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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsSteam Marines, a squad-based roguelike
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Worthless_Bums
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« on: December 13, 2012, 11:25:59 AM »

(24 September 2014)
Steam Marines has been fully released. Huzzah!

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What is Steam Marines
Steam Marines is a squad-based roguelike for Windows and Mac currently in open alpha. The game started from my love of three things, 1) The Exile series from Spiderweb Software, 2) Hardcore/Permadeath modes, and 3) Position based gameplay. Along the way I've met some very cool people who like old school RPGs, roguelikes, and boardgames.


Currently on alpha sale via Humble Sale and Desura!



Current Features

  • Permadeath
  • Turn-Based Gameplay
  • Procedurally Generated Maps
  • Destructible Terrain
  • Squad and Inventory Mechanics
  • Class-Specific Talents and Gear
  • A steampunk spaceship under attack


Incoming Features

  • More fleshed out deck control to clear/protect civilians and hardware.
  • Mini-bosses and special encounters.
  • Rehaul of class talents, stats, and skills.
  • More items, implants, and mods.
  • Plot and lore elements.
  • A less terrible user interface; I swear!


Links


Screenshots from alpha build v0.6.8


« Last Edit: September 24, 2014, 03:23:29 AM by Worthless_Bums » Logged

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« Reply #1 on: December 13, 2012, 12:31:57 PM »

Tried this a while ago, got everybody killed pretty much instantly.  Looking forward to seeing how it progresses.
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« Reply #2 on: December 13, 2012, 12:41:28 PM »

This game would be good if the developer weren't such a chump Wink
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« Reply #3 on: December 13, 2012, 03:21:03 PM »

I played...some version not too long ago. I enjoyed the basic gameplay, but I found myself wandering around the level I played a lot with no idea where to go and after over 45 minutes on the same level, having destroyed a good portion of the walls trying to find my way around, I just gave up.
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« Reply #4 on: December 13, 2012, 07:48:17 PM »

I played...some version not too long ago. I enjoyed the basic gameplay, but I found myself wandering around the level I played a lot with no idea where to go and after over 45 minutes on the same level, having destroyed a good portion of the walls trying to find my way around, I just gave up.
That's not good  Who, Me?

Was this a build before mission objectives and a big bouncing arrow on the elevator tile? The next build will have an "Elevator Zone" with highlighted tiles so the player knows exactly where squad members can be to activate the elevator:

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« Reply #5 on: December 13, 2012, 07:58:56 PM »

Tried this a while ago, got everybody killed pretty much instantly.  Looking forward to seeing how it progresses.
Was this on Easy difficulty? I know some people just want to smash their enemies so Easy is really easy (I think!)
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« Reply #6 on: December 13, 2012, 08:03:46 PM »

That's not good  Who, Me?

Was this a build before mission objectives and a big bouncing arrow on the elevator tile?
0.6.5.5a or something to that effect. I don't remember big bouncing arrows or any of that, though.
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« Reply #7 on: December 13, 2012, 09:17:59 PM »

hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
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« Reply #8 on: December 16, 2012, 02:09:00 PM »

following.
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Paul Jeffries
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« Reply #9 on: December 16, 2012, 04:32:22 PM »

Tried this a while ago, got everybody killed pretty much instantly.  Looking forward to seeing how it progresses.
Was this on Easy difficulty? I know some people just want to smash their enemies so Easy is really easy (I think!)

I can't remember, but I typically play things on whatever the 'normal' difficulty mode so probably not.  Don't worry - it wasn't meant as a complaint!  I have a certain fondness for difficult roguelikes, especially science-fiction squad-based ones.
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« Reply #10 on: December 17, 2012, 10:51:44 AM »

I can't remember, but I typically play things on whatever the 'normal' difficulty mode so probably not.  Don't worry - it wasn't meant as a complaint!  I have a certain fondness for difficult roguelikes, especially science-fiction squad-based ones.
I enjoy feedback both good and bad! It's when you don't get any that you know something's gone wrong  Wink

I do remember seeing that game before. Must try it. I got suckered into this recently: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/408816
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« Reply #11 on: January 05, 2013, 03:36:49 PM »

After a holiday of gin swilling and snow shoveling I got back on track again, pushing out v0.7.0a. Got some new art in the form of enemies!








I'm pretty happy with the way the enemies are working in combination right now. It's frustrating even my veteran testers/players  Cool That said a lot of people have pushed me for an easier difficulty mode, so I made Easy difficulty even easier. Hopefully I am able to accommodate both casual and hardcore players at the same time, because I had fully intended on adding hard and insanity difficulties as well!

But my focus for the next build is a mini-boss and main boss for the Command Deck, as well as ambushes and other special events to spice up the spaceship crawling. Also I need to chop that ugly UI apart and make it not terrible.
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« Reply #12 on: February 25, 2013, 02:38:44 PM »

Been a long while since I updated! I've got a pretty new level - the Medical Deck:




Enemies are getting toughter, faster... more bug-like!




Main Menu overhaul:



Also got some basic animations in-game for eyecandy. Huzzah!
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« Reply #13 on: February 25, 2013, 03:03:11 PM »

Looks good as always.

Also something with landmines.
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« Reply #14 on: February 25, 2013, 03:54:54 PM »

looking great
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« Reply #15 on: February 25, 2013, 05:19:50 PM »

Thanks, guys Smiley And land mine art is in dispute! Assuming you're referring to my Tweets.
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« Reply #16 on: April 05, 2013, 08:11:21 AM »

New build, v0.7.2a, out today. Talent/promotion overhauls for each class. One of my oldest alpha testers already managed to abuse a certain combination in less than five hours... dammit!


Some people had indicated to me that they didn't realize you could move with the mouse. This should help:




The ring also slides over/under stuff based on tile context which is nice:




And making the window dressings slicker is always nice eye candy:





Next stop - bosses and ship deck branching/mission UI?  Wink
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« Reply #17 on: April 05, 2013, 09:39:37 AM »

I'm really liking the look of this.
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« Reply #18 on: April 17, 2013, 02:15:25 AM »

Steam Marines v0.7.3a is out and the big feature this build is tile heights, specifically tiles that are higher than base tiles:



Units on higher tiles gain a sight range bonus and also a quite hefty accuracy bonus against units on lower tiles. Conversely units on lower tiles have an accuracy penalty against units on higher tiles. Suddenly the landscape seems less... friendly?

Level generation is also now more dependent on the deck and level your squad is in. expect low levels to be smaller than higher levels. But not this small:



Whoops.

The Grenadier class talent "EMP" has also been implemented and a few other talents have been tweaked, some to avoid a grossly abusble combination. Double whoops!



I also had pretty big plans for a "Ship Overview" UI that would allow branching to different decks and run missions:



While I did implement it, it just didn't work well within the game. It felt detached, like some weird kind of mental block, to the tactical game. So I'll be going in a different direction. The wasted effort, it burns!  Cry
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« Reply #19 on: April 17, 2013, 11:22:40 AM »

Steam Marines v0.7.3a is out

I just gave this a go - several goes, in fact. Unfortunately it seems the program crashes out quite frequently - I had a look in the event log and didn't see anything that looked useful, just an 'APPCRASH' and the usual "Blah-di-blah has stopped working" popup. It seems to happen more frequently as I hit tab to switch to the next squad member, but after I noticed that I stopped using tab and I'm still getting crashes. :/

It looks promising, though - and right up my street! I would totally play it more if it would let me.

The two main critiques I would give are:
- It seems a bit weird that enemies randomly show up more or less anywhere - even right in the middle of your guys - without warning, and makes any tactical positioning a bit useless. You can position for the enemies you know about, then randomly a handful of new ones show up behind you!
- The way nearly all your guys fire in straight lines only means a lot of action points that seem pretty wasted just getting into position to shoot an enemy that, really, is just there. This one means that I'd much rather spend action points on guard than actually firing even if the bad guys are right in front of me, because like that I get many shots for the price of one and it makes all the points I spent lining myself up feel more worthwhile.


Other things that I'd question:
- It's a bit weird that turning to face a new direction costs me an AP but turning to face that direction and moving one square in that direction also only costs me one AP. This adds to the "lining myself up with the enemy to shoot" frustration. I wonder if this is all inspired by Space Hulk, which was similarly finicky about movement in a similar setting... but SH lets you shoot non-orthogonally and doesn't have quite the same degree of random you-opened-a-box-and-hey-your-guy-exploded looseness, so it doesn't seem to fit so well to me. (And I am a massive fan of the Space Hulk boardgame.)
- The ease of breaking down walls makes me wonder what doors are there for. Are these ships made of cardboard?
- Is it correct that the get-all-your-AP-back item isn't usable once you've run out of AP? That caught me by surprise.
- The frequency of squares randomly blowing up and killing my guys seems alarmingly high. I've never noticed any warning - at first I thought it was when I was destroying boxes, then I realised it wasn't that and wondered if there was any graphical cue, but I've been paying attention and it seems that sometimes even moving into completely empty squares totally kills ones of my chaps all of a sudden. Is that really intentional? Is there anything I could be doing to avoid it?
- The 'WARNING:' screen at the beginning of a game is nice and scene-setting and all, but it mostly just delays getting into the game. Unless I've missed something and it's actually different each time? If it's meant to relay useful information, I'd suggest just putting it all on-screen at once rather than doing the scroll.
- If you try to pick something up with 0 AP, you get a message reading "Not enough action points to grab item" and then a new item appears in your inventory anyway.
- At least once, when going down an elevator, I had a starting position where the top edge of the room I was in had no wall, no stars, and couldn't be moved towards. I presume this means I had reached the mythical Edge Of The Map, but whatever it was, it looked a bit weird. I might be a good idea to either ensure that all your rooms are at least 2 tiles away from the edge so you have space (heh heh) for a bit of hard vacuum.

Also, I love the chatter! ;-)
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