to enhance every experience.

 

In addition to creating puzzles for these levels, focusing on the points you made are at the top of my list... I was looking for the reason the game wasn't shaping up to feel exciting and yours was the conclusion I came up with too. I think you're right about the art - your the second person who mentioned this. I want Overflo to be tongue in cheeky art style, cartoonish and I think I need to take that aspect to the next level and make it the special sauce.

I hope we can be creative enough to come up with the answer for these two points. Now I have some more great tips to improve Overflo, thanks for your feedback.

 

Thanks

 

Here is some of the puzzle logic I was speaking about in Overflo game.

I needed a pully system this weekend, and found out the hard way line renderer doesn't work with 90 degree angles. So I made a custom dynamic solution using procedurally generated meshes. The pully system takes a start and end transformy to attach to objects being pulled, a list of anchor transforms that allows you to change anchor positions on fly through editor.

Let me know what you think.

 

Here's a bit once you get out of the room above:

 

You have a nice vector like art style.
Keep up the good work.

 

Umm,I like your work,best of luck.this is like the most popular gaming genre we used to play earlier.Seeing your sewer video above I find it is like the 'Temple Run' kind of game.

I would be privileged if you see our 3D game portfolio here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tqj03e2xnxxynwy/3D PORTFOLIO.pdf?dl=0

 

Thank you, please support the game on indiedb if you like it, by visiting the page relentlessly... forever...

http://www.indiedb.com/games/overflo-game

 

Overflo Game – Dev log 2 (September 16th 2016)
(Original article I posted on http://www.indiedb.com/games/overflo-game/news/overflo-game-dev-log-2)
Overflo Game is progressing, however slowly because I have a full time job and wife and kids. It's progressing none the less. This weeks dev log includes some sketches and artwork for Level's 3 and 4, Train and Sawmill, respectively.

Focusing on puzzle creation at this point
Level 3 train hopes to bring the player a bit of relief from exploring and changes pace by confining player in 1 of 6 train cars each with a puzzle.

The hope is to have a key pop out of a random crate of coal after it's been incinerated that unlocks the door to the next train car. When I say random, the game will randomly generate the key's position every time the level loads so it will never be the same. Hopefully this will add an element of replay-ability and suspense. Here are some sketches and the resulting art work of the completed product.

This should be fun....

There isn't just the insides of the train cars, you need to enter the train car after you leave level 2 Sewer, so there's a lead up:







There will be 6 more cars puzzles to play through. The train will lead you to Level 4 - Sawmill which just completed the art development phase, but hasn't been implemented into the Unity game engine as of yet, but will soon, maybe for week 3 dev log





Also last week I told you about some more characters, so here they are:







That sums it up for Dev Log 2 - I hope you are following the articles and updates for the game. Overflo game is a dream of mine to develop which is why i hope it will be played by people who appreciate that hard work that goes into it, but more importantly it's fun

 

The spiders walk cycle looks very uniform. Might consider off setting some of the keyframes for the key poses of the legs, contact and bent poses. Everything else is looking real good.
A good example of using reference material and sketches to envision the designs before spending valuable time in the editor.

 

Thank you. I like what you're saying and I want to immerse players so yes I will adjust the animations.

VISIT www.overflogame.com to see updates

 

Overflo Game - Development Log 3

Hello friends, this log presents what I have been up to the last few weeks. Lots of detail work, rest, and more detail work. When developing a game as a programmer, game design and gameplay can sometimes take a back seat to assets. At first while you iron out the code, prefabricate reusable assets, and learn how your games heart beats, I was in the weeds… I need a machete, I found one. So, recently I’ve focused on making the game more game like and more importantly, FUN! No major characters or new levels have been added yet, but new level art is in the works… here’s a peak at

Level 5, Mutated Forest:



This level will be dark (might maintain the black white look) but will be filled with highlighted objects full of bright, vibrant color. The objective will be to make your way through the mutated forest to the mutated tree of Othoros. (just kidding, the tree has no name). Either way, the tree will have a large interior and most of the level will take place inside.

There was some progress on level 4, Sour Sawmill… Since each level so far features a unique gameplay element:

• level 1, Overflo Town, is introductory level that teaches how to play and includes some platforming elements
• level 2, Sewer, features puzzle and combat elements
• level 3, Train, is strictly puzzle elements

Level 4 will be mostly platformer / physics driven gameplay where fast player response and thinking is the best recipe for success. Take a gander at a sneak peak of Sawmill:

Sawmill should be a fun level for players as they stretch their hero’s legs and get down and dirty with physics.

Some fun looking colors, this feature testing level showcases some new wall slide and double jumping ability to furthur enhance the platformer aspects of Overflo Game…

Speaking of testing, level 1 has been the victim of some testing as well.

Take for instance this hat rack (temporary art), that will only allow you to maintain a collected piece of performance enhancing clothing within the scope of the two hat racks.

That’s fun… let’s take a look at some additional enhancements for level 1.

You can now throw enemies (If they are small enough to throw)… You can pick up and throw enemies that are capable of being thrown, These enemies can have a direct effect on the environemnt as well, such as destroying ground, boxes, and spooking nearby enemies:

Also, we’re tidying up level 1’s end game to get us smoothly into level 2 with some fun puzzle elements and a secret passage!…. This is still in development.

So all in all, there’s been productivity, albeit on already created levels. Development log 4 will bring new characters and character A.I., some new fun combat attributes, and more. Check back to stay up to date with Overflo Game! As always, we invite and downright hope you’ll provide feedback and comments to these development logs to better Overflo Game. Without you, there is no indie game developer. =p

View the full development log on INDIEDB or OVERFLOGAME.COM

On INDIEDB: http://www.indiedb.com/games/overflo-game/news/overflo-game-dev-log-3
On OVERFLOGAME.COM: http://www.overflogame.com/overflo-game-development-log-3/

 

Changed the way the health system works, interacts and is displayed... Still WIP

I could really use some professional help with the design of the game... Pshew, f'in tired.

 

Wow. It's been so long, I just reread the positive feedback and help I got here and am humbled.
Our game is going to kickstarter phase soon. Please check out our site for more details

www.overflogame.com