Free Running mode, Room State Persistence I completed the room state persistence for Free Running mode yesterday. Now when you explore the mazes, the state of each room that is generated is saved as you move on to the next and restored when you return. All the random elements that were generated by the procedural creation system to composed the room (walls, hazards, enemies, breakables, pickups) are saved and re-loaded. I also color code the door highlight, based on if you've been to the room it leads to, to give you better context of your progression through the maze. While I was playtesting, it bothered me that the 'gibs' from smashed crates, cases, and enemies were gone when you returned to a room. They were just simple particle sprites so I wasn't re-loading them. Still, it bothered my eyes seeing the room so clean when I returned so today I made a system to store what kind of "litter" might be in the room and to re-create it when you return. Not entirely necessary, but I just like it better that way. Check it out! Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel
Looking great! That's cool that you'll still see evidence of having been there if you go back to a room.
Ya, you know you really need it. Just because a room is empty doesn't necessarily mean you never went through it. It could just be an empty room. Color coding the door highlights (orange if you've been in the room the door leads to, green if not), and re-spawning the "gibs" gives you a context to the bigger picture of your progression through the maze. It felt more compelling immediately. I've been polishing up the Level-Up screen and the Perk system today. I'll do a demo video and an info-graphic describing the system soon. Things are finally getting near wrapping up. The best stuff always happens at the very beginning of development and the very end.
Free Running Mode - Leveling System I finalized the leveling system for Swipey Rogue’s Free Running Mode. In this mode, you level up very quickly as you die quickly and often and it’s perma-death. I wanted to create a sense of urgency to explore rooms quickly and defeat enemies quickly so you get xp quickly and level up to get perks. That’s the cycle that feels fun in this mode so the tighter the loop the faster the feedback and rewards. Anyway, after creating all the perks I realized they fit nicely into categories and could be represented on a progressive skill tree with locks and branches. I mocked up the interface and lived with it in the game (non-functional) for a while. After deeply searching my feelings I accepted my gut reaction that this whole system actually felt limiting. The point of this game is to play it over and over in quick sessions. It made me sad to imagine that there would only ever be one linear skill tree that I could explore and experience. The obvious option is to add additional character classes that would have different skill trees, etc. However, this game is already over-scoping itself at every opportunity (even though I’m generally conservative about not extending scope). The idea of adding additional classes is something that could be explored in future updates or other games. For this game, I wanted something that felt fresh every time, and offered a lot of “ups and downs” by turns of luck. Using a slot-machine system that randomizes 3 options then lets you pick 1 introduces the “wildcard” element to the experience. Anything can happen each time you level up, you might be presented with your favorite perk every time! Perks layer, each time you’re presented with one, if you’ve already picked it before then it will now offer a more powerful version so their power stacks and stacks. This direction excites me, while the other direction made me sad. I think it’s important to pay attention to your feelings when dealing with game design decisions. We’ll see how it goes!
Free Running mode Perk System UI Progress Free Running mode gives you continuous procedural labyrinths to run through while ranking up, and building your character abilities until death. As you are playing a run, you collect XP for: - entering new rooms - killing enemies You rank up very quickly at first. Within the first couple rooms, if you're killing enemies, you'll rank up immediately. And the next couple ranks come pretty quick also. The increase of the required XP for next rank starts to become more noticeable after that, but most people should hit at least rank 3 on any given run. I've gotten up to 9 once. It. Was. Awesome! Here's some (work in progress, perk art still just concept) shots of the UI that is going in to support the perk system. This one shows the pause screen, and the Rank-Up screen. Both show all the possible perks. The one's you've earned this run will be highlighted with their current value listed. If you get the same perk multiple times, it's power keeps increasing (so for example, "Critical Chance" will be 15% first time, then 30% next, etc). When you Rank-Up, three random perks are offered to you (slot machine style reveal) and you get to pick one. This one shows the in game HUD that displays the current perks you're running with. Each time you Rank-Up and pick one, it will be added to the hud (good reminder while you're running). The death screen shows your cause of death, then the run summary shows your run stats and all the perks again. You can continue with gems (earn gems by completing challenges in Challenge Saga mode, or buy them with gold you collect). The continue cost doubles each successive continue (and resets when you start a new run). It's not really meant to be a game that you keep continuing, it's more about those single runs, but the option is there if you want to spend your gems. Perk Concept Art And here's a little preview of the perk art. Anthony is going to make this set for the game as one last addition. Thanks! Thanks again for dropping by. I'll make a demo video soon of playing through a few runs of Free Running mode and Ranking Up. I'm going to finish a bit of regression testing with the iOS build right now first though. I updated the plugin that I'm using for social and IAP and I want to make sure it's all still working as expected. After that, I'll post the build to Apple and put out a call for a real Open Beta Test. Stay tuned!
Will do, thanks! Making demo video right now, then massive internal testing and I'll notify when the open build is out.
Ok, I posted a full gameplay demo of the Free Running mode showing the new Rank-Up system and Perks system. I just fired it up and ran through a few times and edited in just my best run (I got to rank 6 and had a cool combo of Critical Chance and Chain Chance Perks). Enjoy! Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel
I added a bunch of pizzazz to Swipey Rogues rank-up screen flow (micro-video attached). Its a lot more satisfying already. I want it to feel like a slot machine. Still placeholder perk images, they should be completed by the end of this week. More polish to come, but good progress! Subscribe to the TouchArcade YouTube channel
Thanks a lot guys! It feels like it's really coming together. I'm trying to wrap up a smoketest build right now to post to apple for testing. Unity wants to verify the ads are integrated properly so this build will have advertising. I won't do a big share on this build because of the ads (it sucks to test when the ads keep popping up). So I'll push that one live, let it get the quick test from unity, then I'll replace it with a new build with no ads and I'll put a call out for anyone who wants to help test! Hope that makes sense. TL;DR is: hopefully I'll have a real open-beta test ready to share to everyone by the end of the week. Everyone is welcome to try it out.
So, hardware issues have been holding up the completion of some last pieces of art so I have to wait. I'm not going to stress, and instead do some more internal testing and make the press / open beta build later when the art is done. I'll try to get a pre-test build up today or tomorrow and people can start testing that (sorry it will include advertising for a test with unity), then I'll replace that build with a new one with the completed perk icon art when the artist hardware issues are sorted. In the meantime, I wanted to share some of the music that has been created for the game. UK composer Declan Bell has composed and created all of the pieces. I like them a lot. I hope you enjoy! Main Theme (front end menus): https://soundcloud.com/declanbell93/swipey-rogue-theme Run Summary Screen: https://soundcloud.com/declanbell93/summary-screen Molten Area Theme: https://soundcloud.com/declanbell93/molten-world Gadget Area Theme: https://soundcloud.com/declanbell93/gadget-world Frozen Area Theme: https://soundcloud.com/declanbell93/frozen-world Magic Area Theme: https://soundcloud.com/declanbell93/magic-world
BETA TESTING ANNOUNCEMENT!! COME JOIN!! Yay! Swipey Rogue version 00.77.01 is live on Apple TestFlight for my existing testers. This is my Beta/Press Build Candidate. Im trying to get a bit of pre-testing done while I finish Free Running mode scoring and leaderboards. Then Ill update the build (and turn off advertising for the beta/press build) and really send the word out for testers on the next build. Anyone who would like to get in early on this test is welcome to get in touch! This on has advertising enabled for Unity to test it out, but you can still check it out if you'd like. I'll disable ads for easier testing next week in the next build. The new big thing in this build is Free Running Mode. Lots of fun. The scoring isn't in yet for Free Running though. I'm working on that and I'll add that with the next update next week. Thanks again for your interest!
