***UPDATE***
Again, it's been a while since the last post but there’s been a lot of changes.
So What's New?
- The first thing you'll notice are the changes to the HUD. This is due to the fact that the RPG and health systems are all working now. The player now has a health bar and a water bar. The health bar functions as you’d expect- you take damage and your health goes down. The water bar works in very much the same way as the food bar in Minecraft; I.E water goes down, health goes up. If there’s no water in the water bar then health goes down. A simple yet effective system I think. You can replenish your water bar by drinking from your canteen. If your health gets below 40% then the water bar decreases faster, causing you to either regain health faster, or die faster, depending on the amount of water in your water bar.
- There is now a levelling system in place, with the player’s XP bar at the bottom of the screen. Level ups will increase either movement speed, health, or water carrying capacity. As more updates are added I’ll add more options for levelling up.
- I spent a while adding new particle effects and tweaking the old ones. There's now a burst effect when the player picks up an object. I really feel like the visuals of the game are starting to come together.
- The screen flashes red as a damage indicator for the player. This matches the enemies flashing red when thy take damage. The same system flashes yellow every time you level up.
- New sprites! This is a big one. Many of the wall sprites have been remade with extra grit and dirt! I've also added new player and enemy sprites, which are a much-needed improvement. These are still liable to change in the future, but it'll probably just be little additions here and there.
- More detailed floors. Footprints in the sand now advise the player on where to go, and can quickly and easily show the player openings and entrances into buildings.
- Floor rubble!
- The grid system for holding the areas on the world map has been replaced, with a much simpler and more robust system. There's now no chance of memory leaks.
- If an enemy shoots you while you're in cover then you take half damage.
- Title introductions every time you enter a new biome. White text fades onto the screen slowly, with a musical stab.
- More art on the levels. (Such as the ship in the top screenshot)
Most of the key systems are there, so that means from this point on much of my time will be on designing levels, bosses, enemies, narrative elements and story telling, **MORE GUNS**
Stay tuned; all of this will be coming in the future!
Thanks for checking out Red Desert! I appreciate every view. If you have any comments then let me know!
-James
The world is a husk of its former self, the mighty cities that stood as monuments to human ingenuity now lie beneath an ocean of sand. For two centuries the planet has been consuming itself, burnt by the sun’s rays and abandoned by almost all of its denizens, those that remain are dying with it. The groups of roving nomads and small tribes beset upon by war chiefs and their gangs, some fall to the deserts heat or the dry storms of the salt flats but all find their way to an unmarked grave.
It was not always this way; there was a time when this land was a place of prosperity and hope. Fields of green stretched as far as the eye could see, the murderers and thieves were kept behind metal bars and people like us were protected from the likes of them. But then something changed, something that the Annals-of-the-old-times refer to as ‘the slow descent’, a shift in the natural order of things that created this barren hell that exists today. The Annals, hidden in the old towers, speak of a purpose that humanity once had, a goal that we strived to achieve. Now we only have on goal, one thing to strive for.
Our tribe is failing, war chiefs hunt us and it seems the very desert works against us, many of us have fallen to dehydration and starvation and only a small number remain. In this world, your life expectancy can be measured in days.
And ours are nearly up.
Red Desert is a top down shooter/RPG in which you roam a vast desert, seeking a new home after your tribe is murdered by one of the many gangs that inhabit the sands.
Features:Vast, randomly generated open world
The world of Red Desert is huge. At the start of a new game the desert is generated, using a combination of 6 biomes.
Weapon Customisation
Piece together a weapon from found parts, dropped by enemies. Find unique parts, and collect complete sets for large stat bonuses.
Randomly generated gangs:
Up to 25 gangs inhabit the desert, each with a randomly generated name, logo and colour. Living in a random place on the map, with a randomly sized territory. Take out their stronghold and kill the Warlord to eliminate them from the map.
Combat:
Twin-stick shooter with auto aim, RPG elements, shields and a cover system.
Biomes:
Red Desert.
Rocky Hills
Canyons
Dry Seabed
Ruined City
Salt Flats
Enemies:
Warlords
Gang Members
Cannibals
Salt Ferals
More to come.
Level types:
The level would usually be confined to a building or number of buildings, with either a linear way through for story segments, or multiple ways through for a less-linear design. These buildings include houses, factories, washed up ships and boats, buried skyscrapers, office buildings, lighthouses, stadiums, old forts, hospitals, underground bunkers and more.
These could be inhabited by gang members, raiders, cannibals or settlers like you, just trying to survive.
***Sorry it's been so long for this update. Been fixing a lot of issues and bugs, and not really creating anything new to show. At this point however all the pieces are nearly in place, which means I can focus on creating actual game content such as levels, narrative and story elements, new art, new enemies. Fun stuff.***Thanks for taking the time to check out Red Desert! Let me know what you think. I'll try to get back to updating every Monday again soon.
-James
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OLD STUFF
Red Desert is a 2D isometric survival game, set in a harsh and unforgiving desert. It is currently about 4 weeks into development. The key focus is about exploring a vast, randomly generated wasteland and discovering what's in it. About finding the tops of ruined skyscrapers poking out of a sand dune and delving to the bottom. It's about overcoming sandstorms, gangs of raiders and bandits, and terrible thirst. Customise your weapon from found parts, and take down up to 25 raider gangs, each with a unique name, territories and a stronghold.
Download the demo:http://www.megafileupload.com/7o4g/Red_Desert_Demo.exe**Note** At the moment it is only playable with a controller. I'll add keyboard and mouse in the future.
**Also Note** God mode is on for now and can't be turned off.
CONTROLS:Lstick – Move,
Rstick – Aim,
Rtrigger – Fire,
B – Reload,
A – Inertact/Pick up item
Dpad Right – Drink from canteen,
Dpad Down – Place bed (Does nothing at the moment),
Dpad Up – Place water collector (Produces water over time),
Dpad Left – Place beacon (attracts settlers. Can only be placed inside),
Select – Menu (Bumpers to switch page, then Dpad to select weapon parts, and A to swap them).
Keyboard R resets the game.
Current features:Generated DesertAt the start of each game a desert is randomly generated. It is huge. Roughly 40,000 large areas, divided into biomes. As it stands there are currently 6: The Red Desert Dunes, Rocky Hills, Rocky Canyons, Dry Seabed, Ruined City and the Salt Flats. This is displayed on the map when you press the back screen.
Generated GangsAfter the layout of the biomes has been created, the gangs are added to the world. They are given a territory of a random size and location, and a stronghold within it. They are also given a random name based on the biome in which they live. I'll give some examples in later posts. Along with all this they get a gang colour, which will be the colour of their banners and warpaint. I'm toying with the idea of giving each gang a unique symbol or logo, but I'll think about that more later.
Gun CustomisationGun customisation is a large part of the game. You constantly modify and upgrade your gun with different randomly generated parts found throughout the desert. This directly affects gameplay, determining things like the type of bullet that you fire, range, damage etc. I'm planning for a huge range of appearances for each part, so you can mix and match to build a gun which is personal to you.
Day and Night CycleRight now it's primitive. Each change to a new area advances time.
What is to come:Better AI overall
Gang Implementation
Settlement Detail
Rare Items and Set Items
Motorbikes and Motorbike Customisation
Randomly generated skyscraper dungeons, and underground buildings
Music and Non-placeholder Sound
More Artwork
Story ElementsI'll give more information on these as they're made.
At it's core Red Desert is a game about exploration through a vast unknown desert wasteland. If that interests you then be sure to check back, as I'll be updating this DevLog every Monday.(Or sooner)
Also let me know what you think! I'd love to hear any comments or criticisms you have.
Thanks!
- James
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