Hey TIGers, I'm looking for an experienced level designer to collaborate with on an upcoming 2D platformer. It's based on an existing (procedurally generated) game, but I'm looking to focus on hand-made levels for the sequel. I'll share more details (including a demo) when we talk, but in summary I'd say it's like a cross between N++, VVVVVV and Super Meat Boy: short, challenging levels with a focus on survival (vs combat), and some light puzzle elements (mainly, finding the optimal way to traverse a level).
This is a passion project but I'm willing to pay fairly, and up front, for your time. Conversely, if after talking you believe it's a game that you would want to invest in, we could discuss an arrangement that includes rev share.
Job Description
Play test existing levels, offer feedback/make adjustments
Contribute several new levels of your own (at least 12—for discussion)
Propose new level mechanics/hazards
Help determine the appropriate order of the levels
Other related tasks as necessary
Requirements
Prior experience designing levels for 2D games, with at least 1 shipped game
A video portfolio showing a few of your level designs, and/or a download link to a game you've worked on
Nice to Have
Prior experience with LDtk (level editor), or a willingness to learn it in advance (it has a bit of a learning curve)
Prior experience with Unity / ability to help implement (and/or troubleshoot) new mechanics
Located +/-6 hours of Eastern time zone (any more than that may be difficult for collaboration, but I won't rule it out)
Feel free to reply or message with questions or portfolios. Email also works: [email protected]
P.S. I'm looking to work with an individual, not an outsource studio. This part is extremely important to me and non-negotiable.
(Note: this position is open to Canadian residents only)
Kano (www.kanoapps.com) is looking for a game developer with experience shipping at least one Unity game to join our Idle team.
You enjoy solving complex device and game platform problems where you can exercise your practical technical knowledge. You also effectively collaborate with others to provide technical expertise to identified issues.
As a small team where the code you write gets deployed fast, you’ll also be responsible for development, testing, and code quality.
Your background should include:
2+ years development with high-level languages (eg. C#, PHP, Java, JS, etc)
2+ years experience in Unity
Game development experience (with one game released with live ops)
Strong understanding of OO and modern software design principles
A strong desire to build something that people really want
It'd be a big plus if you have:
You have created applications serving thousands of people at a time
Experience shipping social or mobile applications (iOS, Android, Facebook, etc.)
Experience with game optimization techniques
Database experience
Experience with AWS
Working knowledge or experience with Unix/Linux
Continuous integration and automated testing experience
Bootstrapped in 2008, we have been a profitable and growing game studio for over a decade. With hits like Free Rider HD and Mob Wars LCN (Top 100 grossing app on Facebook), and our growing idle games library including FUBAR: Just Give'r, we hope to contribute to the world by connecting people through play.
Locally owned and headquartered in downtown Victoria, BC, we believe in giving small teams of talented people challenging problems and getting out of their way. That’s why we look for the best and brightest to join our team; people who have talent, vision, and commitment.
Appy here (or feel free to respond or DM with any questions).
Today's the day! After a rollercoaster 4.5 year journey, my rogue-lite survival horror TOXICANT is finally ready for prime time. Thanks to everyone who came along for the crazy ride: beta testers, early adopters, patrons, contributing devs and artists, the furballs who kept me company, etc. I couldn't have done it without you!
Although this may seem like the end, it's really just the beginning! As with all of my games, as long as there are players, there will be updates. I have so many more ideas I want to explore, so keep checking back, and keep the feedback coming.
Last but not least, I was hoping I could ask you a small favour: if you enjoy the game, please consider leaving a review or telling your friends. As a solo indie developer, I rely heavily on word of mouth and referrals to find new players; anything you can do to help is greatly appreciated.
Well, this is it! The final major Early Access update! While I wasn't able to do everything I had set out to, I'm still quite happy with how closely I've been able to stick to the roadmap.
Let's take a closer look...
New Beacon Type: Smoke Beacon The smoke beacon creates a volume of smoke that obstructs the vision of most enemies, making it easier to sneak by. This brings the total number of beacon types up to 6. Along with this, a Beacon Expert achievement has been added (players will get this for trying out all of them).
I'm quite happy with how the smoke effect turned out: I'm using a combination of particles and interpolating the global fog based on how close the player is to the center of the fog volume. (I'm hoping to capture some footage of this in the next trailer.)
Two Separate Endings At the end of the final level, players will need to decide how they want to end things. This of course includes an achievement for each option, plus another for completing both. (I've also added a semi-hidden area in the final level, which players will need to find to get the Well-read achievement.)
Quality of Life In addition to the aforementioned input rebinding--which I think turned out really well--I've also added settings for music and SFX volume.
(P.S. I love FMOD... my SFX are comprised of multiple buses but I was able to roll them up into a single VCA to facilitate adding a single overall SFX volume setting.)
Bug Fixes/Improvements
More achievements: Mycologist, Binge Drinker
Display day number at the start of each level
Fix for glitchy mutant miner idle animation
Various texture improvements
Improve the appearance of fog, smoke, etc.
Various optimizations
Highlight newly found items in Discovery Log
Fix for dead mutant miner clothes disappearing (Cyberpunk, anyone?)
Add confirmation dialogs for retry and exit
What's next? I'll soon be switching into full-blown marketing and release mode, including preparing new marketing assets (screenshots, trailer, etc.), getting ready to hand out more review keys (if you know anyone who would be interested, send 'em to KeyMailer), and all that fun stuff.
Once that's all taken care of, I'll set a date for the full release! To be clear, the full release doesn't signal the end of me updating the game; as with all my games, the more interest there is, the more I keep investing, and I still have lots of ideas I'd like to explore!
That said, it's been a pretty heavy grind to get to this point, so I do hope to take some time off after release. (I will of course be keeping an eye on things and addressing any major bugs or balancing issues, but it may be a few months before I get back to adding new content.)
Well, that about does it for now! Thanks for sticking with me through Early Access.
I'm looking for a pixel artist to revamp graphics for an existing game. In particular, I'm looking to:
increase the resolution by 2
give the existing assets a more contemporary feel (i.e. less saturated, grittier, more detail/texture, etc.)
The ideal candidate is comfortable working with existing art assets; starting from scratch is not within my budget. Bonus points if you're comfortable with Unity and can do some of the integration on your own.
This is paid, but I'm on an indie budget, so I'm open to cheating a bit in the interest of keeping costs down (say, using a 2x pixel art scaling algorithm and then doing touch-ups/paint overs). Similarly, I am open to skills exchange, if you're interested (I can offer audio and/or Unity dev in exchange).
Approximate asset counts and dimensions:
Backgrounds: 12 (average 320x200)
Tile sets: 5 (128x128)
Tile sets (props): 5 (64x64)
Sprites: 24 (average 32x32)
Particle sheets: 5 (ranging in size)
Cut scene frames: 12 (320x120)
Splash screen: 1 (320x200)
UI elements: 8 (average 32x32)
I can provide more specifics prior to formalizing anything, really just looking for a ballpark estimate this point. Please respond via DM (or email adam at cosmocatgames dot com) with portfolio and rate.
The glamorous side of gamedev: I just spent the better part of a week working on an input binding UI!
It came together well in the end, but damn was that ever tedious:
Step 1: ensure all actions were properly bound to the input library (there were some straggler cases where input was being read directly), add dedicated actions for move forward, back, etc.
Step 2: make the existing controls display scrollable to allow for the new actions (I always struggle with this a bit... Unity's ScrollRect is quite clunky to work with IMO)
Step 3: familiarize myself with the input rebinding capabilities of the input library I'm using (InControl, highly recommended)
Step 4: handle all the various edge cases (automatically remove duplicate bindings, don't allow binding certain gamepad buttons, etc.)
Step 5: rejig the pause UI to support a global disabled state (when listening for new bindings)
I was able to do all of this in a little over 300 lines of code. Still a bit more than I would have liked, but there was extra logic needed to handle the separation of keyboard/mouse and gamepad bindings.
I did check a few references in preparation for this and found it's quite common to simply provide a set of preset schemes for gamepad controls, but I have a feeling this would have actually been more work, and the way I've done it will provide more flexibility for the user anyway.
Now with that out of the way, I can finally get back to the fun stuff!
In addition to the aforementioned new area and achievements, I also took a couple detours to deal with a some things that had been nagging me. First off, I've replaced the player's janky punch with a knife swipe attack. Although it does the same damage, it can now also break crates:
I also replaced toxic damage with a toxic status, a la Soulsborne. Instead of hurting the player, it fills a meter, and once full, you die.
I think this will add an interesting new dimension to the game.
Next month I'll be focusing on adding a couple of endings, more achievements, and some long overdue quality of life stuff. And then I guess it's time to start thinking about the full release!
The tall structure is eventually (i.e. next month) going to be an elevator, but for now it just contains a "check back later" journal entry. Currently, the bottom area is a one-way trip. I'm debating whether I leave it like this--perhaps with a secret achievement to be found--or provide a way to get back up.
You'll also notice the bridges. These don't do anything yet, but I'm thinking I'll either connect them to switches, or have them lower automatically when you walk on them. This would allow the player to connect parts of the level at will, avoiding being swarmed right away. (I have the difficulty lowered for the video, but in actuality this area will have a ton of enemies.)
Other things still left to do:
Add some props (barrels and the like), including more areas to hide
Add some loot (crates)
Improve some of the textures (i.e. the tiling of the metal floor is way too obvious, despite my attempt to mask it with a normal map and some rust detail)
Fix issues with light bleed (below level)
Fix enemy feet clipping through slopes
I've also made some solid headway on achievements, including a draft set of achivement icons (with some help from game-icons.net... great resource!) I'll have roughly half of them implemented as part of the official Overachiever Update later this month.
Another month, another major update! The Explorer Update officially dropped this past Saturday. While I wasn't able to tackle everything I had planned, I was able to tackle some things I hadn't planned, so I would call it a net win overall.
New features:
Two new mushroom types: red and white. These buff strength and stealth respectively.
Two new beacon types: distraction and trap mine
A new beacon launcher model
A new wheel-based UI for selecting beacon types
Persistent discovery log items
Bug fixes and improvements:
Buff stats modifiers and upgrades
Replace discovery log square icons with scroll list
Add support for freezing and exploding fish
Improve mushroom, beacon and toxic VFX
Improve texture maps in many places
Improve beacon/water interaction
Possible fix to reduce chances of player sticking to ledges
Lower overall audio mix levels
Not bad for one month, especially considering I released another game in that timeframe!
Next up, the Overachiever Update! This update will add some initial achievements as well as the foundation for a final area and a couple of endings.
Final Area For the final area I'll be dusting off this old prototype I did a couple of years ago (!): an industrial structure situated within a sprawling chasm.
I'll be reusing the same level generation algorithm as the interior levels, which means an entirely new set of modules as well as alterations to the existing logic to bypass some stuff that doesn't apply (flooded rooms, for example).
I've spent about two days on this so far and it's coming together quickly! Hoping to have something to show for it soon.
Endings (spoiler alert!) I still have to work out the exact scenario final level, but as of now I'm envisioning something like this: you come across an elevator leading out of the mines, as well as a palette of explosives. Neither have power, so you need to travel around the area reactivating the power grid. Once enabled, you have to choose between routing power to the explosives (ending 1: self-sacrifice) or routing power to the elevator (ending 2: escape).
Achievements Here's what I have planned so far:
Beat the first level
Beat the game with ending 1
Beat the game with ending 2
+ extra achievement for completing both
Discover all notes and letters
Discover all items
Use one of every beacon type
And then maybe some silly ones, like drink X whiskeys, die from mushrooms, etc.
As to the changes here, it's hard to estimate how they'll affect things, but more variety sounds interesting in and of itself! And the new launcher does indeed look goid, I think. ^_^
Thanks! The hope is that they'll create more variety overall. The white mushrooms will enable you to play more stealthily in parts, the red mushrooms will allow you to power through, the beacons will offer a range of options along the same lines, etc.
More progress on the beacon launcher:
Some new VFX for the freeze beacons (you can also see an early version of the beacon wheel)
... aaaand we're back! With Super Rocket Ride having been released, I can finally give some proper attention to TOXICANT again! This month's update--the Explorer Update--is all about adding new loot and expanding upon the beacons system.
New Loot Initially, this is going to start with two new types of mushrooms. As with the existing mushroom, these offer a temporary buff in exchange for a slight hit to your health, though I may end up applying distinct debuffs for all three.
Red mushroom: boosts strength
White mushroom: boosts stealth
Along with this, I took the opportunity to buff the strength attack modifier; it was way too subtle. Now while under the influence of a red mushroom you can take down a mutant miner with a few swings of a melee weapon.
Oh yeah, plus some updates to the VFX (added spores, improved lights):
New Beacons Next up: new beacons! I'll be adding three new beacon types:
Trap (mine) beacon: explodes on contact
Smoke beacon: obscures enemies visibility
Distraction beacon: creates noise for 30 seconds, drawing nearby enemies towards it
(Shout out to Jan for his help with these)
I'm also planning an overhaul of the beacon selection UI. Specifically, I'll be moving to something more along the lines go a "weapon wheel" (but much more compact). More to come on this.
Last but not least, the beacon launcher model is getting a revamp! My man JP--who modelled the fish and tentacle enemies--is helping with this. I think it's looking pretty good so far!
I'm pleased to announce that Super Rocket Ride is now live on Steam! To celebrate, we're offering a 15% discount until the end of the week. We also have some review keys available via Keymailer.
Thanks to everyone who offered their support during development!
As to trailers, I've had a similar experience myself: each major release leaving the previous trailers outdated, and thus me wanting to replace them...
Yeah, I just need to get into the habit of doing it regularly. I think I'll find a good cadence with the monthly updates: work for a few weeks -> prepare a release -> capture video for a highlight reel -> revise trailer.
And on that note, the fruits of my labour:
And a slightly updated trailer (I also took the opportunity to increase the volume of the music--was waaaay to quiet in the original):
Heh, I'm put in mind of a cross between Half Life and Day of the Tentacle.
Works for me The concept is actually inspired by the tentacles in Doom Eternal, but I suppose those were probably inspired in part by Half-Life. Admittedly I've never played Day of the Tentacle... I'll have to remedy that someday!
At any rate, it came together quickly! A bit of fighting with simple vector maths (always the case...) and Unity animation transitions/interruptions, but in the end, I prevailed! And here it is:
Just a few loose ends to tie up and then it should be a quick path to integration. I'm hoping I can tackle that tomorrow, prepare a quick teaser video for the Creatures Update, and then start spreading the word! I'm also hoping to update the main trailer with the footage I've captured via the past few updates, as it's starting to become quite barebones as compared to the actual game.
Phew, finally got these guys integrated into the game (video forthcoming), along with an update on Itch and the alpha branch on Steam.
I had to do a few more iterations to get them interacting nicely with the player. In particular, they had a tendency to push the player up/out of the water. To counteract this I now limit their rotation on the Y-axis and have them back off if the player's position is above the waterline. You can see the former below (the bottommost fish never face directly upwards):
Next up in the Creatures Update: tentacle monsters!
These guys will be found in the corners of rooms. When the player approaches they'll emerge from the ground and swipe at her. If I'm able to get them integrated in the next few days I should be able to get the Creatures Update out before the end of the month! Then I'll be taking a week or two "off" to get another one of my games (Super Rocket Ride) over the finish line, at which point I can hopefully focus on TOXICANT 100% until full release!
Well, these fish are kicking my ass, but I'm soo close!
The swimming and attacking logic is pretty solid, there are just a number of edge cases left to deal with. (one I just noticed now: one of the fish just kinda watches as the red "player cube" gets swarmed, heh)
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