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[BeardTopher]

Just saw this on tumblr and super glad you have a devlog here too. Looks like it will be a tonne of fun

[Cakeprediction]

Just saw this on tumblr and super glad you have a devlog here too. Looks like it will be a tonne of fun

Thank you ^^ I certainly hope it'll be fun, What's the point otherwise :'D
update 8:
The game is really close to its first prototype now, I've added tons of important things needed for it, all that's left is dying, some bugfixes and lots of content ^^

The first thing I want to show you is that certain enemies(all except the hive for now) are able to go through doors:

Since only some rooms close their doors whenever you enter it for the first time, you can try to escape some monsters. However, this will probably onyl get you into more trouble as monsters keep chasing you.
In this gif you can also see that enemies now actually spawn in most rooms. A thing I've discovered thanks to that though, is that rooms'll probably have to be pretty huge to be any fun battling in. Luckily, that won't be a problem

The second thing I've added is the addition of npcs:

Right now, it's just the same npc that can randomly spawn instead of having enemies spawn, but I'm planning to have a set number of npcs that can all only appear once in-game and are of importance. For now, the system's in though, so I'm happy

I've decided to not do full-on advanced AI for enemies btw, isimply because it doesn't make sense for a level-based small roguelite thing.

Anyway, I'll see what I can do for the next update, probably just add a ton more content.
If anybody has ideas for enemies or items, please feel free to share them here :D

See you!

[benjkers]

That user map management idea is really interesting. Depends how much work it ends up pushing on to the player. The way you've presented it, the map screen also invites thoughts of manually switching connecting room nodes, to create custom shortcuts or other tricks. Maybe a recipe for insanity, but something there for sure.

[Cakeprediction]

That user map management idea is really interesting. Depends how much work it ends up pushing on to the player. The way you've presented it, the map screen also invites thoughts of manually switching connecting room nodes, to create custom shortcuts or other tricks. Maybe a recipe for insanity, but something there for sure.

Hehe, funny that you mention it, because it actually sort of used to be that way and is still hidden in the code :p
My first thoughts were indeed that you'd have to connect the map nodes yourself, possibly resulting in the game displaying the wrong room when standing in front of it. However, a friend asked my why I'd do that and I couldn't properly answer that question, so I decided to change it xd

Actually allowing the player to move to other rooms by making the connections between rooms yourself also sounds interesting though, but I'm afraid it doesn't really fit in with the game  and would come with its own set of troubles.
Also, for anybody who's wondering about progress, currently in a state of thinking about everything really carefully again, so might take a bit before I'll post a good update again

[Cakeprediction]

Wouldn't really call this an update, but basically I'm gonna be releasing the prototype of the prototype here:
Download Protoprototype

The reason I'm doing this is because I'm kinda stuck currently with the story and what to do with this game in general, so I'd like to hear your feedback and thoughts about that. Basically, what would you want to see this game become?(story-wise, progression-wise, features you'd like to see etc.)

Keep in mind though, that this prototype is very unbalanced and may contain bugs aplenty. Nonetheless, all bug reports et cetera are helpful, even when I'm aware of them.

If you test it, thank you for testing. Otherwise, thank you for whatever really I'm sure you did something in your past to be grateful for.

controls:
[r]:restart
[arrow keys]:movement
[z]:swing sword
[x ]:jump
[c]:shield
[space]:back dodge
[down arrow key]+[moving]:roll
[moving]+[up arrow key]+[z]:stab
[up arrow key]:interact(with doors, npcs and items, although I'm pretty sure this demo doesn't contain items)

[Cakeprediction]

Update 9:
I have returned with some exciting new pretty things:

I'm finally adding (probably final) graphics ^^

small testing room for testing the new graphics and such

Deciding for a style actually proved to be tough, but in the end I did decide to go for a kind of cutesy style, mainly because I actually can make that without spending literal days on one image, and it actually looks pretty cool imo.
Right now, a friend of mine/composer of the game, Onky, also does the finishing and polishing of all the sprites, so I made the player template plus all the animations here for instance, and he made it a lot prettier.
I've also figured out another possible story of the game, so I'll try to implement that and see if I still like it by then.

So yeah, we'll just keep working on replacing all the graphics and I'll start working on the hub town probably.

See you!

[Pixelologist]

I am of the opinion that the giant tentacle monsters need pretty death lasers coming from their ocular parts. Maybe just the super hard ones.

[mtarini]

Good to see progress, this is such an interesting project!
And, it's coming along very nice!

Curious: is the uniform black of platform insides (and of background) a WIP, or a choice? I kinda like it inside the platform.
And background color uniformity is real useful too, my suggestion is that whatever happens there (hints of clouds? or of distant backdrops) is kept *really* low contrast and hue-less (gray).

I like the little guy. The look, the movement, and even more the small ground / feet effects (very effective!).

I think it would be nice if he kept the head oriented (up/down) to meet the gaze of his monstrously inhuman opponent. (ps: naturally, that only when facing toward it... but now that I think about this, even when he runs from the gigantic aberration, it would be nice if he *occasionally* sent a worried glance back toward his chaser, briefly turning his head).

The shield is maybe a little un-evident for such an important game play element.

The monster might use something on their face to capture the viewer focus, like a clearly identified eye (or a few dozens). Maybe.

Will you try to make tentacles look more unitary, I mean to hide their discretized nature?
I wonder if you can use maybe cubic splines to connect the pieces, or maybe just adding small linear joint elements will be enough (either case, for cosmetics only, that is, leaving them out of the physics).

I'll assume particle systems will add bit of gore on sword / monster collision, of sparks on shield / bullet collision, etc.

[Cakeprediction]

I am of the opinion that the giant tentacle monsters need pretty death lasers coming from their ocular parts. Maybe just the super hard ones.

I certainly share that opinion. Moreso, a super laser death beam enemy has been the planned next enemy for a while, I just had some other things I prioritised.
you shall not be disappointed however, for I shall not rest until this game has a super death laser beam enemy 

snipsnipsnip

I'm glad you like it

The uniform black inside the platform was a deliberate choice, there will be minor details here and there. I haven't really put much thought into the background yet, but I think that you're right about keeping it low-contrast and make it not stand out too much(except for some special; places where you're just supposed to look I guess)

The head-looking thing would be an epic thing to add, but I'm afraid that if I'm going to add it, it will take a while before I get to that, probably the second or third graphics/detail pass(currently still working on the first).

You might be right about the shield, would you perhaps have any suggestions on how to make it more evident? Also btw, I've been thinking about having the shield be more of a "secondary item" the player could have, so you could switch it out for cool stuff like a double jump thing or a boomerang or a hookshot or whatever. Not really sure about that yet though.

I'm still figuring out how to create uniform tentacles the most optimal way, but it's definitely something I'm planning to fix 

Yes, particles and stuff will be added later. In fact, I might start soon on blood effects/explosion thingies.
In the meanwhile, have a wip house for the hub town:

[wizered67]

This looks like it's going to be super fun! Following!

[Pixel Noise]

Looking really nice now that we're starting to see some real bacckgrounds, etc in there. Do you have an estimate on the length/levels you are planning?

[Cakeprediction]

This looks like it's going to be super fun! Following!

Thanks ^^

Looking really nice now that we're starting to see some real bacckgrounds, etc in there. Do you have an estimate on the length/levels you are planning?

Thank you I must be honest that I'm not sure how long levels'll take since I';m actually still kind of experimenting with how the levels'll actually be too. I'm planning however to have the levels take around 20-30 minutes to completely finish, but we'll see
Update 10:
Welp, 't has certainly been a while.
To be honest, I had a pretty big dilemma which troubled me for a while:
-I really like the game concept
-I was starting to hate how the game itself and its feel was turning out
So yeah, been unmotivated and thinking for a while, and I'm gonna keep working on this game.

The biggest thing that bugged me was how the player movement and combat felt. It didn't turn out to be the super satisfying careful dodging and hitting experience, but more like a "Run away, get thrown around and tank a bit" thing, which wasn't fun at all.
My solution: Redo the combat and movement to make it more dynamic and fast paced, give the player more freedom while fighting those big monsters and actually make them feel epic when they're doing something good.

Another thing was that the enemies felt a bit too simple and meh-ish. Sure, they were big and scary, but fighting most of them actually felt pretty boring.
Solution: Revamp the enemies, perhaps remove some. A few enemies will stay in however, I'm thinking about keeping the ancient caller, behemoth and sky worm(with some changes of course). Also, I'm going to make even bigger enemies :D

Another thing I wasn't happy about was the lack of feedback, so I'm going to give it my all to make the game feel way better with more particles and what-have-you-not.
So, you could pretty much say I'm remaking the game completely, but with a sort of similar idea still to it: Fight like a badass against even badasser monsters.

So, here's what I've made so far:

Redid the weapon and movement(still need to add a melee and some moves like block), and I added some blood-ish particles that will gush out whenever you hit an enemy or tentacle(current enemies are dummies, of course). Also did a very basic glitch effect for funsies.

My apologies for not being active for so long, but I hope you understand what troubles I have and like the "new" direction the game'll have.

See you next update whenever that may be ^^

[Cakeprediction]

Update 11:

Return of the behemoth :D

His graphics are wip again, but his bullets and death animation are a bit more polished.
Also, tentacles serve a purpose now :D They block the thrown dagger, so I can make some pretty neat monster designs with that in mind.

Lastly, made the first frame of the new player design, and added melee+blocking.

Blocking is only available when you have your sword with you, but every time you block something your sword gets duller and duller, doing less and less damage until you don’t deal damage at all(I’m gonna add that you’ll have to sharpen your blade, which takes time and thus making you vulnerable).

You can spam melee and it pierces tentacles, but with every combo hit you do, you start dealing less and less damage(along with the dullness modifier), unless you stop for a bit again.
I'm hoping to start working on a real huge laser eye dude soon

[Cakeprediction]

Update 12:
Time for some (somewhat) prettier stuff again :D


Finished all the animations for the player, polished the sword, added the laser grapple thing and started on a mock-up for the environment, that’s quite some stuff finished ^^

As you can see, the setting has changed by an incredible amount. As I was working on the game, I suddenly started liking the idea of it being a bit more of a modern-ish world a la (very liberally, farm from accurate) Tokyo abandoned ghost city thing or whatever. So yeah, that's what I'm aiming at right now, but it may change somewhat.

The character has also changed in funky neon-ish hair colour gal with a somewhat smaller, more efficient blade. It also has a grappling laser for some reason, don't ask me why or how.(I'll probably change the sword design to be more futuristic and cooler, since that one's still placeholder)

Planning on adding way more buildings, some foreground elements and a proper background to the scene.

[FK in the Coffee]

This is spectacular. I love how organic the enemies look, and I seriously admire the amount of work you must've put into rebuilding this thing. Looks incredibly fun to play, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more from you!

[Thirteen]

Looking good ♥

[Crabby]

Just saw this, and all I have to say is WOW! 
I love the tentacle monsters, although I do have a suggestion for them. What if you could cut off the tentacles if you do a large enough strike?
The graphics are a cool style, and the world is super interesting. I'm always attracted to a futuristic tokyo setting in games. 
I'm excited to see what's to come!

[SkullPixel]

How do you even make tentacles that cool?!
Seriously though, this has potential. Good luck!

[Cakeprediction]

This is spectacular. I love how organic the enemies look, and I seriously admire the amount of work you must've put into rebuilding this thing. Looks incredibly fun to play, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more from you!

Thank you <3 Redoing the most important and basic core of the game(the combat) was certainly a huge step and task, but I felt it was necessary and in the end it proved to be worth it in my opinion

Looking good ♥

Thanks you ☆ ～('▽^人)

Just saw this, and all I have to say is WOW! 
I love the tentacle monsters, although I do have a suggestion for them. What if you could cut off the tentacles if you do a large enough strike?
The graphics are a cool style, and the world is super interesting. I'm always attracted to a futuristic tokyo setting in games. 
I'm excited to see what's to come!

Thank you for the kind words I had actually already implemented chopping off tentacles previously, but since the physics I made are far from advanced, it was very difficult to make it look good, which is why I've now re-purposed the tentacles to function as shields. I might come back to it later though, since it is a really cool thing, but currently it's not high priority

How do you even make tentacles that cool?!
Seriously though, this has potential. Good luck!

Thank you ^^. I actually already drew some stupid explanation to answer pretty much the same question on tumblr, so might as well post it here too

To give a better explanation:
I have two tentacle types, the master tentacle and other tentacles. They function the same, except for that the master tentacle is the first tentacle and directly follows the movement of the Master object, in this case the monster, and the other tentacles follow the tentacle they're attached to one "part" closer to the base.
The tentacles have their direction set to wherever their "goal position"(the position they would want to be in) is, plus a sinusoid movement, giving it a tentacly feel. At the same time, they slowly tween towards the goal position. The next tentacle in line does the same thing, but then tracks that previous tentacle's goalposition, which also now includes the sinusoid movement the other tentacle had. Repeating this over and over again makes the positions more extreme and extreme, giving a very nice tentacly effect, and because of the delay in position changing through tweening, you get a very nice delayed effect in later tentacles.

I hope the explanation is somewhat clear, feel free to ask some more questions otherwise ^^

[Cakeprediction]

Update 13:
Welp, I've discussed some stuff with peeps and I've finally found a more interesting idea for both enemies and the general setting

Basically, the idea is that you're in this abandoned big city killing those monsters, since they screw the world up. To do so you need to kill four super enemies in a premade map, because those dudes cause the spawning of hunting grounds, which cause smaller enemies to spawn there etc. Idea is to keep the world premade, but make the enemies and hunting grounds dynamic.

One thing for the enemies meant making them fully modular, each enemy will have four types of "Genes":
-Head genes, determining the special attack it will occasionally do
-Body genes, determining another special ability
-Tentacle genes, determining the purpose of the tentacles
-Body shape genes, determining its most basic shape and most basic behaviour
And then I'll add some behavioural integers that mess around with some values here and there, probably gonna make certain types of enemies be more prominent in certain hunting grounds.

Anyway, here's a gif to show off the start of the modular enemies:

In this gif, currently there are only two body genes(spiked and teleporting), two head genes(bullet burst and tentacle portals), one tentacle gen(shielding), no behavioural stats and one body shape gen(behemoth). Planning on adding way more, which is what I'm currently working on.

I'm hoping this will create a more interesting game than simply having a rogue-lite with cool-ish monsters.
Also, not gonna actively look for one yet, but I am kind of searching for some talented body who would be interested in doing the art for this project, or at least a part of it. I sadly don't have anything else to offer than a hopefully at least interesting time working on this, my gratitude, and creative freedom and input on the game.
So yeah, if you're by any chance an artist and would be interested, feel free to hit me up and we might be able to discuss some stuff ^^

Anyway, interested in hearing your opinions on this! Do whatever floats your boat though, always remember to keep your boat afloat.