Something Classic Games

Hello once again! I’d like to begin by thanking all our backers and non-backers who promote us for all their support so far! We are close to 50% funded now, which coincidentally is where our yes/no standing is on steam greenlight. If you haven’t yet, please take a chance to visit steam and give us a big YES.

With that out of the way let’s get started with today’s update. The art in Shadows of Adam. The primary goal of our Kickstarter is to fund our remaining art costs, so we’d like to help you understand a bit more about the art in this game.

A frequently asked question concerning the art is how to make palettes like the one in Shadows of Adam. It’s a fitting question to start with, because the palette has an impact on the entire look of the game. Our palette started out as a basic 16 color palette with very bright and saturated colors. The palette was pretty close to standard NES colors and sacrificed any sort of harmony in order to have the boldest brightest colors in every hue. Here’s an early screenshot from our game using the old palette.

Clearly our game has evolved a lot from this shot, and that is thanks to the work of cyangmou. He is a professional pixel artist who helped us create a new 32 color palette and then all of the tilesets in our game. In addition to that he offered excellent guidance and played a pivotal role in the transformation of our game.

There is no secret to creating a great palette, any palette can be great if used efficiently. The one in our game was built to be versatile, colorful, and to give off an overall warm feeling. There are more purples in our palette than would typically be used because purple will be an integral color for Wraiths. Powerful magical entities from the afterlife who are a major plot point in our game.

Once we proved to ourselves that Shadows of Adam could look beautiful we had to breathe some life into the game. Bustling towns, rushing rivers, mine carts to ride, cliffs to hop, spells to cast, and slimes to crush! These are just a small sampling of all the different character sprites, pieces of art, and animations that are necessary to make an RPG. No game is more content heavy than an RPG, and we needed an artist who could handle any of our needs with speed and precision. Miraculously, we found him! -DE- has proven himself extremely reliable and talented. He is our lead animator, and will be helping us finish the remaining art in Shadows of Adam. Below you can find a sampling of his works for the game.

And finally we’d like to take a moment to point you guys to a new project that has sprung up on Kickstarter.

City of the Shroud

City of the Shroud is a tactical RPG with a community-driven story. The gameplay and visuals give off a Final Fantasy Tactics meets a Capcom fighter vibe. Both a novel concept, and one that you really want to see work! What separates this game from similar titles even further is that the battles occur in real-time and results from them determine the fate of the game for each and every player. How does that work you ask? They have a professional resident novelist writing the story as you create it, how cool is that? Click the gif or link above to find out more!

Re-posted from: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/949430021/shadows-of-adam/posts/1476541
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Hi everyone! We’re happy to say we have reached 30% of our funding goal. Thanks so much for your support! A few updates from all of us at Something Classic HQ.

Stretch Goals:

We’ve announced our first stretch goals!

If we hit the PS Vita stretch goal, the Vita port will provide a strong stepping stone for further platform releases; so even if we fail to reach the PS4 stretch, it does not necessarily mean the game will not be released on that platform. All console platforms would be released after our initial desktop launch due to the extra development time needed to do a proper port.

Further, if any of the console port stretch goals are met, everyone who pledged at a tier where a digital reward is offered will be able to claim their digital reward on that platform. This costs us some extra money, but we feel it’s fair to our backers.

Forums:

We now have a Shadows of Adam Forum! Wanna rant about the game? Post bugs you encountered? Speculate about the future plot? Ramble about retro gaming?

We have the place for you:

forums.shadowsofadam.com

Now off to the main discussion of this update. This is the element of gameplay which separates Shadows of Adam (SoA) from your generic JRPG – the unique way AP (ability points) are used and restored.

Ability Points:

AP is the currency of all skills and magic in SoA. Each hero has a fixed capacity of 100% AP for the entire game and their skills can often use over 40% of it at once. These costs may at first seem prohibitive, but fear not player! In SoA we have introduced an auto AP regeneration at the end of every round. After both players and enemies have executed their attacks, the entire party will regain 15% AP.

Rather than penalizing the player for using their skills often, the auto regeneration encourages it. However, if one only uses skills then you WILL run out of AP. One way to combat that is the use of Ethers, items that restore AP. However, these are not found in stores and are hard to find in dungeons. Thus, we decided to reward the player for defeating enemies. If say, Kellan, were to deal the fatal blow to a slime baddie he would then gain 5% AP back.

This forces the player to think exactly how they approach each battle in regards to who attacks who and what skills are (or are not) used. It also rewards fast combat and creates a unique attrition style. As the game progresses there may be chances to equip artifacts which affect the way AP is restored. Want to restore more than 15% on each round? How ‘bout an artifact that gives the 5% AP enemy kill bonus to all heroes? There are limitless possibilities to explore.

Thanks for tuning in to this update. Next update will cover the elusive Artifacter’s Guild and go into more depth on the types of artifacts you can find in the world of SoA!

Thanks to everyone who has backed us thus far! We are extremely grateful. Please spread the word so we can get this puppy funded!

Re-posted from: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/949430021/shadows-of-adam/posts/1474674
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First off, we are officially 25% funded! Big thanks to all our backers for taking the plunge!

With that said, let’s move on to today’s topic: dungeon mechanics.

Dungeon mechanics in Shadows of Adam are more Zelda than JRPG. Forget any notion of throw-the-switch-at-the-end-of-a-long-monster-filled-hallway puzzles! Our dungeon mechanics come in much more interesting flavors, and the complete absence of random battles will give you the freedom to solve puzzles without pesky interruptions.

In an early dungeon, you’ll navigate a soaring, mystical tower by ascending on blasts of air and leap from floor to floor to overcome obstacles and open new paths via lightning strike orbs.

In a verdant garden dungeon with sparkling pools, you’ll use floating magical orbs to stem the flow of cascading falls and manipulate the water level to unlock secret paths. While most of the graphics for this dungeon have been completed, the creation of the interactive elements are a good example of something backer’s funds would directly support.

Every dungeon will feature a unique and exciting mechanic tailored for its spectacular environment. Expect to be challenged, but never frustrated as you explore and conquer each well-crafted area.

Once again, thanks to all our backers for helping us reach 25%!

Re-post from: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/949430021/shadows-of-adam/posts/1471760
As of this writing, we are at 37% funding now 😀
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Hi everyone!

It’s our 3rd day here and we’ve already reached 20% funding! Thanks for all your help making this happen. We’ve enjoyed engaging directly with your messages and comments. Please share this campaign with everyone you think might be interested. Your help in that way is a big part of making this a success.

Look out for future updates where we go into depth on the engine we are using, more details and shots of our battle system, music clips and analysis, and a link to a public forum for fans to discuss the game!

For those who weren’t aware, we do offer a free public demo. It’s played in the browser (Google Chrome recommended) and you can get it here:
http://demo.shadowsofadam.com

Default Keys:

Z – Confirm
X – Cancel/Run
S – Open Menu
Arrow Keys for movement
We’ve received wonderful feedback and suggestions on our project. We love hearing from you, so please don’t hesitate to message us here or email: info@somethingclassic.net

I’ll leave you this fun image of our resident kooky with, “Lorabeth”.

Kooky Witch – Lorabeth

Repost from: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/949430021/shadows-of-adam/posts/1471405
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Heya everyone!

Just posting an update to ask everyone to kindly vote for us on Steam Greenlight!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=599360640

Thank you for all of the support so far! It’s been an awesome ride 😀