[Game] Shadow Forest [1.1.2]

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[Game] Shadow Forest [1.1.2]

by Wuzzy » Post

Shadow Forest
The forest has been overrun by the Shadows who’ve cursed it with eternal darkness. You’re the Wizard of Light; you’re the only hope to break the curse.
The Shadow Forest
The Shadow Forest
Shadow_Forest_small.jpeg (68.89 KiB) Viewed 6872 times

How to play
Your trusty companion, the Light Crystal, is guiding you through the game. To attack the Shadows, use the Staff of Light or Dagger of Light by pressing the [Punch] key (default: left click).

Collect resources by walking over them. Hint: Break vases and use the campfire!

To complete the game, you need 3 light crystals in order to break a barrier. Open the inventory (default key: I) to see how many you got.

Info and download

This game was my submission for the 2023 Minetest Game Jam! I worked hard on it from Dec 1 to Dec 21, 2023 and it ranked 4th out of 14.
Last edited by Wuzzy on Mon Sep 16, 2024 18:50, edited 7 times in total.

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Re: [Game] Shadow Forest [1.0.1]

by CalebJ » Post

Fantastic game again, Wuzzy! (Although I think we may be already spoiled from Glitch last year!)

I thoroughly enjoyed this and is my personal favorite of the games in the Game Jam this year. My full review can be found on the CDB page, it also has some useful tips for beginners on how to play and win this game.
Last edited by CalebJ on Sun Dec 24, 2023 20:07, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: [Game] Shadow Forest [1.0.1]

by DOOM_possum » Post

looks good----------- but i really want to play your version of MC2 first

that is My favorite, along with RE-PIXTURE, this is hades:revisted but except in a dark forest :O

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Re: [Game] Shadow Forest [1.0.1]

by TumeniNodes » Post

This looks really cool, definitely gonna give it a play
A Wonderful World

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Re: [Game] Shadow Forest [1.0.1]

by Wuzzy » Post

The Game Jam is over and I came in 4th. Meh. Okay, 1st place goes to Citadel and is completely deserved, it's just too innovative. But I also got beaten by a Chess clone, wtf. XD

Okay. My game received praise and criticism. And I agree with most of them (the criticisms, too!).
Thanks for everyone who gave feedback here and on ContentDB.

How I made Shadow Forest (teaser)

Many people rightfully complained the mob spawning feels very unfair and I agree. The reason? Bad planning of time, basically. The mobs are !!!NOT!!! meant to spawn in the high rates, but trust me, the mob spawning was even WORSE before submission and I half-fixed that before submission.

What happened? Basically I decided to take a huge risk this time. Not only wanted I do to everything myself (even music!) but also tried to make something with mobs, somethinig where I'm still not very experienced in.

I'm very happy at how the light orb turned out because it moves very smoothly and non-laggy. I'm also glad I finished a working world in the end because I also struggled with that for a long time. I actually planned the world to be MUCH larger but I vastly overestimated how much work that is. Ouch.

This game is the first time ever I have composed and published my own music tracks and I am shocked/surprised I managed to do it at all. I used LMMS. So the risk I took with music actually did pay off (not literally tho, haha). I am quite proud of my first ever published music. Strange that nobody commented on it (maybe it was too quiet?).

I wasted a lot of time in this game jam, for example, I lost two full days trying to get 3D model animations to work (still failed). Or I have implemented a full new world generator for an open world game but it all was useless since I had to fall back to regular levels due to time contraints. Ouch. The world generator can seamlessly put an existing world (saved as schematics) into the game with the world border continuing the world infinitely with Perlin noise. It also fades into darkness which kills you. All of this works perfectly but you never see this feature because it's outside the level borders. Ouch.

What I feel like

Overall, I am like half-happy with my game jam result. It could have been better if I planned my time better.

Also a word on the theme: Honestly, I basically ignored it for the most part. OK, the "unexpected" DOES occur in this game, but I admit it was kind of forced into the game.

What happens next?

This is not the end of the road. There will be updates!

What I'm planning:
  • Completely rework how the mobs spawn and behave because that's the biggest obvious problem in the game
  • Fix all the obvious bugs (obviously)
  • A little bit more polishing of each of the levels
  • Add volume controls for the music
  • Rework the dialog a little to make the story/goal easier to follow
  • Find out how to avoid too much dialog appearing during a mob attack
  • Add a little bit of a post-game, maybe (to see results of your victory)
  • Write the FULL making-of report, just like last year (this post is only a teaser)
  • Maybe I should turn the cool mapgen I wrote into a standalone mod because it's actually pretty useful
  • ... and more!

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Re: [Game] Shadow Forest [1.0.1]

by Blockhead » Post

Wuzzy wrote:
Fri Jan 05, 2024 14:06
I'm very happy at how the light orb turned out because it moves very smoothly and non-laggy.
Agreed, the light orb was so smooth. It didn't have any jank or stutter at all. It was a bit strange how it seemed to fly in from across the map at you when you teleported though.
Wuzzy wrote:
Fri Jan 05, 2024 14:06
I'm also glad I finished a working world in the end because I also struggled with that for a long time. I actually planned the world to be MUCH larger but I vastly overestimated how much work that is. Ouch.
...
Or I have implemented a full new world generator for an open world game but it all was useless since I had to fall back to regular levels due to time contraints. Ouch.
I liked the world and the hub! It felt like you could expand it with a bigger central tree or multiple trees (expansion packs or something). And I like the hand-crafted levels, they were nice. With the level hub, foggy level, and retro graphics it reminded me of Crash Bandicoot (Crash 2 had the hubworld I think).
Wuzzy wrote:
Fri Jan 05, 2024 14:06
This game is the first time ever I have composed and published my own music tracks and I am shocked/surprised I managed to do it at all. I used LMMS. So the risk I took with music actually did pay off (not literally tho, haha). I am quite proud of my first ever published music. Strange that nobody commented on it (maybe it was too quiet?).
The music was quite good actually. Good enough that it added to the immersion more than stuck out I think - just thinking about why it didn't draw direct comment. My review did say "aurally appealing" but that covers all the sounds.
Wuzzy wrote:
Fri Jan 05, 2024 14:06
I wasted a lot of time in this game jam, for example, I lost two full days trying to get 3D model animations to work (still failed).
I can't fault you for this. It's a failing of our current Blender exporter or perhaps the B3D format entirely that you can only animate in certain ways; I think only with armatures. Something good like animated gltf is is unfortunately still a long way away - the WIP PR only has static mesh loading. You have my commiserations.
Wuzzy wrote:
Fri Jan 05, 2024 14:06
Basically, I didn't really plan my time for this game well but that's not the end of the road. Stay tuned!
It always good to hear Jam games get updates afterwards. In a lot of ways, it's like pushing yourself to see if a game idea will actually work by reaching a MVP (minimum viable product) as quickly as you can - then you can keep going if it's not a dead end.
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Re: [Game] Shadow Forest [1.0.1]

by Wuzzy » Post

It was a bit strange how it seemed to fly in from across the map at you when you teleported though.
Oops, this is a bug I completely forgot. Yes, the orb follows you permanently but when you're VERY far away, it will teleport to you. Seems like in the final world, you are never VERY far away tho. XD It's a bug, the orb should obviously teleport with you.
The music was quite good actually. Good enough that it added to the immersion more than stuck out I think - just thinking about why it didn't draw direct comment. My review did say "aurally appealing" but that covers all the sounds.
:-)

Again, I can't stress enough how shocked/surprised I am that I managed to put this together with basically no skill. Somewhen in 2023 I took a very basic LMMS tutorial so I know how to use the basic features and I messed a little around with it but then forgot about it. I have almost zero idea of music theory and basically just pressed keys on the computer keyboard (no musical keyboard since I have no MIDI port :-( ) until I got something that sounded semi-OK.

LMMS is surprisingly easy to use.
I liked the world and the hub! It felt like you could expand it with a bigger central tree or multiple trees (expansion packs or something).
I actually planned a much bigger world (an open world even) but because level designing is hard and due to many mistakes in decision making and time management, I had to cut it down to 4 levels + the Tree of Life. I don't know if I want to expand the world; my first priority is to get the bugs and broken mob balancing fixed.
I can't fault you for this. It's a failing of our current Blender exporter or perhaps the B3D format entirely that you can only animate in certain ways; I think only with armatures. Something good like animated gltf is is unfortunately still a long way away - the WIP PR only has static mesh loading. You have my commiserations.
Thanks, but it's still partly my mistake since I forgot to test my tools and I should have just given up on this much sooner. I underestimated how forgiving people are on missing model animations. xD
The absurd part is, I used to export animated B3D just fine many years ago. And I'm pretty sure this is an user error because I don't understand the exporter tools.

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Re: [Game] Shadow Forest [1.0.1]

by GreenXenith » Post

The Light Orb is definitely Bit and you can't convince me otherwise :D
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Re: [Game] Shadow Forest [1.0.1]

by DOOM_possum » Post

you did a very good job WUZZY

i can't believe TERRARIA does not hire you to complete and fix their BASE CORE MOD areas--------- this work space area is a good PORTAL for You

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Re: [Game] Shadow Forest [1.0.1]

by Blockhead » Post

Wuzzy wrote:
Fri Jan 05, 2024 15:29
Again, I can't stress enough how shocked/surprised I am that I managed to put this together with basically no skill. Somewhen in 2023 I took a very basic LMMS tutorial so I know how to use the basic features and I messed a little around with it but then forgot about it. I have almost zero idea of music theory and basically just pressed keys on the computer keyboard (no musical keyboard since I have no MIDI port :-( ) until I got something that sounded semi-OK.
I opened up the project files. I see you followed the "only press white keys on the keyboard" school of music theory, also known as the "key of C major". No chords either. That's fine, because as you say, no real knowledge of music theory. Although if you wanted it, there are ways to transpose and get a different sound while still playing only those keys.

I also realise the "consistent theme" in all the tracks was just because it was different synth settings that fit the same theme playing the exact same composition. Hey, it's not like I noticed anyway.
Wuzzy wrote:
Fri Jan 05, 2024 15:29
LMMS is surprisingly easy to use.
Yeah it's pretty straightforward to put in a few keypresses. MuseScore can do pretty much the same, it just shows in sheet music which is scarier to newbies than piano roll and it doesn't have easy synth settings - though you can still choose some presets, it depends on the soundfont and you can't modify the sound to your liking. Programming a drum line, adding a bassline, chords etc (musical composition) and putting in multiple effects (compression, phaser, sweeping band pass, etc.), especially effects that ease in and out - all that is what adds complexity.

I think I'll offer to compose music for people in the next jam. I don't have a lot of music production or composition experience but I've been playing bass for nigh on a decade now and I'm somewhat into music theory and analysis of what I play. I hope people are open to collaboration - a lot of jammers are going it solo. But I know I appreciated the music from Grand Theft Box, which was a collab :DD
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Version 1.1.0 released!

by Wuzzy » Post

Version 1.1.0 released!
I am very happy to give you the new 1.1.0 release!
This is the first version after the game jam coming with lots of bugfixes. I hope I didn’t break anything. :D

IMPORTANT: If you want the full changes to take effect, you must start a new world. If you start the game on an old world from a previous version, you won't receive bugfixes for that world.

The extreme and infinite swarm of shadows has been toned down, which was the biggest criticism of the game. And I agree. My excuse is I simply mismanaged my time in the game jam so I couldn't get it right before the time was up.

Once you've cleared an area of shadows, you will have some peace and have time to explore. But not forever, for the shadows will return eventually if you wait too long …

Also, the dialog texts should no longer bleed out of the screen (this was also reported by many people). It turns out this problem depended on your resolution and/or GUD and HUD scaling.

Apart from that, the gameplay and the levels are mostly the same; this is mostly a cleanup/bugfix release. This release is based on the reviews and bug reports I have gotten through ContentDB, etc. Thanks for providing extensive feedback, everyone!

Changelog:
  • Shadows no longer spawn at an alarming, never-ending rate. Shadows might still lurk everywhere, but once you defeated them, they don't respawn that quickly
  • Shadows no longer spawn inside of each other
  • Shadows no longer spawn right before your nose
  • Light and shadow projectiles now destroy each other when they collide
  • Fixed being unable to attack while inside a liquid
  • Fix dialog text going out of the screen on some screen resolutions and GUI/HUD scalings
  • Make dialog text right-aligned
  • Add word-wrapping to dialog text (hacky but it mostly works)
  • No longer show chat message when upgrading fails
  • Make heart icons smaller on smaller screens
  • Fixed missing number in Hard Light upgrade names (Hard Light 2 and Hard Light 3)
  • Fix a bunch of typos
  • Fix many possible ways to escape the Forest level boundaries
  • Fix a possible escape in the Dead Forest level
  • Fix an annoying hole in the Forest level in which you can get stuck
  • Fix possible ways to die at the ladder to the Tree of Life at the beginning of the game
  • The Fog Chasm goes way deeper now. Don't fall down!
  • Very minor tweaks to the levels as a whole
  • The light orb now insta-teleports with you when you teleport (the delay is gone)
  • Fix sky/music behaving in wrong ways when walking through certain parts of the world
  • Force-exit game if attempting to launch game as a multiplayer server
  • Remove some very high frequencies from the ranged hit "ding" sound (see also)
  • Improve ugly leaves/bush textures for Opaque Leaves Mode
  • Added cha(e)t commands: /reset_dialogs, /toggle_mobs, /toggle_light_orb, /get_upgrades, /vase_radar, /goto
  • Added screen tinting when inside a liquid
  • Added complete German translation
  • Added incomplete Spanish translation by José M (the first contributor!)
PS: I am not 100% sure if the new mob spawning balancing is ideal now so any feedback is still appreciated.

PPS: The making-of I promised is still not ready, but I've already started writing it. It turns out there is so much to cover. Please be patient!

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Re: [Game] Shadow Forest [1.1.0]

by v-rob » Post

I pretty quickly put off playing the jam version of this game because of the spawning, but it's much, much better now. For the forest and chasm levels (and I love the fog in that one!), the spawning is balanced and fun. The snow level has concerning amounts of the flying Shadows: since they're harder to hit and take two hits even with a fully leveled up Staff of Light, it's all but impossible to clear them out of the area, so you just need to avoid getting hit. The factory also has too many Shadows to take out, but that's not so bad since it's the last level and the majority of them are ground Shadows.

I think the game's really fun now as it currently stands, but it would be even more fun with some more levels ;-)
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The Making of Shadow Forest

by Wuzzy » Post

As promised, I’ve finally written the Making-of for this game. Warning, it’s very long!

You can read it on my website: The Making of Shadow Forest

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Re: [Game] Shadow Forest [1.1.0]

by Wuzzy » Post

I probably won't update this game anymore in the near or far future except for bugfixes. I think all the major problems are fixed now but please continue to report bugs if you find them. But if you expect more levels or anything major like that, I have to disappoint you. It's a game jam game, after all. I feel flattered that at least one person is asking for more levels. :D

The reason for my decision is I am not really happy with the game concept; perhaps I rushed the concept phase too much this time. But I was aware I was taking a risk. But yeah, it was very hard to come up with a good game idea, especially for the game jam theme "Unexpected". If I would start game from scratch now, it would go a different route. A major goal I had to abandon was the idea of building an open world map but obviously I overestimated the work for that.

Overall, I am half-happy with how the game turned out. It could have been worse but overall I think the whole concept is a bit flawed. As of 1.1.0, the combat is now okayish in my opinion (much better than in 1.0.1) although not great.

But don't worry, this experience won't discourage me in the slightest. My next big project in Minetest is contining the development of Repixture and hopefully reach a major milestone in 2024.
Then maybe after that Hades Revisited and maybe maybe there could be a successor to Glitch. But Repixture is probably my #1 priority for 2024.

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Re: [Game] Shadow Forest [1.1.0]

by DOOM_possum » Post

that's Fine

as long as you update REPIXTURE

it is my favorite of all MT uploads

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Re: The Making of Shadow Forest

by Blockhead » Post

Wuzzy wrote:
Tue Jan 23, 2024 12:46
As promised, I’ve finally written the Making-of for this game. Warning, it’s very long!

You can read it on my website: The Making of Shadow Forest
This was an interesting read. There's always a certain learning mentality to "DIY everything", but in the end one ends up duplicating existing work. When I was reading about how you basically reinvented modgen with extra logic around the borders, and knowing your prior experience with Tutorial game, I couldn't help but feel that sometimes a library is just good to use. But like I said, personal development/growth is the result of your approach to the Jam more than results. And let no one dispute the results - you deserved to be in the top 5.
Wuzzy wrote:
Sun Jan 28, 2024 20:17
I probably won't update this game anymore in the near or far future except for bugfixes. I think all the major problems are fixed now but please continue to report bugs if you find them. But if you expect more levels or anything major like that, I have to disappoint you. It's a game jam game, after all. I feel flattered that at least one person is asking for
But don't worry, this experience won't discourage me in the slightest.
Well the upside is that it's all free software, so if anyone wants to, they can make extra levels. Actually is there anything unreleased like a level editing tool that would make that easier, or some hints you could give?
Wuzzy wrote:
Sun Jan 28, 2024 20:17
My next big project in Minetest is contining the development of Repixture and hopefully reach a major milestone in 2024.
Then maybe after that Hades Revisited and maybe maybe there could be a successor to Glitch. But Repixture is probably my #1 priority for 2024.
I very much agree with your priorities here. Jams can sometimes be a launch of a new idea that one likes, but they don't have to be. People really appreciate your long-term projects too.
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Re: [Game] Shadow Forest [1.1.0]

by Wuzzy » Post

Haha, modgen exists. I didn't even knew about it. XD But I didn't bother searching anyway.
But yeah in this game jam I really wanted to do everything. Maybe it'll be different next time?

Anyway, my mapgen has one extra feature because it surrounds the map with generated chunks as well, so the map neatly "fits" into an "infinite" world. The code quality of the Tutorial mapgen is kinda dated.

There isn't a special secret level editing tool I used and also no unreleased code. I created some special tools for Editor Mode to manipulate many nodes at onces (tailored for Shadow Forest specifically) and an export functionality. Apart from that just standard tools like WorldEdit, but I wrote that in the Making of Shadow Forest already.

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Re: [Game] Shadow Forest [1.1.1]

by Wuzzy » Post

Version 1.1.1 released!
This version updates the map. There was an area in the final level where you could fall into some water and no longer escape. This has been fixed by adding a ladder.

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Re: [Game] Shadow Forest [1.1.2]

by Wuzzy » Post

Version 1.1.2 released!

Changes:
  • Translate game description to Spanish and German
  • Fix hud_elem_type deprecation warning
  • Reset boss arena when player dies and respawns
  • Fix missing dependency in sf_doors mod

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