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[Chris Pavia]

Hello Tiggers!

You may remember me from the Zodiac Gate Devlog. That project has been put on hold for a little bit, primarily because:
A: Since it's such a character-heavy game progress was pretty slow, so we wanted to do something smaller in scope and get it out there.
B: Our primary platform for Zodiac Gate has changed from PC to iPad (although it will still get a PC/Mac release afterwords), so I'm redesigning the gameplay to fit the iOS better.

I'll be going back to it as soon as Gaia is done though, so don't worry!

So what is Gaia? Maybe a screenshot will help:



Okay, that shot is probably more confusing than helpful. The basic gameplay is this:

• The player's goal is to protect the green hemisphere at the bottom. There are 3 layers of atmosphere that act as some additional protection.
• Enemies (the blue glowy guys) come in from the top in various patterns and behaviors and try to get to the green surface, much like a sperm racing to fertilize an egg. Just one is enough for a game over, but the atmosphere layers will destroy them (sapping away some of it in the process)
• The player charges up a energy blast and fires it out into the play area using a Missile Command like mechanic (the green spheres).
• When ever an enemy is destroyed, it will leave behind a small stormcloud that persists for a while (the purple mass). If the player can gather enough overlapping stormclounds, it will begin to rain. The rain causes giant vines to grow out of the ground (the circular arm things, although they are placeholder).
• As the vines grow, they will spawn power ups for the player.
• Theres an endless mode, and between 30 and 50 'levels'. In each level the player has to survive a specified amount of time (usually between 1-3 minutes), and get the highest score possible (hopefully with some leaderboards).
• Target platform is iPad and iPhone, with PC/Mac coming after.

I'll get some video up at some point, the gameplay looks much less abstract when things are moving around. I hope this looks/sounds interesting!

[BomberTREE]

Get it working on the android and you got a sale!
I really like the abstract look of it all, I can just imagine epic ambient music with a beat that makes the enemys bob up and down.. heh 

[Chris Pavia]

It could be on Android if it sells enough on pc/mac/iOS to be able to afford the android plug in for Unity! In other words, don't get your hopes up   

[BomberTREE]

Oh you use unity? alright I can wait xD
Being an android dev cost's 25$ over the 99/year but its alot easier to steal the app so dont worry about it

[Chris Pavia]

Yeah, I have been using Unity for this and Zodiac Gate. So you'll get to play it on Mac or PC at least!

[SP9000]

The gameplay sounds really unique and cool.  I love the visual style you have going on.  Very pretty!

[Chris Pavia]

Thanks SP9000!

As far as progress, I've got a placeholder algorithm in for the endless mode, but it will need to be tweaked drastically once all the enemy types are in.

The timeline editor for creating levels is functioning, which is mainly just pre-defined sequences of enemy waves that come at the player, similar to Plants vs Zombies or similar games. I've got 2 levels created so far, and hopefully will have another 3-4 done over the weekend.

I'm going to try and capture some video over the weekend so the screenshots will make more sense.

[Chris Pavia]

Okay, here's a video, so hopefully the screenshots will make a bit more sense.





And here's my #screenshotsaturday pic:

http://twitpic.com/5nn3my

Currently working on making the vines look more interesting than a bunch of spheres.

[BomberTREE]

Those big green explosions need to fade out or get crazy and look like black holes or something 
Just disappearing wasn't doing it for me lol

[Chris Pavia]

You're definitely right, I just haven't gotten around to working on their FX yet.

[Destral]

Really cool idea, I'm looking forward to playing this. I especially like the mechanic with the rainclouds and the vines. 

[Chris Pavia]

Thanks Destral!

I spent today redoing the vine system, this should look more interesting than a bunch of spheres:



The sun plays a vital role in the gameplay as well. I'll probably add in a couple more background vines to fill in some of the negative space.

[Bones]

Oh wow those tentacles look pretty sexy now, much better then all those circles.
I'd like to see a video of them now.

[Destral]

Those vines look much better. In the video, it looked like the vines had leaves coming out of them, maybe (circles that were offset to the sides of the main line of circles)? Or was I just imagining it?

Also, the circle from where your shots originate looks like an ancient mask or face bas-relief. I really like the art style you're using. 

I'm also curious to learn what role the sun plays.

[Chris Pavia]

Those vines look much better. In the video, it looked like the vines had leaves coming out of them, maybe (circles that were offset to the sides of the main line of circles)? Or was I just imagining it?

Also, the circle from where your shots originate looks like an ancient mask or face bas-relief. I really like the art style you're using. 

I'm also curious to learn what role the sun plays.

The vines/tentacles provide various types of power ups for the player as they grow. There are a few different types, such as point multipliers or faster weapon charge times. The most valuable are energy the player can collect which charges up there secondary weapon. Currently the secondary weapon is like a large laser blast, although I'd like to add some unlockable weapons for playing through the 30-50 short levels.

I'm glad you like the mask! If I get the time to add boss battles, there will be others.

I'll put up a video of the new vines growing sometime this week, after I've had a chance to add some other FX as well.

[Chris Pavia]

Just wanted to toss up a couple images of previous art styles I was experimenting with before I settled on the current one.



This was the start of a watercolor type style, enemies left behind colored splotches when they were hit.



Much more abstract, I was trying to get the gameplay across in just 2 colors. It looks pretty cool in motion, but it's pretty hard to tell what's going on when things get crazy.

[Chris Pavia]

Update time!

I added thorns to the vines:





And here's another

showing the vines growing and the thorns sprouting. The vines are sped up a bit to keep the video short.

[Orymus]

Are you making this using Unity? (I want an android release!)

[BomberTREE]

WHOA That throrn look is really cool 

[Chris Pavia]

The game is indeed made in Unity. If it generates enough revenue that we can afford to get the Android upgrade, we'll probably try that out.

Glad you like the thorns Kithief!

As for progress, I'm currently working on the main menu and title treatment. I'm out of town all week for comic con, hopefully I'll have something to show next week.