Trials of an Apprentice Wizard

By

Julian Henley (developer)

In a parallel universe where wizards have fought to protect the world for centuries against the powers of darkness, you have been selected by the Grand Master of Wizards, Az. If you are to prove your worth and be accepted within the Order of Wizards, you must complete a set of challenges laid down by Master Az. Using all your skills and agility, you must run, jump and blast your way to your objectives. You must carve a path across each treacherous course by using the obstacles in your way. Will you become a Master Wizard?... For, failure spells peril for the Apprentice!

Seamlessly, combining third-person 3D platformer and shooting action, this is a game of skill, strategy and forward planning in which the player forges the path!



GO HERE TO VIEW IT ON STEAM GREENLIGHT: > http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=811646467

Hey Julian, just voted you up on steam - I didn't write it there but the sound effects could do with coming down a tad maybe but gameplay looks good - I like the use of physics in there - have you got a demo version to download?

Thank you very much, Saintyboy. I don't yet have a demo but that's a good idea. I'll reconsider the sound effects. Cheers.

I've got to admit the colours look a little better in the pictures here than what was in your video, but they're still way to bright and uncoordinated for my liking.

Try not to look at the wizard's bottom too much. I just noticed he starts to look naked if you do. LOL.

Lol!

Sorry if I seemed too critical in the other thread. I think this game can totally pass as one of those feel-good classic type platformers. It has a very retro feel and look to it. With the color palette you have created i can see it drawing a specific kind of audience. Not sure if its your intent but it has a feeling that closely resembles games like:

Spyro The Dragon
Crash Bandicot
TY The Tasmanian Tiger

All these games have something very similar in common that makes them quite fun to play and that is there is collectable items of some sort, scattered throughout the level and hidden in certain areas as well. Todd who worked on Fallout 3 and 4 said it best and that is to make sure your players always feels rewarded. I strongly recommend having items placed throughout your level, things like gems or alike that the player could collect. you can have them display as a HUD to show the player how many they have caught. Or maybe have a scripted event that occurs if the player collects a certain amount? Perhaps thats how they get past each level. I'm not sure how each of your stages end.

I was also reminded of another game, called Soul Reaver:



In Soul Reaver the collectables are in the form of souls of which the player must absorb. Which are much more creative than just coins. But I think your game needs that extra something that the player can do that might help with its fun-factor and challenge.

While all these examples are quite old, the look you have created for your game is very retro and might resonate with some more nostalgic players. I can't really tell too much from the trailer alone, but it appears there isn't much for the player to do but go from point A to B. So I think throwing in some collectable items in there might help. Also not sure if you have any type of puzzles for the player to solve? Like doors and such?

Also I should mention... avoid using the font Comic Sans at all costs in your promotional material. Its greatly associated with unprofessionalism. Id say try to use a font-face that more so matches the theme of the game. Perhaps regular serif type fonts that look more medieval.

An example:



Though the color palette certainly doesn't match the vibriancy of your game lol so I think something more medieval cartoony might work.



That's my bit of advice. I'm not sure how far along you are with it?

Now that i've had time to think about it and watch the video a few more times, i think for me it's not so much the colours per say, but more the inconsistency of it, you have cartoon models that look fine in bright colours, then you have "realistic" models that are painted bright colours, and it just doesn't work together. The biggest culprit of this is the player character itself, even recoloured it just looks way to detailed and realistic for the scenes you have created, i think if you had a more cartoon like wizard it would make a huge difference to the game.

Maybe u should use the cartoon grass

Many thanks for the advice, guys. One of our most talented moderators recently reviewed the game and gave similar advice (about collectables and some of the visuals looking ugly or out-of-place). I tried to fix the issues by retexturing the entities and the wizard, and I added collectable wizard hats that restore player live.

Maybe I need to do more.

what happens when the player realizes the water doesn't kill you and they can simply walk to the end without the need for all that tedious jumping?

Like others have said, you really need matching content, and honestly it isn't that hard to do
This cube texture took me 20 minutes


edit:
I added the boxes here, feel free to use them if they are any use
its the textures and a x format cube