next »

[Luka Parascandalo]

Really amazing work, Luka! I'm developing a game myself and I think it's interesting how you debug pathfinding. It really makes the enemies feel more alive when they dynamically change their attention like that. One question, though: What if you get on the other side of a transparent object (i.e. the pool) and run back and forth? Would the enemy constantly repath around the other side to reach you?

If so, maybe there could be a timer for how often the enemy can repath? Like, they'd favor continuing their suboptimal path to the player over changing their current path.

Hey thanks!

At the moment it just works as you said. You don't even need to run back and forth because if he is exactly in the middle right across the path he gets confused. I didn't have time to properly tweak the pathfinding system as I just finished implementing it. I will probably make the enemies calculate the path either based on a timer like you mentioned or only calculate paths based on the tiles they are standing in instead of per-pixel.

I will just have to test and tweak till it works alright. I will definitely post an update when it's ready!

[absolute8]

Good stuff  !

[Luka Parascandalo]

As usual I haven't posted here in a while so I'm gonna post a quick update of the new updates which are worth mentioning.

1: New Tileset
Not completely finished but close. Still have to get this one in game.



2: Re-do of the player's attack animations
The original attack animation were terrible and only had two frames. New ones are much better and also have a bit of a combo feel.



3: New Enemy - Zombie
Did a bunch of animations for a new enemy which is not in game yet but most of the art is ready. It's also meant to be also be a part of a boss but that's a bit too far ahead for now.



4: Leveling Up
Implemented XP system complete with HUD animation. Also added a utility to allow me to show temporary messages on the left side of the screen from any object in the game. Currently only being used for level up stat information but I'm sure I will use it for other things later on. Also new leveling up animation.



5: Updated inventory
Equipment got a bit of an update with the addition of general stats instead of fixed. This means that instead of a sword only having a damage value which is added to the character's base strength, it can now also have multiple stat bonuses like increased health or defense. Also inventory shows stat changes from equipment before they are equipped Green = Better, Red = Worse. (in the GIF you can see the level up in action - animation looks a bit weird on top - need to fix it!)



6: Bonus
I have done general improvement to my particle system and basically all of my classes. One improvement is the ability to draw any sprite in any color. So here's the character bleeding rainbows.

[Luka Parascandalo]

Hey Everyone!
I have completely neglected this blog because I barely have any time to work on the game itself, much less keeping up with social media and dev logs. That being said, the game reached a very important milestone and it's now on Steam Greenlight so I thought I would post with the most important updates and changes to get this blog up to speed.

1: First of all, Take a look at the Greenlight trailer!




It took a lot more work than I thought it would but I think it came out pretty good. Lots of learning curves with the video capture, music, video editing etc. Glad I can finally get work on development 100%!


2: Updated Tilesets

All the tilesets currently in the game have been updated with some additional details and polish and are now complete. Of course there will be many more for the release but for now these will do.




3: Re-done Potion System

I completely re-did the potion system. Potions now come in 3 sizes which can either be a great thing or a very bad thing when you're not sure what drinking it will do to you. Also, quaffing potions now takes time instead of being instant. This is so the player can't just open the inventory, pausing the game, and restoring health. If attacked while drinking a potion, the animation is interrupted and the potion is dropped to the floor. Check out the chugging animation and the good/bad potion effects animations!



 


4: Updated Path Finding and Line of Sight

I have been fine-tuning path finding so it can work with a larger variety of objects and actors and while doing so I also started messing with lines of sight for enemies. As you can see in the gif below, the archer does not notice the player until he's visible.




5: New and Updated Traps

Spike traps have been updated to show depth properly when the player on an enemy are in the middle of them so the back row of spikes can be behind the actor and the front row still shows in front. Also I have added some more traps like the frost bolt which incapacitates actors for a period of time, and the Roller trap which demolishes anything in it's path!






6: Weapon Generation Overhaul

The entire weapon generation system got re-written to allow for more visual variety. A sword (currently the only available weapon) is made up of three parts - picked at random - which are all combined and colored dynamically through code. The colors need to be tweaked so that nothing too crazy is generated but the colors reflect the value of the weapon or in the case of elemental damage, reflect the element.






7: New Boss WIP

Started working on the next boss! It's still in very early stages and it's gonna be a lot of work but it's coming! It's a huge Murderous Octopus!




That's all for now!
Let me know what you guys thing and if you like what you see, Please Vote for The WishGranter on Steam Greenlight!

You can follow the Wishgranter in the following Links:

• Website
• Steam Greenlight Page
• IndieDB
• DevBlog
• Twitter (Game)
• Twitter (Dev)

[DieMango]

Defently needs more hit-indicators...

[Luka Parascandalo]

Defently needs more hit-indicators...

Hey Thanks for the input.
Can you elaborate?
Do you mean when the player gets hit or the player hits enemies?

When the player gets hit the screen shakes and there's knockback. Maybe the screenshake is not completely evident from the gifs since they're low fps. I am currently also experimenting with a screenflash on hit.

For when the enemies are hit, Combat is still being tweaked and changed but knockback, blood effects and sound make it pretty evident the enemy is getting hit.

If you're referring to damage prompts for each hit I am still experimenting with having them as an option you can turn on or off.

[DieMango]

Defently needs more hit-indicators...

Can you elaborate?

Screenshake and particels are nice but having a ..Hit-Frame'' just feels better. Imagen smacking someone and they spit blood and your vision is blurred but they just stand theree without a motion.

Having a frame where the enemy is Blank (so the Sprite is complete white) or have a sort of ,,oh no i been hit'' fr5ame woud ´make connecting hits feel...crispy? (i am not native english so eh...)

[Luka Parascandalo]

Defently needs more hit-indicators...

Can you elaborate?

Screenshake and particels are nice but having a ..Hit-Frame'' just feels better. Imagen smacking someone and they spit blood and your vision is blurred but they just stand theree without a motion.

Having a frame where the enemy is Blank (so the Sprite is complete white) or have a sort of ,,oh no i been hit'' fr5ame woud ´make connecting hits feel...crispy? (i am not native english so eh...)

Ah yes I definitely see what you mean. I'm currently overhauling combat to see what feels right and what doesn't. I will experiment with adding a blank frame.

Thanks!

[RossD20Studios]

Luka - Great animations and VFX! What tool are you using to create your animated GIFs showing off the gameplay? The quality is amazing.

[Luka Parascandalo]

Luka - Great animations and VFX! What tool are you using to create your animated GIFs showing off the gameplay? The quality is amazing.

Hey thanks for the feedback!
To Capture gameplay Gifs I'm using GifCam. It's an amazing, free, small, portable app. Highly recommend it!

[RossD20Studios]

Hey thanks for the feedback!
To Capture gameplay Gifs I'm using GifCam. It's an amazing, free, small, portable app. Highly recommend it!

You're welcome. And thank you for the tip on GifCam. I played around with it extensively this morning, but unfortunately could not get it to cooperate with my game. It seemed like it would work "in theory" very well using the green-screen to mask out the non-animated parts, but for some reason it does not blend the background image behind the green screen, and instead outputs the green screen animation. I'm guessing it has something to do with the number of colors, as I tried taking a screen capture of your screen capture, and it produced a flawless GIF from it. Certainly a nice perk to the 8-bit style

[Luka Parascandalo]

Hey thanks for the feedback!
To Capture gameplay Gifs I'm using GifCam. It's an amazing, free, small, portable app. Highly recommend it!

You're welcome. And thank you for the tip on GifCam. I played around with it extensively this morning, but unfortunately could not get it to cooperate with my game. It seemed like it would work "in theory" very well using the green-screen to mask out the non-animated parts, but for some reason it does not blend the background image behind the green screen, and instead outputs the green screen animation. I'm guessing it has something to do with the number of colors, as I tried taking a screen capture of your screen capture, and it produced a flawless GIF from it. Certainly a nice perk to the 8-bit style

Ah sorry to hear that. To be honest I never really messed around with it too much. All I do is open it up, resize it to the size I want, set it to 33fps and hit record. If you want you can try LICEcap. It's an alternative that does pretty much the same thing. It's not as portable though but maybe you'll have better luck with it.