Did I end up in that section of Deviantart again?
This is the origin of species, and today.
I'm not a furry.
Nor a lolicon.
And oh yeah, Dust video.
This is an indie.
Finding the history of it's' production was fuuun.
Sometimes I hate this section.
Dean Dodrill is the illustrator and animator behind Dust, essentially a one man team, following his passion.
The young Dean was inspired to become an animator when he saw a certain character on Chip and Dale, the bat Foxglove,
from there Dodrill continued drawing anthropomorphic animals, both fan arts and his own creations.
He was also a fan of platformers in his childhood, quoting games like Castlevania and Metroid as his favorites.
From there, his first job in the videogame industry was to create the animations for Jazz Jackrabbit.
And if this sounds like a furry's origin story it's because it sort of is.
The best version of his biography was in wiki fur.
And yeah, wikifur does exist.
His 2 passions combined, during 2008 Dodrill became a programmer, using the Xbox Live Indie platform,
in a year he managed to not only create a functional version of his game, Dust, but also to win the Dream Build Play contest.
However, the inspiration of this title was a previous project of his, Elysian Tail, a project he worked on with his brother,
a movie, more than that, his ideal movie, a heroic story, and well, yeah, a somewhat furry one.
The cancellation of his beloved project turned out to be the best call, and Elysian Tail, after learning how to program, became that game that won the 2009 competition and would finally see release on 2012.
Dust: An Elysian Tail.
And that was the day that the greatest warrior, fell not to hordes but a child…
Without memories of who he is or where is he's headed, a swordsman known as Dust wakes up in a field of flowers,
he crosses paths with Ahrah, a talking sword who lends him it's powers, and Fidget a… batcat, catbat bacat… a wet dream.
The so called guardian of the sword, who ends up following Dust since Ahrah had no intention of separating from him.
And so, the unique trio joins forces to learn who is Dust, which will drop them in a conflict that has been raging for years,
between the cold blooded and warm blooded animals, and against General Gaius, who might not be as heroic as he first seems.
The truth is that who the characters are isn't that important, and if the premise is so short that's because.. it isn't needed either.
It's not like Dust lacks a story, but it's not one that is told in the usual way, the charm of the cast is not in arcs and sub histories,
what gives life to the world and cast of Dust are the interactions, so no character is complete on his own.
Dust is the best example, being the one we share the most time with, relaxed around Fidget, patient with Ahrah, but oddly impatient or even violent with some villagers,
the warrior is both a hero and a conflicted person, and while his patience is notorious, there are also many times where other people manage to affect him, and the result can be terrifying.
It's not like there's a specific order, due to the exploration nature of the game, nobody suddenly switches personalities on the run,
all those elements have always been there, but they can only be glanced at times.
The story is more of a vehicle to generate these instances, and if they were told directly it wouldn't have the same impact, because it's the way it's framed what gives it value,
because in Dust, nobody is on their own, only with others do people exist.
Dust is a combination of platformer, RPG, exploration and beat em up.
If you think an Igarashi Castlevania, you are on the right track.
Having large areas to explore which you'll return to once new skills allow you to interact with the environment in new ways,
and a leveling and inventory system that lets you upgrade Dust's parameters.
What changes is the focus, Dust gives priority to it's combat system over the exploration, truth be told it is easy to find your way, and maps aren't that confusing,
however the enemy presence is rather high, and Dust's offensive skills are far more complex than what you get in most Metroidvanias.
On a basic level you have the sword combos, plus Fidget's shots, but if you combine those with Dust's second attack, the Dust Storm, their effects change, ranging from firestorms to tracking shots.
To that you add parries, dashing, and grabs, which makes it feel like a fighting game.
And besides that, those actions change when they are on the air, giving place to cyclones, executions and air combos.
The system gives priority to speed, expecting you to move from one objective to other all the time, and giving you benefits for the combo meter, which affects the rate at which you gain exp.
It's a fun and intuitive system, actually, Dust has one of the better learning curves I've seen in long time,
the tutorial is clever too, since it only explains concepts like paralysis to you if you are affected by them.
That hyperactive nature excuses the simplicity of it's exploration and gives very clear identity to Dust.
However, while Dust is very often brilliant, it's pretty clear at other times that it is the first game of this caliber Dodrill worked on.
There are certain details that will drive you insane, and you assume from most games, you can't press a key twice to dash,
and for some reason Dust's dash inverts the direction he's looking towards, which will break your combo chain more than once.
The targeting system doesn't work very well on the ground, the enemy density means the game is guessing where you want to go, and there really are too many enemies at times,
which coupled with the effects of Dust's attacks, all the sprites on the screen and the weather effects, means there will be times where you can't see what's going on, and an enemy will backstab you out of the blue.
And that's the other issue, Dust is incredibly fragile, and sure, someone will make that obligatory comparison, the infamous Dark Souls,
but that's something different, Dark Souls has a slow and method combat system, it fits the situation,
Dust has a system where you are never meant to sit still, you go around jumping from one spot to the next and a single hit can kill you when there are over 20 enemies on screen.
The problem increases by the fact that there's no way to fill your health bar to 100%, outside of grinding money to buy food, save points restore a third or so,
and that comes down to two hits since Dust's defenses are atrocious, even if you focus all your exp on that area.
More than a design decision it feels like an accidental result, because it's rhythm doesn't fit how frail Dust is, and a as beautiful as the animations are they can prove to be a headache.
Dust is a love project, from someone that dedicated a decade to his beloved tale, who learned to program solely for it, basically a one-man project with years behind it.
And it's an excellent game, just not a flawless one.
At the end of the day what holds Dust back are details, annoying details, sure, but it doesn't change the fact that generally the game works out, just not all the time.
But when it works, when the fights are seamless, it's simply amazing, one of my favorite videogames is Zone of the Enders, not only for my waifu,
but because the control scheme is simply amazing, Jehuty will never move in a way you don't want it to.
And at it's best, Dust is like that, and the absurd numbers the combo meter reaches are not accidental, you earn them fair and square, and it's precisely for those levels it can reach,
that I complain about the moments where the inexperience, or maybe the lack of more eyes looking at it makes it so it's potential gets limited.
That project that took 10 years is one that deserves to be experienced, and it's one that will be enjoyed, but first and foremost it's one that deserves a sequel,
where those details that keep it from being the best platformer of the decade are fixed, and the dust, manages to turn into a diamond.
For more infomation >> Funny And Lucky Moments - Hearthstone - Ep. 334 - Duration: 5:31. 
For more infomation >> Ngọc Rồng Online | THỦ THUẬT KIẾM NGỌC MUA BÔNG TAI FREE - Duration: 3:26. 
For more infomation >> Unity Скриптинг Классы C# - Duration: 6:27. 
For more infomation >> TÜRK ESGERİ ÜZEYİRİN MAHNİSİN DİNLEYEREK MENEMEN BİŞİRİR - Duration: 1:44. 
For more infomation >> "БУМАЖНЫЕ" БИТКОИНЫ - Duration: 13:46. 
For more infomation >> Perchè non riesci più a trovare clienti come prima! - Duration: 3:23. 
For more infomation >> Consommatrice #4 - Duration: 2:15. 
For more infomation >> VLOG | Mi PRIMER VIDEO (activa los subtitulos) - Duration: 1:56. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét