SomberPixel

How good are you at surviving a mutant menace?

Marty McFly just visited Lost Hope! Will he survive? - Back to the future day !

Update 10: NPC design preview Character design is one of the most important parts in Lost Hope's development. Even though the last months we have published articles about gameplay and features of the game, we have been designing the story, the characters and how they will interact with you and between them. This article covers the non playable characters' design. We will show some NPC we have designed but will not talk about their role in the story and the relationship they have with you. We will leave that for later. The strong and proud woman A woman who will not let herself be devoured by a mutant so easily. She is strong and her desire to survive is unique. Compared the other survivors, she gets things done even risking her life in some cases. She is proud and would not accept help so easily. The confused little girl A little girl whose parents are nowhere to be found. She is still wondering where might they be and, no matter what happens, she will not separate from her best friend teddie bear. The boy who thinks of himself an adult A young boy, barely entering his teenage years. Both of his parents are alive but are way too naive. He wants to protect his family but his parents tell him that he should let that to the adults. Most of the times, he acts as if he was older and does not measure the dangers ahead. The big guy Do not let yourself be fooled by his appeareance, thisbig guy is actually a really good person. He wants to keep the survivors together to raise their chances to survive. He is always putting everyone before him and will not hesitate to help anyone who is in danger. He worries about what the people lack to survive and would find a solution to problems. There are way more npc, everyone with a different personality. We want each npc to be unique based on a personality. There will be other npc that will only care about their own survival and so on. We will post more about this in the future but this serves as an idea of our approach when designing characters. As always, feel free to tell us what you think. Stay tuned for more updates!

Update 9: Stealth mode preview Last time, we talked about our return after 3 months unable to post updates. As we promised, we will now post updates more often so here is one for you! On this update we show you a preview of a simple, yet interesting mechanic we are preparing ... Stealth mode! How much noise you make plays an important part in Lost Hope. Some mutants may detect you if you are just running around the place or shooting. This is where stealth mode comes to play. First of all, let's be clear about the name of this mechanic. Lost Hope is not a stealth game but we did not find another name to call this mechanic! Stealth mode consists on reducing how much noise you make by adopting a special position. It can be triggered at any time and its main purpose is to avoid being detected by mutants. We decided to embrace this mechanic since this is a survival horror game and sometimes the best strategy is to just avoid dangers. This might save you some bullets and health problems. *Work in progress In stealth mode you will be able to move while reducing the odds of being detected by a mutant. If used correctly, stealth mode can save your life and some precious combat items. This will also help you to pass through some places which are impossible to pass while standing. Keep in mind that now each time you change direction, there is an animation to keep things smooth. That is all for this update. As you can see, this is a simple mechanic since we don't want to lose the immersion of the game but really helps you to avoid some encounters. As always, your feedback and suggestions are appreciated. We are still thinking of other way we can make the most out of this simple feature without loosing the immersion that this genre needs. Stay in tune! Until next update.

Update 8: We are back! Somber Pixel is back! And with it, Lost Hope development will be a lot better. We made some changes in our management and control process and now have much more time to develop Lost Hope than before. The team is still formed by both Arturo and I (Adolfo) , but now we have managed to find a incredibly suitable workflow for Lost Hope. As you may already know, Lost Hope is a survival-horror game with both exploration and action involved to keep things fresh. You will take the role of a man who is living in a city surrounded by terrible mutants due to a catastrophe and you will be able to freely(but at your own risk) explore the city in search for survivors, items and information.Story is an important part of this game and we are giving the players the option to decide their actions and change how the story develops.Also, each NPC will have a unique personality and you will be able to talk to them ,do some favors for them(or not), attack them and more. In other words, we are aiming for a rich world were you really feel the need of survival and interaction with the characters. We were inspired by other games in the genre such as Silent Hill, Lone Survivor, Resident evil(1,2 and 3) and other games we consider scary and fun. Our last update was a while ago but do not think we were lazy this last months! Most of our advances have been code and game-design-related and not much about visual or gameplay implementation( which is what we usually write articles about). A lot of things have been coded, such as our own custom input manager, an enhanced event system, data-related things, micro-systems that allow flexible code and more. Technical aspects will not be covered in this article though! Main character's enhanced movement As you may have read in other articles, in Lost Hope we put a lot of attention in details. We want this experience to be unique and immersive so details are as important as the main mechanics. Look at the before and now animations of the main character's basic movements. Walk direction change Before Now Run stop Before Now Run direction change Before Now Even though it is not a massive difference, we want this to be a detailed experience. Thanks for your time, both of us are pretty passionate about this game and we will work harder everyday in order to release a significant experience for the players. We plan to keep you updated much more often now and you can always find us on twitter or the links we have provided. Stay tuned for more updates(There will be a lot more of these!).

Glad you like it! And pretty sorry for the late response! We had some time issues but we are back!!! Update 7: Combat Animations! There is a lot of action involved in Lost Hope. With lots of mutants lurking around the city you cannot have some static animations for such a rigorous combat. That is why, in order to achieve a fluid combat system, we are investing a lot of time making fluid animations. Combat is very important so we want to make it fun and challenging, it is still being programmed and not all the animations are completed but we want to show you a first look at what will be the combat system for Lost Hope. Aim and shoot! *Work in progress* Mutant catastrophe means you have to search and equip weapons that may help you to survive. The basic ranged weapon is a gun. If you are using keyboard and mouse input for the game, you can aim while pressing the right mouse button. You can control the angle with the mouse, moving the mouse up or down or to the sides will control the angle so keep that in mind when trying to kill mutants! Bat attack, again! Just a reminder of what the melee combat will be about, there will be other kind of weapons. In this case we show the bat attack which is pretty useful in case you want to save some ammo. Right now the main character is just attacking the air, but that is because the combat system is still being programmed. We will soon show how this attack can be a powerful ally when fighting mutants. Evade... you will need it! An important aspect of the game is to evade in order to survive. If a mighty attack is about to hit you, you can evade it while maintaining your direction and then strike back with a melee attack. You can have a first look at the evade animation. That is not all We have just showed what we have done so far for the combat system, but there are still many things we need to do, such as enemy behaviors and more actions of the player that will make of the combat a fun and challenging experience. As always, feel free to comment and give us some feedback! Remember this is work in progress and may change for the better. More aspects of the game will also be revealed soon

Update 6: Run,run,run! Running away from trouble is something most of people do! It may seem coward sometimes but … if a mutant wants to kill you it may be a good idea to run. Unless you have the proper equipment or tactics to face it. You can see the animation in the gif. We are thinking on controlling how much you can run through a stamina system. Your stamina would be reduced with each significant action you make such as running, perform multiple physical attacks and others. Other things have been programmed , such as the save system and more things that we will show in upcoming news! Sometimes,it is a good idea to run!

Update 5: New scenarios, camera , details and a sick programmer! This days have been hard for me(programmer!),I fell ill during the week and obviously with fever my logic was not the most reliable to do a lot of code for Lost Hope. Luckily, I am now feeling better and continue to code! And Arturo is making a lot of pixel art for the game! This update shows a simple camera that follows the player as he walks through a house. More advanced camera functions are also being programmed such as the ones we will use for triggered events and effects. When the player enters another room, there is a fade-in effect, then the next room loads and a fade-out effect is called and you can continue exploring. Check it!

Update 4: Picking up items! In Lost Hope, you will come across all kind of items, explore different places such as abandoned houses in search of useful items! Depending on the position of the item, a different animation is played. This is because we didn't want the items to magically disappear from the room, but instead give the impression that the player is actually picking it up from a position. Of course there is a lot to do, all in all , details. Some items may be too tiny so we are thinking on showing a little icon if you are close to an item. Also we need to put some kind of information on screen about the item you have just picked up. Work in progress! There is still a lot to do here!

That looks interesting, we will check it out , may bring us some great ideas! Thanks, Abraham Brookes!

Update 3: Event System!! In order to control events were everything plays automatically (such as a cutscene)or during dialogues we implemented an event system. Lost Hope's event system consists on series of dialogues with animations and other triggered actions. You can have a look of how it is taking form in the gif image. Basically, the “actors” are controlled by a script and a text is loaded from a file depending on the situation. Testing our event system, still in progress

Update 2: Defend Yourself!! What would you do if your life is at risk and some mutants just want to kill you? That’s right, grab a baseball bat or a pol, or something to defend yourself and TRY to survive with it. There is no enemy right now but he feels like bating the air anyway This is a melee attack with a bat, it will be very useful and probably one of your best friends in the game, as ammo cannot be found so easily or in great numbers. This is a work in progress and may change.The idea of this attack is that you have to be aware of the enemy's movement and hit with the right timing. You don't want to be killed by this.Right?

Update 1: Inventory System Since we have just started here in the forums, we will be posting our updates and progress constantly. This week we will begin talking about the inventory system from the game which was designed in order to keep everything simple but engaging.An update about this was written by us in tumblr but we better post it here so that we can receive your feedback! Overview Inventory system can be a pain if it is not designed correctly. We sat down a few days talking about what approach we may take. In the end we designed a simple but interactive inventory system that merges with other elements of the game and does not feel ¨apart¨. Pixel by pixel, our inventory started to take form Real time inventory Yup, real time! It is a survival horror game so it makes sense that if you are looking for some batteries to recharge your flashlight or want to use a first aid kit the time must not stop, it would go against immersion The dangers of life are not going to wait for you to be ready, so brace yourself if you want to survive! Categories are important! The way the items are distributed in your inventory plays an important role in the immersion. We decided to go simple with this, so we only have 3 item categories : Consumables, Weapons and Key items. As soon as you open the inventory, you’ll have to choose a category, and a preview list of the items is displayed. It is easy to navigate through them.This is a survival horror game, there is no need for 9001 categories Keep it simple and clean Limited by weight There are 12 visible slots in the inventory, but that does not mean you can only carry 12 items per category.The maximum amount of items you can carry is based on weight. If you are carrying too much weight you will have to get rid of some stuff! But don’t think you will have too many items… we want to make you suffer a little This game is not a loot fest but will have a big number of items that can be collected and used during your trial. So that means… I cannot have it all? What if I am a completionist? Worry not! if you drop an item we will make sure you can get it back. Key items cannot be dropped of course, or well… we are evaluating it ! Lots of things can change during the development process And each item has different options regarding their type? Each item has a different set of possible options that can be acceded. “Examine” and “drop” are the most common of them all, as you can examine every item you have and a description will appear on screen. And what is next in Lost Hope’s inventory system?? There are lots of things to polish. The inventory that is currently being shown is not a definitive version , remember this is work in progress ! We are still evaluating the option of combining items in the inventory screen… As for the font colors, some of them may change, like the item name text , or the weight. In the end, the inventory looks and works like this, even though we still have to add the total weight. Ignore the 5kg battery!

Hello Vilham, we could use your feedback ! We would like to know, What aspects of our game do you think are pretty similar to Lone Survivor?

Lost Hope Hello there, we are Somber Pixel! We are developing a pixel art survival horror game called Lost Hope. Lost Hope is a survival horror game were you can freely explore a whole city and make decisions as you try to survive a mutant catastrophe. We take a lot from Resident Evil(1,2 and 3) and the Silent Hill franchise. About the game Overview What would you do if suddenly people are turning into violent mutants? Spending your days at home waiting for everything to get solved was an option but you have already done that for a long time and are now out of supplies. What happens next is up to you : your objective is to escape from the city and (if you are curious enough) discover what actually happened. Of course, we are working on great personalities for each npc you will encounter, the reason why we don't talk much about the story right now is because you will be able to tackle the game in many different ways but your main objective remains: survive and escape from the city. Release date Hoping for a late 2015 release!We aim to release it on Windows, Mac and Linux. Features Fun and fluid combat system This does not mean it is easy though! We want you to feel the horror of having a mutant in front of you. So if you want to play Rambo on this one...you will end up torn into pieces by a mutant because bullets are scarce. There is melee combat too! Everything in order to survive. *The following image is a work in progress just to give you an idea, all the streets will be highly detailed in the final version. Exploration and decisions Explore a whole city full of rich and detailed environments from the very beginning at your own risk. You can explore the inside of every single building.Look for people full of personality, make then favors ... kill them!? wait,what? Wouldn't that destroy the game plot and make it generic? Nope, that is part of the game, in real life you would try all sort of things in order to survive a mutant catastrophe, but everything has a consequence in your ordeal,right? Deadly enemies that will make you feel blessed for living a normal life without them Every mutant is designed with a combat strategy in mind that goes with their design, oh and they all want to kill you. Sometimes,it is better to avoid them and find an alternate route. Lots of items to collect Which,again, does not break the game. We want it to be hard but enjoyable. And more There are more aspects of the game that we would like to share on this post but need to be refined. We will be posting our progress regularly! And about the audio... we will have in covered in the future!It is an important part in a game like this. Meet the team We are just 2 guys in Somber Pixel but we put all our effort and time in this game! Left: Adolfo Jungbluth(Programmer) Right: Arturo Anci(Pixel artist) The most important part...your feedback! We would appreciate every single advice so that Lost Hope becomes the game you want. A little late now that the holidays are over but: we wish this 2015 to be full of joy for everyone! Even though this Santa yells a Christmas message. Contact us Twitter: Somber Pixel: @SomberPixel Adolfo:@adolfojo777 Arturo: @Artan0728 Tumblr: http://somberpixel.tumblr.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SomberPixel Or directly here!