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[DireLogomachist]

Devolver Digital is joining me on the journey to bring MFP to all of you out there!

Woo! Awesome work, man!!! The folks at Devolver are great.

[DeadToast]

Thanks! Yes, the deal with Devolver had been brewing for a while and now I'm super excited to be able to tell the world :D Totally felt like there was a natural attraction between the game and Devolver

[Christian]

Congrats on Devolver! That's a perfect partnership for this

 All the crazy stuff is still in, right? Kicking decapitated heads over walls and the mechs and drones and impact gun/shield and motorcycle chases and all that?

[no1dead]

Congrats on the Devolver Partnership, looking forward to see much more of your game.

[DeadToast]

Congrats on Devolver! That's a perfect partnership for this

 All the crazy stuff is still in, right? Kicking decapitated heads over walls and the mechs and drones and impact gun/shield and motorcycle chases and all that?

Thanks :D Most of the crazy stuff is still in, and then some
- Kicking decapitated heads over walls, yes.
- Mechs, yes.
- Drones, maybe. (I've given them quite a bit of time but have struggled to find a way to use them that works well enough. I still have some ideas to try before giving up on them)
- Impact gun turned out to be a bit too confusing and became a bit redundant after adding the "spin dodge" in the game, so that one's a bit on the back burner for now.
- Motorcycle chase, absolutely!

I'm planning on showing some new experiments in a future DevLog update. Turning out to be quite a lot of stuff in this game

[Christian]

Congrats on Devolver! That's a perfect partnership for this

 All the crazy stuff is still in, right? Kicking decapitated heads over walls and the mechs and drones and impact gun/shield and motorcycle chases and all that?

Thanks :D Most of the crazy stuff is still in, and then some
- Kicking decapitated heads over walls, yes.
- Mechs, yes.
- Drones, maybe. (I've given them quite a bit of time but have struggled to find a way to use them that works well enough. I still have some ideas to try before giving up on them)
- Impact gun turned out to be a bit too confusing and became a bit redundant after adding the "spin dodge" in the game, so that one's a bit on the back burner for now.
- Motorcycle chase, absolutely!

I'm planning on showing some new experiments in a future DevLog update. Turning out to be quite a lot of stuff in this game

Impact gun could be cool because it fits the aggressive assault approach (protection against bullets on foot versus in air) and act as a "shotgun" for close range. Plus the idea of skillfully reflecting shots back at enemies while flipping through the air seemed really cool. Hope it makes it in

[DeadToast]

Well hello there! How nice of you to stop by. Come, let me show you what's been happening in my world over the last while.

There's been a lot of work going in to the game over the past few months. So much, in fact, that I struggle to remember all the new stuff! But here are some of the big gameplay things I've been playing around with:


Seeing as ya'll loved the bullets bouncing off the frying pan so much, I pondered on how I could expand on that even more and create some more directed gameplay moments with the same essence. So I made some snazzy signs which behave similar to the frying pan, just that they can't be kicked about.


So I've been thinking about what the 'boss battles' should be like. A traditional set up for a boss fight didn't seem quite right, so I've been thinking about it more in terms of "memorable moments" or "punctuation" through the progress of the game. After making the motorcycle chase it seemed to fit as a memorable moment and I wanted to make more similar things. So I made this sky fall section. There'll still be "bosses" that you fight, but the focus in those sections will be more zoomed out than just focusing on the boss interaction on it's own (at least that's the current plan).


I've also added some extra, more casual, gameplay elements. I thought it could be interesting to have an alarm the enemies can trigger, giving you a time window to kill the enemy before he reaches the alarm, kind of thing. I figured using some time pressure is good in a game were you can slow down time. It gives you a practical use of the slow motion.


I also made this sniper enemy. The main point of it is that they can shoot you from off the screen, but you'll see their laser aiming in on you, allowing you to dodge the bullets with some skill and timing.


I also thought it'd be interesting to have some melee enemies that charge at you and have a bit of extra life, creating more time pressure, again.

I guess that's all for this DevLog entry. I still have some things in the backlog to share with you, but that will have to wait until next update.

Oh yeah, just thought I'd mention a little disclaimer: Any of the features you see in this whole DevLog (including other posts beyond this one) might not make it in to the final game. I'm just sharing what I've been playing around with. Just thought it'd be good to mention that in case someone would get disappointed if they don't end up seeing something they thought were cool in the final game. The things I've shown so far that probably won't make it in to the game is the impulse rifle, electricity gun and the drone. Though the core idea of some of these things might still make it in to the game in a different form. I guess that's just the nature of games development.

Until next time!
Buh-bye.

[chariospirale]

NICE !

[DeadToast]

Hold on to your hats and take a deep breath. Things are about to get a bit... strange...

The game is pretty close to having a rough version of all the gameplay elements now. This post will mainly focus on a particular part of the game, namely Pedro's world *distant rumblings of thunder*

The idea of Pedro's world is that anything can happen and I can play around with ideas that would otherwise maybe break the setting of the rest of the game.


First up we've got some pretty standard bounce pads. Combined with the acrobatics they're really good fun. Bounce pads is also something that's been part of most platforming games I've worked on before, so I guess it's a bit within my comfort zone as a developer too.


Next are some simple platforms that disappear as you step off them. This is the introduction level to Pedro's world. It seems work well for setting the tone of just showing that this world is different from the rest.


I thought it'd be funny to make use of the spin-dodge maneuver in an unexpected way. So I made these massive screws that you control by spinning on top of them. It also provides a platform for puns such as 'things being screwed up' or suggesting that the player might have a 'screw lose'......


After doing a bit of playtesting it quickly became apparent that people expected to be able to do double wall jumps. I tried adding the feature and it turned out to be really fun! This is this works outside of Pedro's world too, btw.


Last but not least we've got the propeller hat... Because why not. As you spin you travel up with help from the propeller (it's a bit hard to see in the GIF) and as you start to fall down a little umbrella opens and makes you float downwards.

And that's all for this time. What I'm currently working on is dressing up some of the levels and figuring out what the different themes should look like. It's a bit of a struggle switching from the design/programming head space in to the visual, but things are coming out quite nicely so far. I'll probably give you an update on that next time

Until then,
sayonara

[DireLogomachist]

Looking fantastic! One thing though - have you considered doing a little particle effect dust or something to give the wall jumps a bit more impact? Maybe that's part of an art polish pass saved for later, but I feel they lack a little oomph.

Great work so far and I'm very glad that Devolver Digital picked this up!

[DeadToast]

Looking fantastic! One thing though - have you considered doing a little particle effect dust or something to give the wall jumps a bit more impact? Maybe that's part of an art polish pass saved for later, but I feel they lack a little oomph.

Great work so far and I'm very glad that Devolver Digital picked this up!

Thanks! Yes, that's a good idea. And indeed I'm saving those little touches till later in development Have to sort out the major stuff first to free up my mind to just focus on making things better and nicer eventually.

[woodsmoke]

Some sick action you have going on here. Congrats on the Devolver deal. I like your updated main character, the old one looked so skinny in the legs.

[DeadToast]

Some sick action you have going on here. Congrats on the Devolver deal. I like your updated main character, the old one looked so skinny in the legs.

Thanks man! Good to hear some positive feedback on the new character

[Tuba]

Didn't know this had a devlog here, the game looks pretty crazy and fun, congrats on the Devolver deal.

[DeadToast]

Didn't know this had a devlog here, the game looks pretty crazy and fun, congrats on the Devolver deal.

I'm trying to have this DevLog running in as many places as I can :D I'm curious, where did you see/hear about this game before? I always get really happy when people actually recognize the game!

[Tuba]

I believe there was a thread about this at NeoGaf some time ago.

[DeadToast]

I believe there was a thread about this at NeoGaf some time ago.

Ahh, yes. That's true! I was really excited to see NeoGaf pick up on the game, actually. It's amazing to see people treat it like a 'real game'.

[DeadToast]

Heya!

I guess by now you're probably used to the long silences between these DevLog updates. But fear not! It doesn't not mean there is no progress on the game. Quite the contrary! I've been so busy working on the game that I just haven't had time to keep ya'll updated through here. I do however try to post a little something something over on Twitter every once in a while (@deadtoast_com)

So! I thought I'd do a little compilation of what I've been posting on twitter for anyone who might have missed it. Prepare for GIF overload!


So this is a little snippet of what Pedro's world currently looks like. There will be a short part of the game where things might get a bit... weird...


Here's another little preview of what another theme currently looks like. It's supposed to be some sort of electricity power plant-sort-of-location.


Again, here's another theme. Like everything else you've seen so far it's Work in Progress. The GIF also demonstrates some of the more "puzzely" bits of the game where the tempo slows down a bit.


Aaand another theme. This one's a sewage. Because all video games must have a sewage theme.


Some good ol' sliding-and-shooting-action.


This is what I've been polishing up most recently, namely making it easier to pull of the move you see above. The kicking trajectory of objects are now visualized better and if you're close enough to an enemy it helps you auto aim your kicking to the enemies head. Jolly fun stuff.


This GIF is a bit special, actually, since it's exported directly from the actual game itself! Meaning the current plan is that you'll be able to export your own GIFs of yourself pulling off cool shizzle in the game, without having to use any third party GIF recording software!


Aaand that's probably enough stuff for now. There's still lots of work to be done, and there's still lots of work you haven't seen yet that has already been done. Like, for example, something that's worth a quick mention is that there is now a scoring system which adds to the general feedback of when you're doing cool stuff, and creates great opportunities for replayablity.

Until next time!
Toodles

[DireLogomachist]

hah that cloud world looks trippy and fantastic. Glad to see this making progress still!

[DeadToast]

Hey! Look! I'm alive, and so is the project. Sorry for the silence on here. If you've missed me and want to see more from the game more often, be sure to follow my Twitter: https://twitter.com/deadtoast_com

It takes a bit more effort to write something for the DevLog, and I like to focus my time as much as possible on actually making the game.. so... yeah.

Anyway! Here's a quick summary of some of the stuff that's been going on since last time.


I give to you: The Skateboard. So this one seems to be a bit of a crowd pleaser. There will be moments where you can use a skateboard and shoot bad-dudes at the same time. Because.. why not.


So after thinking about more cool things you could interact with in the game I thought of doing barrel running. I like the barrel because it can be used to run over enemies or if a barrel is placed above an enemy you can shoot the barrel to make it fall down and take out the enemy below.


I've been wanting to add kicking/melee for a while. I used to have a punching thing before, but it didn't feel right. I finally figured out a way of doing kicking that makes sense with the game. I'm quite happy with the fact that you have to "aim" your kick, or that the kick follows the direction you aim in.


This is the latest addition. Basically when doing play testing a lot of people were trying to do the split aim while swinging and later realizing they couldn't because one of the hands are used to grab on to the rope. I had a little think and thought it would be cool if you could grab the rope with your legs, freeing up both arms for split shooting.


I'm just including this GIF to show how some of the visuals have progressed. I'm quite liking the colour scheme going on in this level.


I also had a quick go at making some promo art. I went to Gamescom in Cologne a month ago, or so, and needed some flyers. It was amazing to meet developers from all over and even a couple of fans showed up which totally made the whole trip for me! It makes me so full of motivation knowing there are people out there who not only play stuff I make, but actually enjoy it! No feeling quite like it.

Aaand that's it for now. Don't forget... For more frequent updates, be sure to follow Twitter @deadtoast_com
Baaiiii