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Dust: An Elysian Tail |OT| Become the Storm

Ii had keys spare after getting everything, there is a few spare keys right?

You are much better at this game than me :(

I would try, grind, try grind, try grind... Finally, I had to give up to avoid breaking a controller. Got up to level 48 or so (plus crafted up some better stuff while grinding) and couldn't get past the 4th stage. Deleted the game. Still have my save, though.

Absolutely loved the game. So much fun and so much content for only $15.

The end did sour my experience, though. If I was able to change the difficulty on the fly (tough was obviously too high a level for me) then I could have avoided the problem.
You can change on the fly... Btw did you get the really strong argument thing? It's hidden in the world and gives a huge Attack boost for endgame.

Edit damn iPad auto correct.
 

mujun

Member
Ii had keys spare after getting everything, there is a few spare keys right?


You can change on the fly... Btw did you get the really strong argument thing? It's hidden in the world and gives a huge Attack boost for endgame.

Edit damn iPad auto correct.

How do you change the dif on the fly? I looked at the save game load screen for an option as well as looking at the options a few times just in case but never found any way to change the difficulty. Also where is the "argument" thing?
 
How do you change the dif on the fly? I looked at the save game load screen for an option as well as looking at the options a few times just in case but never found any way to change the difficulty. Also where is the "argument" thing?

You should be able to just pause the game, not the in-game inventory screen, and change it in the options or something.

as for the extra powerful sword enhancement thing
go back to the caves down south, the area where there is a lot of air flow and use the air jump ability (if you have it, you get it near the end in the lava area) to launch to a new screen above, then you get the blueprint for it, it's something like +800 atk!
 

Arksy

Member
Someone linked me here in a thread I made about bringing your ideas for a game to fruition. This looks incredible and much respect for having the passion to carry through with your dream. Will buy. :)
 

Noogy

Member
Someone linked me here in a thread I made about bringing your ideas for a game to fruition. This looks incredible and much respect for having the passion to carry through with your dream. Will buy. :)

Hey Arksy, I actually worked backwards from your post to find your development thread :)

You might find the postmortem I'm writing for Gamasutra helpful in that it chronicles much of the 'tech' side of developing Dust:AET (while the Polygon articles did a great job with the actual life and drama of the project).

I would echo the sentiment in your thread that ideas are, sadly, a dime a dozen. Everyone is an armchair developer (and boy do they come out of the woodwork to tell you how you made your game 'wrong'), and rather than remain one myself, I figured I'd just buckle down and pick up programming.

I had the benefit of already being an artist, but even then it was a massive undertaking learning how to prepare assets for video games. You'll have a hard time pitching an idea in this industry, and my recommendation would be to try and prototype your idea, whether through a game making tool, modding an existing game, or straight up programming. Don't worry about art, the people that 'matter' can look past programmer art if the hook is there, and artists will come.

Keep the narrative to yourself (for now), show off the mechanics through a prototype, and get as down and dirty as you can with production. Enthusiasm and persistance will take you far. Good luck!
 

mollipen

Member
Hey, so I saw that bryanee posted about a very similar problem a few pages back, but I didn't see any replies to his post. Anything on this issue?

Currently, he's at the point where he just been Fuse, and has the "return the watch" quest to do. If he goes to the world map and selects Aurora Village, absolutely no map comes up before confirming his entry to town. (The interface comes up, but no map is displayed.) The moment he tries to enter Aurora, the game crashed back to the Xbox Dashboard.

He says the first time he tried to fast travel, something happened and he ended up under Aurora Village (Dust was just falling through nothingness.)
 

Kard8p3

Member
Well guys, I just downloaded the demo for this, played it for like 5 minutes, then went ahead and bought it!

Any tips/tricks I should know ahead of time?
 

Noogy

Member
Hey, so I saw that bryanee posted about a very similar problem a few pages back, but I didn't see any replies to his post. Anything on this issue?

Currently, he's at the point where he just been Fuse, and has the "return the watch" quest to do. If he goes to the world map and selects Aurora Village, absolutely no map comes up before confirming his entry to town. (The interface comes up, but no map is displayed.) The moment he tries to enter Aurora, the game crashed back to the Xbox Dashboard.

He says the first time he tried to fast travel, something happened and he ended up under Aurora Village (Dust was just falling through nothingness.)

This is really weird. I'm actually looking into it (working on the Title Update this week) as a few people have mentioned similar problems. Right now all I can think is that the latter half of the save file somehow became corrupt (which would explain why someone could load the game and be in the right location, but the world map and quest logs have gone funny).

It's not something that had ever popped up in testing here, and is near impossible to try to replicate so far. I do know that some users early on claimed that the game would crash when attempting to load a file, but that moving the save file itself to the cloud fixed things. I think that's a seperate problem. I'll continue tinkering, but it's a very obscure bug that I want to kill with hate and fire.

Well guys, I just downloaded the demo for this, played it for like 5 minutes, then went ahead and bought it!

Any tips/tricks I should know ahead of time?

If you have played action games before, I'd recommend 'Tough' difficulty. Totally changes the way you have to fight using Fidget (slow recharge) and an emphasis on gear/healing.
 

Kard8p3

Member
If you have played action games before, I'd recommend 'Tough' difficulty. Totally changes the way you have to fight using Fidget (slow recharge) and an emphasis on gear/healing.

I was actually going to pick tough, but my thumb slid down and I ended up picking hardcore. Needless to say, I'm occasionally getting my butt handed to me, but I love this game, you did an awesome job :).
 

Noogy

Member
I was actually going to pick tough, but my thumb slid down and I ended up picking hardcore. Needless to say, I'm occasionally getting my butt handed to me, but I love this game, you did an awesome job :).

Heh, thanks :) You can actually change difficulty on the fly in the options. Dropping from hardcore down to tough won't affect your chance for Achievements (though dropping below Tough will). Have fun!
 

mujun

Member
Finally finished the game after figuring out how to change the options (god knows why I didn't scroll down the last time I tried).

Amazing game. Thoroughly enjoyed it and suspect it'll be in my top ten for the year.
 
Wow what a finish. It felt like like I was truly waging a massive war in the end and that I was the only one making a difference. The feeling of crushing anything that crossed my path quickly faded once I encountered the final boss. Every boss in the game was a cake walk until the General, I had to spend literally every health item to make it through.

Thanks Noogy for making one my favorite games this generation, I wish all the best in Dust's success and your future games. I can't wait to get back into the game later to get all the acheivements and find everything.
 

eshwaaz

Member
Beat the game over the weekend. The sheer amount of talent on display here is just staggering. Hats off to Noogy and HyperDuck - Dust is an amazing accomplishment that shames many full-blown $60 games on so many levels. The consistency of vision and level of refinement throughout are simply amazing.

I really appreciated that General Gaius is portrayed as calm and soft-spoken, and someone who genuinely cares about the well being of his friend. He is one of the few video game villains I can think of that is not a snarling, laughable caricature of evil.

One question, Noogy - why are Gaius' soliders done in pre-rendered, toon-shaded 3D, while every other character is hand drawn 2D? I don't know if this is the case during gameplay, but it's quite apparent in the dialog close-ups. Any particular reason for this?
 

Decado

Member
Um...by Chapter 5 are you supposed to have some sort of fire ability for Fidget? I'm supposed to burn away vines but I have no ability to do so...
 

Noogy

Member
One question, Noogy - why are Gaius' soliders done in pre-rendered, toon-shaded 3D, while every other character is hand drawn 2D? I don't know if this is the case during gameplay, but it's quite apparent in the dialog close-ups. Any particular reason for this?

Thanks for the kind words. Good catch with the soldiers, they are actually one of the assets I carried over from my film, and since they actually exists as CG models I decided it'd be quicker to just render those out. I figured they looked close enough that most people wouldn't notice.

I had initially planned on prerendering all the soldier 'in-game' animations as well, but eventually decided to just hand draw them and animate them like everything else to keep consistency.

Um...by Chapter 5 are you supposed to have some sort of fire ability for Fidget? I'm supposed to burn away vines but I have no ability to do so...

Did you
pick up the upgrade orb immediately after defeating Fuse? It would be near the right entrance of Abadis Forest.
 

Draconian

Member
Bought the game today and have only played about an hour, but it's fantastic. Comboing is so smooth it's great. I'm actually pretty intrigued by the story as well. Can't wait to see where this goes.
 

789shadow

Banned
So Bandage Girl is now impossible to get for me, because I kill those flying enemies to quickly and can't Dust Storm up to the ledge. Methinks this should be fixed.
 

zulux21

Member
So Bandage Girl is now impossible to get for me, because I kill those flying enemies to quickly and can't Dust Storm up to the ledge. Methinks this should be fixed.

you could always just
Equip weaker gear and the item that reduces everything to 10% of the value?
 

zulux21

Member
I de-equiped all my gear and I was still one-shotting them. My base attack is too high.

If you are end game you should have found an item that
reduces all of your stats to 10%. it's got like .1 for all the values. Equipping that should make you weak enough.
 

789shadow

Banned
If you are end game you should have found an item that
reduces all of your stats to 10%. it's got like .1 for all the values. Equipping that should make you weak enough.
Pardon me saying this, but that's fucking stupid that I have to do that in order to get her. What a terrible idea for a location.
 

jinutsu

Neo Member
Pardon me saying this, but that's fucking stupid that I have to do that in order to get her. What a terrible idea for a location.

One shotting those enemies didn't affect my ability to get her. You just have zig zag really fast to make it up there. I did that part right at the end of the game with the best equipment on.
 

zulux21

Member
Pardon me saying this, but that's fucking stupid that I have to do that in order to get her. What a terrible idea for a location.

To be fair there might be another way... I can't remember what had to be done to get that person so I am just saying the way I know would work given you said you had to Dust Storm.
 
Pardon me saying this, but that's fucking stupid that I have to do that in order to get her. What a terrible idea for a location.

It's not as if this is an issue of progression. You're talking about a secret in the game. They should require unorthodox methods to achieve otherwise there wouldn't be all that much value in getting them.

But as someone else said, you should be able to get yourself up there without worrying about how strong you are if you dust storm just right. So either retry multiple times until you launch perfectly or simply put on the gear that's in the game for this sort of purpose.
 

Noogy

Member
Exciting news, composer Chris Geehan (of HyperDuck) has nearly finished preparing the OST (which has been expertly remastered), and has provided a sample of the Sanctuary 'theme'. We're hoping to have the entire thing ready next week!
 

HyperDuck

Neo Member
Sorry for the double post, but The OST is hitting #3 on the bandcamp charts! We're trying to push for #1 though, so if you want to help us out, grab an early pre-order! It'll be £5 or more on Monday onward when it fully releases but for now the pre-order is down at £3.50 or more.


The or more bit, in case you're not sure, is if you want to pay more than the asking, it's not.. a mystery extra charge or something, lol.

http://hyperduck.bandcamp.com/album/dust-an-elysian-tail-original-soundtrack

Anyway, help us out if you want, and thanks for the previous musical lovin guys! Appreciated so sooooo much.
 

Noogy

Member
Sorry for the double post, but The OST is hitting #3 on the bandcamp charts! We're trying to push for #1 though, so if you want to help us out, grab an early pre-order! It'll be £5 or more on Monday onward when it fully releases but for now the pre-order is down at £3.50 or more.


The or more bit, in case you're not sure, is if you want to pay more than the asking, it's not.. a mystery extra charge or something, lol.

http://hyperduck.bandcamp.com/album/dust-an-elysian-tail-original-soundtrack

Anyway, help us out if you want, and thanks for the previous musical lovin guys! Appreciated so sooooo much.

Really happy with how this came out, Chris killed himself getting it remastered and prettied up! I know I'm just a 'little' biased when I say this, but it's easily one of my favorite indie video game scores.
 

Rad Agast

Member
Finished the game but will keep going for full exploration this weekend. Easily worth the asking price.

I'm glad the OST is out. I'm enjoying it so much. gg.
 

Seda

Member
I started this game this weekend (finally). Really enjoying it. Got my 1000 hit combo too (against a zombie summoner thing). Not bad at all.

Only I was watching watching football while playing, so I couldn't really hear the music or VA at all :< I can only blame myself.

Oh, and Fidget is awesome.
 

Rad Agast

Member
I can't decide which track I like best on the OST. Abadis Forest is so good ;-)

I know what I'll be listening to on my way to work tomorrow!
 

Noogy

Member
I have a question for those of you who've finished the game... and please don't take this as any sort of announcement.

I get a lot of requests for New Game+. I'm a fan of NG+ in games myself, but am not sure how it would work in Dust:AET. My question is this, what would you want carried over into a NG+?

I wouldn't want to simply bring in your leveled character, since it would remove any challenge no matter what difficulty you choose. Though maybe that's what people want?

Carrying over loot/money might make sense, but again, you'd be overpowered. Quests and dialogue trees would need to be reset. Chests/cages could be carried over, or reset.

I always love how Dark/Demons Souls handles it, but that's beyond the scope of what would be possible in an update, and Dust:AET has a level cap, which wouldn't make that work.

Anyway, curious what everyone's thoughts are on this. Again, I'm not announcing anything, but I'm always trying to think of ways to handle NG+ if I were to ever implement it. Thanks!

In other news, I'm preparing a Title Update to resolve a few technical issues, and the post mortem should hopefully go up within a week.
 

zulux21

Member
I get a lot of requests for New Game+. I'm a fan of NG+ in games myself, but am not sure how it would work in Dust:AET. My question is this, what would you want carried over into a NG+?
I wouldn't want to simply bring in your leveled character, since it would remove any challenge no matter what difficulty you choose. Though maybe that's what people want?
Carrying over loot/money might make sense, but again, you'd be overpowered. Quests and dialogue trees would need to be reset. Chests/cages could be carried over, or reset.

I will have to think about this more but i know I didn't end up being max level (I ended around 35 I think) on my single playthrough so a new game plus where all enemies are like 30 levels higher wouldn't be bad to make the journey to max level more interesting. Beyond that the only thing I can think of would be new loot/ items to find. If you a did a thing where enemies were a lot harder to give a level 35 or so a challenge from the start, then they very well might hit max level mid game so better items to compensate might be needed.

The easiest way to do this would likely be change what is in the chests in new game plus and give out new materials, blueprints and loot in those. It would be fun if there were new secrets to find though, like super hard to find chests that require crazy things to get them (aka only the really dedicated need apply) Beyond that if you programed new materials and blueprints into the game you could likely change the random drops from enemies in new game plus to make it more possible for people to get them.

you could also possibly raise the level cap making it so you can add more stat points that are only unlocked in new game plus, which of course would require there to be more places to place stat points.I'll try to think of more later, as I haven't slept yet so I'm not running on all cylinders.

Btw if you ever decide to add a co op element to any of your future games I formally request it's implemented like Super Mario Bros X where if you are close together you share a screen, but when you separate it can split in multiple ways depending on if you are vertical or horizontal compared to the other player. one way of split is around 1 min it and another way is around 5:20. keep in mind with all of my suggestions I have no clue how much work it would be to program, I am just saying what ever sounds like it could be fun/ a decent idea lol.

On a completely unrelated note (related to an earlier twitter post of yours) if you do get some time to play Tokyo Jungle, and have a little extra time beyond that... feel free to join us in the tokyo jungle OT :p (and I really should get around to playing Ys I & II given you seem to have played them a few times :p)
 

Rad Agast

Member
For NG+, would keeping the opened chests/cages and dropping the level back to 15 or so work? Maybe up the difficulty a bit or something? since the starting areas will be too easy at that level.

Personally, I don't mind starting from scratch again (that's what I'm doing right now).
 
I have a question for those of you who've finished the game... and please don't take this as any sort of announcement.

I get a lot of requests for New Game+. I'm a fan of NG+ in games myself, but am not sure how it would work in Dust:AET. My question is this, what would you want carried over into a NG+?

I wouldn't want to simply bring in your leveled character, since it would remove any challenge no matter what difficulty you choose. Though maybe that's what people want?

Carrying over loot/money might make sense, but again, you'd be overpowered. Quests and dialogue trees would need to be reset. Chests/cages could be carried over, or reset.

I always love how Dark/Demons Souls handles it, but that's beyond the scope of what would be possible in an update, and Dust:AET has a level cap, which wouldn't make that work.

Anyway, curious what everyone's thoughts are on this. Again, I'm not announcing anything, but I'm always trying to think of ways to handle NG+ if I were to ever implement it. Thanks!

In other news, I'm preparing a Title Update to resolve a few technical issues, and the post mortem should hopefully go up within a week.

I would prefer to see maybe a rearange mode of some kind, no idea how possible it would be but some key items in different locations, but a lot of your design and voice recordings would clash.

NG+ I would say carry across level but not equipment, force the game to hardcore only for such a mode, maybe some unique items only found in NG+ if it was easy enough to add.
 

Seda

Member
Beat the game just now, completing everything.

Really fun game. Definitely one of my favorite games this year. I liked the voiceacting, and a story that isn't complicated but not dull. The exploration and length were nice.
Combat was pretty good, but
other than Fidget's attacks, doesn't change much throughout the game.

The only things that would have made it even better:

1.) There were plenty of exploration upgrades, and there were a couple Fidget upgrades, but I think a new Dust attack or two would have been cool.

2.) I think Gaius should have been fleshed out a bit more. His dialogue seems to try and make him somewhat sympathetic, but his actions do not. I guess I wanted to see what motivation he had other than being genocidal.

That's it. I'll recommended the game to others.
 

Noogy

Member

LQX

Member
Just finished the game today after damn near 13 awesome hours. Wow! One of the best games on XBLA and one the best games I played this year. Reminds me of game you would see out of Japan a decade or more ago. Awesome in nearly every way.
 

SAB CA

Sketchbook Picasso
Was great seeing Dust get a Review on Toonami :) Talk about a game that should fit the taste of those watching the block... The first game review on the new 6 hours of shows scheduele!

They replayed it a few times over the night... was very nice to see one of the closest things to a TV commericial that we'll probably get to see for this game. Welcome to Toonami History, Noggy :)
 

Hazaro

relies on auto-aim
Was great seeing Dust get a Review on Toonami :) Talk about a game that should fit the taste of those watching the block... The first game review on the new 6 hours of shows scheduele!

They replayed it a few times over the night... was very nice to see one of the closest things to a TV commericial that we'll probably get to see for this game. Welcome to Toonami History, Noggy :)
That's really really awesome to see.
 

Noogy

Member
Was great seeing Dust get a Review on Toonami :) Talk about a game that should fit the taste of those watching the block... The first game review on the new 6 hours of shows scheduele!

They replayed it a few times over the night... was very nice to see one of the closest things to a TV commericial that we'll probably get to see for this game. Welcome to Toonami History, Noggy :)

That really is beyond awesome :) I never thought I'd see my game on TV, let alone Adult Swim! Very interesting that they showed that spot several times during the evening. And it was certainly reflected in sales for that day, which is never a bad thing.
 
Sorry for the bump but noogy, is there still a planned patch to fix loading issues? I really want to speed run this game but going too fast will just crash the game :(
 

Noogy

Member
Sorry for the bump but noogy, is there still a planned patch to fix loading issues? I really want to speed run this game but going too fast will just crash the game :(

I'm working on the Update now actually. I think I've nailed the corrupt save issue, the crashing between maps is a memory leak that I'm tackling now. Both of these have been really tough to debug :p Thanks for your patience.

In other news, the post mortem has been submitted, and should hopefully be up next week!
 
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