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[GaddyGames]

Hello!

After a long time on Tumblr, I'll continue my Dev Diary here so I can get more feedbacks and discussions on the work in progress.

Trailer:



Description:

Crash land on an hostile planet where you'll have to build the strongest defenses if you wish to live to escape from it. But be warned... this planet is merciless. Build strong, and smart; else physics may flood or destroy your only hopes of survival.

The game is currently on Steam Early Access, version v0.1: http://store.steampowered.com/app/315460

Key features:

- Tower-defense oriented: the main gameplay is about building defenses in order to survive the massive attacks every night.
- Innovative water simulation with with rain, water flowing, infiltration, trickle, etc. Build dams to produce electricity!
- Physic simulation for buildings: they collapse if not strong enough.
- Fast pace to avoid spending hours in slow digging, fast and smooth fights and cameras moves.
- Coherent Sci-Fi universe, avoiding bizarre monsters and items.
- A real objective: escape the planet by building a rocket ship.

Concept idea:

My main goal creating this game was to try a new kind of "sandbox" game. A game not just to build "anything anywhere", but to play with the world's rules. To try a lot of actions and play with the reaction of the world facing those actions. This applies to the physic forces that creates a "bridge builder game" gameplay, but also to the flowing water that creates so many possible experimentation, and toi the night attacks that challenge the player's strategic defenses.
It's like a child who build a sand castle at the beach, then he can see it destroyed by a tide but that only motivates it to build a better and stronger castle. All the pleasure is on the game of tries, errors, new tries and success.

Current situation:

The game is in v0.12 version, and I'll release soon a minor v0.13 update. Then I'll work on a major v0.2 that will complete the solo part. v0.3 and v0.4 will add multiplayer modes to the game. And in the same time I'll work with a pro artist to do a full graphic makeover of the game.

And some pics:

[Bombini]

This looks very interesting!
Reminds me a bit of the game Clonk

[GaddyGames]

Today I tried something that had been discussed on the steam forum: to replace the weapons clip/reloading system by an overheating one. The heat of the weapon is displayed directly in the aiming cursor so it can be easy to see during a fight


The weapons feelings should stay about the same, but the "gameplay" of reloading the gun at the best moment has been replaced by controlling its fire rate to avoid overheating the gun (and so getting a forced 2s cooling).

The objective of this change was to get rid of this not really fun reloading need, while keeping the gameplay interest of having some limitation in the weapon fire rate (and to be able to learn to master it to become more efficient). It's also much more consistent with the science-fiction background (energy weapons, no physical bullets)

It's a really big change so I'll really listen to the feedbacks on this point, and cancel this change if you think that just doesn't work.
So don't hesitate to tell me what you think, or talk about it in the steam forum v0.13 update discussion:  http://steamcommunity.com/app/315460/discussions/0/523897277924945472/


@Bombini: yep some guys already told me about Clonk - I really should test this game!

[GaddyGames]

Today I released the v0.13. Here is the change log:

GENERAL
- Replace the weapon clip/reloading systems by a heating one. Add heating feedback on cursor
- Add range indicator for turrets and auto-repair turretes (when choosing a position to place it)
- Improve graphic performances (about +13% global FPS on my computer)
- Add slow water evaporation (depending of the light) and plants absorbtion
- Now possible to replace a wall by another one without destroying it first
- Improve Ants movement: no more jumping, handle better the movement on outdoor
- Improve forces system on ground/walls that are almost flat - forces are better spread
- Add links to the wiki/forum/twitter in the home screen
- Add steam basic steam stats: game progression (Tiers) and time played.

BUG FIXES
- Don't reset saved inputs at load anymore!
- Can save at night in Peaceful mode
- Jetpack bar doesn't overlap HP bar anymore
- No more falling damage on dead units
- Fix wrong tooltips of item in item bar when over an item in inventory
- Fix ants pathfinding

GRAPHICS
- Improve display of trickling water from a ceiling
- Improve display on platforms (no more side-anchored when natural background - new sprite for left & right anchored case)
- Add bullets particles on ground impact
- Add crack sprite for damaged blocks different than the "force" crack

MINOR
- Modify texts (turrets & weapons tooltips & help, related to the cooldown)
- Update Russian, Japanese, English & French texts
- Add an AI sentence about the water not being water
- Fix help text and miniaturizor description


However i'm still not entirely satisfied with the heating system - I find it a little to exhausting to manage during fights (unless you master your weapon really well).
So I wondered if I could not remove the overheating lock by a longer cooldown during when the weapon is overheat. So instead of blocking during 2s at overheat, the fire rate would progressively reduce when player is firing too much. That could be more intuitive and so easier to manage during fight.

For example the cooldown value would be equal to something like that: (1+ 2 * (% of heating)²).
So for the heating values of 0 / 25% / 50% / 75% / 100% the cooldown durations would be multiplied by *1 / *1.12 / *1.5 / *2.12 / *3.
What do you think? Do you know other games that use such system?

[gaarlicbread]

I love the idea of combining tower defense + world editing.

I'd be curious to learn more about your physics simulation setup. I'm interested in implementing a similar system in the game I'm working on.

Nice work!

[GaddyGames]

Big question... I could talk for hours about it ^^
I've two main physical simulations, the forces on the buildings and the water flowing.

For both, it's really far from being realistic, I simplify things a lot so it can be processed very fast. I've no choice, as there can thousands of walls that get forces, and the water is present in a quite large part of the world... and both must be computed in real time and never make the fps drop.

So for the water, it's quite simple, there is a quantity of water (a float number) in every cell, and I loop through the cells to move the water depending of some simple physical laws (water falls, slowly go into dirt but not rock, etc.). For the force simulation, it's a little more "tricky"... I did a weird algorithm to compute it very fast, a sort of flow of forces that goes from every block into the ground, and make them break if the flow is bigger than a block's resistance (you can see it ingame with the Eiffel Glasses item)

But honestly... it's a bit difficult, I spend quite a lot of time on it... but i'm quite proud of the result   It's not perfectly realistic but it's quite enough to create some fun and original gameplay, and that was the objective

[GaddyGames]

I just uploaded a new version on the beta branch to test this new idea of overheating (that increase the cooldown time instead of fully blocking the weapon), cf. this thread: http://steamcommunity.com/app/315460/discussions/0/523897653318167556/

I have to test it more myself, but for the moment i find it quit nice to avoid the stress of reloading/overheating blocking while keeping the need to moderate its fire rate if the player wants to be the most effective

[deab]

This looks good, can you zoom the camera at all?

[flashysquirrel]

it looks really impressive, it includes many features / mechanics... really want to see more

[droxon]

It looks very polished, good work. My only comment is that the character seems kind of slow, are you planning to add a sprint/run option?

[GaddyGames]

Thanks for your feedbacks!

@deab: there is a key to temporary zoom, but it's not really useful. I'm not sure a permanent zoom option would be useful for the gameplay either

@TrerPlay: that may be because the camera view is quite large, much useful for this kind of strategy gameplay, to be able to see your whole (or a big part) of your base. But anyway, you can travel faster by shotgun-jumping if you wish ^^

[gaarlicbread]

I'm actually a fan of slow-ish player movement because it helps the game world feel expansive. Rather than trying to Sonic-rush through a level, I enjoy games where every small place has something to offer, and the total experience is why you play, rather than the ding that sounds when you cross a finish line.

Of course, I do love a game with good game feel. And I do like fast-paced games for what they are. So I guess it depends on why the game designer wants the game to be fun - is it about speed or something else?

[GaddyGames]

About the speed, one important point is that the player may not be running that fast, but the digging is very fast. Much faster than in other games of the genre, as here it's not the core gameplay and I don't want the player to spend (waste ?) all its time on slowly digging. I prefer he spends the time building its base and thinking about defensive strategies

FYI, I just released the last change on weapons on the default branch: weapons don't block anymore on overheat, instead they just decrease the fire rate when heating

[GaddyGames]

Here are some news of the next v0.2 major update progress:

- I started working on the major (and only real) technical challenge of the v0.2, the lava. I'll not give too much details, but it's working just fine :-)
Here is what it looks like for now:

And wait to see it moving... v0.2 is going to be hot!

- All v0.2 new monsters and items are now defined! So there will be 4 new monsters (+ 2 variations), 2.5 new bosses (I'll keep this "0.5" as a surprise!), 49 new items (11 devices, 7 weapons, 5 defenses, a few machines, and the rest as minerals, plants and loots). I might add more on minor updates later but that is what is planned for now for v0.2

- The graphic make-over work will start tomorrow! I initially wanted to wait for it to be completed before publishing it, but that would force me to maintain olds arts while doing changes for the new ones. So finally I'll release what will be already done in v0.2! Probably most of the scenery, but not yet the items, monsters and player. Another advantage is that it will permit you to give early feedbacks about it, so we can do modifications and improvements in later updates.

[GaddyGames]

Dig or Die had been nominated for the EIGD Originality Award - but unfortunately no award this year. But the game already earned support from so many players, and that's the most important!

Now to go back to the v0.2 dev progress. I'm still working on the volcano area ; and the graphic make-over starts to show nice things. I will show you some screenshots very soon!

I've also updated the weapons Wiki page with the new heating system : http://digordie.gamepedia.com/Weapons. You'll see that the Overcharged Plasma Gun didn't have this name for nothing!
 If any of you have a wiki, you should check my template system. All the data of the weapons are contained in only one page - and then used anywhere in the wiki using only the weapon's name. Really easy to update them that way. And it's the same for recipes, turrets, and plants life-conditions data.
 And if you wish to help, don't hesitate to edit the missing items (http://digordie.gamepedia.com/Items) and monsters (http://digordie.gamepedia.com/Monsters) pages, or the deprecated v0.1 pages (http://digordie.gamepedia.com/Category:Out_of_date).

[Beyond]

This looks really nice

[GaddyGames]

First look at the new Dig or Die arts! Only the common grounds & trees have been done for now, the rest will be done progressively

[Cranktrain]

Oh, that new art makes an enormous difference. From looking at a few of these screenshots, it looks quite similar to Terraria, how influenced have you been by that game? What ways will Dig or Die be difference?

[GaddyGames]

That's a usual and very understandable question . The gameplay is really different from Terraria. You can read a lot about it in the game's user review, as a lot of players are surprised by the unexpected différences : http://store.steampowered.com/app/315460

- The main focus of the game is the tower defense part during the night. Almost everything you do, you do it to build better défenses to survive the night. And monster will destroy your walls if you hide behind them
- The physics on the buildings (they collapse if not supported well enough) make all the building part very different.
- The simulation of the water cycle is unique (it rains, the water flows, infiltrate, trickle, create dynamic rivers and underground lakes). And you can build a functional dam!
- You have an actual end game objective (escape the planet)
- Mining is much much faster than in Terraria, I don't want the player to spend all its time on that (better to improve its strategic défenses)
- The world is "sci-fi consistent", there is no flying clowns and such strange monsters or items. No melee weapon either, figthing huge aliens monsters with wooden sword would not have much sense
- The movement/fights are more smooth and fluid (in my opinion)

Overall, the main difference for me is on the definition of "sandbox". Here it's not "you do anything anywhere", it's about fighting (and playing) against (or with) the world's rules (whatever they be monsters attack at night or building and water physics), in any way you wish. You try, you fail, you try again and in time succeed.
It's like children that build sand castle in the beach, all the pleasure is to stand against the rising tide, see your castle destroyed, and then building another one stronger than before. For me, that's the idea of "sandbox". Games like Terraria are really great, but for me they should be better called something like "sculpting/drawing" games than "sandbox".

I don't really know if have succeeded in this objective, but that's what I tried to do at least

[GaddyGames]

Volcano and another special area are now finished. I've still the deep underground area, and the world layout will be complete at last! Then I'll start working on the new monsters & bosses.

I've also finished editing all the out of date wiki pages : http://digordie.gamepedia.com/ It took me some time but I really did want to get rid of the false informations (v0.06 old data). Still a few items missing but well, missing data is better than false one.