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[Destral]

Spellflinger is a top-down shooter in which you play as Phoebe, a young woman working on completing her magic studies while at the same time trying to pay off her 'student loans'. The game features a large world with many levels, each with its own objectives, a large number of abilities and power-ups you can use to customise your character, and lots of secrets.

A couple of screenshots to illustrate the new direction:


The starting city and UI.


The night version of one of the levels in the city. The level changes depending on whether it is day or night.

Currently working in Game Maker 8.1 with the goal of releasing a playable demo sometime next year.

The graphics in the screenshots above are placeholder. At some point I would like to enlist an artist and a sound person - if you might be interested, PM me

[Destral]

Thanks, your devlog is actually a big inspiration for me to finally start one for this I do intend to update daily.

Devlog Day 1:

Been working on implementing the map system. I have it mostly working, now I just need to set up all the locations to appear when you beat the previous level. Once that happens I can start making some more levels

[Player 3]

Paying back loans? That sounds familar, but also a currently underused plot that I know of. Sounds quite interesting. Hope you have the design down pat before starting on most of the programming.

[Destral]

Devlog Day 2:

Got home late, but still managed to sort some aspects of the world map, as well the transition from the world map to the individual levels. Started working on the first tutorial level. To that purpose, I made this li'l guy:



Just a simple target dummy, but I tried to make him more 3/4 view based on feedback from Damian and Kevin in the Art forum.

I've also been considering the possibility of having the game take place during the protagonist's time at Magic Academy instead of afterwards. The player would be taking a lesson at the Academy to start off, then going out into the world to earn money for their next course. The courses would then be progression gates, as the player has to go back to the academy regularly to learn new abilities or increase the strength of existing ones. This would then set the scene for the original game I had in mind, but would raise the question of how the protagonist managed to get into debt if they'd been dutifully paying for all their courses.

[TobiasW]

Sounds cool. How will the things that I may or may not be able to do at these places be gameplay-wise?

[Destral]

Sounds cool. How will the things that I may or may not be able to do at these places be gameplay-wise?

For the most part, levels are vertical shooters, as shown in the mockup. So far I have come up with a few different level types:

Invasion - Monsters appear at the top of the screen and make their way towards the bottom, where there is a city wall / ship / caravan / bridge. The player has to prevent the enemies from destroying the city wall / ship / caravan / bridge by shooting them all down.

Dungeon - You enter a dungeon and have to progress to the end. The dungeon is more a vertical shmup that you scroll upwards or a series of waves of enemies. Some dungeons will have more than one level, with the option to leave the dungeon between levels to go back to town.

Minigame - Some levels will require that you do something other than shoot enemies. You might have to help a farmer grow his crops by playing a short rhythm game, for example.

Wandering Boss - At some points in the game special Boss monsters will appear on the world map. These will wander around until the player bumps into them, at which point a boss battle will be triggered.

Devlog: Day 3
Ended up working until 10pm, so didn't have much time to work on the game today, but I did some design and documentation work.

[Destral]

Devlog: Day 4 (version 0.16)

Continued working on the map-to-level transitions, finally got them working right, albeit hackily. Started work on the tutorial level. Co-opted Kevin's edit of my WIP green dude to whip up a quick Teacher's Assistant, who will walk you through the tutorial.

[Destral]

Devlog: Day 5(version 0.17)

Continued work on the tutorial level. Need to figure out the proper way to draw text in GM8

[Destral]

Devlog Day 6(version 0.18)

Sometimes I hate GM8's documentation. There's probably good money in writing a GML guidebook, something that explains all the functions in GML with examples of what you can do with them. In any case, got text working, which will be very useful in the future.

[Destral]

Devlog Day 13(version 0.022)

Took a short break after getting too bogged down with the tutorial, but working on this again.

[Destral]

Devlog Day 21(version 0.026)

Close to done with the tutorial. The code is a huge mess and I'm tempted to go back and start all over, but I'd rather keep going and start working on some actual levels
[/quote]

[Destral]

Devlog Day 24(version 0.027)

Finished the tutorial, took a couple of days to put a lot of my ideas to paper, hash things out, brainstorm on possible gameplay modes, features, powerup, etc. Also did some rough concepting of possible enemies. Will put up some scans later today, maybe.

[Destral]

Devlog Day 25(version 0.030j)
Got ridiculous amounts of work done at the SBGJ, was a great time! Thanks to everyone who showed up, tried the tutorial, and provided feedback! 

Tasks Completed

• Tweaked the tutorial and the first level
• Added fade-out for monster-dropped items
• Added code to corral monster-dropped items in the playing field
• Adjusted display of UI elements
• Rough preliminary concepts for 10 new monsters
• Preliimnary design for 3 new level types and 4 new levels
• Fleshing out of additional systems

To do

• Solve bug with levels unlocking prematurely
• UI elements for World Map and level control panel
• Level clean-up code (insta-collection of remaining items after level objectives are complete

[Destral]

Devlog Day 27(version 0.031)

Concepted a couple new level ideas, did some work on a more advanced level UI panel.

Task list

• Add new coin drops from monsters and change the loot drop code accordingly
• Solve bug with levels unlocking prematurely
• UI elements for World Map and level control panel
• End of Level clean-up code (insta-collection of remaining items after level objectives are complete, transition back to world map
• Change tutorial text to reflect new backstory
• Clean up tutorial code and add item pick-up explanation
• Add arrow enemy projectile

[Destral]

Devlog Day 29 (versions 0.033a through 0.033h)



Task list

• Fix bug with levels unlocking prematurely
• World Map UI Panel elements
• UI Panel for Levels
• End of Level clean-up code (insta-collection of remaining items after level objectives are complete, transition back to world map
• Change tutorial text to reflect new backstory
• Clean up tutorial code and add item pick-up explanation
• Add arrow enemy projectile
• Re-position level UI elements to fit into new level UI panel
• Create Level Clear and Level Failed UI elements
• Coded Level Clear and Level Failed states and end of level code
• Give player level bonus on Level Clear

Lesson of the Day
This is a new section I'm going to be adding into these updates, briefly stating the most important thing I learned. Today's lesson of the day is:

Don't copy/paste; make a script

If it's anything that you need to do multiple times, anywhere, write a script and call it. Saves a ton of time you would otherwise waste copy/pasting, and makes editing stuff later on exponentially easier. I've started writing scripts for everything.  

EDIT: Probably about as important is the fact that GM has a debug mode. Who knew? 

[Destral]

Devlog Day 30 (versions 0.034a)

• Fixed a couple of small bugs, nothing huge
• New player ability: Projectile deflection
• New ability requires explanation, soeworking the tutorial again
• Did some sprite work for possible enemies. I
  
  
  Todo list
  
  • Fix bug player position resetting to initial position after clearing a level
  • World Map UI Panel elements
  • Hide unused elements of Level UI Panel
  • Change tutorial text to reflect new backstory
  • Clean up tutorial code and add item pick-up explanation
  • Add arrow enemy projectile(sprite done)

[Destral]

Devlog Day 30 (versions 0.034a)

• Fixed a couple of small bugs, nothing huge
• New player ability: Projectile deflection
• New ability requires explanation, so started reworking the tutorial again
• Did some sprite work for possible enemies.

The player can pick up items dropped by enemies by clicking on them. The game explains it as Remote Manipulation, a minor form of telekinesis. While I was on that track, I figured it would be cool if the player was able to deflect some weaker enemy projectiles. Then I realised I didn't explain item collection in the tutorial, and the code for that is a mess, so I started working on that, and then I decided I needed a dummy that shoots arrows. After various concepts, including regular dummies with crossbows, mini-ballistae, and a mechamagical robot knight with a fireball cannon and an arrow cannon instead of arms, I decided to take a break and read the forums for a bit. Then I saw that this one Devlog had been updated, and I was looking through it, and then it struck me...



He shoots the arrows out of his mouth. I hope the owner doesn't get mad at me

Todo list

• Fix bug player position resetting to initial position after clearing a level
• World Map UI Panel elements
• Hide unused elements of Level UI Panel
• Change tutorial text to reflect new backstory
• Clean up tutorial code and add item pick-up explanation
• Add arrow enemy projectile(sprite done)

[Destral]

Devlog Day 33 (versions 0.035j)

Completed Task List

• New Tutorial with all basic gameplay actions explained
• New pick-ups: Health Orbs, Mana Orbs(Recover Health and Mana respectively
• New enemy: Archer Dummy 
• New enemy projectile: Arrow
• Fix bug with player position resetting to initial position after clearing a level

Todo list

• World Map UI Panel elements
• Hide unused elements of Level UI Panel

Completely redid the tutorial, now it does a much better job of explaining item collection and projectile deflection, both of which are explained in game as a secondary ability called Remote Manipulation. It's a limited form of magical Telekinesis, and apart from using it to collect items and deflecting small enemy projectiles like arrows, I might be using it in some of the levels as a way to interact with the environment, maybe as a way to unlock secrets if the player interacts with the right things.

Also finally figured out how to make the player return to their last position in the main map after finishing a level, instead of getting reset to the starting location.

I also did some more concepting of enemies. Scans coming sometime this week.

[Destral]

Devlog Day 51 (version 0.038d)

Back in the saddle after taking a break from development to deal with other stuff.

• Fixed a bug that was causing the player's money total to get reset everytime the player transitioned to the Main Map
• Added Location and Money UI elements to the Main Map UI panel

[Destral]

Devlog Day 55 (version 0.41a)

Got a few good hours of work. The game date now only advances when the player plays through a level, rather than when they move to a new location on the map. Since the player has to make payments to the loan shark at set intervals of game time (I'm currently thinking every two weeks), it gives the player more wiggle room to explore the map if the date only advances when they player a level. This will all be subject to tweaking once the game has seen some playtesting.

Also decided that each location on the world map would likely need to have a number of levels (especially the capital city, where the player has to return to learn new abilities, each of which will be accompanied by a tutorial level).

Another possibility I'm considering is giving levels a cooldown period after they are completed. This is to prevent the player from simply grinding the same level over and over for money, which would likely be the easiest and most boring way to accumulate money to meet loan payments. I'm thinking a good way to illustrate this would be to have the level's world icon display in greyscale, which will probably require some more graphics work.

The World Map UI is about 40% complete, with a bar that shows the player's current location, and buttons for the current date and the player's money total. Right now none of these do anything except display information, but I'm considering implementing some functionality for each: the location bar can be clicked to open a small window with a short blurb about the location, the money button can be pressed to make an advance payment to the loan shark at any time, and the date button might be clicked to show a calendar showing when the next payment is due.



On the gameplay side of things, I'm considering implementing some kind of mechanic that rewards the player for firing accurately without missing, perhaps some form of Overdrive bar that fills up as the player hits things without missing, and when it fills up it gives the player a few seconds where they can shoot without using up mana or something. I'll have to experiment with it.

• Rename and organise fonts
• Implement UI covering panels to cover unused Level UI elements
• Change the font of the location bar, or change the name of the capital to something shorter
• Change Date tracker to only increase when the user completes a level
• Change World Map interaction so that the player moves between locations by clicking on the maps, but access levels through the level selection panel
• Implement mouseover script for level selection panel that shows level info
• Implement end of level script that awards Level Clear bonus money (iteration: depending on performance (Level Reward x % objective completion = money awarded))
• Change loot so that gold coins are rarer and copper coins are more common
• Implement system that increases the quality of item drops depending on level tier