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[JobLeonard]

This looks great! Reminds me of diegzumillo's Apple & Worm (which sadly is on hold for now) https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=35651.0

[oahda]

-= Devlog #18 =-

(RTG is in version 0.3.2)

'Gravity inverter' showcase

Hi All!

New devlog for RTG is here. This time, I'm not going to explain very much as I guess that short animation will show more than long text in this case. New game mechanics/element is called 'gravity inverter' and I'm sure that it's self-explaining.

This is just test level, level design and my actions there are non-sensical, it's just to showcase new feature. And yet again, sorry for lower quality of WEBP animation posted here. On my GameJolt page, there's higher quality MP4 uploaded (which can be 'fullscreened' there), in case you'll want to see nicer version of the same animation.

Cheers.

Upside-down, downside-up

Nice! I like that the entire room is upside down

[vdapps]

Thank you all for your feedback!

I love that gravity switch. I've just noticed that the player "character" is perfectly fine from both gravity directions.

Nice point with my 'genial' design of character. Yet, there are still subtle touches I had to do regarding character, when switching gravity. First is hint text. It should be above head, so in inverted gravity it means below actor's box. Same apply when actor is holding box or light. Held box/light should be subtly in upper part of character which means in lower part of character box in inverted gravity. Gravity inversion itself is sudden (9,81 -> -9,81 in instant) however to not have sudden jumps of hint texts or carried box/light, I'm interpolating there when gravity is being flipped.

Another interesting mechanic! You could add another spin or two to your zoom effect for through the roof stylishness

Haha, I'm not sure if this 'over the roof' spinning will match game's more serious narrative. In fact, in normal gravity, there's no spin at all, however in inverted gravity it would be strange to zoom into upside-down terminal, but with normal 'upside-up' displayed text. So reading terminal is only case, when camera will roll 180 degrees.

This looks great! Reminds me of diegzumillo's Apple & Worm (which sadly is on hold for now) https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=35651.0

I recall diegzumillo commenting here on my thread as well. I had as well my break in RTG game development (in fact 2 times!). Elon Musk once said: "reaching orbit is hard". I will paraphrase: "finishing indie-game is hard". I hope diegzumillo will resume development and finish Apple & Worm!

Nice! I like that the entire room is upside down

In this case yes, entire room is upside down, but I'll try to mix that in actual levels. Some elements normal, some upside down. I'm wondering if I'll be able to create some good mindf.ck levels with this mechanics.

[Ramos]

I like the inverted room mechanics and the objects that also get inverted add that nice immersive feel to the entire scene.
For future mechanics maybe you can also add inverted controls mechanics

Glad to see you have returned to the project motivated 

[vdapps]

Thx @Ramos for nice words! I'm now on creating a bunch of levels around that inverted gravity mechanics, so I'm wondering myself what sort of puzzles I'll be able to create.

[vdapps]

-= Devlog #19 =-

(RTG is in version 0.4)

'Gravity inverter' levels

Hello fellow devs and followers!

First let me wish you all the best in New Year 2022! I wish you to all good and productive year.

Since the last devlog, RTG was in slow but steady development. This version is more about new 'content' rather than about new 'mechanics'. That said, I added quite a bunch of new puzzle levels, which are all revolving around lastly introduced game mechanics: gravity inverters.

Level count is now on magical number 42 and I'm humbly moving TIG's progression bar for this project to 40%. Long way behind me, longer way still before me.

Here's some example from the one of new levels and as always, my movement in animation is non-sensical to not spoil any solution. Higher quality (MP4) version of animation is available on RTG Gamejolt page.

Cheers.

Example of gravity inverter level

[oahda]

Happy new year and welcome back, and congrats on updating the progress bar!!

That looks really smooth, and I really like that you can operate the gravity inverter indirectly by shooting at it too, lots of puzzle potential there!

[assemblerbot]

Happy new year! That looks like a lot of fun! Stacking those boxes to create stairs reminds me the good old Quadrax . By the way, it is possible to "die" somehow in your game?

And one random idea for puzzles: light detector trigger that reacts to light intensity or light color.

[Alain]

Happy new year to you to and congratulations on 42 levels, that's quite a lot already!

[vdapps]

That looks really smooth, and I really like that you can operate the gravity inverter indirectly by shooting at it too, lots of puzzle potential there!

Thx Prinsessa! Exactly, expanding puzzle possibilities was my goal! I somehow feel that I'm saturated with puzzle mechanics for now, I don't want to overdo it, so probably I'll just focus now on creating levels with all puzzle mechanics introduced so far.

Stacking those boxes to create stairs reminds me the good old Quadrax . By the way, it is possible to "die" somehow in your game? And one random idea for puzzles: light detector trigger that reacts to light intensity or light color.

Regarding Quadrax, maybe I have something like "Level 3 Cauldron enchantment" on me. Which means, if I ever want to create some own game, sooner or later I create something with Quadrax similarities.

Regarding dying, you can get stuck in dead end in the level, there's "reset" button which you can use anytime. Anything closest to dying is falling out of the level. I just detect that you're out of level bounds and trigger auto-level reset. But I'm still thinking to implement 1-2 more arcade elements (I have only moving platforms from arcade elements for now) for at least in final levels where will be possibility to be killed. E.g. columns crushing against ground, etc.. I'll evaluate.

And thanks for ideas. I can consider light intensity trigger, but even if originally I wanted to create color based puzzles, I dropped that. I want to be as accessible as possible, so no color puzzles, as I have color-blind people in mind. But with intensities, there's no problem.

Happy new year to you to and congratulations on 42 levels, that's quite a lot already!

Thx Alain! Yep, still some quite a bunch of levels before me, to reach some reasonable amount of content for the game, but even now I'm happy that I can't speed-run current content in few minutes, like it was at beginning.

[JobLeonard]

The update looks great as always! Does the 42 levels/40% done mark mean you're aiming for 100 levels?

[Ramos]

Great to see you on the development grind again

42 levels/40% is a lot of progress, Good job vdapps! Did you also calculate the gameplay time for them?

Also, wanted to ask if you are able to carry out some bonuses(even esthetical) from a level to another for an extra feel of progression?

[vdapps]

Thank you two!

@JobLeonard:

no, 100 levels for sure not. I don't know yet exact level count which the game will have (maybe I'll add some intermediate story levels, or I add more tutorials levels), but currently I can say I'm around in 2/3 of level count. In fact, when I will have all puzzle levels (baseline gameplay content of RTG), I will consider game to be in just 50% of development. Remaining 50% is the rest (story readable in terminals, sound, music, algorithm optimization and looot of things which for sure will yet come along the way). I think Ramos knows for sure, what it is working on last 10-20% of the game.

@Ramos:

I'm aiming for something like at least 45 minutes speed-run. So, if ignoring story, no terminal readings, you know in every level directly what you have to do, it should take that time to beat the game. Of course, real players facing those puzzles for the first time, with interest in story, it will take much longer. I hope for at least 4-5 hours of normal playthrough, but it's yet to see (depends on puzzles difficulty).

Regarding bonuses. In fact, JobLeonard already touched that in some of his previous posts. One of his ideas, stuck to me. Having some story level to which you'll return throughout the game several times (and this level will evolve every time, more and more things will be unlocked, ideally accompanied by some nice RT FX). This can give player sense of progression. To not have just multitude of puzzle levels in row and that's it. I'm thinking about adding some uber-terminal to such level where more options will get accessible every time you re-visit that level or more texts will unlock. This I have to brainstorm properly yet, but my mind is still revolving around such idea.

[Ramos]

Thank you two!

@Ramos:

I'm aiming for something like at least 45 minutes speed-run. So, if ignoring story, no terminal readings, you know in every level directly what you have to do, it should take that time to beat the game. Of course, real players facing those puzzles for the first time, with interest in story, it will take much longer. I hope for at least 4-5 hours of normal playthrough, but it's yet to see (depends on puzzles difficulty).

Regarding bonuses. In fact, JobLeonard already touched that in some of his previous posts. One of his ideas, stuck to me. Having some story level to which you'll return throughout the game several times (and this level will evolve every time, more and more things will be unlocked, ideally accompanied by some nice RT FX). This can give player sense of progression. To not have just multitude of puzzle levels in row and that's it. I'm thinking about adding some uber-terminal to such level where more options will get accessible every time you re-visit that level or more texts will unlock. This I have to brainstorm properly yet, but my mind is still revolving around such idea.

4-5 hours of gameplay on the first run is good, I was asking because of the Steam refund policy for under 3 hours gameplay and for people judging the game price in relation to the gameplay time. It is good to be aware of these things.

And yes, as JobLeonard suggested having the environment show progress rather than the character is a solid pillar, I actually think if this is executed well it can boost the uniques personality of your project.

[vdapps]

Hi All!

I'm just here to say that RTG is not dead. I had loong development hiatus.

First, I was stuck creativity wise (making up new and new puzzle levels).

Second, when war in Ukraine started, it impacted me quite a lot (even if I'm not Ukrainian). I was not able to focus almost on nothing, just compulsively checking news from the war all the day (and night). It was so severe that I had to develop for my main job (as I'm working remote) in times like 3AM-4AM to have my obligatory work done.

Third, even after cooling down, I have problems getting back to my normal regime. Still starting late my main job, so I finish it late as well, then little time for my project. I have problems cutting down procrastination.

Despite of that, my work done on RTG meanwhile is more than zero (at least something). It's just not worth of devlog entry. To unstuck with first point (thinking up new puzzle levels), for a change I made new arcade game element (will be presented in next devlog). In the end, the game from the beginning was meant to be puzzle/arcade, only up to now it was heavily puzzle focused. I plan to make finale levels challenging also from arcade point of view, so from now on I will combine more arcade into puzzling to bring more challenge.

Now I'm going to check all important threads I missed. I noticed that @Ramos and his team released Chromosome Evil meanwhile. Big congrats from me and it's insta buy!

See ya soon in next devlog ( at least sooner than this entry )

[Alain]

Second, when war in Ukraine started, it impacted me quite a lot (even if I'm not Ukrainian). I was not able to focus almost on nothing, just compulsively checking news from the war all the day (and night). It was so severe that I had to develop for my main job (as I'm working remote) in times like 3AM-4AM to have my obligatory work done.

I am sorry to hear that. Quite a few people I know get stuck doomsday scrolling for hours and it is taking its toll. It is great that you got your grip back and I wish you all the best for the upcoming months.

[oahda]

Very understandable But it's nice just to hear from you!

[JobLeonard]

Yeah, I'm also just happy to hear you're still with us.

And once a routine is broken it can be hard to rebuild, I know that feeling. Just hang in there!

[vdapps]

Thanks to you all for the kind words!

For now, I'm helping myself by working on RTG even in tiny tiniest slices.

There's Slovak proverb: "slowly, you can go farther".

I was always searching for at least 2-3h blocks to work on project. But when situation was crappy, there was barely such free time (for objective or subjective reasons), so I gave up such days working on RTG. And then I realized, that it's already months when I not made almost anything. By not considering small time blocks "worthy" enough, I stuck completely.

Now I have "30 minutes" rule. Even if it's midnight, or 1AM, yes, it's possible almost every day to do something at least for some 30 minutes. This helps me to get back grip.

Regarding game itself, for now I reveal that new arcade element I made recently is: bouncing charged light.

It's ball of light which is bouncing in level indefinitely and will kill player instantly on touch. This will allow me to make more arcade levels, plus you can realize that having ever-moving light source in level, this is exactly the right stuff to showcase strengths of ray-tracing engine.

[vdapps]

Hi All!

still working, still working, I'm just not here very often due to the fact that I was working on RTG just up to 60 minutes daily, so I rather focused on development itself. This will be the biggest gap between two RTG devlogs from the start of development, but my commitment is still there and RTG development IS progressing slowly but steadily. 

The biggest news from my side currently is that after 2 years of working from home, I finally have my own dedicated office! Yooohoo. Ok, now it looks more like empty storage space, as I have lot of work with arranging and cleaning yet, but I love it, as I can focus much better now.

I'm sharing first photo of my humble place how it look at very start. I just moved here bare minimum from our flat what I needed to start working. Looks crappy, but I'm looking forward to improve it! I'll share with you when I have some significant upgrade ( like 'Humble Office' Level 2, etc..  )