Halcyon Days: Broken Dreams
Halcyon Days: Broken Dreams is the last surviving build of the original Halcyon Days project. In-development since May 13th, 2018, the game was a passion project intended to convey not just what it’s like spending your childhood trying to survive as a mentally ill person in a world explicitly not built for you… but as someone trying to deal with their own inner demons even still as an adult.
[Horrible, Horrible, and Unfortunate Complete Disaster]
Recently, I discovered that the build I was working on was gone-- replaced with one from a year earlier. The next few days were devastating and torturous, trying to do everything I can to salvage what I had made of the game but... no dice. Despite salvaging most of the assets, pretty much all of the code was irreparable. My passion project dashed once again, my chance to show the world I can make something great.
So I offer you Halcyon Days: Broken Dreams, the latest exported version before the game was lost. It is mostly unplayable after the introductory level, as I had disabled the random generation of the hallways to test out ways to optimize the lag is was creating. Debug Mode is still available (Ctrl + Shift + ~), and that can be used to help access some of the content. Most of what is here is inaccessible, but maybe someone will find a way to reach the boss?
[How do I play the Game?]
The game can be played with a Mouse + Keyboard or with an appropriate controller. The tutorial may not be too helpful, as I did not get a chance to update it before a couple of things were changed around, and being able to change the controls was lost with the newer build. I'll do my best to explain the controls here.
- AD/Left Analog Stick/D-Pad: Walking and Rolling
- W/Y (Gamepad): Jumping
- S/Left Trigger: Sprinting
- S/Left Analog Stick/D-Pad (In-Air): Floor Slam
- E/B (Gamepad): Interact/Confirm
- R/Right Trigger: Use Item
- Q/A(Gamepad): Quit Dialogue/Drop Item
- Arrow Keys/Right Analog Stick: Scroll Items
- Esc/Select Button: Pause Game
- Tab (Computer Only): Reveal or Hide the UI
- F4 (Computer Only): Enter/Exit Fullscreen
You may get stuck a few times, as I said this export was mainly used for debugging and optimization purposes. You may be able to use the Custom Run maker to play around with items or abilities you would not be able to access.
[What are we going to do about it now, HUH?!]
Despite my initial devastation, I've decided to use all of the assets I've managed to salvage... and remake the game from scratch. Though this time, I have a plan to streamline the development and change up the gameplay to be better engaging and make up for all the lost time. Despite this massive setback, Halcyon Days is still continuing development. Think of Broken Dreams as my way of saying goodbye to a game I spent about two and a half years on (or 914 days).
Starting over will give me a chance to do away with some of the bad coding in this one (I managed to change some of it in the latest build but its just too foundational to the rest of the game), and allow me to create a more focused vision of what I want Halcyon Days to be. The end product may be smaller in scale, but I don't want to let this project die. I want to make something I'm happy with, something to show for my 10 years of game development. I want my passion projects to be realized, and despite my disabilities, I refuse to be held back.
I hope that some of you will stick around for the continued development of Halcyon Days, and I hope that I have not disappointed anyone. You can keep up with the continued development of the game at LantixPro Studios, and I hope everyone has a wonderful day. Thanks for checking this out. I hope someone enjoys it.
[ Produced by the team at LantixPro Studios ]
