Ocean's Heart

[Dianthus]

The download link for ocean heart game page no longer works from:
https://www.solarus-games.org/en/games/oceans-heart

I was trying to dowmload the newest version and noticed it 

[Max]

Was this a download link for the game, or the link to the source code? I need to update the source repo to include / not include certain things, but I don't necessarily want the game available for free downloading so close to release lol

[Dianthus]

its was/is for the source code of the game on github.

diegopau; I personally stopped caring as much about aspect ratio and getting the game to take up the whole screen as many laptops, screens and smartphones are currently shifting away from the 16:9 aspect ratio anyway. The new Dell XPS 13 and 15 both got 16:10 screens and so does some new lenovo laptops, most androids and iphones are taller aspect ratios now. You cant really please all this different screen formats with a pixel art game.

I dont even know what Max does with a potential android release for ocean heart? Cant get around some black bars on those 21:9 aspect phones 

[Shane]

I saw the listing for this show up on Steam. I'm quite excited for the official release. Not gonna lie, it makes me really want to see an official eShop Switch port.

[Dianthus]

ohh its on steam now, i havent seen it. How does that even work? Ocean heart runs on the solarus engine, how does steam get around having to deal with users needing to have solarus directly installed for users to play the game? 

[Shane]

I have to imagine that has to do with the updated licence information Solarus published earlier this month. I assume that Solarus/Solarus Launcher will be packaged and distributed with your purchase of Ocean's Heart via Steam.

[Max]

Yeah, exactly. It's the same as Yarntown, downloading the "game" is a bundled version of the game and solarus-run.exe

Shane, I also really want to see an official Switch port. Time will tell but I'm hopeful.

[Dianthus]

ohh, i didnt know you could get a bundled version of yarntown with the solarus engine. I just downloaded yarntown from the solarus website and then startet it myself in solarus. Guess i learned something today besides school.

[Max]

Haha, yeah, search on itch.io if you want to see how I distributed it there, it's a free download.

[Dianthus]

Hi Max. I am just beginning to experiment with sounds and composition for my game. What tools did you use to create sounds and music for your games?

[Max]

For sound, I do everything by combining and editing samples, some I record myself, most are from freesound.org , you can search and filter by license. I've never had much trouble finding what I need with a CC0 license.
Also, listen to podcasts and youtube videos about foley. I recommend Twenty Thousand Hertz, episodes 12, 51, and 67. Maybe 27 and 30 depending what you're doing. Look up youtube videos for like, "how did they make the ___ sound".

Tools are useful, I just use audacity for sound effects because it's lightweight and does what I need, but they're not nearly as important as creativity and knowing how to make the sound you want. Which, all of that just comes from studying how others made sounds. For example, the enemy getting hit sound effect in one of my games is a stack of canvas being punched layered a few times, some vegetables being broken, and the sound of some wet, rotten meat being dropped on a cutting board that I happened across. That's a pretty classic combo for people/things being hit. Then sometimes you get a weird tip from a podcast or youtube video or friend, which is how I found out pigs scream, and that's the basis for most of the monster noises in Ocean's Heart, mixed with my dog growling.
Then all the processing of slowing down, or pitch shifting, or adding some synth bass behind it to make it really hit hard, etc.


Music is way more commonly understood. I use ableton to record and mix, but whatever you have will do. I think audacity is a bunch of trouble for music just because of some of its workflow stuff and I don't know that it snaps to bars, but it'd work fine too.

[mcbanhas]

Hi Max, so now since Ocean's Heart is getting a Steam release what will this mean for asset licensing? I see on the updated Solarus website page it says some assets will be CC-BY-SA while others will be proprietary. How is that going to work? Will there still be a free version of the game or will be retail only?

[Max]

Hey Mcbanhas, there's never been a free version of the game, I just didn't initially have the repo set to private like I do now.

The free code will probably be on github or gitlab when the game releases- most of the code is GPLv3. As far as the free assets, those have basically all been included in the solarus Free Resource pack- https://gitlab.com/solarus-games/solarus-free-resource-pack (it was mainly tilesets)

Either way, I'm working on a more complete, less specific set of assets at the moment which will include a bunch of systems like items, elemental effects, etc which will be better anyway- and won't have any potential to be confused with Ocean's Heart.

[Shane]

So NintendoLife is running a story on your game that it's getting a switch release....

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/11/cute_zelda-style_2d_adventure_oceans_heart_looks_like_its_switch-bound

I have a feeling this isn't accurate since there isn't a Switch build of the engine...

[Max]

Lol yeah, I saw.

So I looked into it, and the way this happens is when a game is given a rating in some countries, it's a general rating for every platform. But for some reason it gets listed individually for every platform. So OH is rated in Brazil (idk even what the rating is haha), so each platform has that rating listed. If that makes sense?

Anyway yeah, we're going to start talking about a switch port once the game is released on PC.