Hero Of Olympus - Concept Demo

I wanted to share with the community what I have been working on and maybe get some feedback on the current build. The game is called Hero of Olympus: Perseus, and will follow closly the story of the greek mythology hero Perseus. It is an Action/Adventure game that will eventually take full advantage of the A7 engine. Currently the demo I am showing is a very rough concept most of the work shown was done by myself and I don't claim to be an artist so take that in mind. With that being said take a look at the video, any and all comments are fully welcome.

Hero Of Olympus - Concept Video

The video was encoded with the Xvid Codec which can be downloaded here XviD-1.1.3-28062007.exe

Also near the end of the demo some of the sound was out of sync, which is fixed in the final scene.

This all sounds very promising but it would be even better if the video would work. I open up the link which works fine, WMP pops up and it keeps on loading for 10 min

Edit: Got it working

About the game, this looks very very but I mean very promising and pro !!
The animations until now are great if not perfect. The dynamic lights are good but they sometimes react slow to the environment but I guess that's an engine issue. Your fighting system is good but when you encounter an enemy, your main player immediatly has got hold of his sword and shield, try putting his sword and shield on his back while running/walking. While encoutering enemies than, the look of the main player grabbing for his shield and sword looks way better as in Oblivion The AI as HeelX mentioned could be improved, I guess this is your most important working point. About the level design, it really gives a 'Hero Of Olympus' feeling if you know what I mean ^^ But as EXCiter mentioned, more vegetation would complete this feeling to the full.
In overal, amazing work !!

Cheers

Frazzle

Ahriman: Respect! This little prototype demo is very promising and looks like fun. Some may complain graphics as usual, but I think its an excellent basis for a action filled game settled in the ancient greek. To cut the matter short I will list my pros and cons here. I know that this is prototype, but nevertheless, I handle it as if you hadn't said it

PROs:

• promising character modeling
• level design is cool, but it seems to be too big and this kind of linear level seems to be stretched just for the sake of level length. With this level length I would expect more unique locationsand puzzles.
• the puzzle is a standard puzzle, but I like it anyway
• the textures are very nice to look at. I really feel being adventurous in that cave
• nice animations, for a prototype
• the music and the battle theme as dynamic music is very well done
• I like the way your game is handling the different climbing states
• the ladder climbing is synchronized with the ladder itself ^^ cool!
• I like that attack whereas the hero swings his sword around
• very well done camera system
• I like this "ghost" effect

CONs:

• why is the viewing range so limited? black fog = ugly
• the AI is a bit broken.. sometimes the skeletons were instantly placed elsewhere..
• combat is too slow for my taste. If you would speed everything up by 1.5 or 2, its more action. I was bored after the second skeleton battle in the green fluid room.. because it takes so long
• its no real con, but I think you are generating too much bones when you attack a skeleton ^^ anyway, its funny
• there are model errors of the light beam in the puzzle room
• to wide/long/big level for that small amount of puzzles, enemies types and unique locations
• even though I like the graphics, after a while its boring, because it looks everywhere the same
• the videos are presented with scanlines.. = ugly!
• Maybe it was easier to make those cinematics with a animation package rather doing it as ingame cinematic, but it would fit more to the game when it would have been done as ingame cutscene
• the puzzle is nice, though I wouldn't have identified the wall as .. glass wall. Add some reflection shader or so
• you should add a voice over when the hero discovers the stone-freezed warriors
• there are some lightening errors somewhere in the level.. I think there was a ladder at a wall and it has a shadow that would estimate a lightsource inside the wall ^^
• I think you should reset the enemies after the hero has been resetted. Or did I missed that and you run so fast that the enemies had no chance?
• while fighting against 5 skeletons or so you fighted against one of them and the others werestill standing there... you should make your AI attack agressors in a group

I hope this will help you! I enjoyed watching this video (which is rare considered for gamestudio prototype videos), so I hope you will polish these prototype before giving it to your publisher.

This looks very promising. There were however a few things I didn't like:
- when you jump you are able to turn a full 180 degrees before landing which looks pretty ridiculous. I know people like having control while jumping but it should be limited to a certain extent.
- You mentioned you weren't an artist but it does look pretty strange all those bones exploding from the skeletons everytime you hit them. Rather turn that into bone splinters or dust or whatnot...
- Also the levels are looking pretty spartan at the moment.

Other than that it all seems to work really well and you've got a nice mix of fighting, running and jumping and puzzle solving going.

Keep up the good work.

Hey Ahriman, are you sure you made this demo with 3dgs? Just a joke..

Well, i must say this is really a very promising demo / game, i just saw it a loved it, maybe because i love greek mythology too.

Unfortanly we see here very few projects with the potential and quality of yours i am very happy that you came with this project using this game engine.

About the project i just can say this: its great !

So, the models are good, its animations are great i my opinion, also the movement / gravity programming are very very good. The physics seems to be fantastic.

The sounds and music are fine too and the fighting AI its not bad, but will need improvements of course.

I think you can improve the sword trail and you will need more / different enemies and improve the atmosphere of the game (level design).

At least you already have a good story, now you need to tell it in the game and improve the gameplay.

Keep it the good work and congratulations !
Cheers.

Absolutely professional work. To tell if it´s good or bad I would need to play it.

The grafics and sounds are very good. I hope in the other levels are more plants and water. Otherwise it feels very dead.
The sounds are very good. If you had a team I would add some variations to the skeletons with some switchable random armor pieces and weapons (attached to a bone).

Now I don´t know anything about the concept of the game. I mean is it a serious "history" lesson or is it supposed to be funny? Because it looks like it is funny. I would keep it like that, because a serious greek action game is nothing new. If it´s cartoony like now (espacially the attack on medusa ) I like it very much and it makes the game interesting. Like duke nukem, I would be playing for the next gag. Some gags are bigger some are smaller. For example a small gag could be one liners, like "Wow, am I in the stone age here?!" or "These are some HARD GUYS!" or "YOU ROCK, GUYS!!!" or "Your fashion rocks!". "You look like you are stoned." would be funny aswell, but I am not sure if drug jokes wouldn´t redeem the sales.
Big gags could be simply by funny movements and actions, in cutscenes and in bossbattles, like in the beginning of the medusa battle.

You know my games sell because of sexy movements/scenes, god of war sells because of cruel movements/scenes and your game could sell because of funny stuff.

Well, what I want to say, you may planned to make a simply and serious good game. But you can do more, and that is what makes the difference. The concept.

EDIT: I forgot something important! The logo presentation of your company whatsoever. I am a german. And I don´t like if something is not correct.
If you call your company 3D HORIZON, and the logo title thing splash screen is animated, the logo HAS TO COME out of the horizon. Something like, first I see a white screen, then a HORIZONTAL black line is cutting through the screen. Then the name is "born" out of the horizont. And if it´s born out of a horizon it means:
- Horizon is a line which splitts something into two parts. Into a ground and into a sky.
- Horizon is something very far away
- so if the title is born out of the horizon,
1.) it must be clipped by the lower shape of the line, if it´s overlaying,
2.) and it has to be small and comming closer because it´s far away

Lots of great feedback already thank you very much, I have learned so much from this community and have tried to give some back when I have been able to. Hopefully I will be able to continue this game and show the industry the kind of games that can be made with this engine, given the proper support and a team that will be able to follow through with my vision of this title.

Honestly in the video there are things that get seen that I wish would not be, there are multiple bugs in the prototype and a very bare enviornment this was not done intentionally I was just honestly out of time. The view distance with the fog is set so short because of the dynamic lighting using the A6 Engine for this build limited my use to 8 lights and you can even still see the lights popping on and off but it was worse when you could see much further without the fog.

For those that couldnt see the video because of the codec I have uploaded the same video with a different codec. Hero Of Olympus - Prototype Video

I wish I could add some of the changes you guys have mentioned but like I said I am out of time and am unable to continue the work without some kind of publisher support. I have sent this demo out to many publishers, a playable version along with the video and lots of business documents. Hopefully there will be a response and we can continue the work.

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For those that couldnt see the video because of the codec I have uploaded the same video with a different codec. Hero Of Olympus - Prototype Video
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Thanks for the link but I got your first video working, I've posted the comment on that one in my first post
Btw, I hope you're able to finishing this because this project has got alot of potential !!

Cheers

Frazzle