A Valley Without Wind 1&2 Catch-all

Wow, just that small change in how the character animations work makes the game look 100000x better.

Here's an interesting take. It's an article comparing the first video to the latest video. Kind of short, but it's something different.

I think it's funny that people continually comment about how there's a lot of wind in the game for something titled A Valley Without Wind. ... Why does everyone assume that there is no wind instead of the idea that you're looking for a place without wind to call home?

For a game that was originally announced as having final art that wasn't going to see any major changes, this game has had a lot of upgrades to the art. Not that that's a bad thing, I just think they vastly underestimated their capabilities and how much it could be improved at the start.

Cool. I am glad I found this thread as I am a fan of Arcen, AI War and A Valley Without Wind.

Plus by typing this I will be able track this thread from 'My recent posts'

New animations (and other things):

Still not sold on the horizontal views. Too jerky.

Interesting update on the game: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2011/...

Apparently the setting has changed to a made up world instead of being set in the future. I agree with them that it gives them more freedom in terms of story and world building.

Can't wait to read this latest article on AVWW after finishing the dishes.

Chris teases us with major changes coming to AVWW: http://christophermpark.blogspot.com...

I'm intrigued. Glad the core stuff is still there. I wonder what's changed...

I hope the core idea shift their making helps in my purchasing decision. Right now it seems like a bunch of nice ideas built around your evolution, survival, and exploration. But for some reason, I'm still not interested in playing it, although in theory, I should be. Nonetheless, at least it's been good seeing a developer be so open with his updates.

The big change: it's a 2D sidescroller! What a tweest!

The art looks so much better as a 2d game. So much better.

So, it seems more like a Metroidvania game. I like what I'm seeing. Makes me want to dig and build like in Terraria though.

I agree about the art, but I can't decide how I feel about the decision to go side-scroller. I'm a big Terraria fan, but that game works because it's cartoony and over-the-top. It's more difficult for me to get my head around a 2D side-scroller with a more serious tone. Having said that, I'm definitely interested to see where AVWW goes from here.

garion333 wrote:

The art looks so much better as a 2d game. So much better.

+eleventy billion

I kind of miss the shadows. And I'm picky about the feel of the player physics in my side-scrollers. Though, I think my main reservation is that there are a million indie platformers already. But we'll see where this ends up...

It was weird before, but now...

Weird.

I wonder how transitions across the world will work as now you go left, right, or underground. It'll take more video for me to get use to this change. Hell, it took weeks for me to not just laugh at how ugly the game was at first.

Click on the pics to be taken to their full size, which I highly recommend.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/eXWfil.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/6jQBal.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/bNQn8l.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/jLnxyl.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/swYVwl.jpg)

17 minutes of footage.

garion333 wrote:

17 minutes of footage.

Ooo. Nice. I like.

Bugging Erik Johnson on Twitter, and he says there might be some kind of beta next month.

Lots and lots and lots of info in Chris's latest blog entry. Perhaps most pertinent is that the public beta is coming soon.

garion333 wrote:

Lots and lots and lots of info in Chris's latest blog entry. Perhaps most pertinent is that the public beta is coming soon.

Yeah. I need a big, long and tall cup of coffee to read that article.

Strangeblades wrote:
garion333 wrote:

Lots and lots and lots of info in Chris's latest blog entry. Perhaps most pertinent is that the public beta is coming soon.

Yeah. I need a big, long and tall cup of coffee to read that article.

Public beta? Nice, this is just one of those games that needs some sort of demo.

I simply do not have words to describe how much better the art in this game looks now that it's a side-scroller. An improvement in orders of magnitude.

Beta is now live. Repeat: Beta is now live.

There is also a new trailer and the game is 50% off right now.

Strangeblades wrote:

Beta is now live. Repeat: Beta is now live.

There is also a new trailer and the game is 50% off right now.

Beta is live AND you don't have to pay, but only can go to civilization level 6. For full access it's $10.

garion333 wrote:
Strangeblades wrote:

Beta is now live. Repeat: Beta is now live.

There is also a new trailer and the game is 50% off right now.

Beta is live AND you don't have to pay, but only can go to civilization level 6. For full access it's $10.

Ach. Yup. You don't have to pay. I guess. If you hate America you don't have to pay. I guess.

Well, since I played for an hour and never raised my civilization level, I suppose the "demo" is a good value. Why did I put quotes around demo? Because it's not really what I would consider a real demo. There's so little in the way of a tutorial that really it's just a limited beta trial. A demo should be a more complete project in my mind.

Anyway, I stopped playing after an hour because I was bored. The music outdoors wasn't working (but it was indoors), so that kind of kills the atmoshpere when you're wandering and I kept running into the same enemies over and over and over and over and over and over again without feeling like I was getting anywhere. In fact, I didn't get anywhere, in the grand scheme of things mostly because I had no idea where to go.

But, the game looks great (excluding animations which are stiff beyond belief) and I'm finding myself liking the music more than when I first heard it. That said, I think I'll wait for a few more updates to dive back in. Right now I just felt lost. At least in Minecraft you feel like you're doing something within the first 5 mintues, even if it's just digging a hole, but here I made some spells and some scrolls, collected potions and wandered a wasteland that looked samey everywhere I went.

Yeah, I think Garion's assessment is pretty accurate in terms of my impressions as well.

I think there are some really good ideas here and a lot of potential, but I'm going to continue to Wait and See(TM). Right now, everything is a bit too repetitive -- buildings, enemies, NPCs. I'd definitely recommend holding off for a few more updates.

Also, Arcen has again chosen a hard-to-read font that's a little too small. Might not bother others, but my poor old eyes need something a little plainer and possibly larger.