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[tinyDino]

Under Lock and Key

Hello There! My names Ryan Throw and im pretty new to the indie scene. This is my first game that im actually intending to release to the public, through what means i dont know but im assuming ill probably just throw it up either on Newgrounds or something.

Why Im Making It

The goal of the game for me is to learn as much as possible through the act of actually making a game. For this game im doing everything, art, animation, design, and programming, the only thing I dont plan on doing myself is sound and music. While doing almost every aspect of the game is difficult in some ways its also been extremely informative so far and through this project I think Ive managed to refine my programming skills and learned how to do animation, so in a way the game has already been a success for me because Ive already accomplished what I intended to when starting it.

What The Game Is

Because this game is just a project intended to teach me new aspects of making games I decided to take a game that already exists and rework it into a game thats similar on the surface but maybe has changed somewhat drastically in the game play aspect. This allows me to save my own game ideas for more serious projects. So after some thought I decided making a game similar to The Binding Of Isaac might be fun. So the game im making is a topdown rogue like with procedurally generated levels much like Isaac. How it differs is with the elimination of ranged weapons for melee weapons. By just changing this aspect of the game it's more of an avoidance, hit and run sort of game, than spray and pray, bullet hell. There are other changes as well but that seems to be the main change that really has changed the games overall feel. As for a story I dont really know if there is one, If people like the game I think I might continue to add to it and with the addition of content a story will come. Basically right now the premise is that your stuck in a dungeon and you need to get out and everything's kinda freaky.

Rooms

So right now im only working on one floor of the dungeon, if People like the game Ill add more. Each floor will be composed of a random selection of 50 or so different rooms. Heres an example of what one of the rooms looks like.

Enemies

Each floor will also contain a set of enemies that differs from floor to floor. Im playing around with how big each set is but right now im leaning towards 4 enemies and 2 traps a set. Enemies obviously can be killed but traps cant. The way ive designed it, the enemies and traps work together nicely and kill you in a timely manner. Heres two enemies and 1 trap from the first zone.

Weapons

The game is composed of 20 different weapons which will be rewarded to you either after boss fight or in sacrifice rooms. Regardless nothing is just given to you in the game, you either need to win it from fights or sacrifice some of your blood to get upgrades. Along with Weapons are gems that will buff your stats, these are rewarded randomly after clearing a room or in sacrifice rooms, some gems however will only work for axes while some will only work for maces etc. Heres a few of the weapons done so far, I havent gotten around to gems yet.

My Dead Line

I said this would be a week long project, unfortunately it is running long. again. I think in the next day or so ill have the combat system all worked out and then its just a matter of stat handling and adding rooms. I think in the next five days or so ill have a completed build of the first floor. Like I said before, if people like it ill do more, or if people have constructive criticism Ill definitely go back and fix the issues, and then if people like it ill go and do more. Welp that's it for me, thanks for reading!

ITS DONE! PLAY IT HERE AT NEWGROUNDS: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/645875

[tinyDino]

doing the combat system tonight, here's a teaser of 2 of the ten enemies planed as well as 2 of the 20 weapons

[tinyDino]

Update: So my goal for last night was to get a decent amount of the combat system done but due to a limitation in the code, programming enemies would be long, tedious and inefficient. I fixed this issue by recoding the random level generation and thus had to reprogram doors and even screw around with player movement a bit(thats what i get for trying to do world generation in a night) but all is well now and the game runs much better this way anyway so no complaints. I was able to do some enemy ai but its not as polished as id like it to be so that will probably be my next post later tonight/ early tomorrow morning. While restructuring I also decided water would look better than pits so changed that as well. hopefully ill get a gif up soon but heres a pic for now.

[tinyDino]

UPDATE: Last night i was able to program most of the enemy ai. Working on combat now and later tonight. unfortunately my one week project may take an extra few days especially since i wont be able to work on it Saturday or Sunday. I think ill be updating the page too later tonight.

[tinyDino]

UPDATE: okay so im working on the combat system still but i needed a way of showing stats to the player so heres what i came up with. There are only 4 basic stats, health(which really isnt a stat), defense(basically just resilience), strength, and swing range. Each red line will grow according to how buffed each stat is. As for the player portrait if i have the time ill update her picture with howmuch damage she has taken, kinda like doom. Also were are two more weapons and enemies. One is a tier 4 maul and the other is a mystery. As for the enemies the one on the left is more so of a trap and fires arrows on an interval, he also cant be destroyed but will continue to fire arrows even after the room is cleared. The one on the right is named Billy who has already been redesigned but the over all look is similar. Billy is slow and stupid and gets bored of chasing you if your to far away but when he does chase you watch out, he deals ass loads of damage and has extremely high health. Billys usually travel in pair and attempt to corner you if the can manage enough brain power to work together.

[tinyDino]

I decided to completely redo the page, i think this one works better

[tinyDino]

UPDATE:Okay so A lot of work has been done in the past 24 hours! All the rooms have now been designed and coded. The only things left to do is make the weapons obtainable and and have player stats change when they are picked up and used. I think with a few more hours of hard work it will be done except for music and sound effects! Hopefully the whole thing will be done either late tonight or tomorrow! On a different note here's a pic of a level being assembled. basically rooms are selected from a pool a launched sideways or vertically at each other untill there is a collision. if the rooms miss, the room that was launched simply goes back into the pool and a new room is selected at random. I know its not the most efficient way to do it but it takes no more than 15 seconds to generate a level and i though more complex methods of level generation would be overkill for such a small project.

[tinyDino]

UpDate Alright guys this is probably going to be the last update before its complete! Just finished weapons and stat handling today, and all is working well. I think i got most of the bugs out of the rooms as well. The only things left to do are the final boss fight, code the sound, and add a few small odds and ends here and there. After that its just play testing and balancing before release!

[dez]

Something about this is so awesome.
Maybe its just the RAWNESS.

id like to try it when it's ready.  :D

This game will have a special place in your heart as your first!

[tinyDino]

UPDATE Well i said the last update was going to be the last one before release but i lied. Didn't get as much done today as i would have liked to due to getting all my shit together for this coming semester, but i like to update my progress on a nightly basis since its such a small project. So As of tonight almost all content has been added. The only things left to do create a quick ending if you complete the game and resetting the game upon death. I'm meeting with the guy whose doing the sound and music tomorrow so ill be getting that from him and then its just a matter of coding that in and then off to playtesting!

[tinyDino]

Another Update Okay so its been a while since I've updated and been able to work on the game(largely due to the fact that my semester just started). Basically the game is done at this point. Right now I'm just Play testing, balancing, and figuring out where the hell I'm gunna release this thing! Only thing that actually remains to be done is programming in the sound once it gets here. Other than that I think that's about it. Looking forward to release. Hopefully only another week or so.

[dez]

if it's a free game you can use indiedb?

[tinyDino]

Yeah i think ill post it there as well as newgrounds. Also......... UPDATE! It's done! except for music and sound which I can now finally announce is being done by the very talented Chris Kukla!Cant wait to get the final product out the door. I think I'm going to start on the next project while Chris is working on the sound. 

[tinyDino]

UPDATE!!!:IT'S DONE!! You can find it on new grounds simply by searching under lock and key in their games section! Thanks for reading and playing guys, I hope you enjoy!

Heres the link to newgrounds: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/645875

[dez]

Pretty cool, I just played it.
It's awesome for a first game. And you FINISHED it. 
So congrats on that.
It's so tough to finish something.

I died from those horned guys they are really tough.  Swinging the axe takes so long that I could not fight 4 of them off in a room.  It's ok... interestingly my favorite thing about the game is the art.  It's so primitive yet endearing, I really love the art.

[tinyDino]

Pretty cool, I just played it.
It's awesome for a first game. And you FINISHED it. 
So congrats on that.
It's so tough to finish something.

I died from those horned guys they are really tough.  Swinging the axe takes so long that I could not fight 4 of them off in a room.  It's ok... interestingly my favorite thing about the game is the art.  It's so primitive yet endearing, I really love the art.

Thanks I'm glad you played it! Yeah there are definitely some issues with hotboxes not being well defined and rooms where your almost guaranteed to take damage. I'm just glad I finished it and that I can take what I've learned from this game and what I've learned from the criticism from those who've played as well and make the next game better. I'm already working on the engine for the next game and should have a dev-log up soon!