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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsDungeon Dashers - Fast Paced Turn Based Dungeon Crawling [GREENLIT]
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Author Topic: Dungeon Dashers - Fast Paced Turn Based Dungeon Crawling [GREENLIT]  (Read 146130 times)
JigxorAndy
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« Reply #140 on: May 25, 2012, 02:50:08 AM »

Day 146

Bandit idle and attack frames:



Sorry for the lack of updates the past week or so. Life got in the way! (And Diablo III  Shrug). But the game is still moving forward. Alex has created the new sprites as you can see above, Philip is currently working on a new "Ancient Sandy Tomb" tileset, and Steve has sent me many many impressive quest designs that I am looking forward to implementing.

I will be traveling a lot over the next 3 weeks, and my internet access may be intermittent, so I may not be able to post very often, but I will be working on the game on my laptop.
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« Reply #141 on: May 29, 2012, 04:22:28 PM »

The art in this is giving me great late-era Amiga vibes, the game seems really interesting too.  Also keen on the idea of a Mac build.
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SolarLune
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« Reply #142 on: May 29, 2012, 06:03:38 PM »

Yeah, the graphics are really professional-looking! Great job to your artist! Reminds me of Sierra games for some reason (the proportions, I guess, I dunno Durr...?).
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« Reply #143 on: June 01, 2012, 08:54:03 PM »

Yea having a blast with this and can't wait for more updates.
Any plans for a map editor?
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JigxorAndy
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« Reply #144 on: June 16, 2012, 08:27:26 AM »

I'm back from my trip in Paris and London (I live in Australia). I took a lot of photos of real dungeons to draw some inspiration from too!

I'll be doing a bigger update on what has been going on soon. Alex has finished some new sprites.

Yea having a blast with this and can't wait for more updates.
Any plans for a map editor?

Thanks! I have no plans for a map editor at the moment, though I will add it to the list of features to think about.
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JigxorAndy
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« Reply #145 on: June 25, 2012, 05:30:08 PM »

Day 178
YouTube video of Alex working on the new  oversized Dragon sprite:


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JigxorAndy
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« Reply #146 on: July 02, 2012, 09:35:49 AM »



Day 184
* Added Bandits (steal your money when they hit you)
* Added Witches (shoot two fireballs - for now)
* Added Lich Kings (summon skeletons everywhere - you want to kill these quick)
* Added Water Elementals (normal attack for now - probably shoot a line of water later)

As you can see in the screenshot the monster shadows still need to be added in and the player one's are just simple drop shadows rather than proper perspective.
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JigxorAndy
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« Reply #147 on: July 04, 2012, 09:41:33 AM »

Day 185
* Updated http://cdn.dungeondashers.com (Shiny social bookmarks!)
* Added in base code for dragon movement (the dragon is oversized so his movement and collisions are different)
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JigxorAndy
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« Reply #148 on: July 05, 2012, 10:40:47 AM »

Day 187
* Added in Dragon graphics - surprisingly even though he's much bigger than the heroes, his feet only take up one tile!
* Tweaked damage counters so they stay on screen longer - amazing how different this makes it feel. They were virtually unreadable before.

I just remembered that the player heroes still need other weapons drawn. Currently only the elf has two weapons. Gah! More assets!

I also changed the 'hotspot' over the attack frames to add a bit of movement, and the game feels completely different again! Attacks have more power behind them. It feels much better and it was a simple change. I need to do this for all the attack animations, in reality it's probably less than an hour's work and it looks terrific.

I also realised that the Knight holds his sword like a right-handed person would, but he swings it in the opposite direction that most right-handed people would initially (off-hand).

The dragon looks great but I don't want to reveal any screenshots of him yet. I'll leave that for the next trailer I make... which I'm looking forward to.
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JigxorAndy
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« Reply #149 on: July 06, 2012, 06:46:31 AM »

Day 188
* Added in new attack 'animations' - the method for which I described yesterday
* Added more effects/impact on attacks - you should notice the difference next build. It "feels" better.
* Added "weak attack". Now you can still attack with less than 5 action points, but it does less damage. This means that you don't have to press the end turn button, but you can keep attacking until you run out of points. It makes the game flow much better.
* Fixed draw-order issues (sometimes objects would be drawn in the wrong y-position-order)
* Added new sound engine (handles lots of different sounds and their channels)
* Added a bunch of new sounds! (I made some sword stabs + box smashing sounds)
* Added camera shaking
* Added new fireball sprite (it's bigger)
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« Reply #150 on: July 06, 2012, 06:56:32 AM »

This game looks amazing! Going to try it now.
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JigxorAndy
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« Reply #151 on: July 06, 2012, 07:01:40 AM »

This game looks amazing! Going to try it now.

Thank you! I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think, I appreciate all the feedback I get Smiley

You can find the game on the Dungeon Dashers website.
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JigxorAndy
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« Reply #152 on: July 09, 2012, 09:42:36 AM »

Day 191
* Updated elf and enemy hotspot "animations"
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JigxorAndy
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« Reply #153 on: July 10, 2012, 09:42:37 AM »



Day 192
* I drew a 'blood explosion' animation which is used when an enemy dies. More blood!
* Fixed more animation hotspots (done with this now!)
* Made tiny coins that fall on the ground move to the player and auto-pickup
* Added in Dragon fireline attack (but will need more work still)

Bug of the day: There was hole in a wall that was meant to have collisions on. A goblin archer escaped through it and its AI was set to run away, so it kept on fleeing from the players into the abyss.

Pre-purchase at http://cdn.dungeondashers.com and play In Dev Build 2 right now!
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JigxorAndy
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« Reply #154 on: July 17, 2012, 11:27:10 PM »

So I haven't done a lot of coding work on Dungeon Dashers over the past week, but I've been doing a lot of playtesting with other game developers and gamers alike. I've been collecting lots of data, and also trying to outline exactly what it is I want the game to have and what kind of game it will be. The game is at a stage where it can go a lot of different ways, and there's a nice base right now to build off, but I need to make the right decisions in order to craft it into a cohesive well thought out experience.

With that in mind, what follows is some of the feedback I received and my thoughts on that feedback from TIGJamAU. It might not be interesting to all of you, but those who want to see what sort of feedback I receive and how I deal with it, you might find it interesting.

Feedback received at TIGJamAU:
Tester 1
  • Not obvious that switches can be pulled/pushed more than once
         >> I will explain through through a gameplay tutorial where you are required to do so.
  • Chests are fun to open "yay"
  • People melee with ranged characters
         >> I need to make them use a ranged attack by default
  • Didn't attack "hard" with his players, he kept them close together and bunched up
  • "Dungeon Dashers" is an inappropriate name
  • AI bug where it gets stuck near a wall and hops on the same spot
         >> I'll need to isolate and fix this, it happens with the goblin archer in the same spot each of the few times I've observed it
Tester 2
  • Needed to be told that you have to step off a tile with another hero and that you can't end your turn on the same tile as another hero
         >> he said it made sense once told, I can probably fix this with a tutorial. It's easy to know once learnt.
         >> Also adding more indications, perhaps making the other player more opaque and flashing them if you try to end turn on them
  • "I don't normally play games like this"
         >> but he enjoyed it a lot and said it interested him so it shows that DD works for a wider audience. Same with tester 1.
         >> he said it was easy to get into
  • "Did he kill the wizard?"
         >> need to make player deaths more obvious, more dramatic, more painful to the player
My ideas
  • Need an icon to show when you have "freemove" and when you don't
  • Screen resolution isn't overscaled to take advantage of the wholescreen when not played at 16:9
         >> Work something out
Tester 3
  • Stepped on the spikes by accident - "oh"
  • Tried to end turn on another hero
Tester 4
  • Suggested that the UI Square around a player seemed like a cursor (from games like Advance Wars) and confused him because he thought pressing up would make the "selection box" move up. Said I should change it to another cursor type.
         >> Good idea, what I have at the moment is something that I implemented and it needs more thought. I'll change it.
  • He understood the attacking system early and easily
  • Shooting an arrow - "that's satisfying"
  • Bug/confusing: If you have freemove but 1 action point left then you can't step onto another hero's space.
  • On encountering a room full of enemies: "I just shat myself"
  • He said it was intuitive to walk into enemies to attack them, no other buttons to press.
  • Super good idea from someone watching over the shoulder: If you end your turn without using any movement points it should "skip" the current player and allow you to come back to them in the "same turn".
         >> I love this idea. It gives the freedom of choosing the turn order for your characters without any extra UI or menus or flow breaking that my initial idea had in In Dev Build 1. It allows complex strategy for those who want it, with no extra overhead for those who don't care. Absolutely brilliant.
  • Targeting for arrows/ranged isn't intuitive. i.e. the way that it selects targets based on X position
         >> I'll update this later in the future. It "works" for now but it's not that pretty I know.
  • Perhaps I should keep the player in "firing" mode for an arrow/fireball once they've shot one. At the moment they have to go "into" the skill again to use it twice in a row - which they often want to do.
         >> May or may not be necessary. I'll have to test it out. It might be confusing if some skills keep you "in" them once you've used them once, and others don't.
  • "Dodge is shit". It would be cool if it was only on bigger monsters and scarier monsters who actually look like they have a chance of dodging. It doesn't make sense for small monsters like skeletons to dodge, and really it is just an annoyance and doesn't add anything to gameplay. It would make bigger monsters all the more scarier if you knew that they had this extra ability to dodge.
         >> I agree completely. I'll remove dodge for shitty monsters. Good thing it's easy to do in code.
  • Player/enemy colour schemes aren't great for mainly the knight and assassin
         * Silhouttes aren't unique for these characters
         * Knight blends in because of his colour scheme
         * I should add a red sash or something to the knight and perhaps change his pose as well
         * Look at a different colour scheme for the assassin
        >>I agree with this now that I think about it, but it's another art expense, so it's costly to change but I'll definitely consider it, especially if my budget expands
Tester 5
  • "How do I select?", in conjunction with trying to move the "cursor" down
         >> So this is a similar problem to the other tester. I should look into changing the UI on this.
  • Shooting an arrow: "hells yeah"
         >> Arrow seems to be pretty satisfying. I think the sound helps a lot too.
  • Getting treasure: "nice!"
         >> Treasure again is satisfying, even if it serves no purpose right now.
  • Said that the control scheme is easy
  • Said that Opening chests/doors is good with simply walking into them and no extra buttons needed
  • Line of sight for heroes isn't clear, hard to know what you can and can't shoot
         >> I agree with this as well. It's hard to know if you can hit an enemy without going to a tile first
         >> You kind of need to walk to a place first before you can see what you can do there, so for the more strategic players this is annoying
         >> I could add some kind of button to hold so that you can examine particular tiles, enemies, lines of sight, etc. With mouse controls that is easier.
Tester 6
  • Lots of discussion here but basically one of the main points was that I should be wary of the fact that if I try to make both a puzzle game (with sophisticated traps) as well as an action game (with going through a level killing everything) then it's possible that both elements could suffer.
         >> That's a risk, but as long as I keep testing, iterating, getting feedback and keep that risk in mind, I think I am capable of managing it.
  • Action points don't reset after you kill all enemies, i.e. freemove doesn't give you unlimited points and it doesn't make 'narrative sense' when it's like you're recovering from battle
         >> I agree with this, and it would fix the problem with another tester where you can't walk onto other heroes. I think I'll give the player full points here. There's no real reason why you shouldn't have them except that you can use a bunch of skills many times in a row, e.g. a healing spell if I have one later, however if there is some incentive to not muck around (e.g. you get a reward for finishing the level in less than 30 turns) then that will combat this sort of problem, and in effect, appeal to both casual players and the more dedicated, again allowing for both playstyles without compromising either.


And here is the tentative list of features I'd like to have in the game in order to help me work out where to focus my efforts - rather than just being feature driven and adding whatever I think is "cool" at any given moment.

What I need to have
  • Simple and effective Menus
  • Intuitive User Interface
  • Illustrated drawings for cover art and media
  • Online multiplayer
         >> Chat
         >> No desync issues
  • 50 Levels
         >> Replayable and diverse - some puzzly ones, some battle ones
  • Compelling loot system and reason for collecting gold
  • Level rating system (3-5 stars for doing well on a level)
  • A pick up and play, simple to get into and more complex to master combat system and overall game
         >> balanced stats
  • Streamlined gameplay which allows for a quick slaughter if you are good enough
  • Intelligent, diverse and challenging AI leading to interesting battles
  • 4 Well Balanced and fun classes each with specific roles which have some customization
  • 50 Different Items
  • 40 Different Skills/Spells (=10 per char)
  • An overarching, original, witty and sometimes humorous storyline
  • Story text for each level
  • 3 Different map tilesets
  • 20 enemy types
  • Epic soundtrack
  • Achievements system
  • Simple controls, not many buttons
  • Mouse and keyboard controls

What I would like to have
  • Public map editor to allow players to create their own levels
  • Cutscenes and a super compelling storyline
  • 6-8 playable characters
  • Mac build
  • Linux build
  • Complex maps that have certain secrets that are only unlockable after playing them a second time with some new skills

What I would put in, given another 6 months and unlimited budget
  • Player vs Player area styled combat
  • Player vs Player where one player controls all the monster on the map
  • iPad build
  • iPhone build
« Last Edit: July 17, 2012, 11:35:47 PM by JigxorAndy » Logged

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« Reply #155 on: July 18, 2012, 04:19:37 AM »

Nice, that's some epic feedback! Looking forward to see where it goes now.
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JigxorAndy
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« Reply #156 on: July 19, 2012, 09:43:05 AM »

Day 201
* Added main menu with temp UI + sounds
* Prototyped new game lobby menu (below)



I worked on the UI design today, building in some new working mockups with my amazing placeholder art. I realised that it's very important to be able to do all of this stuff properly such as selecting your characters, maps, etc. I have a mediocre system in place but I didn't want to put it into the IN-DEV builds because it wasn't useable or intuitive. I think this design that I have now will work well and look nice in the end. If there are problems I'll just iterate, however UI iteration is quite painful and slow. I often have to rewrite large chunks of the UI code if "minor" visual changes need to be made.

You may find this strange but I've been looking at the UI design for Halo 3/Reach and Mass effect 3's multiplayer. I realised there are a couple of interesting design decisions here I thought I'd mention.

For Mass Effect 3, it has the similar problem to me in that they need the ability for mouse only input or game-controller only input (disregarding that PC = console port). In my game, you will use the mouse or the keyboard, or both.

Both Halo and ME3 use "two vertical" menus. So in Halo, if you move left at the matchmaking screen then you're in the game options section, if you move right then you're looking at players. In ME3 it is the same. For ME3's third "bottom line" of buttons/options, on the console they are mapped to buttons, and on PC it's not a problem because you can use the mouse.

It's more apparent if you Google for "halo reach ui" and "mass effect 3 lobby".

Very sleepy right now!
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JigxorAndy
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« Reply #157 on: July 20, 2012, 08:37:08 AM »

Day 202

I iterated on the UI design some more today. Still placeholder, but I changed it to a "tabbed" system so that there is no longer a back button on any of the windows. There is also a chat there all the time now.



I'm quite pleased with this design! Looking forward to putting it all together and turning this "playable build" into a full game experience.

P.S that is not my drawing for the map. It's a screenshot from an old game that I don't know the name of.
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« Reply #158 on: July 20, 2012, 08:51:09 AM »

Defenders of the Crown?
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JigxorAndy
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« Reply #159 on: July 20, 2012, 08:53:12 AM »

Defenders of the Crown?

Could be! I took the image from here: http://noirlac.tumblr.com/, where the author takes lots of awesome pictures from games. He doesn't write where they come from.
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