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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsRelic Romance (Open beta released!)
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Author Topic: Relic Romance (Open beta released!)  (Read 7488 times)
Magnesium Ninja
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« on: March 26, 2013, 10:02:16 AM »





Relic Romance is a hotseat, competitive multi-player game in which two friends (or enemies) compete against one another to be the first one to cash three relics in their home base.

When the game starts, players will kill enemies and skirmish with one another in an attempt to out-level the other. After some time, the first relic will spawn in one of the corners of the map. From that point on, it's a strategic race to collect the relic and bring it back to your base without dying.

We consider Relic Romance to be a blend of pure competition and good-natured cheating. The game is designed to be strategically deep and complex, but we can't deny that your opponent may simply choose to look over at what you're doing. That's okay, it's all part of the fun.



The open beta is out and can be downloaded at the following link:

Relic Romance Beta 0.8

Let us know what you think!
« Last Edit: November 09, 2013, 12:02:36 AM by Magnesium Ninja » Logged

Magnesium Ninja
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« Reply #1 on: March 27, 2013, 10:07:57 PM »

Tons of new features/improvements today!

-Crossbow, hard to aim and bad in close quarters, but does a lot of damage and has a piercing shot that hits multiple enemies in a line
-Cave tiles for the outer regions of our first map template
-Improved map generation in general
-Lots and lots of improvements, optimizations and bug fixes (ugh)

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Magnesium Ninja
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« Reply #2 on: March 31, 2013, 07:33:23 PM »

More more more additions! To name a few of the major ones:

-Health fountains, will restore some health for a price
-Doors, the kind I walk into not the band
-Shop framework: No items yet but hey there's a floor in there and it looks marvellous
-Shields, they work kind of the same way they do in Halo. Will end up being an item that you discover/purchase during matches, not a starting item. Probably.
-Other stuff I've forgotten, like always. What kind of chump keeps an actual changelist? NOT ME.

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psyguy
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« Reply #3 on: April 01, 2013, 08:07:37 AM »

It sounds like the better one player does during the game, the better equipment they get, which in turn makes the already-better player even more ... better.  Does the bad player have some opportunities to get back into the match? 
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Magnesium Ninja
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« Reply #4 on: April 01, 2013, 09:52:58 AM »

It all comes down to balancing, honestly. Our goal is to make an environment where a power imbalance like that isn't possible. It's all about dynamic play-styles. Because every match will be different, the method one player used to win in the previous game probably won't be applicable in the next match.

If a player just clearly outshines their opponent during a match, it's pretty likely that they're going to win. Not guaranteed though, there are enough factors at play that give the losing player opportunities to win if they play smart Smiley
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Alex Higgins
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« Reply #5 on: April 01, 2013, 02:18:17 PM »

Looks sick. Nice concept too. Surprised I haven't heard of anyone attempting a competitive dungeon crawler before; seems like it'd be fun.

It might be a good idea to make sure that each player's actions affect the other's experience in a more direct way before the final showdown, though. For example, one player might come across a button that spawns monsters at the other's location, or something like that.
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Magnesium Ninja
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« Reply #6 on: April 01, 2013, 04:04:31 PM »

Very true, it's something we're working on. Of course the game starts off 'solitary', but to keep the players with a feeling of connection is really important. All the excitement/fun of the skirmishes and final fight needs to be extended across the entire game.

We'll play around, see what we can come up with. I'd love to have some core feature that affects both players based on how each person is performing. Sort of a reminder that "hey, there's another guy down here too and he's trying to murder you dead."
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ananasblau
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« Reply #7 on: April 02, 2013, 12:10:02 PM »

High Five for the hotseat, that's what I did for with a game for the sport compo in november and what I plan for a roguelike i did for revamping my ld48 from december.

Are you also going for gamepad support? It's okay on one keyboard but if it's meant to be fast controllers are the future I say.

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Magnesium Ninja
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« Reply #8 on: April 02, 2013, 05:33:28 PM »

Assuming I can make it work I would LOVE to add native controller support. As it stands I'm using a wired Xbox controller to test/playtest with. It's really much better Smiley
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Magnesium Ninja
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« Reply #9 on: April 06, 2013, 10:53:49 AM »



Been working this week on implementing the shop and elements into weapons. The way it works it that every match will have a handful of randomly selected structures plopped into the map somewhere. One of such structures is a shop, as you can see above. The shop won't ALWAYS appear, but it will be fairly frequent.

As for elements, your basic (cheap) weapons will have no elements, or very weak elements. The elements are Damage, Fire, Wind, Plasma, Lightning and Poison. You can find weapons with elements already attached, but they are very rare. Other ways that you'll be able to obtain better weapons are through shops, blacksmiths and enchanters. Each element has a max level of 3, 3 being the strongest form of that element.
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Magnesium Ninja
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« Reply #10 on: April 13, 2013, 01:31:07 PM »



Screenshots and Saturdays collide!

This little guy is the blacksmith. He upgrades your stuffs for nuts!
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Magnesium Ninja
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« Reply #11 on: May 05, 2013, 12:44:57 PM »



I've been quiet for a while, but we're still hard at work on the game! We've added a new weapon called the Missile Pod which fires lock-ons for you to target enemies with. It's hard to use, but if you learn its methods it can be really rewarding to play with.

There're a bunch of new features as well; we've put in some new spells and enemies. Progress is coming along steadily, although I've run into some optimizations problems which are new to me. It's an interesting challenge for sure.

I'm really enjoying making this game, I hope that as we fill things out the game will start to feel really lively and fun. It's going to take a lot of time though!
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Magnesium Ninja
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« Reply #12 on: May 05, 2013, 03:20:36 PM »

Our goal is to develop the map in such a way that there are no 'favourable' spots so much as the map around you will define the way that you approach the round. Both players will have equal opportunity to succeed.

Regarding the screen size: It isn't a flash game, that's just the native screen resolution. There will be support for larger screen sizes. Smiley
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siskavard
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« Reply #13 on: May 05, 2013, 03:24:15 PM »

Sounds like a tough project, balance-wise.

Nevertheless it sounds really fun, can't wait to give it a try.
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Magnesium Ninja
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« Reply #14 on: May 05, 2013, 09:26:44 PM »

It is going to be tough, but I feel it's totally a risk-reward project! The hope is that if we run enough public testing we'll be able to balance the game perfectly for release Smiley
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Magnesium Ninja
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« Reply #15 on: May 18, 2013, 11:35:08 AM »



For screenshot saturday! I've been working on some coloured lighting, as well as some scenery elements like torches and crystals that can be broken. It helps to make each zone feel different, as well as to highlight important areas of the map.

What do you guys think?
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Magnesium Ninja
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« Reply #16 on: July 03, 2013, 09:19:21 PM »

Biiiiiig changes in the air!

We've decided to restructure some aspects of the match layout to promote motivation and objectives for the players. We found that with our current layout players tended to be lost and roam aimlessly, finding upgrades essentially by accident. There was no real goal or understanding of how to get better. We wanted to change that.

What we did was redesign the map entirely. The game now loosely follows this structure, with (obviously) room for strategy:

-Players begin the game in bases in opposite corners of the map. They both start off very weak and must 'farm' for nuts within the relatively safe inner ring, closest to the base. Players can then spend their money within their base in the blacksmith on upgrades to health, damage, speed and stamina.
-Eventually, players will grow strong enough to venture outside of the inner rings, where they will encounter more difficult enemies, as well as the shop in the centre of the map, a boss in one corner and a casino in the other. This is where players will start to skirmish, fighting each other, laying ambushes, and chasing. Players can return to their own base to restore health, and they can head to the enemy base to destroy their point of health restoration.



That's the very simple explanation of the reformat. Of course, players can choose to play things entirely differently. They might decide to do a risky rush of the shop in the centre for early access to powerful equipment, or they might decide to upgrade only their health so that they can attempt to tank the boss in the early-game. We're doing our best to encourage multiple playstyles that suit the other player and allow for every match to be different.

Another addition that we're in the process of developing are Alleys. Alleys are narrow pathways that lead between some rooms across the map that allow players within them to be invisible to players outside. This lets players set up ambushes, as well as escape from pursuers. The catch is that to enter an alley, you need to use a key. This sets the alley up as a tactical trade off that can become very important in the late game for catching your opponent off-guard.



The map is much more visually distinct now, with each area a different tileset and cast of enemies. The screenshot above shows the beginnings of the most difficult, central slice of the map, affectionately known amongst our team as Hell.

Obviously, we have a long way to go before this game gets to where we want it, but I feel more comfortable with the journey now, knowing that we have a set goal instead of just adding features and hoping they improve the game. I'm going to do my best to keep frequently updating for the next little while as things fall into place, as well as perhaps detailing some of the systems that are being developed.

See you soon! Smiley
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Magnesium Ninja
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« Reply #17 on: July 04, 2013, 10:03:51 PM »

Independence Day update!

-My 18 year streak of not being American continues, so I got some work done today!

Most of what I did was fix some outstanding bugs that I've been neglecting like the bad little programmer I am. Feels good to know that the player won't randomly clip through walls any more. It makes testing a little less embarrassing. Tongue

I buffed the element effects on weapons slightly to prepare for the new upgrade system. Because damage will be upgradable at a much more frequent, albeit incremental pace, elements applied to weapons need to have large effects that increase by a lot each level, otherwise players won't care about obtaining them.

My goal is to start on the new upgrade system and balancing soon so that we can get a feel for how the early game is going to play.

-Chris
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Magnesium Ninja
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« Reply #18 on: July 06, 2013, 10:01:57 AM »



Working on enemy health/name meters! They're fairly simple, the idea is that they help teach players how strong various enemies are based on more than just the damage they deal. A worry I had was that players would rush to the middle and try to tank really strong enemies without knowing how hard they would be to kill. I didn't want that kind of new-player confusion.
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Magnesium Ninja
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« Reply #19 on: August 04, 2013, 06:37:16 PM »



We got a lot done this week, but the highlight of it for me is finishing work on the first boss, which took me FOREVER. Feeling very good about him though Smiley

A more in depth look at the work we did is on our blog, as always!
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