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[ananasblau]

Man, this game looks rad! Any chance of a port to Mac?

In my opinion: Porting is something you either do at the very beginning and automate the build process or you get into trouble later on. You automate it so errors pop up early and you don't repeat them a hundert times.

[K1lo]

Wow, you're busy as hell, I should get into that same mode. Are you doing Isomer full-time?

Pretty much actually! There's a big list of things I still want to add and the intention was always to release early and (hopefully) often adding bits incrementally. It's a good way to keep motivated too by working in roughly fortnight sized chunks, otherwise you can easily get swamped by the sheer amount still to do.

Man, this game looks rad! Any chance of a port to Mac?

It's something I haven't discounted (along with a Linux port) however I can't commit to anything at the moment, it really depends on time.

In my opinion: Porting is something you either do at the very beginning and automate the build process or you get into trouble later on. You automate it so errors pop up early and you don't repeat them a hundert times.

That's very true, although in the case of Isomer it is actually two parts - Sepia the game engine that I build alongside Isomer and the game itself. Since the game itself is a client of the Sepia engine it is cross platform already (helped by careful choice of APIs). The vast majority of Sepia is cross platform also so it's a very real possibility as porting to OSX or Linux wouldn't require the same degree of adaptation of the game 'client' as say iOS or Android would as there wouldn't any need to redesign the UIs.

[K1lo]

The last couple of weeks have been quite busy, there's a new build (0.8.2.2) fixing a couple of issues and tweaking some elements as well. I also wrote an article about memory pools and their use in C++ game development.

But the main news is that IndieDB are running their Indie of the Year competition and it would be awesome if you could spare a moment to VOTE FOR ISOMER I'm not above kidnapping cherished family pets and holding them to ransom

[K1lo]

Well Isomer didn't get into the Top100 this year, but that's ok - there are so many awesome games out there. It's been a while since I've posted largely because of Christmas, then a bit of random down time. But, we're back and there is a new Isomer build (0.8.3.1) out today! It can grabbed from the website (http://www.ionisingsoftware.co.uk/isomer/) or Desura or directly updated from within the Isomer launcher!

There have been a number of big improvements to the core game including the ability to select multiple units (up to 8 at a time) and issue mine/build/move and attack orders to the whole group. It is also possible to assign a unit or a whole group to a single numeric hotkey (Ctrl+[number] to assign, Alt+[number] to select and center and [number] to select) making commanding your squads much easier than in previous builds.

On top of this, there has been a relatively minor change to the way line of sight works however it has made a big difference to the way cover and exploration works. As of this build, large objects completely block line of sight!

The most obvious change to the world is the inclusion of a new biome - Jungle! Jungle areas are thick with trees and plant life and have similar resources to woodland areas, except there are far fewer stone resources close to the surface. They are also the best place to plant biomass seeding trees and the plants which you can then harvest for biomass resources grow most quickly in jungle areas. The thick and dense plant and tree life make them dangerous places coupled with the LoS upgrades as enemy units can hide and ambush your troops much more easily. Particularly at night so be careful!

Here is the complete change list:

• New: Added hot key selection for units. Ctrl + number stores a group of units. The number on its own selects them (Alt selection causes the view to shift to them). The group a unit belongs to is now shown next to their selection bar.
• New: The hotkey group that an entity belongs to is persisted across save/load operations.
• New: Added jungle biome.
• New: Entities can now build on/in water blocks.
• New: Added new night time music track and updated existing night time track with longer version.   
• New: Improved/refactored code relating to unit selection and multiselection.     
• New: Major refactoring / improvements to IsometricView module to support changes in mouse control and UI.   
• New: Multiselection HUD now shows entity previews and stats.   
• New: Added ability for mining and building orders to be issued to a group at a single time.   
• New: Added diagnostics for registry access errors to assist in debugging session code issue reported on forum.
• New: Added blocking sprite inclusion in LoS calculations, FoW and LoS now take into account blocking objects within the world when calculating sight lines.
• New: Added ability to cycle through selected units in the HUD. 
• New: Biomass seeding trees seed biomass plants most quickly in jungle.
• New: Bumped entity file schema to 7 (save games from this version will not work with previous versions of Isomer).
• New: Added improved loading and versioning of entity save file versions (Old versions of entity schemas will be automatically upgraded on save).
• New: Added debug key to launcher and game which will log extra information about the session code exchange.

• Improved: Adjusted energy costs for entity movement and changing direction.       
• Improved: Improved entity building task internal scheduling and error reporting. 
• Improved: Improved entity movement when potentially blocked by group motion.     
• Improved: Increased enemy AI aggressiveness at the top end of the scale.         
• Improved: Upped starting resources to 150.                                       
• Improved: Tweaked world generation parameters.                                   

• Bugfix: Fixed bug in launcher registry access reporting logs.                                                                                                       
• Bugfix: Fixed potential resource leaks on abandoned world load operations.                                                                                           
• Bugfix: Fixed edge case with pathfinding where transport pads are present, but the closest one can't be reached easily leading to units just standing there.         
• Bugfix: Minor tweak to memory pool to utilise first element.                                                                                                         
• Bugfix: Fixed issue where a unit falling onto a water block wouldn't drown.                                                                                         
• Bugfix: Reordered checking of session information to provide more suitable error message when information is invalid.                                               

You can get access to the Isomer alpha either via the Humble Store widget or Desura!

[K1lo]

A new build (0.8.3.2) has landed and is available to download via the Isomer launcher. The focus of this build has been bugfixing and improving on the multiselection mechanics introduced in the build last week and suggestions from the forum.  There are also a few new snazzy things like the new fog of war blending effect added.



Work now begins on 0.8.4.x which will (it really really will!) have the combat changes and unit equipment selection that has been announced in the past along with the features announced on the development status page. The intention is to follow this page (and update it) more frequently to feedback exactly what is being worked on currently as well as go back to the more frequent release rate seen before Christmas.

Here's the complete changelist for this patch build!

New: Added ability to select a single unit from a group in the HUD.     
New: Added new hints to game hint system relating to groups and hotkeys.
New: Added new Fog of War blending effect.                             
Improvement: Made day/night transitions slightly longer.
Bugfix: Mutated units now keep their group hotkey registration information.                                 
Bugfix: Fixed blending transition colour use after leaving scope (how did this not result in a crash?!).     
Bugfix: Fixed a number of small bugs relating to group selection and mutation.                               
Bugfix: Fixed issue in About screen which would prevent proper transition back to menu on left mouse click.
Bugfix: Corrected highlight tile to use 64x32 dimension.                                                     
Bugfix: Corrected the display of edges when drawing highlighted blocks.           

[K1lo]

At long last I was able to spend some time working on the weapons system in Isomer! This has been something I've wanted to do since the start of the year, if not sooner, but other development priorities kept coming up and it was not until this build (0.8.4.1) that I was able to devote the majority of my development time to this task. I'm really pleased with the results, units can now equip a variety of weapons greatly adding to the variety of play. Each new weapon has different characteristics but first let me say a little about the new mechanics.

Each weapon has a number of extra attributes as can be seen from the unit weapon selection screen above. New in this build are 'rate of fire' which relates to how quickly the weapon cools down between shots, the number of 'shots per blast' that each weapon emits - some weapons like the scatter rifle fire lots of smaller projectiles making them great for clearing small areas. Each weapon now has an 'accuracy' rating which is used in the overall hit/miss calculations alongside the skill of the unit. Lastly, each weapon has a set number of shots before the unit must pause to reload (the magazine size), the reload speed will also vary depending on the complexity of the weapon.

So as you can see, there's a big difference between the new weapons with some being rapid firing autocannons and others having a lower rate of fire but blasting out a number of projectiles in a shotgun like fashion. There are also dangerously accurate and heavy hitting sniper weapons available to both sides, and of course you can loot and use enemy weapons should you wish to!

As an added quirk, enemy units can loot alien weapons from your fallen units and may swap their own equipped weapon if they like the alien one better!

Not only are there many new weapon mechanics, but the Lancer weapon types finally appear (they've been in the code since before the first public alpha build but disabled), Lancer weapons deal slightly less damage than Blaster weapons, however the power of the weapon blast is not degraded by the armour rating of the enemy unit the weapon blast hits! That makes these weapons very useful against enemy Heavy units.

This build sees the start of the equipment store with weapons being bought from the supply ship and looted from enemies. This concept will be built on for the next update which shall greatly improve trade, economy and the supply ship mechanic. It will also be able to sell looted weapons in the next build and biomass will play a much bigger role in the game, becoming the primary currency as well as a resource. Much is planned for 0.8.5.1, but I'll talk more about this in the future.

Games saved in this build will be not able to be played in previous versions due to a bump in the save file schemas.

The full change log is below:

• New: Added lots of new weapons.
• New: Added magazine size and weapon reloading cool down mechanics.
• New: Added ability for weapons to fire more than one projectile per blast.
• New: Added weapon stats information to unit stats view.
• New: Added updated sound effects for weapons.
• New: Added ability for enemy units to have a random weapon (based on their class and rank) on spawn.
• New: Added unit weapon and equipment selection screen.
• New: Added special case for AI when looting from alien corpses. If the enemy unit determines the weapon is worth pilfering they will take it and use it instead of their own.
• New: Added healing animation when health is looted from corpses.
• New: Player can now loot weapons from corpses.
• New: Bumped game options schema. Games saved with this version/revision will not work in previous builds.
• New: Added automatic upgrade for older save games to include new schema elements.
• New: Added hints relating to new weapon mechanics.
• New: Weapons can now be bought from supply ships.
• New: Added mouse-over text for each resource icon.
• New: Added inactive HUD button for when a worker can't be mutated either because they are not on a mutation pad or moving.

• Improved: Alien workers now can spawn with either pistols or scatter pistols.
• Improved: Reorganised and improved the way in which weapon resources are stored and looked up internally.
• Improved: Removed redundant weapon code.
• Improved: Removed redundant code and resource from pre-alpha weapon selection screen.
• Improved: Fixed weapon Y position alignment bug in HUD.
• Improved: Corrected change equipment button and mouse-over mismatch.
• Improved: Tweaked weapons power values.
• Improved: World objects being destroyed by weapons fire now is dependant on the strength of the weapon blast rather than using a static percentage change as before.
• Improved: Improved handling of build task failure notifications so remaining build queue is no longer cancelled.
• Improved: Improved entity notification manager to display weapon images when required.
• Improved: Added snazzy background to Title/About and in game shunt screens.
• Improved: Tweaked text colour to make it easier to read on new tiled background.
• Improved: Supply ships now offer more to purchase options each time they appear.
• Improved: Hints shown during saving, generating and loading screens now change every few seconds.

• Bugfix: Fixed bug preventing screenshots when modal screen were active mid-game.
• Bugfix: Fixed mouse held event causing mlitiselection mode to be triggered even when a modal screen is shown.
• Bugfix: Fixed bug relating to building on top of nonblocking sprites.
• Bugfix: Refactored code in BaseEntity to remove duplication of resource reporting.
• Bugfix: Corrected menu elements to not have white border.
• Bugfix: Fixed bug with mlitiselection occurring when a modal screen was shown.

As usual, the update can be downloaded through the Isomer launcher.

If you would like to access the current alpha build, it is available on Desura as well as via the Humble Store on the game website.

[K1lo]

As part of work I am doing adding a map view to Isomer I thought I'd share this kind of X-ray developer mode, it shows how resources are more abundant the lower down you dig in the world with veins of resources being much larger.

'Ground' level

Almost the lowest accessible level

EDIT: Here's a preview of what the map subscreen is looking like at the moment (big WIP currently

[pmprog]

Need to keep an eye on this, looks like it could be my sort of thing

[K1lo]

Thanks pmprog!

Another WIP screenshot from this morning, this time showing the tiles as they are drawn internally to track down a performance issue:

[K1lo]

I've put in tracking of enemy and friendly units to the map view.. it think it looks quite good!

[K1lo]

And yet more GIFfy goodness showing what the map view looks like with a bit of combat:



... and world exploration:

[K1lo]

I was away for a couple of days this week, but I continued working on the map mode I talked about in previous posts. I added alerts to map mode to highlight when player units are under fire and integrated the map into a minimap on the side of the screen. I also added several new craftable buildings including the Sensor Platform which is required to access the map mode (think Radar Station from C&C).

[K1lo]

A cheeky plug from me - the Isomer alpha is 50% off currently on Desura, so if you've been holding out you no longer have an excuse :D



There will also be a new build in the next day or two featuring new buildings, the map system I've been posting about and an overhauled storage system! 

[K1lo]

I did a 10 minute Let's Play showing some of the new things coming up in the next build.

Youtube -



 

[K1lo]

The last few days have been quite amazing ! Build 0.8.5.1 (.. and then .2 and .3 ... but moving on ) were released, we ran a 50% off sale on Desura for a week which brought in many new players and.. perhaps most excitingly, we launched on Greenlight!

What matters most to any game developer is having people play and enjoy their game, Steam has and continues to be the best way of getting the attention of many potential players.. but there is more to it than that. As a developer, it feels like a big achievement to even have your game in the Greenlight queue and to be considered for release on such a recognised platform.

I held off submitting Isomer to Greenlight/Steam until now because I wanted to be further along in development. I don't like the idea of offering half baked ideas or early prototypes to get peoples' hopes up (and certainly not to take their money) because game development is rarely a straightforward process either technically or creatively. Sometimes ideas just don't work or the enthusiasm developers have clouds their judgement and leads to disappointment for everyone.

Having been first opened up to alphafunding in August/September 2013 and receiving regular updates since, Isomer is finally 'mature enough' (I'm sure I will laugh at this statement after a few more builds are out) for me to feel confident submitting it to Greenlight.

This does not mean however that Isomer is finished or moving to beta. There are many features and mechanics in the pipeline to add in the coming months. Being Greenlit (fingers crossed) will be a huge step towards accelerating this process as it will hopefully give me the funding to continue working on Isomer full time as well as pay for more art and sound work, maybe even take on another developer ... we shall see!

So, please help Isomer get on to Steam! You can help by:

• Visiting our Greenlight page and up voting the heck out of it
• Posting Let's Plays or videos with Isomer (here's our LP policy for those interested)
• Help spread the word by telling your friends
• Conserve biomass for the war effort!

Aside from all the Greenlight related excitement, I have another announcement. I was interviewed by a nice guy called Niall Gill who wrote a fantastic piece about the realities of indie development which I highly recommend you read. I go into detail about some of the original inspiration behind Isomer and what it is like working as a solo independent developer on a project as complex as Isomer.

Lastly I wanted to say a few words about what it coming in the next build. My plan is to spend some time enhancing the lighting engine to perform 3D illuminations. Currently lighting is calculated on two planes in 2D and this can lead to ugly cut offs especially where terrain changes height close to the light source. I am also going to continue enhancing combat by putting more work into line of sight calculations for units so they can shoot around each other better as well as continue with the economy and trading enhancements I talked about in previous posts. As ever if you have ideas or suggestions feel free to post them and there's a good chance they'll make it into a future build.

This is turned into a long post so if you made it this far ... have an extra 50 biomass for your trouble. 

[dhondon]

Cool project!
Can't wait for the 3D illuminations
That will improve the overall impression of the graphics.

[K1lo]

Thanks dhondon!

I've been focusing my efforts for the next build on adding snazz and polish. As part of that I've added a particle engine which you can see working in the GIFs below.

Weapon blasts and impacts now leave trails of particles which slowly fall away from the path of the projectile.

There are also other effects like screen shake when things explode and particle effects when corpses are looted.

More to come soon 

[K1lo]

And... resource collection is now more visual.

as is looting from fallen units...

and mining blocks ...

The focus of the next build is polish polish polish 

[K1lo]

I just realised that this new build (0.8.6.1) is the 17th update since I opened up Isomer to alphafunding last year! That's a pretty impressive number and Isomer has certainly come a long way with many new things being added along the way. At some point I might do a retrospective showing the main changes, but I'll leave that for the 1 year mark. 

Update 17 has a large number of bugfixes and tweaks, but the primary focus has been on polish and snazz. What do I mean by snazz? Well, see for yourself:

There have been lots of effects added - looting of resources from objects in the world / fallen units and mining is now more 'visual' with both the type and approximate amount of the looted resources shown. In addition to this, explosions are now more 'meaty' with particle effects and screenshake.

New blocks have been added to Isomer also! Both humans and aliens have a new alternative construction block as well as two new solid minerals blocks. Both minerals and rare minerals can be crafted into a solid (albeit expensive) block for when you positively have to show off your plunder to the inhabitants of the world you are subjugating.

Building on the unit under fire notifications added in the previous build, now when either mini powercores or the primary core come under attack alerts will be shown on the HUD. This makes it far easier to track down and deal with human attacks.

Force fire mode (a feature requested on the forum) has been added. Holding the Ctrl button and left clicking when units are selected will cause them to fire in the direction indicated. Use this to cut down dense vegetation, ignite explosive barrels or smash through walls in enemy bases.

Lastly I want to talk about Greenlight! After 34ish days on Greenlight Isomer is 92% of the way to the top 100.. please keep voting for us and telling your friends, these next few weeks will be the most important!!

Here's the complete changelog:

• New: Added particle engine.                                                                                                 
• New: Added resource gained particle effects to mining and looting actions.                                                 
• New: Added new enemy corpse looting particle effect.                                                                       
• New: Added explosion particle effects.                                                                                     
• New: Added particle effect when biomass plants are seeded or grow.                                                         
• New: Added screenshake effect on explosions that is proportional to how far away the explosion is from the screen.         
• New: Added new enemy corpse looting dissolve particle effect.                                                               
• New: Added particle effects for looting crates.                                                                             
• New: Added resource gained particle effects to mining and looting actions.                                                 
• New: Added music and sound effects volume controls to launcher, game now has configurable music and sound effects volumes. 
• New: Added 'force fire' mode when holding Ctrl key.                                                                         
• New: Assigning units to group 0 removes them from any other groups they might be assigned to.                               
• New: Added four new blocks. Alien and human structural, Pure Mineral and Pure Rare Mineral blocks. Three can be crafted by the player.             
• New: Weapon blasts now trail particles as they fly through the air.                                                         
• New: Loaded games are now paused by default.                                                                               
• New: Mini power core and primary power cores now raise alerts in the HUD in the same way as player under fire alerts.

• Improvement: Reduced the number of resources dropped by portable power cores.
• Improvement: Renamed portable power core to mini power core.
• Improvement: Added increased random delay to secondary explosions resulting in more satisfying explosions. 
• Improvement: Added unit notifications for some looting cases to make it easier for the player to work out what was happening. 
• Improvement: Improved biomass seeding tree animation with more frames.
• Improvement: Human brick and enemy control cores now drop resources when mined.
• Improvement: Destroyed player silos no longer block movement and can now be looted to recover some resources (also freeing up mini power core to be built on again).
• Improvement: Increased magazine size of Heavy Lancer Rifle. 
• Improvement: Increased health and defense value of all alien units. 
• Improvement: Increased pathfinding cutoff point for player controlled entities to 1000 to better improve pathfinding over difficult terrain. 
• Improvement: Removed snow trees from 'half height' group.   

• Bugfix: Fixed no weapon being displayed when lancer sniper rifle was equipped.
• Bugfix: Fixed resource trading with supply ships ignoring storage capacity of player vats.
• Bugfix: Fixed group selection code to properly deselect entities from groups that new entities are added to
• Bugfix: Fixed issue where the higher the view would be above the alert source the further away the arrow would be on the Y axis from the real source of the alert.   
• Bugfix: Fixed bug where a group of entities when given a single build target would all attempt to perform it.   
• Bugfix: Fixed bug preventing units from moving sometimes when in combat.
• Bugfix: Corrected bug where the target defence strength would be considered twice when firing a projectile.   
• Bugfix: Fixed bug where looted resources from crates would not respect resource limits imposed by silo capacity.   
• Bugfix: Fixed bug which would show erroneously unit under fire alert for units that were visible because the view was above them.

As with before, the new build can be updated from inside the Isomer launcher supplied with the Isomer Alpha.

[K1lo]

Fiddling with many things for the next build. One of them is a smoother camera, rather than just 'jumping' from point A to B, it will now zip through the world before coming to focus on the target position. Speed of movement is relative to how far away the target is from the camera.

I think this change works quite well



Also a general push - Isomer is currently #78 on Greenlight so please keep voting so we can get into that sacred top 75 which get Valve's attention each few weeks