Back at it!

So, the urge to gamedev is back but I don’t really have the time and energy to spend making fancy pixel art… That means I won’t be continuing my Space Game right now.

I’ll be sure to post this on itch.io as soon as I add any interesting content.

The multi-character system is still a work in progress but is slowly getting somewhere.

Not yet sure about the panels graphics though… I think it occupies too much of the screen when you have 4 characters (like in the video). But I do need the space to show the character’s information like HP bar, EXP bar and statuses (sleeping, burning, etc)…

Also, the enemies side panels are now red for better readability.

I’ve also been thinking about the inventory system. I want the player to be able to equip weapons on their characters and swap them freely each turn.

I’ll be making an inventory mockup as soon as I’m happy with the multi-character stuff.

Started coding the “multiple characters” feature.

Still full of bugs but the very basic system is in. Basically, you can now deploy another character when on battle and you control them on their turn.

How it’ll work:

You have a main character wich will be the only one controllable/visible outside of battle. But when a battle starts, you’ll have the option to deploy your other characters on any visible tile. You choose where, when and wich characters you want to deploy.

So, for instance, if you have injured characters and nothing to heal them with, you may choose not to deploy them.

You CAN’T remove a character from battle after deploying them.

You can deploy them at the very last turn, though, so that they win EXP without having to fight. (I might change this so that every character wins EXP even if they were not deployed. Not sure yet)

If your main character dies, Game Over. If any other character dies, no worries… go hire another one!

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Back from vacations and already working on the next build.

There’s already a few new things you can see on this video:

- a placeholder player portrait;

- enemy side panel’s look improved and cleaned up;

- improved tileset;

- cleaned up HUD;

These are minor things though… The big features I’m hoping to add on this build are:

- multiple controllable characters

- on-battle weapon selection/inventory system

- character customization (this one is not top priority though, so may not be on this build)

Play on itch.io

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Build 0.1.4 is finally out!!

Go play it here!!

• 28/07 Changelog:
  
• Gameplay
• Fixed a rare bug with combat turning the screen all black (what the f%$#…)
  
• Fixed bug with Larvas and their line of sight (again…)
• Improved fog of war! (some walls were acting weird but i told them to stop!)
• Added sound detecting mechanic: if you’re hiding, you can now listen for nearby enemies! (still working on this…)
• Graphics
• Completely revamped the user interface (and it’s sexy!)
• Added skill animations (most are placeholders still)
• Changed mouse icon
• Combat
• Added basic new weapon: the turret (yeah baby!)
• Added ability to move 1 tile per turn during combat (also allowing you to get OUT of combat!)
• Enemies gain experience points and can now LEVEL UP during battle!
• Changed how ARMOR works
• Creatures now have more than 1 skill
• Added side pannel that shows information on all creatures in combat
• Larvas Eggs now only spawn 1 larva per turn
• Larvas no longer need to move 1 tile in order to enter combat
• Larvas may now reproduce without neighboring other larvas (still thinking about this one)
  
• Reduced missed bullets spread angle
• Known Bugs
• If 2 enemies enter combat at the exact same time their side panel wont show up
• The HUD shows messages at the wrong times
• Mouse pointer may switch image at the wrong occasions
• Enemies may not use their first ability after receiving the Burning condition

Send me a message!

Ko-fi

Making the UI is a tedious task:

Draw a panel in photoshop -> add it to the game -> test it in-game -> place text in aprox. coordinates -> see where it appears in-game -> its nowhere near where it’s supposed to be… reposition text - > test it in-game again -> reposition again -> test in-game… looks cool! -> repeat for the buttons -> don’t like them in-game after all the work of putting them in-place, redraw buttons -> look good. on to the next panel -> repeat.

Anyways, I’m gonna sound like a noob… but I’m really proud of the current game ui. It’s a slow process and as you can see in the video, there’s still parts of the old one there (the purple and white stuff in the middle) but it’s coming along very nicely.

Oh and ignore those blue rectangles. That’s placeholder art for the loot.

What do you think?

Newest addition: Turrets!

No larva is safe if the turret is in place. - Einstein

For 40$ this beauty will shoot whatever is in front of them… 3 times! Pew pew pew! You can also change its direction any time… wich is also cool.

It’ll be released on the next build (in a few days).

Meanwhile, you can test the last build (0.1.3) on itch.io - it has lots of bugs so it should be fun!

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Any questions or suggestions?

Build 0.1.3 released on itch.io!!

{ Play here }

Fog of war is in (and improved from last post), enemy stats are now randomized plus lots of bugs fixed!

12/07

• Changelog
• Graphics
• Added skill icons
  
• Added Fog of War (and it looks noice!)
• Changed some HUD numbers to icons (i.e enemy HP and attack)
  
• Gameplay
• Enemies now have randomized stats
• Added Armor stat to enemies
• Fixed bug where enemies will engage in battle even if out of range (again…)
• Fixed a bug where the battle would end with enemies still alive (sure, just ignore them and they’ll go away…)
• Fixed weird bugs with Larvas leaving battle with 0 hp and then reentering just to die… (-.-’)
• Fixed enemies out of battle being able to be hit by grenades (no, you can’t do that.)

Still working on the HUD: I’m improving the skill icons.

Added fog of war!

Also, missed bullets will fly on a different direction now and enemies have randomized stats (hp, attack and evasion rate)!

{ ko-fi } { itch.io } { Ask Me Anything }

The new game HUD is colorful, informative and clean. And it’s almost finished. There’s still information to display but I haven’t figured out just HOW to display it.

I won’t be releasing this build just yet though. I want to add that [F] attack (it’s a grenade btw) before i do.

Play this on itch.io

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Build 0.1.0 is now playable on itch.io!!!

> Try it out! <

I’ve reached build 0.1.0 and decided that, starting now, I’ll be releasing each build on itch.io so anyone can test it.

NOTE: Obviously, the game is in a very early stage of development and, as such, you can’t really do much, there’s tons of bugs and most things should be consider not final!

01/07

• Changelog
• Graphics
• Revamped most of the graphics (including the tileset and enemies)
• Changed game resolution to 384x216
• Implemented code to enable/disable particles (my older PC almost caught fire ‘cause of those damn particles)
• Created and animated new larva’s cocoon stage (noice!)
• Added new healing skill icon (just a placeholder)
• Blood stains are now properly drawn below the player, and not above (-.-’)
  
• Misc
• Fixed rare bug with enemies engaging in battle without line-of-sight (hopefully…)
• Added new healing skill: Pressing [G] (in or out of combat) will regenerate 20hp. (It costs money to use!)*
• Added mission prize indicator below the mission expenditures
• Fixed bug with larva eggs spawning larvas on occupied tiles
• Started coding the “Space ship” room wich will serve as a main screen between missions
• Combat
• Larvas spawned by an egg now go through a cocoon stage and then have to move to a new tile before engaging in battle
• Larva eggs now spawn up to 3 larvas per turn (they’re born from the same cocoon)

*Q: Why do bullets and skills cost money to use?

A: The game is about completing missions and earning money. So, to make things interesting, the disposables you use will have to be restocked at the end of each mission.

By disposables I’m referring to bullets and other items such as food (used to heal) and utilities (like grenades or med kits). Although right now i’m calling it a “skill”, healing is actually done by consuming a piece of food, and that costs money.

The idea behind this is to make you choose very carefully your course of actions: “What’s more cost effective right now: to shoot each of these larvas one by one or to throw this really expensive grenade at them?”

This also means that, if things don’t go as planned, you may actually come out of a mission with less money than you went in.

That’s why you’ll have a counter on the top right of the screen showing you how much you’re spending on the current mission. And below it’ll show you the prize you’ll get by completing the mission, so you can easily compare both values.

——

Any comments and/or suggestions appreciated :)

If you enjoy my work, consider buying me a coffee :)

Don’t be afraid to ask me anything!