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[Noel Berry]

I figured it would be a good time to try out writing a devlog for this game, since I feel it will be really motivating and help me make progress (and also get feedback!).

The Game
So, Entity 37 is a game I've been working on for around 2 weeks now, and it's about this Entity out in an experimental space station. The goal here was to essentially create a metroidvania that was only controlled with the mouse. Thus, this game slowly evolved as I tried to get movement and combat working with very limited controls. You move around by holding down the mouse button, and interact with different objects in a similar way.

My plan is to basically update this thread on a daily basis with what I worked on for the day, but I also want to post a "summary" about once a week on my own website.

PLAY IT
Build July 31 - Here

What's next?
My plan at this point is to make a bunch of enemies and get them all working. Then I'll plot out how they're introduced and where I want them placed throughout the map. After that I'm going to be working on the actual game progression and the dialog/story.

June 15
To start this off, I'm simply going to post a gameplay video to give you all a better idea as to how the game works. It should pretty much explain itself, at that point.

Click to check it out, so far.

Thanks,
Noel

[Ashkin]

Cool! Station design taking cues from Environmental Station Alpha, perhaps?

[Udderdude]

Interesting how it's all controlled with the mouse.  The ability to fling enemies around through walls where they can't get/shoot at you seems a bit cheap, though.

[BomberTREE]

This looks SO cool!

[Sakar]

Been following the development of this on twitter. It's looking pretty good so far

[irishcream]

I want this game - make it happen and I will buy it.

[Noel Berry]

Thanks for all the comments everyone!

Cool! Station design taking cues from Environmental Station Alpha, perhaps?

Definitely took a bit of inspiration from ESA, however I can't say that the station will be anything like the one in ESA.

Interesting how it's all controlled with the mouse.  The ability to fling enemies around through walls where they can't get/shoot at you seems a bit cheap, though.

Agreed! I think I'll work with making it so you can't necessarily use your power directly through walls. It depends on how hard certain enemies get, but right now it feels a bit weird being able to do that.

This looks SO cool!

Been following the development of this on twitter. It's looking pretty good so far

I want this game - make it happen and I will buy it.

Thanks guys I appreciate the feedback!
Currently I'm hoping to get the game sponsored (it's Flash) so it will be free to play if/when it's finished. Probably will post a few gameplay demo's along the development too.

[thatredant]

Looks awesome! (thanks for sending out the link via Twitter, btw) Saw the video you posted and the mechanic seems really interesting. Please finish this.

[sabajt]

what a good idea!  looks super fun.  i know some people cringe when they get this suggestion, but this is begging for a mobile port - and something like this would likely to very well in that market.

[Noel Berry]

what a good idea!  looks super fun.  i know some people cringe when they get this suggestion, but this is begging for a mobile port - and something like this would likely to very well in that market.

My current plan is to finish this Flash version first, and see if it's any fun. At that point, if the game seems pretty cool and people are enjoying it, I will consider porting it to iOS/Android/Mobile (assuming it doesn't take a looooong time to do so). But until then I'm not going to really decide either way if it's happening. Definitely good to keep in mind as an option, though!  

Looks awesome! (thanks for sending out the link via Twitter, btw) Saw the video you posted and the mechanic seems really interesting. Please finish this.

Thanks! Will try my hardest to finish it.

Will be posting an update tonight with what I worked on today (might try doing like a timelapse while I work? Seems like that might be fun).

[Allansona]

Very cool! I will definitely be watching this one.

[Noel Berry]

June 16
So in the end I didn't get a ton done today Some stuff came up and I just didn't have as much time as I would have liked to spend on this project.

I did however make it so you can no longer attack enemies (and a number of other objects) through walls.



Plan for tomorrow:
 - Finish up the crawling enemy that you fling (need to change bullet type, need to add animation)
 - Add explosions to the game (so when enemies die it's way more clear)
 - Start working on first miniboss and in-game map system

The map system is going to be displayed on specialized computers. You will never get a map that you can access at any time, but rather there will be terminals in a few specific rooms where you can view the map. These will act similar to the other computers in the game.

Thanks,
Noel

[Magnesium Ninja]

I'm liking what I'm seeing so far! It'll be interesting to see what you can pull off with the limited control scheme. My only concern is that player movement feels a little slow/unwieldy, but it's hard to say that for certain having not played the game myself.

Keep at it 

[Noel Berry]

Yeah currently the controls are a bit clunky feeling, but I think once I tweak with the acceleration, maxspeed, and friction it should feel relatively smooth and easy to work with. Will hopefully post a demo in the coming week for people to try and give feedback on that exact stuff.

Working on the map system today. Here's a video of it.

[Noel Berry]

July 19
Turns out I didn't have any time to work on this yesterday. Luckily everything has slowed down and I now officially have way more time to push this forward!

Here's a few of the subtle changes I've been working on. Mostly I've just been improving the visual design instead of making progress on the actual game. Will add more enemies and such in the coming days!

Explosions / Screen Shake
Added some explosions and screen shakes. Adds a lot to the game. It makes you (and other objects around you) feel very powerful.



Player Control
Added a glow effect and tweaked the player controls. This glow effect shakes you and the screen a bit, and sucks colour and brightness out of things around you now. My goal here was to make the player feel almost like they're not fully in control of whatever the Entity is actually doing... He's just using his mind/crazy powers to make shit explode.



Map System
Finished up the map! It feels pretty good now. Not much to add on this. Here's a gameplay video of the

.



What's next!?
Plans for the next few days include a bunch of new enemies! I haven't decided what exactly these will be yet, but will be posting about them soon. Once these are plotted out and in the game, I'm going to build out the map a bit further and then hopefully post a demo here for feedback, suggestions, etc. 

Cheers guys! 
Noel

[Noel Berry]

Made

, playing through the game. Need to add more enemies next.

[SolarLune]

Wow, nice. It looks interesting, but also looks like it could be a deep game.

After looking at the (somewhat creepy) video, I think a little animation of the entity when he does things would add a bit. For example, if the Entity played a little "Hrah" upward push animation when lifting a door, it'd feel more like he's doing it rather than you doing it for him. Just a suggestion. Anyway, nice graphics, and the gameplay looks cool! I'd like to try a mouse-only game one day.

[rivon]

The map looks like Environmental Station Alpha.

[Noel Berry]

Wow, nice. It looks interesting, but also looks like it could be a deep game.

After looking at the (somewhat creepy) video, I think a little animation of the entity when he does things would add a bit. For example, if the Entity played a little "Hrah" upward push animation when lifting a door, it'd feel more like he's doing it rather than you doing it for him. Just a suggestion. Anyway, nice graphics, and the gameplay looks cool! I'd like to try a mouse-only game one day.

Hmm, that's a pretty cool idea. I hadn't thought of doing anything like that, but that would probably add a lot to the control of the player. Will definitely look into doing that! 

Or perhaps both maps look like a space station?

That's my general feeling, at the moment.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Will post some more stuff as I make new enemies.
Noel

[Noel Berry]

There's not a ton done yet, but I figured it would be fun to post a demo here now. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes to complete, and if you've been watching the youtube videos so far there isn't too much extra that you will see in this version. Progress has been steady, but pretty slow. Looking forward to any feedback / criticism / suggestions you all may have.

Play Entity 37
Riiiiight here

Noel