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[rek]

yes I agree that the skeleton and the goblin could be a bit more readable. Currently I dont have the tileset confirmed, because I dont have the island generation code confirmed, so until I get the tileset confirmed I will hold off doin any color correction stuff. I also hope to do several types of islands. maybe a volcano island, snow island and this island. I would then have different guys and bosses depending on location.

I think the skeleton reads just fine, but the goblin does blend into the grass tile.

How many hits can the bosses take?

[JasonPickering]

thats up in the air. it needs to be enough to be a threat, but not so much its impossible. this will of course all come down to gametesting.

Edit: I am dealing with the waves but I am having trouble coming up with a good icon. originally it was going to be a skull, but that might be odd since I have skeleton enemies.

[happymonster]

I'd suggest a roaring lion like face, just because that would symbolise the challenge of an enemy.

[JasonPickering]

Well I should have a longer post coming up later, but for now not much new stuff. Today was a lot of backpedaling cleaning up code that is pretty thrown together. I have also been trying to fix a pathfinding issue where monsters will sometimes get stuck in the same tile. it happens maybe every 1 in 100 times. Now I am getting the whole Wave system in, which is a bit of a pain as I need to rewrite a lot of other code in other entities.

[Eendhoorn]

I'm loving the art, good job. It's hard to get a picture of the gameplay though.

[JasonPickering]

My goal is for gameplay to be like having your brain smashed out by a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick

but I should have a gameplay test up for people soon. I threw out the level generation code and started over from scratch. its much faster, uses up less memory, and is much more island like. I have spent a lot of time cleaning up the code for the future. Right now a lot of stuff is hard coded and its very hard to add in new content and make it modular. Right now each Enemy has to be coded in separately because the deaths are all very code specific.



so I did some more art. you can see the new Witch Sprite. I also tried doing attack animations, because its very nice to see who is attacking you each time. Haven't found anything I like yet. I plan on having the above floating bubbles. they will be countdowns or something and I thought about popping up the sword during a monster attack, shown above. I also got rid of the Monster cave and Changed it to the Monster Totem, which is the dirt area with the skull. monsters will randomly spawn at one of those and come at you. You can also see the new test AI and the Enemy Count in the upper corner.

Also I think MicRogue might be the official title. I think its pretty funny and I will wrap the game in a story similar to Rogue most likely.

[PompiPompi]

Great!
I am not sure, but too much shadow on the witch chin might make it look like it's an unshaven man. Maybe you should try put there less shadow, but don't take my word on it.
I like the skull in the dirt, it looks really good and it is probably more clear. Plus, maybe it will be possible to walk on it?
Also, I don't know what is the thing bellow the slime and to the left of the skeleton. It looks just like a variety of the tiles, like dirt. But it might be confusing when you have such small monsters like the rat.
Yea, you are working with a very limited resolution. Just my thoughts.

[Eldboll]

Tiny sprites <3

[JasonPickering]

Now that you point out the witch I totally see the 5 o'clock shadow, that will have to change. yeah you can walk on the skull in the dirt its a monster totem that spawns  more, but they wont spawn if you are standing on it. and the thing below the slime was an alternate tile. trying to add some visual difference, but now that you mention it, that tile could be seen as something else I am probably going to try making a few new tiles but doing so using only the green colors that I have.

[JasonPickering]

Okay Guys. Doing more cleanup for the game. Still a lot of weird artifacts that happen and the game will need a tremendous amount of polish, but right now with just 2 monsters (rat and Goblin) its pretty fun. I still have not been able to beat it though. I died with one enemy left in the final wave and that's using the goblin, one of the best enemies in the game.
Next I need to add the boss monster. I needed to do something interesting for the boss, I didn't want the standard roguelike of you hit me I hit you till one of us falls down. Currently the idea is the the Boss will spawn with their own wave. so an example might be:

wave 1 = 8 guys
wave 2 = 10 guys
wave 3 = 12 guys
wave 4 = 12 guys + Boss

the boss can not be killed until their wave is defeated, and then its a single hit. The boss is the first to spawn. Its basically an unstoppable monster chasing you through the level as you try and kill the minions. All Bosses will have attacks that kill you and minions, so it might be advantageous to take a hit if it means killing a bunch of minions in the process. also hitting the boss will "Dizzy" them for a few turns, giving you time to run.

I can post up a build for everyone to try out, but it is pretty buggy. My major bugs are if you happen to kill a monster who's turn it is next, the game will hang. and every once in a great while two monsters will get stuck in each other.

Edit: here are some animations for the main character
Idle + attack (needs better timing)


Death

[happymonster]

They look great Jason!

[Claw]

This looks really cool, love the sprites and animations; idle makes me think of quagmire saying 'giggidy giggidy' 

[JasonPickering]

thanks. its a little hard to do a good idle with so few pixels.

[JasonPickering]

Well all the animations are in. The monsters have their code redone so they are all based off one base file so I can change that to make code changes instead of redoing each one, and the new turn system is in. I had a build ready to post, but I added in an effects system and its causing a weird turn issue that's leaves all the monster standing around not taking their turn. I will be cleaning that up tomorrow and hopefully finishing off all Priority one tasks which are

Priority 1:
- Redo the Pathfinding Code. (rarely Enemies get stuck in each other)
- Add Win system
- Add Lose system (with Player Death)
- Add Boss Monster
- Add Skills

[Zack Bell]

I LOVE THE ART STYLE. MORE THAN ANYTHING. EVER. NOT EXAGGERATING.

...

[st33d]

You should probably use flooding pathfinding for the pathfinding.

Looking pretty good at the moment.

[JasonPickering]

yep I do use floodfill pathing. the one small problem I have is sometimes a monster wont register another monster as being on a tile. so when they walk into each other and get stuck, because the square is marked with a wall and their distance at the same time. I need to go through my function and see what the main cause is. I think it happens when the two monsters are one after the other in the Turn Queue. and when the pathing runs it doesn't see the just moved one. I can try and fix the code, or add a bandaid for now and fix it, but not actually know the problem.

[JasonPickering]

Still going Strong, although it seems everything has slowed to a crawl. I need to add the Boss next, but havent been able to get a good idea for one. my goal was to have something on thursday and so far looks like I am on schedule. It wont be a pretty game, but it will be a decent prototype, showing what I want in game. I cant decide if I should wait to post a build or put one up now. what do you guys think.

[happymonster]

Wait until you have something you are happy with

[st33d]

also hitting the boss will "Dizzy" them for a few turns

I believe the industry standard term for this is stun-lock