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TIGSource ForumsCommunityDevLogsBattleJuice Alchemist – Base-building patch is live on Steam!
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Author Topic: BattleJuice Alchemist – Base-building patch is live on Steam!  (Read 75718 times)
James K. Isaac
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« Reply #580 on: March 03, 2023, 10:39:20 AM »

Congratulations, Alain, great news! Such an exciting project, so polished and thematic. I didn't realise all the different layers you've considered in the presentation of every aspect of your project. Amazing work.
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marcgfx
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« Reply #581 on: March 04, 2023, 06:00:09 AM »

Considering how good everything can look rendered in Unreal it really would make sense if it was animated in the engine. On the other hand 600mb does not seem to be considered much anymore. Guess just do what gets you to your goal quickest. I would love to do something similar for my project, but I have no idea where to start.

Congrats on the Award!
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JobLeonard
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« Reply #582 on: March 04, 2023, 01:37:05 PM »

Regarding benefits of using the engine: don't forget it basically gives your animation a free HD upgrade in the future Wink

Kinda like watching old Flash animations with Ruffle on Archive.org
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Alain
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« Reply #583 on: March 04, 2023, 01:45:39 PM »

Congratulations, Alain, great news! Such an exciting project, so polished and thematic. I didn't realise all the different layers you've considered in the presentation of every aspect of your project. Amazing work.

Thank you so much, I'm glad you like the overall presentation!


Considering how good everything can look rendered in Unreal it really would make sense if it was animated in the engine. On the other hand 600mb does not seem to be considered much anymore. Guess just do what gets you to your goal quickest. I would love to do something similar for my project, but I have no idea where to start.

Congrats on the Award!

Thank you! You're right, 600 MB more or less does not seem to matter when downloading games anymore. I'll do as you say and mainly make the decision based on what is most practical for my workflow.


Regarding benefits of using the engine: don't forget it basically gives your animation a free HD upgrade in the future Wink

Kinda like watching old Flash animations with Ruffle on Archive.org

Funnily I never thought about it this way, you are right! That makes working in engine a lot more attractive, thanks for pointing it out!
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oahda
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« Reply #584 on: March 05, 2023, 07:02:53 AM »

Missed a few updates. Congrats on the award!! Read the thoughts regarding the tower mechanic; might not be for everyone I guess but hope you can balance it. Do you personally enjoy playing with all these things in place? Grin Upgrading video to an in-game cinematic sounds beneficial in many ways.
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Alain
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« Reply #585 on: March 06, 2023, 02:51:06 AM »

Missed a few updates. Congrats on the award!! Read the thoughts regarding the tower mechanic; might not be for everyone I guess but hope you can balance it. Do you personally enjoy playing with all these things in place? Grin Upgrading video to an in-game cinematic sounds beneficial in many ways.

Thank you! The tower building is something I enjoy a lot myself, yes. But I will try to not force it onto the player too much, because as you say, it might not be for everyone.
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Alain
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« Reply #586 on: March 17, 2023, 07:03:42 AM »

BATTLEJUICE ALCHEMIST DEVLOG:
Day-Night Cycle and UI Animations


Hey folks,

I can see the end of the tunnel regarding base-building implementation. As I already announced, it will be tied to some mysterious underused system. That system is the day-night cycle, which except for certain minor buffs has been mainly cosmetic so far. It has been overhauled visually and mechanically.


The world of BattleJuice Alchemist is always dark, even at daytime, so it was a challenge to make the days distinct from the nights without compromising the atmosphere I am going for. Beside brightness, I worked with shadows, colors, particle systems and Unreal's exponential height fog. And that new UI element Wink. In the gif above, you might have spotted a splash animation at nightfall. I implemented these animations, which are visually based on our pop-up book style cutscenes, so the player can't miss daybreak or nightfall. Here is a top-down shot that shows both animations.


These new animated splash UIs made those for level-ups, demon-spawning and dying look underwhelming, so I overhauled these as well.


And this wraps up today's devlog. Next time I'll show you how we bring together the new day-night cycle and the base-building system, so stay tuned for that!

Thanks for reading and enjoy your weekend!

Alain
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JobLeonard
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« Reply #587 on: March 17, 2023, 07:24:00 AM »

It looks great! But if the daytime is dark I think the art of the sun should somehow reflect that, no? Not sure how but it kind of clashes with what we see on the screen as it is
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oldblood
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« Reply #588 on: March 18, 2023, 07:37:52 PM »

I know I commented on Twitter already, but I absolutely love these. They tie in so well to the trailer/intro with the pop-ups (which I think are incredible). Really adds some nice touches of polish.
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Alain
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« Reply #589 on: March 20, 2023, 11:08:11 PM »

It looks great! But if the daytime is dark I think the art of the sun should somehow reflect that, no? Not sure how but it kind of clashes with what we see on the screen as it is

I see your point that the animation for the sun gives the feeling of a bright day to start, which is actually not the case. I'll have a look at the colors of the animation again. I want to be careful though because I want this to stay readable and bright yellow/orange can easily be read as daybreak. I'll experiment a bit. Thanks as always for the feedback JobLeonard!

I know I commented on Twitter already, but I absolutely love these. They tie in so well to the trailer/intro with the pop-ups (which I think are incredible). Really adds some nice touches of polish.

Thank you! When I look at the 2D animations of your game, I feel like mine are so basic that they are not even worth posting about :D So I'm even more happy you say they have an appeal to you for what they are!
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JobLeonard
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« Reply #590 on: March 21, 2023, 02:07:02 AM »

Obscuring wispy clouds maybe?
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Alain
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« Reply #591 on: March 22, 2023, 07:57:53 AM »

Obscuring wispy clouds maybe?

Good point! There already are some clouds, maybe they could be more pronounced!
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Alain
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« Reply #592 on: March 31, 2023, 11:41:53 AM »

BATTLEJUICE ALCHEMIST DEVLOG:
Patch Notes 0.23803

The Big Base Building Patch


Hey everyone,

those of you following my devlog might have seen this coming. You can now experiment with the new base building / tower crafting feature in the Steam Playtest version!


Building your tower is not at all just cosmetics for housing, there are very functional constructions, such as shield breaking illuminants, decoys that protect your tower and automatic flask dispensers:


I implemented construction elements up to character level 15, so there is a lot more to discover than what I already talked about in previous posts.

Of course, all the new mechanics related to the new day-night cycle are also included in this patch. In the coming weeks I will explain the new elements in detail. Until then, you can start to do some discovering yourself Wink


As always, the full list of changes can be found on our Discord. I'm looking forward to hear what you all think!

Cheers,

Alain
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Ramos
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« Reply #593 on: April 02, 2023, 06:56:02 AM »



I have been following your blog since the early beginning and I see how the concept changed and evolved in time so I want to ask:

What were the primary reasons why you made so many changes?
For example, this new tower seems like a significant gameplay changer that I assume was not planned from the beginning(or so I suspect, correct me if I am wrong)

And do you consider now having the final vision for the game or are you expecting more significant changes along the road?

 Gentleman

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Alain
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« Reply #594 on: April 02, 2023, 01:59:15 PM »

I have been following your blog since the early beginning and I see how the concept changed and evolved in time so I want to ask:

What were the primary reasons why you made so many changes?
For example, this new tower seems like a significant gameplay changer that I assume was not planned from the beginning(or so I suspect, correct me if I am wrong)

And do you consider now having the final vision for the game or are you expecting more significant changes along the road?

 Gentleman

That is a very valid question! You are correct, I added new features over the course of the last year that I didn't initially think I could have in the game. The reason why I worked on them is that I applied for public funding, which required logging in my production schedule, separating the prototype production from main production. During the application process, I was not allowed to work on what is actually on the schedule for main production, or I would disqualify for the funding, because the project would already have been started by their definition. They can't fund projects that are in (main) development already.

I've always wanted to have some more elaborate crafting like the tower building, so I took this opportunity to implement it. At the same time, I'm trying to keep this a feature that players can use as much as they want and also mainly ignore if they are not into it. This is the last big addition regarding mechanics/features, because we started main production yesterday, with the start of April Wink
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vdapps
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« Reply #595 on: April 03, 2023, 09:36:55 AM »

Base building looks cool! The game started to be more complex and ambitious from the time I stumbled upon your thread for the first time. Day/night change along with general atmosphere remind me of Diablo II Act I, which is VERY good company. Wink
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Alain
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« Reply #596 on: April 03, 2023, 10:14:59 AM »

Base building looks cool! The game started to be more complex and ambitious from the time I stumbled upon your thread for the first time. Day/night change along with general atmosphere remind me of Diablo II Act I, which is VERY good company. Wink

Thank you, that comparison to D2 is a huge compliment. D2 is a big inspiration and BattleJuice Alchemist will also be separated into acts. The second will be in a desert-like environment, the third in the swamps. There won't be a fourth in hell though. But that's maybe something for an expansion Wink
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vdapps
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« Reply #597 on: April 04, 2023, 03:18:32 PM »

Thank you, that comparison to D2 is a huge compliment. D2 is a big inspiration and BattleJuice Alchemist will also be separated into acts. The second will be in a desert-like environment, the third in the swamps. There won't be a fourth in hell though. But that's maybe something for an expansion Wink

Hmm, that reminds me of something. I have an idea for you for another possible expansion. Nordic, tundra-lika environment! Grin
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Alain
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« Reply #598 on: April 05, 2023, 12:25:35 AM »

Thank you, that comparison to D2 is a huge compliment. D2 is a big inspiration and BattleJuice Alchemist will also be separated into acts. The second will be in a desert-like environment, the third in the swamps. There won't be a fourth in hell though. But that's maybe something for an expansion Wink

Hmm, that reminds me of something. I have an idea for you for another possible expansion. Nordic, tundra-lika environment! Grin

Funny that you mention it, here is a page from our pitch deck:



There are already story bits in the game that hint at the "frozen tundra of the North" and the expeditions of our protagonist's uncle there. Actually, your companion Plato is from that area Wink
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leblackdragon
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« Reply #599 on: April 05, 2023, 05:02:46 AM »

Although late, congratulations on the grant and award. The game clearly deserves it. The visual presentation is immediately captivating. I love the art style and color palette use, and I expect the character animation to become better as development progresses.
Gosh I have always marveled the the complexity involved in designing and implementing a game such as yours. And then getting it optimized to run smoothly. Seems like a very daunting task. That being said, it already looks amazing and quite satisfying to play.
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