HUGE UPDATE COMING - LEADEN SKY 2023
Leaden Sky is back with a brand new perspective. The game now takes totally different form but keeps it's story, characters, enemy types and locations from the original 2022 version.
Now thanks to the change of perspective to 3D FPS the game will provide significantly better combat, level design and freedom not possible to achieve in 2D. The changes don't end here, there is a lot more improvements coming in future, featuring half-open world, book-level detail for storytelling, brand new cutscenes with significantly improved artstyle, advanced AI, greatly improved horror and more.
For now I have a little teaser for you, but full trailer is coming soon along with playable demo, enjoy!
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How's development going? Seeing as the teaser was posted 123 days ago. Is a demo coming out soon?
And don't feel pressured, take the time you need! I'm still going to be all here for it.
I've been making a lot of changes and updating the game to newer version of the engine to handle more improvements regarding visuals and performance, there are lots of things I need to redo so it will take some time.
Currently I'm taking a break from this project, meanwhile I want to finish a much simpler project I started long ago. It's also a Leaden Sky title, a prolouge to events from the main game, this will be a better way of explaining a lot of things and reducing unnecessary exposition in notes and cutscenes, this way later I'll be able to focus on more streamlined and polished storyline.
You can check it here, first chapter is going to be released this month, there will be total of 3 chapters (about 18 levels total):
Leaden Sky: Nightmares by Helghast_95 (itch.io)
How will the Gore transfer over. The 2D gore in the game was already very impressive, but changing to 3D while keeping such impressive gore seems hard. Will this new version or future versions after have the same detailed gore?
It has similar gore effects to the latest 2022 demo, which was fairly basic.
In general this project doesn't focus on gore effects anyways.
¿FPS? I think i need to talk about this
There is no surprise that FPS games are one of the most distributed all over the world but the roots of the shooters are on 2D. You may feel offended for what i just said, so lets take an much more mediocre example that actually went very well (if you ask me)
Guns, gore and cannoli, a videogame about american/italian mafia in 2D that emphasized the action of NOT using a mouse and playing with your keyboard. The game was a success and because of that, they made a sequel also in 2D but this time you had to use the mouse to point the gun.
What i'm trying to say is that WE (not only me, WE as in multiple) will not feel like the games is getting worse because of it being in 2D and not in 3D. Super Mario Bros is in 2D and yet i know no one that hates that videogame.
Obviously, you are not supossed to take this as a "make the game in 2D or else" but rather as a "it ain't bad that it was on 2D". Wether you do what you do with your wonderful videogame is up to you.
Semper Fi Rozwiac (Hope i didn't mispell it)
(please be aware that my local language is spanish and altough i am very fluid in english, gramatical errors and/or mispells are expectable)
Hello, let me just start by saying that I do not feel offended in any way, you are free to express your own opinion as long as there is respect.
When it comes to 2D and 3D games I do realize that it's not a matter of "better" or "worse", it's about what fits the overall design of a game.
Leaden Sky is a story based horror game which greatly focuses on heavy atmosphere and features realistically designed world, characters, weapons etc. mixed with horror themed anomalies. Whatever gameplay elements appear in game they are limited by logic for the sake of more immersive experience.
On the other hand Guns, gore and cannoli is a funny, very cartoony arcade game which never takes itself seriously and has no problem sacrificing realism for the sake of gameplay. It's all about blasting heads off left and right like most classic shooters do.
Now you can see the differences those games have between them. The gameplay and general idea is completely different. While Leaden Sky has a to build immersive world, Guns, gore and cannoli does not have that requirement. Building an immersive 2D world is possible but it is much more difficult than it really should be as it requires numerous tricks and workarounds to mentain logic and realism of a flat, 2D level.
Here are exact major reasons why this game benefits change of perspective to full 3D:
1. Better gameplay:
3D gameplay gives you freedom 2D games simply don't have. In 3D everything can be your cover, you can flank enemies, lean around corners, take down targets from very far distances and do ton of other things you can't do in 2D games.
2. Better AI:
Such a major part of gameplay it deserves it's own point. AI in 2D will simply never be as good as it can be in 3D and you can really see that between really dumb AI in side scrollers and often very complex AI in FPS games. I honestly haven't seen any side scroller being praised for AI, it just doesn't work well there because of how gameplay and level design works. In 3D you can have enemies run between cover to cover with absolutely no problem, try to take out player from different angles, heights, distances, the possibilities are endless unlike 2D.
3. Better level design:
3rd dimension let's you create genuinely realistic world with tons of detail and complete freedom of movement. You can go everywhere, explore various areas, use environments for combat, stealth, avoiding danger, there is really no limit here, with more open level structure all those aspects become incredibly important.
4. Freedom of exploration:
It's pretty self-explanatory, there is no problem designing realistic and explorable 3D world, doing the same in 2D is incredibly difficult, impossible in some areas. While there are 2D games featuring exploration their worlds often have way too much verticality for a realistic game like Leaden Sky and it would ruin atmosphere.
5. Better horror and immersion:
And finally horror and immersion works so much better in first person, it's the most immersive perspective for presenting the game. Any horror elements such as monsters are running directly at your camera, it feels like it's about to jump out of a screen, this can't be compared to seeing a small, 2D player character being attacked by another flat monster, it doesn't feel personal. Additionally 3D game means 3D sound so you will be hearing positional sounds which can be used for horror, ambient and gameplay all at the same time, further improving immersion.
My final reson for perspective change is that Leaden Sky was simply not meant to be a side scroller, the only reason it was is because I didn't know how to create 3D games, but that has changed now.
The games it takes inspiration from (Stalker, Metro) are also both 3D games for good reasons.
Honestly the only good thing coming from 2D perspective is artstyle and it also can be great in 3D (work in progress):
edit: By the way, 2D game is not cancelled, it's just being developed as side project instead of main game, you can see more info in video description.
And don't worry about grammatical errors, you did good work, cheers ;)
¡You responded me! Man, i feel like my head is going to blow.
But first, i think i need to urgently react about what you said about the AI.
You may think your game does not have a good AI (lie) but an example you can't say "that is not good" is the indie game called "12 is better than 6"
if the enemy sees you, you are [swear word of your choose] and while all of the guns have a slow bullet velocity (for the standards of wild-west ammunitions) if you get just a little overwhelmed or make a little mistake, you are dead.
¿Not enough? No problem. Intravenous, another 2D game, has a pretty similar example with the difference that if just one and one enemy sees you, then go making a hole in the cemetary because you are sovereignly FUCKED. Just a little tiny 9x19 mm Parabellum SubSonic (less than 340 meters per second) can let you with 1 little percentage of your total life and keep in mind, most of guards have sub-machine guns, assault rifles and shotguns.
If you feel that is not enough then take a look to enemy's reactions:
If they hear shots, they'll go to the place of the sounds and start lurking for you.
If the see blood traces, they will follow them till the found the dead body.
If they see a corpse (alive or dead) they will try to wake him up (efortless when they are dead) and start looking for you.
If the lights start to flicker, they'll pay attention for a couple of seconds and then proceed.
If they lights are turned off (with the buttons or the fuse box), they will try to turn them on again.
Assuming that you think that's not enough, then take a look at your game. If a merc sees you, he will alert his buddies and take cover, getting out only if you lean over it or if you are tu much time behind it. It doesn't stop there if the electric monsters (i do not remember their names) see you, they will start WALKING towards you. If you don't attack with your firearms, they will know that you are planning to use your knife so when they are close to you, they'll suddenly sprint and (in most cases) cath you off guard. Not like is easy to attack them with a knife without being hurt anyway but it's quite interesting.
Letting the AI topic apart let's talk about the games you took inspiration from:
Stalker: I could see that one coming and what a message it leaves...
Metro: I'am not so sure about what metro you say (2033, Last Light, Exoddus) but if there is a thing that i'am well aware is that i love metro, and knowing that, i may start liking a bit more the 3D project. Knowing that you took some inspiration about it. Will there be sections where you can shoot lights so they can't see you? Maybe ocassions where you can pardon their lives and leave your enemy's unconscious (i wouldn't because they are just a bunch of assholes... the mercs)?
You aren't discarding the 2D project? That's great to hear!
You may feel a little mad because of the long reply so i'll put a little bit of an interesting thing about your country (it was poland. Right?)
The Blyskawica submachine gun was the World-War-2 version of the Scorpion Evo 3 (at least for the standards of the firearms at that time). It was a polish mass-produced, cheap and reliable pice of gear and boy if i see even a newborn baby with this, i would poop my boxers and start begging for my help. My god if it was even easy to produce because of the using of screws. It was like taking the best things of an MP40 and a STEN jointed together.
I'am not so surprised about Poland making very good weapones. Take a look at the PM-63 for example. What a system of fire and what a portability. I bet that Harry Houdini could hide a PM-63 in it's throat.
Best of the PM-63 is that even on it's 9x19 parabellum version, it is still subsonic. Can this get better?
(i apologize if i overwhelmed you with the message)
To be honest i think most of the fan base came just because of the 2d and not 3d
I have a question: have you been inspired by such games as "Cry of fear", "Afraid of monsters of monsters", or maybe "S.T.A.L.K.E.R" or "METRO"? It's just that the style and setting are somewhat similar.
Yes, Stalker and Metro are even mentioned as inspirations in description. There are also inspirations from other games, but honestly Leaden Sky just does it's own thing at this point.
Helghast_95,you finish the 2D version first, and then get to 3D, because what the fuck?With each update of the plot, the game changes its style
Don't whine, this is the first time you will be getting proper gameplay and horror.
Story didn't change, read more into notes and you will understand what's shown in trailer.
man let him do what he wants with his game, this is honestly a massive improvement from 2D it will be way more immersive
We need more projects like this on Godot!
any chance for the old versions that werent released to be for the public in case u decide to just work the first person version of the game?
ru gonna still work on the side scroller ver? or is it gonna be first person?
yes, it's not abandoned, watch teaser until the end
okay <3