next »

[Brayzen]

Undergoing some... maintenance. Stand by for updates! 

[Guildenstern]

Typography is a sticky subject. On the one hand, you want to add that post apocalypse flavor to your game with awesome destroyed fonts, but on the other hand the game still has to be readable. Typically what designers do is use the hard-to-read, awesome-looking font only for headers and titles. For the smaller, harder to see fonts use a serifed typewriter type font if you can find one that's bold enough. Also, putting white text on medium blue is not very legible. Anyway, when you're ready for a logo hit me up! I'd probably do it free!

[jO]

I really like the premise and concept, and what can be seen in the gameplay video shows a lot of promise.

[Brayzen]

Typography is a sticky subject. On the one hand, you want to add that post apocalypse flavor to your game with awesome destroyed fonts, but on the other hand the game still has to be readable. Typically what designers do is use the hard-to-read, awesome-looking font only for headers and titles. For the smaller, harder to see fonts use a serifed typewriter type font if you can find one that's bold enough. Also, putting white text on medium blue is not very legible. Anyway, when you're ready for a logo hit me up! I'd probably do it free!

I was a little concerned about the fonts and did notice that it was hard to read at times - thanks for confirming this! I'll look in to something a little different soon.

I really like the premise and concept, and what can be seen in the gameplay video shows a lot of promise.

Thanks, just the boost I need at the minute!

[Guildenstern]

The FREE version would have been just the red lettering. (hopefully this comment won't be cryptic for TOO long )

[Brayzen]

Hold Base is far from dead!

One of the things I've learned about game development is that you can't rush in. The code got messy (shameful as that's what I do for a living!) and hard to add anything to.

So what you've seen so far, I'm calling the "early prototype" stage. Having actually written a design document and laid out a much better code skeleton, I'm ready to pick up where I left off.

Updates soon - I'm working on this alongside a full time day job, so progress isn't going to instantaneous. However, I feel I've laid much better foundations for the game this time.

[Brayzen]

A sneak peak at what I've been working on - in short, Hold Base has had a complete redesign, as I felt the old design was lacking in fun and lacking any real framework to it.

Graphics are most certainly placeholder

[Brayzen]

End of a sprint (2 weeks - I don't religiously follow Agile but I like the idea of small "sprints" of work). I've decided to do little recaps on "what's new" in the game, much as AD1337 did for Eastward Quest. I think it'll help myself to be able to see the most recent changes in the game, as it's easy to become frustrated by the lack of progress when it comes further down the line (the last "10%" as I've heard it called).

I'm also changing the % done on this, it's closer to 20 than 40.

So, inspired by AD1337's posters, my own!

[Brayzen]

Scavenging dialog is up and running.

Adding survivors with better gun skill and scavenge skill both reduces the danger of the building, as well as increasing the rewards gathered each turn.

Quite happy with this custom GUI interface, and am appreciating the nuances of object-oriented design each day! Don't get to practice it much in my day job so this is a great sandbox environment.

Note, I deliberately limited the FPS on Fraps to 6 so that I could create a small-sized GIF from the resulting video!

[Brayzen]

Annoyingly I've come across a bug with the game engine I am using which I just can't fix. Tried many things but it's not worth any more effort.

I've had issues with this engine before, and it's certainly not the most robust in the world.

Thinking of porting what I've done to Unity, as it's considered one of the best engine's out there, and I think it's flexible enough for what I'd like to do. Experience in Unity can't hurt anyway!

So for now, there will be no "progress" on Hold Base as I port it. Don't know how this is going to go...

[jO]

A technology / engine transition can be something very painful, but also an opportunity to finally clean up that mess you were doing while you were not exactly knowing what you did 

Also, recreating things is usually faster than doing it for the first time; + Having Unity experience is really good.

Best of luck with porting it, you've been going with this project for so long already now, I'd be a shame if this caused you to drop it. Keep going!

[Brayzen]

A technology / engine transition can be something very painful, but also an opportunity to finally clean up that mess you were doing while you were not exactly knowing what you did 

Also, recreating things is usually faster than doing it for the first time; + Having Unity experience is really good.

Best of luck with porting it, you've been going with this project for so long already now, I'd be a shame if this caused you to drop it. Keep going!

Thanks, I've got a week off work so hopefully the majority of the "pain" will occur this week. Hopefully the more robust engine will help remove the ever-growing list of bugs as well!

[Brayzen]

Much easier using Unity. The shadows are gone (unless I want to fork out $1500 dollars for a Pro license) BUT I can finally move away from orthographic cameras and into the perspective world! The only reason I didn't before is that it's extra work working where in the world a ray is cast from relative to the mouse position. I can do that kind of maths, but I'm lazy!

Seeing the game run faster and having things like "onHover" done for me makes me wonder why I never chose Unity in the first place.

[Brayzen]

Hold Base is suffering from a common disease known as Thisisnofun.

I realise I'm trying to follow the likes of FTL and Rebuild a little too closely, and the game doesn't feel like it's going to be fun that way. It's more of a simulation where the player actually has very little control. FTL was great because there was an element of micromanagement through which the player manipulated the course of battles, and ultimately survival. Rebuild was great because each turn the player got to decide where they focussed their resources, with the outcome pooled at the end of each turn, random events happening at the end of said turn.

My game world is "dead" during the day - you send your survivors off and they hopefully come back with something. Every now and then a random event occurs which means something will happen to one of the survivors. At night, you put the survivors in one of the base's components and hope their aim is good.

I feel like taking it closer to what I Am Legend was - one man against a city of undead out for his blood. I feel the management of multiple survivors in real-time is a bit too much work for me at this level - I didn't realise how large the scale was until I started writing it!

So looking at a redesign of the fundamentals. Fortunately I haven't shown that much regarding gameplay - just lots of cityscapes. Scope is coming down but hopefully the player will have more fun playing the game (as I will making it!). 

[Brayzen]

Things have changed a little. I felt with it being a little too simulation-like there was little fun in it.

So now when you explore a building, you've got to clear it out. Just using a simple test building at the moment to get a feel for Unity's collision detection and raycasting (for bullets). Rapid prototyping seems to happen a lot more quickly in Unity.

And I may just keep it a prototype. Getting this to publishable standard would require 3D animated models, decent pathfinding and a more complex interface system in place. Prototype is my goal for now - depending on what interest it garners I may take it further. Needless to say to get this out there and published would require financial investment, of which I can provide very little!

[Brayzen]

This happened...

Doesn't represent that much development work, perhaps a few hours. I felt I "burnt out" a little last week so I took a break from Hold Base and had a bit of a chillout. But I knew if I left it too long without working on it, I'd drop it like the rest of my efforts.

Determined to see this through!

I've scaled down a lot. Currently what you see may be what you get. I have various guns, enemies with random attributes (most noticeably speed) and "point and shoot" style aiming mechanics going on. All quite simple really, and as you can see, my pixel art is limited at best

I aim to have more than this though. At a minimum there'll be some sort of scavenging system during day. Whether it's what I had before or not I don't know. Currently I'm thinking of just having the original town overview, select a building and then forward the game on X hours, randomly picking up X amount of supplies.

The focus will be more on this screen here, the defense. I found while developing the scavenging that I didn't have much of an idea of where the "fun" would be. In truth, I find the game fairly un-fun at the moment, but perhaps that's natural, and it will develop.

My goal with this is to have an upgrade system on the base to help survive ever more dangerous enemies. I'm thinking upgradeable walls, automated towers, moats (to slow down enemies) and maybe even a mine field. Implementing this will be difficult, but it's a good learning exercise for when the day comes to be making simulation/ strategy games, which is where my heart's always been.

For now though, baby steps. Hoping to have this done by the end of the year at the latest. Graphics and art I'm not so fussed about right now (sorry!), but I do have some basic sounds (gunfire, reloading, enemies hitting the base...). Maybe if I'm happy with the gameplay in X months time I'll apply a nice paintbrush, or even get someone else to do a bit of art for me. Might even be saleable, but let's not get too optimistic here - just wanting to finish it!

[Brayzen]

Added a few GUI elements: basic shop-like construction system, where you'll trade the scrap and other bits you've found during the day for building upgrades (like laser fences, moats, auto-turrets... all fun stuff!). Only one per day though as it takes a while to build these things as a one-man army!

Also GUI'd the scavenging. Random amount of scrap and "other components" granted depending on how well you defended your base. Keep it relatively intact overnight and more chance to find items, and in greater quantity. Barely survive and you'll spend most of the day fixing it up.

Progressing nicely!

[Brayzen]

Some images to keep things ticking over...

At the end of the day you'll be able to scavenge the city for various bits and bobs. I've modularised this so that should I go back to the "walk around the city and pick up items on a timer" gameplay, that would replace this screen. For now though, this is a good, quick simulation to get an idea of things.

The construction menu is fairly simple. It's just a list of items with a brief description, and their component cost. Your accumulated components can be seen in the top-right of the screen.

I went and bought the moat for 15 scrap! You may only construct one item per night, but this shouldn't be too much of an issue, as you'll have to save up your collectibles. Enemies in the moat move 50% as fast. It can be upgraded to the acid moat to do 3dps and slow enemies to 35% of their normal speed.



I feel like the major game elements are there now. The actual defense is very boring though I find. I've scoped down just to hopefully finish this, but it's hardly a barrel of laughs. It's good experience though, which is why I want to see it through.


[EDIT] Perhaps I'll add a few "power-moves" for when you get a certain amount of kills. I've only ever played one MMO, which was The Old Republic, but I think that's where the concept comes from. In short, you select "moves" to perform - you'd have your standard slash and swipe, but then a burst shot or heavy slash which does extra damage. I think I may add something in, like a grenade throw, burst fire or piercing bullets which can hit through multiple enemies. Might spice it up slightly.