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Destral
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« Reply #20 on: July 10, 2011, 01:20:48 AM »

Devlog Day 61 (version 0.42d)

Made a major change to the way the World Map UI works. It used to be that if you clicked on a map location, if you weren't already on it it would move you to that location, and if you were it would transition the game to that level. This restricted the number of levels to the number of locations on the map, which was ok for most locations, but posed problems if I wanted to have more than one level at a particular location. So I changed it.



Now each location can have up to 12 things you can do there, marked by the icons in the bottom left of the UI panel. Each icon represents either a level, a tutorial, or some other activity or location - for example, the starting city currently houses the tutorial and one level, but I plan to add a shop, the shady magic cram school the protagonist is attending (basically a practice area where the player can try out their powers as they acquire them), some more tutorials, and likely a few more levels.

The new level panel required some icons for levels, so I made some:





Each level icon has two frames. The first is the regular, active frame, which indicates to the player that the level is available to play normally. The second varies depending on the type of level: Tutorial levels display a check mark, indicating that the player has completed that particular tutorial. Regular gameplay levels appear greyed out. This means that the level has been completed recently and is unavailable. I'm planning on turning levels off for a few in-game days after the player completes them, and once the cooldown timer expires they become available again.

Started work on the first level, one of the entrances to the Thessalian sewers. The Thessalians use magical slimes as a first process to break down the city's waste. The slimes take care of most of the solid waste, breaking it down into smaller particles. The city's population being what it is, a lot of magical contaminants get dumped into the sewers. These contaminants are happily absorbed by the slimes, and over the process of a few months large numbers of slimes will mutate and evolve strange magical powers. Since uncontrolled magical creatures are the last thing the City Council want spewing out of the sewers, regular patrols of the sewer entrances and tunnels are carried out, usually by squads of freshmen from the Academy or out-of-town mercenaries looking to make some quick, if smelly, coin.



The water still needs a lot of work, as do the banks.

  • Implement UI covering panels to cover unused Level UI elements
  • Change World Map interaction so that the player moves between locations by clicking on the maps, but access levels through the level selection panel
  • Thessalia sewer entrance level
  • Implement mouseover script for level selection panel that shows level info
  • Implement system that increases the quality of item drops depending on level tier
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Destral
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« Reply #21 on: July 12, 2011, 05:41:44 AM »

Devlog Day 63 (version 0.42d)

Continuing to work on that sewer level background:

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Destral
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« Reply #22 on: October 05, 2011, 07:13:30 PM »

After hitting a wall, I decided to start over with more of a plan and less of a  Evil , so I'm dusting off this Devlog and working on it again. I've made a few major changes pretty much scrapped what I had before and started over. The first post has been changed to reflect some of this.

I'm currently brainstorming skills for the protagonist - whom I'm thinking of calling Phoebe for the time being - to acquire over the course of the game. I'm doing this by building a deck of cards with the following information:

Name The name of the ability

Type The type of skill it is. Currently I'm going with 5 different types:
  • Movement - Affects the character's movement somehow (increased speed, teleportation, etc
  • Attack - Affects existing attacks, or grants new ones. Attack and Defense
  • Defense - Affects Phoebe's defenses in some way, or grants new ones
  • Support/Utility - generally useful skills to have
  • Handicap - Reduces Phoebe's capabilities somehow, but grants some kind of bonus in return

Rank - Denotes the ability's power level, complexity, and approximately when in the game the player can obtain it. There are 6 Ranks: Rank 1 skills are basic things that are obtained early in the game. Rank 5 skills are obtained near the end of the game. Rank 6 skills are crazy (not necessarily overpowered) and can only be obtained by discovering secrets in the game.

Aspect - There are 8 Aspects, each representing a facet of magical power: Fire, Eart, Water, Air, Lightning, Arcane, Shadow, and Light. An ability may or may not be associated with one of these aspects

Description What the ability does

Cost How much Power the ability costs to equip

Restrictions/Requisites I'm considering having some of the abilities have restrictions or requisites before they can be equipped. Restrictions might be things like 'Cannot be equipped if the player has any Light Aspect skills equipped'. Requirements would be things like 'Requires 5 Power equipped in Fire Aspect skills'.

So, for example, Phoebe's basic movement and starting shot abilities look like this:

Name - Walk
Type - Movement
Rank
Aspect
Cost
Restrictions/Requisites
Description - Allows the player to move left and right along the home row

Name - Arcane Arrow
Type - Attack
Rank - I
Aspect - Arcane
Cost - 0
Restrictions/Requisites - None
Description - Shoot arrows of magical energy that damage enemies on impact

As the player progresses through the game they will acquire new Skills - either by buying them, as rewards for completing levels, by discovering secrets, and so forth - and increase their Power, which will then allow them to change Phoebe's build to suit their playstyle or make certain challenges easier (or harder).

I don't have a fixed number of abilities to put in the game, but I'd be very interested in any ideas that folks might think would be interesting to add.
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« Reply #23 on: October 05, 2011, 08:56:23 PM »

This is looking nice. I guess this is ment for a mobile phone?
Also, maybe I missed something, but I didn't understand how the "fighting the monsters" will be?
Kind of like plants and zombies?
Maybe you can describe how a battle will go?
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« Reply #24 on: October 05, 2011, 10:41:23 PM »

This is looking nice. I guess this is ment for a mobile phone?
Also, maybe I missed something, but I didn't understand how the "fighting the monsters" will be?
Kind of like plants and zombies?
Maybe you can describe how a battle will go?

The first version I was working on was a prototype which I was hoping to port to mobile devices, yes, but then I figured the game worked very well on PC, and decided to shift the focus to PC instead.

The action segments play like a vertical shooter. You are at the bottom of the screen, and enemies appear at the top, sides, or center of the screen depending on the level and its objectives. Your character can move left and right at the bottom of the screen. You aim at and shoot at the enemies with the mouse, and depending on what skills you have equipped your shots do different things, and require you to input commands with the mouse in different ways.

I'll post a video as soon as I figure out how to Smiley
« Last Edit: October 05, 2011, 11:06:45 PM by Destral » Logged

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« Reply #25 on: October 10, 2011, 11:54:41 PM »

Did a whole bunch of planning this weekend, detailing out story, levels, and abilities. Also made a huge step forward thanks to vinheim3, Desert Dog, Jasmine, and Paul Eres, and now have a wonderful node-based world map movement system.
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Destral
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« Reply #26 on: November 05, 2011, 09:13:36 AM »

Modified the first post to illustrate the new direction the game has taken. My new plan is to release a playable standalone demo set in the first city with a good number of playable levels and most of the game systems in place.

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 an audio person - if you might be interested, PM me Smiley
« Last Edit: November 05, 2011, 09:18:37 AM by Destral » Logged

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