next »

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 21

Worldmap has been updated and has now a menu and also updated graphics. Still a lot of work to finish on it, but here are some different stages it has gone through:







Place, scale and rotation tool
I felt that it got a bit tedious placing all those trees, so I created a simple tool that:
1 - Checks where the planets surface is by raytracing towards center of the planet.
2 - Moves the tree to that location.
3 - Rotates is randomly.
4 - Scales it randomly.

If anyone is interested in the code, just let me know.

[JCRL]

I can't see the images 

[Nordanvinden]

I can't see the images 

Hmm thats wierd  I have asked some friends to check and it seems to work for them. Maybe it just takes some time for the images to load?

Is it only on page 3 you cant see them, or is it all images on the dev log?

[JCRL]

I can't see none of the images from the dev log

I'm watching the thread from an Ipad, using Safari explorer, I don't know if that has something to do

[Nordanvinden]

I can't see none of the images from the dev log

I'm watching the thread from an Ipad, using Safari explorer, I don't know if that has something to do

That doesnt sound too good.. and you can see the images on all the other dev logs?

One of my friends that tested visiting this dev log was on an iPhone using Safari, and he said it all worked fine. So if you can see images on other dev logs, I'm not sure what to do  

I really appreciate that you let me know about this issue, I will see if I can try it out on an iPad somehow to see whats wrong.

#Update 22

I have removed the information about how many energy cubes each level contains since I felt that it mostly cluttered the view. Also it did not feel that important to show the player when I though about it a bit more.



Saving progress

After that I needed to add a save feature for each completed level. So that when you restart the game, your progress will still be there. It was also necessary for being able to know if the player should have access to and be able to go to the next planet.

So now it works like this:
1 - You fly to a level on the planet and enter it.
2 - Once you complete a level, that progress is saved and you return to the planet-view to choose a new level.

The progress is shown by turning red levels into green ones at the moment.

[JCRL]

I can see the images from other dev logs with no problem, I don't know why

Edit: I tried visiting this dev log but from my Samsung Galaxy phone using Chrome, and I now could see the entire dev log, images and everything

[Nordanvinden]

I can see the images from other dev logs with no problem, I don't know why

Edit: I tried visiting this dev log but from my Samsung Galaxy phone using Chrome, and I now could see the entire dev log, images and everything

It is strange that you have no problem with other dev logs. Maybe it has something to do with how I host my images..?

Anyway, Im glad that it works on your phone. Thanks for the information

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 23

So lately I have had my hands full with things related to something I cant talk about yet, but soon

Anyway, apart from that I have been working on fixing graphical bugs where meshes cut through other meshes, fixing logical bugs and updating minor things in general to make the game feel more polished. Below are some examples of what I have been doing.


Added discrete outline to energy cubes to make sure that they are visible against all backgrounds.


New look for the swings. Will update these more later probably.


New look for the water logs.


There were a few levitating spinners in the current 10 maps. Solved this one by adding stones in the background.


Added a bottom to the beam-mesh. It was visible when detracting the beam.


Shadow acne from blender models.


No shadow acne when changed settings for the main directional light. This seems to add a bit of "peter panning" though, but in my cases it seems unnoticeable, hence neglectable. (Bias = 0.1 and Normal Bias = 0).


It is also possible to run off the map for a bit longer now before the map resets. Also a small fade has been added before restarting.

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 24

So this time I have made some changes to the main character. First of all, it does not change color anymore. This was initially though of as a debug-tool showing me the different character states. Also, I have added a swim and on wall animation to make it possible for the player to recognize these states.

Because of this, I have changed the color to a more blue-purple-ish one. What do you think, is it a good choice?


Animation state indicating when on walls.


Animation when swimming.

New demo

I have released a new demo, version 0.2.0. Woho!
I have some conflicting thoughs about how some major things are in the game, so all feedback would be so very welcome!

>> DEMO <<

[Karin E. Skoog]

Thank you for sharing this demo! I really enjoyed it. In some respects, it felt a somewhat like a cross between Super Meat Boy and Ori. It reminds me of parts of both games, in different ways.

The walking animation + eye on the box are awesome - I love it! I'm really looking forward to seeing how this project evolves.

(By the way, it's cool to see another developer from the Stockholm area. I did gamedev in Stockholm for a while until just last year. My studio co-founder is from there.)


Onto the feedback - A lot of my feedback has to do with level design stuff at the moment:

Not sure why, but I initially had a lot of trouble with the green platforms, to the point where I thought I was missing something or doing something wrong. When I eventually got the hang of the green platforms though, I found them fun...However, it's pretty punishing in level 8 when you fall all the way down and have to wall jump back up!

(I truly failed at the green platform in level 9. It felt like the small blocks were getting in the way. Also, a minor thing - with the positioning of at least the one green platform in level 6 - I couldn't jump directly from the wall to the platform. Instead, I vaulted right over it.)

It feels somewhat tedious to get pushed back by the spinning pushers. I can't remember exactly now why it felt tedious, but I wished they would instead push me back in one swoop, so I could more or less "skate" back. Speaking of which, the spinning pushers don't have much consequence - they would carry more weight if they were made out of razorblades or something else to inflict death. Then I would take more care to actively avoid them.

It also felt a little tedious for the spinning pushers to be placed close to edges/corners...right where a player might want to stand before timing a jump over them. Maybe that's an intentional part of the design though.


It felt "clunky" to roll uphill (slow anyway), but in a strange way, I kind of like it. I'm curious to hear what others think of it because I could see some players finding it too slow.


I really enjoyed the cube that makes you jump higher, especially for jumping back and forth on the walls. (It feels tedious to wall jump up high walls with the regular jump.)


My co-founder, Manne, played through the demo too, and we chatted about it and both felt that there are some interesting opportunities with the abilities of the different cubes. It would make for some interesting puzzles to require the player to change out one cube for another cube, rather than simply collecting them. I'm guessing though that it's something you have planned for future levels?

Anyway, thanks again for sharing! It was a pleasure to play!

[Nordanvinden]

First of all, thanks a lot for taking your time playing the game and writing this feedback. It means so much.

Thank you for sharing this demo! I really enjoyed it. In some respects, it felt a somewhat like a cross between Super Meat Boy and Ori. It reminds me of parts of both games, in different ways.

I actually had super meat boy in mind as one of the inspirations, and Ori is such a great game too, so that makes me glad!

The walking animation + eye on the box are awesome - I love it! I'm really looking forward to seeing how this project evolves.

(By the way, it's cool to see another developer from the Stockholm area. I did gamedev in Stockholm for a while until just last year. My studio co-founder is from there.)

Thats great to know since it is kind of and unconventional animation style created  procedurally from code. I wasnt sure it felt alive enough.

Oh thats cool, but also sad that you left. Where are you based now, if I might ask?

Onto the feedback - A lot of my feedback has to do with level design stuff at the moment:

Not sure why, but I initially had a lot of trouble with the green platforms, to the point where I thought I was missing something or doing something wrong. When I eventually got the hang of the green platforms though, I found them fun...However, it's pretty punishing in level 8 when you fall all the way down and have to wall jump back up!

(I truly failed at the green platform in level 9. It felt like the small blocks were getting in the way. Also, a minor thing - with the positioning of at least the one green platform in level 6 - I couldn't jump directly from the wall to the platform. Instead, I vaulted right over it.)

Great feedback. Its comforting to know that you enjoyed the green swinging platforms, even though I need to improve the level design a bit. I feel like I understand why really well in your explinations as well, thanks!

It feels somewhat tedious to get pushed back by the spinning pushers. I can't remember exactly now why it felt tedious, but I wished they would instead push me back in one swoop, so I could more or less "skate" back. Speaking of which, the spinning pushers don't have much consequence - they would carry more weight if they were made out of razorblades or something else to inflict death. Then I would take more care to actively avoid them.

It also felt a little tedious for the spinning pushers to be placed close to edges/corners...right where a player might want to stand before timing a jump over them. Maybe that's an intentional part of the design though.

The one swoop part is interesting, I will look into that.

I see how killing the player would force the player to be more careful. And I have thought about it, but one of the games more interesting features are(in my opinion) that you dont really die, unless you jump off the map. I hope this means less stress and less irritation. You just need to redo that small failed part. But if this has the concequence of having the player care less about timing and such, I need to find some solution to it.

Some placements are intentional for sure, but I will have an overlook again. I dont want it to feel tedious, thats for sure.

It felt "clunky" to roll uphill (slow anyway), but in a strange way, I kind of like it. I'm curious to hear what others think of it because I could see some players finding it too slow.

This one is hard. Most people tend to not roll that much. They start jumping instead. And this is a problem actually, since it most likely means that people find it rolling too slow.. nice observation!

I really enjoyed the cube that makes you jump higher, especially for jumping back and forth on the walls. (It feels tedious to wall jump up high walls with the regular jump.)


My co-founder, Manne, played through the demo too, and we chatted about it and both felt that there are some interesting opportunities with the abilities of the different cubes. It would make for some interesting puzzles to require the player to change out one cube for another cube, rather than simply collecting them. I'm guessing though that it's something you have planned for future levels?

Anyway, thanks again for sharing! It was a pleasure to play!

Thats true. It is kind of a problem in later levels when you have felt the power of the cubes affecting the jump and speed. (Might be before as well, but I think it adds on to it). I havent really heard it before though.

About being able to drop a collected cubes and combining the correct ones definately opens up for more puzzle-like solutions. And I agree that it would be nice. I even thought hard about implementing it a while back. But what I dont want to do is overshoot my scope and end up with a couple of years in dev time. Its a really hard line to walk. But your suggestion have had me thinking about it again.. so well see what I end up with. Becouse I also agree that its hard to create puzzles now when you cannot drop a cube, the solution becomes very linear. But it also simplifies it by a lot.

I am sorry for the late answer. Im currently out travelling, but I try to read tigsource every chance I get.

Again: I really appreciate your insightfull feedback, it has already helped me and ignited new thoughts and ideas. Many thanks 

[Karin E. Skoog]

First of all, thanks a lot for taking your time playing the game and writing this feedback. It means so much.

Not a problem! I'm looking forward to your future demos and updates. I'm very interested in seeing how this game evolves! The physics and design of it seem really fun!

Oh thats cool, but also sad that you left. Where are you based now, if I might ask?

It made the most sense for us to start our indie studio in the US, though we're traveling around the Asia Pacific for a year+ at the moment.

Just finishing up 3 months in Thailand and headed down to New Zealand next week (for a quick vacation), then over to Australia before circling back to Southeast Asia for the rest of the year. (We're looking forward to meeting indie devs in NZ & Melbourne since there aren't as many in Thailand!)

Where are you traveling at the moment?

I see how killing the player would force the player to be more careful. And I have thought about it, but one of the games more interesting features are(in my opinion) that you dont really die, unless you jump off the map. I hope this means less stress and less irritation. You just need to redo that small failed part. But if this has the concequence of having the player care less about timing and such, I need to find some solution to it.

Some placements are intentional for sure, but I will have an overlook again. I dont want it to feel tedious, thats for sure.

I do agree that death seems somewhat out of place for the pacing of this game, though off the top of my head, I can't think of anything that would really cause the player actively to avoid the pushers and wouldn't be frustrating (such as death or losing, say, a cube). I'll try to mull that one over. :  )

Thats true. It is kind of a problem in later levels when you have felt the power of the cubes affecting the jump and speed. (Might be before as well, but I think it adds on to it). I havent really heard it before though.

It makes for an interesting pacing challenge, level design-wise. It seems like a particularly fun game to design for!

About being able to drop a collected cubes and combining the correct ones definately opens up for more puzzle-like solutions. And I agree that it would be nice. I even thought hard about implementing it a while back. But what I dont want to do is overshoot my scope and end up with a couple of years in dev time. Its a really hard line to walk. But your suggestion have had me thinking about it again.. so well see what I end up with. Becouse I also agree that its hard to create puzzles now when you cannot drop a cube, the solution becomes very linear. But it also simplifies it by a lot.

Makes a lot of sense. Maybe you mentioned in an earlier post, but I'm not sure at the moment - Are you aiming to make multiple worlds or focus on making a certain number of levels for one world type? I believe you mentioned something about wanting to incorporate different alien environments.

Yeah, I'm not entirely sure what you're shooting for in terms of scope. There may be a good way to pace the levels to incorporate a limited number of puzzles, but as you mentioned, puzzles may not necessarily be what you're after in the long run. Maybe you have some other plans for the mechanics you introduce via the cubes?

I am sorry for the late answer. Im currently out travelling, but I try to read tigsource every chance I get.

Again: I really appreciate your insightfull feedback, it has already helped me and ignited new thoughts and ideas. Many thanks 

Inga problem! Hope you're enjoying your travels! I'm glad the feedback helped at least some. I really love the direction you're heading with your game! Hope there's another update soon!

[Nordanvinden]

It made the most sense for us to start our indie studio in the US, though we're traveling around the Asia Pacific for a year+ at the moment.

Just finishing up 3 months in Thailand and headed down to New Zealand next week (for a quick vacation), then over to Australia before circling back to Southeast Asia for the rest of the year. (We're looking forward to meeting indie devs in NZ & Melbourne since there aren't as many in Thailand!)

Where are you traveling at the moment?

Ah I see. Wow, that sounds like a really cool trip to make! And you work on games during that time?

I'm travelling Japan for 3 weeks. Currently in Kyoto, such a nice country

I do agree that death seems somewhat out of place for the pacing of this game, though off the top of my head, I can't think of anything that would really cause the player actively to avoid the pushers and wouldn't be frustrating (such as death or losing, say, a cube). I'll try to mull that one over. :  )

Thanks! Yeah, it's a tricky one. But its good that it has my full attention now when I do playtesting!

Makes a lot of sense. Maybe you mentioned in an earlier post, but I'm not sure at the moment - Are you aiming to make multiple worlds or focus on making a certain number of levels for one world type? I believe you mentioned something about wanting to incorporate different alien environments.

Yeah, I'm not entirely sure what you're shooting for in terms of scope. There may be a good way to pace the levels to incorporate a limited number of puzzles, but as you mentioned, puzzles may not necessarily be what you're after in the long run. Maybe you have some other plans for the mechanics you introduce via the cubes?

Exactly. So the plan is to make a couple of more planets with different cubes and different environments which in combination creates new types of puzzles.

I think puzzles is a rather loose term in this case. It's not like suduko or crossword puzzles but rather small challenges where you have to think about how physics comes into play. Still thinking about it though.. but I do want a decided set of challenges which I can then introduce and combine to make it more challenging,  if that makes sense (:

Inga problem! Hope you're enjoying your travels! I'm glad the feedback helped at least some. I really love the direction you're heading with your game! Hope there's another update soon!

Thanks, you too! Sounds like you are and going to have such an adventurous year!

It really did, thank you. Now I'm psyched to get back to work when getting back home. Then the updates will start coming again

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 25

I am back from a 3 week long trip to Japan and super excited about getting back to work!

Participating in Stugan 2017

First off I have some exciting news to share which is that I have gotten into this years edition of Stugan I feel really lucky but also very nervous about it, but in a good way. You can read about this years participants here:

>> Stugan 2017 <<





I will keep updating this dev log when I am there, which might hopefully be interesting for you guys.

New worlds
So when I traveled I still did some work on the game. Mainly thinking about what the upcoming planets/worlds should be like.

My thoughts at this time are:
- World 1 - Forest
- World 2 - Ice
- World 3 - Lava
- World 4 - Jungle

I will introduce two new cubes with unique abilities in each world. The main focus of the cubes are to change the conditions enough to make the player think about the level in a different way. For example, in world 2 I will intruce a cube that makes the player heavy. This means that the player will not jump as high, crush ice if falling with enough speed, sink in water etc.

This could be called some kind of puzzle, but not in the traditional sense. I have decided that the puzzle parts will be created from the environamental physics based systems. A simple example would be that in world 1, you need to jump from a high enough place to reach the energy cube floating far beneath the surface.

Ice planet

I will be focusing on the ice world because that is the one I am currently working on.

So the main concept introduced in the ice world is ice( ). This means less friction and also some interesting opportunities to alter the forest-worlds environmental based physics systems enough to make the player recognize them, but still face a new challange. Here are some gifs that explain the core idea of how the more frictionless ice will affect gameplay.


Current prototype map for initial ice world concepts.


First hardcoded prototype for rolling on ice.


First prototype for sliding on ice walls.

The cubes I want to introduce are:
- Heavy cube -> Makes you sink in water. Makes it possible to crush ice.

- Gravity cube -> Changes gravity. Makes it possible to walk on the roof an reach other parts of the levels.

These cubes will also counter act on eachother. So if I have a heavy cube and collect a gravity cube, I am back to the normal state.

Here are some early level prototypes to describe how they might work:


First cruch the ice to get the gravity cube, then grabbing a heavy cube to get back to the ground.


First sliding on top of ice layer. Then grabbing a heavy cube and crushing ice.


Some potential use cases for ice.


Proposition for color scheme.

Linux demo
I have also added a Linux x64 build to itch as well

>> DEMO <<

Final words
I hope this log entry wasnt too hard to follow, but I really wanted to mention and include this stuff.
All in all it feels really good to be back and I will try to get back to my "one post a day"-schedule.

Please feel free to comment and give me any opinions you might have on these subjects

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 26

Yesterday I started looking into how to differentiate between different surfaces and how the character would behave. Sliding on ice did not work by just adding a lower friction surface, since I move the character by adding force. So what I am currently doing is raytracing downwards to find out what type of ground the character is on. This "system" could also be utilized for playing different sound clips when walking on different surfaces, for example.


Rolling on different surfaces.


Sliding on ice.

[Sundrop]

I love how simple the character is!

I tried version 0.2.0 of your demo and had a pleasant time until the end of level 4! After picking up the final energy cube, I experienced massive lag the rendered the game unplayable. The lag is there after the level ends and even after I restart the application.

Aside from that problem, I really enjoyed what I got to play! Especially after picking up 2 yellows and a red! Keep it up!

[mich mash]

You're game looks super cool, I really like the animations you've done for your main character. It gives it so much personality.

[Nordanvinden]

I love how simple the character is!

I tried version 0.2.0 of your demo and had a pleasant time until the end of level 4! After picking up the final energy cube, I experienced massive lag the rendered the game unplayable. The lag is there after the level ends and even after I restart the application.

Aside from that problem, I really enjoyed what I got to play! Especially after picking up 2 yellows and a red! Keep it up!

Thank you for taking the time and trying out the demo, I really appreciate it!
I am glad that you liked the character and its simplicity, it has worried me that it might be too simple.

I am sorry about the issues you experienced, I havent heard about it happening before. Sounds like a major issue though, so that worries me.

I dont seem to be able to reproduce it myself so if you still have the game, and find time, I would really appreciate if you could email me the ouput log file. Its located under "TheLostLightOfSisu_v0.2.0 -> TheLostLightOfSisu_ver_0.2.0_Data -> output_log.txt". email: [email protected]

Also, if I might ask, which operating system are you using?

Again, Thanks a lot for the feedback, its great that I know about this issue so that I can be on top of it if it happends again

You're game looks super cool, I really like the animations you've done for your main character. It gives it so much personality.

Thanks a lot! I have been worrying about how the main character will be percieved. If its enough with just having an eye and no mouth etc. So hearing this makes me so happy 

#Update 27

I have re-added the gravity cube (that existed in some older prototype versions) and a heavy cube.

New cube abilities

• Gravity cube - Alters you gravity/makes you ligher. Time to start thinking about everything upside down
• Heavy cube - Makes you heavier. It is no longer possible to walk on the normal surface, unless you are under water. You sink to the bottom of water, but are still able to swim (somewhat )

Picking up a heavy cube.


First picking up gravity cube. Then heavy cube to return to normal gravity state.

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 28

I have prototyped crushable ice and the first two levels that will introduce the gravity and heavy cube.


Crushing ice and sinking after picking up heavy cube.


Pushing ice to solve reaching gravity cube.


First ice world level introducing the heavy cube.


Second ice world level introducing gravity cube.

[Nordanvinden]

#Update 29

I have been working on a prototype level for the ice world which includes many of the mechanics which this world will offer. So here are some examples


A test course for ice sliding challanges.


Rolling under water and jumping up slope with heavy cube.


Using swings when possesing a gravity cube.

Infection color

So the logic behind the infection has been that when you pick up a red cube, the character becomes infected with a red pattern. If you then pick up another red cube, the infection spreads more. If you then pick up a yellow cube, there will be another infection which is yellow.


Infected from picking up a red cube.


Infected by two cubes and showing two separate infections.

This did not work for more than two cubes. Or was at least causing a bit of headache for me. This is all written in a shader and would only grow in complexity as more cubes (hence more colors) gets added.

So the solution I came up with was to blend the colors of the cubes that got picked up.


Infected from picking up an orange cube.


Infected from picking up a magenta cube.


Colors are blended into one color.

So I think this worked ou pretty well. The character gets less cluttered with many different colors, and it is maintanable for the adding of future cubes. It might remove some of that "infectous" feeling from before. It might also be a bit more confusing. But the main reason for adding it in the first place was to make sure that the player understood that the picked up cube has infected and is affecting the character. And I think it still fills that purpose since it workes in the same way when only one cube is collected.