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[weckr]

...

Hey man, sorry to hear about the morale issues. I was in a similar place trying to wrap up development last winter. All the fun work was done and I was just slogging through for weeks to hit the release. Also my mood tends to be heavily affected by the weather, which was miserable at the time. There was so much stress that I started breaking out in hives.

I ended up renting a desk from a co-working space. There were only ~5 other people in the office, and I didn't even like them that much, but just knowing someone was there helped force me to work. I moved back to the home office after three months, but by then the weather was better and the worst was over.

Anyway, I don't have any advice. Just wanted to commiserate and say that I'm rooting for you.

Thanks for sharing man, helped! I've started going to work to a public library this week, and it seems to really work for me, feeling like I got out of that slump. Ergonomically it's really bad there tho so when semester begins and there is going to be much more people there I'll switch to coworking space for some time. But it confirmed for me that working out of home is definitely at least partial solution.

[weckr]

*rolls up sleeves*
(actually just in underwear it's hot)

Allright, three things helped this week. Learned a lot (c# interfaces and finally started messing with shaders), started working outside of my bedroom and finally sorted out dentist for myself in this town, so now I can eat painlessly. The morale grows! The account balance shrinks!


platgen

Continued on it from through the whole week. Made me desperate enough to dive into the c# documentation again, and now I know interfaces! It was what I needed. The system is now almost ready for me to start making content. Each tileset now is a class, that has properties of objects it uses (tile models and materials, trees and stuff), and methods for building platforms and placing stuff. And implements common interface so I can handle these different tilesets in the same way.


platform from two different tilesets ( 0.8 yellow (forrest)/ 0.2 red (mountain) )

So I can have cool stuff like combining two tilesets on one platform kind of easily, currently it's just tilemodels/materials/platform shapes(and I have only one currently so it doesn't really show), but it'll work soon and will give me variety and more interesting platforms.


enemy attachments

As I was making more old enemies modular, an idea came to me how to make them scale better into late game without needing to make more "hard" enemy parts or changing their numbers (speed, range of aggro etc). I figured out they can have shields! And these are randomized too, I'll just shift min/max number of them on one enemy with difficulty! It really mixes up the gameplay.


dumb simple shields!

And when I implemented this, I figured out that I can get even more from this if there will be more types of these attachments. So next thing to do will be an explosive armor. If you hit enemy into it it will explode giving you knockback, but it will be gone. And I bet I can figure more stuff later. This is exactly the kind of thing that works best for the game, and also paves way to some emergent stuff probably.


shadors

If you've already seen some gifs of this, you've probably noticed that things are pixely! I've messed more with player move trail to cool down. It ended with learning basics of shaders and messing with it until 3AM.



Transparent trail objects were alway overlapping and it looked bad. Then I though some dithering would be cool. So I googled cool transparency dithering shader. But it wasn't made for unlit stuff. So I had to splice it with some basic unlit shader I found. So I kind of learned a bit. Put it in trail. Looked super cool. But now it's not consistent. So now I have to make every transparent thing in the game like that. If I'll go with it. I'll see in a week. For now I modified the shader again for use on the background "water" (or whatever it is). It does look cool.



Counterargument is that maybe its more busy. Altough it really clearly separates the platform and actors from it. We'll see. Here's a piece of full size screenshot, since it isn't really representative scale in little gifs.



Not really sure how much work will be full conversion, I've already converted one effect and have the shader, wouldn't really have to change much code I think, it's just a lot of busywork changing and reassigning the materials of the glowy bits and stuff. I'll wait a bit and then compare it with old version and I'll see. For now I think it's pretty cool. It just seems like much more "pure" way to make transparency, and I have a lot of transparency in the game. Performance seems little worse even when it in theory should be better, but still ok. We'll see.

That's the week I think. Also iterated on cooling again, but who even cares at this point... Have a great steaming last summer weekend!

[freank]

Amazing O_O

[weckr]

Amazing O_O

<3

[etodd]

Dithering definitely looks way cooler in gifs. Probably cuts down the filesize a lot too. But I dunno, like you say it might get too busy. The cloudy-fog-looking stuff (?) in particular is pretty distracting. I'm not entirely convinced that you need to convert the whole game to dithering; would be interesting to see how it looks with gameplay elements dithered and traditional transparency on the background stuff.

[-Ross]

Yeah, I agree with etodd. I like the dithering for the trail and transparent special effects stuff (which I wasn't sure quite fit the aesthetic before), but I don't think you need to use it for everything. Particularly the background, that gets distracting, when it should be unobtrusive. You lose that nice clean smoothness that you have with the tiles and stuff.

[io3 creations]

Sounds good that you are in a better position to find something that works for you in terms of working environment.

I also agree with etodd and Ross that dithering looks good for the trail but it is distracting for the background.  I keep finding my eye moving toward that from the rest of the gameplay.

Also, as I mentioned before, I prefer the clean look of the tile wave movement.  Any added dust/smoke effect seems to interfere with it to the point where you can't even see it.  I'd prefer just one of those: either the tile wave effect or the dust clouds.  I know it isn't always necessary for everything to have an explanation but could help. From a logical point of view in games with dust on the ground you'd expect dust clouds.  What would explain the dust clouds (or perhaps not dust but something else) in your game?

[weckr]

Yeah, I agree with etodd. I like the dithering for the trail and transparent special effects stuff (which I wasn't sure quite fit the aesthetic before), but I don't think you need to use it for everything. Particularly the background, that gets distracting, when it should be unobtrusive. You lose that nice clean smoothness that you have with the tiles and stuff.

Dithering definitely looks way cooler in gifs. Probably cuts down the filesize a lot too. But I dunno, like you say it might get too busy. The cloudy-fog-looking stuff (?) in particular is pretty distracting. I'm not entirely convinced that you need to convert the whole game to dithering; would be interesting to see how it looks with gameplay elements dithered and traditional transparency on the background stuff.

Yep you guys are right. Probably going to use dithering for effects only. I just didn't want the background just be this moving texture. But I already have something other, less distracting but still cool in mind.

Sounds good that you are in a better position to find something that works for you in terms of working environment.

I also agree with etodd and Ross that dithering looks good for the trail but it is distracting for the background.  I keep finding my eye moving toward that from the rest of the gameplay.

Also, as I mentioned before, I prefer the clean look of the tile wave movement.  Any added dust/smoke effect seems to interfere with it to the point where you can't even see it.  I'd prefer just one of those: either the tile wave effect or the dust clouds.  I know it isn't always necessary for everything to have an explanation but could help. From a logical point of view in games with dust on the ground you'd expect dust clouds.  What would explain the dust clouds (or perhaps not dust but something else) in your game?

The tower is old, so there's dust. Also it's cool and videogame effects 101. But you are right that it's overdone now, I've reduced it a bit this week.

[weckr]

Ahoy.

Finally actually added some actual content to the game this week. Felt incredible after just coding stuff with no playable results.


platgen

Added two new platform generation algorithms. You can see transitioned them here. Starting one is most "one platform" to start the player on simple terrain, second one gets some holes and third one is islands. Both were done pretty quickly. Will have way more in final game but now I want to add rules for adding objects to these, so I have them feeling more complete.


don't know why first ones don't animate


bg visuals

After considering feedback and my innermost feelings, I have removed the dither shader from background to not compromise clarity for visuals. Instead I've added another indie staple to background, dynamic mesh fuckery.


well this won't do


this one's fun


done for now

Just made it wavy by the power of goniometric functions. It is way more apparent in fullscreen. Also started changing more effects into dithering and got rid of smoke effects in places where it just wasn't necessary.


animation and stuff

I needed new animation for hammer, since I've redone it's attack pattern, and it came out so good I needed to remake the sword animations to. And then I've redone the weapon trail which was pissing me off for a long time. This time with dithering.


much bettor in every way

I've also made the new trail real nice and smooth by the power of lerp. These tiny things make so much difference in how the whole thing feels.


whoosh

That's all giffable stuff this week. Next week I'm going to do stuff placement on platforms and a pass on the core of modular enemies, possibly adding some, but mainly some behavior changes since they still use that from old enemies mostly.

weka out

[io3 creations]

The tower is old, so there's dust. Also it's cool and videogame effects 101. But you are right that it's overdone now, I've reduced it a bit this week.

That's a good explanation   ... but "cool" is subjective and "videogame effects 101" is secondary to gameplay enjoyment.  Of course, we as developers have our own vision for the game and I was primarily talking about my subjective issue regarding the dust (though a few others also mentioned it) and you may find that most of those who play the game actually like it.  However, much like DOF, speed blur and other effects can enhance a game or be a distraction, many games have options that let the players to enable/disable those effects as they wish.  It's a win-win for both developer(s) and players.

[wuuthrer]

This game looks marvellous for a lot of reasons also : "Arcade neopoly kinetic realturn violence" is the best pitch ever.

[weckr]

The tower is old, so there's dust. Also it's cool and videogame effects 101. But you are right that it's overdone now, I've reduced it a bit this week.

That's a good explanation   ... but "cool" is subjective and "videogame effects 101" is secondary to gameplay enjoyment.  Of course, we as developers have our own vision for the game and I was primarily talking about my subjective issue regarding the dust (though a few others also mentioned it) and you may find that most of those who play the game actually like it.  However, much like DOF, speed blur and other effects can enhance a game or be a distraction, many games have options that let the players to enable/disable those effects as they wish.  It's a win-win for both developer(s) and players.

True, altough the thing with dust is it also improves the feeling of character really being and interacting with the environment a lot. Something that screenspace effects really can't do. I don't really use much of those. Just a color correction and bloom now. Will possibly add vignette later. Would kind of like chromatic abberation, but is so overused now it will just look cheap.

This game looks marvellous for a lot of reasons also : "Arcade neopoly kinetic realturn violence" is the best pitch ever.

Haha thanks, I like making stupid words up.

[weckr]

Yo.

With the platgen working I got to testing more and figured it isn't very fun at all with the obstacles on platforms since the movement with this far camera zoom gets really cramped and fiddly. Especially when platform gets destroyed a lot and there's lot of empty space between the dots of platform. It gets super frustrating trying to fight enemies in these tight spaces. Solving this in few different ways. Spend this week mostly redoing the movement system.


new dash



The dash is now more discrete and deliberate. You press the button, line shows up with your destination at the end, when you release, you dash there. Very, very quickly. See, when I remade separate jump and dash into the universal one, I totally neutered the fun of it. Since I thought I need it to control well, I made it slow and boring, basically like walking in the air. Now it's a wonderful WHOOSH with no in-dash control, you just select the destination beforehand, and it is heavily autoaimed. But the speed makes it exciting and you can still change destination and cancel from dash with another dash.


airwalkstep



Since I've been dealing with various forms of auto-aiming for the whole development, I think the one I wrote for the dash works pretty well, however I still need the player to have more control. So now I've added an actual "airwalk". You can walk outside the platform, but just one tile at a time, since each tile you walk gives you one point of heat. So it's really limited, but it gives you that fine aircontrol that you sometimes need. Also it really feels like turnbased game when airwalking, so it makes this cool feeling of switching between real-time and turnbased game, with enemies responding appropriately.

Another tiny/giant change is that as long as you aren't overheated, you don't fall down. You hang in the air as long as you want. Hugely calms the game, making it much more comfortable, without actually making it easier or really too different systemswise. Also there's now a little jump for scaling obstacles and last resort when overheat.


fx



And finally, a pass was made once again on basic hit effects. Needed to differentiate them more and they are also clearer.


So tired. Such busy weekend. Satisfying progress tho. kthxbye

[roguesleipnir]

Wow. 'loving the look of this game. Especially how those tiles react to movement.

[weckr]

Jolly afternoon everyone.

More core stuff this week. Kind of happy how positive this was for the game. I was rushing to make the game more complete feeling with all the platform generation and stuff, but the core was still not ready, so I'm hopefully going to fix that over next few weeks. I think I'm getting close. Again.


player hit reaction



I experimented with more standart hp system before, but it seemed tacked on. Then I has really hardcore system that you could break from hit only when on ground, so you mostly fell down after one hit. Now you break on the ground and on in the air, but in the air you are getting heat. When you break for too long in air, you fall (die). As you get more heatsinks throughout the game, it will increase your tolerance for hits, but the game will also get harder of course so it will make proper game loop. After some balance tuning this will be final system I think.


airgame



I also explored the airgame again. I was at a point where I thought it's going to get cut, but after some feedback I'm taking shot at it again, since it really could be a cool thing. Currently just made some basic alterations to basic moves to work in air and a transfer move to airwalk code to activate airmode. It feels a bit clunky right now I'll probably make the player attack air atomatically when there aren't targets on the ground. However that may make the game feel flat, I'll see.


pickups pass



Let's just say I've been watching flinthook gameplay video a lot. It's such a wonderful thing. It's only hook seems to be the hook (har har), but the craftmanship around is so incredible. The fluidity of everything, the perfect readability, the super balanced speeds of everything to make it feel both fast and controllable. I want to get as close to that level of gameplay craftmanship as possible.

Started with a (seemingly) simple thing. Spicing up pickup. Added another curve to their movement and added variable speed, they speed up fluidly, then slow down a bit at the top of the movement curve and then quickly zero in to the player, spawning few blips on contact. I dare to say it feels rather nice. Also added new mechanic to them, but I'l write about that later.


buying rewards



Just spiced it up to make it more clear, spawning rings and getting them to the statue, then you get the reward.


Ton of little things and design this week. Makes a huge difference tho. Excited for some planned changes on enemies and giving them even more generated diversity. Should manage to do that next week.

Bye-ah.

[weckr]

Nice Sunday everyone...

Working on the core and modular enemies. Also was asked to make a bit more proper debug tools.


enemy flavours



Enemies now have one of three colors, which define how they take damage and can be killed. Let's call it "flavours". These colors mix with all the enemy parts and add more variety to enemies. Current three are standart, explosive and indestructible. Standarts are green, and work like current enemies, except they don't explode. Explosives, obviously red, explode, and can't be thrown from the platform, so you actually have to deal with that explosion in some way. Blue indestructibles can't be damaged past 1hp and only then you have to throw them from the platform. Plan is to introduce these slowly as a form of progression and increasing challenge.


debug tools



Not much to say there really. Just that it gave me excuse to learn unity UI system which I haven't really used somewhat properly until now. Made simple menu to generate maps or change to premades, drop enemies with specified properties, and give player different weapons. Will slowly expand this probably as development goes on. I have exposed variables for all of this in unity itself and arcane keyboard shortcuts, but this is so much nicer and mainly, usable for other people.


squash and stretch



In neverending quest of juicing every bit of, uh, juice out of every interaction, I've finally tried some squash and stretch. Wanted to try it for a while, and it seemed too tricky in 3d to do simply enough. But It works pretty well! I just scale the damn things according to the direction of their movement or direction of impacts, and it works pretty well. It is sometimes wrong by 45 degrees because there isn't really a simple way how to scale them properly, but it still looks certainly better than without it.




corporeal crap
Started feeling weirdly ill by the end of the week, and still do a bit. Angry that it compromised work. Will sleep through it hopefully. It's probably just some autumn virus, my FURIOUS leukocytes are going to CRUSH this. Also been on a bit of downward spiral lifestyle-wise, one of possible reasons is I've started to use computer in bed a lot. Avoided this like plague until now, and now I can finally confirm, it's just a shit habit. Don't do it.

Next week, fellas!

[weckr]

'nother week, 'nother update.

Does it even get shortened like this? I have no idea.

Main development of this week. While working on developing the dash more, I tried completely removing walking and bind dash directly to directional input. This is fairly controversial decision. Some "apple courage lol". I actually really like it. It's a while to get used to, but removing walking distiles and purifies the whole thing, and making my job a bit easier by removing the walking system and letting me focus just to make the dash as good as possible.



As you can see I give you 8 options for your directions to dash to. It sticks to platform edges and enemies, so it gives you where you actually want to go 95% of the time. It turns the whole dirty analog movement into a series of very discrete decisions, simplifies the game while making it a bit more deliberate and actually harder, since you can't easily walk circles around the enemies. I enjoy this direction, but I'll see what the feedback will be, it is very much possible it's too different from what people expect and are used to.



Another thing I've had on my mind for a while, I've started on second variation of charge attack (roundhouse kick). It's a hadouken thing. No area effect, but it's ranged. Breaks the game a bit since there shouldn't really be any ranged attacks for player, but it's just a utility attack like kick, doesn't actually do damage, just knockback. So hopefully it's ok. Will also balance it with longer charge time and stuff.

Also changed a screenshake a bit, much better now. I snap the camera to the extreme position immediately after receiving screenshake vector, and then lerp from it back to calm position smoothly. Much better. Noticed how great the screenshake is in overwatch recently, but it seems screenspace shader based. Don't want to dive into that right now.

gl hf no re

[weckr]

Had to take a break from devlogs for a while. Got bit down on morale with these since I've been doing one weekly for quite some time and interest it generated seemed to stagnate a bit. Also wanted to focus on the game itself more on weekends. Weekend workjuice is precious and while these few gifs and some ramble text doesn't seem like much, it definitely takes time and energy.


Also nothing too big really was added as I once again delved into core to make dash based movement cool, make attacks work with it and also made falling down and resetting almost completely fluid. The gif demonstrates...


basic gameplay again + fall

Movement seems to work well, the script is called DashFuck.cs now. Attack3.cs still needs some work but I think I need idea how to make it better first, I'm kind of stuck with this functional allright version but something's bit wrong with it can't put a finger on what. Probably leave it like this and maybe it floats up in testing. Then I rename it to Attack-profanity-.cs


Also, low spikes on the ground. Movetargeting doesn't register them and they hit you when you dash over them so you need to be aware of them and maneuver around them. Pretty basic thing but that's why it should work well.


also you can see here that you now cool by dashing over tiles, standing to cool was boring


Also new enemy attachment. A spike. Genius I know. It damages you if you move through it's tile, so it makes you treat that enemy way differently just like the shield attachment. Don't really know if they actually aren't too similar.


4 spike enemy, death incarnated

Also lot's of cosmetic stuff like animations yadda yadda


That's the more interesting stuff for now. Probably gonna do the devlogs once in a two to three weeks now, we'll see, weekly seems excessive. That should be all for now.

[TheArtistJiii]

Yo keep going. I don't comment lol but I read everyone of your posts

[DireLogomachist]

Gonna echo Mesh here: this stuff is awesome and I love it all.

Go ahead and post when you want, no pressure, but there are people who want to see it