...there just isn't enough compelling software to get me to turn it on every day.

I feel that more and more, this particular expectation is becoming not only unrealistic, but impractical.

With my busy schedule, it is unusual for me to play any games every day, let alone for one specific system. There just aren't enough hours in the day to play that many games. As such, my personal expectations for game selection on a console-to-console basis are much lower than say, a college student or teenager. (and certainly lower than most under-twelves) When I purchase a console or a handheld, I no longer do so with the expectation that it will keep me entertained daily.

This is no excuse for the 3DS's fairly weak selection of games up to this point. But it does put things into perspective. I would imagine that many early adopters of a $250 handheld are in the same boat. (have more disposable income than time)

Yeah, I'm in the same boat myself, really; I'm using the expression "every day" loosely here. Most days I don't play any games at all, and if I turn on my 360, it's usually to watch Netflix. But in fact, I did play Pilotwings about an hour a day every day right after I got my 3DS. Then I finished every level, didn't feel like going back and getting 3 stars on everything, and put it down for a while. And I really haven't picked it up since except to play Ocarina of Time for a day or two.

Got a 3DS on day one. Barely used it since then...played Pilotwings and a bit of Ocarina of Time and that's about it, save for futzing around with the AR games a bit. I like the hardware, but it's been having the same problem as the Wii...there just isn't enough compelling software to get me to turn it on every day.

Those free games are a nice gesture to early adopters, though, and the selection is good, if a little predictable.

Played for several hours last night. The story and writing and voice acting are fantastic. I'm starting to think maybe I should be playing in easy mode, though; it's one of the hardest games I've played in a while. The first two towers aren't bad, but it took me a while to finish the third, and the fourth is just insanely difficult. I guess the problem is that I haven't yet figured out how to approach puzzles. It's been a lot of trial and error, so I'm not really learning from my successes. They do a pretty good job of showing different techniques you can use in various situations, but their examples are a little contrived...I only occasionally recognize the opportunity to employ these techniques during actual puzzles.

omg this comes out today

how am i supposed to get any work done now

So I just found out today that my engine will sometimes crash if automatic updating is enabled and my web site is down (which it is tonight because the server is being migrated). Fun times. Haven't yet been able to get a repro in debug mode, so I'm not sure I can patch it.

Anyway, whenever I can update again, THIS will happen:



The map overlay now gets revealed as you walk around. And it gets saved when you leave and re-enter a dungeon. Really helps to give more of a feeling of exploration.

Couple of updates today:

• Josh Whelchel (soundofjw on TIGS) wrote me an awesome demo track to replace my placeholder MIDI tune.
• I made some long-overdue updates to my audio system which should improve perf a bit. As a test of stereo sound, the signpost will ping every couple of seconds until you read it.
• I implemented actual world traversal. You can leave a dungeon and come back and it will be the same one you just left. There's no state preservation yet, though, so all the doors will be closed, the snake will be alive, and so on.

Next up: ...world map, maybe? Not yet sure whether I want this to be on the HUD all the time or whether it should be another overlay like the dungeon map or whether it should be part of a separate UI. Probably a minimap on the HUD and a full map on a separate UI would work...that's sort of a time-tested staple (see Legend of Zelda, Super Metroid, etc.)

[Include a screenshot.]

Here are a few thoughts I've had on devlogging...I don't always follow these myself, but I try:

Include a screenshot. Theophilus already said it, but it's worth repeating. Walls of text are boring. I try to include at least one picture on every update that sums up the most recent work I've done.

Assume your visitors have not seen the whole thread. Keeping the first post up to date with recent builds and screenshots is good practice, but not everyone looks for that stuff. If you feel something is important, mention in the latest update.

Assume your visitors have not visited external links or played current builds. Your updates should be worth reading on their own merits.

Don't assume that a lack of feedback means a lack of visibility or interest. Some readers just prefer to lurk. (I would know, I'm one of them.)

Be verbose. Talk about what makes your latest work interesting. Talk about the goals you had before you started working, the challenges you faced in the implementation, the decisions you made to overcome those challenges, and the work you plan to do in the future.

Ask very specific questions. This make it easier to provide feedback, and it helps keep the feedback constrained to only what is useful and pertinent. Explain your uncertainties and provide your own opinions if appropriate (in some cases, an unbiased opinion may be preferable).

Write for yourself. Yes, devlogs are a great way to increase awareness and solicit feedback, but they're also great for measuring your own progress.

It is correct, yes. Just takes a second to process.

This also makes me wonder why English doesn't have separate words for breathing out and breathing in. That would be pretty cool.

Exhale/inhale?

Doh, Droqen beat me to it.

Many modern games are developed exclusively for surround sound, with no option to switch to basic stereo. If you don't have a full surround sound setup, spatialized sounds located behind the player may be muted. I can't count how many times I've had to turn on subtitles just so I can tell what the characters are saying.

I'm fully in favor of the trend of turning subtitles on by default.

Implemented travel widgets. These can be used to travel from one dungeon to the next. I haven't yet integrated the world layout with the dungeon generation, so every dungeon branches in all four directions and you get a completely random dungeon each time you travel, but it demonstrates the concept well enough.

I feel like the transition is a little too rough at the moment, since there can be a bit of a hitch and a flicker as the new level is generated. It needs to either be entirely seamless or else there will probably need to be some sort of a loading screen. Best case scenario, I could move the bulk of the level generation to a separate thread and do an old school Resident Evil "walking through the door" transitional animation while it runs. But that might be overkill.

I'm almost definitely going to have to add a compass as well as a world map; it's starting to feel really easy to lose sense of direction. Of course, more unique texturing, decorations, etc. will go some distance towards maintaining direction, but a compass would still be nice.

Spectres' Tomb, most definitely. Exploring a hidden mausoleum can be pretty fun if you know what you're doing.

I like this, but in the interest of alliteration, I'm leaning towards either "Spectres' Sanctum" or "Spectre's Solace" now. I kind of like the latter because it sounds like it could be the name of a place without necessarily being indicative of the nature of that place. If I call the game "Spectres' Sanctum," there darn well better be some spectres in one of those dungeons. 

"Me, Myself, and I"? 

@Player 3: Ha, yeah, that could work, I suppose. I'd probably want the whole game to work as parody in that case, though, which isn't exactly what I've been envisioning.

@Giaddon: Not really a joke, just placeholder content (pretty much all my content is placeholder at the moment). I implemented signs and needed something arbitrary to display on them. Eventually they'll be used to introduce new mechanics and that sort of thing.

That reminds me, I've been meaning to take an informal poll on this: Does anyone have a preference on whether the game should pause when reading signs? I'm not sold one way or the other. Initially they didn't, now they do, but I'm wondering if I should change it back. Maybe an answer will be clear once I implement more in-game HUD and UI stuff...

Well, the game does start out in the jungle, though most of it (80-90%) will be underground.

A couple other ideas I've had:

Pel's Treasure / Pel's ______ ("Pel" is the name of the Hero Guy, at least tentatively. That's up for debate too.)
Maps and Legends (a little cliched, but plays off the double meaning of "legend" and is also the name of a good R.E.M. song )
Possibly something with "Voyage," "Journey," "Expedition," "Trek," "Venture," "Discovery," etc.
Keep "Spectre" in the name, but drop the "Shock" since that's the part that's really bugging me

"Spectre's Tomb"? (Or "Spectres' Tomb," I suppose there could be more than one of them.  )

I'm trying to choose a better name for my game tentatively titled "Spectre Shock." It's going to be sort of a first-person Legend of Zelda with elements of Roguelikes and Shocklikes, and with more of a jungle/cave explorer theme than a high fantasy theme.



Most of the names I've been coming up with are the sort of generic, forgettable "____'s Quest" or "Legend of the ____" names that I want to avoid. I need something short and snappy, memorable, and preferrably just one word.

As mentioned in the devlog, I was thinking about "Understory," as it's contextually appropriate and kind of clever, but it might sound too close to Cave Story on first impression. Opinions?

I need a new name. "Spectre Shock" is too working title and not really indicative of the tone I'm envisioning...sounds too much like a horror game. And most everything else I'm coming up with sounds too "ADVENTURE OF THE QUEST LEGEND" sort of generic.

I kind of like "Understory" but I'm worried it's too close to Cave Story.

I've had it preordered for a while...playing the demo just cemented how much I DO WANT. Yes, it's a puzzle-platformer, but it's super polished. Just, like, ridiculously polished. And the voice acting is fantastic.

If you're interested in generating infinite amounts of content, I'd recommend using an implicit generation function like Perlin noise or simplex noise (see also) so that you aren't rigidly bound by the width and height of your 2D array. You just request a value at an arbitrary location and the function gives you a result back.

Just throwing that out there to spare you guys from making a mistake: Don't use simplex noise. While it is definitely better than perlin, it's patented.

Lame. Thanks for the heads-up.

Oh yeah, I guess the Siggraph notes chapter does count as being published...I guess what I really want is a 4th edition of Procedural Texturing & Modeling. 

Mostly finished world generation.

More examples:



Still gotta add some loops/shortcuts, but the critical path planning works.