next »

[akoluthic]

Now, this is an interesting project with some unique combo on the target audience, you can target both TD/simulation players and also Pokemon fans.

What are your design plans regarding the tutorial? I am asking this because I always have some problems when making my  tutorials for TD games

Maybe I should start posting in Pokemon groups and forums. So far I've focused more on the TD aspect when talking about the game.

Good question about the tutorial. Right now there is a "How to Play" screen in the game which outlines the basic gameplay loop. There isn't an "in game" tutorial yet, although I think a "pop-up tips" system could work, where you can shut it off once you get the hang of the game. Most players fail 2 or 3 runs before they get the hang of it, then they start getting to higher levels.

[akoluthic]

Refining the level generation system a bit to allow for more variation. Right now, I use Poisson Disc Sampling to generate a tree of points from the level's starting location. The number of initial branches is determined by how many tower-defense "lanes" the level calls for...at the beginning levels, there is only 1 lane, but on the final level there are 3 lanes. Obviously more lanes means harder to defend.

Once the lanes are completed, I add a bunch of noise around the lanes (of various sizes and shapes) and then smooth it out using a cellular automaton rule. This is a fairly standard algorithm in roguelike games that have cave generation. Here's a tutorial example from RogueBasin: http://roguebasin.com/?title=Cellular_Automata_Method_for_Generating_Random_Cave-Like_Levels

After that, there are systems for adding forests, mountains, rivers, placing creatures, and generating monster territories. You can see some of those show up on the GIF.

A couple things I want to add as the game develops:

• Different shapes - circle and spiral levels, etc.
• Greater variation in the starting location - certain requirements make it difficult to start anywhere but the center of the map
• More generation of unique features, like ponds, groves, and other medium sized terrain structures
  

Right now I'm still working on Alpha 3, which includes a new Event system, giving additional secondary goals to complete between waves. For example, on levels in the Crystalland eco, you might get a Harmful Resonance event, which shuts down all of your crystal towers until you find and destroy a Resonating Crystal somewhere in the level.

[Alain]

Thanks for sharing the insight on your level generation. Watching one of your levels come together in the gif is really cool.

[akoluthic]

Thanks for sharing the insight on your level generation. Watching one of your levels come together in the gif is really cool.

Thanks Alain! Watching your videos has inspired me to consider doing my own video devlogs for future updates.

[Alain]

Thanks for sharing the insight on your level generation. Watching one of your levels come together in the gif is really cool.

Thanks Alain! Watching your videos has inspired me to consider doing my own video devlogs for future updates.

That is nice to hear, thanks. Make sure to post your videos here in case you decide to make them!

[vivaladav]

Very interesting project! I just submitted a playtest request and I am looking forward to trying it out!

Also kudos for providing builds for all platforms.

[Beastboy]

This is a good tool, unlimited content posibilities.

[akoluthic]

Very interesting project! I just submitted a playtest request and I am looking forward to trying it out!

Also kudos for providing builds for all platforms.

Thanks for letting me know - the next batch of playtesters will get access once Alpha 3 is released, which should be this month, so I'll be sure to get you in very soon!

On the subject of platforms, I'm glad that I was able to get the game running on Linux and Mac, but Apple's demand for notarization, and the little details necessary to build on that platform outside of a full fledged XCode project were all quite headache inducing. It was faster for me to learn how create my own app bundles than learn how to import my entire custom engine written in C to XCode. But maybe the problem is just my inexperience with Mac development.

This is a good tool, unlimited content posibilities.

Thanks - it has been nice to see the variety that this system can produce with the right parameters. I've had several players comment on the variability between levels, with some being more linear, and others more open. I still think there's room for more features to pop up, like I mentioned in an earlier post, but it's a good start.

[akoluthic]

Finishing up the events system, I moved on to the new Storm spirit, which (as with all spirits) can be applied to any friendly creature or growth. It has a knockback and stun effect when enemies draw near, which was a lot of fun to implement (the fully upgraded version after 15 Storm spirit applications is especially BOMBASTIC).

So far in my playtests, these are very useful when placed near the Chrysalis, so if any monsters get close, they get knocked back. As with other Spirits, there are three different attributes that get upgraded when you apply more of them to a single entity. For Storm spirits, the upgrades are:

• + Knockback distance (starts at 1 tile, increases by 1 each rank)
• - Recharge time (starts at 20 seconds, decreases by 2 each rank)(
• + Stun duration (starts at 1.0 seconds, increases by 0.4 each rank)

With Events and Storm spirits done, plus the new Rabbit and Sheep species, I'm now in bugfix mode. I'm also combing through the suggestions given by playtesters, and implementing refinements based on their feedback. I was hoping to have Alpha 3 done by the end of the month, but I'm thinking I will need an extra week or two to finalize everything. Hopefully it will be available in early March via Steam Playtest!

[Alain]

The knockback effects looks fun to play with. It's exciting you are starting your Steam playtest soon!

[akoluthic]

Whew. Finally released Alpha 3 today after some very kind community members helped playtest a pre-release version to make sure some bugs were fixed. I also opened up the next wave of playtesters on Steam. A lot of work ahead, but I'm very happy with where the game is at this stage.  Here's a little teaser video for Alpha 3 that I whipped together:

The knockback effects looks fun to play with. It's exciting you are starting your Steam playtest soon!

It's a lot of fun when you get a big knockback radius - sending enemies flying across the screen 

[akoluthic]

Well, it has been a while since I've updated this. I was finishing up some music for the upcoming game Necrobouncer and had to pause development for a while. But the game is coming along nicely, with great feedback from playtesters and lots of changes coming up for Alpha 4.

One of the most recent additions is a new class of item called "Essences". Essentially, they are items that have different effects based on where/how you use them. For example, in the image you can see the tooltip for Explosive Essence - if you use this item on an empty tile, it places an explosive trap that triggers when an enemy walks on it. But if you use it on a friendly creature or growth, it causes that unit to trigger the same explosion when they die.

Another type of Essence are "species essences" - like the Frog and Spider versions in the image. When these are used on empty tiles, they summon a follower of that species. When used on creatures, they cross mutate the species of that creature with the one from the essence. So if you use the Frog Essence on a rabbit, it transforms it into a Rabbit Frog, so you can effectively create your own species combos.

I'm excited to get people playtesting this latest version, and hope to have a full public demo ready by the end of the year!

[akoluthic]

More updates and tweaks as I get closer to releasing the public demo version. I've been revamping the tooltips for Abilities recently, as well as making some optimizations for lower spec machines.  Incidentally, a friend of mine started testing the game on Steam Deck and said it worked quite well, which was a big surprise to me since it's really a mouse + keyboard game. I requested a Steam Deck dev kit from Valve, but that's mostly a shot in the dark. I'll update if I manage to get one.

[akoluthic]

The recent addition of a new class of items called "Essences" allows for all kinds of fun. You can use certain Essences associated with creature species to "cross-mutate" between different creatures. Using an Arachnid Essence on a Direwolf, for example, creates a Wolf Spider which can drop webs to slow your enemies, as well as a powerful bite attack and Bloodlust.  Other Essences include things like Poison and Explosive runes which explode after a certain amount of time, Water essences which instantly upgrade your plants to more powerful versions, and Life essences which restore your Symbiont to full health if it takes fatal damage.

Most recent patch notes for the playtest Alpha are here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1594210/view/3662025490995519612?l=english

I'll be gearing up for a demo release as soon as a few more tweaks are made! Stay tuned...

[akoluthic]

Well it has been a while - but I have some exciting news: the demo has officially been released! It is available on Windows, Linux, and Mac. I made a lot of quality-of-life fixes over the past few months to prepare for the demo release, and it's in a much more polished shape now than the beginning of the year.

Making the game work on Mac (with a custom engine) has been a lot of work. If anyone else is planning on releasing a game on Mac, I have some helpful procedures I can share if asked. Notarization and preparing for distribution can be a headache.

Demo on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1594210

Demo Trailer:

[akoluthic]

Was it a good idea to completely redo the game's tutorial system literally the week before NextFest? ....I guess we'll find out. 

Does anyone like to live dangerously?

[Montsnoo]

The recent addition of a new class of items called "Essences" allows for all kinds of fun. You can use certain Essences associated with creature species to "cross-mutate" between different creatures. Using an Arachnid Essence on a Direwolf, for example, creates a Wolf Spider which can drop webs to slow your enemies, as well as a powerful bite attack and Bloodlust.  Other Essences include things like Poison and Explosive runes which explode after a certain amount of time, Water essences which instantly upgrade your plants to more powerful versions, and Life essences which restore your Symbiont to full health if it takes fatal damage.

Most recent patch notes for the playtest Alpha are here: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1594210/view/3662025490995519612?l=english
Thanks for the quick guide on Essences, sounds very exciting, will there be any other new essences?


I'll be gearing up for a demo release as soon as a few more tweaks are made! Stay tuned...

[akoluthic]

Thanks for the quick guide on Essences, sounds very exciting, will there be any other new essences?

Yes! Actually the demo includes more essences, like the Bee essence which can summon a beehive with bees that attack/poison nearby enemies. The beehives can also produce Honey Essences, which can heal allies or drop sticky honey areas to slow enemies. I will definitely be adding more Essences in future updates prior to release!

[akoluthic]

Some NextFest experiences for anyone here considering a future fest:

There are over 1,100 games in the current NextFest - it's gotten huge. If your game is very "niche" (like Chrysalis), you will need to find those niche players and get them playing your demo. Your two featured broadcasts are a great way to do this. One tip: start you stream a couple hours early (assuming it's pre-recorded) and then switch to a "stream starting soon" scene a few minutes before your scheduled time. This will let you keep some viewership before the featured stream begins, and you'll show up a little higher in the list, which creates a snowball effect. I did this for my 2nd stream and ended up with over 2,500 simultaneous viewers at one point:



From that stream alone, total wishlists were doubled from my pre-NextFest numbers.

You can also make sure that you are using YouTube and Twitch search functions to see if anyone is streaming or uploading content about your game. I was actually able to find a bug in the demo build this way, and fix it the same day. For solo devs without a big playtesting team, this is very valuable.

Feel free to ask any questions if you have them!

[forest]

I want to update my game's logo, so now I have to update all the Steam images across the library, store page, and announcements, then the website, the game itself, this devlog...I'm sure I'll forget something. 

old logo was better. hey nice animated pics