Happy Birthday to my beautiful princess Madelyn who turned 5 today! You get your own video game!

My daughter wanted to be in Ghouls ‘n Ghosts and fight “Green Head”, I said it was someone else’s game but I could make her one that was like it. Then she said “But girls can’t be knights, Daddy. Only boys…” to which I answered “Pshh…What color do you want your armor to be?”. The answer was pink 😉 And that’s how this game started. My daughter Madelyn loves the first stage of Ghouls ‘n Ghosts and makes me play it over and over because she want’s to see me fight “Green head”, the Shielder boss at the end of the first stage. It’s not hard for her to twist my rubber arm as it’s been my favorite game since it came out years ago.

So here we are almost a year after I started tinkering with the graphics to a full blown polished prototype. We have all of the pieces in place with this one! Using Unity as our engine not only for reliability but moving to consoles where people wanted our last game to be. A beautiful movie quality sound track. An actual cut scene artist. And oh yeah – a children’s Author to co-write the game plot and dialog with me (this is based on a story I wrote when I was 9 year old… it needs heavy editing 😉 ). We’re going to take our time on this and not give a release date until we are satisfied that we will hit no snags with development.

That being said – the prototype is pretty much the full 3 stage playable training tutorial and the full 3 stage first level of the game! The player graphics are 90% finished. I think 6 or 7 different Enemies, 2 bosses. But that’s far from what we’re planning. Depending on the story, we’ll aim for 7-8 Levels of game play each with 3 stages.  Tons of cut scenes! And for the hard core GNG fans there will be a “Loki” Mode where you can (like in the original GNG) get sent back to the start of the game to replay it again to get a different ending. But the twist here is that you have to play as Daddy (who’s graphics are about 90% completed as well) with a slightly altered version of the stages as you can only use Daddy’s cursed sword (Insanity’s Blade)!

Onto the gameplay features! Aside of the basic GNG style game play we’ve added special weapons and abilities as well as items you can select to alter the way you play a level. Your ghost dog has different abilities depending on which armor you are wearing. He always has a charge attack which works in different ways depending on the armor you wear, but he cannot do his basic shoot attack until you have beaten one of the bosses in the game. The shooting is also changed by what armor you wear. One set of armor will allow you to climb in unreachable places!

And as if the dog’s abilities weren’t enough already – he has the power to resurrect the player. You cannot die! The one problem people always complain about in the GNG series is the difficulty. The half way check points drive most regular gamers nuts. Only the hardcore survive the real ghouls n ghosts (apparently I’m very hard core then ;)). So the dog collects spirit orbs as you destroy enemies. The orbs keep his magic level topped up. Using his charge attacks drain the magic a little at a time but resurrecting takes half of his magic away. As long as you are destroying enemies, you can’t die. The only time it gets really tricky here is when you get to a boss. But the bosses all have attacks that unleash minions, and these guys are destroyed to get the orbs.

Onto Quest items! As you progress through the game, you will receive items that can boost your performance during the game. One of the first quest items you obtain will be a magical bag which you can store an item in which will aid you. Basically this is an equip slot. The dog’s fire power is one of the items that can be placed here, a second set of armor, and a few other items which will enhance an aspect of your game play. They can be equipped on the map screen. This lets the player choose which object and strategy they will use for a stage. Some people may find blasting their way though to the end is best with the dog, or having the ability to have a second set of magical dragon armor during a boss fight to be much better. The choice will be up to the player.

Self adjusting difficulty. If the game finds you are struggling, it will ease off on what it’s throwing at you etc, If it sees you are having way too easy of a go, it will throw more at you. The player will never be penalized for the adjustment in difficulty. And it will allow beginners and pros alike to enjoy the same gameplay without having to alter or lose anything. One game for all!!

Game progression. This one is for the completionists!! Stage stats – Hidden Chests found, Hidden Areas Found, Hidden Items Found. Get 100% if you can! This is something that got cut from our previous game because of the addition of the second player. There are hidden areas in every level that contain different items. Some can only be found when you are using a special weapon.

So that’s it for now! We’ll be posting dev blog updates as we progress. Screens and vids, and also be featuring some of the music on our site! And stay tuned today for some more news and videos of the prototype! I’ve dropped some screens on here to hold you over and now I’ve got to get back to the birthday girl!

– Chris