thanks to Belidos help i managed to have my 2d characters moving again !!
and it makes a lot of difference



there are secret passages - hidden areas with weird surprises in the level - slow exploration is encouraged.
it´s a small level but i guess instead of making it too big i rather make 1-2 more levels.
so far i cant believe how well and smooth everything works in the standalone!

sorry doublepost !

Glad i could help.

I like your art style and I think you're onto something, but I think you'd be really limiting your audience by not including some kind of story. Humans need stories, it's how we're wired. Even some minimal or abstract goal, something to keep the player going, would make a lot of difference. If you just started the game with a note about how the protagonist doesn't know how they got there or how to get home, that would at least drive us on more than just wandering around and looking at random stuff. I know you gave up on it but a Slenderman mechanic could be very effective here. It might not have to be just one creature, or something that's after you for the whole game, but you need something to create some narrative tension. If you're just wandering around I think it could get dull in a hurry, despite the intriguing visuals.

It's sort of like pink floyd the wall imagery style .

@MindiFlyth thank you very much for your feedback!

i use random-word-generators, random-plot-generators, random music generators and my own random ideas - mixing it together and jumbling it around - seeing what comes out. a little like the Dada Poetry of Hugo Ball and Kurt Schwitters maybe.

it appears to be totally random non-sense at first glance but there are actually stories emerging
and Players will learn things about Murmia.

there are Murmia-newspaper snippets to find throughout the level. (not shown in the video - but i will make a new video to show that)
i sent the articles through a gibberish generator - in different degrees of gibberish- so at first glance they are totally nonsensical but in between the weirdness they contain story-snippets that will provide some kind of context for things seen in the world.
eventually the newspaper snippets will become more readable as the player progresses.

for example players will learn that visitors are generally not very welcome, that there is a "sheriff" called Sissimoken that cuts off arms and legs, that there is currently some kind festival happening where inhabitants burn lady-bugs and owls in the honor of the rising of the "blue moon man", that frogs are appearing in the playgrounds ... and many other weird things that have some kind of a visual presentation in the world.

and i agree about the slender-man thing - it will certainly fit in well !
when i tried to integrate it last time i had big frame-rate problems and my level was doomed.
but in this new attempt i just have to try to get it back in.

like you can see in the vid some characters seem to be menacing and i think
at least one of them (Sheriff Sissimoken) should actually be able to hurt the player in certain areas of the game.

as for the suggestion to have a text prompt at the beginning that eases the player into the world- i will certainly have that.
- it will be a bit jumbled and weird but the player will glance something around the lines of being an not very welcomed visitor and needing to find an exit.
at the moment the player seems to arrive in front of the "city" - but i think i will change that so it feels as if the player is somewhere in the middle of it.
i also have the idea that the player needs to obtain certain documents before he can leave each level.
basically keys for doors in form of a bizarre bureaucracy... that might help to have a sense of objective.
i´m not sure bout that but i will try it and see if it fits in the flow.

Those are all great ideas, Beanz! Those sound like things that should make the story much more compelling.

hello! i´m very excited to be back working on my mini game Murmia!
I have been working on it on and off in the last two years and now i am finally finishing it.... i think

i stuck to some of my initial ideas and others got changed and new ideas have been added.

Murmia has now an intelligible story (some voice-acting) and game-play that involves... well - doors and keys.
initially this was going to be just a very short walking simulator set in a weird city. but while making the game i came up with a story
and that led to the need for doors and keys.
miraculously it all came together and it looks great, works quite well and i think it is fun.

i have the story, sound/music and game-play mostly implemented and it´s ready to play.
working on some more details and soon i´ll be able to upload a standalone for testing.

It´s a small game with one level but i think it has enough content to keep the player entertained for a quite a while. not sure how long exactly yet.

will upload screenshots tomorrow!

Glad you're working on this again - it has a weird charm.

Cool! Looking forward to it!

hello! here are some screenshots from my latest build.
it´s still called " a visit to Murmia"
the setting is weird:
as the name implies the player is a visitor -
according to Murmian legend "visitors grow in the moldy corners of the city when the blue moon man shines".

The inhabitants of the city don't have legs and most also don't have arms.
there is a creepy antagonist that has a "scissor-nose" and he is said to have cut off all arms and legs from almost all inhabitants of Murmia.
and the weird thing is that the Murmians like to have their arms and legs cut off and they say that they are happy.
probably because of the mold that provokes madness - and there is of course also the mysterious blue moon-man...
yes- weird.

There are characters that can hurt the player but they are all incredibly slow. because.. well they don't have legs
and the player seems to have legs and is always much much faster.
after a while of exploring some aggressive Murmians will appear and the player has to be more careful.
but it´s not really dangerous because i don't want the game to be about combat but about exploration

the story is told through the pages of a diary written by a Teddy bear that used to live peacefully in the forest with his mama and papa-Teddys until the blue moon man appeared ... and after some gruesome adventures little Teddy is kidnapped by the Murmians
and held hostage in the city-
and the player will attempt to help little Teddy.

The diary is also "voice-acted" in the voice of teddy - i used an AI text to voice generator but it is surprisingly spot on.
there is a lot of music and "nursery rhyme songs" in the game - all made with AI too.

on the screenshots you can see how Murmians are varied in size - some are really tiny.
In some habitations the player has to crawl.

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img][/img]

[img] [/img]

This is such a cool concept. If you ever need help with anything do let me know! I would love to see this become a full game. Its got a lot of Tim Burton vibes to it as well!

hey thank you so much Teabone it is very much appreciated! i really do need help and i might come back on your offer.
initially this was just a small side project but now i decided to focus on this and make it the best i can.
atm everything works well and i think it looks good but it could need some spice- a couple of things that need custom scripts.

the majority of my 2d cut-out characters are fixed in position and just rotate to face the player. nothing fancy but it works- i use classic unarmed script for those.

some characters follow the player until he bumps into them. once they bump the player they just stop on the spot and continue to face the player.
i think sometimes they activate again later and continue to follow which is cool- i use the axe-brute script for them.

a few characters follow the player aggressively and when the player bumps into them they do damage and they don´t stop- i use a modified demon script for them.
for some reason those are the scripts that i found to work with my flat characters.
i guess those scripts have a lot of unnecessary stuff in them and i am afraid it makes the game less optimized. would that be a problem ?

one thing i need and couldn't make it work so far is that my blue moon man - which is just a sphere with a texture on it-
rotates slowly to face the player. it seems to be a simple trick and i watched the long videos about that several times but i still cant make it work.

another small thing i need is levers that open doors. atm i have about 8 doors and keys and it´s a bit to much. levers would bring some diversity.
even cooler would be if the game could detect when the player moves an object into a certain zone and then a door opens and a prompt is displayed. - but that sounds really complicated to me and i feel slightly panicky to even try something like that. so keys and levers would be fine.

a bigger thing i dream about is a script that triggers different colorful screen-effects as the result of the player consuming various molds and fungi.
like short hallucinatory screen effects similar to the hurt effect. others could even trigger short cut-scenes. it could be a little to much for my small level but if it doesn't fit in it would be great for Murmia 2.

i´m going to upload more screenshots later, a short game play video in the next days and a test-version of the game very soon.
hope that lots of people will try it and i am excited. yay

uh yeah welcome to my ted talk lol

hello
here is a small video of the beginning of Murmia
and i gave it a final new name its now called Murmia moldborn

i am quite surprised about how well GameGuru performs
it never crashed and the standalone runs totally smooth on my pc. i feel i could add even more to the level.
but for some reason the safe function does not work correctly
it loads everything except all of my characters.
its short enough to be played in one sitting and i like that/ i will for sure make more Murmia
but this one will be one level.
i think i managed to have a start middle and end with some minor twists that occupies the player for a while and longer if everything is explored. i have a few secret areas and i will add some more. i also want to add some lore that the player can find apart from the main story.
and it feels like a round package to me. let]s see what all of you think
i will upload a test version soon.

lol love that vid looks like it s gonna be a fun ride this one keep it up m8

hey thank you very much Honkeyboy!
here are some more screenshots.

when i look at them i think they are way to dark but when i play the game i like the murkiness of it.
So far Murmia has no street-lights because i just did not find the right asset yet.
i considered just making some 2d lamp but it looks odd.

there are lamps that i like and could maybe look good in the nighttime city docks pack but they miss their textures and are black when i put them on the map.
- anybody knows where to get textured versions of those? ( it´s the round lamps that have a curved lamp posts )

generally i try to use as few assets as possible. no chairs, no tables, almost no cup-boards etc. murmians do everything on the floor and anyway they dont do much. what could they do without arms and legs? they dont even need cutlery, socks or anything.
the blue moon man makes the rules - and he ordered the Murmians to burn all their belongings.

i´m trying to radically transform all shortcomings and limitations into features. i feel a little like an imposter and snake oil salesman but it seems to work. or maybe i just lost it lol















but yeah it needs lamps. next on the list
somewhere in the future i want Murmia to have depressed walking lamps with real time lighting and shadows. and the player would have to try to convince them to shine for him. lol

Great to see youre back! I am looking forward to play it!!

hey thank you Duchenkuke!
here is the link to the test version

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ru80vf5hfaxe2qy/AADo1n5LV_le8XkTbdVWDvHpa?dl=0

everything for sure needs to be more fine-tuned and polished and i want to know about all the ways the game can break.
some areas are still quite empty and the end is a bit abrupt atm but i will add more details and a cut-scene and maybe even a little epilogue.

i managed to get the menus in with the awesome Asset Manager by GraPhiX
but i couldn't figure out yet how to add music to title and menus.

also the safe function does not work properly/ everything loads except characters.

aah i am excited ! hope it works at all!

working on a new area ... guess it´s a possible second level after all.
i love how green the city looks but there need to be other environments and colors.
would look pretty weird on the screenshots ...
this is a poisonous bog level that will lead to Mount Odor.

[img][/img]

I love it downloaded and played, it is very interesting idea and well done

oh wow thank you very much !! first feedback i had and it´s a huge encouragement. yay!

I played it a bit and whats called my attention was the artstyle, pretty original and cool. but unfortunatelly I couldnt free ted bear lol

haha yeah Teddy has a strong case of stockholm syndrome glad you like the visuals !
thank you very much for trying it out!!

Cohesive looking despite a funky artstyle. I think you're pulling it off! It looks grimy but in a purposeful way that helps things flow together. After filtering/processing it should tie together really nice. I like the unique assets and storybook vibe. Feels like a game to walk around in and see what's around the corner, since it feels visually handmade (and things make unpredictably funny sounds etc).

I'm working on a similar unique-look project that either looks nice or not depending on how I pull it off too. Yours is looking nice!

hey thank you so much Cobbs!
Murmia connects countless odd scribbles and drawings that piled up in my drawers over the years.
i love playing first person games so when gg appeared it seemed to be the right tool to finally make my own "story book" and have fun doing it. first tries were quite frustrating but now it´s just awesome how well gg performs!

hello! here is the latest build of Murmia for download and playing
https://www.dropbox.com/s/j1fqrwgrxovn18f/murmia%20a2.7z?dl=0
hope all works well!

added more details,sounds and characters / also added a little story element to some of them
small paintings tell about their former life / before the blue moon man covered the land with mold.
an example

[img][/img]


[img][/img]


[img][/img]

it sure needs more variety in environments,colors and game-play and i have many ideas for more levels so there will be more.
still working on the end scene but it will probably stay as is until i got the next level figured out.

some more screenshots of the life in Murmia
two new mold mongers selling a variety of spoiled food and maggots
they still need some illumination though
[img][/img]

did some tweaking in the color setting of the new toxic swamp level
i want it to be a huge contrast to the murky city center
the land is mostly urbanized with weird buildings / also in the toxic swamp area which is the former fairy forest


remnants of the fairy forest can bee seen here and there sunken into the green goo.

in case you wonder how the things living inside the cubicles go in and out of their homes
they dont they just exist inside their cubes and maybe they have a tube to feed from the green goo but who knows

there will be a wizard that lives in a tower like structure in the middle of the toxic swamp area
the tower is simply squarish with few textures like the buildings in the city but its build on crumbling thin sticks. its as high as i could build and has a bit more intricate and fancy interiors.
its full of neon signs and sports a bar, a small disco and probably a portal on the roof which will lead the player to a formerly unreachable area of the swamp.
after doing a service for the wizard ofc.
will share screenshots of the wizard tower later


ah and dont forget to download and play the latest version of Murmia and let me know what you think

@beanz you going to create a HUD for Murmia?

i guess a health bar of sorts would be good - not sure yet! also not sure how to do it.
i also play with the idea of eatable molds and shrooms and that would ofc be cool with an inventory...

my initial idea was no HUD but i am open to it.
my cousin said he would like a HUD and also an inventory to collect things like health and keys.
he was so far the only experienced gamer to give me constructive criticism...
i´m finding out that it´s not so easy get people to play and criticize the game. guess it takes time and i´m just inpatient.

@beanz you have Asset Manager create your health bar/hud with that

haha yay you are of course totally right GraPhiX!
Aye aye!
will do!

toxic swamp taking shape
here is the "wizard tower"
[img][/img]
would love to make it higher. wonder if i can stack ebe´s ?
i´ll probably extend it a bit to the backside

and the resident Wizard of Snot
[img][/img]

not sure if anybody will be interested in meeting the wizard of snot... but i sure felt like a fish in the water creating him...

hello i have an idea but i dont know how to do it
maybe someone can help
idea is to have consumables that the player can eat or drink by pressing E after a small text-prompt. but instead of an effect on health
i want a small cut-scene to be played. modified health or maybe a modified story-zone?
is there a script like that or can someone help me to make one?

Sure. place some request on the script forum.
If you start to work on getting the media ready; you have to split the audio from the video so do that in Audacity.
then while you work on that, someone, maybe even myself could help with the scripts.
Having the media ready to go will be beneficial.

yes i have the consumable potion and shroom enteties ready and i have some short video-clips in mp4 at 25 fps without sound-to test it- i do the wav. files separate with the same length as the mp4 - there wont be talking synchronization or anything fancy - it will mostly be short swooshy hallucinatory sorta cut-scenes.
oh am i allowed to place a request there? nice!

thank you very much GubbyBlips!

thanks to you guys help i managed to implement my new eatables feature!! this will be awesome fun
just have to be careful to keep the cut/scenes small.

Well made

thank you Medmatheus ! yay i am very happy - just received first feedback from the first test-player that reported to me to have arrived at the end of the level
and apart from long loading time he did not report any problem!

his only critique was that he got a bit disorientated and confused where all the doors for the keys are so i will work on that- maybe differentiate the keys somehow and maybe make city maps that help with orientation.

the maps will probably be fixed entities in each area but i guess that would help a bit for people that want a map. not sure

small start but the first feedback from someone that played it through gives me energy to continue.

screenshots from the bar in "basement" of the wizard tower
some snotlings enjoy the potions that the wizard of snot produces upstairs in his lab

[img][/img]

[img] [/img]



i like how the toxic swamp is looking but for some reason the level crashes frequently (often when leaving test-mode). i already built the first area twice being careful to have many objects without physics. but it seems to be unstable. maybe too many lights in a small area for the neon signs? or the water? or the ebe buildings?

any ideas why it crashes while i dont have much entities at all and my big first level never crashes?

i made a decision- i will keep levels as separate mini games.

Each mini game will have a small story - with the over-arching theme of the Moldborn.
I don´t want loading to be too long and i like that one can play it in one sitting.

I am creating an ich.io page and will let you know once they allow me to upload - since Murmia is zipped still above 1 gb

the 2d art is awesome, the idea of mini games is perfect, but your levels need to be filled with more props, always in your graphic style, do not use props from GG, everything need to match, come from your art !
How are you going to animate your characters ?

imothep85 hey thank you very much for the feedback!!
will add some more stuff to the environment but i am actually going for a pretty minimalist look.
anyway i agree that some areas need some more details for sure!

I want to keep the props i have from GG vanilla and the store - most of them I´ll customize and I only choose entities that i like and that i think fit into the game.
This is because i am an illustrator, working mostly in 2d and i am still learning to make good 3d art.
I did some of the rudimentary 3d buildings and props in Sketchup and when time allows i am learning blender.
Maybe my future games will have more of my own 3d props.

Everything in Murmia is me trying to work with my limitations and radically turn them into features.
for example this game has no animated characters. as far as i know GG isnt really prepared for moving animated decal characters- it might be possible to do but would probably be to time-intensive for me to be feasible.
that is why most Murmians do not have arms and legs.
I basically built the whole "story" around the lack of animated arms and legs...

the characters turn and face the player- and they are all just seen from the front. I find it works - it is limited but that´s what makes it so interesting and fun to me.
as soon i figure out how i might add SOME animations because ofc you are right- it would be awesome.

hello!

I got new feedback from one of the test players and it gave me a new idea for the end of the game.

at the moment the end is basically forcing the player to commit suicide and jump over a cliff because of a huge monster chasing the player towards the cliff and not giving much choice.
one test-player got funneled in by the monster and jumped into the abyss according to my plan- he said "i had no other option"

but another test-player managed to escape and looked around for more to do. which is totally the "right" choice from a players point of view. just not what i planned ...

so my idea is to make an alternative way to the end that involves finding a certain amount of things. so the player can end the game by jumping into the abyss or by tasting all the food-items that are in the game. some of them well hidden in secret areas.

i think i can find the right scripts for that in the asset shop... any tips what scripts would be best?

This could give you ideas.
https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/217486#msg2572602

bluemeenie195 - that sure helps a lot! thanks!
i also purchased a script from Kruto Gamer. will look at all of them and try to adapt this into my game
last night i managed to get it mostly working and it felt like a little success. just have to figure out how i go about alternate endings and such. i´ll probably have a "good" end and a "bad" end.

in the "bad" end the player meets his destiny by being funneled in by the monster Sissimoken and is forced to jump into an abyss where the blue moon man waits at the bottom. ( after that in an epilogue or cut-scene the player meets the blue moon-man and all is "good" anyway) it´s a linear "easy" ending.

for the "good" end the player has to collect a certain amount of hearts and deliver them to a hidden temple to open a portal to meet the blue moon man and get to the same epilogue/cut scene where the blue moon man is pleased just the same... the moldborn always serves the blue moon man whatever he does.
but the good ending isn't obvious and the player doesn't know that there are hearts to collect and that there is a hidden temple and a portal. player has to find it out by discovering secret areas.
the only hint for those secret areas are little question marks on the city maps. from that the player has to find secret passages that lead to the hearts and probably some "lore" attached.

[img][/img]



working on this is getting more and more fun- specially now that i found some people that played my game and give me ideas.
one player spent one hour in the game to explore everything. that gave me another avalanche of ideas

The game looks really good and I like your art style.

Don't know if you have it, but the Easter pack has some decent scripts like collect and teleport and already in a kind of cartoony art style .

You might be able to change the textures to your cool art style.

yes i have the easter pack and i am using some assets with changed textures and the easter pack collect script! forgot about that one

i have to look more into textures - i downloaded a nvidia plugin for photoshop but it doesnt work for some reason.
i used to be able to easily change textures also for terrain and such but i guess i used paintnet back then- cant make it work with photoshop

hey and thank you very much bluemeenie195! glad you like how it looks!!!

here is a little test-trailer for Murmia


still got to work on that vid... but its a start.

I am setting up an ich.io page and i would highly appreciate if someone could peek in and give me some feedback
and advice before i publish the page. i will take my time but want to prepare well before launching it.

here are some keys to download latest version of Murmia and to visit the game site :

https://itch.io/get-6CGsyJVDvjgq
https://itch.io/get-62L36DAFVHBW
https://itch.io/get-hdFLNYa7Nf58
https://itch.io/get-jchQVSjh7chS
https://itch.io/get-HSZpEPkqeXhZ
https://itch.io/get-FrSMzvkLGrMP
https://itch.io/get-TtqDJGMM5JSs
https://itch.io/get-gg4Q3ZuH3uRV
https://itch.io/get-zJYaYpkJDQdb
https://itch.io/get-bNvPKHc9xjca
https://itch.io/get-jAznrcuf5Qgg
https://itch.io/get-BsNCphuwYwv3
https://itch.io/get-LM6QfH8XHa4Z
https://itch.io/get-VNThntam9Hba
https://itch.io/get-6NXAyYzhvwgx
https://itch.io/get-cLE5d4g74tzX
https://itch.io/get-26Sx6bReuFMr
https://itch.io/get-x2GMFRrsMyP6

very close to finish - but things did not go so well in the last days.
had trouble saving standalones and rolled back to a previous version, worked on it for a while and yesterday i got stuck in a "load previous session loop" when attempting to safe standalone or load any map.
today i did another fresh install of GG and i roll back once again. i cross my fingers that i can squeeze out a finished game eventually...

hellouh
after a few months i am back at Murmia
all did not go so well and i had to roll back quite a bit and simplify the whole thing and cut out a lot of stuff.
but i think i have a working version now that is quite close to what i want it to be.
i uploaded to itch.io and published it- you can download here

https://moldpunk.itch.io/murmia-moldborn

i had some problems compressing the game with7zip - so i used winzip and it seems to work.
if anybody happens to download it please let me know if it actually works.
also feedback on the game and the itch.io site are very welcome.

Gonna admit it has that Tim Burton feel like T bone mentioned I just downloaded the beta but I think this game is very unique I love the character s, the Art design is great and judging by video it looks like gameplay will be fun kudos to you GJ