Topic: Castlevania style game from overhead perspective

[Ofthenight]

Intro


Fellow castlevania fans, I'm very excited to introduce a game that has consumed my life and others over the last year of of game development, with another 2 years of story invested, it's called Eve of Ebon. I have one confession to make first to the community, this game is from the overhead perspective, but I have decided to try and capture as much as that castlevania feel as possible. We're not a clone of castlevania, we just draw much inspiration from the series, the story, variety of monsters, the exploration, we just decided another perspective was better for this game having coop.
As a fan, I've played all the castlevania except Dracula X and a couple of the portable versions, with SOTN being my favorite tied with the original, and Simon's Quest being my least favorite(however I still enjoyed it)


Story

The name Eve of Ebon refers to the days of Ebon, when the ancient brood, a distant more primal cousin to the vampire, awaken from their frozen slumber during the warmest summers every 21 years. The Ebon is an entire week when the Brood feast on the people of Iden before returning to hibernation. Our game takes place before, during, and after the events of the The Ebon. However, unlike previous awakenings, humanity has grown to a force that actually threatens the vampire legion of Niven,  amassing an army over twenty times that of the vampire Legion. A secret truce is devised between humanity and vampires to stop the brood and end the war. It will take an elite group of special warriors to accomplish this task. The Siven, born of vampire and human blood, are the only ones who can transverse the daylight scorns and use the power of darkness on a journey to destroy the Brood in their slumber. The night awaits and the eve approaches... The Eve of Ebon.

Gameplay

Eve of Ebon is an overhead coop slasher RPG.  Loot and equip various capes and weapons that react differently against undead and humans. As a Siven(half vampire) use the light and darkness to your advantage, forcing undead into the light, and blinding humans in the darkness. This goes even further, each Siven has genetic strengths and weakness in each light/dark setting, some regenerate health quicker in darkness for example, use our perk system to customize this to lurk the light or own the darkness...or both, it's up to you.




Playable characters...

The strength of our game, each half vampire is the best Siven within the clans of the Legion, hand picked.


Arcasin


Arcasin's massive sword stems from the secretive vampire fighting style know as "Daytora" which means-power from the ancients. The style is normally reserved for full vampires, and those of elder blood at that. Only a few remain that understand the combat style fully.
Arcasin's father was an ancient vampire, and taught him the vicious style of offensive combat. It teaches to abandon defense for hyper aggressive attacks, bashing through feeble shields and driving an opponent's block attempt straight through their bodies.  Arcasin has a savage thrist for human blood despite being only half vampire, yet he remains sympathetic to his human mother's family.

Class: Vanguard
Clan: Oryicon upper class
Strengths: Attack Power, Health Regen(in total darkness)








Norroth


Norroth only received partial sunlight tolerance unlike most other vampire hybrids. As a child, he and his mother's vampire lineage was exposed by humans and they were forced to perform the religious "Unity of Light." They endured the sunlight slowly, stripping away their articles of clothing until death. Norroth's partial sunlight tolerance spared his life, but his full blooded vampire mother was not as fortunate. After nearly a week of torture, Norroth's skin was charred black to point of full sunlight resistance. He was eventually found by the elite ghostly vampire clan known as The Devos, the Legion's vampire rangers of the winter tundra. There he was raised as one of their own and trained in the clan's arts of war, specifically spear combat and close quarter tactics. The Devo's used Norroth's sunlight tolerance as a scout against human and undead.

Class: Strider 
Clan: Devos
Strengths: Melee range, explosiveness, melee defense








Vespia


Vespia is part human witch, half vampire assassin that hails from the elite Sarrel forest, now working as a mercenary for the right price. She was once a call girl that served the vampire aristocrats until she was brutally raped and tortured for her partial human bloodline. Unfortunately for her tormentors, her human mother was a sorcerer that could wield the power of ice. Vespia inherited this, and in her rage she calls upon this lineage to create anything from ice blades to arrows, and even small storms that blanket enemies with shrapnel of ice. After being arrested for killing her wealthy tormentors, she was rescued by Romel, leader of the assassins in Sarrel for her unique abilities. By far the most feared assassin in Iden, Vespia has earned the nickname "The Blue Widow."


Class: Mage Assassin
Clan: Sarrel
Strengths: Mana regen(sunlight), range, movement speed



Screens/Media(camera can be zoomed in or out in gameplay)






Animation peek

Heavy attack animation


Check out our facebook page as well!
https://www.facebook.com/EveofEbon

[Zuljaras]

This is amazing! It looks professional!!! ... hope to see more soon!!!

[KaZudra]

OMG yes! it doesn't look like your typical indie game, it looks like someone wants to make a fun game!

[Lelygax]

I believe that all indie game creators want to create fun games...

[KaZudra]

I believe that all indie game creators want to create fun games...

true, but most Indie devs usually think that retro is a perfect excuse to make a mario clone with rear atari graphic only because they have up to 2 developers on their team.

but they don't realize that some of the best games ever made were made from a 4 man group, all sporting great detailed graphics and sound.

In other words, I like it when Indie Devs "TRY" to give indie a good name after Pretentious scum like Phil Fish and Jonathan Blow gave the Indie Brand a Terrible rap.

[Lelygax]

The first thing that come to my head is Cave Story when I think in Indie, it doesnt have great detailed graphics and sounds and have been made by 1 person, Maybe thats the only Indie game that I played.

[son_the_vampire]

the character designs are fancy! good job man!

[Las]

Holy smokes this looks awesome. Definetly let us know when you get a demo er something!

[Kale]

Not sure I like the topdown view but it doesn't look bad at all.

[Ofthenight]

Thanks for the compliments.  I have another character attached below to check out.



The Brood.

The Brood are a cousin to the vampire, a more primal branch their evolution took millions of years ago. The Brood are in hibernation until the warmest summers every 21 years, melting the snow-caps in Iden and awakening the Brood in their mountain slumber. The brood typically don't attack vampires, but much has changed greatly since their last awakening. During the week of Ebon, the Brood fill the day sky with enough numbers to blot out the sun at times. The only option for humans is to retreat and hide. Their shrills are legendary and deafening, they can be heard at the beginning of the awakening, terrifying calls that echo throughout Iden as the Brood's hunger overtakes them setting out for food.
Physically the Brood are massive, quick, and powerful winged creatures that can take alot of abuse. Their exoskeleton provides protection against most forms of attack. Their only known weaknesses is fire.

[Ofthenight]

Update***

We got coop up running for the first time last night for the first time Many of the elements didn't convert over the network yet but it still was good to see 3 players on the server versus 1 for the entire development duration.

[Lelygax]

Wow! Just wow! You already have a network system in the game?¹ Bravo!

[Ofthenight]

Thanks everyone.

UPDATE


Also I would like to know what we could do to add some castlevania flair to the game, being a top down I would love for castlevania fans to say this game had that feel other than the camera perspective. We have tons of crazy enemies from
Greek mythology and traditional horror and a more gritty style.




Music, we've have enlisted the legendary BrunuhVille for soundtracks for our game, actually these songs will be in our game.

Gothic Music - Allure Of Darkness


Gothic Music - The Everlasting Symphony
(especially love the later half of this song)


And Chase Bethea, worked on the new Tomb Raider game:

https://soundcloud.com/#chase-bethea-1/eve-of-ebon-theme


So far we have about 14 tracks for the game.

[Gunlord]

Wow! man, this game does look really cool...a very impressive indie effort

[Neobelmont]

Who did the art  it's amazing. 

I want to get to that level.