Farseek Control Scheme

Character Select

A/D/Left/Right: Change Character

Enter: Join Game/Start Game

Select Character: Space

Undo Selection: Shift

In Game Controls

WASD: Movement

Attack: Space

Block: Shift

Power Attack: Shift + Space

Ability 1: Q

Ability 2: E

Ability 3: R

Change Potion: 1/3

Use Potion: 2

Pause: Esc

Shop Controls

A/D: Change Selection

2: Make Selection

Instructions

Join up to three friends and battle enemies in this classic beat'em up style couch co-op game! This alpha demo contains a basic variant of the full game's survival mode, four unique characters and lots of fun to be had with friends or on your own. While you play this demo, please keep in mind that this is an alpha demo! Just about everything in this demo is subject to change, and there are certainly many bugs to be found. You can report bugs to goldenflamestudios@gmail.com or by messaging our official twitter @Goldenflamestu .

Mage Spotlight

Well, two weeks have passed with no updates. We promised consistent updates and failed to deliver, for that we apologize for the silence, but hope to give better and more regular posts in the future.


Anyways, today we are looking at the mage and her powers. From a purely game play perspective, the mage is a true glass cannon. Her attacks and abilities are powerful, but her health is low making her fragile compared to the other heroes.

Attacking and Blocking

The mage's primary attack is a ranged flame bolt that can travel any distance. Once colliding with it's target you will hear a sizzle as it singes their armor, clothing, fur or skin. This attack works great for her position as the lowest health character, as it allows you to play at a distance from most enemies.

The mage's block is not a typical protective move. Rather than raising a shield, weapon or fists to stop incoming attacks, the mage uses a small field of flames to protect herself. Just like all other blocks, this prevents half of all incoming damage. 

Finally, the mage's power attack is a spiral of flame rising from her hooves. This attack damages all foes around her, allowing you to escape tight situations by

stunning all surrounding enemies while also dealing massive damage.

The mage's attacks are all also magical attacks. While this may seem obvious, it does have a major impact on many enemies. Most foes you will encounter are not resistant at all to magical attacks, but may be resistant to melee or ranged attacks. This means that the mage will almost always be effective in combat, even if the enemies are well armored.

Abilities

Ability 1 - Fire Ball

The first ability the mage obtains is the fire ball spell. This is a high damage blast of explosive flame, hurdling through the air only to explode on contact with an enemy or after a short distance. The ball of fire itself deals damage on top of the explosion afterwards, meaning a direct hit will deal incredible damage to a single enemy.

Ability 2 - Lightning Bolt

The mage's second ability is to fire a bolt of lightning from her hands. This strike travels straight through enemies, meaning any line of attackers will all take the full damage of the bolt at once. The lightning bolt provides the easiest way to stun a group of enemies. Each target hit by the shock will be stunned and damaged, possibly saving yourself and all of your friends in the process.

Ability 3 - Molten Rain

The final ability the mage gets is rain made of pure fire. When activated this ability rains destruction from above, though the rain may seem familiar. The death from above is actually the same as the flame bolt of the mage's normal attack, even the damage is the same. This may seem like a determent, though knowing the damage of the bolt can be improved on top of the fact that this is like attacking dozens of times makes this a truly powerful ability to behold.

Crowd Control

The mages purpose is crowd control. Her abilities all perform wonderfully at taking down multiple enemies at once. Even with her low health she is capable of clearing hordes of foes on her own. Combine her with more allies and your party will become an unstoppable team!

Farseek

The newest iteration of project annihilation, now with 60% less syllables. The new name is more than just a way to reduce the time it takes to type an in progress project’s title, it coincides with a new part of development for us. Our main project has been worked on for a year and a half now, and the end of the initial piece is in our sights now.
Our goal from the beginning has been to create a demo to headline a kickstarter or other crowdfunding campaign. Without outside funding, finishing the game as a whole would take many years more than what would be necessary. Many crowdfunding campaigns launch with only visuals with most having examples of gameplay to show off. We want to do more, to show anybody interested in exactly what our game is about.
Farseek will have a stand alone demo playable at the time our crowdfunding campaign begins, it will be a prequel to the main title really. We want to ensure anybody wanting to put money towards our project will be satisfied with the end product, and this demo is an opportunity to show game mechanics to a wider audience. Any chance to improve gameplay should be taken.


This blog series will run weekly, being posted Sunday each week. In this blog we will give updates, show in game art and what is going on in general. Each week will have a theme, whether it be art, gameplay, lore or mechanics. This week’s theme is more a general update, as well as laying out what we plan on getting done and when it will be done.

Time Scale
We are working towards a December 2019 starting date for our crowdfunding campaign. If we need to push it further away we will, we want to be professional and only present a product that is ready to be supported. The demo will be available to play that same day with or without supporting our campaign.
Be sure to follow this blog and our main twitter so you can see any and all updates that go into making a video game of this scale for the first time!

Art Blog
When we post an art blog, we will focus on a handful of art assets, either created by Kenna Marar or Philippe Racicot. We will go into detail of how they were made from the initial direction to art programs to how they are implemented in the game engine.

Gameplay Blog
Gameplay blogs will show off gameplay itself. This can be through screenshots or through video footage, either commentated through voice or text in the blog itself. These posts will hopefully clear up questions anyone may have about the game itself.

Lore Blog
Lore blogs will go over the story of the game and the world it is set in. These will certainly be carefully made, as all the past lore blogs we have posts aren’t even relevant to the game anymore. Farseek has changed a lot over development, and the lore behind it seems to change weekly at times.

Mechanic Blog
Blogs going over mechanics will detail specific aspects of gameplay. Rather than showing gameplay as a whole, we will break down one single part of the gameplay and examine it in detail. We will go over how it was initially designed on paper, then implemented into the game, then bug fixed and tweaked from then on.

Happy Birthday!

Today is a special day! February 14th, 2017 marks the first day of Golden Flame Studios being a new force in the indie game scene. Over the past year we have seen plenty of ups and downs but in the end we will always prevail as long as we hold on to our spirit and determination.

While we would usually go into detail of a project or a team member here on our blog, things aren't looking the best for the team right now and our projects are on partial hold until further notice. Development is still in the works for these games, but the whole team is not available to work at this time on them, subscribe here or follow our twitter for further updates!

Full Moon!

January 20/21st is a full moon, so here at Golden Flame we thought we would talk about the werewolves of the Wildlands! Thankfully we have someone who is a bit of an expert on these big monsters, mostly because he is one of them! Jackson was a member of one of the lycanthrope tribes in the Wildlands and he will be answering all of the questions that were asked over the past week.

If you want to join in on further Q&A blogs, be sure to follow our Twitter as we are the most active there!

Our first few questions come from Jessica, someone who has kindly been following the progress of our main title since the beginning!

Q: How strong are the werewolves? Can they pick me up with one hand?

A: Well it does depend, the bloodline of the beast has altered depending on which source the curse came from. Some are faster, some are stronger and a few are smarter. I'm sure most of them could pick you up with one hand though, they are quite strong. Though I wouldn't want them to get that close, they have a tendency to devour everything

Q: Is there anything negative about the full moon?

A: That also varies like the strength of the werewolves. If you are cursed and not born with the affliction, you will find your transformations uncontrollable, and the full moon is one of the things that can cause one. If you are born as a werewolf then you will find yourself in full control of them after a certain age, like hitting puberty but you turn into a big monster instead of all the awkwardness of normal puberty.
There is a way to stop the uncontrollable transformations of course, but the process of doing so has been held as a secret by the tribes of the Wildlands fro generations.

Q: How large are the roles that the werewolves play in the project? Are they allies, foes, or both?

A: We wouldn't want to spoil the fun of werewolves all at once, they play a role but not a major one. If the whole game focused around them then they wouldn't feel so special in the end, now would they? As for who's side they are on, you can find werewolves who will help and werewolves who will hurt. All you need to do is look hard enough, it's a big world out there!

This next question comes from Mena on Furry Amino. If you would like to follow us there, follow this link. We don't post there often, but if you don't have a twitter it is a great alternative!

Q: From what I know so far, there seems to be only one were character present. My only question is... why not more?
A: While it would be quite fun to fill the game with were characters of all sorts (wolves, bears, ravens, tigers, etc.), like we said above we don't want to spoil them. One of the main playable characters is a werewolf, and while more is typically better, we left the remaining were characters to be filled by the roles of NPCs. Friends and foes may have this curse, so watch out!

Our last set of questions were asked by Faolan Wildpaw, also on furry amino.

Q: How exactly did your subjects involved in the game, become lycanthropes? 

A: While we won't spoil how the main characters became cursed (you've got to play for yourself to find that out!) we can say a few of the ways one can become cursed. The most common is through the bite of a lycanthrope, claws and scratches won't do. This kind of infection causes the victim to become their beast form forcefully under the full moon as well as under extreme emotional stress.
Then there is the bloodline curse. If you are born under a family that has the beast blood flowing through the generations then you will grow up as a lycanthrope. This is the most controllable version of the affliction as you have your whole life to attune to it.
Finally there is the hex, a magic user such as a wizard, witch or warlock, casts a curse of lycanthropy upon their victim. This is effectively the same as receiving a bite, as one of the components necessary to cast the spell is a vial of lycanthrope blood. Whatever bloodline of lycanthrope the blood was from is what the victim will turn into.

Q: Do the characters find their transformations excruciatingly painful, or is it a pleasurable sensation that they can go along with.

A: This one is another 'it vaires' answer. For anybody infection via hex or bite, they will find their transformations incredibly painful and slow. Their entire skeletal and muscle structure must grow and change to accommodate their new body and their nerves are all very much in tact for this entire process. Thankfully the adrenaline rush that comes with the transformation typically ends the pain in a quick moment.
Those born with the curse in their bloodline have it much easier. Their transformations are much quicker and are practically painless. With their bodies attuned to their beast form the magic works over them with ease.

Q: What is the basic plot of the game your team is developing, with it involving werewolves?

A: Well, as stated above the main subject of the game is not the mythos surrounding werewolves. There will be plenty to explore into the world of the lycan tribes of the Wildlands. We wouldn't want to spoil things here, especially when this part of the game seems incredibly exciting to some of the people following development!

Q: Do you have any particular things that have inspired the production of this game?

A: Plenty of things have influenced and inspired the production of this project. To name a some of the largest sources; Dungeons and Dragons, The Elder Scrolls, and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Story telling has changed a ton since the start of development but we feel like it is in a really good place now. Gameplay will be the primary focus but there will still be a whole world with quests to complete.

Q: Will there be biographies related to the were-side of the characters in the game?

A: There will be in more than one way. While there will likely be smaller summaries to read on each character about who they are and what they do, each main character will have their own personal quest to reveal more about their background to the player. With one of our main characters being a werewolf, there will be a lot to learn about the werewolves through him!

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There we are! Plenty of answered questions for you to enjoy. If you have questions you would like to ask, the best way to ask them is to send a tweet @ us on twitter (@GoldenFlameStu1). Follow us there as well for updates on the progress of the game!

Working with Kenna

Today's blog is special! Not only is there a video involved but we also get to look into what Kenna, out lead animator, does for the team as well as how she does it. If you are interested in the field of two dimensional animation then this is definitely something you want to check out!

Be sure to subscribe to the blog below, or follow us on our twitter for more updates!

Video Transcript

To start off, who are and what do you do outside of the studio?

So I go by a variety of names online, Kenna is my first name, I usually go by Savi in real life, short for Savitri, which is my middle name, and then most of the team knows me as Aries, like the zodiac, and she's my fursona. Outside of the studio I have several jobs, I'm the head animator for a marketing firm in my home town, I give tours at an art gallery and I do free Lance character art.

What got you into animation over other forms of visual media?

I've always been drawn to movement (like every Disney fan) but my friends growing up were very much about surreal and realistic art, and I couldn't compete with that at a young age, so I found something they didn't have the patience for, so I wouldn't have to compete with them.

What tools do you use when animating or creating other digital media?

When animating I use a variety of hardware and software. Hardware wise I default to my fancy Wacom mobile studio pro which a laptop-tablet hybrid and software wise I use everything from fire alpaca to the Adobe suite. Most of my work with Golden flame is done in Adobe Animate, formally flash.

What are the steps you take before animating?

I like to sketch in fire alpaca, which is a free program, before I begin animating. It lets me focus on the art rather than the actual intricacies of Adobe programs

How does Sprite work differ from your usual animation work?

The biggest difference between my Sprite work with golden flames and my normal animations is that Sprite work usually causes me to stay within a rigid frame count. For project "annhilation" everything is either 4 or 8 frames. It forced me to think in keyframes rather than natural tweens.

What is the most challenging part of animating sprites?

Animating sprites is hard because you have to really know what the most important key frames are, there's no time to waste on empty movement, and I'm still learning what movements those are.

What is the most rewarding part of animating sprites?

The immediate pay off is when Jackson/Zach usually shows updates whenever new sprites are finished and seeing them in game is so rewarding!

How often do you use the reference art you are given when animating?

When animating I try to keep the references our art director, Leloo, makes constantly on screen, because I personally struggle with staying on model and some of the characters have a body type I don't normally draw.

When you have to go back and edit an existing sprite or animation, how do you so without ruining the rest of the animation?

I keep the native .fla files for each character and since they all work off existing symbols and the 4 or 8 frame formula, it allows for me to stay kind of consistent. Unfortunately I was still somewhat new to Adobe Animate when we started production and you can see the line weight changes between certain frames on some characters.

How long does each sprite take to make, from start to finish?

It really depends on the types of attacks the character has. I believe our Rouge character took me the longest but he was also my trial run for this project. Since I have created about 6 full character sets since July and am at about 45 hours total work with this project, I would estimate about 7.5 hours spent on each character

2018 In Review

    We saw a lot of progress over the past year (well, 11 months for us). Let's take a look back at everything we did on this New Year's Day!

   On February 14th the Studio was founded with one goal in mind; make good games. We began with 3 members. Kenna, Philippe and Zach. The first project we started back then is still our pirmary one and has gone through many, many changes.

   In late May we entered into a competition to create something space themed, in our case it was something based on getting and delivering some milk for your boss! We got a new member in the form of April, who did some amazing work on that game's sound track.

   On April 30th we published our first title as a studio, Milk Run which you can play right now in your browser. It took us a month of mostly-organized work to put together. April made the tracks that play on all screens of the game, from the title to the boss fights. Kenna created all of the character sprites that appear within the space stations. Philippe created the backgrounds for those lovely stations while Zach directed the project as well as put everything together with code. It's certainly not as pretty as it could be, but we are proud for what we accomplished in a short amount of time on top of work and school.

   Over the summer of 2018 we made a ton of progress on our main title. From sprites to new mechanics and designs. Being able to work on the main project full time even if only for a few weeks can product far more content than you may think! We also gained Raina as a part of the studio!

   The fall of 2018 can be summed up with the posts previously created on this blog. We made further progress on the main title and recruited two new members. While they no longer work with the studio, we still wish them the best of luck in their future projects.

    The winter of 2018 has just ended and can only be summarized by saying it was hectic. Finals were plaguing every member of the studio, and combining that with work and other obligations it meant that not much progress was made. We are still proud of what we got done in these hard months, knowing it will lead to greater accomplishments down the road.

    So, 2018 was a bit of a crazy year for us. As a start up with a budget of whatever spare time we have every little bit helps. If you would like to support us in the coming years you can subscribe to this blog below (it's free!) or you can follow us on our twitter (also free!). We hope to do great things together as a team and as a community as a whole in 2019!