Hey Ho! I'm working away at finishing the Gadget Area today. It should wrap up this weekend so expect a preview video soon! Also, I took some time to make some animated gifs. I haven't made any new gifs in a really long time so I figured #screenshotsaturday is a good time to get back into it. New Animated Gifs The first shows off a little gameplay action in the Molten Area. The second is the Frozen Area. And a final one showing a sneak peak at the Gadget Area! (in particular, previewing the Switch gadget) Thanks! As always, thanks for tuning in . How's your Saturday going? Back to work for me.
I'm looking for Beta Testers! Hey! I'm looking for beta testers. Please respond here or PM. This will just be a quick test (still not a full beta test yet). Now that more world areas are in the game, I want to verify performance on a variety of devices. This test build is limited to Puzzle Mode. 3 areas are pre-unlocked for testing with a good number of playable rooms in each. If you'd like to help test, lemme know! New Video Devlog #15: Gadget Area Preview I posted a brand new video today. I demo the finished art on the Puzzle Mode scrolling progression menu, and most important, show off the new gameplay mechanics in the Gadget Area for the first time! Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel Thanks for dropping by. Any comments, questions, etc. always appreciated.
I would love to help test out your game & to provide you some feedback. PM sent to you as well. Thanks!
Tester Info Thanks to everyone who has responded! I'm adding people to the external tester list now so you should get Test Flight invite. The build isn't live yet (still waiting on Apple approval), so I'll post up here when it's live. If you don't get auto-notification from Test Flight when it goes live, lemme know and I'll send new invite. For now, still waiting on Apple. Might be tonight or tomorrow morning. More Screenshots! I forgot to share a couple more screenshots from the Gadget Area. Enjoy!
I got some responses for testing, I've sent invites and the build is live. I see some people have installed. If you have any questions, issues, comments, critiques, please feel free to throw it all at me. Check it out. I made a couple new animated gifs showing the Throwing Axe, and Homing Rockets pickups in the Gadget Area. Both add a lot of fun to clearing a room. I've only made a handful of simple rooms with them to introduce the gameplay. I'm looking forward to making some crazy rooms that really take advantage of what they can do. I'm already neck deep in the Magic Area. Lots of new gameplay mechanics coming. I'll have a preview video posted in a few days but I may make a couple gifs to show progress. Ok, back to work.
I've been finishing up the Magic Area's new gameplay mechanics. I wanted to share a sneak peak at the Magic area with you so I've made some new gifs. Check them out! The one on the left shows the new player warps and the one on the right shows the new enemy warps. The Magic Area is getting to be one of my favorite areas now. Lots of swift pattern recognition required. I'll be posting a new dev video doing a full preview of the Magic Area early in a couple days. Thanks for dropping by!
Testing Progress Hey! Testing progress went great. It was the largest test ever so thank you to everyone who participated and sent feedback. I've made a bunch of tweaks based on people's experiences. It's been good chatting and hearing people's comments. Dev Progress Anyway, here's the progress update. I've had a super productive week. I got the new gameplay mechanics for the Magic Area completed and the core set of rooms for Challenge Saga designed, tested and polished. Now all the basic gameplay for all 4 areas of the world has been implemented and almost all of the rooms for Challenge saga have been created! I'll post a new build for testing with all the areas in Challenge Saga playable. Next up, I'm polishing the Rogue Run mode and then I'll post up a test build of that. Lots still to do but it's moving along so fast now. Magic Area First Demo I was super excited to wrap up the Magic Area so I made a new video devlog to demo all the new gameplay. It was dusk so I went outside to add a 'magical ambiance' hah. Check it out. Enjoy! Thanks for dropping in and seeing how things are going. Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel
If anyone is curious about the level design process for Swipey Rogue's Challenge Saga rooms, I've started live streaming design sessions on twitch. I archived todays morning design session (30 min archived video stream). You can watch it here: http://www.twitch.tv/firstordergames/v/5509343 It was fun. Streaming is new to me. I made a new Gadget Area challenge room, and updated the C# behaviors on the Homing Rockets pickup to take 10 enemy damage instead of outright killing them (which made me have to change the way the logic of the rocket state was handled, and so on... gamedev!). Im enjoying streaming even if no one is watching. I like that it keeps me focused on my task because I feel obligated to do something. Not sure if that makes sense. Im generally very motivated, but sometimes when Im just doing level design I can get distracted so Im liking how this keeps me pushing. Anyway, sorry if this post is construed as promotion or anything that goes against forum rules (just tell me if so, and I'll delete). I just felt like sharing and thought maybe someone might be interested. I'm finishing up some level design today, then it's full steam ahead for Rogue Run mode (looking forward to share this mode soon).
Polish, polish, polish So I'm mostly focusing on getting Rogue Run mode bulletproof so I can make a new beta-test build that will double as a press build. I'm hoping by the end of the weekend (maybe a few days later like Wednesday), I'll have that ready and I'll make another announcement for testing (and send that build off to press, scary!). So here's all the in-between work that I've been up to in parallel (so busy!). Mode Renaming (again!): I've renamed the game modes again for clarity. Check it out. I've also updated the Challenge Saga overworld menu. The new background looks better, and I've included links to the leaderboards for each section. The titles look tilted because they are, all titles rock back and forth now to give the menus a little bit of life. Puzzle Mode - is now - Challenge Saga So the point of Challenge Saga is to have a huge pile of pre-designed rooms to play that both introduce all the gameplay mechanics for each area, and offer challenges that you can thrash on and try to 100%. Each area has its own progression menu with stats showing your progress in the area, and how many challenges you've completed in each room. This meta-gameplay is very reminiscent of games like Retry and Candy Crush Saga, so I wanted to include something in the mode name that hints at a vast progression. I may keep the name, I may change it to Challenge Quest. I haven't decided yet. Rogue Mode - is now - Rogue Run Rogue Run felt like a more interesting name. I didn't want to use the word "mode" since it's so boring. I hope it also conveys the "one off" nature of the mode since it's just a quick run until you die with no progression or saving. Overall Explanation for Mode Renaming I find that a lot of my enjoyment of mobile games comes down to how much they live up to my expectations. If I expected one type of game, but when I play it, it's not at all that kind of game, then I'm disappointed and I hate the game. I want to make sure that anyone who plays this game is playing it because they want to play a game like this, not because they think it's another type of game. Dev Tweaks & More Polish: Here's some more of the things I've been working on. Lots of little details. Challenge Saga Room Editor Tool updates for Magic Area interactive elements. When I add new gameplay mechanics, I have to create a a way to be able to add those elements to challenge rooms with the room editor tool. I set up a section of the tool to swap out depending on which area of the world I'm editing and that panel has all the buttons that are specific to that area (top right area). New sounds for Gadget and Magic area gameplay mechanics. I love doing sound design. It's something I've always played around with. I like recording, or searching for source element sounds, then combining them in an editor and tweaking and modifying them to sculpt the experience I'm imagining. Sound brings so much life to games. It's a really rewarding part of development! Enhanced Prop Placement System and Tile Corner Rounding System. For a while now, I've been unhappy with how blocky some of the tiles look (particularly the lava in the Molten area, and all the ice in the Frozen area). I had an idea to leverage the prop placement detail control in my level editing tool for placing rounded corners on lava and ice tiles. I made a little rounded corner sprite and if any of the corners on a lava or ice tile are marked for 'prop' then I overlay the sprite on the corner. It all happens in code when the level loads. Looks much cleaner now and not so 'tiley'. Thanks! As always, many many thanks to you for dropping by and checking out the progress since last time. Still lots to do but it feels like that light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter (maybe it's getting closer!). I'm making great progress on Rogue Run and look forward to sharing that soon. It will be great to have a comprehensive build in a polished / playable state that I can test and share with press while I'm wrapping up creating the rest of the rooms for Challenge Saga.
Live Puzzle Challenge design session I edited and exported my first Swipey Rogue live-stream Puzzle Challenge design session from Twitch to YouTube. In it, I design a new challenge room in the Gadget Area for the Challenge Saga mode using my custom tile editor tool made in Unity. Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel Progress Making great progress. Here's my overall status: Challenge Saga mode: I have all the levels 'done', but I've got this many (listed below) actually ready to ship. Molten Area - 50/50 polished/tested rooms - 3 finalized challenges per room Frozen Area - 25/50 polished/tested rooms - 3 finalized challenges per room Gadget Area - 25/50 polished/tested rooms - 3 finalized challenges per room Magic Area - 25/50 polished/tested rooms - 3 finalized challenges per room Rogue Run mode: Core gameplay that I've completed for this mode: - procedural maze generation - procedural room generation - warping to next maze (one way) - extended health and stats system - cross mode economy Thanks! Thanks for dropping in. Lots to share soon. Can't wait to show you Rogue Run mode!
Mode Renaming Again (3rd time) I renamed the game modes (again!) to make it all more clear. I think it's good this time! Check it out. I made a new annotated screenshot of the main menu to explain the modes. Game Modes Explained Free Run Mode - Sneak Preview I haven't officially revealed Free Run mode yet, but it should be pretty clear what it is now. Here's another annotated screenshot, this time of the Free Run overworld menu to explain how it works. Free Run - Maze Generation Menu Free Run mode generates procedural mazes full of procedurally generated rooms. You can select which areas of the world to include in the room generation (affects both the visual aesthetic, and the gameplay elements that are included as each area has unique gameplay). Free Run - Room Generation Tests (20 random versions of the same room!) Here's a shot of some tests I've done with the Procedural Room Generator. Each maze in Swipey Rogue's Free Run mode is procedurally generated when you play. Each room within the maze is also procedurally generated. The above picture shows the same room (single exit on top wall) randomly generated 20 times (using all 4 world areas).
Hey, thanks for your comments! It's really coming together now. I've been worried about showing so much early content. You know, people might get turned off if they don't like the temp art, or don't understand the game because it's not done, and things like that. Totally possible, and understandable. But I figured I'd just share everything that I'm doing all the time and maybe it will all make sense at some point. haha I'm really excited about the Free Run mode. It is so on right now. All the pieces of the development puzzle are falling into place. This mode rounds out the whole game. Both modes give purpose to each other. Challenge Saga is for learning/practicing/mastering the gameplay mechanics on fixed levels that aren't random so you have maximum predictability. Free Run is for applying everything you've learned and mastered in a sudden death dungeon run where everything is unpredictable and you have to fly by the seat of your pants (or run by the heal of your boots?).
Procedural Maze Generation Tests Hey there, I wanted to share an early video from when I first got the procedural maze generation/loading working for Swipey Rogue's Free Running mode. It generates a maze full of generated rooms pulling from all the areas you have unlocked in Challenge Saga mode, and links the rooms together. I added a camera transition as you go between rooms to further emphasize your movement in the maze and help give you spatial context. Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel This was an early test. The work I'm doing now is tweaking the generative algorithms so a better frequency of enemies, obstacles, and rewards spawn. I'll do a full post soon detailing the way the dynamic character build system works and what types of buffs you'll be able to experiment with as you level up. Again, this is all for the "Free Running" mode where you dungeon run through procedurally generated mazes until you die.
Thanks! I hope you enjoy it. I'm putting all the design tweaks into Free Running mode now (my favorite part). Setting all algorithms to manage how often which types of enemies, hazards, and pickups spawn. Adjusting the rate of XP gain. Adding new types of buffs for you to choose when you level up... All the fun stuff! This is my favorite point in any game development. When all the core systems are in, and all the game art and UI art is in, and you're just tweaking and polishing and re-configuring gameplay to make new modes. It's what I liked doing on Tony Hawk the most (making new challenges once the levels were designed and arted), and it's what I liked doing most on Call of Duty (making new multiplayer game modes when the new MP maps and characters were all finished). I'm live streaming development today on my Twitch channel (pretty boring really, just coding, no chatting, but it's all live if anyone is interested). What I love most about indie development is being able to be completely open and transparent with development (something I could never do when I worked on big projects at big studios for big publishers). http://www.twitch.tv/firstordergames
Using Tools to Manually Create Seed Data for Procedural Systems I posted a new devlog with a development focus on new systems that were added to support the procedural maze running gameplay in Swipey Rogue's "Free Running" mode. I break down the manual tools that were leveraged to create seed data for the procedural systems in the game code. In this mode, procedural mazes are assembled at run time based on pattern roots created in my level editor combined with real time, game-state relevant data. Correspondingly, rooms within the mazes are procedurally assembled based on pattern roots created in the editor and a real time assessment of the state of the game. Factors the game code uses to make decisions include: how far youve progressed, how many rooms youve visited so far, how many mazes youve visited so far, what buffs youve acquired while leveling up, and many others. I felt this was a novel way of taking advantage of tools I had already created to make richer data sets to feed the procedural systems (it also gave me visual debugging as I can both edit and simulate maze gen in the editor and see results and fix issues). This mode has been implemented very quickly because I was able to use what I have and not re-invent the wheel. I felt it was worth sharing. I talk too fast and too much though (it's too long, like 8 minutes, sorry).
Free Running Mode Gameplay Demo I posted a new video with a full walkthrough of the front end menu flow to get into Free Running mode, and a couple of runs. I talk too much and speak too quickly as usual, but it shows a lot of the new gameplay: Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel I'm finishing the level-up screen today and adding a bunch of buffs. That will complete all the core features for "Free Runnning" mode so I'll have a new test build (hopefully tomorrow) soon! If anyone wants to help test, speak up now! Then I send that build out to press and testers and do nothing but tweak & polish & finish making Challenge Saga rooms & keep adding new buffs to Free Funning mode!
^^^ just a little while longer! Front-End Menu & Hud Final Polish (and a look back) Wow, Swipey Rogue has come so far. I made a side-by-side, before & after collage for Screenshot Saturday to show the progress from my placeholder art to the final polish. It takes a lot of perseverance to stick with it and know how much it will evolve. Here's the before and after for the Challenge Saga mode menu flow: Everything has changed so much. It's nice to see it all come together. I still can't believe how much it has changed. I'm glad I have all these old screenshots and old builds to be able to compare And here's just the new pre and post run menus and HUD for the new Free Running Mode: Free Running mode is getting all of my attention right now. I've gotten room saving working (as you move from room to room in the maze), and I'm finishing room re-loading right now (I've got it mostly working). In Free Running mode, I wanted the maze to save state so you can explore the entire thing and each room and enemy will be as you left them. It's been a lot of work, but it's worth it. I'll post some demo videos soon.
