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

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

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.

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

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

twitter.com/Bocodillo

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!

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

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

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

twitter.com/Bocodillo