Goals for the Year's End

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

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

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

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

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

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:

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.

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

twitter.com/Bocodillo

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!

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!

If you see one of these coming your way you run.

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