Here are the main goals for Revolver by the year's end (when I'm finishing working on it). They are ordered by importance, and while I would love to fully complete them all this is a lot of work to complete in less than a month. We'll see I guess.
1) Tiling: All levels will be fully tiled to an acceptable level of detail. At the moment about half the levels are close to this with most of the tiles having been drawn for the remaining levels. Each levels takes less time than the previous to tile so I should have this finished pretty easily.
2) Fully realised mechanics: There are only really two aspects of gameplay that need finalising. First is a mechanic that stops the enemy monsters sharing the same space as the player/one another, which works pretty well but can get the player stuck occasionally. The second is a second enemy that doesn't attack the player but gives a slight buff to one zombie at a time. This enemy needs a little work but it's main functionality is done.
3) Ending: At the moment you get to the last level and it's an unbeatable wave of endless enemies that amounts to nothing. So yeah, that needs finishing. Plans for this are: several minute survival with a nice rain particle effect and a final ending screen for when you beat this level. The rest is finished.
4) Game Over: Currently when you die you just restart at the beginning of the game (you can reload your save from here though). It needs to be much more obvious when the player dies otherwise it's just a confusing experience for all involved.
5) Music: This is a big one. I need to work on and get some decent music in this game pronto because I believe this will actually make a pretty big difference on the overall quality of the game. Currently it is waaay too quiet so any addition would be very beneficial.
6) Options: Changing controls, audio levels and the like.
Ludum Dare is coming around again and I will be taking part in it. I had a lot of fun last time, learnt a lot and overall found the experience to be well worth the effort. Hopefully this time I'll do a little better but I will have slightly less time than before with work and all that. Wish me luck!
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 6 December 2015
Sunday 22 November 2015
An Ultimatum
I'm going to be blunt, I'm getting real tired of developing for Revolver. It's getting ever closer to a whole year I've been working on this game and it's just not as interesting as it used to be. I feel like spending my time developing multiple smaller games would be much more beneficial for me. Don't get me wrong here, I am very glad I've put all this work into this game. I've learnt loads but at the rate I'm currently working (which is slow due to an actual job, personal issues & the fact that I'm not finding it that enjoyable) this game isn't going to reach completion, as I'd like to see it, any time soon.
Now I'm not just going to stop dead and give up, that'd feel shitty but I am setting a final deadline of the new year to release Revolver. It'll be my first year of developing games as a hobby nailed down with the release of my first full game. This does mean that I will be releasing it in whatever state it is in at that time, but I will be making efforts to finalise and polish what I've got, rather than leave the game in some awkward half finished state.
That's all for today!
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Now I'm not just going to stop dead and give up, that'd feel shitty but I am setting a final deadline of the new year to release Revolver. It'll be my first year of developing games as a hobby nailed down with the release of my first full game. This does mean that I will be releasing it in whatever state it is in at that time, but I will be making efforts to finalise and polish what I've got, rather than leave the game in some awkward half finished state.
That's all for today!
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 8 November 2015
ANOTHER QUICK UPDATE BECAUSE I'M TIRED
Firstly I have removed character selection from the game. While this might look like a step back it's actually a pretty good move. I was never that happy with it anyway as most of the stats were pretty similar between the characters, and with the addition of story elements I'd much prefer the players character have a slightly larger part in the world without having to make multiple characters worth of story. Put simply it means less work for more gain, all around a good move I think.
Secondly I've altered certain graphics to fit with the growing story most importantly (if you argue that this is important at all!) changing floppy disks to keycards. No more collecting floppies and ramming them into a terminal, because who in the everliving f**k even uses floppy disks anymore. Now you grab a bunch of keycards instead. So there you go.
Lastly as mentioned elsewhere in this post I've begun making huge strides in story development. I've torn apart what I had previously come up with to refine and improve the setting, characters and world of Revolver. It's hard to sum up well but I've basically overhauled the ideas I've been building up on since day 1 in a way that fits the current game.
That's all for this week, hopefully I'll be getting the remaining important smaller parts done this week so I can get back to graphics and other stuff.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Secondly I've altered certain graphics to fit with the growing story most importantly (if you argue that this is important at all!) changing floppy disks to keycards. No more collecting floppies and ramming them into a terminal, because who in the everliving f**k even uses floppy disks anymore. Now you grab a bunch of keycards instead. So there you go.
Lastly as mentioned elsewhere in this post I've begun making huge strides in story development. I've torn apart what I had previously come up with to refine and improve the setting, characters and world of Revolver. It's hard to sum up well but I've basically overhauled the ideas I've been building up on since day 1 in a way that fits the current game.
That's all for this week, hopefully I'll be getting the remaining important smaller parts done this week so I can get back to graphics and other stuff.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 1 November 2015
Buttons, Doors and Stealth
I've added a new feature to Revolver this week in the form of DOORS! I figured since I was adding doorway tiles it'd be weird to have no actual doors in the game. So I decided to make a little mechanic out them. Now in levels you will find doors blocking certain areas. Often optional areas with pickups or flavour text but sometimes blocking areas you're required to go. How to get past them? Around the level you'll also find a number of buttons, activating these (in the same way you do everything else, by pressing 'e') will open one of the doors, randomly. Why random doors? The facilities electronics are on the fritz of course! Also it might be a little easier to program...
As well as adding doors and the like I've also altered the enemy chasing code to allow a little more stealthiness after some feedback I received. Now the players flashlight WILL NOT attract the attention of the abominations. This allows you to find enemies and work out ways around them. That said the enemies can now detect your gunfire. Fire a gun within a certain range and the zombies will begin chasing you down so be careful firing your gun wildly!
Not much more to add this week apart from continued tiling is being done with about half the game being tiled to a decent degree, it's been taking me a little longer this week as I've gotten a sort of part time job which unfortunatly takes up the hours I'm usually most productive. I'm getting used to it now so I'll be making much better progress these next few weeks!
You can get the new updated version of Revolver from here.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
As well as adding doors and the like I've also altered the enemy chasing code to allow a little more stealthiness after some feedback I received. Now the players flashlight WILL NOT attract the attention of the abominations. This allows you to find enemies and work out ways around them. That said the enemies can now detect your gunfire. Fire a gun within a certain range and the zombies will begin chasing you down so be careful firing your gun wildly!
Not much more to add this week apart from continued tiling is being done with about half the game being tiled to a decent degree, it's been taking me a little longer this week as I've gotten a sort of part time job which unfortunatly takes up the hours I'm usually most productive. I'm getting used to it now so I'll be making much better progress these next few weeks!
You can get the new updated version of Revolver from here.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 25 October 2015
Another Quick Update
Not much to say this week, been playing the same games, working on similar stuff to what I've already talked about so I'll just leave it here for this week.
Next week I'll add an updated version of Revolver to itch.io and talk about what it is I've been working on. But for now enjoy the rest of your weekend.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Next week I'll add an updated version of Revolver to itch.io and talk about what it is I've been working on. But for now enjoy the rest of your weekend.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 18 October 2015
The Wonders of Undertale
Today I'm going to write about why Undertale is now one of my favourite games and why. Firstly though a quick update on Revolver and other such projects. Progress is going steadily along with Revolvers graphics as more and more levels become less gray and start looking like actual levels rather than bizarre collections of dull squares. So I've probably got about 33% totally completed and most of the rest started, making new tiles is what takes the longest time to "get right" so going through each level and working out what needs to be added is what's slowing this process down a bit. Still most levels are starting to look much better, so it wont be much longer until I'm done with all that!
What's next though? After I've gone and tiled all the levels I'm going to continue with the writing side of Revolver. Adding all the juicy flavour text and story elements to the terminals and notes you can find in each level to build the world up. This bit should be quite fun and I'm already looking into a way to make the text less, what's the best way to phrase this, absolutely horrible to read. At the moment activating a terminal or collecting a note pauses the game and sends the player to a screen like this:
Now with Revolver talk over lemme throw some words at you:
What's next though? After I've gone and tiled all the levels I'm going to continue with the writing side of Revolver. Adding all the juicy flavour text and story elements to the terminals and notes you can find in each level to build the world up. This bit should be quite fun and I'm already looking into a way to make the text less, what's the best way to phrase this, absolutely horrible to read. At the moment activating a terminal or collecting a note pauses the game and sends the player to a screen like this:
NASTY BLAND SQUARE!
Let's be serious here, no one wants to look at that every-time they pick up a note. I don't, you don't, the pope don't, we all don't. So what to do? The plan is simple but currently I must admit I have no idea how to execute it. Simply put the game should pause as usual (don't want you getting hurt while reading right?), but instead of this nasty ass square popping up I'm think of simply darkening the screen and having the text appear dynamically, aka letter by letter like in every other game ever. It'll be nicer to look at, probably easier to read and it'll make the whole experience nicer. That's the plan at least.
Now with Revolver talk over lemme throw some words at you:
-Skeletons
-Dating
-Homicidal Entertainment Robots
-Spaghetti
-A Kind Flower
-Genocide
-Puzzles
This is what the fantastical game, Undertale has to offer you.
THE WORLD/STORY:
Undertale is set in a bizarre underground world full of monsters. With locations ranging from ruins, snowy towns, beautiful caverns and lava fields it's a world that feels much large and full of life. The story goes that this world of monsters has been sealed underground for a very long time after a war with humans. The barrier itself can only passed or broken by a being with a "powerful" SOUL. What this means of course you learn as you progress through the story. You play as a human child who has fallen into this world and must now try to find your way out, meeting many interesting & diverse characters along the way and choosing whether to kill them or become their friend.
THE ART:
Just look at it. Ain't it pretty!
Ok, so the game isn't JUST really nice looking vistas but still the whole game has a nice charming retro look to it which unlike some games, doesn't feel like a artistic crutch. It feels like the game was chosen to be made to look like this and often throughout the game the retro graphics are messed with a way that appears quite technical. It's hard to explain but this this game just wouldn't look the same if it were actually on a 16-bit console. It has a modern touch that leaves it looking fresh and often the game has animations (usually during battles) that look really nice.
THE CHARACTERS:
This is one of the many areas where the game truly shines. Undertale is chock full of wonderful, interesting characters, many of which the player can interact with in meaningful ways. From the hilarious skeleton brothers, Sans & Papyrus, the deadly Undyne and the kindly Toriel (not mention many others) Undertale is host to some of the most fantastic characters I've seen in a long time. They all avoid the overly common pitfall of feeling 2 dimensional. Almost all the characters have interests and fears and some have hidden agendas all of their own. It's especially interesting when you the player get to interact with them or get to observe them interact with one another.
This is one of the many areas where the game truly shines. Undertale is chock full of wonderful, interesting characters, many of which the player can interact with in meaningful ways. From the hilarious skeleton brothers, Sans & Papyrus, the deadly Undyne and the kindly Toriel (not mention many others) Undertale is host to some of the most fantastic characters I've seen in a long time. They all avoid the overly common pitfall of feeling 2 dimensional. Almost all the characters have interests and fears and some have hidden agendas all of their own. It's especially interesting when you the player get to interact with them or get to observe them interact with one another.
THE MECHANICS:
Undertale doesn't play like all those other RPG's. In this game the player has an option to end pretty much every fight peacefully. Get to know the enemy you're fighting and you might be able to get them to lose the will to fight by hugging them, or singing or just cheering them up. The cool part of these mechanics though is the fact that you don't HAVE to do this. If you want to you can just go about murdering everything in sight. Bear in mind that if you do this however you might end up having "a bad time".
THE MUSIC:
Okay, I'm a sucker for a good soundtrack. Games like Transistor, Chrono Trigger, Phoenix Wright and now this. Just give it a listen, you will not regret it.
Sans' Theme
Waterfall
Spider Dance
Hot diggedy damn are those some good tunes. For more either head on to this youtube channel (where I got the above from) or grab the soundtrack either on Steam as DLC, like I did or from Bandcamp here. Learn more about Undertale (and grab a copy!) here: undertale.com.
-Beau
Sunday 11 October 2015
Graphical Slog & Getting My Payday
Been busy this week doing TWO WHOLE THINGS! Firstly I've been continuing on with the slog of tiling all of Revolvers levels. So far I've fully finished the first level 100% and got about 90% done of the next couple. After that I've mostly been experimenting with bits of tiling here and there but I'm progressing quicker and quicker as more I make more tiles. Secondly I began an online course in Unity which for those that don't know is a development platform for creating similar but more technical than Game Maker. The main reason I'm learning it is that it has a wider range of capabilities than GM and it should allow me to make more complex games easier. That said I will definitely still be using GM for simpler projects. At least for now. As for Revolver you can download this fortnights update here as usual to take a look at the improved graphics. I'm also still looking for feedback so once you give the game ago head here and fill this out, you'll be doing me a huge favour!
-----=====THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION AND OPINIONS WE'RE WRITTEN BEFORE CRIMFEST 2015 WHEN OVERKILL ADDED AN UPDATE INVOLVING MICROTRANSACTIONS (SOMETHING ONCE STATED WOULD NEVER BE ADDED). BECAUSE OF THIS I NOW TAKE BACK ANYTHING SAID IN THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPHS. THIS IS GAME DOES NOT DESERVE TO BE PLAYED, AS GOOD AS IT ONCE WAS.=====-----
For more information about overkills bullshit head here to hear first hand what people think. It's not pretty!
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Seems impossible now to rob even a little jewelry store, no? Never fear for you have at your disposal a massive array of weapons ranging from shotguns, sniper rifles, LMG's and a freaking rocket launcher to blow the living hell out of anything in your way! Or perhaps, for the more discerning, you can get some silenced pistols, smg's and crossbows and sneak your way around stealing everything that isn't nailed down (and even some stuff that is). One thing of note is that many weapons are DLC only but that said DLC isn't required for a fun time and many DLC are pretty cheap for what you get, especially on steam sales.
Now you've got your guns but do you have the skills to rob many a bank? Payday has an awesome levelling system that rewards you with tons of skill points (120) that you can spend in five trees each representing a different style of play. The part that makes the system great is the fact a player can dabble in multiple trees allowing them to fill more roles effectively or access certain skills from certain trees to buff their armour to an incredible rate, or make them as quick as possible or max out their dodge chance. It's a really, really good system even though there are a few skills that absolutly suck, I'm looking at you Daredevil. You can give the system a quick look here: pd2skills.com/
I can't really give much more information other than you should check out some trailers (they are all excellent) and really, really give this game a go.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
-----=====THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION AND OPINIONS WE'RE WRITTEN BEFORE CRIMFEST 2015 WHEN OVERKILL ADDED AN UPDATE INVOLVING MICROTRANSACTIONS (SOMETHING ONCE STATED WOULD NEVER BE ADDED). BECAUSE OF THIS I NOW TAKE BACK ANYTHING SAID IN THE FOLLOWING PARAGRAPHS. THIS IS GAME DOES NOT DESERVE TO BE PLAYED, AS GOOD AS IT ONCE WAS.=====-----
For more information about overkills bullshit head here to hear first hand what people think. It's not pretty!
Do you like robbing banks? If you did you probably wouldn't tell anyone to be fair, but if you've always felt like staging a bank heist then Overkills Payday 2 might be the game for you. In Payday you take the role of one of many heisters and take part in a multitude of robberies ranging from banks, nightclubs, a private military storage yard or two, many armoured vans and even a train. But you will not find it an easy ordeal to steal everything in sight. In your way lies the police, FBI and a nasty security company called GenSec. Oh and don't forget about the deadly array of special units:
-The Taser, a git who can stun players and make them waste ammo spraying bullets all over the place
-The Cloaker, who sneaks about, hides under stuff then leaps out at you when you least expect it kicking you to ground while insulting you (real piece of work he is)
-The Shield, which is pretty much just a bloke with a riot shield
-The Bulldozer, a giant of a man wearing bomb disposal armour who stomps his way around the area slaying anyone in sight, be careful of these!
-The Bulldozer, a giant of a man wearing bomb disposal armour who stomps his way around the area slaying anyone in sight, be careful of these!
If you see one of these coming your way you run.
Now you've got your guns but do you have the skills to rob many a bank? Payday has an awesome levelling system that rewards you with tons of skill points (120) that you can spend in five trees each representing a different style of play. The part that makes the system great is the fact a player can dabble in multiple trees allowing them to fill more roles effectively or access certain skills from certain trees to buff their armour to an incredible rate, or make them as quick as possible or max out their dodge chance. It's a really, really good system even though there are a few skills that absolutly suck, I'm looking at you Daredevil. You can give the system a quick look here: pd2skills.com/
I can't really give much more information other than you should check out some trailers (they are all excellent) and really, really give this game a go.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 4 October 2015
Continued Graphical Improvements
Again not much to say this week as I've been continuing on improving the graphics of Revolver so here are a couple of screenshots to give you a quick look at what I've been working on. That said I will be making a second video log sometime in the next week to cover the changes that have been made since the last log and to go over the features that Revolver offers.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
NEW AND IMPROVED OFFICE LEVEL!
NEW LEFT HAND SIDE OF WAREHOUSE LEVEL!
NEW RIGHT HAND SIDE OF WAREHOUSE LEVEL!
I especially like the addition of a shit ton of crates to the warehouse level. They work as actual blockades allowing players to dodge enemies effectively by weaving through them.
Sunday 27 September 2015
Testing & Graphics
Quick one this week as I haven't been doing a huge variety of things with Revolver. Mostly I've been working on improving the graphics via tiles. Game Makers tile system basically lets you make a "tile-set" which is a grid of graphics that you use by placing individual grid squares in a level with a minimal effect on performance. Basically you layer these tiles over the game itself to give it a better graphical finish. It's a pretty good system for doing a simple graphical overhaul without making tons of in game objects. The main reason I've decided to work on this now is that the game is reaching the point where I really want to start getting the word out. Don't get me wrong I'm not expecting this to be the next big thing but any attention Revolver gets is going to go a long way. It's because of this that presentation is getting more important and why I'm concentrating on it now. Better graphics is also going to make the game more interesting to play as the current gray heavy graphics are so dull to look at it takes away any fun the game actually has to offer!
In other news I'm after play testers! You can get the latest update of Revolver here which is the version that adds the level climaxes and intro room and you can answer a simple feedback form here. Any feedback is much appreciated and will help me out a hell of a lot so please give Revolver a go and tell me what you think!
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
In other news I'm after play testers! You can get the latest update of Revolver here which is the version that adds the level climaxes and intro room and you can answer a simple feedback form here. Any feedback is much appreciated and will help me out a hell of a lot so please give Revolver a go and tell me what you think!
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 20 September 2015
Saving, Loading & Level Climaxes
More awesome developments this week! Revolver now has progress saving and loading. Whenever you choose a trait in between levels the game will now save your progress (which room you had previously completed) and what traits you have selected so far. You can now leave the game (through the esc/pause menu) and come back later by choosing the continue escape tunnel in the starting room. A few notes about this system before I continue. Currently dying DOES NOT delete your progress. In the final version it will however and starting a new game + completing the first level will overwrite your progress so bear that in mind. The reason I'm currently not deleting progress upon death is that I want anyone playing the game in its current form to get further than they may otherwise would. The game isn't perfectly balanced yet and I don't want to punish you for that!
The second main feature for this week is the level climaxes which I brought up last week. Simply put when you insert the floppies you've collected into the floor emergency terminal and escape ladder will open that you have to get to and escape from the area with. Sounds simple but once the terminal is activated every single enemy in the level will start chasing you. All of them. Until you escape. Players are now rewarded for getting a good understanding for the layout of maps and exploration prior to the terminal activation as well as good use of flares (lighting up a quick and safe path is a really good move). All of these will allow a player to much safely navigate once the going gets tough.
For a bit more detail here is this weeks Dev Log:
14/09/2015:
-Once the player activates the terminal all enemies in the level now chase them. It's a great climax to each level.
15/09/2015:
-Began work on a progress save system. Quite complicated to implement the way I want but I should be able to get it done this way.
16/09/2015:
-Game progress can now be effectivly saved and loaded. Players upon taking the second exit in the intro room will spawn in the level after the one they had previously finished. Traits are not yet saved and carryed however.
-Progress is now deleted upon player death.
18/09/2015:
-Traits can now be selected and loaded correctly.
19/09/2015:
-Loading works for all traits and level progress. Did notice a bug when having every single trait on that disallowed reloading, will look into as it may cause other problems too.
-The escape ladders in the intro room now state what they do. Either "NEW GAME" or "CONTINUE".
Now this week you will be able to download the newly updated version containing all of this weeks updates (stated above of course) as well as last weeks, which consists of a few tweaks and the intro room itself. As always you can download a copy here. Any feedback is much appreciated as this being my first proper game dev project I'm still learning so much!
Have a nice afternoon,
Beau
P.S I've also started doing some work on coming up with a logo. Here it is currently in it's shoddy half finished form!
Sunday 13 September 2015
Improved Intro & Outros
This week I've been mostly working on making a better intro to Revolver. Until now the game would start up, the player would select a character and then instantly be thrown into the first level. That was shit. Now however players will start in a small intro room with the ability to walk around, shoot and otherwise get used to the controls. Here they are able to select characters and enter the first level once they do so. They can also read a note they spawn next to, explaining some story a few mechanics and introducing the character of Harold Fletcher. As I continue to develop the game this intro room will also allow players to continue a saved game, change options and perhaps even view stats of some kind. All while allowing them to get used to the controls!
The second main feature I've added this week is the escape ladders. Before when a player collects the required number of floppies and inputs them into the terminal the level abruptly ends. Kinda anti-climatic. Now once the player activates the terminal an emergency exit opens that the player must reach in order to end the level. Sounds simple? Once the terminal is activated ALL enemies in the level will begin chasing you down, so be ready to run and gun your way out of there. You better hope you found where the exit was earlier or you're going to struggle big time.
Here is this weeks Dev Log:
07/09/2015:
-Changed tile layering to allow terminals to appear actually on tables!
-Added first proper terminal. Will continue to add more text as time goes by.
-Added a super simple off terminal object. Just for show mostly.
08/09/2015:
-Updated and improved several small aspects of the terminal display and note display.
09/09/2015:
-Created multiple characters, backstories & the like for the various notes, emails & logs that the player can find.
10/09/2015:
-Began work on intro room that will become a playable main menu. The setting is one the safe rooms that players are implied to be travelling to inbetween levels.
11/09/2015:
-Built layout and tiled safe room. Moved introductory note into this room as it is a better location for it.
12/09/2015:
-Added character selection to the starting room.
-Added an escape ladder object. Now when the player activates the floppy disks in the terminal an escape gets activated allowing the player to access the trait screen and progress to the next level. The only time this isn't the case is during the safe room when the player must select a character to exit the area.
Not much else to add about this weeks work. Look forward to the new update available here next week and I hope you all have a nice weekend. Whatever's left of it!
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
The second main feature I've added this week is the escape ladders. Before when a player collects the required number of floppies and inputs them into the terminal the level abruptly ends. Kinda anti-climatic. Now once the player activates the terminal an emergency exit opens that the player must reach in order to end the level. Sounds simple? Once the terminal is activated ALL enemies in the level will begin chasing you down, so be ready to run and gun your way out of there. You better hope you found where the exit was earlier or you're going to struggle big time.
Here is this weeks Dev Log:
07/09/2015:
-Changed tile layering to allow terminals to appear actually on tables!
-Added first proper terminal. Will continue to add more text as time goes by.
-Added a super simple off terminal object. Just for show mostly.
08/09/2015:
-Updated and improved several small aspects of the terminal display and note display.
09/09/2015:
-Created multiple characters, backstories & the like for the various notes, emails & logs that the player can find.
10/09/2015:
-Began work on intro room that will become a playable main menu. The setting is one the safe rooms that players are implied to be travelling to inbetween levels.
11/09/2015:
-Built layout and tiled safe room. Moved introductory note into this room as it is a better location for it.
12/09/2015:
-Added character selection to the starting room.
-Added an escape ladder object. Now when the player activates the floppy disks in the terminal an escape gets activated allowing the player to access the trait screen and progress to the next level. The only time this isn't the case is during the safe room when the player must select a character to exit the area.
Not much else to add about this weeks work. Look forward to the new update available here next week and I hope you all have a nice weekend. Whatever's left of it!
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 6 September 2015
First Update of Many
Here it is! The first of what will now be fortnightly updates. Not much to cover here honestly so here is this weeks dev log:
31/08/2015:
-Created a system that allows different notes to show different things. It's a bit complicated though and requires playtesting to implement (far too complicated to write about here). Will stick with it for now though.
-Added similar system for terminals.
01/09/2015:
-Added screenshake.
02/09/2015:
-Fixed bugs with screenshake on player damage/gas damage.
-Edited sound effects for player hurt, turret firing, item pickup, revolver reload & level up to make them less abrasive.
03/09/2015:
-Set up the player sprites and collisions in a way that removes the head object. This means each character can have a unique head! Collisions have taken a little hit. Whereas before they were near perfect now players can get stuck in certain instances. Ironing those out now though. Fixed a bit. Will leave like this and wait for feedback. If not positive will find alternative solution.
-Re added the system where the player head handled collision and the body sprite was drawn around it but made the head invisible. Fixed all problems and allows for proper character heads!
04/09/2015:
-Altered note display slightly to make it look nicer. At some point making a script for the display will be a good idea.
05/09/2015:
-Altered story to make it simpler.
You can download the new version right here.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
31/08/2015:
-Created a system that allows different notes to show different things. It's a bit complicated though and requires playtesting to implement (far too complicated to write about here). Will stick with it for now though.
-Added similar system for terminals.
01/09/2015:
-Added screenshake.
02/09/2015:
-Fixed bugs with screenshake on player damage/gas damage.
-Edited sound effects for player hurt, turret firing, item pickup, revolver reload & level up to make them less abrasive.
03/09/2015:
-Set up the player sprites and collisions in a way that removes the head object. This means each character can have a unique head! Collisions have taken a little hit. Whereas before they were near perfect now players can get stuck in certain instances. Ironing those out now though. Fixed a bit. Will leave like this and wait for feedback. If not positive will find alternative solution.
-Re added the system where the player head handled collision and the body sprite was drawn around it but made the head invisible. Fixed all problems and allows for proper character heads!
04/09/2015:
-Altered note display slightly to make it look nicer. At some point making a script for the display will be a good idea.
05/09/2015:
-Altered story to make it simpler.
You can download the new version right here.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 30 August 2015
Upcoming Updates
Good news everyone! From next week onwards I'm going to be updating Revolver every fortnight. Why? It allows some of the people reading this (and other sites I go on) a chance to play the game as it updates rather than just reading my half-arsed notes on it. This means more chance for feedback and should lead to a much better game overall. Notes on development will be improving again from next week onwards too as I spend more time developing. As for now, here is this weeks dev log:
28/08/2015:
-Coded the basic layout for the note display.
29/08/2015:
-Added a second type of terminal that allows players to find flavour text. To help with using these terminals (as well as the objective one and note collection) a promt to press 'E' comes up when the player can interact with an object.
-Zoomed in the screen view to 1.6 the screen size. Feels better.
-Changed the surface colour from black to an incredibly dark blue, makes the screen a little easier to look at.
-Added a blood particle effect for shooting the zombers.
-Tweaked how the interaction works between the player and terminals. Terminals are no longer children of the oSolid parent object.
Finally I'm able to add story stuff! Players will receive chunks of story/lore/flavour text via collectable notes, readable terminals (blue rather than the green of the objective terminals) and by being contacted by the helper character at the start of many levels. It's a simple albeit a bit clunky of a mechanic but it'll serve it's purpose pretty well I think. It will also offer players a little moment of respite from being chased to buggery.
That's pretty much all the news from me this week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and if you want to give Revolver a try go here. (Note the updates above aren't part of the game yet!)
-Beau
Tuesday 25 August 2015
Ludum Dare Done & Future Goals
IT'S DONE! I've finished my first ever Ludum Dare game jam. Following the theme of "You Are The Monster" I created a simple defence game called (creatively) "You Are The Minotaur" which you can download and play here (only available for windows I'm afraid). You can also visit the LDJam page here. The game involves exploring a maze and crushing silly heroes who try to steal your treasure. You can also place two varieties of trap to help defend. It's super simple but I did only have three days to build it so what do you expect!
I was going to keep a dev log like I usually do for Revolver but I figured I'd just do a quick write up when it's all over. Kinda like this.
Development Overview:
What went well:
-Learnt loads of new stuff. Improved my ability with path finding, learnt how to clip stuff to a grid (super useful for tower defence games and the like) and improved my graphical ability.
-Got out of my rut
-Managed to create a reasonably well polished game
-Had a lot of fun
-Improved my planning ability
What went not so well:
-Had a real problem with a few mechanics
-Should have spent a little more time developing the idea before jumping headlong into a particular idea. There are many other genres of game I could have made but I ended with another top-down game
-Some sound effects I wasn't able to make decent enough with bfxr and couldn't find a decent alternative in time
Overall I'm proud of what I made, and while it may not the best game ever I feel I've done a really good job and had a lot of fun doing it.
For those interested I spent approximately 20 or so hours of the last three days programming, composing music, drawing graphics and anything else to make it.
Future Goals:
So here's a quick run-down of my plans for the near future.
-Finish Revolver. This is top-priority, I need to get this finished and released because christ it has been way overdue. I still like the game & the ideas, don't get me wrong but I want to work on other stuff too!
-Build a website. Somewhere that connects all the stuff together. Game downloads, this blog, twittet, etc.
-Learn Unity. Game Maker is all well and good but I believe learning Unity will allow me much more freedom in what I make than Game Maker can offer me. We'll see.
-Develop a mobile game/app. This is where it's at. Mobile games are big these days and only getting more popular. If I want success this is the place to go at. On top of all that though as someone who has only recent got a smartphone I really want to try to push the boat out on what games I can make with touch-screen and on smaller devices. This is more distant future though.
All in all, I should be busy for a while yet!
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
I was going to keep a dev log like I usually do for Revolver but I figured I'd just do a quick write up when it's all over. Kinda like this.
Development Overview:
What went well:
-Learnt loads of new stuff. Improved my ability with path finding, learnt how to clip stuff to a grid (super useful for tower defence games and the like) and improved my graphical ability.
-Got out of my rut
-Managed to create a reasonably well polished game
-Had a lot of fun
-Improved my planning ability
What went not so well:
-Had a real problem with a few mechanics
-Should have spent a little more time developing the idea before jumping headlong into a particular idea. There are many other genres of game I could have made but I ended with another top-down game
-Some sound effects I wasn't able to make decent enough with bfxr and couldn't find a decent alternative in time
Overall I'm proud of what I made, and while it may not the best game ever I feel I've done a really good job and had a lot of fun doing it.
For those interested I spent approximately 20 or so hours of the last three days programming, composing music, drawing graphics and anything else to make it.
Future Goals:
So here's a quick run-down of my plans for the near future.
-Finish Revolver. This is top-priority, I need to get this finished and released because christ it has been way overdue. I still like the game & the ideas, don't get me wrong but I want to work on other stuff too!
-Build a website. Somewhere that connects all the stuff together. Game downloads, this blog, twittet, etc.
-Learn Unity. Game Maker is all well and good but I believe learning Unity will allow me much more freedom in what I make than Game Maker can offer me. We'll see.
-Develop a mobile game/app. This is where it's at. Mobile games are big these days and only getting more popular. If I want success this is the place to go at. On top of all that though as someone who has only recent got a smartphone I really want to try to push the boat out on what games I can make with touch-screen and on smaller devices. This is more distant future though.
All in all, I should be busy for a while yet!
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 16 August 2015
Pause, Progress & Ludum Dare
This week has been better and I've finally made progress in a few key areas. Firstly I finally have pause functionality working; there is an actual freaking pause menu now (I've wanted to be able to write that for ages now) and I've began work with a new music editing software that I'm using to make some simple music to throw into Revolver. On top of that I should be able to use it to make some much nicer sound effects, either that or I'll nip back to bfxr and make some there, I dunno yet.
For those interested the software is called BoscaCeoil and is super simple to use, which is pretty much the main reason I'm using it. It involves making short riffs and then placing those riffs into a timeline. You have access to a decent library of midi instruments and a small variety of other stuff like chiptune sounds and the like. Now the reason I've suddenly decided to find some music software however...
I'm taking part in the next Ludum Dare! For anyone that doesn't know Ludum Dare is a sort of challenge to develop a game within 72 hours set to a specific theme which is only revealed at the start. There is also a competition aspect with harder rules and a shorter time limit (48 hours) but as it is my first attempt, bugger that. It's now its 33rd run and has actually been going on for over 12 years now, which makes it the longest running game jam. Needless to say I'm pretty excited and I'm making sure that I have all the tools I need ready (hence the look into music software) for the 21st when it begins. Wish me luck!
Finally I just realised that I forgot to post the finished version of the pixel art thing I did. Here it be:
For those interested the software is called BoscaCeoil and is super simple to use, which is pretty much the main reason I'm using it. It involves making short riffs and then placing those riffs into a timeline. You have access to a decent library of midi instruments and a small variety of other stuff like chiptune sounds and the like. Now the reason I've suddenly decided to find some music software however...
I'm taking part in the next Ludum Dare! For anyone that doesn't know Ludum Dare is a sort of challenge to develop a game within 72 hours set to a specific theme which is only revealed at the start. There is also a competition aspect with harder rules and a shorter time limit (48 hours) but as it is my first attempt, bugger that. It's now its 33rd run and has actually been going on for over 12 years now, which makes it the longest running game jam. Needless to say I'm pretty excited and I'm making sure that I have all the tools I need ready (hence the look into music software) for the 21st when it begins. Wish me luck!
Finally I just realised that I forgot to post the finished version of the pixel art thing I did. Here it be:
DECAYING PLANET:
Pretty glad how it turned out. Mostly it was just an exercise in using GIMP but still, I think it looks pretty neat.
-Beau
Monday 10 August 2015
Rutty Ruttington
I'm gonna be honest here, it's been a real uphill struggle these last couple of weeks. I don't know if it's my medication, being back home or my lack of any real plan for next year (I still need to find a 12 month placement for my honours or come up with some other plan for the next 12 months) that have made me into this lethargic beast but I've been getting bugger all done. I mean less than other times I've gotten nothing done. All that said I have managed to get working on Tom Francis' Game Maker tutorials again which haven given me better insight into how I can implement the final big system Revolver needs (pause functionality) among other things. I just need to actually work out how to get my game to pause properly. Once that is done however I'm going to send out some test copies to a bunch of people and see what they think/what they can break and polish the game from there. That's the plan at least. All in all I'm doing alright, don't worry, I'm just going through a little rut as we all do; I just wanted to make sure that communication doesn't hit a total standstill. Oh and sorry for the delayed post, I was at my granddads pretty much all of yesterday.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 26 July 2015
Delicious Revolver Progress
Being back on developing Revolver has been a load of fun and it feels good to finally have all the levels finished (tiles and polish still need to be added of course) and I've began important work in several other areas such as the AI and helper character. Here is this weeks Dev Log:
20/07/2015:
-Worked on rFortyThirdFloor. Have a really nice design for it now.
-Started work on building the helper object. Got it to aim and shoot but the sprite isn't rotating yet and I need to then allow it to move along a path, preferably.
-The helper now turns to fire.
-The helper now can follow a predefined path and faces the way he is walking. It's going to need polish to look good but for now I think it works pretty well.
21/07/2015:
-Smoothed out the helpers path in my tests. Already looking much better.
-Continued work on rFortyThirdFloor.
-Finished basic layout of rFortyThirdFloor and furnished with some pickups.
22/07/2015:
-Finished rFortyThirdFloor & began work on rRoof, the final level.
23/07/2015:
-Finished basic layout of rRoof including helper movement, pickups, turrets and the like.
25/07/2015:
-Altered zombie AI so that they will only begin to chase the player if: there is a direct LoS between them and the player(no walls blocking), or the player shines their flashlight on them through a wall.
Might alter some more at a later date but it is much better than the previous chase if within X pixels. I did keep that for two particular levels however where that suits better.
-Decided to remove spirits from the game for now. With a soon to be implements zombie wander code the sudden chase from spirits seems less fun than before. Might edit and put back in but for now they are gone.
20/07/2015:
-Worked on rFortyThirdFloor. Have a really nice design for it now.
-Started work on building the helper object. Got it to aim and shoot but the sprite isn't rotating yet and I need to then allow it to move along a path, preferably.
-The helper now turns to fire.
-The helper now can follow a predefined path and faces the way he is walking. It's going to need polish to look good but for now I think it works pretty well.
21/07/2015:
-Smoothed out the helpers path in my tests. Already looking much better.
-Continued work on rFortyThirdFloor.
-Finished basic layout of rFortyThirdFloor and furnished with some pickups.
22/07/2015:
-Finished rFortyThirdFloor & began work on rRoof, the final level.
23/07/2015:
-Finished basic layout of rRoof including helper movement, pickups, turrets and the like.
25/07/2015:
-Altered zombie AI so that they will only begin to chase the player if: there is a direct LoS between them and the player(no walls blocking), or the player shines their flashlight on them through a wall.
Might alter some more at a later date but it is much better than the previous chase if within X pixels. I did keep that for two particular levels however where that suits better.
-Decided to remove spirits from the game for now. With a soon to be implements zombie wander code the sudden chase from spirits seems less fun than before. Might edit and put back in but for now they are gone.
Not more to say to be honest. I'm making progress again and that is good. This week I'll hopefully be getting a lot more of the stuff that really makes the game feel better done. That's the plan at least.
-Beau
Sunday 19 July 2015
Back In Action
It's over! Assignments are done, I've moved back home and I'm getting back to work on Revolver among other things. I'm taking the weekend slow but I've already managed to get a basic layout of the penultimate room done and I've started doing some pixel art practise (which I'll post below). All in all I'm really excited to be getting stuff done again and I can't wait to share my progress, something which I will be doing much more of over the coming weeks. No dev log again this week I'm afraid but here is that art I was talking about:
As you can see it is still lacking much detail but I think you get the idea. I'm hoping to get it done sometime this week. As for the software I'm using, for anyone who might be interested, it's called GIMP (Graphic Image Manipulation Program?) and I've grown quite fond of it. It's the same software I used to make my twitter avatar which is actually the logo of a fictional group I've invented. It's pretty simple to get the hand of and appears quite good for pixel art, although not being an expert I can't really say much on that front, but it has definitely suited my purposes.
Anyway I'm going to get back to whatever it is I'm going to do today.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Decaying Planet
Anyway I'm going to get back to whatever it is I'm going to do today.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 12 July 2015
Work of a Different Kind
I've had a pretty good week all things considered. Even though my sleeping pattern is pretty much non-existent, I've managed to make great progress in my final uni assignment and I've even managed to write the whole of the story side of Revolver which is a chunk I've actually been worried about getting done for a while. All I've got to do on that front now is take what I've got and sprinkle it throughout the game as messages from the helper character & notes you'll find lying around. As I mentioned last week I'm still not doing programming stuff on Revolver and instead concentrating on my assignments up until its finished, so as I've been saying for far too long now, not much to say this week! I can't wait to get back to work on Revolver and start updating this blog with much more interesting game dev stuff, I'll be spending a lot of time working on it when I'm back home.
Anyway, have a nice day and I'll be back next week with something, hopefully, much more interesting.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Anyway, have a nice day and I'll be back next week with something, hopefully, much more interesting.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 5 July 2015
A Vital Setback
Between personal problems and a big ass Java assignment, development of Revolver has hit a real slow pace. I'm not apologising for this though. After having a couple of weeks of struggling to get up before the late afternoon, difficulties with motivation & other things besides, what little time I've been able to work effectively (not just staring blankly at my screen) I have been trying to spend on said assignment. I really, really don't want to have to do this module again next year. All this said development on Revolver is going to take a short break up until this module is finished on the 17th of July. Hopefully I'll be feeling a little less shit by then and I'll be able to get working solidly on Revolver again. Lord knows I'd like to get this game finished sooner rather having even more delays. For the sake of tradition here is the weeks Revolver dev log:
01/06/2015:
-Finished basic layout of rSkyEntrance.
-Improved the look of the terminals, by putting them half into walls. Yes really.
Not much else to write about this week. I want to get just a little further in Person of Interest before I write anything about it.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
01/06/2015:
-Finished basic layout of rSkyEntrance.
-Improved the look of the terminals, by putting them half into walls. Yes really.
Not much else to write about this week. I want to get just a little further in Person of Interest before I write anything about it.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 28 June 2015
GUI's and That
Been concentrating on a few bits of graphical polish this week like the trait selection menu and main GUI. All in all it's really improved the feel of the game bringing it much closer to having a more professional finish to it. Which is always a good thing. Here is this weeks log:
23/06/2015:
-Turrets now only make a noise within about a screens width of the player. No more annoying turret noises playing all the god damn time.
-Worked on rSkyEntrance.
-Final eldritch trait finished; randomly boosts multiple stats. All traits now completed (HUZZAH!).
-Changed design for trait selection screen, filling more of the blank space and making it look much nicer. Added a simple rundown of the players stats at the end of the previous level: hp / hpMax, bullets fired, flares placed etc.
24/06/2015:
-Completed trait list on trait selection screen.
26/06/2015:
-Continued work on rSkyEntrance.
27/06/2015:
-Created a proper HUD for the floppy disks, flares and mines. It looks 10x better than it did before.
-Added an xp bar similar and just below the hp bar.
Figured I'd throw in a couple of pictures showing how it now looks:
Flares and floppy disks are now graphics. Mines (if you have the trait) also show up there. Note the XP bar just below the health bar.
Player stats on the left, list of traits to the right (the text turns white if you have the trait) buttons in the middle and a little hint at the bottom. You can also see the simple dot cursor that I'm using for the moment.
So there you go, not much else going on at the moment I'm afraid but as you can see Revolver is reaching the stage where it's all about presentation. There are still a couple of levels to finish and a lot of graphical updates to make to the actual levels, through the use of tiles, but it's getting ever closer to being finished. Getting this far is honestly something I'd never thought would happen, I've always been someone who gives up when it gets tough but seeing this as far through as I have is an amazing feeling and I hope it continues.
-Beau
Sunday 21 June 2015
Traits Complete!
This week has been pretty good to me. I've still been concentrating on other things than Revolver but I made a lot of important progress yesterday including the addition of MINES. I've wanted to add mines for a while and now there is even a trait that allows players to place a few per level. Combining the mines (which fire 24 bullets each on explosion) with the bounce bullets trait garners some hilarious and quite deadly results. With the addition of these traits the system is now complete bar moving them about a bit to balance, but I need to do the testing before that can happen. Here's the dev log for the past week:
15/06/2015:
-Designed a traits.
16/06/2015:
-Altered medkits so that they regenerate health rather than instantly heal.
-Rebalanced characters so that all have valuble positive stats but some have negative stats.
-Added Regenerative Medicine trait. Triples the heal rate of medkits making them take effect really quick.
17/06/2015:
-Designed last 3 traits.
20/06/2015:
-Added mines. When they explode they release a load of bullets that hurt both players and enemies. Mines can be detonated by both players and zombies and the bullets it fires are effected by bounce & pierce traits making
them incredibly powerful and dangerous.
-Added Shredder Rounds trait. Gives shots against zombies a 10% to deal double damage.
-Added Luminescence trait. Flares deal a small amount of damage against zombies. Damage stops when they reach 1 hp.
-Added Frag Mine trait. Player doesn't detonate mines (still hurt by bullets though) and can place three per map with "X".
Unfortunately I haven't been playing many new games recently, just Civ V and dirty bomb so I don't really have anything to write here again. Drat. I did start watching an interesting show called person of interest which I'll probably talk about some time but for now I'm going to keep this short and sweet for another week.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
15/06/2015:
-Designed a traits.
16/06/2015:
-Altered medkits so that they regenerate health rather than instantly heal.
-Rebalanced characters so that all have valuble positive stats but some have negative stats.
-Added Regenerative Medicine trait. Triples the heal rate of medkits making them take effect really quick.
17/06/2015:
-Designed last 3 traits.
20/06/2015:
-Added mines. When they explode they release a load of bullets that hurt both players and enemies. Mines can be detonated by both players and zombies and the bullets it fires are effected by bounce & pierce traits making
them incredibly powerful and dangerous.
-Added Shredder Rounds trait. Gives shots against zombies a 10% to deal double damage.
-Added Luminescence trait. Flares deal a small amount of damage against zombies. Damage stops when they reach 1 hp.
-Added Frag Mine trait. Player doesn't detonate mines (still hurt by bullets though) and can place three per map with "X".
Unfortunately I haven't been playing many new games recently, just Civ V and dirty bomb so I don't really have anything to write here again. Drat. I did start watching an interesting show called person of interest which I'll probably talk about some time but for now I'm going to keep this short and sweet for another week.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 14 June 2015
Slow and Steady is not Optimal
I'm a bit of a perfectionist. It's both really good and a curse. I'm never happy unless I try my hardest so it is a real pain in the arse when I get less work done than I want. With credit to myself, I've still made leaps and bounds over the course of this project and the slow down in project work that is happening at the moment is caused mostly by the fact I still have a placement to get and another university module to complete. Ugh. All that said, the traits are almost finished, I've added a nice replacement for the cursor and the movement mechanics have been overhauled. Here's this weeks log:
09/06/2015:
-Finished basic layout of rLivingQuarters.
-Worked on rSkyEntrance.
-Added Bounce Coated Bullets trait. Gives bullets 75% chance to bounce of off walls. It's fun as fuck and surprisingly useful.
-Added two of three final traits. These grant multiple bonuses to their specialisation (Revolver or Player Stats). There is a third option but I need something cool for it to do.
11/06/2015:
-Created a sprite for the "helper" character, who turns up in the last level in person.
-Added Telekinetic Bands trait. Pulls pickups towards the player if they within range and no walls or pits are between them.
-Redone the movement controls. "W" moves the player towards the mouse while "S" moves them away. "A" & "D" strafe. The controls take a little getting used to but have that old school survival-horror awkward control thing going. Although due to being top down it isn't anywhere near as bad to control, just different.
-Invented three more traits to program later or tomorrow.
12/06/2015:
-Added basic cursor.
-Added Heavy Bullets trait. Increases knockback. Decreased standard knockback for balance.
-Added Sixth Sense trait. Adds a small circle of light around nearby pickups.
13/06/2015:
-Added a giant chasm to rPower, signifying where the initial explosion took place.
I'm still aiming for a mid-late July release and really hope I can make it. There aren't many more big hurdles in the way at the moment apart from building the menus and improving the art. Other than that the game is mostly finished, apart from polish, so as I've said hopefully the game will be finished by then. Hopefully.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
09/06/2015:
-Finished basic layout of rLivingQuarters.
-Worked on rSkyEntrance.
-Added Bounce Coated Bullets trait. Gives bullets 75% chance to bounce of off walls. It's fun as fuck and surprisingly useful.
-Added two of three final traits. These grant multiple bonuses to their specialisation (Revolver or Player Stats). There is a third option but I need something cool for it to do.
11/06/2015:
-Created a sprite for the "helper" character, who turns up in the last level in person.
-Added Telekinetic Bands trait. Pulls pickups towards the player if they within range and no walls or pits are between them.
-Redone the movement controls. "W" moves the player towards the mouse while "S" moves them away. "A" & "D" strafe. The controls take a little getting used to but have that old school survival-horror awkward control thing going. Although due to being top down it isn't anywhere near as bad to control, just different.
-Invented three more traits to program later or tomorrow.
12/06/2015:
-Added basic cursor.
-Added Heavy Bullets trait. Increases knockback. Decreased standard knockback for balance.
-Added Sixth Sense trait. Adds a small circle of light around nearby pickups.
13/06/2015:
-Added a giant chasm to rPower, signifying where the initial explosion took place.
I'm still aiming for a mid-late July release and really hope I can make it. There aren't many more big hurdles in the way at the moment apart from building the menus and improving the art. Other than that the game is mostly finished, apart from polish, so as I've said hopefully the game will be finished by then. Hopefully.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Monday 8 June 2015
Difficulties, Delays & Dirty Bombs
I've been having a weird week, and unfortunately it's been a real uphill struggle to get anything productive done. For those that don't know I have problems with depression and anxiety. Now I'm fortunate enough that these aren't severe enough to greatly impact my life but they are significant enough that certain aspects of a "normal" life are quite difficult for me, enough so that I'm seeking medical help. In this case I started taking SSRI's last Monday (01/06/2015) and for anyone who knows about this form of anti-depressant it's common that the first couple of weeks on them are generally not a fun couple of weeks. The body has to adjust to the new balance of chemicals in the brain. That said all in all I'm honestly feeling pretty fine in and of myself it's just that I'm very tired, not feeling motivated and not very creative. As I mentioned this is usually just a short adjustment period, I just wanted to say things are going slow now, but hopefully, as I've had positive results from SSRI's before I should be feeling better than ever soon enough and at that point I should start making leaps and bounds with everything from my uni placements, referral work and of course Revolver developments. Speaking of which:
31/05/2015:
-Created a crate tile.
-Began work on rSkyEntrance.
-Changed up the trait selection so that the same traits appear after each level. i.e After rWarehouse the player always has a choice of: Cyborg Eye, Bullet Ritual, Bionic Legs.
-Added a HP+ Speed- trait and a trait that deals damage to zombies attacking the player. The second doesn't seem to work though and I don't know why.
01/06/2015:
-Created a conveyor belt tile.
-Fixed the Shocking Touch trait.
-Added Blood Pact trait. Doubles HP but HP slowly drains during the level.
-Added Vampiric Embrace trait. Kills against zombies heal the player slightly. Good in conjunction with Blood Pact.
-Added Double Barrel trait. If the revolver has an even number of bullets loaded it fires two at once.
02/06/2015:
-Added Nano-repair trait. Gives a small health regen to the player. Half speed of blood pacts degeneration.
-Added Mysterious Journal trait. Gives the player a bonus 2 exp on everything that grants exp. Allows a player to get stronger in levels quicker.
03/06/2015:
-Worked on rLivingQuarters.
04/06/2015:
-Created a randomly chosen hint system for the trait selection screen.
05/06/2015:
-Added several hints.
06/06/2015:
-Added a script that should allow me to add text to the bottom of the screen at the start of levels. This will be used for the character who talks to you via walkie talkie.
-Added Bullet Proof Vest trait. Halves turret bullet damage from 16 to 8.
-Added Full Metal Jacket trait. Gives shots a 50% to pierce on each hit.
So after that heavy beginning I want to talk about a game I've recently been enjoying quite a bit. It's called Dirty Bomb and it's filled a little hole I've had since I got bored of TF2. Dirty Bomb is a neat little class based multi-player FPS. Basically it's two teams of highly characterised mercenaries shooting, blowing up and smacking the shit out of each other with the goal of completing their objectives, usually either attacking or defending. It's a pretty generic format but Dirty Bomb does a few things really well.
First is the fast fire game-play. Most classes can't take much of a hit but re-spawning in waves (whole teams may re-spawn at once) rather than with individual timers and with some character being able to revive players quick, allows for a constant flow of combat. The characters that can't take much of a hit are also pretty fast movers and with all characters you can do a little parkour, which is often really useful for dodging if used right. It's fun anyway so I do it all the time.
Secondly characters all have their own personalities, fun quotes and most importantly awesome tactical abilities. Every character has a unique cool ability like sky lasers, air-strikes or healing stations and some also have a common ones too like defibrillators. It's this mix that makes all classes have their own feel, but most mixes of classes will still have enough coverage of skills that it's still practical to use. This gives a nice balanced feel to the characters I think.
Lastly I really like the load-out system that gives a specific set of weapons and augmentations (1 - 3 little perks) meaning specifically balanced characters to use and neat augmentations that vary how the character plays. Just changing from a shotgun to smg or having a melee damage bonus can change how that class plays, or having a perk that reduces ability delay can be really useful for defending or attacking quicker. It adds more personality and character to the loadout and getting good with a loadout can really benefit in many situations.
All in all I've had a lot of fun with Dirty Bomb and will continue to do so. I don't think I will be spending any or at least much money on the game however. It is free to play with the ability to purchase everything form characters, to loadouts and even special money granting items. Here is a link to their website so you can get more info, and with that I'm getting on with something else now. Sorry for the delay.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
31/05/2015:
-Created a crate tile.
-Began work on rSkyEntrance.
-Changed up the trait selection so that the same traits appear after each level. i.e After rWarehouse the player always has a choice of: Cyborg Eye, Bullet Ritual, Bionic Legs.
-Added a HP+ Speed- trait and a trait that deals damage to zombies attacking the player. The second doesn't seem to work though and I don't know why.
01/06/2015:
-Created a conveyor belt tile.
-Fixed the Shocking Touch trait.
-Added Blood Pact trait. Doubles HP but HP slowly drains during the level.
-Added Vampiric Embrace trait. Kills against zombies heal the player slightly. Good in conjunction with Blood Pact.
-Added Double Barrel trait. If the revolver has an even number of bullets loaded it fires two at once.
02/06/2015:
-Added Nano-repair trait. Gives a small health regen to the player. Half speed of blood pacts degeneration.
-Added Mysterious Journal trait. Gives the player a bonus 2 exp on everything that grants exp. Allows a player to get stronger in levels quicker.
03/06/2015:
-Worked on rLivingQuarters.
04/06/2015:
-Created a randomly chosen hint system for the trait selection screen.
05/06/2015:
-Added several hints.
06/06/2015:
-Added a script that should allow me to add text to the bottom of the screen at the start of levels. This will be used for the character who talks to you via walkie talkie.
-Added Bullet Proof Vest trait. Halves turret bullet damage from 16 to 8.
-Added Full Metal Jacket trait. Gives shots a 50% to pierce on each hit.
So after that heavy beginning I want to talk about a game I've recently been enjoying quite a bit. It's called Dirty Bomb and it's filled a little hole I've had since I got bored of TF2. Dirty Bomb is a neat little class based multi-player FPS. Basically it's two teams of highly characterised mercenaries shooting, blowing up and smacking the shit out of each other with the goal of completing their objectives, usually either attacking or defending. It's a pretty generic format but Dirty Bomb does a few things really well.
First is the fast fire game-play. Most classes can't take much of a hit but re-spawning in waves (whole teams may re-spawn at once) rather than with individual timers and with some character being able to revive players quick, allows for a constant flow of combat. The characters that can't take much of a hit are also pretty fast movers and with all characters you can do a little parkour, which is often really useful for dodging if used right. It's fun anyway so I do it all the time.
Secondly characters all have their own personalities, fun quotes and most importantly awesome tactical abilities. Every character has a unique cool ability like sky lasers, air-strikes or healing stations and some also have a common ones too like defibrillators. It's this mix that makes all classes have their own feel, but most mixes of classes will still have enough coverage of skills that it's still practical to use. This gives a nice balanced feel to the characters I think.
Lastly I really like the load-out system that gives a specific set of weapons and augmentations (1 - 3 little perks) meaning specifically balanced characters to use and neat augmentations that vary how the character plays. Just changing from a shotgun to smg or having a melee damage bonus can change how that class plays, or having a perk that reduces ability delay can be really useful for defending or attacking quicker. It adds more personality and character to the loadout and getting good with a loadout can really benefit in many situations.
All in all I've had a lot of fun with Dirty Bomb and will continue to do so. I don't think I will be spending any or at least much money on the game however. It is free to play with the ability to purchase everything form characters, to loadouts and even special money granting items. Here is a link to their website so you can get more info, and with that I'm getting on with something else now. Sorry for the delay.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 31 May 2015
Revolver Continuations
I've gone and done it. Go HERE and you can watch my first video log. It's a little hit and miss with quality and the sound balance is poor (I did try though), but it does the job. Any future ones will be better made I promise. As for the standard dev log, here it is:
24/05/2015:
-Tweaked several levels.
25/05/2015:
-Created a new tile for hazard looking floors.
-Replaced the perk system with a simple, small increase in maxHP, movement speed & reload speed. It now only heals 10HP too.
27/05/2015:
-Began work on rGuardQuarters.
-Created another tile.
-Vastly neatened up the spawn code and set up spawning for every level. Obviously the quantities of foes needs testing but the system works.
28/05/2015:
-Did a little work on rGuardQuarters (now renamed rLivingQuarters).
-Created some basic table tiles which I will add "furnished" versions of soon. Also created two varieties of bed tile.
-Alterered grid for pathfinding, allowing enemies that use the grid to move around the edges of the map if they need to, fixing the problem with enemies getting stuck and wierdly teleporting to the top left.
29/05/2015:
-Wrote initial draft of Revolvers main theme.
Ooh that last one looks interesting, eh? I do plan on making all my own music, and Gods be good, that should be the case. There is actually a good chance that the whole soundtrack will be piano based, that'll be cool I hope.
In other news, I've been playing a ton of Robocraft. Robocraft is a really cool MOBA style game where you build robots out of blocks (kinda like Minecraft) add wheels, hover blades, plane wings, FREAKING HELICOPTER BLADES and caterpillar tracks. You then add guns of many varieties, join random teams and beat the blocks out of each other. It's a very fun game and constantly upgrading your vehicles with the money (RP) you make for fights is a very addictive & rewarding system. Oh, I forgot to mention it's free too. There is actually a paid premium system that doubles your rewards, that I use occasionally and really do recommend. It's not too expensive and double rewards are very big in late game. All in all Robocraft is a lot of fun to be had in small groups (there is a limit to the amount of people in a party: 3 or 4 with a premium user) and the game is a bit buggy with its party and lobby systems but if you can look over that it's a real good time.
That's enough for today I think.
-Beau
As always you can follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/Bocodillo
24/05/2015:
-Tweaked several levels.
25/05/2015:
-Created a new tile for hazard looking floors.
-Replaced the perk system with a simple, small increase in maxHP, movement speed & reload speed. It now only heals 10HP too.
27/05/2015:
-Began work on rGuardQuarters.
-Created another tile.
-Vastly neatened up the spawn code and set up spawning for every level. Obviously the quantities of foes needs testing but the system works.
28/05/2015:
-Did a little work on rGuardQuarters (now renamed rLivingQuarters).
-Created some basic table tiles which I will add "furnished" versions of soon. Also created two varieties of bed tile.
-Alterered grid for pathfinding, allowing enemies that use the grid to move around the edges of the map if they need to, fixing the problem with enemies getting stuck and wierdly teleporting to the top left.
29/05/2015:
-Wrote initial draft of Revolvers main theme.
Ooh that last one looks interesting, eh? I do plan on making all my own music, and Gods be good, that should be the case. There is actually a good chance that the whole soundtrack will be piano based, that'll be cool I hope.
In other news, I've been playing a ton of Robocraft. Robocraft is a really cool MOBA style game where you build robots out of blocks (kinda like Minecraft) add wheels, hover blades, plane wings, FREAKING HELICOPTER BLADES and caterpillar tracks. You then add guns of many varieties, join random teams and beat the blocks out of each other. It's a very fun game and constantly upgrading your vehicles with the money (RP) you make for fights is a very addictive & rewarding system. Oh, I forgot to mention it's free too. There is actually a paid premium system that doubles your rewards, that I use occasionally and really do recommend. It's not too expensive and double rewards are very big in late game. All in all Robocraft is a lot of fun to be had in small groups (there is a limit to the amount of people in a party: 3 or 4 with a premium user) and the game is a bit buggy with its party and lobby systems but if you can look over that it's a real good time.
That's enough for today I think.
-Beau
As always you can follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 24 May 2015
Revolver Returns!
Huzzah! With exams out of the way nothing can stop the progress on Revolver, apart from student finance, placements and other personal issues. Ahhh joy. Jokes aside though I am getting back to work with Revolver and making some good progress in certain areas. A lot of tweaking, a couple more "finished" (I still need to add finishing touches) levels, some AI fixes and the like. All in all a not bad start. Here's the Dev log for your eyes only:
19/05/2015:
-Worked on rFactory & rLFireTesting.
20/05/2015:
-Worked on rScience.
21/05/2015:
-Worked on rScience. Touched up previous levels to make them look more like real places. Added pits to represent where the table, shelves, etc. will go, as the player can't walk through such things but can shoot over them. Makes the maps way more interesting to play and look at than loads of blank rooms.
-Added some code that allows zombies to be pushed off walls they collide with.
-Altered sprites slightly, to fix weird looking heads.
22/05/2015:
-Tweaked more past levels
-Made several tiles including: shelf tops and carpets.
23/05/2015:
-Finalised basic design of rScience.
-Tweaked spawning code across levels.
-Discovered that many enemies that can't move (due to being spawned trapped between walls and the levels edge) are teleporting to the top left corner. I need to either: alter the spawn code so this doesn't occur at all, remove enemies that enter the top left corner so that they respawn (kill or teleport), or alter the path-finding so that they can get around the outside of the room.
Discovery that I can add pits as tables, shelves or anything else the player can shoot over (which the pit objects allow) and then add tiles to simply make them look like tables, shelves, etc. was a stroke of genius! Maybe I'm being a bit over the top there (I totally am) but it's still a great solution to the problem of how I furnish the many, many rooms in the many levels. Now I can fill a room with shelves or have large areas filled with offices, it really does make the maps look and play that more interestingly.
Speaking of playing things I have two pieces of news. Firstly my video log will be made next week. I've had a few issues with the software I tried to use during testing it (I attempted to make a short video I could make into a gif and post on Twitter) but I believe I have the kinks sorted. All I've got left to do is install the very nice mic my brother got me and give it a shot. Hopefully it'll be up some time this week. That's what I'm trying to do at least. Secondly, you may have been thinking at some point, "When will I get to play Revolver?". Good news on that front then because I'm officially aiming for an mid July release. I was originally going to say end of June but an extra week or two dedicated to polish & bug fixes I think is a good idea. You might also think, "Where will I be able to get a hold of Revolver?". At the moment the main location you'll be able to get a copy of Revolver is HERE. That's when it's released of course. I'll probably be putting it in other places too but I'll make sure to mention where, if I do.
That's all for this week, and I'm realising more and more that I need a better way of finishing these posts.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
19/05/2015:
-Worked on rFactory & rLFireTesting.
20/05/2015:
-Worked on rScience.
21/05/2015:
-Worked on rScience. Touched up previous levels to make them look more like real places. Added pits to represent where the table, shelves, etc. will go, as the player can't walk through such things but can shoot over them. Makes the maps way more interesting to play and look at than loads of blank rooms.
-Added some code that allows zombies to be pushed off walls they collide with.
-Altered sprites slightly, to fix weird looking heads.
22/05/2015:
-Tweaked more past levels
-Made several tiles including: shelf tops and carpets.
23/05/2015:
-Finalised basic design of rScience.
-Tweaked spawning code across levels.
-Discovered that many enemies that can't move (due to being spawned trapped between walls and the levels edge) are teleporting to the top left corner. I need to either: alter the spawn code so this doesn't occur at all, remove enemies that enter the top left corner so that they respawn (kill or teleport), or alter the path-finding so that they can get around the outside of the room.
Discovery that I can add pits as tables, shelves or anything else the player can shoot over (which the pit objects allow) and then add tiles to simply make them look like tables, shelves, etc. was a stroke of genius! Maybe I'm being a bit over the top there (I totally am) but it's still a great solution to the problem of how I furnish the many, many rooms in the many levels. Now I can fill a room with shelves or have large areas filled with offices, it really does make the maps look and play that more interestingly.
Speaking of playing things I have two pieces of news. Firstly my video log will be made next week. I've had a few issues with the software I tried to use during testing it (I attempted to make a short video I could make into a gif and post on Twitter) but I believe I have the kinks sorted. All I've got left to do is install the very nice mic my brother got me and give it a shot. Hopefully it'll be up some time this week. That's what I'm trying to do at least. Secondly, you may have been thinking at some point, "When will I get to play Revolver?". Good news on that front then because I'm officially aiming for an mid July release. I was originally going to say end of June but an extra week or two dedicated to polish & bug fixes I think is a good idea. You might also think, "Where will I be able to get a hold of Revolver?". At the moment the main location you'll be able to get a copy of Revolver is HERE. That's when it's released of course. I'll probably be putting it in other places too but I'll make sure to mention where, if I do.
That's all for this week, and I'm realising more and more that I need a better way of finishing these posts.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 17 May 2015
A Brief Holiday
It's been a super fun week of revision and other university obligations this week. I've been putting side projects to, well, the side for the past week in order to make room for such things but that'll all be changing again start next week. Well more like Tuesday (I have a phase test tomorrow) but still, I'll be back in the swing of things again soon so keep your eyes on this space. In other news I plan on making a short playthrough of my game at its current stage sometime next week so we've got that to look forward to.
Keeping it super short this week (once again eh?) but as I've said above about swings and that, I'll be back into one next week and these posts will become more ramble once again. Looking forward to it!
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Keeping it super short this week (once again eh?) but as I've said above about swings and that, I'll be back into one next week and these posts will become more ramble once again. Looking forward to it!
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 10 May 2015
The slow period
Hot damn have I got so little done this week. Thanks to an annoying mix of uni coursework and upcoming exams I haven't really done much in the way of Revolver developments and sadly that'll probably continue throughout next week. It's always a shame when I have to stop work on something I enjoy for a while but, getting my degree is kinda important so I don't mind. Hopefully all things going well I should be back developing like I like to do after a week on Monday. That's the plan at least. Here's this weeks Revolver Dev Log:
05/05/2015:
-Removed the wave counter and improved the spawning and level selection code.
-Added a basic muzzleflash after much effort.
-Made a start with tiles by making a basic wall tile. Wont add these properly until the full level design is finished.
-Added a bullet speed variable that I can use later to add a really cool bullet time trait.
06/05/2015:
-Worked on several levels.
07/05/2015:
-Created a couple of metal floor tiles.
-Added a bullet time and maximum revolver capacity trait, both are fun.
-Each starting character now has an individual sprite. Surprisingly nice effect it has.
08/05/2015:
-Created a system that tells the player what traits they already have during selection. Combine this with a proper randomly picked trait and not showing already picked traits and we have a good solid system.
So as you can see a little less than usual got done in the past week, still I was able to add some muzzle flash (albeit a little crap) and I've added a nice feature that highlights traits the player already has when they are on the selection screen:
Mmmm that bland GUI. Also of note how the player can currently re-pick traits they already have. I need to fix that.
That's all for this week I'm afraid. I need to get some revision done today before I head out for dinner with the family so I'll leave talking about other stuff for another week.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
05/05/2015:
-Removed the wave counter and improved the spawning and level selection code.
-Added a basic muzzleflash after much effort.
-Made a start with tiles by making a basic wall tile. Wont add these properly until the full level design is finished.
-Added a bullet speed variable that I can use later to add a really cool bullet time trait.
06/05/2015:
-Worked on several levels.
07/05/2015:
-Created a couple of metal floor tiles.
-Added a bullet time and maximum revolver capacity trait, both are fun.
-Each starting character now has an individual sprite. Surprisingly nice effect it has.
08/05/2015:
-Created a system that tells the player what traits they already have during selection. Combine this with a proper randomly picked trait and not showing already picked traits and we have a good solid system.
So as you can see a little less than usual got done in the past week, still I was able to add some muzzle flash (albeit a little crap) and I've added a nice feature that highlights traits the player already has when they are on the selection screen:
Mmmm that bland GUI. Also of note how the player can currently re-pick traits they already have. I need to fix that.
That's all for this week I'm afraid. I need to get some revision done today before I head out for dinner with the family so I'll leave talking about other stuff for another week.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 3 May 2015
Quick Update Post
Not much important to say about Revolver, just general developments. I'll just post the log and get on with other things:
27/04/2015:
-Started work on another room called rPower. It's going to look like a sort of large space full of turbines. I have no clue how or if I will furnish this area.
-Began furnishing rPower with ammo and healthkits. Added spawning and chasing code for the enemies.
28/04/2015:
-Created a basic zombie corpse sprite (very basic) to test placing a corpse on a zombies death. With improved art this'd actually look pretty cool.
-The gas now does less damage but upon leaving the rooms are the player instantly dies. This means players aren't penalised as much for accidentally or purposefully walking into the gas but leaving the room still has the consequence it needs.
-Renamed rOpenSpace to rGuardPost seeing as that is basically what it is.
-Began work on rFactory. Will need to create a conveyor belt object or tile before this map can finished though so I'll be leaving this one for a while. I realised now that the player needs to be told how they are actually getting from room to room and why they are collecting floppy disks. My old idea for a character guiding you over a tannoy speaker or something will have to revived I think.
-Began rHousing and also edited rPrison a bit to make it look more like a prison.
-Tweaked and fixed a lot of small problems with multiple levels to do with the gasses placement.
29/04/2015:
-Added a player health bar and placed the ammo counter so that they follow the player.
-Tweaked spawning, chase ranges and added basic stuff to new rooms.
-Began another room called rLFireTesting, which will have a lot of turrets.
-Vastly improved the corpse sprite as it was bugging me. Should add a blood effect.
-Experimented with tiles to get an idea on how to use them later.
-Made character selection into an actual fucking menu. YEAH SON!!!
-Altered alpha for the lighting so that the player can slightly see what is in the dark.
30/04/2015:
-Added a perk that increases the flares radius and reduced the starting flares radius.
-Made some text more readable.
-Added a perk noise.
-Had game tested. Results: Improve reloading mechanic, make navigation easier, make perks more noticeable.
01/05/2015:
-Vastly improved the reloading. The player can now either mash the space key or hold it to reload.
-Turned spirits into a purely debuff enemy who: reduce your movement speed, reload speed, max HP & bullet spread.
02/05/2015:
-Decided the basic idea for the total of 12 levels and what order the player will travel through them. I could set the traits up so that each level the player gets a choice of one of three and that they're the same each time.
The traits could be practical for the upcoming level. i.e. Flare based traits on the choice before the first level with spirits.
-Rebuilt the first level to make it more architectuallry better. Simplified the level making it more suited to being the first level.
-Added a light to the bullets. Will mess with and make look nicer later.
As you can see I've ditched the idea of randomly chosen rooms and decided to have a coherent order for the levels. This allows me to add some story and a difficulty curve (something which was really lacking in earlier builds) and honestly, I much prefer this to what I was originally doing. Without having properly randomly generated levels it's not really worth having the levels randomly picked.
In other news, I've decided to make a video of Revolvers current stage in development. Not really sure when I'm actually going to make it, probably some time this week, but I'll be using it to showcase to all the lovely people I know what I've actually been up to. There is only so much you can show with a few still images and huge dumps of text. If it turns out well, I might even make it a common occurrence, I don't know yet, we'll see how it goes.
Not much more to say this week, I've been playing a bit of Creeper World III which is a fantastic RTS/Tower Defence game but I've yet to finish it yet so I'll save talking about that until a bit later.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
27/04/2015:
-Started work on another room called rPower. It's going to look like a sort of large space full of turbines. I have no clue how or if I will furnish this area.
-Began furnishing rPower with ammo and healthkits. Added spawning and chasing code for the enemies.
28/04/2015:
-Created a basic zombie corpse sprite (very basic) to test placing a corpse on a zombies death. With improved art this'd actually look pretty cool.
-The gas now does less damage but upon leaving the rooms are the player instantly dies. This means players aren't penalised as much for accidentally or purposefully walking into the gas but leaving the room still has the consequence it needs.
-Renamed rOpenSpace to rGuardPost seeing as that is basically what it is.
-Began work on rFactory. Will need to create a conveyor belt object or tile before this map can finished though so I'll be leaving this one for a while. I realised now that the player needs to be told how they are actually getting from room to room and why they are collecting floppy disks. My old idea for a character guiding you over a tannoy speaker or something will have to revived I think.
-Began rHousing and also edited rPrison a bit to make it look more like a prison.
-Tweaked and fixed a lot of small problems with multiple levels to do with the gasses placement.
29/04/2015:
-Added a player health bar and placed the ammo counter so that they follow the player.
-Tweaked spawning, chase ranges and added basic stuff to new rooms.
-Began another room called rLFireTesting, which will have a lot of turrets.
-Vastly improved the corpse sprite as it was bugging me. Should add a blood effect.
-Experimented with tiles to get an idea on how to use them later.
-Made character selection into an actual fucking menu. YEAH SON!!!
-Altered alpha for the lighting so that the player can slightly see what is in the dark.
30/04/2015:
-Added a perk that increases the flares radius and reduced the starting flares radius.
-Made some text more readable.
-Added a perk noise.
-Had game tested. Results: Improve reloading mechanic, make navigation easier, make perks more noticeable.
01/05/2015:
-Vastly improved the reloading. The player can now either mash the space key or hold it to reload.
-Turned spirits into a purely debuff enemy who: reduce your movement speed, reload speed, max HP & bullet spread.
02/05/2015:
-Decided the basic idea for the total of 12 levels and what order the player will travel through them. I could set the traits up so that each level the player gets a choice of one of three and that they're the same each time.
The traits could be practical for the upcoming level. i.e. Flare based traits on the choice before the first level with spirits.
-Rebuilt the first level to make it more architectuallry better. Simplified the level making it more suited to being the first level.
-Added a light to the bullets. Will mess with and make look nicer later.
As you can see I've ditched the idea of randomly chosen rooms and decided to have a coherent order for the levels. This allows me to add some story and a difficulty curve (something which was really lacking in earlier builds) and honestly, I much prefer this to what I was originally doing. Without having properly randomly generated levels it's not really worth having the levels randomly picked.
In other news, I've decided to make a video of Revolvers current stage in development. Not really sure when I'm actually going to make it, probably some time this week, but I'll be using it to showcase to all the lovely people I know what I've actually been up to. There is only so much you can show with a few still images and huge dumps of text. If it turns out well, I might even make it a common occurrence, I don't know yet, we'll see how it goes.
Not much more to say this week, I've been playing a bit of Creeper World III which is a fantastic RTS/Tower Defence game but I've yet to finish it yet so I'll save talking about that until a bit later.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
Sunday 26 April 2015
Busy Busy Busy
Damn have I been more busy than usual. Then very lethargic. None of this excuses not posting thought and I'm actually quite annoyed that all this has gotten in the way of posting weekly (see absence of a post on the 19th) but hopefully, with assignments mostly out of the way that wont happen again. Hopefully.
Here is the log on Revolver for the past two weeks:
13/04/2015:
-Turret kills now do not give the player XP.
-Created basic version of the blockade enemy. Not sure if worth continuing with so will leave out for now.
14/04/2015:
-Started work on a new room. Got the pit object to work meaning levels can have a little more variety compared to just having walls everywhere the player now has huge chasms blocking their path.
-New room is a about 1/3 finished. Building it up and then sticking great ass chasms everywhere.
15/04/2015:
-Finished basic layout for rOpenSpace, the large chasm filled room.
16/04/2015:
-Made a poisonous gas object that will cover the edges of the room to deters the player from leaving the game area by dealing massive damage to them.
-Began editing rTest to accomodate this gas by increasing the room size and adding it to the edges while shifting the room around.
17/04/2015:
-Finished and shifted the whole of rOpenSpace to accomodate the new gas objects.
-Reduced view so the player has a smaller view of the map (think zoomed in).
-Finished architecture for rOpenSpace. Furnished area with turrets, ammo and healthkits. Also added spawning for this room.
-Altered the spirit sprite slightly to make it look less shit.
-Small tweaks with the player sprite and flashlight to make it look much nicer.
18/04/2015:
-Turned rOpenSpace into rChasm as it is a more fitting name. Now creating a real open space kinda map.
20/04/2015:
-Redesigned rOpenSpace to increase combat. Need to set turrets on this level to only hurt the enemy.
-Messed with views and found that it changes differently sized rooms differently making some look good but the tall rooms look like dick.
22/04/2015:
-Worked on screen stuff to try to set up the screens better. Still tired from uni work but will begin getting back into the swing of things tomorrow.
23/04/2015:
-Fixed the screen bug. Turns out I just didn't have the view code in rOpenSpace's creation code.
-Started and mostly finished rPrison, a new map. Thinking more about details for maps like tables, doors etc. Adding these and making the levels seem more like real buildings rather than bizzarre mazes would greatly improve aethetics.
24/04/2015:
-Tweaked chase distances for enemies and added a sound effect for a spirit chasing. Fixed a bug I didn't notice with oFlashlight not being created properly.
As you can see I've been concentrating on level building mostly which has actually been a lot of fun. As much as I enjoy programming, taking some time to design and build levels (especially with the goal to make them play and feel generally different) is really enjoyable. Here are some pictures below:
rTest:
rChasm:
rOpenSpace:
rPrison:
Important things to note here. Firstly, I really, really need to add some decorative stuff to the maps now that I'm attempting to make them look like real places. Tables, chairs, doors, beds, furniture basically just the give the game a bit more colour and look a bit more real. They could also serve some sort of application in gameplay too. Maybe I'll make them work like the big black pits do in that no-one (apart from the spirit enemy) can go through them but the player and turrets can shoot over? Either that or I'll make it purely decorative. Secondly, while I originally decided on the setting I wanted the levels to be randomly chosen but I'm getting a feeling that it would work better in a sequential order with dabs of story thrown in here and there.
As for what I've been doing in my downtime I've actually found myself spending more and more time playing short bursts of little games. Two in particular come to mind. Hoplite and Dungeon Warfare. Hoplite to me is like a weird first person chess game. You and the enemies take turns in a large hexagonal room either making moves or attacking in variety of ways. You, the player have a bash ability, spear throw and leap with each being able to be vastly improved at prayer shrines found on every floor. A neat little trailer can be found here: youtube.com/watch?v=WI84xaw2tEk I really do love this little game and how each run feels so different even though each floor always seems to have the same enemies. Oh and the basic version of the game, with no achievements (which unlock extra abilities) is totally free, so you have no excuse not to try it.
Magma Fortress's Blog (Hoplite): magmafortress.com/p/hoplite.html
Dungeon Warfare is an amazingly satisfying game. For me personally it's a brutally difficult tower defence game with a huge plethora of traps to plant which deal with the huge range of irritating good guys trying to reach your portal. The game play involves fighting multiple waves of these "good guys" and you mashing them, spearing them or throwing them in pits in several different ways just to keep them from reaching your portals. It's very fun and somewhat addictive but I've found each level can be beating in a pretty short burst, you're not going for a perfect run that is; and although it's only in it's (10th?) alpha build a lot of the core game is there. A huge range of levels, traps and other goodies are available for you to play with but be prepared to play with the easy mode on to start with, I had to at least. Here's a trailer just for you:
Personally I'd recommend playing it on a website like Kongregate or Armor Games first as I did find the cost on Steam a little high, although that said the amount of content you get is pretty damn high with 20+ levels all those traps I mentioned, and endless mode and difficulty modifiers. My favourite way of adding difficulty levels to games I might add. Just give it a try first and see if it is for you. It was for me, and still is.
Anyway that's all from me for now. As always following me on twitter is the best way to see what I'm up to, if I ever post that is.
-Beau
Sunday 12 April 2015
Why Portal & Half-Life 2 are still worth your time
Another week has passed and the Easter holidays are over. I'm going to be getting busy with uni work again so this'll probably be the kinda progress I'm going to be making at best. Either way I don't have much else to say about Revolver this week so I'll leave talking about it for future posts.
05/04/2015:
-Created a spirit enemy (AGAIN) that can follow the player through walls.
-The spirit enemy can now be hurt by any placed flare using the power of circle_collision! Two important things need to be done soon: The players flash-light needs to somehow be able to hurt the spirits & the flare needs to burn out (instance_destroy()) after a period of time. This period could be altered by a trait as could the flares radius (global variable for the radius could affect both the flares radius and the spirits collision).
06/04/2015:
-Changed the variables for the flares radius and spirits damage range to a global so it can be affected by a trait.
07/04/2015:
-Sprits now deal a small amount of damage to the player both in the form of health and movement speed. This has a minimal cap to prevent game breaking but can still be very detrimental.
08/04/2015:
-Using a fake flashlight (copy of the light sprite used for the actual light) set to an alpha (opacity) of 1 and setting it to the samish location as the actual light I've made an effective collision for the players flashlight and the spirit enemy. For balance reasons the range of damage is actually a little shorter than the flashlights length but, if it is a problem, I'll fix that later. Just copy over sLight and re-make it. Next job turret enemy.
-Created a basic turret base sprite. Create the turret tomorrow.
09/04/2015:
-Did some turret stuff. (FORGOT TO WRITE IN AND NOW I'VE FORGOTTEN) From looking back it seems like it was a basic attempt at the AI.
10/04/2015:
-Vastly improved the turrets look. It looks like a god damn turret now rather than a gross looking blob.
-Started work on its aiming capabilities. It can aim at the player if they are within range and there is nothing blocking its view. I need to find a way to differentiate its aiming so it can aim at either the player or the zombie enemy and shoot whoever is closest.
-Discovered a bug where the xp always carries over 10 no matter what.
-Can't get the turret to shoot at the zombies even though both they and the player share the same parent class, will attempt to fix tomorrow.
11/04/2015:
-Turret now works pretty well. Next thing to do is limit its ammo, allow no exp for a turret kill, allow it to harm the player and balance it.
-All works now. Next step Goliath enemy.
I was kinda bored yesterday so I decided to play the first Portal again. All of it. I kinda forgot how interesting and fun that game was. The puzzles are rewarding to work out and flinging yourself around with the power of SCIENCE is incredibly enjoyable. The game has a great atmosphere too. While playing it I remembered the first time I beat the game and how rewarding it felt (hearing Still Alive for the first time was really awesome) and playing the game I remembered how scary I found the game the first time. It's funny really because the game is not really like a traditional horror, there are no obvious monsters with more claws and eyes that it should have, but the whole being a lab rat constantly guided by an omnipotent AI that you can hear going haywire while mocking you is incredibly unnerving. I also think this game would be really good for someone who hasn't played many or any first person games. It's cheap these days, has a great story & the whole game is based around teaching the player which is great for new players. Although it was just a short romp back into the world of Aperture Science it was one that I thoroughly enjoyed and I'm definitely going to play the second now.
Speaking of Valve I've also recently finished Half-Life 2 again using the Half-Life 2 update that was recently released. Damn is that still a damn fine game. Yeah the graphics are not great by todays standards (although the update helps that) but, like Portal the atmosphere for each area is brilliant. Ravenholm didn't scare me this time round but the whole area felt like I was walking through the aftermath of a horror movie apocalypse. To be fair, the whole game has that kinda setting but this area is still creepy as all hell. Oh and the combat, while feeling a bit dated due to its lack of iron sights and a few other features is so well designed (along with the levels of course) that running and gunning is still really fun to this day. It's funny actually, I've never really believed this to be the be all and end all of FPS games like some people think but honestly I can't name an FPS I like more. I don't know if that is a good thing though. It came out in 2004 I think and there isn't a game since then I feel that has surpassed the overall quality of HL2. Certain aspects; yeah of course. There are FPS's with better graphics or combat but none that have the complete package of story, combat, design, direction and atmosphere. I think that's what has made it the powerhouse it has been. It's such a fantastic all around game, all its parts work so well together that we have this wonderful whole, that to this day at least, stands the test of time and continues to be the wonderful game it is.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
05/04/2015:
-Created a spirit enemy (AGAIN) that can follow the player through walls.
-The spirit enemy can now be hurt by any placed flare using the power of circle_collision! Two important things need to be done soon: The players flash-light needs to somehow be able to hurt the spirits & the flare needs to burn out (instance_destroy()) after a period of time. This period could be altered by a trait as could the flares radius (global variable for the radius could affect both the flares radius and the spirits collision).
06/04/2015:
-Changed the variables for the flares radius and spirits damage range to a global so it can be affected by a trait.
07/04/2015:
-Sprits now deal a small amount of damage to the player both in the form of health and movement speed. This has a minimal cap to prevent game breaking but can still be very detrimental.
08/04/2015:
-Using a fake flashlight (copy of the light sprite used for the actual light) set to an alpha (opacity) of 1 and setting it to the samish location as the actual light I've made an effective collision for the players flashlight and the spirit enemy. For balance reasons the range of damage is actually a little shorter than the flashlights length but, if it is a problem, I'll fix that later. Just copy over sLight and re-make it. Next job turret enemy.
-Created a basic turret base sprite. Create the turret tomorrow.
09/04/2015:
-Did some turret stuff. (FORGOT TO WRITE IN AND NOW I'VE FORGOTTEN) From looking back it seems like it was a basic attempt at the AI.
10/04/2015:
-Vastly improved the turrets look. It looks like a god damn turret now rather than a gross looking blob.
-Started work on its aiming capabilities. It can aim at the player if they are within range and there is nothing blocking its view. I need to find a way to differentiate its aiming so it can aim at either the player or the zombie enemy and shoot whoever is closest.
-Discovered a bug where the xp always carries over 10 no matter what.
-Can't get the turret to shoot at the zombies even though both they and the player share the same parent class, will attempt to fix tomorrow.
11/04/2015:
-Turret now works pretty well. Next thing to do is limit its ammo, allow no exp for a turret kill, allow it to harm the player and balance it.
-All works now. Next step Goliath enemy.
I was kinda bored yesterday so I decided to play the first Portal again. All of it. I kinda forgot how interesting and fun that game was. The puzzles are rewarding to work out and flinging yourself around with the power of SCIENCE is incredibly enjoyable. The game has a great atmosphere too. While playing it I remembered the first time I beat the game and how rewarding it felt (hearing Still Alive for the first time was really awesome) and playing the game I remembered how scary I found the game the first time. It's funny really because the game is not really like a traditional horror, there are no obvious monsters with more claws and eyes that it should have, but the whole being a lab rat constantly guided by an omnipotent AI that you can hear going haywire while mocking you is incredibly unnerving. I also think this game would be really good for someone who hasn't played many or any first person games. It's cheap these days, has a great story & the whole game is based around teaching the player which is great for new players. Although it was just a short romp back into the world of Aperture Science it was one that I thoroughly enjoyed and I'm definitely going to play the second now.
Speaking of Valve I've also recently finished Half-Life 2 again using the Half-Life 2 update that was recently released. Damn is that still a damn fine game. Yeah the graphics are not great by todays standards (although the update helps that) but, like Portal the atmosphere for each area is brilliant. Ravenholm didn't scare me this time round but the whole area felt like I was walking through the aftermath of a horror movie apocalypse. To be fair, the whole game has that kinda setting but this area is still creepy as all hell. Oh and the combat, while feeling a bit dated due to its lack of iron sights and a few other features is so well designed (along with the levels of course) that running and gunning is still really fun to this day. It's funny actually, I've never really believed this to be the be all and end all of FPS games like some people think but honestly I can't name an FPS I like more. I don't know if that is a good thing though. It came out in 2004 I think and there isn't a game since then I feel that has surpassed the overall quality of HL2. Certain aspects; yeah of course. There are FPS's with better graphics or combat but none that have the complete package of story, combat, design, direction and atmosphere. I think that's what has made it the powerhouse it has been. It's such a fantastic all around game, all its parts work so well together that we have this wonderful whole, that to this day at least, stands the test of time and continues to be the wonderful game it is.
-Beau
twitter.com/Bocodillo
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