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[Cosmocat Games]

[joking] Shouldn't it be an ant? A toxic ant?

I haven't heard that one before... oh wait! My rationale is: spiders are scarier than ants. But I won't close the door entirely on ants.

[joking]... That's a "Beholder". You can't fool me!

Hah, yeah, I can't get anything past you! There won't a Beholder as such but hopefully something kind of inspired by it/some of the DOOM creatures.

[Thaumaturge]

My rationale is: spiders are scarier than ants. But I won't close the door entirely on ants.

That's definitely fair! (And I honestly wouldn't likely include ants without good reason--puns aside, it's perhaps a little too on-the-nose.)

Hah, yeah, I can't get anything past you! There won't a Beholder as such but hopefully something kind of inspired by it/some of the DOOM creatures.

Ah, I see! That's pretty cool! ^_^

And that's my lack of familiarity with Doom showing, then--I don't know its enemies all that well. (I never much got into Doom, although I loved (and still love) Heretic.)

[Cosmocat Games]

Gotta love happy accidents! The roots above cast spooky shadows but they totally weren't meant to spawn next to lights, heh.

[Thaumaturge]

One of the nice things about procedural generation: sometimes it'll turn up something quite neat, and do so unexpectedly. ^_^

[Cosmocat Games]

Today's the day! TOXICANT launches in Early Access! Thanks for everyone who's helped get the game to this point!

Don't forget: I'll be hosting a launch party stream from 2-3 PM ET today. I'll be playing through the game, answering questions, talking about the future, and most importantly, I'll have a few copies of the game up for grabs! I'll be multicasting to Twitch, YouTube, and the Steam store page, so you can catch it wherever is most convenient for you. Hope you can make it!

[Thaumaturge]

Congratulations! I hope that the launch went really well, and continues to do so! :D

[Cosmocat Games]

A little recap video of what I've been up to since launching in Early Access:





Lofty Goals
I've started to release my initial progress towards the "Lofty Update". (although I plan on officially releasing the update towards the end of the month, I'll be pushing out changes as they're ready)

This update will add a new type level layout for the fourth floor of each level. This layout uses larger modules, which means longer hallways (including longer underwater segments), and support for larger hand-crafted areas. Currently, there are four these (with more to come).

Getting Drunk
I've added a post-processing effect for alcohol. This makes it slightly disorienting and also lets you know when the effect is active. I plan to add something similar for mushrooms in the future.

Lockers Loaded
Lockers now have stuff in them! This includes the same things as crates (beacons, alcohol, health), but also upgrade pills! In case you didn't know, there's an entire upgrade system in place, but until now it was difficult to access as the only way to get upgrade pills was to take down a mutant miner (not the blind kind, but a regular one).

You can see all of the above in build 39 (on Itch, and in the alpha branch on Steam).

[Cosmocat Games]

I made a pretty little roadmap! I'll be updating it all through Early Access, and I'll keep the latest version directly on the Steam store page for convenience.

[Thaumaturge]

It seems that things are progressing nicely indeed! ^_^

[Cosmocat Games]

Happy to finally be working on something net new: toxic spiders! (pun intended... )

The general idea with these guys is that they're afraid of light and will retreat to a safe distance, at which point they'll send a volley of toxic blobs towards you. Unlike other enemies, however, they also retreat when you hit them. (I may end up doing something similar for the mutant miners as well--albeit much more subtle--to make the attacks feel more believable.)

To make it more obvious if you get hit from behind, I've also implemented a new damage type: toxic. Toxic damage offers distinct visual feedback via a bright green overlay.

Oh yeah, last but not least, I've removed the emission for toxic blood decals. As cool as it looked, it was sending mixed messages since it looked quite similar to the toxic puddles.

Here's my progress after a few prototyping sessions:




(Not pictured: they do respond to freeze and explosive beacons, same as other enemies.)

Still left to do:

• Add SFX (likely: spitting SFX when they attack, "pattering" sounds for their legs, and some kind of death SFX TBD)
• Smooth out the retreat AI to behaviour minimize pausing, more consistently find a suitable navigation destination
• Integrate into main game (these guys will likely be used interchangeably with rats)

Overall, I'm really happy with how quickly this came together, and how much of the existing AI I was able to reuse. I'm also hopeful it's going to help spice up the gameplay even more.

[Thaumaturge]

The spider looks pretty cool, and it seems like it has some interesting behaviours! ^_^

I will say that I do feel like its legs animate a little over-fast in retreat.

Otherwise, however, it looks good, I feel!

And the change to the blood and introduction of a "toxic damage" overlay seem both like they should indeed aid in informing the player of what's going on at a given moment. ^_^

[Cosmocat Games]

I will say that I do feel like its legs animate a little over-fast in retreat.

Is it that you think the animation is too fast for its movement speed or is it more that it looks kinda weird when it's running in place? The latter is the bit I'm hoping to smooth out, i.e. I'd like to ensure it moves continuously in retreat mode, whereas right now there are quite a few edge cases where it doesn't path successfully and just runs in place waiting for its next state.

In either case, it should be easier to sync up the animation and movement speed once I've done that.

[Cosmocat Games]

K, another pass over that:




In summary:

• Added SFX (can you guess what real-life object the vocalizations are based on?!)
• Improved retreat pathfinding + slowed down animation
• Increased size by 20% (bigger = scarier, yeah?)
• Also added an extra collider to reduce the likelihood of the player walking right over it

There's room for improvement in the recoil stuff: currently, it recoils, briefly switches to the idle state, and then repeats. As a result, there's a brief gap in its movement and recoil SFX. This could be made continuous, but it would obviously increase the complexity of the implementation. I'll probably leave it like this for initial integration; depending on how it behaves in the mines it might not matter all that much. (but feedback welcomed)

[Thaumaturge]

Is it that you think the animation is too fast for its movement speed or is it more that it looks kinda weird when it's running in place?

The former--the animation didn't seem to me to quite fit the movement of the creature.

And indeed, I think that the revised animation speed looks better! It still has that feel of a "skittering arthropod", but now looks somewhat more natural in that, I feel.

Overall, it's looking and sounding pretty cool now, I think! ^_^

... whereas right now there are quite a few edge cases where it doesn't path successfully and just runs in place waiting for its next state.

Well, if there's any enemy in the game that's going to have "bugs"... ;P

• Added SFX (can you guess what real-life object the vocalizations are based on?!)

I genuinely don't know from what you sampled those effects, but I am now curious!

[Cosmocat Games]

Well, if there's any enemy in the game that's going to have "bugs"... ;P

I genuinely don't know from what you sampled those effects, but I am now curious!

Shaving cream

And here we are: fully integrated into the game!





I also reworked the enemy spawning logic along with this. Previously, every second room along the solution path spawned a mutant miner 100% of the time (and at higher difficulties: a rat and a second mutant miner).

The new logic is more variable:

• 75% chance of a mutant miner / 75% chance for the 5th floor and above
• 50% chance of a spider for the 2nd floor and beyond
  
• 50% chance of a rat for the 5th floor and beyond

The difficulty ramps up fairly quickly now; you can end up with clusters of several spiders in earlier levels (as you can see in the video above). This is due to the fact that spiders (and rats) aren't tethered in the same way as mutant miners. I might end up changing this--maybe tether them within a 2-3 room radius--but I do like the unpredictability it creates now.

In any case, I think the opposing behaviour of the spiders and rats is going to make for some really interesting variation (you chase the spiders vs the rats chase you), especially when you throw ghosts into the mix (i.e. you turn off your flashlight to take down a spider, only to be accosted by a ghost, then chased by a rat!).

Oh yeah, I'll be giving an in-depth talk about the procedural generation in TOXICANT (and a couple of my other games) at the Game Dev Atlantic conference on September 18th! It's an online conference, so anyone can attend, and tickets are only $15.

Okay, next up: underwater enemies!

[Thaumaturge]

Shaving cream

Ah, clever! I likely wouldn't have guessed it, but going back and listening with that in mind I can hear it, I believe. Nicely done! ^_^

And here we are: fully integrated into the game!

...

They look rather good!

And it does seem like the interplay between enemies that you describe could make for some interesting gameplay, I do think. ^_^

The new logic is more variable:

• 75% chance of a mutant miner / 75% chance for the 5th floor and above
• 50% chance of a spider for the 2nd floor and beyond
  
• 50% chance of a rat for the 5th floor and beyond

So, does this still apply in every second room, as before? If so, does that mean that, barring some wandering spiders and rats, every other room can be reasonably expected to be at least relatively safe?

Oh yeah, I'll be giving an in-depth talk about the procedural generation in TOXICANT (and a couple of my other games) at the Game Dev Atlantic conference on September 18th! It's an online conference, so anyone can attend, and tickets are only $15.

Oh, neat! I hope that the talk goes well, and is well-received! ^_^

[Cosmocat Games]

So, does this still apply in every second room, as before? If so, does that mean that, barring some wandering spiders and rats, every other room can be reasonably expected to be at least relatively safe?

Yeah, exactly, relatively safe... The underwater sections help to segment the level bit as well, so you shouldn't end up with, say, all of the rats and/or spiders in one room.

[Thaumaturge]

Fair enough! I do worry that having it so might reduce the tension in non-safe rooms, knowing that there's likely safety just ahead--but perhaps that'll be ameliorated by occasional exceptions to that rule! We'll see what players say (if they haven't already), I suppose!

[Cosmocat Games]

Fish time! I've got a special guest artist designing the creepy fish. We're going for something that looks a bit human, because human faces on fish bodies are creepy AF IMO!

[Thaumaturge]

Definitely an interesting approach, and one that seems like it should work! ^_^