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Free Early Access Testing of 2D Fighter, Evolver

Micahl Dickens

OkiDoki-NrdShmN
UPDATE: I've decided to simply share the preAlpha as it's a limited trial anyway. The game will only run a limited number of times, but will run for as long as it is open. Please give feedback if you download, and thanks for your time and attention!

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Ar53CWUHzI_thq5V_N0ciGIZCJOsww

The keyboard controls are as follows:

WASD = D-Pad
NumPad 8456 = Action pad
QE = Left Shoulder (where Q is L2/LT and E is L1/LB)
79 = Right Shoulder (where 7 is R1/RT and 9 is R2/RB)
Enter = Start
+ = Select

Hello All!!

I will be conducting our final testing of the preAlpha version of my indie game studio’s 2D fighter, Evolver, this weekend at a local tournament called Tampa Never Sleeps. In preparation of our first public showcase of the game, we’d like to have a few people test the preAlpha at home. The first 8 folks interested will get a link to a copy of the Evolver Campaign Demo; simply PM me or post below (PMs will get priority) and I will send you the link. It will only be active for as long as it takes for the last person to confirm they have downloaded it.

Here's some relatively recent gameplay:


There is full controller support as well as keyboard support (I will pm you the keyboard configuration if you need it). We are primarily looking for people who can play the Versus mode which has no online support as this is a preAlpha. As a result, it's best to have someone to play with. If we reach 4 single players, the remaining 4 links will have to be for people who can test the Versus. That being said, the preAlpha also has a fully functional Campaign Demo as well as Survival mode and CoOp Survival mode, and all testing/feedback is much appreciated. Additionally, there is a much more detailed thread about the game and how to play it which you can view on TYM here.

Thank you!


(TL;DR: pm or post for link of game to test.)
 
Last edited:

Tanno

The Fantasy is the Reality of the Mind
A nice 2D fighting game. However, as I know that it's a pre-Alpha one, it needs a lot of work.

1) Graphics: It looks like a anime version. You need to work its animations and it to be stable like Guilty Gears xrd Revelator.
2) Support: Full support of fight sticks (Hori and Mad Catz), as all the consoles, including PC, support all kinds.
3) Gameplay: I'll let the American pros to deal with it, for I have no idea about this gameplay now.
4) Beta: I hope you share some beta codes here in EU, too, unlike WB assholes there.

Some questions:

1) Will there be a story mode? I'd love to know their story.
2) Will we see it in Steam/PS4/X1? I'm fully realizing that some devs tend to change their mind and switch sides, so I just want to confirm things here.
3) Who and how many are those characters there in the official roster?

Good luck with this game.
 

Micahl Dickens

OkiDoki-NrdShmN
A nice 2D fighting game. However, as I know that it's a pre-Alpha one, it needs a lot of work.

1) Graphics: It looks like a anime version. You need to work its animations and it to be stable like Guilty Gears xrd Revelator.
2) Support: Full support of fight sticks (Hori and Mad Catz), as all the consoles, including PC, support all kinds.
3) Gameplay: I'll let the American pros to deal with it, for I have no idea about this gameplay now.
4) Beta: I hope you share some beta codes here in EU, too, unlike WB assholes there.

Some questions:

1) Will there be a story mode? I'd love to know their story.
2) Will we see it in Steam/PS4/X1? I'm fully realizing that some devs tend to change their mind and switch sides, so I just want to confirm things here.
3) Who and how many are those characters there in the official roster?

Good luck with this game.
Okay so first:

1) None of the graphics here are final and most of them are from other games; we are play testing the mechanics and functionality; the game won't actually be available for a least another year.
2) There will be as much device support as we can cram into the game, but for now only keyboard and xinput are supported.
3) There is a whole thread which I linked to describing the game and how it's played.
4) If there is a beta, it will likely end as or always be an open beta rather than a closed one. However, that's a long ways off from now.

And as for the questions:

1) There is a very deep and rich story that is told through the Campaign mode, and the preAlpha includes a full demo of how the Campaign mode will play.
2) Our final goal is to port the full game to Steam, itch.io, PS4, PS3, and XBone, as well as a port of just the Survival and CoOp Survival modes for Android, iPhone, and Windows Phone.
3) The preAlpha has 4 characters, and the full roster has 16 playable characters. Though, because of the unique way the fighting styles are implemented, there are 16 possible move set combinations for each character, making a total of 256 possible move set combinations. There are a whole slew of characters and the modified images in the preAlpha are designed to mimic the future move sets of their respective characters. Full details on the story and more information on the page will be provided on our facebook page as time progresses.
 

Sunny_D

Green Arrows personal Shooty guy
What engine are you guys using? Im interested in making a fighting game project once i buy my pc. Looks pretty sick so far though
 

Vigilante24

Beware my power, Red Lantern's Light
It actually looks interesting. Wouldnt mind trying it out. My biggest question is do you have bgm/soundtrack for your game? If not, do you know anyone willing to produce a soundtrack for the game?
 

Micahl Dickens

OkiDoki-NrdShmN
It actually looks interesting. Wouldnt mind trying it out. My biggest question is do you have bgm/soundtrack for your game? If not, do you know anyone willing to produce a soundtrack for the game?
We do currently have someone producing the music, and he and I are both composing the OST of which there are already 2 pieces of completely original music in the game. I will PM you a link to the download.
 

Micahl Dickens

OkiDoki-NrdShmN

Bumping with high damaging combo as we still have a couple of spots left. In Evolver, there is a mechanic called Control Burst that allows you to reset the enemy as well as your current attack string allowing for lengthy, high damaging combos that don't trigger the infinity breaker. You can also choose to crossover your opponent by holding forward during a Control Burst which is important for managing spacing based on your surroundings.
 

Vigilante24

Beware my power, Red Lantern's Light
So overall I was very confused and frustrated. I decided to go into this as if I were a keyboard player and it took me awhile to find the buttons but I managed to find the 4 directional buttons which was good and made sense. However, the other buttons were a mess. Enter was okay as the select button, but E was a button (awk button input considering W is jump), C randomly did something I think, and I couldn't find any of the other button inputs. I would highly recommend making them something like IJKL.

You're beginner single player tutorial was really confusing. I would highly recommend at the very start that it tells you its a tutorial and starts teaching you the game instead of me running to the first checkpoint. When I got to the part where I assign moves to buttons, there were no clear instructions on how to even do that so I gave up after a couple minutes.

You're main menu looks awesome! I liked the graphics (even tho I know it's not final) and overall feel of the game. Kind of reminds me of anime fighters and classic computer games.

I feel like your soundtrack may have been inspired a little bit by Skullgirls which I think is pretty cool! Im looking forward to hearing the rest of it. I have to ask tho, is the song that is playing in the main menu clipping on your peak meters by any chance? Or are you driving the threshold of a limiter on your master bus really hard? When it was just playing thru my laptop speakers, it sounded as if the audio was a little distorted.
 

Micahl Dickens

OkiDoki-NrdShmN
So overall I was very confused and frustrated. I decided to go into this as if I were a keyboard player and it took me awhile to find the buttons but I managed to find the 4 directional buttons which was good and made sense. However, the other buttons were a mess. Enter was okay as the select button, but E was a button (awk button input considering W is jump), C randomly did something I think, and I couldn't find any of the other button inputs. I would highly recommend making them something like IJKL.

You're beginner single player tutorial was really confusing. I would highly recommend at the very start that it tells you its a tutorial and starts teaching you the game instead of me running to the first checkpoint. When I got to the part where I assign moves to buttons, there were no clear instructions on how to even do that so I gave up after a couple minutes.

You're main menu looks awesome! I liked the graphics (even tho I know it's not final) and overall feel of the game. Kind of reminds me of anime fighters and classic computer games.

I feel like your soundtrack may have been inspired a little bit by Skullgirls which I think is pretty cool! Im looking forward to hearing the rest of it. I have to ask tho, is the song that is playing in the main menu clipping on your peak meters by any chance? Or are you driving the threshold of a limiter on your master bus really hard? When it was just playing thru my laptop speakers, it sounded as if the audio was a little distorted.
The controls are definitely not easy to assume is why I had said to let me know if you were using a keyboard. For the record, the controls are as follows:

WASD = D-Pad
NumPad 8456 = Action pad
QE = Left Shoulder (where Q is L2/LT and E is L1/LB)
79 = Right Shoulder (where 7 is R1/RT and 9 is R2/RB)
Enter = Start
+ = Select

If you're playing on a laptop with no NumPad, you'll definitely need a controller. The controls are set up this way to be as close to a fight stick as possible.
I'll add a tutorial beacon at the beginning that explains the beacons. The beacons give tutorial information, but the level is not strictly a tutorial.
Also, terribly sorry, I seem to have accidentally deleted the tutorial beacon that tells you how to set the moves. I'll readd it and send you the update. Thanks for trying the game! This feedback has definitely been useful.

Also, the music is not at all inspired by Skullgirls, but instead musically themed anime like Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, and Samurai Champloo, among others, though most of the music in the game now is not original and will likely not be in the final game. The audio of the main theme was composed quickly to meet our deadline, but it will definitely be replaced.
 

Vigilante24

Beware my power, Red Lantern's Light
The controls are definitely not easy to assume is why I had said to let me know if you were using a keyboard. For the record, the controls are as follows:

WASD = D-Pad
NumPad 8456 = Action pad
QE = Left Shoulder (where Q is L2/LT and E is L1/LB)
79 = Right Shoulder (where 7 is R1/RT and 9 is R2/RB)
Enter = Start
+ = Select

If you're playing on a laptop with no NumPad, you'll definitely need a controller. The controls are set up this way to be as close to a fight stick as possible.
I'll add a tutorial beacon at the beginning that explains the beacons. The beacons give tutorial information, but the level is not strictly a tutorial.
Also, terribly sorry, I seem to have accidentally deleted the tutorial beacon that tells you how to set the moves. I'll readd it and send you the update. Thanks for trying the game! This feedback has definitely been useful.

Also, the music is not at all inspired by Skullgirls, but instead musically themed anime like Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, and Samurai Champloo, among others, though most of the music in the game now is not original and will likely not be in the final game. The audio of the main theme was composed quickly to meet our deadline, but it will definitely be replaced.
I know you said to ask you for controls, but I would recommend you put them in the movelist as well for any keyboard players out there. :)

I may use my contoller next time just to see how it is compared to the keyboard. Not sure yet.

Glad I could help out. Looking forward to trying the update.
 

Micahl Dickens

OkiDoki-NrdShmN
I know you said to ask you for controls, but I would recommend you put them in the movelist as well for any keyboard players out there. :)

I may use my contoller next time just to see how it is compared to the keyboard. Not sure yet.

Glad I could help out. Looking forward to trying the update.
Well the actual game will have the keyboard layout clearly displayed and you'll be able to change the keys, but programming a control selection for the preAlpha would be too time consuming as it's not the sort of thing that directly effects the gameplay.
 

Vigilante24

Beware my power, Red Lantern's Light
Well the actual game will have the keyboard layout clearly displayed and you'll be able to change the keys, but programming a control selection for the preAlpha would be too time consuming as it's not the sort of thing that directly effects the gameplay.
I guess I can understand that. My reasoning for this was just incase you released this as a public beta which you just did. Now that the link may be floating around, you could potentially run into people who will not see your post about pm'ing you for keyboard controls and go into the beta blind and without a clue. And considering its a new game, buttons cannot be assumed like NRS games.

At the very least since this wont be a feature yet, copy and paste your response about the controls to the OP. This should be public knowledge if you want everyone to test to the full capabilities. No discriminating against the keyboard warriors man! :p
 

Eddy Wang

Skarlet scientist
I'm the sole programmer and I wrote the entire game from scratch in Game Maker: Studio.
Good luck mate GMS its a good engine to start for the most.
But honestly i would advice to builld your game in Unity, which has more support, i've heard somewhere GMS support is only for PC tho, if you want console you will need something more like Unity, but don't really want you to go through all the trouble.

Also try find a good sprite designer to work on whatever you want, a team where everyone has a role makes progress much faster than 1 doing all the work, just saying.
 

Micahl Dickens

OkiDoki-NrdShmN
Good luck mate GMS its a good engine to start for the most.
But honestly i would advice to builld your game in Unity, which has more support, i've heard somewhere GMS support is only for PC tho, if you want console you will need something more like Unity, but don't really want you to go through all the trouble.

Also try find a good sprite designer to work on whatever you want, a team where everyone has a role makes progress much faster than 1 doing all the work, just saying.
I'm not sure why there's all this mythos about the capabilities of GM:S in regards to producing a fully functioning and finely polished game. Game Maker: Studio supplies support and export for all major consoles and multiple games that you've likely seen and/or played on console (e.g Hyper Light Drifter and others you can see on Game Maker Showcase). The game will be available for PS3, PS4, PSVita, XBone, and PC upon completion, though that won't be until sometime next year at the earliest.