We are done 

We managed to release Riptale today in both Steam and Humble Store!

The past weeks we mostly worked on Steam integration (e.g. achievements and trading cards), submitting our builds for inspection and getting the store page ready. It takes some time to have everything in order.

Difficulty level has also caused some challenges. But then again our game is a roguelike and it is supposed to be challenging. Still we had to nerf it down just a little bit.

We also organised playtesting session which went pretty well. We went to a nearby school and had around 25 students test our game. There were few crashes but I think we managed to fix them. It is always painful to watch people play your game for the first time. They manage to kill themselves in all the ways possible. Sometimes it is even funny.  We did not manage to test Linux and Mac versions enough so we will release them next week.

Oh, we also organised the most lame launch party ever: all we had was one Burger King meal for our play tester (my sister's kid). I ate his spicy cheese balls.

[Steam store page:]

We are happy to announce that

will be released on April 27th on Steam!

Steam store page:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/616000/

Main features:
-Gem-based attacks that have to aimed with an analogue stick/keyboard
-Procedurally generated world and other game content
-Lot’s of enemies with challenging bosses
-Shops, runes, statues, challenge rooms, pets
-Uptempo soundtrack paying homage to the classics of yesteryears and preparing you for the action

Platforms:
Windows with Linux and Mac versions following as soon as testing is complete. In addition we are currently exploring publishing options on consoles.

Soundtrack:
https://soundcloud.com/supergodhq

Social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RiptaleGame
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SuperGodHQ/
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/SuperGodHQ/
Thunderclap: https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/55556-riptale-releases-on-steam

More pics and Screenshots:
Devlog: https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=59916.0
Webpage: http://www.supergod.fi/
Blog: http://supergod.fi/blog/

Last weeks have been quite busy. All features have been implemented but need testing. Luckily we found a full-time game tester to play the game.

Some work that has been done:
-All bosses done, still need some testing
-Killing bosses rewards the player with extra benefits
-Rune mechanics, activating the runes affect the gameplay in some interesting ways
-Libraries, books in the libraries contain the lore and most of the story of the game
-Most of the sound effects are in
-Linux version done, Mac version needs more testing

On the marketing side:
-Implemented user traffic metrics to start online marketing campaings
-Started using Keymailer
-Release date teaser done


-And of course release date set to be April 27th.

Two more weeks to get all in order. Exiting times!

Some progress:

-Challenge rooms done.
-In the final release there will be 6-7 types of challenges each of which have 2-3 different versions.
-We have now beta versions for Linux and Windows ready.
-We started closed-beta testing with the Windows version.
-Mac beta-version should be done next week.
-Steam shop-page done ([http://store.steampowered.com/app/616000/)
-Redraw some of the sprites so that they are easier to spot
-Combo-counter
-we added a feature that if you hit with each of your gems they recharge immediately. This way you can have never-ending destruction! Also allows nice challenge rooms 

-New feature in action:

There is something kawaii about this one 

Finally got the email. All we needed to do was submit one pdf in English.

It all good now:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/616000/

Thanks LinkAJ,

We got similar reply from Greenlight forums. Apparently my business email does not have a spam folder
I changed the email to gmail so let's see

More progress, mainly on achievements. The following is for Game Maker: Studio users, se read on if you want to know more.

First we created an object to listen to achievement progress. When the object is created, it will fetch current achievement data from a data storing/handling object in which achievements are stored in booleans (set to false by default).

When a specific achievement listener is triggered, based on what requirements the achievement has, the object will proceed to check out the criteria. If an achievement requires active listening, the object will count event occurrences or wait for something to happen. Achievement data is then sent to data storing object, which in turn will save it in a file.

At the same time the program will send Steam API a message to unlock the achievement in Steam’s own system. Thankfully, Steam and GameMaker work nicely together!

Yoyogames has quite good documentation about Steam API, see https://docs.yoyogames.com/source/dadiospice/002_reference/steam%20api/index.html

Steady progress. 

We are using Game Maker. We know that there are some issues with it (e.g. paths leak memory). We have also found out that you should avoin creating Game Maker rooms dynamically. As far as we know you can create new rooms dynamically but you cannot delete them! So if you use Game Maker do not create rooms with GML. If somebody knows a way to delete rooms please let me know!

Some random stuff we have been working on:

-Jumping
-Bounding boxes
-Dust particles
-Parent objects for different enemy types
-Spitter dragon

Thank you,

We have not got any replies and we are still pending.

I will post on Greenlight forums! I will let you know if I get any new info.

Thanks guys!

What we have found out is that there are some pros and cons in doing black&white pixel graphics:

Pros:
-Faster to draw and animate (this is a big benefit for a small team)
-Easier to stand out (at least it used to be, not that many b&w games)
-Retro-feel (some like it)

Cons:
-Limits the style of the game
-Retro-feel (some don't like it)
-Still images all look the same (the game looks much better when you play it than when you look still images, this might be a problem later in e.g. Steam store)
-Particle effects must also be mainly b&w

Anyways, we feel that black and white style was a good choice for us. Luckily we got some really good artists to draw graphics for us. They had to practice at first but quite soon they got the hang of it.

I really like this The parallax looks awesome!

Excellent trailer! Good luck with the game!

Looks really interesting! Trailer is spot on. Good luck guys!

Lots of progress! Menus, unlockables, trinkets done!

There has also been lots of small fixes on various aspects (jumping, bounding boxes, enemy behavior). Also first version of challenge rooms has been done.



Final boss is also done. Most bosses are now ready for our own playtesting. There is still lots of work regarding them. They are always much more complicated than standard enemies.

We have managed to get some really good youtubers to play our demo and provide feedback. One excellent point was to recharge the gems based on successful attacks. We have been working on this and our idea was that if you hit an enemy with each of your gems in the same combo, all of your gems will recharge immediately. This seems to be working really well!

Thank you again

(I included the info into my first post)

Thanks!

The problem is that identity verification is part of the onboarding process, and we cannot access developer forums until we are through with the onboarding. We have signed NDA/SDA but still it says developer group is private. When I sign to Steam it asks to continue onboarding, which is stuck at identity verification. 

Does anybody have any experience how long Steam Tax Identity Verification can last?

We were greenlit last days of January and we are still waiting. We have not got any emails from Steam or the service provider they are using. We are located in Finland. Steam show this message



We are developing a game called Riptale (http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=851630714)
Our Steam name is supergodhq

Indeed, if you look closely you can find some red pixels here and there

The game progresses nicely. There are some new enemies and attacks. Credits, menus etc are also just about done.



We have also opened beta-testing for public. If you are interested please sign up e.g. through here

http://www.alphabetagamer.com/riptale-beta-sign-up/

Try checking for any instances of mother first. If there aren't any you can stop executing the code.

if(!instance_exists(mother)) exit;

Note that exit will stop execution of the rest of the code. Maybe you need to use if-else.