Art Dolus - 2D indie platformer about Grief - WIP

[Ratgibnak]

Hey everyone,

My name is Antoine, I am a French dev and I am currently working on my first indie 2D game made with Unity !

Dolus is an introspective journey into the world of grief. You will have to find your way through the five stages of loss in this hand drawn adventure platformer.

At the moment we are working on the first level, the Denial level. It will be a tutorial level where you will explore a castle in ruin full of strange creatures.

I will come update you on this topic as soon as I have more content to share.

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Ratgibnak

 

[Ratgibnak]

We just added this new animation for the reaper !💀

Can you notice the heatwave effect behind the flames near the statue ? 🤩

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Ratgibnak

 

[Ratgibnak]

Hi all !

First Parallax test ! We will add more layers later on and tweak the speed a bit

Can you guess who made the placeholders ? Is it Thomas the artist or Antoine the MSPaint master ? ^^

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Ratgibnak

 

[Ratgibnak]

Camera following the player !

The goal is to be able to see above/below when you are on high grounds so you can anticipate traps and monsters. And to keep the cam low when you are on the ground in order to not waste space with the bottom of the scene.

What do you think ? Is the cam moving too fast ? How do you do it in your own games ?

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Ratgibnak

 

[Ratgibnak]

Thanks all !

Last post before the Holiday season ! We just finished a new animation !

How impressive the explosion feels to you ?

We will add more particles in Unity after that, can’t wait to share these with you !

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Ratgibnak

 

[Zloth]

The legs just kinda seem to vanish, but I'm not so sure I would notice in the middle of a game.

 

[Ratgibnak]

The legs just kinda seem to vanish, but I'm not so sure I would notice in the middle of a game.

They do vanish in the gif. But in the game we will add particles for the tentacles at this specific moment so it looks like they are exploding

 

[Ratgibnak]

Thank you William for your comment ! I hope our world will live up to your expectations ^^

Even in death your enemies can still hurt you !

Once killed the medusa will burst into pieces. If one of the tentacles is touched, it will inflict terrible pain, forcing the player to start everything again !

What do you think about the new animation ?


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Dolus is a hand drawn adventure platformer about the five stages of loss and grief.
Follow us in our game development journey !
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Ratgibnak

 

[Brian Boru]

about the five stages of loss and grief

So why didn't you call it DABDA?

 

[Ratgibnak]

Ahah it would have been strange ^^ We called it Dolus because it means "Pain" and "Grief" in Latin

 

[Ratgibnak]

We finished all animations from 3/5 of the monsters from the Denial level ! We are very proud of our progress on the first stage of grief 😀

Here is some gameplay with the monsters that will be in your way to healing 😈

We are now working on the attacks from the boss. Thomas is making some very nice spritesheets that we will soon share with you 🤩

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Dolus is a hand drawn adventure platformer about the five stages of loss and grief.
Follow us in our game development journey !
Insta - Twitter - Facebook

 

[Ratgibnak]

New heavy attack animation from the boss of the first stage of Grief !

Do you think you will be able to dodge it ?

Thomas is currently drawing all the animations from the boss. Next time we will try to show you how it looks ingame !

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Dolus is a hand drawn adventure platformer about the five stages of loss and grief.
Follow us in our game development journey !
Insta - Twitter - Facebook

 

[Ratgibnak]

Here is Thomas’ drawing process for the Reaper🎨
All animations from Dolus are made with Procreate🖌️

We import the animations to Unity as spritesheets. We then add an emission map and a normal map to the sprites to give them bloom and some depth thanks to the lights 💡🔦

What software do you use to draw your characters ?

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Dolus is a hand drawn adventure platformer about the five stages of loss and grief.
Follow us in our game development journey !
Insta - Twitter - Facebook

 

[Ratgibnak]

The Denial Knight will make your world crumble away ! Nothing will be left but the Truth.

What do you think about the animation finally added in the game ? With all the lights and the particles it is coming to life !

This is only one of the three attacks the Denial Knight will throw at the player. As you go on, the fight will become more and more difficult.

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Dolus is a hand drawn adventure platformer about the five stages of loss and grief.
Follow us in our game development journey !
Insta - Twitter - Facebook

 

[Brian Boru]

As you go on, the fight will become more and more difficult

So you're saying that one's easy?

 

[Ratgibnak]

Ahah yes this one is easy, grieving isn't easy ^^

From idea to concept art to artwork to ingame character !

We started this game a long time ago and we are very proud of our progression.

You can see that the character design that we had in mind at the beginning is very close to what we currently have.

Don't you want to hug that little fellow ? 🥺

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Dolus is a hand drawn adventure platformer about the five stages of loss and grief.
Follow us in our game development journey !
Insta - Twitter - Facebook

 

[technical gamer]

it is very good game with awesome animation and good quality

 

[Ratgibnak]

⛈️ Thunderstruck ⛈️

What do you think about this thunderbolt particle effect ? It will be a futur trap for another level of grief 🤫

It is still a work in progress but I like the way it moves 😀

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Dolus is a hand drawn adventure platformer about the five stages of loss and grief.
Follow us in our game development journey !
Insta - Twitter - Facebook

 

[Ratgibnak]

🌊 Water simulation 🌊
After working on lightning, I am now working on water that will be implemented in another level of Grief !

Pretty cool, right ?
Later on I will add some effects and change the texture of the water so it looks even more realistic !

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Dolus is a hand drawn adventure platformer about the five stages of loss and grief.
Follow us in our game development journey !
Insta - Twitter - Facebook

 

[Ratgibnak]

We are proud of showing you the second attack from the Denial Knight !

Do you like the blackhole effect of the projectile ? It will go way faster and I'll add particles when it will hit the ground ✨


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Dolus is a hand drawn adventure platformer about the five stages of loss and grief.
Follow us in our game development journey !
Insta - Twitter - Facebook

 

[Ratgibnak]

Jump jump 🦘

Final attack from our first boss ! It is a sweep attack where the player will have to jump to avoid to be hit in the face ;(

The boss is almost complete now ! We only need to make the animations from the boss taking damages and dying.

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Dolus is a hand drawn adventure platformer about the five stages of loss and grief.
Follow us in our game development journey !
Insta - Twitter - Facebook