Hi everyone, I’m the solo dev of SILKROAD Project, a game that mixes stylized hack’n slash with management of a guesthouse in the middle of the desert.
The originality of the combat comes from the fact that the player is constantly followed by a spirit that assists him during the fights.
The spirit can stay in place to, for example, act as a turret, and be called back when necessary to rush towards the player and knock down all the enemies in his path.
Between each mission, the player will spend time in his guesthouse where he will have to take care of visitors and make sure they have a good time.
There are so many amazing things to comment on that I have no idea where to start! I really love that you’ve combined two different genres into one game that ties into the storyline of SILKROAD project. I’m impressed with the combat system and the combos! I can definitely see the Ninja Gaiden inspiration! Will your combos also have a combo count in the future? Will long combos offer any power-ups or incentives?
I’m also impressed with the stylized art and setting! It puts me in the mind of Jet Set Radio. Will each of the three parts of the kingdom have their own unique styles? How does the “point system” work for when the guests leave the guesthouse and return to their parts of the kingdom? When they return to their part of the kingdom, will there be any visual changes to that kingdom or changes in the dialog for the people of that kingdom?
wow, I am really flattered to see you so enthusiastic and interested in my project!
Given my inspirations, which are DMC, Bayonetta and Ninja Gaiden for combat, the combo count is clearly something I want to implement at some point. I still have a long way to go before I can achieve a really engaging fight, but the vision I have right now is to try to encourage the player to constantly aggress and suffocate the enemy. An experienced player would be able to know the right moments in a combo from the main character to know when to call the spirit back and keep the enemy stun locked, when to leave it in place and act as a turret to maximize damage, or when to use it as a decoy for crowd control…etc. The trade off being you can’t do everything at the same time :D.
As far as the 3 territories are concerned, I would like their people to have a unique culture. Even if I have in mind Chinese, Persian and Mongolian inspirations, the universe is totally fictional and has nothing to do with our world
By welcoming visitors from different origins in our guesthouse, exchanges and interactions will be created between them. The higher the satisfaction of the guests, the more the word of mouth will spread. This will attract even more guests, and of higher rank who will have an even greater impact on the evolution of exchanges (eg. wanderer->explorer->merchant->official->administrator->minister). Obviously with the rank increases the expectations.
In return, the reception of new visitors unlocks the sharing of new technology with us which will improve our service: eg. better cooking technique which unlocks new recipes, better irrigations which unlocks new plants, …etc.
Here’s a boring diagram that sums up a little bit the meta game loop I have in mind
To try to keep it more or less in order of feasibility for me, I plan to limit myself to the inn, and the surrounding areas as instanced levels where the fights will take place. For the moment I don’t plan to bring the players to each of the 3 kingdoms
Thank you again for your interest, I always love to talk about this passion project and it feels good when I have so many questions about it to answer
Thank you so much for the in-depth explanation of your current combat system and the process by which a player interacts with the visitors! It is much appreciated. I am even more excited for SILKROAD Project!
The Fishing Mini Game looks really entertaining! It will take a level of skill in hand-eye coordination to achieve a really great cast. Am I correct in that the fish you catch can be used in the restaurant? And depending on the quality of the fish you catch, it would have an effect on the satisfaction of the visitors?
Not to completely derail the subject from the fishing topic but can we just praise that water? It’s gorgeous!
Fangirling aside, I have to say looking at the fishing mini-game I can already tell I’d fail it constantly. Time events and I just never seem to get along. But I can also tell that some of my life-skilling friends would obsess over this system for hours a day. I’d love to see how this ties into the cooking system and how beneificial cooking can be
Haha thanks but Epic should get the credit for the water as it’s just the default shader.
For the time event, don’t worry, it just happens at the beginning and if you fail, you just start the stamina battle with a malus … so no hard fail there
A full year has passed since I made the development of SILKROAD Project public. And a lot has happened. I wish you all a happy new year and hope that 2023 will be as productive for me as 2022 was.
I probably spent too much time on this video! but at least it was fun to learn how to improve my editing skill!
Thank you so much for sharing your dev vlog wrap-up for 2022! You have certainly come a long way! I loved the pace of your video, your exposition, and the memes! LOL!
The spirit design looks so awesome! It is like it’s made of dark matter and energy - the potential to release great power.
I see you’ve started using Cascadeur. Did you run into any issues bringing it to UE? If you could give a ballpark estimate, how much time did you save by using Cascadeur? As far as ease of use, what would you rate it?
I’m very excited about what you will reveal in 2023! What was that Silk Road sign behind you in the video?
Cascadeur is a big time saver for me. I thought the feature that I would use the most would be the auto physics tool that correct an entire animation, but in fact I found out that the best tool for my workflow was actually the posing tool. The blocking become incredibly fast with it, and it allows me to test more idea with it.
The auto physics is actually a nice feature too, but it tends to force you to output realistic animation style. For the kind of hack’n slash I’m trying to do, it might not always be useful, but for some anim, like locomotion, NPC gesture, etc… It’s still useful.
Not so much issues with UE so far
(The “Silk Road” sign in the background is just a book on a stand, I have a real fascination for this region )
This looks great, i love the art style and fishing in an Hack´n Slash game is a funny idea.
Using Houdini for random procedural character creation looks like a good idea if this work. Cant wait if you test this more if it turns out to be usable.
