As many of you have guessed (that is, my dog, my piano teacher and my laptop), HFA won’t be released this year. That doesn’t mean I’m not working on it, although very sporadically. Thing is, I’ve never been good at organising code, and HFA tends to run kind of slow on some computers. With this, I mean I’m waiting for a stabler version of Clickteam’s HWA to be released (bug them about it!). Another reason for the slowdown is that I virtually do not have time to work on it: university, editing a film we shot over summer and being a film teacher takes my breath away. And, obviously, my lack of concentration and motivation. I suppose I’m trying to make up excuses, but bear with me. I’ll not set a release date for now; now I’m planning on releasing this as freeware, seeing that it’s very unprofessionally being handled. Thanks for visiting still. I’ll try to meet your expectations x).

Everything was going well until I had to unplug the PC around Christmas time. My room was remodeled and I was back to plugging everything together after a few days. I found out, after the computer wouldn’t turn on, that the guys doing the work in the room dropped the PC and the HD broke. I fortunately had a backup of HFA in the internet, so things weren’t struck much too hard. Apart from school and its intense (and rather irrelevant) workload, I’ve now a gf and a job, so I haven’t had much time to work on the game. I’ll get to work on it when I’m able, though. And it will (slowly) be finished.

Meanwhile, why don’t you check out Mark’s TSE2 battle engine? Or Blake’s Project Rhapsody and its battle engine video?

Okay, so I finally finished Beta 1. The thing is going really slow (2 or 3 months of work = 12 minutes of if-you-know-what-you’re-doing gameplay). Oh, well. So much for a guy doing a game, neh? Regardless, I’m very satisfied with HFA’s first areas. Here’s a screen from a boss:

Well.. I’ve slaved myself for so long now. The caverns are now done along with most of the forest (just 1 boss to go!) The story is kind of taking shape in the game–kind of. It really depends if you like talking with people or not. I spent the last two days coding the 2nd boss (it’s a very grotesque little thing, to be honest). I’m trying to stick to bosses with patterns, too, so they take a little bit more to code. So, when I finish the other boss, I’ll release the first beta test. Shouldn’t be too long. Sorry for the wait, too.
I’ve also been thinking about selling HFA for the huge amount of $1 per copy. Either that or I’ll make a collisseum with a log-in interface where you’ll be able to battle your friends online, etc (and pay $1 just once to get a username). If you wish, please tell me what you think about this. I think $1 is a low enough amount to ask for a game that’s taken about a year and a half to make (and will take another one, probably). I understand most people won’t pay anyway, so this is not really a sure thing. Thanks.
(you can post in the comments now)

Gameplay Video

Here’s an early gameplay video of a friend playing HFA:



Mind you, things might change a bit in the final game. I’ll soon show the official trailer, you’ll like it =)
Update: Since the issue has been mentioned a couple of times, the reason Alicia takes a while to kill the mushroom is because it’s level is higher than hers. When she reaches it, she’ll be able to kill it in 3 or less hits.

HFA updates
HFA’s progressing very nicely. The overworld map is kind of getting too big, but for now, at least, it’s very pleasant to create each of the rooms–I can add personal touches, lighting effects, etc. I’m already half into the meadows, half into the underground caverns and half into the forest. I’m very carefully trying to make a smooth difficulty curve, so the first rooms almost consist of exploration. The enemies in the game give experience and are sometimes aggressive, sometimes passive (which means they don’t attack you unless you do first). I promise I will show you a gameplay trailer in the next update =).

HFA is still being worked on rather hard as of late. I’ve finished the engine, finally, and am now building the levels. Since I don’t have anything quite solid to show you yet, I’m posting a screenshot with the 4 stages of day, although there are more than 86,000 different shades that fade away very smoothly. I’ve also added a more accurate HUD, along with new graphics and everything. All in all, the game will hopefully have around 5, 6 hours of continuous gameplay and over 10 areas to play in. Each area, being generous here, will have around 15-20 rooms. I’m guesstimating, since I’ve added new power ups, that there’ll be around 15 different habilities and 15 different spells/powerups. Anyway… to be honest, I’m quite excited about this project. In fact, I’m working on a sort of teaser trailer, too. I will release it soon =).

1x

2x

Okay. I’ve finished it. I’m releasing alpha 4.0. Please look in the forums to find the url ^^ There’s loads of updates in this version. I sent you guys an e-mail anyway. Only whom reported bugs in alpha 3.0 will get access to alpha 4.0.

Okay. I said I was going to release the alpha in like two days but evidently I was wrong. I encountered 9 bugs ….

I know I’ve not posted in a month. Sorry. I was traveling Europe and I had truly a lot of fun =) Meanwhile, though, I did get a chance to work on HFA. I fixed all the bugs reported for alpha 3.1 and now am about to release alpha 4. Give me a couple of days. I’ve been spriting backgrounds for the game, but they’re tremendously time-consuming. The next post will include a screenshot with some new spritework, etc. The story again has been changed (hopefully to a more sinister one) and this time I want to keep it for myself. I could say that religion is an important theme, but maybe some people would bash me if it wasn’t at the end. So, in short, everything’s well, HFA seems to be progressing silently (which is good) and hopefully after alpha 4 I can start level-creation.

I need testers :s I think we’re already enough. All of the testers seem promising, so I hope we get to finish a good game ^^. In regards to the engine, I’ve already finished it (hopefully–I’ve released alpha 3 just a few moments ago) so I’ll be able to start level building rather soon. I’m going to europe for a month, but I’ll take my good-old-fashioned laptop so I can work on it and still be present as much as I can. I’ve also added two new special movements which will allow you to explore the levels even more. I’ll keep on posting regularly if I don’t happen become a participator in a plane-crash and end up in an island somewhere with hostile natives and wherein evil corporations reside. And wherein there is no such word as Starbucks.