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[ekun]

I thought I'd share a behind-the-scenes look at Vagante's development in a devlog update!

One useful technique we use is adding different debug 'view's of the game. Each view shows additional information about the game's state, and can be toggled on and off independently of each other.

Entity Ids and Collision Boxes
		This view is used for calibrating and fine tuning the collision boxes of different entities.  It also shows the entity types of each entity.
Enemy AI + Pathfinding
		Kyle's been working on improving the AI of the intelligent enemies in Vagante. He added this debug view to show the current path of intelligent enemies.
Broad-phase Collision Detection
		While developing the spatial hashing scheme used for Vagante, I added this view that lets us see exactly which space each object is hashed into. It shows the number of entities in that space, as well as points to each entity.
Level Generation/Collision
		Sometimes we see something weird going with the levels generated. This view shows us the specific chunk ID of the portion of the level, as well as its modifier. Useful stuff!

[Aquanoctis.]

The game looks just as I imagined when I saw the title Vagant. Hope you continue to do more behind the scenes bits like above, it's really interesting to see all the technical stuff going on in the background.

[clockwrk_routine]

Currently the player gets to choose 2-3 affinities that they start with, that'll be able to level up as they progress through the dungeons and also acquire new affinities.  Affinities grant passive/active skills.

Right now we have acrobatics implemented, it grants movement bonus's as well as a dash skill.  Ideally Vagante will be challenging from end to end, so the kind of skills you get aren't something you can exploit.  We've been also thinking of not having a way to level stats, stat's will all be derived from equipment and affinities.

We've been working with Sam English, who's been composing music and sfx for Vagante [it's rly goood : )]
Here's a Boss theme

I'm really happy with where the game is, it feels good - i get my ass kicked all the time.

Edit:  Also thanks I've been trying less drabby colors to give more contrast, I think it looks way better, still ahve to rework a few designs at some point


Added 3 new enemies:
- An exploding blood beetle thing
- Mimics
- dragon boss

misc stuff:
- Parallax BG
- Pathfinding has been added to the goblins
- Reworking the menu gui

[adnzzzzZ]

Game's looking amazing, good job. How many items/artifacts do you plan on having? Do you have plans on having them work like in Isaac, where some combinations of items create some really cool "new" mechanics?

Also that boss song sounds pretty great.

[ink.inc]

catacomb kids has some competition it seems

[clockwrk_routine]

@adnzzzzz thanks!

that's never been brought up, actually not sure where artifacts fall in line anymore, I think the item/affinity system pretty much replaces the bonus's we had.  I think what we want is to keep the mechanics relatively simple, though we talked a little bit about acquiring specials when you meet two different affinity levels.  That's not to rule out "sets" of unique items that might grant effects if worn together but its not something we've talked about.

@sandoval

[ekun]

today's progress:
- finally got customizable input in, including gamepads
- bindable skills/items in quickbar
- better music engine support, integration of sam's badass tracks

catacomb kids has some competition it seems

I hope not! I feel like our games are quite different despite their similarities.

I'm also a Catacomb Kids fan / kickstarter backer 

[clockwrk_routine]

[clockwrk_routine]

Redesigning the affinity menu, pretty happy with where it's going.  Been looking at a lot of symbols: astrological, FMA transmutation circles, magic circles, celtic runes trying to nail a design.  GUI design is probably what I've enjoyed the most working on this project, more thought has to go into how all the different pieces should fit together, work together, and how the player experiences it.  the old affinity icons will have to get tweaked to fit the circular format:



Icon work is elusive, but also fun - finding the best way to convey information with graphics.  Can you guess what these represent?

The other gui elements will probably get an overhaul.  The subdued colors have been bothering me.

more about affinities are on our blog

[ｍａｓｏｎ]

really cool, I love the colors. nice technology so far too.
I'm looking forward to more.

[clockwrk_routine]

thanks raycast ^ __ ^

[Fervir]

This game looks pretty sweet and it looks like it's coming along really nicely.
I like the enemies you have so far, looking pretty varied.
And the enemy AI stuff looks very promising.
I also like the whole skills system thing you have going on.
Hoping to see lots of weapon types in the future as well as how other equipment types will play a role in character building.

Looking forward to seeing where this project goes!

And for the icons, you have a skill book, dash, faster running, dodge?, more accuracy and red dodge?

[clockwrk_routine]

pretty close, inorder skill book, faster running, increased jump, dash, evasion (kind of tricky to convey), improved dash.  The faster running icon probably works better for dashing, still don't really know what to put in place of dashing.  and thank you for the encouragement spooky quest is looking sweeter every day

[Franklin's Ghost]

Just found this devlog and it's looking great. Seems like you guys are progressing quickly

[ANtY]

finally found the devlog for this gam, who'd think you might have it in your signature 

*subscribing*

[clockwrk_routine]

Welcome guys
quite the tumblr anty : P

This week was super productive but I'm taking the weekend off.  Just moved out of my mothers and will be in montreal for 6 months.  Gf's at uni 5 days a week, waking up with her and working till she gets home - it's nice to kind of have a time frame like that.

Even though I'm taking the weekend off, I'm still doing some work just not what I should be doing .  And I've been meaning to work on the title for a long time, which I think will be fun.


I had several thoughts, doing some sort of final fantasy backdrop with them bright colors they usually do, but instead I'll probably end up doing some antiquated gothic decorations around the lettering much like the affinity circles.

Since doing the affinity circles I have a much better idea for the games gui and general design.  When I started working with Eugene, I was looking a lot at final fantasy tactics for design - I think it definitely shows.  But I think it will be it's own thing now and I'm pretty happy about that. 

[ANtY]

  yea it's my perv/main account lol, I can't figure out how to follow someone with my gamedev tumblr  

god it even says which perverted blogs I follow    (edit: managed to erase dat)


anyways, I already like the first version of the logotype (tho it lacks some volume on the right side) so I can't wait to see the final version, logos are something I never got into, tho I'll be trying to approach this matter with my current project

I also like to see how my ideas start very similar to sth else and then they keep growing apart until becoming their own thing, that's awesome :3

[clockwrk_routine]

Yea I wish you could switch your main blog on tumblr.

I like the first one but I'm not sure if it fits with what I'm going for, like it's too cartoony and not enough classy/fancy.

I've made title screens before but they were bad and rushed during LD weekends.  I'm really into it though, like I said with gui, I get a certain undescribable satisfaction / motivation when I'm having to think about a lot of design elements and distill a design from that.  So with the title, it should reflect the game, it should fit with it's theme, where we are projecting it to go, how it relates to the other gui.  I wish there were some sort of universal word to describe that kind of process and motivation - because it's definitely a distinct process/feeling/thing that happens when I go about making something.

I also like to see how my ideas start very similar to sth else and then they keep growing apart until becoming their own thing, that's awesome :3

So far reaching that point is probably my favorite moment in development.  Like things just start clicking together.

[Bandreus]

This looks incredibly fun.

I love the general direction you guys are taking, keep up the awesome work 

[herror]

I don't like the sketches for the logo. I'm not sure if you want it hand drawn, but unless you have teh typography skills, I'd use a typeface, or modify one.