Topic: Castlevania: Umbra of Sorrow (1999 Fan Project)

[TatteredSeraph]

This is utterly amazing!  Great work, guys!  This project really does have me so stoked up.  It's fantastic to see little bits unfolding, bit by bit, as it's revealed.

[Eric Roman]

'.'

In recent years this really, really comfy rock called Life (which isn't exactly all-comfy as our lives can be) keeps me out of the loop of CV Fandom.  This time, though, as I continue moving my work into new areas, I've managed to peek out just enough to learn of Dracula9's repertoire, leading to this epic thread I've sampled the beginning and end of. 

This is some amazing shit.  I'm glad to see such love going down over one of the greatest loose ends of The CastleVania Saga (shoutout to that long-gone page from the earlier days of our landscape). 

I'm pretty occupied by my projects so I can't reasonably offer any assistance.  Nevertheless, add one more to the masses looking forward to the success of this unmistakable project.  Cheers, yo! 

[theplottwist]

'.'

In recent years this really, really comfy rock called Life (which isn't exactly all-comfy as our lives can be) keeps me out of the loop of CV Fandom.  This time, though, as I continue moving my work into new areas, I've managed to peek out just enough to learn of Dracula9's repertoire, leading to this epic thread I've sampled the beginning and end of. 

This is some amazing shit.  I'm glad to see such love going down over one of the greatest loose ends of The CastleVania Saga (shoutout to that long-gone page from the earlier days of our landscape). 

I'm pretty occupied by my projects so I can't reasonably offer any assistance.  Nevertheless, add one more to the masses looking forward to the success of this unmistakable project.  Cheers, yo!

Thanks, dude!

There's still a long way for this to go, but it's getting there. Slowly but surely

[Eric Roman]

Take all the time necessary.  The CV fans will still be around.

(& I'll pop up every few years. :p)

[theplottwist]

The god of death joins the fray.



Now, this sprite had to be based on actual concept art.

[VladCT]

[Shiroi Koumori]

I love the sprite work!
The actual concept art of Death also looks so cool.

Bring on the next update!

[SecretWeapon]

Looking forward to Carmilla.

[Foffy]

I wanted to pop back here (after finally figuring out my password after 4,000,000 years) and say I quite like what I've seen, what I've read, and what I've heard.

I may lack any fancy jazzy means to contribute to such a project directly, but I hope by being a "cheerleader on the sidelines" that you guys know that this has the interest of others. I haven't been on this board since LoS2's pre-release, but have come back both for Bloodstained's teaser, and this, to be specific.

I'm deeply interested in this coming to fruition. Good luck.

[theplottwist]

I wanted to pop back here (after finally figuring out my password after 4,000,000 years) and say I quite like what I've seen, what I've read, and what I've heard.

I may lack any fancy jazzy means to contribute to such a project directly, but I hope by being a "cheerleader on the sidelines" that you guys know that this has the interest of others. I haven't been on this board since LoS2's pre-release, but have come back both for Bloodstained's teaser, and this, to be specific.

I'm deeply interested in this coming to fruition. Good luck.

Thanks for the support. All the support we can get, be it by a direct contribution, or by being a "cheerleader on the sidelines" is important to us. This project IS a tribute to Castlevania (not only IGA's era, but in general), so listening to what people outside of the project's development think is also important to us.

Looking forward to Carmilla.

She's coming, but there is another character to come before she does

[Dracula9]

She's coming, but there is another character to come before she does

[theplottwist]

I knew using these words was a bad idea.

[SecretWeapon]

She's coming, but there is another character to come before she does

#LauraConfirmed jkjk

[Foffy]

Thanks for the support. All the support we can get, be it by a direct contribution, or by being a "cheerleader on the sidelines" is important to us. This project IS a tribute to Castlevania (not only IGA's era, but in general), so listening to what people outside of the project's development think is also important to us.

She's coming, but there is another character to come before she does

If I can ask a question, if you were to give a percentage of what you feel the game will amount to (amount of enemies, boss, specific powerups, etc) how much do you feel you have a good idea on that's part of the current plans and development? As an outsider, I'm not aware on what's really hooked in for the game. I may be wrong in recalling this, but I believe you made a post before this became a fan game that you even had an idea on how many rooms the castle were to have, so that kind of gives me hope that a lot of this is really caught up in the system design/animation/programming stage.

Also, is there a chance like a real Castlevania, you'll be using older sprites, or will it be almost all-new assets? I've seen some of the pixel work you and others have done and...mmf, new stuffs please. <3

[theplottwist]

If I can ask a question, if you were to give a percentage of what you feel the game will amount to (amount of enemies, boss, specific powerups, etc) how much do you feel you have a good idea on that's part of the current plans and development? As an outsider, I'm not aware on what's really hooked in for the game. I may be wrong in recalling this, but I believe you made a post before this became a fan game that you even had an idea on how many rooms the castle were to have, so that kind of gives me hope that a lot of this is really caught up in the system design/animation/programming stage.

That's a very hard question to answer, mostly because what we have now could completelly change and drop from 100% to 10% in a couple hours. In fact, when more people joined the team, a bunch of ideas changed to the better (so, before I did know how many rooms we were aiming at. Now I don't know anymore with such precision. The good news is that I probably had vastly understated this number, because the project grew to bigger proportions to accomodate all the new developments ).

In percentage of planning we are very far. We know what most enemies will be, what most bosses, a part of the items, we have a pretty good idea of the game mechanics that will be applied (and how they are to be used to optimal results) and we know fairly well how the game and story will intermingle -- the pacing of the game, in other words. We know how the game (and story) starts, we know where the climaxes are, we know generally what are the conflicts and how they should be presented, and how the game (and story) ends.

So, if I had to answer how much planning we have in percent, I think more or less 70% is fair. The remaining 30% are technicalities and details that, while important, don't really affect the big plans we have already laid out.

Just recently (VERY recently) I made some graphical developments I didn't even know I could do, and D9 has greenlit a bunch of ideas on the programming side that really decided a lot of of the path we will follow (in atmosphere, in raw technical aspects, in gameplay). On the music side, the OST is a well 80% to 90% complete, and this from planning only -- I instruct the composers what the scenario/level/scene needs, and they put it on music with their own spin.

All in all: The plot is almost completelly ready to be written (and a part of it IS already written), and now we are working the game ideas around it.

Again, I'm talking about PLANNING and not "what we have completed". What we have completed, right now, is very, VERY little. We can't even make a single-room demo yet. This is a bit disappointing, I know, but it is for the best. All this planning is so we can keep everything uniform and seamless.

I said a lot to really say nothing. This is the hard part -- we (specially me) refuse to put anything on stone before everything is planned. Once we start showing things, there is no going back. So we must make absolutelly sure of something before speaking or showcasing it. If I give any certainties now, the expectations (read: hype) will reach uncontrollable levels, and then later there is a chance we might have to drop the certainties, and this will be a big let down. We don't want that. I want to come here and say "Laura will appear!" and it be a fact that Laura will appear.

(And yes, Laura will appear SecretWeapon. In fact, the "Laura" aspect has its own plot/game-relevance)

I'm sorry I can't be more specific and for appearing vague. But 2017 will change that, I assure you.

Also, is there a chance like a real Castlevania, you'll be using older sprites, or will it be almost all-new assets? I've seen some of the pixel work you and others have done and...mmf, new stuffs please. <3

The plan A is to have everything be 100% new. Not only sprites, but every single graphical asset, from the grass on the ground and the bricks on the walls to Dracula's final form. Firstly, ripping graphics is a good way to get us in bad waters. Secondly, I'm sure everyone wants to see new things.

I wouldn't stand to see the same goddamn Alucard sprite that has been used again and again here on this project. The sentiment is the same for the Skeletons and Zombies.

Remember how I spoke about the graphical developments above? One such development is that I learned (still am learning, in fact, but I got a really good grasp by now) to create original high-quality tilesets REALLY fast (from the pixel-art perspective). A well-made brick wall that would normally take me two to three hours of meticulous work, took me about 30 minutes to start, polish and finish. That's is very good news.

So yes, expect the project to count on original assets.

Also, two things to close:

1. We are in NO WAY underestimating what it takes to create a high-quality game. We have previous experience with game development and we know how hard it is. I may appear to be oversimplifying things, but I'm not. Under every single thing I mentioned here, an ENORMOUS amount of debate and thinking and testing happened.

2. If I missed the point somewhere, feel free to ask again.