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[PartTimeIndie]

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Hi my name is Nikolas Crisci and I am working on "Will Glow the Wisp" for about half a year now. It is my first serious attempt to create a full PC / Console game.

Description
In "Will Glow the Wisp" you are playing as a Wisp trying to escape an every changing magical prison. The game play is based around the physics based movement, there are 2 ways to move the character around. One is a thrust mechanic which will thrust you into one direction, the other is a directional dash. You can see both of these mechanics in the gif above. The enemies in can be defeated by flying onto them, which gives the game a melee feeling. The overall experience is best described as a mix of Super Meat Boy, Astroid and Flappy Bird.

The Movement
The main focus of the game is the physics based movement. Being able to navigate the Wisp is quite challenging, but once you get the hang of it, it feels very rewarding. In the future, there will be different Wisps, to choose from, which will change the Physic properties. There will also be unlockable wisps, which let you experience the game in a new light, similar to how different cars in racing games, let you experience the same track in a different way.






Visuals
The visual feel of the game reminiscent of space shooters like Asteroid, with a strong focus on simplicity. There are no HUD elements, to increase the immersion of the player. The glowing nature has a psychedelic touch, which gets improved by the extreme use of the particle system.







Music
The electronic music is furthering the psychedelic experience. Instead of short loops, i plan to have a full Soundtrack in the game, currently I am thinking about using this music in my game. I would be glad if you could give me feedback about the music choice.

Current Devlog
I will always update this part of my post to show the current devlog. In my devlogs I am not only talking about my progress, I also started to pick one ludological topic for each week.

Will Glow the Wisp - Devlog 26 - Working on Movement Controls
In this episode I am working on the movement controls of the player. I explain in depths how the current state came to be and what I want to improve.





Older Devlogs

If you have any feedback or ideas, please tell me. I am always looking to improve myself.

Regards Niki (PartTimeIndie)

[chrilley]

Very nice use of a simple style, the glow effects are very pleasing to look at.

[PartTimeIndie]

Thanks, I still need to figure out, how to change the look up more, do you maybe have an idea?

[TheArtistJiii]

That's a nice level of polish you have going, and your game mechanics do well together. What platform are you aiming for, and how long have you been working on it? Also, id say a way to improve the look will probably be to change the soli black background to something a bit more appealing.

[PartTimeIndie]

Hi mesh, thanks for the kind words. I have been working since last year October about 2 days a week on the game, the platforms I am going for is pc and I will try to get on Xbox one as well. I will try to change the background up a little  the problem is that the glow effect works best on very dark backgrounds,  but I will figure something out. Thanks for the feedback.

[bittwyst]

Maybe you could leave it predominantly black but have coloured patterns (grids/circles/etc) moving around on a parallax layer?

[PartTimeIndie]

That sounds like a great idea I am going to give the idea a try.

[bdsowers]

I'm always a fan of minimalist styles like this, and I'm always irate but how hard it is for me to effectively pull them off, so good job.

I'd say your "enemy" is the weakest part of the video. Besides being unclear what it is, it doesn't convey much sense of danger. Maybe make it a red wisp that moves similar to the player while firing?

Not sure what to do about mixing up your background. Maybe look at Geometry Wars, which has a similar aesthetic.

[PartTimeIndie]

@bittwyst  I experimented a bit with parallax scrolling shapes in the background, the result isn't great. I have to say i think i misunderstood you though, i thought you are talking about grey shapes, colored stuff cant realy be in the background. If you want to see what i played around with here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEjSNOhy3bw&feature=youtu.be

@bdsowers About the enemies, I am not sure if i want to change the color to red, because i want to convey to the player that they can kill the thing, when flying onto them. But maybe i should just try it and see how people react. Its true that Geometry Wars has a similar ascetic and i looked what they did. Seems like they have a grid and "stars". At one point i had stars as well and it looked fine, some people thought they would hurt them, so i removed it for now. Should probably test something like that.

Geometry Wars Screenshot for reference

[PartTimeIndie]

I just published a new episode of my devlog. This time I focus on a prototype that I build on the weekend (thanks to bittwyst for the inspiration), after discussing what went wrong, I also go over some guidelines to create a successful casual puzzle game.

[PartTimeIndie]

Devlog 18 - Narrative in Games
In the newest episode I will go into how stories in games evolved and where I think it will go. I also tell some of my story based game ideas. If you enjoyed or hated the new format I would be happy if you could tell me.

[Bricabrac]

I like it! Seems like a platform version of Touhou, with less lolis and more glowing orbs.

[PartTimeIndie]

I just looked at Touhou and it looks like alot of fun and insanly hard. I just found in recent history that i realy enjoy bullet hell games and I am thinking about incoorparting that more into my design, but i am not sure if it fits good. We will see.

[PartTimeIndie]

This is me playing the "Easy Character", i am still unsure if I like the characters art, what do you think. (Sry for the low quality)



Devlog 19 - Drafting Games

In the newest episode of my devlog from Will Glow the Wisp I take a look at the board game mechanic drafting and see how it is applied in video games right now and what the future might hold in store.

[PartTimeIndie]

Will Glow the Wisp - Devlog 20 - Randomness in games
In the newest episode I go over how randomness impacts games and what kind of randomness there is. In the end I throw around some very rough game ideas, that try to apply the stuff i talked about.

[PartTimeIndie]

Will Glow the Wisp - Devlog 21 - Complexity in Games
In this episode I am looking at the impact of complexity on games and how to keep the complexity while reducing the problems.

[PartTimeIndie]

Do you like the color for the ghost player (same as ghosting in car games), i would have preferred white, but the particles need some color to make out the shape.

[PartTimeIndie]

I went to the Sausage Factory and had a great time talking about my past and Will Glow the Wisp. For everyone who wants to find out more about me or the game check it out.

http://spong.com/podcasts/tsf/766/The-Sausage-Factory-Episode-101-Part-Time-Indie

[PartTimeIndie]

Will Glow the Wisp - Devlog 22 Grinding
In this episode I talk about my views on Grinding in games. I also go over how I am planning on doing my User management (on and offline)

[PartTimeIndie]

Will Glow the Wisp - Devlog 23 - How to incorporate Feedback
How to incorporate feedback, this is the question I tackle in the newest episode of my devlog. I also go over news from "Will Glow the Wisp".