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[Sandwich Generation]

We will be demoing our game at Dublin Comicon starting tomorrow!!

I have made a new much more conventional tutorial to try there.
When demoing the game I have explained these steps to people *scores* of times. This tutorial automates what I would normally say.
Both players go through it simultaneously.
One of the biggest potential issues with this game is the fact that the learning curve is so steep at the beginning. If this tutorial works out at Comicon then we'll probably replace the existing tutorial with it.

[Sandwich Generation]

We demoed at Wexworlds in Wexford

It was great! Had a lot of people crowding around waiting for a game at times. We also organized the 1st two LazerGrrl tournaments ever! Totally impromtu!

Our Discord is now growing a decent rate (we have over 80 people) and we have 16 people currently signed up for the 1st online tournament ever.
If you wanna sign-up to head to out Discord

Anyway heres a pic of stormtroopers playing it...

[Sandwich Generation]

So for the 1st online LazerGrrl tournament ever, taking place on thursday (for which 18 people have signed up for so far). I am hastily making a few features. They will not be polished and you will only be able to access them with secret keyboard commands.

We need a way for people to be able to host and join the game of a specific person.. Even now with only 80 people on the Discord it can be hard to actually play the person you want to.

So the 1st part of that is exposing the username and password to the user..
So here that is in all its glory!!



This was already happening in the background. But I didnt want a login screen as thats a barrier to entry.

ps. Join the tournament and play the game on our Discord!!

[Sandwich Generation]

So in addition to the secret login/logout/change details screen, I also built a secret screen so players can host an join a match. If they want to play someone specific.



Ive also been working on allowing a 3rd player to spectate. I reckon I'll get it done before the tourney. Its almost there...

[Sandwich Generation]

So I demoed at this...

https://www.facebook.com/celticthrowdown/videos/235978227149380/

It seems fighting game players are a good audience for LazerGrrl.

Also our game will be getting demoed in Brazil tomorrow!
So, Portuguese is the 1st language the game has been translated to!




short hair poems

[Sandwich Generation]

So we need a company logo to put in our promo video for LazerGrrl...



Say hello to 'Sandwich Generation' !!!

[Sandwich Generation]

Started writing AI for LazerGrrl (for new players to practice against) a few days ago.. Its coming along nicely, now it is afraid of laserbeams!

[Sandwich Generation]

So aswell as being able to move, the only other thing the AI can now do is ECO.





I must say I'm really enjoying this! Writing AI is so much fun..

I'm doing quite a good job programming it too imo.
Overall its kind of a hodgepodge of different AI programming techniques specific to this game.
This game, is kinda like chess, in that you have to plan out moves and make several moves in succession in order for them to make sense.. Eg you have to build a pgen, and then build walls to connect it. But *also* its a realtime game where the enemy action can interrupt or spoil your plans.

Before writing any code on this I had a good old think + sketched out some ideas, and also re-read this page.
I actually think that page is great, its remedial, but imo if you are familiar with, and 100% understand, everything on that page, you will be able to begin tackling writing AI for most games.

Theres definitely a behaviour tree of sorts in my code, but also planning is baked in. So a node on the tree can have a sequence of subnodes that need to complete one after another in order for that node to complete. If a node 'fails' then, its parent fails too.

I've been following my own good coding practices and so far this has been a very enjoyable experience. The code seems very solid and so far is eminently maintainable. Theres tonnes of flexibility to add whatever features I feel like to the system.
For me good coding practice is..
1. The fundamentals. Tiny classes, tiny methods.
2. Bottom up approach. Start off writing useful little utilities and then compose them to form higher level elements. Then compose those to form even higher level elements. The best software architecture imo is no architecture.. Sometimes you'll end up needing to choose a software architecture, and when that happens the choice is super important, but that choice also locks you in to a certain pattern, so if You can avoid it, do.

So, my AI code is made up of.
1. Static reusable 'Tool' classes where all the hard stuff / meaty calculations are done.
2. Lots of tiny classes like the one below that make up my behaviour tree..

[nathy after dark]

Bookmarking this to check out later. I love the Sandwich Generation logo.

[Sandwich Generation]

Current state of the AI





My AI is starting to resemble and actual opponent now..
I think he would beat a brand new player in his current default configuration!

My AI design has main 3 main branches on the decision tree..

1. Eco
Build and connect reactors to earn energy

2. Attack
Build lazers

3. Defend
Avoid personal lazer fire, and protect base and blocks with walls

So far Eco and Attack have been implemented (somewhat)
All that remains to do, to have a serviceable opponent for new players is...
1. Implement the Defend part of the decision tree
2. Add some chance to his decision making. (Currently he's deterministic, which is good for testing purposes, so I'll leave him like that until later)

[Sandwich Generation]

Ok lots of things to report!!

Release deadline is October 14th... So I've been crunching a bit.. I havent had time to post here!

1. Cool AI vs AI video





AI is done for now... Its more than good enough to play at the end of the tutorial and as a 1st practice opponent
I think this video is cool.. The reason they are making the exact same moves is because this AI reacts deterministically to their opponent. So, as they are both AI's, each of their opponents is doing the same thing, to which they respond identically... Until they both try to fit through a one square wide gap, and then they diverge.

2. Tutorial is done!





I turned the 2 player tutorial I had been using when demoing the game at cons into a single player tutorial.
This tutorial has been tested with scores of people, iterated and then tested again (when demoing) So I have confidence in it.
Also I reckon this new single player version is now UNBREAKABLE.. Please try and break it!

3. Block stacking rule

So because of the internet and me wanting my game to be super responsive (more on this in previous posts),, its possible for players to place blocks on the same square if they both do it at exactly the same time.
Now if that happens both blocks explode.
This 'block stacking' usually only happens when very high level players are playing very close to each other and making lots of fast moves... But I thought I had to add this rule, in order for this game to be able to be taken seriously as a competitive pvp game.

4. Custom games exposed.
So now everyone can..
1. Host a custom online game.
2. Join a custom online game.
3. Change their name.
Before it was doable via a secret feature, and it was super-janky... Now its exposed to the public with a decent UI and it works nicely.

join


host


change name

[Sandwich Generation]

So here is a rough draft of the promo video..

I'm (the programmer) gonna do another days work on this at least.
I need to sort out the audio levels, currently the SFX from the game footage are super low.

Then the artist is gonna polish it up (and he is actually *good* at this sort of thing!)

Also the music guy is gonna properly edit his track to match (You can hear my *very* crude edit, where I just cut pasted bits to get the timing ok)





Anyway I think this is a big step up from the last one..
I've never really done this sort of thing b4 so I'm really pleased with myself.  

Also I hate doing this sort of thing!! I started this on Tuesday but probably spent almost 2 days procrastinating and not getting stuck in.
This is probably a few hours work for someone good at this. I set aside 4 days to get this into good enough shape to hand over to the artist. Its just a bit of video editing, but because its so far out of my core skillset it feels like a big accomplishment.. It felt harder to do this than to write the AI lol!

[Sandwich Generation]

So LazerGrrl is now public!!!!
Its 100% free to play in browser.

Itch.io  
Gamejolt
Kongregate

From now on I'll mainly be marketing and telling people about it..
I might make some small changes, and I *certainly* will fix any bugs people find.

Eg. I might try and funnel new players to tutorial 1st, then practice vs AI bots and then PVP.
I got one report from someone who missed all that, jumped straight into pvp and didnt know what to do.
Feedback on that issue would be appreciated!

The plan now is..

If its reasonably popular
do more on it. Make a paid deluxe version with these features.. and other requested features..

* Windows build, mac build, linux build... Also maybe Switch Android, iOS  builds(edited)
* more than two players per match
* spectate matches
* save and share replays
* tournament mode
* Ranking system and online leaderboards(edited)
* more maps
* Procedural maps, different every game
* Make your own maps(edited)
* character customisation
* Custom matches with lots of different game options, eg Lazer reflection, ULTRA-lazers,lazer orientation, friendly fire

Also maybe do a Kickstarter for that.

If not
Move onto next game

[Sandwich Generation]

So.. in classic fashion you release game and then realise theres like 10 features you should have done.

Just did a small Update.. Now you can see your opponents name in the VS screen and win/lose screens. Theres also a secret keyboard shortcut to show names during the game. Thats on the Discord.

[Sandwich Generation]

So just fyi I've actually been devlogging on the games Discord since launch.
But quick catchup the game got a great reception and now were proceeding with more work which were calling LazerGrrl Extra, which we've launched a Kickstarter for

The following is about a little feature I'm currently working on which is kinda tricky, advice appreciated!

today I'm working a small but significant new feature, to help noobs understand the game
One of the big issues new players seem to have, is that they dont understand that Lazers use energy.. They tend to build loads of lazers, cant buy anything else and get stuck.
so I'm adding an income gauge to the base.
I'll also change the tutorial to highlight it.



Ive actually tried a few things.. Coming up with something that wont confuse noobs even more is hard!



so above is the the simplest idea, and the 2nd simplest idea
the whole point of this feature is that it is aimed at total noobs
so they're the only options I'm considering
I'm considering the 2nd simplest one as it would actually have some utility to non noob players aswell
Heres a video of 2nd simplest idea in Action...

[Sandwich Generation]

Heres the new income gauge in an updated tutorial.
I think the tutorial is better this way, I also think the gauge can be improved.





I have a few other ideas for the gauge..

[Sandwich Generation]

So I've been devlogging on LazerGrrls Discord.
But I thought I would post this here.. as its pretty epic progress.
My 1st time having a game with 4 players.

You can also see new lobby and matchmaking system which is in progress.
And also procedural levels, which I did a little while ago

[Sandwich Generation]

So I am actually devlogging on the games Discord
But here is something cool!
The 1st ever 2v2 match online test.
(ps. The feature im working on will allow arbitrary numbers of players)