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[firstordergames]

Swipe-Action / Auto-Runner   vs.   Dungeon-Crawling   / Room Puzzler

   

   

Features:

Challenge Saga

• 200 Hand Crafted (non-random) Challenge Rooms
  
• 4 Themed Areas with unique Gameplay Mechanics
  
• Per Room, Per Area, and Global Progression Stats
  
• High Score, Speed Run Leaderboards & Achievements
  
• Video Replays

Free Running

• Procedurally Generated Labyrinths of Procedurally Generated Rooms
  
• Unlock Areas in Challenge Saga mode to be included in Rogue Run mode's Labyrinths
• Dynamic Character Build (xp gain yields buff choice unlock, many buffs to choose/experiment)
  
• Perma-Death (run 'till you die, go as far as you can)
  
• High Score Leaderboard

Ship date:

• August 27, 2015

Cost:

• FREE with ads, Pay what you want: $0.99 - $4.99 to remove ads forever NO OTHER IAP
  

About Me:

• Former CoD MP, GH, THPS Designer / Programmer
• Made the fully committed, terrifying leap into full time indie
• Ask me anything.  Thanks for taking an interest!  
  

[firstordergames]

Back to the Beginning

Let's go back in time a bit to the beginning of this project and share the early development of the core gameplay idea, and the level editor.

Concept

The idea for Swipey Rogue came about while experimenting with virtual stick and swipe input on mobile. I wanted to control an ever moving character in some sort of action scenario. However, I'm also love action RPGs and Rogue-likes. I became curious to see if I could make a game that somehow combines the fun elements of grid based rogue-likes and the action elements of simple touch games like Flappy Bird and Crossy Road.

The result became Swipey Rogue!  Early on, I experimented with a virtual joystick control where the player could rotate any angle and move in any direction (not just cardinal directions like now).  This was very fun and engaging but difficult to navigate obstacles.  I decided to put that control scheme on the shelf for another project and focus the control for this game to just allow movement in the 4 cardinal directions and make swipes just switch between them.  The simplified control let me design more complex obstacles and pathways in the levels.

Gameplay Space



I wanted to use a top down view that maximizes the screen and allows for portrait play. I find portrait play much more convenient for mobile games than landscape games as it allows you to play with one hand more spontaneously (which is key for mobile games IMO). I got a small set of great assets from the Unity store (BitGem makes nice stuff!) and started optimizing, chopping, and building. In the end I got the above grid. It is 5x9 tiles, each tile is 4x4 Unity units. I created prefabs for the walls so that every wall segment could double as an entrance or exit (giving me maximum flexibility for designing levels so the player can enter and exit from any wall segment on any wall).

Designed (not randomized) Levels:



Once I had made a hand placed level as a prototype and was able to play it and have fun, I knew I would need some sort of tool to help me with level creation.  I began making a simple 2D tile editor in unity.  (It is very ugly, but it's not the product that I ship, just the tool I use so that's ok for me because it works good).

The above screen shows the level editor in action on the right through the camera view, and the elements of the editor sitting in a Unity scene on the left. I just used sprites with colliders added to them and a bunch of onMouseDown scripts. I can paint items into the tiles on the left from the 'pallet' on the right. Back at the beginning it only supported: ground, lava, enemies (easy, medium, hard, boss), breakable vases (with meat pickup inside!), directional fireball turrets, and 1 entrance and 1 exit.  

It saves and loads data to/from XML and the game side loads, parses, and builds it with prefabs I chopped up into usable modular chunks.

But wait! Rogue-likes have randomly generated levels!! Ya ya, I know. That's Gauntlet Mode.  Right now, I'm sharing how Adventure Mode is made. 

For Adventure Mode, I could spend the time creating a procedural system which creates random snaking patterns of lava and stone through a room, add random enemies and pickups.. blah blah. But, I felt this mode needed actual designed levels, not randomized. Nothing against procedural stuff, I enjoy making procedural systems a lot, I like playing games like that, and Gauntlet Mode functions in that way. For this mode though, I really felt like making the rooms more intentional spaces. My goal for Adventure Mode is to ship with 200 rooms. I'll outline how the level progression works in a future update but a quick description would be that it's all about beating all the levels and replaying them to get "3 stars" on each, getting a higher score, and beating your fastest time.

Parsed and Loaded Level



Above, you can see the same level loaded in the game.  It is assembled from the level editor using the modular asset prefabs I created and the enemy, hazard, and interactable prefabs that I made. On the left you can see the perspective view in the Unity editor, and on the right you can see the gameplay view through the camera. It's so exciting at this stage to finally see it working from editor to game. It feels like anything is possible now, but there's still a lot of work.

The wonderful 3D models from Bitgem helped me get up and running faster, giving the game some life with attractive assets instead of temp art. I may keep them through release or source other assets.

Gameplay Gifs

These were a couple of my first gameplay gifs showing very early level tests.  The levels and assets have improved a lot since these tests in the beginning but I like to share so you can see progress.

 

Thanks!

If you've made it this far, thanks!  This project has come a long way since the beginning.  I look forward to sharing more progress with you.

[firstordergames]

Game Design and Development Process

Early on, I decided that I would be constantly adding new elements to levels as I progressed in development.  I balance my time between programming new systems, and creating content with them.  I didn't want to pre-plan and pre-create all of the systems up front.  That style of approach causes 2 problems for me: first, I get buried under too much code work at the beginning and lose sight of the game.  And second, I then get buried with too much content work at the end and lose creative motivation.  By constantly doing both at once, I stay motivated on both the technical and creative fronts.  And, most importantly, it allows the game to evolve and tell me what it needs next as I develop and play.

Example of New Level Element

I started with basic floor and wall pieces, and then started adding other elements like lava tiles, and fireball turrets.  One of the first new additions that I made after creating and playing some levels was the lava pit trap.

Here's a composite view of a level using the trap.  The Unity editor window is on the left and the view through the game camera is on the right:


And here's a perspective view of the trap in action.  It functions like a normal ground tile, except it opens every 2 seconds.  If the player walks over it while it is not fully closed, they fall to their death in the lava, muhahaha.


Development and Gameplay Video

Here's a combined development and gameplay video.  I demonstrate the level editor and a preview of how I manage progression, and I play through a level on the phone.  (Note: in the video the game is being played on a LG G3, but the game is being developed and tested for all iOS devices as well.)


Thanks

Thanks for tuning in and following along with progress of the game. 

[firstordergames]

Props & Loot:

Going back again to earlier development, I wanted to show the system I implemented to sprinkle props into levels, and to flag level tiles to allow or disallow random spawning of loot crates. As well, I have a couple of brand new gameplay gifs demonstrating speed runs on difficult levels.

Tile Properties:

I created a new breakable type (loot crate), and a new pickup type (gold coins). I prototyped a system to randomly spawn the new loot crate on any empty floor tile (shown above). It worked well but introduced an issue. Some areas of the level need to always be clear to allow for quick traversal (dodging projectiles). If a loot crate randomly spawned in one of these areas it would block the player.

I already planned to add a "tile properties" section to the tile editor for placing props on tiles so this was an appropriate place to also add a toggle for allowing random spawns on a tile. And since I had 2 needs for this new feature, it was an appropriate time to add it to the tile editor tool.



It's ugly, but it's functional. It serves 2 purposes: Props (the 4x4 grid), and Random Spawns (the little checkbox at top right). I realized, from the wall shapes I have, there are 16 possible locations where I might need props to be placed on any given tile. So I made a grid of 16 buttons to represent the locations. Checking the buttons updates meta data for the currently selected tile. In the game, I've created 16 prefabs of props (candles and small vases) offset within a tile node appropriately to match each of the locations portrayed in the editor.

Example 1 (straddling a small wall next to a room boundary wall):



Example 2 (in a corner next to room boundary wall):



Example 3 (one side of a small wall):



Example 4 (nestled in a small wall corner):



The props really add life to the levels. I will eventually make additional sets of the props with different models and randomly select when the level is loaded for variety.

Gameplay Preview - Speed Running Difficult Levels:

In addition to the visual variety of the props props, the randomly spawning loot crates are helping to give the levels some gameplay variety as well. Now that I can control where they may spawn, I can continue designing intentionally difficult levels that require specific timing without the fear of loot crates blocking a route.

Below are a couple of preview gameplay gifs showing off speed runs through a couple newer levels. I'll make a dev log in the future that outlines the progression system, but as a teaser I'll say this: there is a 3 star system for each level as well as a stored speed run time. Speed runs have no objective other than getting to the exit. For 2 and 3 stars you'll additionally need to defeat all enemies, and also collect all pickups respectively. So it is a legitimate strategy to play every level with each gameplay style (speed, combat, completionist) and be acknowledged and rewarded for each.

 

Until Next Time:

While playing, I feel like I'm in a familiar head-space like playing Pac Man or Donkey Kong. This really excites me because this is the direction I was striving for. Those are two of the greatest arcade games ever (Ms Pac Man is better, but you know what I mean). The combination of memorization, pattern recognition, quick reflexes, and adaptive strategy is such a great flow to be in while playing. I can't pretend to be making something on par with either of those games, but I'm just happy that I got that feeling.

[firstordergames]

Composer, Progression, Full Menu Flow & 2 Videos:
Swipey Rogue is an action game that blends simple swipe touch controls with top-down auto-running dungeon crawling. You control your auto-running hero's direction changes with swipes while avoiding obstacles, and planning your path to the exit through enemies and resource pickups.

Introducing Composer, Declan Bell:
Declan is a talented music student from the UK. He has been composing the theme music that plays in the front end during menus and the map, and also the gameplay theme which plays while you're running around in the dungeons. He has come up with some excellent music that is really starting to bring the game to life. We wanted to go for orchestral themes with many layers or humor and tension to heighten the mood while you play.  You can check out some of Declan's previous work on his soundcloud page here: https://soundcloud.com/declanbell93 Previously, he composed music for the recently released Curse of Mermos: http://www.indiedb.com/games/curse-of-mermos1

--- WARNING: Placeholder 2D art ---

Gameplay Video:
Let's get straight into some gameplay video action. In the following video, I walk through the newly created front end menu system, and the map/progression screen. Then play through a particularly tricky level. You can hear a preview of Declan's music in the background.


Development Video:
In the following video, I walk through how I created the scrolling progression menu in unity.



--- WARNING: Placeholder 2D art ---

Development Screens - Menu Flow:
Here's a preview of the entire menu flow from title screen to room exit summary. I'm happy to have this framework in place. It is all still temp art, but it makes the game almost functionally complete now. The progression menu was a bit of work to get it to scroll nice on the phone with up/down swipe gestures. I implemented an initial velocity and deceleration system to make it feel springy and responsive. Shield your eyes, it's all temp 2D art.  I have finalized a contract with an amazing 2D artist and I'll be announcing and showcasing his new work soon!  For now, it's all temp.

Title screen (Gauntlet mode not yet functioning):


Progression Menu:


Room Summary:


Loading Screen:


In Game Hud:


Exit Room Summary:


Options Screen:


Thank You!
As always, thanks for dropping by. You made it past a lot of placeholder 2D art to get here.  There is a death screen, and a pause screen as well, but really I've bored you enough already.    Lots of great progress has been made in the past week. All the temp menu art needs to be polished and replaced, sound effects need to be added, and then it's all about creating the remaining 150 levels and adding lots of more fun new elements into the level and level editor along the way.

[firstordergames]

2D Art Overhaul Begins:
Swipey Rogue is a hardcore arcade game that aims to distill the core elements of rogue-likes and action-rpgs (maze traversal, loot gathering, resource management, enemy combat) into a bite-sized, action/impulse experience with minimal controls. Development has hit Alpha (full functionality) so now it's time to make this thing look better. This week's update introduces Anthony Coito who is taking on the task of re-envisioning the 2D art across the entire game.

Introducing: Artist, Anthony Coito:
The whole time I've been working on this game, I've been planning to bring on help to completely replace all the 2D art. The way I like to work is full steam ahead and never let anything slow me down. For that reason, I make all my own placeholder art whenever I need it. For Swipey Rogue, I created the temp logo to set the seed of what I imagined it could become.

Now it's time to realize that vision. Anthony is enthusiastically taking on that challenge. His bright and cheerful work on Polygon Princess, Moku Island, and Easy Eater 2 caught my eye and felt like a perfect fit for what I wanted. You can check out his portfolio here: anthonycoito.com

2D Art Direction:
While the gameplay art in Swipey Rogue is all 3D, I wanted the front end, menus, and hud to be all 2D. I wanted something that pops up into your eyes and invites you into the world. Although the game is meant to be super hard with elements including insta-death traps, life resource management, and twitch action traversal appealing to core and mid-core gamers, I wanted the presentation layer (2D) to scream accessibility. I believe this is a fun game for everyone, and the 2D art (logo, icon, hud, menus, etc.) is the calling card that communicates who I'm trying to share the game with: everyone. Anthony understood this immediately, and has jumped in with voracious creativity to tackle this challenge. nom nom nom

Logo Remake:

First and foremost, the logo is getting a much needed art treatment. Anthony and I brainstormed and reviewed piles of reference material to identify the key elements for a classic RPG logo: Frame, Lettering, and Adornments. We wanted to go with the classic rectangular shape forming a background frame that hints at the setting of the game. Upon the frame, the lettering will pop out with bright, shiny colors. Speckled around the lettering, gameplay props like armor or loot will adorn the logo.

This is the very first set of draft sketches. It will continue to evolve as it goes through many iterations over time. I wanted to share progress from day one with all of you because I love watching these things progress.

Splash / Main Menu Screen:

The current direction for the splash and main menu background is a montage of the characters in the game in an action pose summing up the experience: running through crazy rooms! This is the very first concept sketch. I'm excited to see where we'll end up when it's finished.

Progression Map Background:

Swipey Rogue features 2 modes of play: Adventure Mode, and Gauntlet Mode. In Adventure Mode, you progress linearly through the sequence of rooms. The progression map is your interface to your adventure progress. It is a familiar vertically scrolling style progression map with a long winding path full of icon buttons for each room.

Since you tend to interact with progression maps like this a lot when playing the game, I wanted it to feel cool in some way. The setting of Swipey Rogue is an ancient, mythological mine rumored to house inconceivable treasure for those brave enough to enter its depths, and escape with their lives. The room exist under the ground, so I thought it might be fun to try to visualize the map like you're looking down, through rock layers, into the earth. We're going to try to layer the different rock elements and parallax them slightly while you scroll to simulate depth. I'm excited to try this. The concept phase has just begun, we'll be prototyping with block out assets shortly and I'll share progress.

Menu Panels:

The overall setting theme of Swipey Rogue fuses elements of Dwarven and Norse mythology. Arch-typically, Dwarves are renown for their prowess at mining the depths of the earth. The main player character is a Viking inspired Dwarf, and the musical theme is meant to evoke a feeling of epic saga. Norse culture is rich with creative pattern work on wood, tapestries, metal, and leather. We aim to inject elements of that patterning into the menu and HUD elements to re-enforce that theme.

The basic building block for many of the menus will be a background panel. Anthony has begun very early work sketching concepts of framing and background elements for the panel. This panel will primarily be used for the room summary screen which appears off the map screen, on the pause menu, on the death screen, and on the success screen. A variation of it will also be used for the achievement parade as you exit a level.

Thank You!
As always, thanks for tuning in. Now that all the basic groundwork functionality for all features of the game has been developed. All that remains is this massive 2D overhaul, the sound effects pass, and the really fun part: the completion of all the levels and addition of new level elements.

[firstordergames]

Video update #4

Gameplay video shows off aesthetic changes in the past week.  The new enemy models are now in the game!  I also added a simple "gibs" system to toss chunks of stuff you smash.  So crates toss wood splinters up in the air then they stick to the ground.  And the enemies toss bones when they die.  Also, the enemies stay where they fall now and don't disappear.  I like the effect of having a bunch of stuff lying all over the ground by the time you leave the room.  It took a bit of work to get the enemies to reposition when they die so they don't fall back through a wall, but it's all working now.  It's little things, but it makes it all feel more polished.  I'm happy with the progress.  Also, I added numbers flying off the character and enemies while they're fighting.  I love numbers flying around in RPGs.  It just wouldn't feel right without them.  



Thanks for tuning in, comments questions welcome.  I took a break for my birthday yesterday and realized that I've worked all day every day since January 15th on this.  It was nice to have a little break!  It's been rapid, but intense development!  

Lava World is Finished!

The underground mines that you explore in Swipey Rogue are broken into 4 elemental themed areas.  The Lava World is full of lava flows, lava pits, and fireballs.  I just finished polishing the last of the 50 levels in the lava world so I'm celebrating by sharing some shots of a selection of the first 50 levels.  

I'm really happy with the amount of tweaking that they've gone through.  A diverse set of people have been playtesting and I've been absorbing all of their feedback about pain points and massaging things along the way.







Development on the remaining worlds will continue through March as I overhaul all the 2D art in parallel with the artist who is making the new art.  I'm looking forward to sharing more as things develop, and I can't wait to release so everyone can play.

[firstordergames]

Video Update #5

A new video update has been posted.  In this video I quickly play through a level to get to the end and show you the success screen flow (that I'm calling the "achievement parade").  It's the display of all your stats and new accomplishments as you exit the room.  All the art is still temporary, functionality and timing are complete, sounds are ~60% complete.


Swipey Rogue Video Update #5

Achievement Parade in Pictures

Still all placeholder, temporary 2D art.  Here's a quick run of screenshots showing the flow of stats and achievements while exiting a room.

Time, Gold, Score.

Time and score are always displayed, gold is only displayed if you collect any.

How Scoring Works

• - Your score is based on a combination of a time bonus, an enemy bonus, and a health bonus.
• - You get points for how much quicker your time is than 1 minute (time limit).
• - You get points for killing enemies.
• - You get points for how much health you have when you exit the room.

I feel this is a fair evaluation of a player's mastery of a room and encourages experimentation to achieve the highest score possible.

Fastest Time, High Score

If either your time or score beats your recorded value for that room, there is an extra moment to acknowledge a new accomplishment.

Challenges

Any time you complete a challenge for the first time in a room, it is also acknowledged on the exit flow before arriving back at the room summary.  In the next update, I'll explain how you use your collected challenge achievements to unlock new areas of the mine.

Thanks!
Thanks for dropping by and seeing how things are going.  I finished a major chunk of work last night to create the branching paths to the room progression.  The world is now divided into 4 areas, each with their own progression path.  I'll post a new update soon to outline how that work was done and all the systems it impacted.  Work on the next worlds (areas of the mine) is beginning now!  Ice world, Metal world, and Magic world.        spoilers!

[firstordergames]

Overworld Development Progress
To maximize visual and gameplay variety, and player access to rooms, the underground mines of Swipey Rogue's Adventure Mode are divided into 4 areas.

Sneak peek of the overworld menu in development (strictly functional, art and layout is placeholder).


Area Themes
Each area of the mine features unique gameplay and visual elements that are inspired by the theme of the area.

The first area that has been revealed is Lava themed and features fire based traps and hazards.  The other 3 areas that will be included at launch are Ice, Metal, and Magic.

Area Unlocking
Players earn gems for completing room challenges (the final art for the placeholder stars are gems).  These gems are cashed in to unlock areas in the mine. 

Area Stats
The overworld map tracks and displays the following stats for each area:

• - total rooms escaped
• - total gems earned (challenges beaten)
• - sum of high scores (leaderboard)
• - sum of time under speedrun challenge time (leaderboard)

The unlock cost is tuned to completing roughly 50% of the challenges in an area.  The goal is for players to have many areas unlocked before completing any of them.

2D Art Progress
Concepts have been finalized for the direction of menu elements like buttons and panels. 

The scrolling progression map for Adventure Mode has been prototyped to prove the parallaxing concept (I'll post video when I integrate more finalized art).  And a plan is in place for varying the progression map for each area. 



Each area will have it's own scrolling progression map.  Each map will have its own color theme to match the theme of the area, and will also feature unique elements.  The sample concept above shows the lava flows that will be featured in the Lava area's map.

For buttons, we've decided on a weatherd look instead of clean to give extra detail.  I've implemented the new buttons in the game already (first proper 2D art in the game!) and they look great.  I'm excited to get the rest of the temp UI and menus replaced so the game is more presentable.

Thanks
Thanks for dropping by.  I hope you're having a nice weekend.  Kind of cloudy and rainy here, perfect for diving into more development.  More updates soon. 

[firstordergames]

New development video: Sensitivity Settings for the Hardcore Player


Swipey Rogue Video Update #6

I found myself tweaking the distance and duration of a swipe necessary to register in game to super precise values.  The problem with very high sensitivity with touch and swipe controls is that you open the door for error.  Since Swipey Rogue operates on just cardinal direction swipe input, it's a very bad thing if you thought you swiped left and the game registered that you swiped up.

So, I decided that I should put the sensitivity decision in the hands of the player.  I created 3 presets that cover a range from less to more sensitive and exposed a means to set which you want through the settings menu.  Most players will play with the default setting, but players that are really trying for high score and speedrun leaderboards will probably find that they'll want the ability to do shorter faster swipes.  The option in the settings menu is for those hardcore players.

I'm happy that the game has evolved to the point where it can be played by casual and hardcore players who can both enjoy it for different reasons.   

A large part of the reason I'm making this game is as an experiment in bite-sized hardcore gaming on mobile.  Most of my past experience is creating twitch action console games.  I like to play a huge variety of games, but anything twitch and anything RPG are my biggest interests.  This is an experiment to fuse them on mobile.

[firstordergames]

Room & Area Variety Systems:
I've created an Area Asset Manager to handle swapping out assets between areas of the world. This has allowed me to create sprite sheets for all 2D elements used in each area. I'm displaying the floor tiles in the rooms as 2D sprites drawn under everything else. This allows me to tint each sprite and reduce draw calls when all sprites are on a shared sheet.


Here are early versions of the area spritesheets. I grouped ground tiles into categories to fit each area (stones tiles for lava area, rocky for ice area, metal for metal/mech area, and patterns for the magic area).

The actual ground tiles are all grayscale so that I can tint them in game. This gives maximum amount of variety. Since there are roughly 10 different ground tile patterns for each area, rooms in an area will re-use patterns. However, each room has a unique tint color that is applied to the ground tiles so they'll never look exactly the same.


Here's a collection of screenshots from some rooms in the Lava Area. You can see the different ground tile patterns being used and the different color tinting. The color themes for each area will be shared with the color theme used for the scrolling progression map for that area.

It's a minor thing, but it makes a huge difference.  I've finished tweaking the texture patterns and color palettes for 3 of the 4 areas.  The color palettes will be shared between the scrolling map for the area, and the floor tiles inside the rooms of an area.

In addition (what isn't shown in the screenshots), I've added lighting settings for each area which will also share the theme colors for the area.

[firstordergames]

New video devlog posted explaining all the changes to the editor, ui, and game code to support splitting the world into 4 distinct areas:


Swipey Rogue Video Update #7

[firstordergames]

Near Beta - Gamplay Preview (device capture)

1 Minute Near Beta Lava World Gameplay Preview (HD Capture + Stereo Sound)



Road to Beta - SFX

I've completed the base pass of all sfx.  This includes all sfx that are globally used (menus, and across all mine areas).  Here's a quick rundown of some of the behind the scenes work creating the assets and SFX manager.



I collect and sort a variety of sound elements that I use for designing complex sounds like combat loops.  Each combat loop contains enemy grunts, player grunts, sword clashes and whips.  I create a pool of variations for each sound event type (enemy combat, wood crate whacking & smashing, metal crate whacking & smashing, coin collecting, etc).



I expose arrays for each sound event type and populate them in the editor.  When the game is running, the sound manager pulls a random sound from the appropriate sound event list to play.  I try to make variations of basic sound events that you hear over and over to help keep the game fresh even if you barely notice.  I like to try to add little polish like this if I can.

Road to Beta - VFX

I've completed the vfx that are needed for the Lava Area.  The fireball turret has long been needing a muzzle flash, and the fireballs themselves have long needed an explosion on impact.



Muzzle flash on the turret is 3 sprites attached to a root node at the 'muzzle' location.  On fire, I rotate it randomly so it doesn't look the same every time, then make it visible.  It immediately starts fading and turns off when it is under a visible threshold.


(top is gameplay view, bottom is perspective view in editor)

The fireball impact splash is a combination of 2 element types.  A single sprite that I spawn at the fireball's location that scales and fades, and a collection of small sprites that I "toss" in the air and delete when they hit the ground.  It's not very flashy.  I didn't want to distract the player too much.  The fireball just needed some impact feedback to explain why it disappeared and I didn't want to use particle systems for performance reasons.

Thanks
As always, thanks for tuning in.  I'm finishing up the last of the system work, then moving on to service integration (ads, replays, iap to remove ads).  Then, when all the annoying hard work is done I get to dive back into level design and finish up the remaining 3 areas (ice, metal, magic).

[firstordergames]

Road to Beta - UI Overahaul

I've been out of the country for a while, but I'm back and I managed to get some development done in the meantime.  Lots of changes to the menus and some new menus added as well.  Hopefully all the menus are almost done now (functionally, they still need more art replacement).  Anthony Coito has been doing great work overhauling all the 2D artwork and I've been trying to get it in the game quick so he can iterate.  It's been working great!


New Main Menu, still placeholder Logo and background.  I experimented with green buttons for this pic, but I've switched to blue buttons for the main menu.



Continuing progress on the scrolling progress menu.  New room and challenge gem icons (background parallaxing rocks are still temp art).



All the elements are now in for the room summary panel and all the small buttons.  (the room summary shows from the map screen, and on pause, death, and success)



A look at the menu button sprite sheet in progress.  Putting everything on a single sprite sheet optimizes the memory footprint and performance (reduce draw calls).



Sneak peek at the in game shop menu.  The video demonstrates how all the buff items work.

Video Demonstration: the shop menu and buff items

Quick(ish) video demonstrating the shop menu and how the buff items that you can purchase affect gameplay (the Molten Boots of Awesome are... awesome)



Thanks!
Thanks for dropping by and checking out progress on the development of Swipey Rogue.  The new in-game shop adds a whole other layer to how you can play the game now.  It really excites me (as you might be able to tell in the video because I'm talking at a million miles an hour).  The best part of the shop is that it only accepts in game gold, there are no in app purchases for items or anything in the game.  It's free, you can pay a buck to remove ads but other than that, you don't have to pay for anything.  Just play the game.  Hope you like it!

[firstordergames]

More UI Progress

Still hammering away at all the menus. Most of the front end flow is completed now. Still some remaining elements needing replacement here and there on each menu. Lots more stats being displayed everywhere to give you context on your progress.

These are all screenshots from the game running. All menus are fully functional now.


Splash Screen & Main Menu (draft logos)



Settings & Shop Menus (shop needs item effect descriptions)



Adventure Mode Overworld Map (lots of visual work to do, all functional)



Adventure Mode Scrolling Progression Map (showing color themes for Molten & Frozen areas)



Adventure Mode Room Stats popup (shown from map, pause, death, success)



Other News

I've finished integrating Advertising and Video Replays (I'll share a video of that soon). I've set up all the leaderboards on itunes connect, so next work for me is to integrate GameCenter into the project and talk to the leaderboards.


Thanks for following along. Still lots of work to do but all this menu stuff and services stuff is nice to get out of the way. Pretty soon I can focus 100% on level design again (most fun part).

[firstordergames]

Services, services, services!

I've been offline for a while working on services. Not much to share (advertising doesn't make for good screenshots, hah!). But most of it is done, Harah!

Biggest accomplishment is Game Center connectivity. I created all the leaderboards and achievements for Adventure Mode on iTunes Connect. Then I made a code wrapper so when I do this all over again for Google Play on Android I won't have to mess around in the code as much. My game logic code calls my wrapper function to report all the various Leaderboard scores and Achievements progress. That's all done now (yay, the more leaderboards and achievements, the more you have to speckle this stuff all over the place).

Video Replays were already working, but I've added a button to view/share and smoothed out the record/stop flow.

Video Advertising is working, and disable-able. I'm using Unity Ads. It works and I have a button on the main menu to turn them off. Next task is to integrate IAP so you can pay $0.99 to remove ads forever. Then I have to look into purchase restoration, or cloud save so that you still have ads disabled if you ever remove the app and re-install it, or install it on another device.

Demo of Leaderboards & Achievements, Video Replays & Ads:

Here's a demo video of all recently integrated services (YouTube Link):


Adventure Mode Leaderboards Breakdown:

These are the current leaderboards (there will be more when Gauntlet Mode is finished):

• Total Score (higher is better, combined score of all rooms in Adventure Mode)
• Total Time (lower is better, combined time of all rooms in Adventure Mode)
• Molten Area Total Score (higher is better, combined score of all Molten Area rooms)
• Molten Area Total Time (lower is better, combined time of all Molten Area rooms)
• Frozen Area Total Score (higher is better, combined score of all Frozen Area rooms)
• Frozen Area Total Time (lower is better, combined time of all Frozen Area rooms)
• Gadget Area Total Score (higher is better, combined score of all Gadget Area rooms)
• Gadget Area Total Time (lower is better, combined time of all Gadget Area rooms)
• Magic Area Total Score (higher is better, combined score of all Magic Area rooms)
• Magic Area Total Time (lower is better, combined time of all Magic Area rooms)

Adventure Mode Achievements Breakdown:

These are the current achievements (there will be more when Gauntlet Mode is finished):

Molten Area

• Escape 50 Molten Rooms
• Defeat All Enemies in 50 Molten Rooms
• Beat Speedrun in 50 Molten Rooms
• Purchase Molten Axes of Awesome (permanent attack buff item, Molten Area only)
• Purchase Molten Helm of Awesome (permanent defense buff item, Molten Area only)
• Purchase Molten Boots of Awesome (permanent speed buff item, Molten Area only)

Frozen Area

• Unlock Frozen Area
• Escape 50 Frozen Rooms
• Defeat All Enemies in 50 Frozen Rooms
• Beat Speedrun in 50 Frozen Rooms
• Purchase Frozen Axes of Awesome (permanent attack buff item, Frozen Area only)
• Purchase Frozen Helm of Awesome (permanent defense buff item, Frozen Area only)
• Purchase Frozen Boots of Awesome (permanent speed buff item, Frozen Area only)

Gadget Area

• Unlock Gadget Area
• Escape 50 Gadget Rooms
• Defeat All Enemies in 50 Gadget Rooms
• Beat Speedrun in 50 Gadget Rooms
• Purchase Gadget Axes of Awesome (permanent attack buff item, Gadget Area only)
• Purchase Gadget Helm of Awesome (permanent defense buff item, Gadget Area only)
• Purchase Gadget Boots of Awesome (permanent speed buff item, Gadget Area only)

Magic Area

• Unlock Magic Area
• Escape 50 Magic Rooms
• Defeat All Enemies in 50 Magic Rooms
• Beat Speedrun in 50 Magic Rooms
• Purchase Magic Axes of Awesome (permanent attack buff item, Magic Area only)
• Purchase Magic Helm of Awesome (permanent defense buff item, Magic Area only)
• Purchase Magic Boots of Awesome (permanent speed buff item, Magic Area only)

Secret / Global

• Die 1000 times in Adventure Mode

Thanks!

Thanks again for tuning in. There has been a lot of progress, but not much to show in the game itself. Working on services can be a little frustrating like that. You sort of get lost in it and forget about the game itself. There so much of it! But, it's all worth the work in the end. Leaderboards and Achievements are fun, and I hope the replay system gets people excited about sharing their accomplishments in the game.

[firstordergames]

Some back progress:

I've been out of touch on this forum.  Getting back up to date here with a BIG update.

Logo progress

The second draft of the game logo in progress:


And the final logo:


IAP Progress

My goal is to make this game possible to play totally free.  

There will be advertising so I can try to make some money (try).  Hopefully the advertising won't be too bothersome though.  For now there is a video ad (using Unity Ads) that shows every 3 successful room completions in Adventure Mode (haven't decided how frequent it will show up in Gauntlet Mode, probably every 3 deaths).  There will likely also be a banner that shows in Adventure Mode when you beat a room and your score and challenges are being displayed.



IAP & Purchase Restoration Video Demo:



So, there is an option to pay once to remove all advertising permanently.  A button on the main menu will be visible if you have not removed advertising.  Clicking it takes you to the purchase menu where you can pick your price.

I wanted to let players decide how much they would like to pay.  Players can pay tier 1 though tier 5 price (how apple store works, tier 1 is $0.99 in USD and tier 5 is $4.99 in USD).  The choice is up to the player.  All options remove all advertising permanently.  

So this way, it is a "free app" and a "pay what you want app" and a "pay once to play app".  You can play the whole game for free with ads, or you can pay what you want once to remove ads forever.  I think this is fair.  I've submitted the IAPs to Apple for approval, let's see what they say.

Social Share

Social share is integrated for Adventure Mode now so you can share your performance using any of your installed communications and social apps.  Shares a quick message with a link to the app store, and an image of the room summary screen.



Social & Replay Video Demo:



Thanks!

As always, thanks for dropping by to see how things are progressing.  I have lots more updates to share so more coming soon.  It's been a really productive month.

[Swifty]

Wow I don't know why this hasn't had more attention. Really nice and detailed Devlog. The perspective camera angles for the screenshots are really interesting to see!

I like the new logo, and the art in general is very visually pleasing! I look forward to seeing more of your progress

[firstordergames]

Wow I don't know why this hasn't had more attention. Really nice and detailed Devlog. The perspective camera angles for the screenshots are really interesting to see!

I like the new logo, and the art in general is very visually pleasing! I look forward to seeing more of your progress

Hey, thanks so much for your comments!  I kind of let the updates slip because I wasn't feeling much interest.  Trying to get caught up, lots of content to share.  There's been a lot of progress.

I've been trying to show as much of everything as possible, even total placeholder, because I love seeing how it progresses.  Scary though, knowing the early stuff will turn people off, but motivating I guess because I really want to see it change.  

Glad you like it!

[firstordergames]

Finalizing UI

Some screens of the final UI pieces being replaced with final art. 

Player & Enemy Health Bars


Decided to use different visual for player and enemy health bars to help distinguish your player more.

Pickup Popup & Loot Summary


I changed the messages that pop up when you get a pick-up.  It used to be a small number popup by your character.  Now it's a large, center screen panel with an image and a text message.  It communicates better and it's much more satisfying to see. 

I also changed the exit screen loot summary to use more images instead of text, also more satisfying. 

Gameplay Demo

Showing off the finalized HUD elements: new health bars, loot pickup popup, and the loot summary.