Happy Thanksgiving! Barbaric Development Update

Hail and Happy Thanksgiving, barbarian, to all who slay, eat, drink, and be merry today!

The battle rages on with porting Savage over to GMS2. I have encountered many pitfalls and speedbumps along the way, but the porting process is nearly complete, with only a few remaining locations left to fully re-tile and bring up to full GMS2-functional, as well as cleaning up some GMS1 to GMS2 compatibility scripts.

Along the way, I have taken the opportunity to do things like very basic room rebalance where the need strikes, like repositioning enemies, adding new ones, or taking away, as well as adding save rooms or NPC locations.

I have run into plenty of scenarios, also, where tiles are missing, or they were incorrectly placed - mistakes from the previous version of the game. In other words, I get to do some light polish as I hack and slash my way through this GMS2-porting nightmare.

I've also been leveling up my GMS2 skills, incorporating things like the tileset brush feature into my workflow (along with a ton of other quality of life features I've been picking up along the way), which will wind up being a MASSIVE time saver when creating the remaining locations from scratch.

Once the game is fully GMS2-compliant, it's off to the fast track with new content (including the (very) long awaited map system - the new GMS2 room cleaning is needed before I can release an update with the map system). I am most likely going to be cutting some planned content, reserving it for some post-release updates, and rearranging existing content (especially in dungeons and locations that are FAR TOO big, for pacing reasons) to reach a 1.0.

That's where I'm at with the game currently, and those are my plans immediately following completing what's left of the GMS2-ification.

Just wanted to check in with you, let you know what's going on, and wish you a Happy Autumn and Happy Thanksgiving!

Barbaric Thanksgiving Tavern Brawl

CHEERS!

-Matt

GMS1 Exodus Part 2 - Game Updated to 0.2.6.3

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Hail and happy weekend, Barbarians! ⚔

The exodus from GMS1 to GMS2 goes on, and I wanted to be a bit further along with it before patching the game, but certain issues have come up (thanks for letting me know!) that I couldn't let go without another batch of fixes.

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This patch includes those hotfixes, as well as some minor improvements, balancing, tweaks, and general spot cleaning to issues I noticed while testing.

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During the room rebuilds from GMS1 to GMS2, I have noticed the game gain a bit of a spring in its step performance wise (at least on my machine) so I hope this continues to improve as I optimize the game for GMS2.

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I also want to talk about my plans for release, as that is looming and this whole GMS2 situation has definitely thrown a wrench in the works. Once the game is properly GMS2-ified, I plan on finishing the Volunheim area, features that still need that nudge over the finish line, the final dungeon, and the final boss (as well as story wrap ups).

The game needs a 1.0, I need it, you've waited WAY too long (and I've been at this for way too long, ha!), and it is mega overdue. Any content that I have to cut (time will tell, especially concerning how long the rest of this GMS2 conversion will take) will come in the form of post release free updates (ocean encounters, the Southern continent, more enemies and bosses, more randomized scenarios, more gear, etc.).

That's my plan as it stands. Thank you for being so patient, and for all your support! The final sprint is upon us.

-Matt

PATCHNOTES - 0.2.3.6 Early Access

IMPROVEMENTS

  • MANY tilesets converted to GMS2

  • Several rooms finalized and converted to the GMS2 layers/tile system

  • Many rooms, as a result, have gotten minor tile fixes (tiles that were missing or placed in awkward/stupid spots), better seasonal background layers, etc.

  • Updated gold vendor values on some weapons/gear

  • Updated certain spawns and spawn points to reflect day/night changes

  • Updated some enemies to do status ailment effects and corresponding damage

  • Updated sections of the worldmap with biome information

  • Added a state to the player on the overworld so that when you are entering or exiting a location, as long as there is a fade in/fade out, you cannot enter another, or collide with a wandering monster on the map

  • Exiting water when "swimming" tuned to be a little snappier

  • Remade dozens of tilesets so they now conform to GMS2

  • Remade way, WAY too many sprites from old tilesets (background props) so they can now be placed in non-grid spots in rooms (GMS2 tile system does not allow off-grid placements)

  • First batch of rooms properly remade and brought up to GMS2 systems (layer system, new tile system, etc.)

  • Fixed those on the beta branch on Steam not able to launch the "normal" game (missing .exe / could only play the beta branch versions)

NEW STUFF

  • New enemy (work in progress) added to Volunheim

  • New testing section for Twinfang added to Volunheim (not complete dungeon, but some rooms to explore and items to find)

CHANGES

  • Increased drowning damage

  • Added an "ignore defense" mechanic to some very dangerous hazards and damage sources (like drowning)

BUG FIXES

  • Kuchvek's Crossing screens still had solids before and after pulling the switch when they shouldn't

  • Ghosts were lighting themselves on fire

  • Some biome settings were not showing/hiding seasonal layers and assets

  • Jailer attack was messed up during imprisoned story sequence

  • If the main brute's feelings were hurt in imprisoned story sequence and you escaped before he leaves, he moonwalked back toward gate

  • Fixed several crashes that could be triggered in the imprisoned story sequence (Thanks, TremorTheWolf!)

  • Fixed several weird and janky issues that were triggering and occuring out of place in the imprisoned story event

  • Fixed all issues of "new_item" appearing in text and dialogue found throughout the game

  • Several fade in/out objects were spawning on the worldmap under certain conditions, causing issues

  • Fixed a crash that could occur on the overworld map when entering a location that messed with the math on the overworld camera

  • Fixed the Dogcatcher boss in the burning village intro falling through the floor, softlocking the game unless you quit and reload the game (this issue returned after moving to GMS2)

  • Fixed pushing "Up" on left analog stick on a gamepad at the "level up" locations causing the level up menu to flash uncontrollably (this issue returned after moving to GMS2)

Cultural Differences - New Build!

**IMPORTANT**

GameMaker games and Windows 10 seem to be butting heads on certain systems. If your display goes black and then white (showing nothing and no response from Savage) when starting the game in Fullscreen, here's what seems to fix the issue.

TO FIX: 

RIGHT CLICK on the Savage .exe and open Properties and navigate to the Compatibility tab. CHECK the box under Settings labeled "Disable fullscreen optimizations". Click APPLY.

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Doing this seems to have worked for the user that reported it (THANK YOU Gallus!).

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Hail, Barbarians!  

I come to you now at the turn of the tide... Or, with a big fat update. This is probably the biggest update I have put out of the game as far as new features and content go. But before we dig in and get our hands (or blades) good and filthy, there are a couple new Savage related things I'd like to point out:  

Let's Finish SAVAGE

Going forward, every Friday at 1pm Central, I will be doing a weekly wrap up show on my Twitch channel called "Let's Finish Savage" that will coincide with a weekly game update (big or small, whatever gets done and is ready for deployment that week). I'll go over new content added, bugs fixed, tweaks and polish, and ANYTHING and EVERYTHING you can expect in these weekly builds. The plan is to also cover any future plans and roadmaps (i.e. what you can expect in following updates and builds), followed up by some Q and A, provided anyone watching has any questions! 

Feel free to also hop into the Discord to keep up with any and all news posts related to Savage, including livestream announcements. There are also a couple handy channels you can use to give me feedback, report bugs, or just chew the fat about the game: 

OK! With those out of the way, let's dig into this shiny (and broken) new build.

New Friends

A big batch of new NPCs and characters have been added into the game, each with their own personalities, tasks and animations. Some of them vendor new items! Some will be a trigger for new events and story elements. In addition, new rooms and buildings have been added to Gussek, the border village you first see when exiting the Mining Prison.

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Slay Them ALL

One of the biggest features I've added to the game is the ability to actively attack ANY NPC in the game. Doing so will make them permanently hostile to you and they will then behave like an enemy object to you until slain.

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Doing this has consequences, of course. Now that you've met them, kill them.

Eat, Drink, and be Careful

You used to be able to totally spam healing items, regardless of your player state. NO LONGER. 

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You will now have to find a safe moment or location to STOP and eat meat, drink potions etc.

It Wants to Kill You

The world is a dangerous place, and it's gotten worse. A whole slew of new and terrible things can happen to you in the form of Status Ailments. 

These include Burning, Paralysis, Poison and becoming Cursed. But worry not! With every new deadly affliction comes a remedy.

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In addition to the new status ailments, you can no longer swim completely submerged indefinitely. You run the risk of drowning if you stay in the depths for too long.

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In addition to using an item like the Balm to mitigate Burning, jumping in the water (as well as being out in the rain or snow) can put the fire out.

You Are Being Hunted

Dying results in you dropping your hard earned Essence and any matured Essence Orbs that can later be reclaimed by returning to the site of your death. BUT - some interesting things can and will happen on the place of your death surrounding your dropped Essence. Depending on your Favor stat, things can go South pretty quickly...

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The number of times you've died and dropped Essence can cause said Essence to go wild, eventually transforming into a shadowy Twisted Self - an entity without any direction other than your demise.

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Dying and dropping Essence within a randomly generated encounter on the Overworld Map will LOCK IN the encounter, allowing you to run through it again and attempt to regain your dropped Essence. 

If slain by the Twisted Self, the plan going forward is to have him persue you in various locations and on the world map until one of you lies dead.

CUNNING!

A brand new third Major Stat called Cunning has been added to character advancement! 

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In addition, the level up and character sheet has had a major overhaul (visually and mechanically), allowing you to see all of the sub stats that are affected by leveling up your Major Stats.

Everything Else

In addition to some of these more dense features, there are a whole bunch of other changes, improvements and bug fixes to list.

FEATURES and NEW STUFF

  • Added weather and region specific dynamic background tile layers  

  • Added functionality to pressure plates  

  • Added new item sprite and description for the Walljump item  

  • Added new "shard" themed props and assets  

  • Added exciting, horrible and frustrating new hazards, like beams and lasers  

  • Added streams of lava and large bodies of lava  

  • Added new "Slave Garb" armor set, including new pieces to allow me to make more visually different armor sets  

  • New status ailments: Drowning, Burning, Poison, Paralysis, Curse  

  • New status ailments "bars" that appear above the player  

  • New enemy healthbars  

  • Added Leeches (cures Poison)  

  • Added Crogue Needles (cures Paralysis and mitigates being grabbed)  

  • Added Soothing Balm (cures Burning)  

  • Added God Bone (removes Curse)  

  • Added several new NPCs  

  • New rooms and buildings in Gussek, the border village  

  • ALL NPCs can now be attacked and/or made hostile, and as a result, can be killed New NPC related items  

  • New lock and key system for "background" doors  

  • New shortcut within Devil's Shade, both in the actual level and outside on the overworld map  

  • Access to Gosenian Highlands and dungeons (Hell's Teeth, Highland Cliffs, Kuchvek's Crossing)  

  • New CUNNING stat  

  • New player sheet with redesigned UI elements showing which sub stats are being affected when leveling up main stats (Might, Resolve, Cunning, Favor)

IMPROVEMENTS and CHANGES  

  • Rewrote physics for pickups and items  

  • Dropped items from inventory now get "dropped" in the direction you are facing  

  • Improved and fixed many rooms (traversal problems, prop placements, etc.)  

  • Skull Wound tokens now equal 4 hit points per Skull instead of 2 hit points per Skull

  • Fixed torches outside at certain times of day drawing an ugly transparent square (improved "lighting" FX)  

  • Changed texture page sizes to 1024x1024 from 2048x2048 - Overworld map runs MUCH better as a result, as well as improved performance across game  

  • Game is now compiled in the YoYo Compiler for Windows target platform resulting in (pretty awesome) improved performance (mostly during testing now - future builds will be compiled this way)  

  • TONS of code and asset optimization, resulting in better performance  

  • Fixed AI behaviors for Argeshii Brute and similar enemies 

  • Carried undead corpses, if flagged as able to return to "life", once re-animated, will be dropped and do damage to the player like a normal enemy  

  • Changed the color of "healing" number popups from green to gold (green looked like poison and was terrifying)

BUG FIXES

  • Fixed NPC in border village turning into headless corpse  

  • Fixed items from crates and other breakables getting stuck in walls (FINALLY)  

  • Fixed giving Gal'Vek's remains to Losech and the player freezing up bug  

  • Fixed Kell appearing in middle of screen in mid air if exiting left from the small cinematic intro screen of burning village sequence  

  • Fixed dropped Fetishes giving you FAVOR (i.e. player could pick up a new Fetish, get FAVOR, then drop the Fetish again, pick it up again, and still get FAVOR)  

  • Fixed using Fetishes NOT removing FAVOR  

  • Fixed Kell NOT locking to breakable solid container objects when ledge grabbing onto them  

  • Fixed hit box NOT updating to smaller size hit box when dodge rolling out of a ledge climb animation  

  • Fixed Kell's feet getting stuck in a moveable block when ledge climbing up onto the block (if block is on upward moving platform)  

  • Fixed inventory screen matching a fade in or out - you can now see it clearly if you pause during a fade  

  • Fixed falling hazards landing on enemy corpses crashing game  

  • Fixed a bug where Jailer in intro prison cell scene is in a constant attack loop  

  • Fixed a bug with brown spider enemy "jittering" between animations during an attack

  • Fixed game crashing when viewing the level up screen when sub slot 2 has a weapon equipped to it and NO weapon is equipped to sub slot 1  

  • Fixed a bug where, carrying a corpse and jumping up into a solid (i.e. ceiling) would cause the player to get stuck in the solid, or slowly travel up through the solid

  • Fixed carrying corpses marked as undead, returning to "life", then crashing game  

  • Fixed carrying corpses marked as undead stopping their "coming back to life" animation when carried  

  • Fixed game crashing when ledge climbing up onto a "push block" resulting from variable "can_move" not being defined  

  • Fixed certain enemies, when carried by player and killed, crashing the game  

  • Fixed Star Flail breaking game on pickup, or creating a Pocked Sica on pickup  

  • Fixed Blacksmith in Gussek not caring if you RETURN to him either naked or wearing slave garb (he should be upset)  

  • Fixed "angry" NPCs not deactivating their dialogue interaction objects 

And probably other stuff I missed. 

Anyway, that's a wrap! I'll see you all again next week!

Thanks again!

-Matt

Retropalooza - Coming Up for Air and Mini-Update

Hi everyone!

Firstly I want to apologize to you all for the lack of updates. I have been buried up to my neck in this game (for probably too long, ha!) and I forget to come up for air sometimes -- especially with the end of the year looming.

I'm still grinding away on Savage full time, and then some. Some things I'll bring up real quick are that I switched compilers within GameMaker: Studio and the dang thing (Savage) runs LIKE BUTTER after compiling in the new setup. A lot of this has been in preparation to switch over to GameMaker Studio 2 (YoYo stopped supporting Studio 1 in June/July) which will make things better overall (including potential porting to other platforms).

It hasn't all just been raw systems level work, though -- the game is popping with new locations, armor, items, enemies - ALL NPCS CAN NOW BE KILLED (and/or engaged in combat/made hostile) -- so there's a ton to go over. I'm hoping that within the next week I'll have one of those nice big juicy magazine style updates - AND the new build -out for you guys.

Speaking of magazines, for a long while I had been getting asked questions like, "Is the MegaDex a real thing?" -- the "MegaDex" referring to the fake magazine prop used in the Savage trailer. My response was always something like, "Nah, it's just a goofy joke". Well, NO LONGER - real quick here I'll say that I have also been working on bringing that thing to life. Essentially, it will function as a Planet Tobor fanzine in the vein of Diehard GameFan, some of the stuff I really enjoyed about Nintendo Power, and old gaming publications in general. 

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The goal with that is to get you guys a digital copy of the thing that goes over fun Savage lore stuff, the comic, any and all future Savage updates, showcasing the fan art I've received, and generally ANY other fun stuff I feel like throwing in there.

So new build, new "magazine", new update and a convention coming up!

I'll be at Retropalooza in Arlington, Texas this weekend, September 29th and 30th along with Savage and a booth space (sorry for the short notice - I too only just got the 100% go ahead that I'd have a booth space there) - so if you're in the area or already attending, come say hi!

Again, sorry it's been so long since the last update. I wanted to hop on, let you guys know I'm still alive and STILL working on Savage! 

Thanks for all the support and patience, and I'll talk to you next update!

-Matt

Corpse Party - New Build!

Hail, Loinclothed Heathens!

An oldie but a goodie

An oldie but a goodie

Let's get some bad news out of the way RIGHT NOW, shall we? It is becoming crushingly apparent that I won't get to a 100% finished Savage powerhouse of a game by the end of this year. BUT, what I've got right now is fantastically close. It's feeling better (mechanically and content-wise) than I could have ever imagined, so we're getting there!

There is indeed a shiny new playable build to talk about, too, so let's dive in!

Leveling the Playing Field

Item number one for me over the last couple of months has been to MAKE. THE MAP. MATTER! I'm churning out stages, levels and areas like crazy, so here's a sneak peak at one of the more complicated areas I've had to tackle:

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Here's a visual guide I've been using to manage this maze-like location known as "Hell's Teeth" (which has some equally menacing lore behind it. Details will be found in item descriptions and NPCs for players to piece together)....

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 ... And, upon entering any of those lettered "nodes", or entrances, we wind up in the above grid (this is pretty much my ode to the Death Mountain stage in Zelda 2).

 

Navigating the catacombs, ruins and caves that comprise this area is no joke, and you can expect some nasty surprises!

Here are a few glimpses into some of the new nightmarish locations:

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These new areas also feature a host of new props and background assets:

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Shield Slammin' Noctwurmin' Nightmares

With new places comes new faces. And things with which to murder them. Among them is the Nocturm Cult - a clan of Gosenian death worshippers. Specifically, they bow to The Noctwurm, an aspect of the horned serpent, Abhan Yloth. The two have been seperated so long, they have confused each other for separate entities and have therefore become enemies, one attempting to devour the other.

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Some of the new pieces of gear:

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It was personally exciting to me to FINALLY get in some heater shield type designs, as well as finally getting in some two-handed axe slaughter time!

Let the Bodies Hit the Other Bodies

One of the hallmarks that I have really tried to get right about the game world I'm trying to create has been interactivity and rules. Rules that all other actors/entities/objects should adhere to (albeit in a whacky 2D barbaric environment). A lot of the feedback I've gotten from viewing folks playing the game has shown some holes in the delivery of this philosophy - one of them being, EVERYBODY tries to pick up corpses!

Well... be disappointed no further!

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Yup - you can now pick up, carry, and throw corpses (this includes all the savagely hilarious situations that spring from this, like picking up a downed undead warrior, tossing him into another, and both of them shattering in a shower of bone fragments). 

On a related note, this following depiction of more fun with corpses is coming in the next update:

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You can see there that corpses will be affected by fire and will stop arrows, making them (corpses) makeshift shields against hazards coming at you from above (including things like falling spikes, acid, etc.)! This also means LIVING enemies, where applicable, will ALSO be affected by things like fire, acid, etc.

Music and Mayhem

Here's a peak at some of the tunes I'm working on that you'll hear in a later game *spoiler*, where *spoiler* summons the *spoiler* causing the player to *spoiler* the *spoiler*:

Though there's work yet to do, all the art, programming, music and mechanics are already blending together to create something that is not just fun, but satisfying to play for you all, and a world full of interesting things and places to discover.

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Patch Notes and Update List

That about wraps it up for the highlights of the update. Here's the usual detailed breakdown of what's new in the latest build:

  • Fixed making Crogyle hostile and breaking Losech NPC
  • Fixed game crashing when pushing, pulling, or carrying a solid outside of screen boundaries
  • Fixed player getting "sucked" into an enemy shield when striking enemies with high knockback resist
  • Fixed player not bouncing off of larger enemies that use unusually shaped damage masks when downward striking them
  • Fixed player not bouncing off of enemy shields when downward striking them
  • Fixed downward or upward striking with main weapon causing attacks with sub weapon not being reset to horizontal
  • Fixed a bug where lifting an object near a solid sends you into the solid, getting you permanently stuck
  • Fixed a series of enemy corpse hit boxes to make them more appropriately sized
  • Fixed grabbing onto jump-through ledges sometimes not working. Now about a billion times more reliable (actual math... Actually, not really. But it works way better)
  • Fixed carrying object snap-to location calculation
  • Fixed walking down slopes while carrying an object resetting the state to look like the animation isn't playing
  • Fixed carried block "landing" on a jump-through platform or solids triggering landing FX (like dust clouds) when it shouldn't. This also fixes the player's vertical speed being killed for a frame when doing so
  • Fixed if roll dodging, pushing jump while overlapping ladder will descend ladder - THEN, pushing down to climb down, running out of ladder space, Kell will be stuck in the duck state until landing on solid ground and pushing jump
  • Fixed moving on platform shifts kell when platform changes direction
  • Fixed if vspd < 0 and kell jumps up into platform, kell is stuck in air state, presumably stuck inside platform. he then moves along with platform
  • Fixed Kell rubberbanding around moving platforms if you are in the wall cling state (walljump prepare) and the moving platform changes direction
  • Fixed one-way moving platforms causing issues if they pass over kell while he is ledge hanging/climbing a different platform or solid
  • Fixed Kell not "following" a moving one-way-moving-ledge if ledge hanging off of it
  • Changed the method of corpse hit box assignment, making lifting them, tossing them, and generally interacting with them more visually accurate, AND it just feels better
  • New NPCs
  • A series of new shields
  • New "SKS" flavored easter egg weapons and item descriptions
  • Tweaked stat requirements across multiple pieces of gear
  • Fixed throwing weapons returning "0" amounts of ammo
  • Tweaked spawn types on overworld map
  • Tweaked healing properties on some recovery items
  • Player can now upward/downward strike with weapons equipped to sub slot
  • Player can now attack with throwing weapons upward and downward
  • Player can now lift, carry, and throw corpses (for some savagely humorous results)
  • Added running water FX (shallow water, waterfalls, etc.)
  • New pretty (er, I mean, brutal) waterfall backgrounds
  • Added Noctwurm cultist enemies (with several randomized elements)
  • Completed Hell's Teeth location
  • Added new visual props and graphics elements for Noctwurm cultist locations
  • Added consistent visuals to the contextual item menu
  • Changed the "level up" menu method (now, drinking from Essence Vessels gives you "level up" option. Choosing this takes you directly to the level up menu where you can assign stats)
  • Begun work on "Kuchvek's Crossing" area
  • Changed frequency of bad weather
  • Tweaked "darkness" of bad weather (especially at night)

Streamer Roundup

There has been a whole HOST of very talented and entertaining people taking a crack at the game and introducing it to their audiences. To them, I say THANK YOU for giving the game a shot and spreading the word!

BovineDevine

BovineDevine

GamesPlusJames

GamesPlusJames

Joshachu

Joshachu

KingRadinov

KingRadinov

Owazrim

Owazrim

Shooter_Q

Shooter_Q

vgRealm

vgRealm

Kaitality

Kaitality

Click on those links and give those fellas a follow, if you'd be so kind!!

SourKoolaidShow's stream specifically had me in stitches: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/207509016

And that's a wrap on this update! If you want to follow along with development more closely, come take a look at my Twitch page where I stream live development!

https://www.twitch.tv/toborprime

If you're curious for more insight, I have the HUGE pleasure of hanging out with my friend Tim to bring you a brand spankin' new podcast! We're going to make this a thing every other Wednesday from now on!

I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday season! Thank you SO MUCH for all your support, and I will see you next year!!

-Matt

Thrusting All Over

Horizontal thrusts? Up thrusts? DOWN thrusts?! I've got you covered, Barbarian Horde!

The last few months I've been grinding away at the one last juicy feature I felt was necessary to make Savage really shine: Directional combat! I mean, I can't cite one of my big inspirations as Zelda 2 without allowing players to strike their enemy's head from above. Let's have a look.

Directional Combat

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Across several new player states, new sprites (774 frames), new armor sprites (2,322), shield positions (you can also shield bash upward and downward!), and weapon positions, bringing the pain to the baddies is now possible from WHEREVER. This has also fixed certain issues I wasn't excited about. Situations like climbing a ladder and having a stubborn enemy directly above you, or some harder to hit, low lying enemies like the cave crawlers and rockbiters.

This also makes existing enemies (like skeleton warriors that spawn with specific gear sets, for example) that are able to mimic the down/upward attacks feel a LOT more fair, giving the player the same strategic choices -- making combat feel WAY more interesting.

Timing a perfect downward strike and HOLDING the attack button also gives you some good air on your bounce!

Let's Talk About the Weather

In those gifs above, I'm sure you've noticed some new sprites and visual effects, like new clouds, and an honest to goodness SUN in the sky. Good eye, I say! There is now a fully functioning dynamic weather system, along with new sun sprites and effects, moon sprites (with actual phases, i.e. new, waxing, waning, full), new cloud sprites that reflect the day/night/weather change, and star constellations that correspond to the different deities worshiped (or abhorred) in the world of Lor.

Here's a look at all of that in action in the 2D platforming sequences and the 3D overworld:

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The weather system is also dependent on what in-game season it is (and what location you are currently in -- probably not going to snow/blizzard in the desert, ha!). Along with it, a slew of new backgrounds reflecting things like snowstorms (and winter) have been added:

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New weather types include clear skies, cloudy, thunderstorms, light rain into rainstorm, snow, and blizzard.

The combination of location, day/night, season, weather, moon phase, and dominant constellation can, and sometimes WILL affect what sort of randomized encounter you are going to have on the world map.

There are also some secrety fun things constellations can do, depending on what God's fetish, fetish level, and FAVOR stat you currently have (more on that in a future update!).

Daggers in the Dark

The new Gosen Highlands location also brings with it some new areas, dungeons and baddies, like the Noctwurm Assassin, courtesy of the Noctwurm Cult (all with their own backstory and lore)!

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Patch Notes and Release Breakdown

NEW FEATURES

  • able to attack upward and downward from all appropriate player states (i.e. DOWNTHRUSTING!)
  • new animation sets (across 774 player frames, 2,322 armor frames!!), weapon and shield placements, and armor sprites to reflect the new directional attack feature
  • Dynamic weather added
  • Clear skies
  • Cloudy/foggy
  • Thunderstorms
  • Light rain
  • Rainstorms
  • Snow
  • Blizzard
  • Sandstorms are planned for appropriate areas
  • The dynamic weather is dependent on the current area (biome) you are in, and what game season (fall, winter, spring/summer)
  • New sun sprites and effects to reflect runrise, noon, sunset, and if there is currently "bad" weather
  • New cloud sprites that actively reflect the time of day and current weather
  • New moon sprites and moon phases
  • New stars and constellations that change over time
  • New seasonal backgrounds for different areas to reflect the change in season
  • The day/night system, along with factors like season, weather, moon phase, and what constellation is currently dominant in the sky will affect the randomized encounters on the overworld map. Constellations and their corresponding gods will also trigger certain events and secrets on the overworld map (MUCH of this is still being worked on!)

COMING SOON

  • New Gosen Highlands overworld props and locations including the "Hell's Teeth" dungeon
  • Gosen Highland specific enemies, including members of the Noctwurm Cult (assassins and ambush-y warriors!)
  • Vanaheim overworld props and locations
  • Vanaheim specific enemies, including icy themed monsters, frost giants, and the Vaniir - hardy frozen wasteland warriors
  • Bug fixes... ALWAYS bug fixes

A reminder - Kickstarter backers can access all the newness via Steam, provided they have redeemed their Steam Keys.

Groupees Greenlight Bundle folks can access the same from their product pages (their Steam Keys will unlock once the game is released).

Why Is This Taking So Long

I have zero excuses why this is taking me as long as it's taking, but the reasons are pretty important. Wanting to deliver a game to you all that is worth your time to play is chief among them. It turns out trying to make the best damn game I possibly can takes time, and more time than I initially accounted for. That's 100% on me, and I'm sorry for making you all wait so long. 

I will also not release a crippled, ugly thing that I am not proud of, ha! So, the battle continues, but the end is certainly in sight. With the directional combat completed, in the game, and fully functional (and actually feeling pretty great), aspects of the game like personality, mood and atmosphere are coming together very quickly. Especially with the new atmosphere and weather effects in place, the game is looking and feeling like the game I wanted to bring to life in the first place - and I have all of you to thank for that.

The current step is content, content, content (finishing dungeons, NPCs, items, weapons, armor and shields, and a handful of enemies that are not completed to flesh out certain areas). 

So again, thank you for your patience, your involvement, and your support - it is keeping the fire going bright, strong and SAVAGE... (*ahem*)!

Your loinclothed (is that even a word?) friend,

-Matt

P.S. Forgot to mention! If you're curious about checking in on the game's progress more frequently, I have been very active with live development streams here: https://www.twitch.tv/toborprime

New Playable Build!

Yes, new build! But we'll get to that in a second -

- I've been down in a development hole working like a demon to get this game polished, feeling great, and worth your time to play. I'm finally coming up for air to show you all the shiny new progress that's been done, and I'm sorry it's taken me since January to do so - but here we go!

NPCs Finally Added, New Dialogue Font!

The mining prison is now teeming with characters you can interact with in the current build - their stories might continue on from here, or end tragically depending on how you handle these interactions. I also completely redesigned the dialogue font for better legibility while retaining the dark fantasy theme:

There is also a new KEYS section in the inventory to store mundane Iron Keys, Gold Keys, and unique quest keys and items:

Updated Controls, Tutorial Prompts and Sequence

The game FINALLY has a tutorial sequence with appropriate prompts (the prompts are purely optional and can be interacted whether you choose to or not) at the start of the game, leading up to the intro story bits:

There is now also a DEDICATED GRAB button for grabbing objects, pushing/pulling them, lifting and tossing them:

Tutorial prompts have been placed elsewhere in the game world where necessary, also:

GUI Madness, Mouse Support and Options

The user interface elements have all gotten an overhaul (visually and mechanically) and now have mostly functioning mouse support! In addition, you can now fully remap either a gamepad, or mouse and keyboard to play EXACTLY how you want to play!

Swapping between gamepad input and keyboard input will also be reflected now across ALL prompts, user interface elements, and HUD elements:

New Essence, Level Up, Restore Point

You can now gain Essence Points from battle and spend them at designated restore points (or, for the lore junkies, "Essence Vessels"; artifacts left behind by ancient beings as they carved their way through the old world):

Spending Essence Points on your three primary stats (FAVOR is a liquid stat, which can also raise and lower depending on other actions) will increase your level, but also increase sub stats like knockback resistance and knockback power, dodge speed, allow you to equip more powerful gear, and lots of other things that we'll go over closer to release!

Vendor System and Gear Comparisons

You can now sell and buy things! FINALLY!

As is included in the vendor system, you can also compare potential weapons, shields and armor stats against your currently equipped gear to see whether you will gain any increases (or decreases) in things like damage output, resistance, armor hit points, and whether you have enough MIGHT or RESOLVE to use a piece of equipment:

New Music

Here's an assortment of new (and redone) music tracks that have made it into the game! These are mostly done, but still need an eventual final pass for EQ-ing and mixing/mastering:

... And MORE

There are many other improvements, additions and bug fixes in the latest build - to many to go into detail over, so here are the patch notes!

DreamHack Austin

I had the spur of the moment opportunity to bring the game to DreamHack in Austin over the weekend. 

I was incredibly nervous and didn't quite know what to expect (and wasn't sure if we were going to make it), but the show went well! I got a LOT of good feedback, and PC Gamer came over and did a video interview and captured some game footage. Here are the videos if you fancy watching me be a sleep deprived idiot in front of a camera!

(the Youtube comments sections are especially hilarious) 

Here is the article featured on PC Gamer also.

If you are a backer and already activated your Steam key, the new build should automatically update in your Steam client!

After this update, builds will also differ between what's available via Steam and the other live demo locations:

GameJolt

IndieDB

Anyway, thanks for checking out the update! That's all for now - more to come soon!

-Matt

Seven Palette Army

Hail, Barbarian Horde!

Sorry this update has been a long time coming -- October turned out to be unusually busy and I had a number of large game-related issues I wanted to tackle before delivering you all an update. But rest assured, challenges hath been slain and there's a ton of new work to talk about! 

Here's what's been going on since the last update:

NEW/Retro-fitted Bad Guys

I've been diving into my already-finished bag of tricks to produce some newer baddies, especially for the starter areas that many people are having trouble with. 

For example, the bats (which a LOT of people have been getting slaughtered by) have been nerfed and are more manageable now, as far as their speed and aggressiveness. I've done a palette swap of them to create a newer, deadlier bat monster. This little process has been done on a series of baddies to help balance out the overall experience a bit more, especially in an attempt to teach the player early on what is expected of them, mechanically.

Here are some other screencaps and examples of newer critters I've crafted:

Area and Level Tuning

Some of the areas go on for WAY too long (in my opinion) and feel like filler. I've been cutting down on area maps and tossing rooms that feel excessive.

I've also been going through the finished areas and FINALLY adding physically visible and interactive save/checkpoints:

... AND, adding shortcuts (probably letting my Dark Souls fetish show)!

There are certain areas, too, that I felt lacked a solid visual identity (mainly, background images and graphics)-- especially unique locations. I'm fixing that:

... As well as:

  • enemy placements
  • item placements
  • persistent event triggers
  • general cleanup!

All of these aspects are finally making certain areas feel "complete" and polished.

Massive Mechanical Tuning

Across all of the finalized content I'm addressing and tuning several things:

  • Platforms/breakable platforms timers  
  • XP drop values  
  • XP gain distribution across player, equipped items
  • HP/defense values  
  • Attack/damage values
  • force resistent values across all enemies

Those have been my main priorities. Now, here's a BIG one:

Anyone who has played the live development build would notice a lack of effective area surrounding your weapon strikes, especially when you are flush up against something you're trying to hit, or trying to hit one of those pesky, smaller and agile bats. 

Here's an example of this problem:

Each weapon has it's own unique hitbox, usually using a type of 'precise' collision detection. Obviously, this can be a problem when you have a situation like the one pictured above; the player is standing RIGHT NEXT to a door, they strike it, trying to open it, but their weapon's hitbox winds up OUTSIDE the door's hitbox, therefore resulting in NO collision.

I've taken steps to fix this by reworking the combat system to accommodate an additional invisible, inverted hitbox that bridges the gap between the player's bounding box and their weapon (in other words, a hitbox that is an arm's length).

This took a lot of doing and re-engineering of the current system, but is WAY worth it. Combat feels more responsive since you have better coverage, and attempting to strike things like levers, switches and doors will now no longer (mostly) result in a complete whiff.

Unintentionally, this also introduces an interesting 'direct hit' kind of system; if you are not striking an enemy with the actual bounding box of your weapon, BUT your mirrored arm-length hitbox collides with an enemy, it won't do quite as much damage is slicing an enemy directly with your rad sword would. Accidental, but interesting and offers a bit more depth to the combat!

MORE Events

I've added a TON of new dialogue and NPC interaction including but not limited to:

  • unique events based on dialogue interaction
  • side quests
  • hidden enemies
  • mini-boss and special enemy encounters
  • <spoilers>

In addition, I've gone back to previous dialogue and edited it for either length, or to bring it all up to speed with current character arcs and goings on.

Fixed Issues and Bugs

I've been pouring over all of your feedback (thank you!) and issue reporting, and I'm busy at work cracking all these little suckers, and addressing a few issues.

I'm also working on RE-working the save system -- at present, it isn't perfectly future-proofed, and some technical issues need to be ironed out, but this probably won't be 'perfect' until closer to launch.

Anyway -- thanks for reading another update! There will be a big juicy patch coming to the live development build soon including all of these changes, content, and more!

Thanks again for all your support and patience, and have a great Thanksgiving!

-Matt

I Have Something to Say!

"... It's better to burn out than to fade away!"

Sorry -- I've been listening to too much (is that even possible?) of the Highlander soundtrack while working. On a completely unrelated note, how about a project update?!

Talk!

I've begun the process of rewriting old bits of dialogue, as well as creating brand new bits of NPC dialogue and story events. I've updated the old dialogue system to better perform under different circumstances, like whether or not the player should 'trigger' a dialogue event to auto start, or whether they should press the 'interact' button when colliding with a dialogue object to start a conversation with an NPC...

In this one below (don't worry -- the ugly green box is just there for debugging purposes), the player waits until colliding with the dialogue object before pushing 'up' on the gamepad or keyboard:

This system was already in place, but not wholly hooked up to NPCs. It was also super clunky and a bit all over the place in terms of multiple different dialogue objects that would handle different scenarios. It's all been condensed and trimmed down to one tidy little dialogue object.

Direction!

In addition to tidying up the dialogue event system, I've added practical events to the game that will give the player hints and objectives, as well as main and sub quests:

A semblance of this already existed, but again, has been tidied up and older events have been rewritten, as well as new ones added.

 

Music Break!

There's plenty of audio and music work left to be done, but every once in a while I'll run over to my music creation and editing software and crank something out to help emphasize the mood and tone of the content I'm working on. Here's a little bit of that (rough and work-in-progress):

Feedback

I want to thank everyone who's been playing the alpha demo for all of their feedback and bug reporting across Steam, Kickstarter, Castlevania Dungeon Forums, IndieDB, Gamejolt -- I'm hearing all of it, adding your reports and issues to my todo lists and replying where I can! Thank you so much - it's a huge help!

There isn't an update to the alpha demo this week since there's a bunch of dialogue and quest content yet to be added to make the beginning area stuff make more sense, but expect it soon!

Thanks again! 'Til next update!

-Matt

Super (re)Sized!

Happy Sunday!

This week sees quite a few fixes to issues plaguing the alpha demo! Let's talk about a couple of the biggest and most obnoxious ones:

Alt+Tabbing

This... this has been the bane of my existence for quite a while -- BUT, there's finally a fix for it!

Once upon a time, the game, when minimized, or not in focus, still accepted input. Gamepad buttons would still register, as well as keyboard key presses. So if, say, you were alt+tabbed out and Googling something, any keys that performed an action in the game would register.

I tried to fix this by locking out controls when the game registered an "OS pause event". The problem with this, was that locking out controls if you were in a menu screen, title screen, fade in/out -- ANYWHERE but the actual game-y bits, you could not regain control when maximizing your window or trying to get back into the game again.

Now, you can alt+tab like a monkey on too much caffeine and the game (maybe) won't break! YAY!

Display Size

Currently, the game only draws to an aspect ratio of 16:9, and this caused issues when in full screen on some displays.

Now, the game will respect the size of ANY crazy aspect ratio, while still maintaining it's visuals and aspect ratio.

I even got some use out of this older monitor for size testin!

Different aspect ratios will be supported down the road, but at least now you can play the demo without having vital information cropped from the screen (like the player character's life bar).

Anomalies and Weird Stuff

Here are some (hopefully) extreme edge case issues someone reported to me:

My first response to this would have been to take the cartridge out and blow into it.

Super weird (and very unsettling from a technical standpoint)! Though, I did get some silly enjoyment from seeing those screens. I have no idea what's going on here, but hopefully no one else is experiencing this madness. Let me know if you are!

Steam Keys

This week, I sent every backer a Steam key that gives you access to the current build uploaded through the Steam pipeline, regardless of the game's release state (i.e. it's not out yet, but you can play the in-development build RIGHT NOW).

Make sure to check your email associated with your Kickstarter profile -- if you DID NOT get your key, let me know and I will send it to you again via Kickstarter's messaging system!

It's worth noting, as well, that if you redeem your key and download the game, it will auto-update to whatever build is currently live, too! 

Once I get to a place with the live demo that I feel is all tidied up, I will cease updating the demo. The game on Steam, however, will get updated frequently and you can play all the latest builds if you want to see how things are going before launch.

If you redeem your key on Steam, feel free to post any issues you have with the game here:  http://steamcommunity.com/app/408060/discussions/1/

Latest Build and Fixes

The latest build for the alpha demo, if you don't get it through Steam, is here:

 http://gamejolt.com/games/savage-the-shard-of-gosen-alpha/16310

Patch notes for alpha 5.1.2:

  • Alt tabbing no longer causes certain screens to become unresponsive  
  • When application loses focus (alt+tabbing or clicking outside of game window), added click prompt to unfreeze game  
  • Fixed a bug that caused playtime to reset once you exit a procedural encounter on worldmap  
  • Fixed the game crashing if you navigate to the 'skills' or 'quest' menus  
  • Fixed mining prison elevator wait time  
  • Pickups are now drawn in front of everything to make them more visible
  • Improved game scaling based on display size  
  • Tidied up a couple door, tile, object and enemy placements in mining prison
  • Fixed save/load system and ironed out a ton of bugs (more probably remain)
  • Deleted save files will clear their display data when deleting a save slot from the load game menu  
  • Game would crash when backing out of Sound menu if a "yes/no" prompt was up Smith hammer drops off of a certain boss

It's a somewhat short list, but a big chunk of last week was spent making sure all of the Kickstarter backers Steam keys were sent out. Again - if you DID NOT get your key, make sure to check your email. If you didn't get an email, send me a message here and I will get you your key ASAP!

Thanks again everyone, and I hope you all had a great weekend!

-Matt

Hammer Time, Saving the World (and everything else)!

Good Morning (or whenever)!

Save System

Just jumping right into it -- this update sees the completion of the game's save system! YAAY!

This was one infuriatingly complicated task, I don't mind saying. To give you a rough estimate of the keyboard gymnastics involved, to get it up to this point (fully functional, with save slot support and deleting said slots within the UI) took over 60 hours this week -- but it was worth it. 

There were a number of complications I ran into, especially getting those save slots to draw their relevant data correctly. I was originally accessing the appropriate save files (in .ini format for the time being) to draw things like armor, HP, play time... this caused the framerate to plummet like a ton of bricks.

To remedy this, when the game now saves, 'display data' is now saved to a much smaller, seperate file that is only accessed to display the nifty graphics on the load menu. In fact, as I write this, I'm thinking of ways to improve it even further... so everything I just typed will probably change - ha!

Deleting a slot was challenging to engineer as well -- having to set a flag in another settings file to reset the "working save slot", and also tell the newly deleted and recreated save slots that it has "no data" in it, so the game knows that when the empty file is accessed to simply start a new game.

It's all working and fully functional now, though! The game will save your progress every time you transition from screen to screen -- this will NOT, however, function as a checkpoint. For now, checkpoints are invisible, but will eventually look something like the main character taking a swig of some fun juice (as pictured in the first gif of this post). 

When you die, you will start back at your last checkpoint visited, but will retain all of your items and story progress.

Another challenge moving forward is remembering to save the player's location and state after a big story event or something, like after you're taken prisoner and complete the initial burning village sequence:

Go here to check out the latest archived livestream I captured while working on the save system: https://www.twitch.tv/toborprime/profile

Sorry it's muted -- I was listening to too much unlicensed rock and or roll. I'll re-upload the stream on my youtube channel with some of my own music over the video later on.

Hammer!

The forge hammer pickup is now active in the game, and you now need it in order to interact with the forge. To convey this I threw together some extra UI animations and elements:

 ... And then after finding the hammer, you can go ahead and pound away on the anvil:

Big Screen!

I have a live build constantly updating via the Steam pipeline, and it feels pretty awesome to access it via the big screen!

For the past week, I have been doing most of my playtesting this way to get a feel for how everything works the way someone playing the game normally would -- I gotta say, it's pretty exciting to interact with it this way!

Fixed, Completed, and ToDo

Here's a list of fixes and addressed issues:

  • Added fully functioning Save, Load, and Delete save system
  • Added 'Continue' and 'Load Game' options to main menu, as well as some visual clean up
  • Shield doesn't get created when loading or continuing a game  
  • kell can't attack when colliding with anvil object  
  • Slavers no longer drop gold keys  
  • rewrote gamepad and keyboard input
  • there was a problem on Windows 10 while using an Xbox 360 gamepad - button mapping was all messed up and most buttons would not register  
  • removed 'global.fortOpen' checks that were crashing the game  
  • fix burning village NPCs not showing up  
  • pickup forge hammer  
  • static values (like what sprite a weapon or armor should draw in the UI) get messed up on loading a game file  
  • rewrite save system to re-initialize static values  
  • create seperate data file to save load screen display data to so that we are not opening 3 massive save files  
  • display forge hammer in UI if found  
  • can only use forge if a forge hammer is owned
  • Create "up" arrow effect when able to interact with anvil  
  • create 'no hammer' prompt when trying to use the anvil without hammer  
  • going back to burning village after escaping mining prison starts the beginning of the game all over again

... And next up:

  • alt+tabbing is horrible and can lead to the game becoming unresponsive, while keys and buttons become frozen (i.e. holding 'left' is always true), especially when on title screen  
  • when game is minimized, it still accepts input from gamepads and keyboard  
  • dying before getting throwing knives in cave starts you back behind the cave-in, which makes progress impossible  
  • redesign UI interaction with gamepad and keyboard  
  • create little loading icon thing to alert players that the game is auto-saving  
  • overworld hide armor sprites  
  • change some door positions  
  • fix elevator wait time  
  • create a mirrored player attack object when attacking for better attack coverage  
  • if you hit 'enter' during the intro while you are defeated, the game breaks and you cannot progress  
  • candles should also cast light  
  • rewrite certain lines of intro dialogue 
  • lifting enemies is buggy, especially on ramps 
  • cannot lift objects on ramps 
  • pushing down + forward + dodge causes kell to dodge backward 'forever' 
  • Torches can be destroyed and drop items (like a certain super rad video game series featuring a very serious gentleman brandishing a deadly whip) 
  • pickups that get stuck in boulders
  • completely get rid of backpack check
  • completely get rid of hunter belt check 
  • completely get rid of warrior belt check 
  • completely get rid of item pouch check 
  • finish first NPC village including (finally) a vendor 
  • finalize dialogue bits and interaction with the NPCs in the mining prison 
  • finish burning village Maginoch events and boss fight 
  • finish Tra'Tibowt boss fight 
  • updated impact sprites (like jumping on an enemy's head and stunning them) 
  • more general and universal sprites for the overworld encounters 
  • fine tune enemy and item placement 
  • Sort items based on category in inventories (clean up function) 
  • flames hurt and will 'burn' enemies
  • create new 'thug' enemy (less powerful, unarmored 'Brute')

Try the new build here: http://gamejolt.com/games/savage-the-shard-of-gosen-alpha/16310

That's a wrap for this update! Have a great rest of your weekend and I'll continue to keep you all posted!

-Matt

Midnight Oil-Schmoil (and new build!)

Hey there!

You'll have to forgive me if this is a somewhat short update - I've been up for about 24 hours at this point, but it's been worth it! The shiny new alpha demo is up and ready for you to break!

New Playable Alpha Demo

You can download it here: http://gamejolt.com/games/savage-the-shard-of-gosen-alpha/16310

Things are still rough, broken, unfinished and unbalanced, but this is FAR more indicative of what the final game will look and feel like.

On offer is the first section of the overworld map. I've artificially constrained the gameplay to that area (boo!) because venturing beyond this zone will quickly cause things to fall apart (yay!) since all of that stuff is lying in pieces in front of me on my monitor.

What Didn't Make it?!

There's also a TON of stuff that I wanted to have ready for this demo that didn't quite make it and would require another week of play testing, chief among them being the save system, unfortunately (or what would eventually turn into the rock solid save system). But that's next on my list.

An early form of persistence is intact, though, and will keep track during a play session of (most) pertinent things, like which doorways have been unlocked, gates opened, etc.

I've also been digging around in Steam's backend (that sounds super wrong... or right, depending) to figure out the Steam key delivery system, and it looks like I'll have that figured out soon, too.

Keys Update

I want to also give backers (Kickstarter and Groupees Greenlight) "beta" keys that allow you to circumvent the release status of the game. In other words, I would be giving you access to live development builds as progress is made, and Steam would automatically (I think) update the game for you.

Anyhow, have a gander at the new build and feel free to tell me what you think so far!

Have a great rest of your weekend! 'Til next update!

-Matt

The Shadow Knows

Greetings!

Last week I talked about fixing bugs and tidying up issues in preparation for releasing a playable build that includes the first few levels and areas of the game. The battle continues this week -- here's a list of issues and bugs that have been utterly destroyed (fixed)!!

Bugs and Issues Slain

  • Fixed shield door bug
  • Fixed blood on moving stuff bug 
  • Fixed hitting/opening treasure chests 
  • Fixed falling spike hitting shield 
  • Black circles around torches when fading in/out and creating pause screen
  • Redid Screen Draw post FX pipeline to accomodate for day/night and torchlight
  • Fixed pause screen shuts off day/night 
  • Fixed pause screen turns off season check 
  • UI elements placement fix 
  • Overworld solid mountains 
  • Other overworld solids 
  • Shield UI 
  • Fixed hide armor duck block sprite (pictured above)
  • Recolor plain GUI background sprites 
  • Drop armor bug (dropping a set of armor from the inventory screen crashed the game)
  • ACCOUNT FOR ALL DROPPED ITEMS!! (certain other dropped items from inventory screen crashed the game)
  • Throwing Weapons XP bug (incorrect display of throwing weapons experience points, level, and damage values in inventory screen)
  • Fixed enemy hit by thrown object hurt timer 
  • Fixed saber weapon animation (just looked crappy)
  • Spiked enemies hurt when you jump on them
  • Redid shadow sizes and distance

An issue and criticism that's been repeatedly brought up is the way player character shadows are drawn when a light source is nearby (torch, candle, etc.). I've finally gotten around to addressing this and tidying it up.

While not 100% where I'd like it, it's a lot more appealing to look at and far less dramatic than how it used to be. I can now turn shadows cast by instances of light sources on and off, so if there is a lone torch against a sky only backdrop, for example, there won't be a shadow drawn awkwardly against nothing but sky.

Enemies also cast shadows, again!  

And for those tricky cases where there is only a limited amount of space that you'd like a torch to cast a shadow across, I have put "shadow limiters" in certain areas where, if there is a limiter between an entity and a light source, the shadow will not be drawn.

Here's the video of the livestream I captured of trying to sort out this very issue (the video will be available later on youtube later, as well):

https://www.twitch.tv/toborprime/v/83490580

Speaking of bad guys, I finally switched on spiky bits causing damage if you attempt to jump on their heads. I've gone through every enemy object in the game (so far) and made sure this works where appropriate (enemies that can potentially spawn with a spiked/horned helmet, creatures that can spawn with naturally grown spikes or horns). This definitely makes fights more interesting and challenges your ability to make snappy tactical decisions. I got so used to testing the game without this feature turned on -- it's nice to get my butt kicked in a brand new way, ha!

In this livestream here, I also talk about padding out the game with artificial progression. By that I mean I had planned to include certain items in the game (the core UI code is also built around this) that gave you the ability to quick slot off hand weapons and certain consumables.  

Those boxes there are (or, were) tied to whether or not you found the "Item Pouch", "Hunter Belt" and "Warrior Belt" respectively. I've scrapped all that and these features are available right from the get-go (your equipped shield now shows up on the hud, too).

Take the Item Pouch, for instance: consumables that are equipped to this slot can be used on the fly with a mapped button press. If you did not have the Item Pouch, you would have to pause the game by going into your inventory screen, accessing the consumables tab, FIND the item you wanted to gulp down, and "use" it. The same result can be achieved by simply having the chosen consumable slotted to the Item Pouch box and hitting your "Use Item" button when you need it.  

The only real difference between these two methods is that one simply takes longer and is a hassle. It doesn't make the game more interesting or challenging... So, bye bye equipment-dependent sub item slots!

LOTS of UI Fixes

For a while now, since I changed the way the game was drawn to the screen, the in-game menu has been drawing all sorts of wonky. That's now fixed, as well as properly displaying your shield.

I've also eliminated the "Shield" menu item in the equipment screen, since shields and weapons exist within the same inventory list. The manner in which you equip a shield is the same as how you equip a sword, etc. Having a seperate "Shield" access node on the equipment manager felt needlessly complicated and redundant.

I've also adjusted the brightness of text boxes and general UI windows to make text more readable. I want to give players more options concerning that later, like different style backgrounds for these elements.

The Battle Continues...

Here's the list of things that still need to be (potentially) addressed or fixed before I release the playable build:

  • Improve the manner in which shadows are drawn
  • Torches can be destroyed and drop items (like a certain super rad video game series featuring a very serious gentleman brandishing a deadly whip)
  • pickups that get stuck in boulders
  • completely get rid of backpack check
  • completely get rid of hunter belt check
  • completely get rid of warrior belt check
  • completely get rid of item pouch check
  • finish first NPC village including (finally) a vendor  
  • finalize dialogue bits and interaction with the NPCs in the mining prison  
  • redesign UI interaction with gamepad and keyboard  
  • implement save system  
  • finish burning village story events  
  • finish Tra'Tibowt boss fight  
  • updated impact sprites (like jumping on an enemy's head and stunning them)
  • more general and universal sprites for the overworld encounters  
  • fine tune enemy and item placement  
  • Sort items based on category in inventories (clean up function)

I'm still on track to get you guys a playable build, but I still have to figure out the delivery mechanism -- like, it would be GREAT to start figuring out how to get Steam keys to everyone who still needs one, and give them access to a live development build that I update regularly before launch. I'll keep you all posted as I figure out the particulars on that as well!

 

That's all for this week! Have a great rest of your weekend and I'll see you next update!

-Matt

Bug Hunt

Happy Sunday!

This update sees a general lack of shiny new visuals to show off, but there's plenty of messing around going on under the hood. The battle to get the current content up to a release worthy standard for a playable build continues!

Bug Fixes

There are a TON of these little jerks lurking in the game, and I've prioritized a handful for the playable demo.

  • A couple obnoxious ones have come about thanks to my fiddling with the day/night cycle:

You can see the drawing of the torch gets weird during a fade-in/fade-out, as well as when you triumphantly pause the screen and hold your newly discovered item aloft (so much for fanfare).

  • Hitting treasure chests, especially when they are up against a wall triggers a bug that causes the chest to REFUSE to open unless moved:
  • Opening your inventory screen turns off the day/night drawing effect:
  • Opening your inventory also turns off the seasonal check for future rooms that you transition into. You can see the second room deciding it's just gonna draw ALL the seasonal tile layers... because it hates me:
  • Certain (and only certain, of course) falling hazards ignore your shield (game needs hardhat):
  • If you have a shield equipped when entering and exiting a doorway, things get real screwy:
  • Blood particles, when hitting a solid that can potentially move, don't move along with the solid object they've landed on:

Minor Improvements and Fixes

Things aren't all doom and gloom, though! Here are a handful of tweaks and fixes I've made this week:

  • I can't remember if I've addressed this already, but you can now grab one-way ledges (the background platforms you can jump up through and land on top of. This certainly makes traversal feel better and more fair:
  • Picking up liftable objects and enemies is faster. Again, a minor tweak, but it feels a LOT better and less sluggish. The minor speed adjustment feels like it improves survivability, since you are vulnerable during this animation:

Here's the slow lift:

... and the lift after the tweak:

  • The new Clingjaw enemy has been fixed -- segment spacing has been improved, and when the head and segments meet a solid object, they are easier to see -- attacking segments did not carry the damage over to the "head", and the enemy now dies correctly:
  • Biome detection has been simplified when on the overworld. The pink ovals you see on the map used to set the active biome when the player object collided with them. Now, the active biome is set when the player collides with a random encounter based on proximity to the pink object. This cuts down on collision detection on the map:
  • Weighted pressure plates used to be... um... yeah. See the before and after for yourself:

Save System

I've started to plot out how this thing is going to work now that I have enough junk to track, like:

  • certain doors and gates opened/unlocked
  • cinematics and story events completed
  • quests completed
  • bosses killed
  • character level, inventory, general progress tracked
  • certain items found

... and a host of other things. This is a daunting prospect, but one I'm slowly getting to grips with and figuring out.

Playable Build Checklist

In addition to all of the previously mentioned tasks and issues, here's a general rundown of everything I'd like to have completed and/or addressed in the next couple weeks so you all can give it a try!

  • finish first NPC village including (finally) a vendor
  • finalize dialogue bits and interaction with the NPCs in the mining prison
  • GUI improvements
  • redesign UI interaction with gamepad and keyboard
  • implement save system
  • finish burning village story events
  • finish Tra'Tibowt boss fight
  • updated impact sprites (like jumping on an enemy's head and stunning them)
  • more general and universal sprites for the overworld encounters

That about covers things for this week. I'll keep you all posted with another update next Sunday.

Have a great rest of your weekend!

-Matt

Getting Slimed

Hail, Barbarian Horde!

I've got a handful of things to show you and discuss, including an upcoming playable developer build (more on that below!) for the backers to try out.

Continuing to Solve the Platformer Problem

I've talked before about making the traversal within the game more "platformer friendly", in that I have a bunch of bad guys that aren't necessarily learn-able in the sense that they are much more reactive; the environment and player position largely dictates their behavior. I've been trying to solve this by adding enemies that have a more dependable, hazard-like set of rules.

I've added a couple more baddies to my arsenal of insidious creatures that fill that hole:

First, we've got a new enemy that I've affectionately dubbed "clingjaw". It's mostly a static monster; it's claw clinging to the ground and walls, with segments and a head that move about in relation to its claw position. It's great for "blocking" the player's progress, forcing the player to figure out a way around the thing (hacking it to pieces is always a good option).

Another beastie I've been messing around with is the slime (finally - yay, slimes!). The basic variety just sort of wobbles around and will occasionally launch itself at the player. Since it's design is so basic, I've kinda gone hog-wild with it, producing a bunch of different varieties and appropriate palette swaps:

The Blue Slime is the derpiest of the bunch, as pictured above. The Red Slime is a bit more aggressive, and has an attack animation. The Green Slime behaves like the Blue Slime, but upon death, pops apart and produces a series of hazardous acidic droplets. The Purple Slimeis the real jerk and can cling to ceilings, drop onto the player, and attack him like the Red Slime.

Also, for anyone interested, I've been using a free piece of software that's saved me a ton of time to map out enemy behaviors:

Visual Understanding Environment -- http://vue.tufts.edu/

Beats the heck out of scratch paper!

Also, I've finally dropped in a working collision-based spike trap -- simple, and a no-brainer for games like this, but it's great to have it in, now.

Subterranean Forest

In addition to the newer Devil's Shade forested area, there is a new underground forest zone,Helsgarten, that connects to it along the path to the Highlands area on the overworld map.

For this, I've been able to reuse a ton of assets to create a new area. For example, tree tilesets have been reused to create sort of organic pillars, inverted roots allow me to create trees that "grow" upside-down, along with inverted grass tiles.

Seasons and Random Encounters Redone

I have been working from a very convoluted and clunky system that draws the appropriate seasonal tiles, based on the season and biome you're currently in. I've scrapped a LOT of that particular way of doing things, and simplified stuff like crazy. For example, I used to have a layer dedicated to "green grass", and another layer dedicated to "summer weather". Likewise, I had a "winter snow" layer, and a seperate "snow" layer for the Northern regions of the game where snow falls year round. Apply that logic all across the other areas of the game and you can probably start to see how unmanageable it eventually becomes.

I've cut all that out and now just have a global "summer weather" layer, "fall weather" layer, etc., regardless of the zone type you're in. Having redone that, I've also gotten rid of the old random encounter system -- or at least shaken it up a bit. In conjunction with the old seasonal rendering system, I had a set of rooms that would ALWAYS be randomly picked from when you triggered a random encounter on the world map. The array of rooms picked from would always be the same, regardless of your current biome, and then "skinned" appropriately based on biome and the current season/weather situation.

Nope. No more. I now have biome-designated rooms that will be appropriately picked from. This also lets me create signature geometry styles based on your current region, adding some much needed character to each zone.

See?! SO MANY less tile layers! And less headaches, as another positive result!

Drawing Pipeline Redone

The old way of rendering the day/night cycle got the boot, too. I used to clumsily "draw" a semi-transparent rectangle over the front of the screen with a color appropriate to the current time of day -- I hated it and always wanted to change it. So, I rolled up my sleeves and did. The rectangle made it hard to see the screen in a lot of cases, especially at sunrise, dusk and full night. 

Now, instead, I blend a color into the application surface (the end result of all the game's drawing events -- or, the screen and what you're seeing every frame). This gives me a lot more control over adjusting the color values of what the player is seeing, while still maintaining readability over your character and environment. Blues are now bluer at midnight, oranges and reds are more apparent at sunrise and sunset, etc.

This also allows me to do fun stuff with my light sources during the evening and night times, "cutting out" a circle around, say, a torch, where I don't want any color blending:

On top of that, the transitions between day and night on the world map have gotten a lot smoother and more varied (albeit a little buggy at the moment), also thanks to now applying color transitions to the 3D fog:

Story Sequences

With the content that's in the game and already finished, I'm going back and tightening up existing story sequences and cinematics:

New Update Schedule - Playable Build

From here on out, starting this weekend, I'll be posting weekly updates on the project's progress -- I've gotten into a bad habit of releasing this updates every 4-8 weeks -- no good and I'm sorry about that! ... Which brings me back around to the subject of getting a playable build to you! 

Within the next couple of weeks, I'm aiming to release a playable build to the Kickstarter backers and those who obtained the game via the Groupees Greenlight Bundle, containing the first few areas and such brought up to a polished and near release-worthy state. Polishing up and finishing the content that comprises the first chunk of the game will give me a good idea what it will take to finish this game, as well as getting feedback from anyone interested in giving it a go!

There are several things that I'd like to get in place before doing so, like getting a working save system in place, now that I know what it looks like to progress through the game (things like tracking opened/unlocked doors, solved puzzles, defeated bosses, completed cinematics and quests, etc.). I'll keep you all posted as I get closer!

'Til the next update, have a great one!

-Matt

2016.5.25 Gaiden Mode

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the silence through April -- allergy season plus our new location hit me pretty hard for a couple weeks which wound up getting me sick. Annoying! We invested in a neat little air purifier though, and that thing seems to be helping out big time. But enough complaining and excuse making -- onto progress!!

Boss Redux

You remember Tra Tibowt from the last update, yeah? I felt like something was missing with her to make her fight more memorable and give it more character. I decided to go back and revamp her bear companion (Mag, the Avatar of Magdragh) visually and mechanically, and allow her to ride into battle on the guy!

This gives the fight an initial, more interesting phase with different behaviors. Damaging them enough eventually knocks her off the mount and you wind up having to take them out as a pair.

New Areas

I have been going on a grayboxing rampage with the remaining levels and zones, stopping to whip up a couple necessary assets. The most recent of these being a revamped tileset to make the deep forest areas visually more exciting.

I've also done some palette swaps and some minor adjustments to some older tilesets to bring it up to snuff with the rest of the finalized ones.

These are all added to the growing arsenal of bits and pieces I'm using to crank out rooms. SO MANY ROOMS.

New Enemies and Hazards

As I grind through the room and area content, I am mopping up the remaining enemies and entities that still have to be created and dropped into the game. A couple examples are the brand new "platform wasp" and "forest ape".

The wasp enemy in particular is starting to fill a growing need for the game to include more of what I call platformer-friendly hazards. I have plenty of enemies that sort of track your movements and are largely reactionary in how you deal with them. I need more enemies like this that are more "learnable", or have a much more apparent pattern. This makes platform-heavy situations more satisfying, since you have readable obstacles that you can navigate around.

This guy, on the other hand, is a bit of a hybrid of those two enemy/hazard types. He can be set to a more static sort of artillery behavior, where he lobs boulders at you from a fixed position -- or, he can engage the player and bust out a few interesting attack moves. He is also one of the more vertically aware enemies in the game, following the player up onto, or underneath ledges and other obstacles (being a big monkey guy and all).

Here are the previously mentioned elements (tilesets, new assets and enemies) all working together:

Those are some shots from one of the new areas, "Devil's Shade", that bridges the Gosen Hills and Highlands areas of the game.

Game Flow

With all of the new elements and rooms I am creating for the game, I am slowly addressing my game flow concerns. Things like, "Is this too repetitive?" "How do I make these rooms more interesting?" have come barreling their way to the front of my concerns. Pacing things like interactivity, enemy placement, and things like powerups are a real concern for me. After all, how many times can someone smack something with a sword before it starts to get boring? Hopefully, quite a few times if the core combat mechanics are good enough, ha!

Structuring levels and rooms, I have started to notice annoying design crutches that I repeat. Like tunnel shapes and similar geography elements. It's like writing music -- you start to realize that maybe you are using similar progressions across multiple songs. This is not necessarily a bad thing in some situations, I guess, since this also evokes a certain style, but I feel it's necessary to be aware of so I don't wind up with a finished game and thousands of rooms that all feel too same-y!

Here's a bit of an example of how I sort of map out general flow and some of the critical path out:

Using visual aids like this helps in defining pacing for me, and shaping those "peaks and valleys" that compose the player's overall experience with the game.

Cinematics!

I've also, finally, gotten around to knocking out the game's more lore-heavy sequences, which will be delivered in the form of Ninja Gaiden-esque cinematics.

As of now, I've got the majority of these sequences completed, but there are still a few more that need doing.

Also, with a lot of this stuff getting wrapped up, I submitted the last bit of game footage to my friends at Escaping Westlawn Productions for the launch trailer!

Here are some work in progress screens from the visual FX shots Christine Carstairs is working on:

I am really excited to see this thing!

Progress!

So there we have it -- I am in the middle of grinding out TONS of rooms that will make up the final areas and levels of the game, and I hope to have a build finished soon that I can play through from start to finish. I can't believe I just said that - pretty unreal!

I know it's taken a lot longer than I initially planned for, and I'm sorry about that, but even more grateful for all the support and positive feedback from you all! I am continuing to work hard to make this thing fun, and a suitably brutal and bloody adventure!

Thanks for letting me share with you all! Have a great one, and I'll see ya next update!

-Matt

2016.3.28 Un-Bear-Able!

Man, what an em-bear-assing headline (sorry, I can't help it. It's, like, a serious problem)! 

Ahem. Anyway... Progress goes on, my to-do list grows ever shorter and the game gets closer to something I'd consider fun and playable! At present, there is enough rough content (still in desperate need of a polish and balance pass) that I can speedrun what's mostly finished in about an hour and a half -- and I'm enjoying it, rough edges aside!

Here's what's been going on behind the scenes:

New Location and Sub-Areas, Cairns of Magdragh

This zone is heavily populated with the cannibalistic hill tribes, the Ilgogi. Worshipers of bears and the bear god, Magdragh, their weapons and clothing mirror their brutal way of life.

This area features a few new modular enemy types:

  • Ilgogi Maneater
  • Ilgogi Huntress
  • Kin of Magdragh (Hill Bears)
  • Rockbiters

Yes, Rockbiters are back and working within the new enemy system! These little buggers were a pain to bring back into the fold, but worth it. Here's a debug screen of me attempting to snap them to their new locations -- challenging, given their wall-crawly nature.

The area also features some new puzzly mechanics:

New Boss - Tra Tibow't, Mother of Bears, Feastbreaker and Warcaller of the Ilgogi... and her bear Mag!

Here are some work-in-progress bits for the new boss and her pet, based on a friend of mine and her online twitter persona, @twobitart!

I had built out the boss room a certain way, and after some testing, found out I was really not very happy with it. It had too many small platforms that sort of created small uninteresting choke-points during the fight.

The rebuild of the room came out much better - still keeping a bit of deviation in the terrain, but keeping it open enough for everyone to move around.

New Gear

Pictured in the above gif madness are new Ilgogi and bear themed shields, bone based weapons like spears and clubs, as well as a shiny new powerful polearm called Phalanx!

Archived Livestreams

As some of you know, I livestream every now and again on Twitch. I have recently decided to start archiving the streams on my Youtube channel, which you can find here!

That's all for now. Thanks again so much for all your patience and support! I'm as ready to be done with this game as I'm sure you are to play it, and I'm working hard to make it worth the wait - we're gettin' there!

See ya next update, and have a GREAT one!

-Matt

2016.2.7 You Shouldn't Run With Knives... BUT

Hi everybody! Sorry for the quiet during January (speaking of, hope you all had a great holiday season and your new year is off to great start!), but I have been cranking out ALL the things! ... ALL of them.

Productivity levels have been super hot, so let's take a trip down to update-city so's I can show you all the shiny new stuff, shall we?

NEW LEVELS

I am at a really exciting place with the game right now. All the grinding out of props, animations, baddies, etc. has supplied me with what feels like a massive bag of legos to play with. This weird piece of software is starting to look like what I imagine the final game will be. I actually have fully functional, final versions of areas and stages to play through - YAY!!

As a (crude) example of a stage in the making, here're some pictures and stuff!

... And some in-game shots from the new areas:

NEW NPCS

Parts of these areas (including towns) need a few non-aggressive denizens to chat it up with. I added a whole slew of mining prison-specific unfortunates that you'll  run into.

NEW PROPS/HAZARDS/INTERACTIVE BITS

There are lots of new ways to navigate areas and engage with puzzles, enemies, and other dangerous bits. Included below are also a few shots and examples of one of the new and finished areas.

TUNES

The shower is great. Not only does it make me smell better than I usually do, but for whatever reason, pieces of music tend to assault my brain while scrubbing. Clean + music = yay!

Over the last few days, a couple of tunes materialized and pretty much demanded to be recorded/commited to ones and zeros. I OBEYED and did this:

These tracks are still rough and need a few passes yet:

Whew. I went a little gif-crazy there. Sorry about that! But again, thanks so much for letting me share all of this with you, and for all of your support! 

The game is going great and work is happening pretty darn fast.

Until next time!

<3 Matt

What Sorcery is This?!

Happy Holidays, everyone!   

Sorry for the lack of updates through November - I've been nose to the grindstone over here and sometimes it's hard to remember to come up for air. Before we get to the new stuff, let's talk about release since we're about to head into the new year.

To be frank, the game isn't finished yet, which is as big a downer for me as I'm sure it is for you. I was hoping to be close to wrapping the project up by this time, with mostly sound, music, and quality assurance work left and well underway. I'm not quite there, mostly because I feel that what I have isn't the game I want to play yet. When this game launches it needs to be well worth your time to play through! Sorry to be a bit of a broken record, and thanks so much for your patience and support!

On the other hand, what I do have is coming along great! Over the past year, I have essentially been building myself a toybox full of cool action figures and set pieces at my disposal. It's a relief (and very gratifying) to be able to pick and choose from an array of neat looking stuff and build out interesting little rooms and levels. I have learned that this is also one of the most challenging parts of the process - to produce interesting and playable levels that don't get boring, and keep the experience fresh from start to finish. The map maker and designer in me is having an absolute ball throwing all of this together, while the obnoxious art-coward in me is throwing a fit at the challenge. The map maker part is totally kicking the coward's butt, last I checked ;)

As a small example, here's what the old pre-alpha starting dungeon looked like:

And here it is again after a pass using some of the new art assets and props to populate the scene:

It feels a lot more alive and a bit more "real" (as real as a low resolution pixel art scene can feel, anyway, ha!). 

So, New Stuff! 

Here's a sampling of the new area, Blackfen, in the works:

An example of the new visual props I've cooked up:

New Boss!  

This particular character has definitely been the most challenging to create thus far. He does a lot of things that I'm not used to - flying around, shooting magic, teleporting, etc... From a raw engineering perspective (and an art one), it's been a real battle trying to get it right - but I think I've finally nailed down something I am very satisfied with.

Here is a graphic representing his most basic finite-state machine loops (horrible graphics tablet handwriting and all!):

Some character fluff - because!

He was called Gizmotin - a sorcerer from from an ancient civilization who reached too far into esoteric wizardry, flinging his body across time and space into the Beyond, a realm composed of madness, nightmares and raw psychic energies. He has spent so long away from the physical plane that the sum of years comprising his absence are trivial. He has since re-materialized in the world of Lor where his body and mind are broken and in a constant state of flux. Bits and pieces of his ego phase in and out of reality, quadrants of his psyche are constantly fragmenting and reshuffling, existing in several places at once. His sojourn has made him alien, mad, and even more dangerous.  

With him he brings things strange and vile; creatures that devour, break and bury anything not of their own.

My gif software doesn't like the game's framerate, so Gizmotin's teleporting animation looks strange here

My gif software doesn't like the game's framerate, so Gizmotin's teleporting animation looks strange here

Trailer Update!

The super talented Christine Carstairs of Escaping Westlawn sent me some composite shots of the Savage "TV commercial" she's been working on - Behold!

I'm hiding behind the 'table', holding the sword up in place :)

I'm hiding behind the 'table', holding the sword up in place :)

To see the full update including a sample video, go here: http://www.escapingwestlawn.com/savage-the-shard-of-gosen-commercial-preview/

Music!

When time allows, I've also been cranking out some in-game music, as well as music for the trailer.

 

This is the full version of the track, "Sei-Thahn", featured in the recent teaser:

Here's a mashup of different versions of the Savage theme, "Hymn of Doom", that will go in the final trailer:

So that's all for now - again, sorry for the delay everyone. I can't tell you how grateful I am for your patience and support - it means everything! It will be super worth it once your game ships!  

The Happiest Holidays to you and yours!

-Matt