Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length

 
Advanced search

1411276 Posts in 69323 Topics- by 58380 Members - Latest Member: bob1029

March 28, 2024, 10:59:13 AM

Need hosting? Check out Digital Ocean
(more details in this thread)
TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsNafet's River - local pvp action/survival game [working title]
Pages: [1]
Print
Author Topic: Nafet's River - local pvp action/survival game [working title]  (Read 1259 times)
J0S3PH44
Level 0
**


Hiya!


View Profile WWW
« on: October 28, 2020, 10:00:29 PM »

Nafet's River
by Anthony Bonacci


Description
Nafet's River is a local, action/survival river rafting game. Two players compete on land for materials to create the superior raft and then seek to outlast, or to destroy each other out on the river.

I'm aiming for a Steam/itch.io release in April/May '21.


Gameplay
There are two "phases" in Nafet's River:
  • Land Phase - Chop down trees to gather wood & use your lumber axe to attack each other!
  • River Phase - Collecting more wood yields a better raft. Maneuver around various obstacles on the river while trying to decimate your opponent!


Devlog Expectations
  • Weekly updates
  • Now-December: Mechanics & systems
  • January-April: Art, Music, SFX, stretch goals
The scope of Nafet's River is still changing, so some of my grander goals will come to light as this devlog progresses!


About Me
I'm in my final year of college and Nafet's River is my capstone, or thesis project, if you will. Working solo on this project is going to help me learn more about development in Unity. I usually focus on music, sfx & art, so this is a fun challenge for myself! Smiley
« Last Edit: January 13, 2021, 06:09:28 PM by J0S3PH44 » Logged

"This is no good.  I can't win if I'm a cabbage."
J0S3PH44
Level 0
**


Hiya!


View Profile WWW
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2020, 04:52:54 PM »

-Update 1-
Where I'm at right now:
Land Phase
Players can walk around & chop two things: trees and people.
When a player is hit, they have temporary invincibility, portrayed by their sprite flashing.
Trees can be chopped down, but I don't have a system for chopping them down yet.

River Phase
Players can move around in rafts.
Objects spawn in, but not correctly yet.
No gifs this time, but I'll post some next week.


What's next:
I'm working toward a demo that can be played fully through. Once I have that, I'd like to focus on updating each system one by one:
  • Tree chopping
  • Combat on land
  • Combat on river
  • River obstacles
The demo should be available in 1-2 weeks; I'll post about it as soon as it's ready.


« Last Edit: November 17, 2020, 07:24:40 PM by J0S3PH44 » Logged

"This is no good.  I can't win if I'm a cabbage."
J0S3PH44
Level 0
**


Hiya!


View Profile WWW
« Reply #2 on: November 08, 2020, 09:38:52 PM »

-Update 2-

Last week:
Land Phase
Timer set for chopping trees & combat.
Tracking for how much lumber each player has.
Transition to river phase at end of timer.

River Phase
I fixed a bug with the way that rocks in the river spawn in.
The river speeds up at certain time intervals.

Other Notes
There isn't anything too different visually from last time. I'll be posting screenshots/gifs whenever there's something different enough to show.
I ran into a bug where the graphics of the river & the rocks will freeze in place and then it looks all messy.
Hopefully that'll be solved & I can show off the river phase by my next post!
« Last Edit: November 17, 2020, 05:38:24 PM by J0S3PH44 » Logged

"This is no good.  I can't win if I'm a cabbage."
J0S3PH44
Level 0
**


Hiya!


View Profile WWW
« Reply #3 on: November 17, 2020, 07:17:34 PM »

-Update 3-

What I've done & why:
One of my first goals was to finish a gameplay loop: Land Phase transitions into River Phase > someone loses > they can go back to play in the land phase. I wanted to get that loop finished before really working on/finalizing each individual system (e.g. chopping trees, combat, rowing, spawning obstacles on river). Now that I have a basic version of the essential mechanics ready, I feel comfortable with narrowing my focus.




What I'm working on now:
Land Phase
I'm currently updating the tree chopping system. Right now, hitting the chop button near a tree cuts it down immediately. Now, hitting the chop button near a tree will spawn a short series of arrows below the player. As shown in the video clip (above), once a player hits a tree, an arrow spawns underneath them. That's all I've got so far. My plan is for 4 arrows to spawn, one by one. The player has to press the corresponding button on their controller's d-pad. The more correct inputs & speed in which the buttons are pressed yields a better reward.

Other Notes
River Phase
There's a bug in the river phase that I'm trying to deal with while working on the tree chopping system. Rocks & tiles spawn in from above the screen and move downward. Eventually, some of them will freeze in place & there will be gaps in between rows of tiles. In the video clip (below), a gap appears quickly.




Demo
I wanted to release a playable demo with the first drafts of each system & mechanic by now. I'm going to put it off until the game plays more how I envision it. I can't give a date just yet, so I'll speak more on it when I'm closer to feeling comfortable about releasing it.
Logged

"This is no good.  I can't win if I'm a cabbage."
J0S3PH44
Level 0
**


Hiya!


View Profile WWW
« Reply #4 on: January 13, 2021, 06:06:17 PM »

-Update 4-

Demo
Heyo! You can play a demo of the land phase here: https://deimos44.itch.io/nafets-river-land-phase-demo. The next demo to come should include the water phase.

What I've been up to since November
I took a break from working on the game around Thanksgiving. I'm living at college, but when I'm home I lose a lot of motivation to work, despite constantly thinking about what I should be doing. I don't have a desk at home and there's not much space for me to spread out and put myself in a position with minimal distraction. I uploaded the demo to itch.io about halfway through December, and then haven't touched the game much since then. I've been semi-productive during my time home for winter break; I've worked on writing some music, began reading Scrum, and worked on some gfx for Nafet's River.

My plan moving forward
I'm dead set on releasing Nafet's River in April/May. I don't have class for 4 days out of the week, so I should be able to schedule in more time to work. Over the next few months, I'll do my best to post more screenshots & gameplay videos.

More to come next week!
Logged

"This is no good.  I can't win if I'm a cabbage."
J0S3PH44
Level 0
**


Hiya!


View Profile WWW
« Reply #5 on: May 06, 2021, 02:35:49 PM »

-Update 5-

Demo
Trailer:


https://deimos44.itch.io/nafets-river-demo
**There is currently support only for XBox controllers right now. Support for other controllers & keyboard will come in a future build!**



Devlog Thoughts
I feel as if I started this devlog too soon. I wanted to post regularly as a way to keep myself accountable for making progress, but a big part of this project for me was becoming comfortable with the Unity engine and learning how to make a pixel perfect game without cutting any corners. I wasn't always making noticeable progress which made me feel weird about posting here. Going forward, I think it'll be best if I only post updates when I have enough major things to post about.

Update
A free demo is available on itch now. There's better UI in the land phase, the aspect ratio is different, the river phase has been implemented, and you can replay the game as much as you want!

My plan going forward
I might have work in the industry during this summer. If that prohibits me from working on Nafet's River, then I'll put this project on hold until that work ends. Otherwise, I'm going to improve Nafet's River a lot during this spring/summer! There are a few known bugs and issues with this demo that need to be fixed. I also have other ideas on how to improve the gameplay, which I may detail in a future update, or demonstrate in a future build. Other than gameplay, I still need to compose the soundtrack and make sound effects. I'm hoping that I'll be able to release the full version of Nafet's River in August, but we'll see!
Logged

"This is no good.  I can't win if I'm a cabbage."
Pages: [1]
Print
Jump to:  

Theme orange-lt created by panic