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[Highlandcoo]

In a post apocalyptic wasteland, sentient machines have taken over the earth. Humanity survives hidden in the ruins and must scavenge to survive.

The survivors call themselves..

Dusters is developed in Gamemaker Studio for Windows OS.

DUSTERS is inspired by XCOM, RETURN FIRE, DESERT STRIKE and COMMAND AND CONQUER.


Key Features

• Design your own underground base. Build Dormitories, Armouries and Research Labs.
• Gather resources and rescue personnel from the surface to expand your base.
• Battle in real time for control of the map
• Upgrade and Customise your vehicles and weaponry from scavenged resources.
• Craft new Vehicle Hull's, Weapons, Engines and Armor

SCREENSHOTS



 

 

I'd really appreciate your comments and criticism - if you think this is a bad game, or just a bad implementation of a good idea - please say so!


Thanks for reading!


Ross Edgar.

Highland Gaming.

[Highlandcoo]

Updated the main post with some screenshots!

This week I am mainly concentrating on getting movement and path-finding sorted out. Elevators have been a major challenge. The "people" object needs to be able to identify what elevator node it BOARDS at, and which one it LEAVES at. PLUS the elevator itself needs to be extendable AND able to incorporate new doors at any point along it's length, which is a major headache!

Adding new AI types and behaviours has been loads of fun - this week I added the "doctor" - which unlocks when you build an infirmary. Initially the doctor is only healing injured people, and disposing of corpses.. but this will become VERY important when I implement the disease feature later on!

Now that the basics of movement, and keeping your people physically alive are working, I expect I will be implementing morale shortly, followed by criminal behavior in response to low morale. Exciting!

[strideynet]

Looks pretty cool. Will there be an alpha test release so we can play around a bit?

[RaconteurNick]

Is it randomly generated, or are levels clearly defined?

Looks amazing. Eager to play.

[Highlandcoo]

Is it randomly generated, or are levels clearly defined?

Looks amazing. Eager to play.

You build the base yourself. It's like a side-on prison architect.. or if you haven't played that think of Xcom(the new one) were you see your underground base like an "ants nest". You dig tunnels and fill them with corridors, stairs, ladders and elevators to connect power stations, underground wells, dormitories, infirmaries, libraries.. all the things people need to survive underground! Then try to stop you people all dying in various horrible ways

Looks pretty cool. Will there be an alpha test release so we can play around a bit?

Yes! As soon as I get the major bugs squashed and get the game looking sufficiently awesome

[Highlandcoo]

Phew what a day!

A sudden, catastrophic fire in my current game made me realise - engineers have no way of reaching other levels if the power is destroyed!

So today my mission was to implement ladders! They don't look like much, but when the power goes out - they can save your life



I'm working on the morale system now. Trying to do this in a sensible way - I want morale to be a simple sliding scale, but for you also be able to clearly see what factors are affecting morale with a simple mouseover.

It's no fun if you can't see why everyone has turned into cannibals!

Watch this space!

[SKGoldsmith]

Looks pretty interesting. Can't wait to see more.

[Highlandcoo]

Lots of work on pathfinding this week - turns out I needed to implement weighted pathfinding using the A* system - this is one of those times being solo really sucks

But the good news is that the little guys are now correctly deciding whether it iss smart to go via a ladder - or take the lift! Hooray!

This is actually a good thing, as it opens up plenty of other options for new transport methods. (ever wanted to make an underground rail system just like a james bond baddie?.. me too! )

The image below is of the utility hookup system. Basically a way to connect your power and water plants to the buildings that need them.

I currently struggling whether to implement a max length to connections, or some other penalty for long distance connections. Currently we already have air fans, building effect radius and the cost of corridors and lifts  affecting the distance between buildings.. I'm not sure if one more factor is too much complexity or just "not fun". We shall see.




Also been working alot on the morale system, this is not hooked up to actual behaviors yet as I want to check it's intelligently affecting global morale levels based on the variables I want. Things like quality of housing, levels or security, dead bodies in the kitchen, you know the usual stuff

[Highlandcoo]

Getting somewhere now - fixed a ton of bugs in the pathfinding system.

Occasionally guys will float magically up or down lift shafts.. but only a little

The big change today was removing excavation as a mechanic. It was really just a pain and not fun - I like the new system better - its more intuitive to join your rooms up with corridors and lifts than it is to need to dig a tunnel FIRST then place a corridor or lift in it.

I still can't decide what to do with building radius effects. I REALLY like the idea of certain buildings having positive or negative effects based on their proximity to others - but I can;t think how to implement it right now..

[Highlandcoo]

Gah! I'm still having massive problems with my guys dropping through the floor after getting off a ladder! Time for a beer tonight I think.



On the plus side I implemented a construction phase of building, complete with exacavation animations and little welding sparks as the building is created. It's rough but really adds a super fun feeling of watching your bunker grow and develop.

[marcgfx]

project is looking good!

I still can't decide what to do with building radius effects. I REALLY like the idea of certain buildings having positive or negative effects based on their proximity to others - but I can;t think how to implement it right now..

the implementation should not be too difficult, is it a theoretical problem? what am I missing?

[Highlandcoo]

project is looking good!

I still can't decide what to do with building radius effects. I REALLY like the idea of certain buildings having positive or negative effects based on their proximity to others - but I can;t think how to implement it right now..

the implementation should not be too difficult, is it a theoretical problem? what am I missing?

The problem is that, currently, I have power stations created radiation and well's creating wet.

Ideally I want to have wet and radiation have negative effects on some buildings, but positive effects on others.

The system also needs to be scalable to include further effects which I have not thought of yet.

Challenges
- How to communicate via the GUI the positive and negative effects of placing a building in the effect radius of another
- What effect to actually have? What positive effects does radiation have??

[Highlandcoo]

Not much happened tonight.. was working on NAVPOINT promo materials before the steam release!

 

BUT I did manage to play at least 10 minutes without a single crash! Finally figured out an error checking mechanism for pathfinding - basically if a person gets stuck they will wait for a few seconds, then retry! Genius!

 
Picture of my largest shelter so far!

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/33539698/COG/FORUM/SCREENSHOTS/720/006.png


 

next week my goals are

- Fix outstanding bugs with demolishing buildings

- Implement vandalism (this will be one effect of people having no recreational activities)

- Implement wages and maintenance costs

 

Have a great weekend everyone!

[Pixel Noise]

This is brilliant, but also really depressing. Looking forward to development!

[Highlandcoo]

Hi everyone!

Been a few days since the last update! I THINK I managed to squash most of the little demolition bugs - you'd be surprised how many things are affected when you want to suddenly remove something from a game. #whyareyoudrinking



The vandal implementation is going well, I've settled on a look and got the basic "graffiti" behaviour up and running. The graffiti has an effect on overall morale and will be regarded as a minor crime for the purposes of civics (civic policies coming soon!).

First look at the vandal in game below



Pretty cool eh?

Maybe I should have some vandals smoking? Everyone knows bad guys smoke right? ..right?

[Highlandcoo]

It's been a busy few weeks since the last blog entry!

On a personal level, I've been moving home and learned that my soft computer hands are not made for operating drills and allan keys!

However the work continues, I am focusing alot of effort on one of the major systems in the game - Building area effects.

The system "should" work like this (disclaimer: Not actually tested all this out yet so the actual end product will change), buildings will have "effects" on other nearby structures - both positive and negative.

Examples
Power generators will irradiate nearby buildings.
This will make people sick if they drink irradiated water from an irradiated well placed too close to the power generator, BUT conversely, an irradiated farm will generate more food.

Wells will flood nearby buildings.
This will cause fires if placed too near a power generator, BUT conversely, people living in flooded dormitories are more resistant to disease.

I'm still working on alot of the details - but see below a screenshot of the new mouseover "peek" which you can use to check the status of your buildings. This will also provide a quick overview of the buffs/debuffs your building is getting.



As always, bug squashing remains a priority, but needs to be balanced against the need to move forward. Argh! who would be a solo developer?

In the next couple of weeks I'd like to have the building radius effect system working solidly, then I need to add security guards as a hard counter to the vandal AI.

After that, my next big project is the civics panel. This is a major piece of mid/end game functionality were you can (among other things)
- Ration Food and water
- Set punishment for crimes (Jail? Beatings? Death?)
- Control the birth rate
- Set shelter-wide policies to unlock special buildings and staff.

As always, I hope you enjoyed reading and look forward to any questions or comments!

Cheers.

R.

[nightvisioncarpetbomb]

This looks really interesting.  An idea (perhaps terrible) would be to have a trust/paranoia counter for each character depending on what another character has done or the character's previous choices.

[Pixel Noise]

The depth and amount of systems you already have, and continue to add is really impressive. As you say, I imagine balancing all of this and squashing bugs must be a nightmare - but kudos to you for your work, and keep it up!

[Highlandcoo]

The depth and amount of systems you already have, and continue to add is really impressive. As you say, I imagine balancing all of this and squashing bugs must be a nightmare - but kudos to you for your work, and keep it up!

Thanks! Yep, this is by far my most complex project to date. But.. i'm going to be brave and say it's looking like my most promising too. Thanks for the words of encouragement - it makes all the difference!

Also - updated the OP with a new gameplay GIF, new screenshots, and new words.

[Highlandcoo]

Wow it's been a busy one this week. I finally managed to get my head down and make some serious progress on new features and not just endless bug squashing!


The new Vandal is shaping up well, this character will appear when your people do not have enough recreational activities. He is currently only doing graffiti, which brings down morale. But I want to have him escalate gradually to more serious crimes if not caught.



.. Further to that, I also added the security guard. Once you promote a civilian to be a guard, these guys will roam around and arrest any vandals they see. Eventually, I want them to take appropriate action, based on values you set in the civ panel. for example you can set the punishment for minor crimes to be a beating, or jail time, or even death..

Building effects are IN! Finally I decided to simply go with the 2 effects I had decided on (radiation and flooding) rather than wasting more time huffing and puffing over all the eventual effects buildings MIGHT have in the future.



In the screenshot above you can see the dormitory affected by Radiation from the nearby power generator. You can also see the "sneek peek" window I added, this lets you mouseover rooms to see at a glace if they are working correctly and any buffs/debuffs applied!

Disease is now in! No screenshots as there is not much to see (your little men turn green for a while, then die ) but they way this is currently working is - your people become infected (currently they only get infected from dead bodies left lying around, but I'll add more later) then if they remain close to the source of infection they will eventually become diseased. Diseased people will not move and need to be treated by a doctor to recover. If not treated they will eventually die and become a source of infection themselves.

Objectives have been overhauled! The old system of do one thing, then get another objective, then another, was tedious and brittle. If the player deviated in anyway it broke the flow of objectives and actually the whole game.. SO! I've replaced it with something more similar to prison architects system. Eventually I want players to be able to choose their objective "sets" from a branching tree.. but I've not decided that as I want to have a think about it. Do I want players choices to be "cut off" if they go too far down one path?.. decisions decisions.

See the little panel on the left? That's the new objectives system. Shiny.



Last but not least, the END OF THE WORLD is in. Once you finish building your basic shelter the world will end in a flash and your shelter will be the last hope for humanity to survive. Try not to die!

Cheers!

R.