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[Coke_can64]

Yay, a release!

Got the game to work on my comp here. It's nowhere near high-spec these days and still runs Troll Rave at about the 60 FPS cap. Which is good.

Load times usually takes up to half a minute here. The swirly map as it's getting built helps. Personally, the load time is fine, guess I'm too used to genning Dwarf Fortress maps.

Also, I know you don't really want bug reports and other stuff, but secretly your spray cans are shovels and it's a little off-putting needing to spacebar to select your items.

Still, happy it works, can't wait to see more of this.

[Izzimach]

Thanks Coke_can64! 

Yeah, the controls are horrible I agree.  I mainly developed using a gamepad and threw in some basic keyboard/mouse controls so I could release something for testing.   Did you manage to figure out that holding the right mouse button lets you pan?  I think I might make mouselook 'always on' since that would be a little less confusing to people.

[tim-bo-jay]

I just gave this a little test, bit hard to get used to the slippery floor and I spent 5 minutes with my camera stuck facing the wrong direction because I didn't know I had to click to turn the camera (although pressing every key on my keyboard to try and turn the camera did show me the Map and Inventory screens which I wouldn't have thought to check before lol) but the game seems decent for an early build I'm looking forward to seeing where you take it :D

[Outcast Orange]

Very neat game.

I'll have to try this soon.

[Izzimach]

Thanks for your comments fellas.  Looks like I can get away with providing a few video resolution options for now, and can put off optimizing the dungeon generation for a little bit.  The next release should be more playable

[tim-bo-jay]

The next release should be more playable

Looking forward to it :D

[Izzimach]

Well, combat is pretty much where I want it to be.  There are some damage types, knockback, and various attack shapes (cone, explosion, etc.)  I've also set up code and data formats to specify monster groups, which are a set of related monsters that will generally get placed together in different areas of the dungeon.  Right now my only group is the "red trolls" but everything is in place to easily add more groups as I make them.

Click on the image for some YouTube goodness.





At the moment I'm starting a stint as a stay-at-home dad taking care of two kids, so development updates will no doubt be even slower than they currently are , at least until school starts up in august.  I'll take the time to sketch out some different monster factions, and also consider how I'm going to handle loot and dungeon "boss" monsters.

[Izzimach]

Here's the boss monster for the "Red Trolls" which marks the end of the first dungeon.  I was little surprised at how hard it was to get the timings and behavior tuned in order to make it into an interesting and not-frustrating boss fight, especially considering how simple the boss is.  He knocks you away if you get too close, so you have to wait until he's  performed his leap attack.  While he recovers from his leap, you run up and spam weapon attacks and repeat until dead.



Presumably you could also use glyphs to shoot fireballs at him or summon minions to attack, but you should be able to defeat him with just weapon attacks as well.

With one group of monsters more-or-less complete, I'm going to revisit the glyph system and work loot distribution.  I have some ideas (and code!) for other monster bosses but they'll have to wait.

[Izzimach]

The long summer days are over, and I finally got some changes implemented.  I'll even make a list:

• The "Troll Rave" is now a safe haven which serves the same function as a town would serve in many other RPGs.  There will be trolls there for the basic town functions (merchant, enchanter) as well as a lot of dancing trolls.  I'm thinking about adding a dancing mini-game but that may be too much extra effort.
• I put in some simple GUI things like inventory and a basic conversation interface.
• Added in basic shadowing.  Makes the big troll look more dramatic when you see his shadow draped across the ceiling.
• Lots of music added from cc.Mixter.  The CC license lets me just dump these into the game as long as I attribute them.  I'd like to get permission from as many of the authors as possible, though.  I'm sure all of them would appreciate their music used in a game where you hit trolls on the head with a shovel.
• Dumped the old damage type system for a simpler system of "Fierce", "Focus" and "Rage" attack types.  These types interact in a RPS fashion, so (for example) against Raging enemies you're generally better off using Focus attacks.  The relationships aren't set in stone, but it's a good start.

Here's some recent screenshots.  I'm currently trying to flesh out the Troll Rave so it has all the required town functions.  So far you can switch between the Troll Rave and the first dungeon, but that's it.

[Paint by Numbers]

Looking great! I especially love those shadows. Keep up the good work.

[gimymblert]

There is something magical in those graphism really

[Izzimach]

Another update, finally.  Hopefully all the info here will be worth the wait!

First, I added some other levels.  Most notably, I added the troll dance party, which is where you go to get new quests and restock on spray paint



Yeah, that's a DJ off on the right hand side.   Probably need to put him up on a stage with some speakers or something.

Second, I dipped into multithreading to speed up the level construction, since now I'm starting to make larger dungeons levels.  I have to perform a lot of computation to generate geometry from map data for these large levels; basically I'm doing the same work that the old compilers for quake maps used to do, only now I have to do it in a few seconds while the user stares at a loading screen.  So it has to be quite fast.  Luckily most of the computation is what we call "embarrassingly parallel" so I just split up the level building into several tasks and feed them into a task-based thread pool.

Finally, I updated the combat mechanics AGAIN.  Someday I'll get it right.  I wanted some more powerful special attacks, but I wanted to avoid the use of cooldowns or energy bars to power special attacks.  At the same time, you don't want the player spamming his special attacks all the time.  What to do?

I found something to like in the combat in Batman: Arkham Asylum.  In particular, there was the "press Y to counter this guy who is about to attack you" thing, complete with little flashy icon over the guys head.  That combined with lunging from one guy to another added some nice variety.

So I added something similar.  Each monster can have an "exploit" which shows up over his/her head as a colored icon.  Exploits usually appear when the enemy charges up and attack or casts a spell, but presumably certain skills or spells can also cause them to appear.  When a monster has an exploit, you can face them and hit the matching key/button to perform a special "exploit attack" on that monster.  It seems to work well at breaking up the routine of spamming you basic attack all the time.



.  Note at the end that I just sit there waiting for the guy to charge his next attack so I can wallop him with my uppercut exploit attack.  Dunno if I want to keep this or not.

Next I am rewriting the dungeon generator to simplify the collision geometry while also making it a little more flexible so I can easily customize the room layout and room shape.