Ascendam - Characters concept art

Last entry I was talking about making games that fit your personal style, so after a little more than a week rethinking my "mysterious" game, I finally got to the point I think I really like it :), I decided to call this game "Ascendam".

I have been working mainly in the conceptual art for the characters (back to the pixel art :D), the game story, and a little of game mechanics.

This is Anz, the main character:

I want this character to be an avatar for the player, I mean, I want Anz to be a representation of the player in the game in a personal level. Because of that I don't want to create a deep detailed description of Anz's personality. Later if I have time I will make a female version, but for now the male character should be enough.

Anz will use a spear as its main weapon, later in the game you will get bombs as well. Those are his weapons so far, but I'm not sure if I will add any other in the future.

Well maybe it would be good to explain briefly the gameplay now so the enemies make sense to you.

The main idea is to "fall" through tunnels in a labyrinth, Anz will be hanging of a kind of rope so you will be able to control how much you want to go up or down, you will be able to grasp the walls and climb faster than climbing by using the rope only. Also you will be able to move down faster by running down on the wall (ninja style!).

I'm planning to have 4 enemy types. Probably I'm going to add different difficulty levels for each of them, but that's not yet clearly defined.

First the basic enemies, you will find this little guys climbing on the walls of the labyrinths, they are harmless if you keep away from the wall. I call them Walldos.

The Guardians, you will find this guys flying through the tunnels. At the beginning they won't attack you if you grasp a wall, but in future levels they will use their flexible arms as whips.

Cloud Crowds, you will fear this creepy enemies. They will be flying through the tunnels as well, but you won't be able to attack them. They will be moving in a rhythmic way opening their eyes from time to time. You won't want them to see you.

Smiley Gear, this will be a fundamental enemy in the game mechanics, those will be static enemies that you will need to destroy in order to progress through the maze.

I hope they intrigue you a little :). I will be working on the scenarios (I need to experiment some ideas to have scenarios that I can realistically create) and programming the basic mechanics, so I can know how fun they actually are.

See you later!