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« Reply #20 on: August 30, 2014, 10:31:59 AM »

This is cool stuff! Liked the shadows, and get a Townsmen vibe from it. Good job, my dear sir. Gentleman
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« Reply #21 on: August 30, 2014, 08:33:44 PM »

This is cool stuff! Liked the shadows, and get a Townsmen vibe from it. Good job, my dear sir. Gentleman

Thanks! Hopefully I can get some of the real meat and potatoes of this game going in the next couple of months. Smiley
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« Reply #22 on: August 31, 2014, 07:29:18 PM »

A random act of boredom, I spruced up my company "Splash screen". ..What do you think?



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« Reply #23 on: September 02, 2014, 03:03:44 PM »

As I develop this game, I have many ideas floating around in my head and on paper about how this game will be played and how the many mechanics will all come together to make this a great little game. A problem I've come to realize during my development is, while I have this vision in my head about what RPC is, it's all in my head! So I've decided I need to start explaining these features to the fans!

So, to remedy the situation I've decided to start posting some news that isn't so much just about the new features I've added, but more a general blog about the game and it's many currently existing and planning features to give you guys an idea of what the full scope of RPC is all about.

For the first "Mechanics Blog", I've decided to explain the range system, what it is for and what it means to the player. When you start a typical game of Retro-Pixel Castles, you will start with a handful of villagers on a random or preset location on the map (depends on the map's configuration). From there, you have no buildings, all you have is your handful of villagers. You will be allowed to build one, and only one building to start off with: your village center.

Once you find a suitable place on the map to place your village center, your villagers will start building it. Once completed, a colored range map will pop up. From here on out, the only land you can harvest, farm, and build on will have to be within the range of your village center and it's future connected buildings.
   
Here's a small village, with the range map visible.

Now, because you're restricted to building within that range is seriously limits your ability to defend yourself from the onslaught of the monsters that will spawn, and eventually engulf the map. So it's up to you to expand your range quickly so you can put up walls, towers and other defensive elements in key defensive areas.

Almost everything you build adds to this range map, some more than others.  Currently planned, the two main ways to quickly expand your range is to build light sources or guard towers. Light sources are mostly non-functional, and really their only purpose is to expand your range map and provide light. But, guard towers will also house soldiers who can defend your city and offer a substantial increase to your overall range.
      
Some builders, building a new light source (Small wood torch) on the edge of your range map.

As you can see in the above shot, they are building right on the edge of their building range because they can not reach around and build up north. But, once the light source is built, the range expands, allowing them access to the terrain north of their village.
      
They have expanded their build range and started harvesting wood and building some homes in the new area they now control.

While this seems like a somewhat minor mechanic to talk about, this plays a very critical role in how you manage your village. When playing you'll want to attempt to bottleneck the monsters attacking you into key points where you can kill them off so they don't harm your villagers, the problem is since you can only build within your range map you can't simply just run off to each edge of the general area you've established your village and block off everything everywhere. You have to build out your range map in those directions. All the while, the monsters are trying to eat your poor little villagers! Smiley

Feel free to leave a comment about what mechanics you'd like me to cover in the next "Mechanics Blog"!
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« Reply #24 on: September 03, 2014, 01:31:22 PM »

Another random act of boredom! .. tooltips!

They're not quite done yet, they don't detect items on the ground. But they work great for terrain. Wink

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« Reply #25 on: September 06, 2014, 11:20:48 AM »

Started working on some assets for the upcoming Kickstarter, everyone seems to love this one:

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« Reply #26 on: September 10, 2014, 01:14:24 AM »

For the second Mechanics Blog I will be discussing the buildings. In Retro-Pixel Castles, you place buildings in a similar fashion as you would in an RTS, as long as they're within your range map. (See the previous blog for an explanation of the Range Map system) but how they all function varies greatly, and many of them interact with each other in symbiosis. Smiley

The Village Center
When you start a game of Retro-Pixel Castles, you'll hunt down a good spot to call home. Once you find a spot you think is think is safe (hah! sucker! You're going to die anyway!) you will place your very first building, the Village Center. The Village Center is your primary building, and the only building that houses "Builder" workers that can construct other buildings. Losing this building pretty much spells doom for your village, so protect it well!



Homes
Homes are fully automated, each house can hold a certain amount of villagers, some food and in the future, some wood for heating for my future plans to add seasons to the game. When a villager gets hungry, sleepy, or simply just bored he will head to his house for some relaxation. Additionally as your villagers go through their day, they will also couple-up with other villagers. When this happens they attempt to move in together. So over time, your houses are naturally filled with pairs villagers who coincidentally will occasionally go home and "get busy". The happier your villagers are, the more often this happens, and in turn, the faster your population growth is!



Farms
Farms, are your main source of food. (Big surprise there!) There is food scattered all over the map, but none of it is replenishable. You will have to build some farms in your village and plant some of the food you find to get a stable food source going. The workers assigned to the farm will automatically harvest crops, and deliver food to the houses on the map.



Harvesting Buildings
Every resource in the game as a harvesting building that goes alongside it. Like a Lumber Mill for wood, and a Stone Masonry for stone. The workers assigned to these buildings will go out and gather materials on the map where ever you tell them to and bring it back to their building to store. They also play a vital role in the efficiency of your builder's building process because they can deliver resources to build sites, allowing more time for the builders assigned to your Village Center to build, and less time wasted gathering materials.



Abandoned Buildings
Many of the maps will have abandoned buildings scattered around, these old buildings cost roughly half as much to restore as it would cost to build a brand new one. So when placing your Village Center, it can be very helpful to locate some of these buildings and start your village near them.



Light Sources
Light Sources extend your build range, allowing you to place buildings further away from your Village. They play a vital role in setting up your defensive permitted out beyond the normal limits of your village. The Future
These buildings are just a small sample of what RPC will offer in the future. I have plans for guard towers, barracks, mage towers, alchemy labs, schools, orphanages, forgeries, workshops, and many other buildings. What I've shown you today (and what will be released in the upcoming Building Mechanics demo) just barely scratches the surface.

BONUS: Stay tuned! The Kickstarter, Greenlight AND the Building/AI Tech-Demo will be released soon! Smiley
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« Reply #27 on: September 10, 2014, 11:02:08 PM »

Completely overhauled the original thread, let me know what you guy's think. Smiley
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« Reply #28 on: September 11, 2014, 05:33:00 PM »

Got a few requests to start up a tumblr, so, tada!
- Tumblr -

Please follow and reblog my announcement post if you're interested. Smiley
« Last Edit: September 11, 2014, 08:21:35 PM by Rayvolution » Logged

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« Reply #29 on: September 21, 2014, 05:36:41 PM »

The Kickstarter and Greenlight Campaign STARTS TOMORROW!! Woohoo!!!  Shocked

Here's the new tech demo video that will be featured with it. Smiley


« Last Edit: September 21, 2014, 08:31:27 PM by Rayvolution » Logged

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« Reply #30 on: September 22, 2014, 03:25:17 AM »

Good luck!

(also, subbed)
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« Reply #31 on: September 22, 2014, 11:09:20 AM »

Important URLs:
- Kickstarter!
- Greenlight!
- NEW Build!
-

!

Kickstarter offers many backer rewards, and a modest goal of $5,000. If you're interested you can head over to the Kickstarter Page!

The Backer Awards:
  • Name in the credits - There will be a credits button on the main menu, when clicked it will start a credits roll listing all of the Kickstarter backers and how much they contributed!
  • Free copy of the game - You will receive a free copy of the game, either on Steam, Desura, or any other service RPC is on.
  • Free copy of the soundtrack - A DRM-Free digital copy of the entire soundtrack to load up on your various music devices!
  • Villager named after you - Your full name will be added to the pool of random villager names. Must be an actual real/realistic first and last name, it does not have to be your real name if you don't want it to be.
  • Gifted villager named after you - Gifted villagers are special villagers with increased abilities, the same rules apply as the regular villagers reward, but instead you'll have the honor of being part of the very small pool of Gifted Villager names.
  • Award Banners - On http://retropixelcastles.com you will receive an award banner on your account matching your contribution level!
  • Random quote - On the main menu there is a cute little bouncing text below the logo that will say completely random quotes from all over the web. You will be allowed to add your own, and it'll have your name on it! (70 Character limit, including your name, and spaces.)
  • Content Contributor - You will be allowed to make your own custom map that will be included in the final game's "Kickstarter Map Pack" with full credit given to you. There are only two requirements, the map must be playable and must not contain to obscene content.
  • Map Pack creation - Submit an entire theme idea to me (Candy, Mars, Moon, etc) and I will create it, along with a collection of maps to go with it. It include it in the game retail. (Must fit in to the overall theme of the game and not a violation of copyright law.)
  • A new friend! - I will add you to my Steam friends list, and you'll be able to interact with my directly. I will occasionally bounce ideas of you, and give you links to test builds and other fun stuff to play around with. You will also have on-demand game support!
Additionally, we've launched Greenlight as well! So dangit, GO VOTE. Smiley


A brand new stable build has been released, with a fancy video too!





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« Reply #32 on: September 22, 2014, 12:29:21 PM »

so, this really looks interesting, but soundtrack in the youtube video is horrible. And some of the links in the images link to the indiedb page instead of the zoomed in picture which kind of is annoying. I think there are not enough city building strategy games out there.
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« Reply #33 on: September 22, 2014, 09:02:06 PM »

so, this really looks interesting, but soundtrack in the youtube video is horrible. And some of the links in the images link to the indiedb page instead of the zoomed in picture which kind of is annoying. I think there are not enough city building strategy games out there.

If you don't mind my asking, what's wrong with the music, just not your style? How would you improve it? Just an honest question, since I'm always seeking feedback. Smiley
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« Reply #34 on: September 23, 2014, 02:26:35 PM »

I'm proud to announce the hugely successful launch day on both Kickstarter and Greenlight!

It has been just slightly over 24 hours since the campaigns have launched, and thanks to all of you guys we have already reached $395 of our $5000 goal in only one day, so let's keep the momentum going! Remember; you can get a free copy of the game when it's released for as little as a $5 on Kickstarter!

We also already have over yes 800 votes on Greenlight! Keep those votes coming in! we're getting votes left and right, but we need 5,000 to break the top 100! Smiley

Now, once thing I've always wanted to know while setting up these type of campaigns is stats, it seems very few people are willing to talk about them. It's so hard to find some solid information online, so I thought I'd do everyone a favor, and share my first 24 hours with you all.

First, I thought I'd show you the nutty gritty steam stats. As you can see, we have a ton of votes, followers and comments already. At first, the large amount of "no" votes made me feel uneasy, but if you take a look at the average yes:no vote percentages in the top 50, Retro-Pixel Castles is actually doing absolutely amazing!


For Kickstarter, within 24 hours we have received just shy of $400! I was surprised to see how much of it came from external social media sources I use, so guess what? All that crazy marketing people tell us to do actually works! So remember guys, get yourself a Twitter, post regular updates on IndieDB, and get yourself a thread going on popular dev forums like TigSource and Java-Gaming.org!

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« Reply #35 on: September 27, 2014, 09:31:38 AM »

I've added a few features to the game based on your guy's feedback. Now, when villagers build they will build first to last, where as formally they were mostly indiscriminate about what order they built things.




Another addition is the resource pushing system. Now, when you build on top of collected resources any resources that become blocked in the process of the building coming together will be shoved off to the side, making sure they remain accessible. Smiley


I also fixed a few AI bugs, mainly with farming. Resolved a strange bug where farmers would sometimes completely refuse to harvest their crops, and I've made the farmer's delivery AI much smarter. Now when your farmers deliver food you should see them consistently distributing the food to all the houses evenly, and not in large groups.
I've also added two new backer awards on Kickstarter!

$40 Tier - MAKE-A-MOB. This new tier allows you to put forward a monster idea I will work it into the final game! (Note: All tiers above it retroactively receive this award as well, hurrah for you guys!)
$300 Tier - "THE LIST". This is a very special new tier, because you guys are so overly fantastic and within only 5 days maxed out my top-level backer rewards I had to come up with something even more special! This award will grant you all the previous backer awards, and put you on a special list that will make sure you get always get alpha and beta invites to every single game SixtyGig Games develops in the future, and when they games are released you'll get a free digital copy of them as well!
and finally, I'd like to express how happy and grateful I am for all your support! It's amazing, we've reached a third of our Kickstarter goal in only five days!! You guys are absolutely awesome! Don't forget to hit up Greenlight, we already have 1,288 votes but we still need about 4,000 more!
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« Reply #36 on: October 04, 2014, 06:55:44 PM »

Past few days have been a bit crazy, but I'm still developing away as usual. Recently I've been working on adding children to the game, a much larger feat that it lets on. Part of adding the children is also coding the foundational support for animals and monsters in the future. So there's a ton of stuff going on behind the scenes. Smiley

But on to the kids. Your villagers start off without a mate of any kind, if their happiness is high enough they may start partnering up. Once they partner up a whole new branch of AI opens up and they begin visiting each other when they're bored or sad, they also attempt to live in the same house and if they're both in a good mode, they may even go back to their house and get frisky!
 
Some villagers partnering up.


.. and gettin' frisky!


Once said friskiness happens, there's a slight chance one of the two will get pregnant (Spoiler alert; the female!). Once a villager is pregnant, her production speed across the board slows down, but she can still work and function like a normal villager.
 
A Pregnant Villager


Eventually, the villager will give birth. Once that happens, out pops a little child. The child will gain one-forth of the combined statistics of both parents. So for example, if both parents are level 10, the child would be a level 5. (10+10) / 4 = 5. Same goes for all the other stats, like STR, DEX and INT. Additionally once the trait system is completed, the children will also inherit a few random traits from either parents and have a chance to spawn an entirely new one on occasion.

Children can't work, all they do is wander around the village bugging people, eventually I will be adding schools, orphanages and other activities they can do to gain XP on their own before they finally grow into adults.
 
Some kids in this shot (The ones in the lavender clothes)

After a certain amount of time, you guessed it, they grow up! Once they're fully grown they can work and function just like any other villager in town.

I have tons of long term plans for the entire process, currently though it's somewhat simple. I plan to add more elements to the game, like the risk of the mother or child dying during labor, and clinics that can lower the chance of that happening. As mentioned a little before, I'd also like to eventually add buildings child-specific that can help them when they're growing up get a slight head start, like schools they can visit to "learn" (gain XP).
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« Reply #37 on: October 10, 2014, 10:50:20 AM »

Retro-Pixel Castles is now funded and greenlit on steam!


That's right! RPC WILL BE RELEASED ON STEAM!

*queue victory music*


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« Reply #38 on: October 14, 2014, 12:36:38 PM »

I was actually one of the lucky ones, Steam handpicked me out of the bunch after only 2 or 3 weeks, with only 40% yes votes to the top 100. Smiley
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« Reply #39 on: October 14, 2014, 05:35:19 PM »

PRICE IS NOW CONFIRMED AT $14.99 ON STEAM!
If you're interested in getting a copy, you can also check out the already-funded kickstarter that still has about two weeks left, there are many tiers that offer a free copy of the game that are much lower than the $14.99 pricepoint Steam has authorized. Smiley

NEW STABLE BUILD RELEASED!
The latest and greatest build has finally been released! This build features a ton of tuneups, bug fixes, runs faster, uses less memory and it much more stable! Woot!

Full Changelog:
- Overall load speed increased by about 25-30% (More on lower end machines)
- Villagers no longer attempt to grab resources that are on a blocked tile.
- Fixed a bug that would cause farmers to stop farming entirely.
- Resources are now pushed out of the way if you attempt to build something on top of them.
- Added Children. They are not allowed to work, but will eventually grow into adult villagers. They inherit stats/experience from their parents when born.
- Hovering over "total population" on the top GUI now shows how many adults and children you have.
- Zooming added, you can now zoom between 1x and 8x zoom with the + and - key on your numpad. (Last build was locked at 3x)
- The interface GUI is now set to 2x scaling (Last build was 3x)
- Minimap colors rebalanced, and the minimap renders faster.
- Shadows generate much faster now.
- Lighting style changed, now more retro-like. Also renders faster.
- Created proper launcher files/executable for Windows, Mac and Linux.
- Patched a crash related to lighting values dropping below 0.
- Fixed a crash related to villagers trying to do mate related AI functions and their mate dies before the action is completed.
- Fixed a crash that would fire when a villager is starving to death and looking for food.
- Farmers now distribute food more evenly.
- Builders now build from first to last, not everything all at once.
- Many other tiny bug fixes and tweaks.

You can fetch the latest copy of the game here.

Screenshots from the new build on a WIP map made by Dragonisser.


« Last Edit: October 14, 2014, 05:40:23 PM by Rayvolution » Logged

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