General Information
STORY
Éclipse is an alley cat who lives in the Meow Town dump with his friend Rabizoudouk. Their quiet life changes completely the day Princess Coquelia, leader of the Coquelus (alien body snatchers), launches an attack on the city.
Work in progress
CONCEPT
Éclipse The Cat is a semi-linear platform game that focuses on the variety of situations. Over the course of 26 fast-paced levels, the player will unlock power-ups (running, dashing, flying, etc.) that will help them defeat the game's many bosses.
Setting three difficulty modes, I want the game to be as much fun for players looking for a straight adventure, as it will be for hardcore players addicted to score and speed play (yes, that split is hard to balance).
ORIGINS
The main idea of the game is to rehabilitate the mascot-like heroes of the 90’s, and see if they still can be relevant today. Cheerful and optimistic, Éclipse will go through classic types of levels (the street, the forest, the volcano, the laboratory, the sewers, etc.) updated with a 2020’s twist that will impact gameplay and pace as well as themes the game tackles.
INFLUENCES
Although I'm a big fan of Mario games, I’m more influenced by Master System, Megadrive and Saturn games such as Alex Kidd, Shinobi, Dynamite Headdy, Silhouette Mirage, Rocket Knight Adventure and Megaman.
PROJECT STATUS
The demo cover the first world of the game, 4 stages (on the final 26). I've been working on the game for a year and a half now, and I'd like to release it (fingers crossed) in 2024. So far, 60% of the core levels have been produced, with a lot of graphics, sounds and music still missing.
HOW TO PLAY THE DEMO
Unzip the file wherever you want on your computer and click on "EclipseTheCat_SAGE23_Demo.exe".
# IF IT DOESN'T WORK AND ASK YOU FOR MISSING DLLS #
Click "Install_DLL.exe", the game will be installed on your PC with all necessary Dll files.
- IMPORTANT -
Unzip the file wherever you want on your computer and click on "EclipseTheCat_SAGE23_Demo.exe".
# IF IT DOESN'T WORK AND ASK YOU FOR MISSING DLLS #
Click "Install_DLL.exe", the game will be installed on your PC with all necessary Dll files.
- IMPORTANT -
In order to avoid controler conflicts the game start on a "controler calibration screen", if you use a game pad (which I recommand) press the START button on this screen or press ENTER if you're playing on a keyboard. This first input will determine which controler have the priority on the other (gamepad or keyboard). If you skipped this screen to fast, restart the game in order to redo the calibration.
LANGUAGES - ENGLISH / FRENCH
The game is by default in English and will detect your Windows language. So if your windows is set up in French it will boot up in French. In advance, I'm sorry for the probable translation errors, I write the game in French and I translated everything myself into English without proofreading. This will not be the case in the final version of the game.
Work in progress
WHO AM I?
I have been working in the video games industry for the last 20 years, during which I have released action games like Gauge (iPhone / PC) and Zorbié (iPhone) on my own.
You can follow the progress of Éclipse on my twitter page.
Work in progress
THANK YOU FOR READING, HAVE FUN!
Work in progress
THANK YOU FOR READING, HAVE FUN!
As for the popup instructions... For the capacites like punch / fly etc. I probably won't be able to change that, but for the items (power ups / shield / bomb etc.) I probably can put an option to disable them, I'll add that to my todo list !