Huge World (and content) Update

Last week saw the one year mark since the Kickstarter was funded - ONE YEAR and it only feels like I've been at this for a handful of months since then - not TWELVE! Looking back on the progress I've made with the game over the past year it's hard to believe that this is the same project I started with. The improvements made to the core systems and the overall presentation adjustments make it almost feel like a sequel. The past two months have been especially juicy with the updates. You can also (kinda/partially) blame the radio silence through January on this guy:

Ok - waxing nostalgic/excuse-y sympathy vote minutiae mode OFF - time for a GIF-o-rama featuring some new bosses, biome and environment art, dungeon art, finalized overworld map, and (my favorite) corpse platforms!

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Savage is also rocking swamps, frigid mountains, Gosen highlands, the Red Steppe, coastal areas and the Black Fen (oOooh, mysterious!)! The seasonal system is now working as well, with region specific overlays and particle systems being drawn appropriate to the current season (i.e. red/orange leaves for Fall, naked trees and snow for Winter), giving a pretty insane amount of variety in the types of map encounters when combined with the day/night cycle.

The game's world map is also complete! The textures are now in the game and working! Zone specific props still need to be added, as well as the actual map locations.

So, to sum up:

  • Completed world map
  • Seasonal system (including season specific art and particles)
  • Two new bosses
  • New biomes and environment types
  • New dungeons (fortresses, palaces and cave types)
  • Better enemy AI and pathfinding
  • Spike corpse platforms!!
  • MORE parallax layers!

The game's systems are mostly working and complete, outside of some UI work and general (and necessary) polish. Environment art and assets are also about 90% finished (yay!). At this point, it's mostly a content crunch - there is still a lot of work to be done, in the form of level design, enemy art, more bosses, more weapons, armor and shields, and story elements.

I'm getting closer to completion and things are looking fantastic. Thank you all so much for the support and encouragement over this past year!

-Matt

New Tilesets, Areas and Such!

I hope everyone's having an excellent holiday season so far! My gift to you: .GIFs!

New dungeon and stone tilesets! (With some older parallax background art - I'll get to updating those)

New dungeon and stone tilesets! (With some older parallax background art - I'll get to updating those)

Raptor Throwing!

Raptor Throwing!

New snowy/rocky/mountainous tilesets and area art!

New snowy/rocky/mountainous tilesets and area art!

Horrific creatures from an alternate plane of existence!

Horrific creatures from an alternate plane of existence!

... And here's a snazzy production screencap (and random guitar sprite - because distracted)!

... And here's a snazzy production screencap (and random guitar sprite - because distracted)!

In addition to new tilesets, areas, environment art, new enemies, and additional combat mechanics (picking up and tossing baddies is a blast!), I'm still working through the backbone of the game's levels and stages (or, the critical path). Once that's finished, I'll be working on some of the optional objectives and hidden areas that will be included in the game, in addition to polish and bug testing.

Great progress is being made; there are features and content that are starting to really shine, which is incredibly exciting. There is still much to do though, and I'll keep updating all of you as I slug it out in the trenches! 

A very merry happy holiday season to everyone, and thank you all so much for the support this year! Here's to a very barbaric 2015!

XOXO, Matt

New Stuff! IndieDB Top 100!

The game certainly has changed over the past 6 months - it feels like an entirely new experience. I have added SO MUCH new content to this thing that I'll go easy on the bullet point-y stuff and let these images do most of the talking:

 

 

Some of what's NEW in the game since the last update:

  • New areas and tilesets!
  • New enemies (wild boars, revamped battlecat, flesh eating crows, raptors, a HOST of Argeshii soldiers and warriors, with procedurally generated gear and behavior)!
  • NPCs!
  • New armor sets!
  • A lot more I can't remember!
  • Blood and gore (yay)!

In addition to all that, I'm FINALLY at a code complete stage in the project - I am now fully entrenched in creating the critical path of the game and churning out the extra content needed to create a complete gaming experience.

I'll be releasing a final handful of alphas/demos in the coming weeks and months, so STAY TUNED!

It's that time of the year again to vote on your favorite Indie games at IndieDB! Help SAVAGE get into the top 100 by voting here: http://www.indiedb.com/games/savage-the-shard-of-gosen

Thanks for visiting, and have a great one!

xoxo, Matt

Took Me Long Enough

I look at the date on the last post I made on here and I die just a little tiny bit inside. Whoops. All I can say is "sorry it took me so long!"

So much has happened since I last posted here, I may as well just hit the giant theoretical reset button and just talk a bit about what's going on RIGHT NOW - or, at the very least, summarize:

  • The Kickstarter for SAVAGE: The Shard of Gosen was a resounding success, woohoo!
  • SAVAGE: The Shard of Gosen (from now on referred to as "the game") hit Steam Greenlight, and is now holding strong in the top 30s!
  • The game went to the GDC 2014 under the wing of YoYo Games, showcasing the game on a Playstation 4, which was a little bit of a dream come true.
  • I've been live-streaming development on my Twitch channel HERE.
  • Other stuff I can't remember

So, yeah, lots of awesome stuff surrounding the game; just about everything EXCEPT the game having a home - a rock solid online location that it can hang out and just be itself, thanks to my rampant neglect... until NOW! 

I prettied up the main page, and I've redesigned some bits and pieces on the Savage page proper. My goal is to cultivate a much more active homepage and devlog, so expect some fun things happening here in the near future.

There is also this:

I was in desperate need for some shiny promotional material, and doing a "for realsies" bit of boxart was something I had been dreading for a long time. I finally rolled up my sleeves, looked at lots and lots of Frazetta paintings, and got my hands dirty. I hope you like the result!

On another new note: SAVAGE: The Shard of Gosen public alpha 4.5 has been released, so if you fancy a bit of bite-sized adventure, by all means, have a go! 

Details for the new build

Anyhow - that's the long and short of what's been going on. Again, many apologies for the lack of updates! But no longer! It's about time the Barbarian Horde had a comfy place to call home (again).

-Matt

Alpha 4.5 Released!

Finally - shields are working and in-game! Here's a handy list of all the new stuff you can expect to find in the latest build:

  • Added more gamepad functionality (bit of rumble anyone?) and expanded controls (see README)
  • Shields!
  • Two handed weapon types and new two handed sword
  • Backhanded slashing weapon types and new backhand weapon
  • New player states and animations
  • New armor overlay animations
  • You can now see your equipped armor on the map screen
  • Certain enemies will only appear at night
  • New enemies: Skeleton warriors!
Go ahead and click the shiny image to get the new build!

Go ahead and click the shiny image to get the new build!

Blocking and shield parry!

Blocking and shield parry!

Skellies!

Skellies!

Halloween Updates and Goodies Bag!

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Just a short (and... spooky??) update for Halloween: 

I've got a Steam community page up here: 

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/savage-the-shard-of-gosen

And a Steam Greenlight page up ova here! 

 

I also threw together some goodies for you (or anyone who's interested) to consume! The "bag" includes: Wallpapers, NES retro controller overlays, and a few songs from the soundtrack from the Alpha version. (no) candy. (zero) razorblades. Enjoy, and Happy Halloween!

Take your Halloween goodies bag (and my thanks) here: 

Halloween Goodies Bag

New Alpha Build - IGF Submission - New Trailer

This weekend I decided to hold my breath, take the plunge, and submit Savage to the IGF (against my better judgement, ha!). Why? Because I like being a nervous wreck and biting off way more than I can chew! On a personal level, I don't expect much to happen, but I am glad I submitted - in the long run, I think putting my game on a chopping block of that size is, overall, a good experience. Pluse: hitting the 'submit' button was great fun :D

On to the (potentially) more fun stuff -

I've decided to publicly post the build I submitted to the IGF because... well, why not? Quite a few substantial updates and bug fixes await anyone brave enough to go another round with the alpha, i.e.

  • Added a few new items - Argeshii Fetish, Gosen Fetish, Meat
  • Fade transitions, zoom in/out transitions on worldmap
  • Overworld procedural encounters (hunting type, battle type)
  • Story engine is now in place, with first story sequence
  • Balanced the enemy spawners, some enemy HP and damage
  • Weapons and Armor now lose BP upon death instead of outright breaking
  • Broken gear remains in inventory (to be used in repair/salavage in a later update)
  • Increased initial knives/axes carrying cap
  • Font and UI polishing
  • New Enemy: Jailer
  • New location tilesets (only used in overworld encounters right now)
  • Extended some areas
  • New music track
  • New death system/checkpoint system - game no longer goes to "game over" screen on death, but respawns player at the last (invisible at the moment) checkpoint they crossed.
  • Squished lots of bugs (and probably created many new ones as a result)
  • screenshot123.png
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    screenshot118.png

    You can download the latest alpha here:

    Savage: The Shard of Gosen (second public alpha)

    (IMPORTANT: SAVE FILES FROM THE PREVIOUS BUILD WILL NOT WORK WITH THIS ONE - Sorry :/ This will probably be the case until beta, or whenever I put a much more stable save system into the game.)

    And last but not least, Savage: SOG's first trailer (*sniff* he's growing up so fast):

     

    Thanks for reading/watching/playing!

    Crom laughs at your Four Winds,

    -Matt

     

    Public Alpha, Name Change(upgrade)

    So - I have shamelessly copied/pasted the following from my Game Jolt page (because, up for a billion hours!! :D )

    I made it! I managed to keep to my own goofy little weekend deadline! *gets a cookie* Posted the first publicly playable version of Savage: SOG, in all it's SOGgy glory: 

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

    Be sure to wear a helmet - this is a pretty rough ride thus far. Lots of squishy bugs, game breaking issues, weirdo graphics stuff, etc. etc.

    But, hey - that makes it more of an adventure, right? ... right? Either way, I hope you have some fun with it :)  Feel free to report any bugs/issues, send any comments/concerns/questions/feedback right here or via PlanetTobor.

    Expect many changes, additions, and general gussy-ing up to happen frequently. Thanks for taking a look!

    xoxo, Matt

     

    Savage: The Shard of Gosen (first public alpha)

    More Screenshots

    Hi guys! Figured I'd post a few more screenshots here, since I've kind of been going asset crazy lately (which is a good thing - saves me from going completely insane, chopping up my hard drive into little bits, pouring them into a bowl with milk on top and devouring the soggy bits - all from spending too much time staring at walls and walls of Inventory and UI code), which - should... *ahem* should, lead to more regular devlog video posts. 

    I've been reluctant to make any new videos detailing the dev process with Savage, since, well, the stuff I've been working on hasn't really been all that visually engaging/interesting. Like, who wants a video of five minutes of me going, "Hey you guyzz!! I changed some buttons! LOOK." 

    Anyways, pictures! 

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    More fun/cool/weird/WTF announcements concerning my personal favorite pixellated barbarian to com. As always, thanks for having a peek.

    xoxo, Matt

    P.S. Lord help me, I couldn't control myself:

    IMG_6309.jpg

    Screenshot Saturday

    So I'd been taking a break from coding and I started to flesh out some other area art - one tileset in particular I had started like, three years ago. Over the last couple days I've been touching it up and creating more assets/tiles to go along with it and this is what I've come up with so far: 

    screenshot100.png

    Now with full on in yo' face Parallax Scrolling! (capital P, S).  

    Other than that, I've been trying to tidy things up and get closer to a fun, demo build that I can have people sit down with and put some play time into. 

    More updates on the way! 

    -Matt

    New Stuff, Old Stuff

    Took me long enough. Anyway, yeah, it's right over here:  

    http://www.planettobor.com/savage/2013/9/3/state-of-the-project-update

     

    screenshot131.png
    screenshot136Tabs.png
    screenshot115.png

    That is pretty much what has been taking up a good 16 hours of my day - nose deep in UI/Inventory systems code and coming SO CLOSE to a working state! Er... the Inventory system, that is, not the game itself, unfortunately. I do want to be finished, or pretty darn near at the end of this year, but we will see what happens. 

    There has been a lot of traffic here lately, and I just wanted to extend a big 'THANK YOU' (big = caps)  and a sincere 'welcome!' to any new visitors (and returning) and let all a' ya know what exactly is going on here.

    What is going on here? I ask myself that daily - and although I never really seem to arrive at any self-satisfying conclusion, mayhaps (<== spell check doesn't like this, >:]  ) I can provide you with one! ... Maybe.  

    I have been pouring most of my time into the aforementioned Savage - a game I've been developing off and on (more like tearing down and destroying, building back up, repeat) for the last 3 years. As a result, I haven't been putting any time into my Comic over the past month/two months... but it is definitely something I want to get back to. And will get back to, on occasion. The comic started as an experiment with the daily-gag formula, mostly to see whether I had the chops/liked the format enough to do something like that long-term. A couple years later, I'm still not entirely sure, ha!! But I do dig a few of the characters, so I'm sure some other iteration of it will rear its ugly head eventually - however dissimilar to the original it might be. 

    So there you have it! A very vague-ish, murky report on my goings on here with a series of magic 8 ball 'perhaps'es and 'too soon to tell's.  One thing I know for sure: I like making comics. I like working on video games. Expect more of both.

    Thanks for stopping by, and I hope you didn' hurt yourself too badly during your visit. Band-aids (or, adhesive strips) at the door.

    Love,  Matt

     

    State of the Project - Update

    Well, I certainly update this devlog a lot less than I'd like - mostly because I want to make sure that what I post here is worth mentioning. I don't want to update the thing when I do something silly, like: "Hey guys - I added tiny pictures to go in the inventory screen for the items!! K, bye!", or something... Actually, that IS one of the updates I've made, but I've been working on a number of other things, as well. 

    The Day/Night system is coming along pretty well - I've been doing some heavy experimenting with surfaces and color blending. Here are the phases of the day, with some place-holder backdrops 'n such: 

    Late Night

    Late Night

    Dawn

    Dawn

    Early Morning

    Early Morning

    Mid-day

    Mid-day

    Sunset

    Sunset

    And speaking of toying around with light/color blending, here are a couple of other experimental shots of what I'm doing for some cave lighting and some CRT monitor filters, respectively: 

    Spewky

    Spewky

    Made with new-tech to look old and crappy!

    Made with new-tech to look old and crappy!

    Everything pictured is still in a pretty rough draft-y state, but I figured I'd share some screenies of my progress so far. I've gotta say, playing with aesthetics is exactly what I needed after having my nose buried in the UI and inventory system code for so long. Still there, but I think I see the light at the end of the tunnel.

    It's (Savage) shaping up to be exactly the beast I wanted it to be from the project's inception. At one point, not long ago, I thought "Maybe I should scale everything back... go for a more true blue action/platformer with stage to stage progression", so I worked on that for a bit... And then proceeded to toss that idea right in the garbage. That definitely resulted in a huge time-til-release hit, but the experiment was worth it. I guess I just have to do everything the hard way :)

    Thanks for taking a look, and I hope to have more progress to report on sooner rather than later; provided I don't decide to scrap everything and do another complete redesign - ha!! 

    -Matt

    Savage Gamejolt Page

    If you're feeling saucy, Savage has a shiny new Gamejolt page up at 

    http://gamejolt.com/, a pretty amazing platform for games.

    Seems like a super fun way to keep a devlog, and an even more super-er fun way to put playable builds of your game up on there. Speaking of, I hope to have a test drive version up soon... So, keep checking back, and eventually there will be a plate of barbarian shaped cookies placed out on the table for you to consume... with milk... mixed with the blood of your slain enemies.

    xoxo, Matt

    Where Was I Again?

    I just did a fool thing (but what else is new?): So  - I had this amazing, meticulously conceived, well rounded and (possibly) award winning blog I've spent all morning laboring over... and I accidentally deleted it. And the world is way worse off because of it, I tell you... Honest! Or, better, maybe. It's a matter of perspective (probably).

    Oh well! here's kind of  what I was going to sort of say before my mouse up and decided to listen to some stupid impulse my hand suggested: We're in our new place! We made it out of the fire and landed in a much better living situation, a cleaner complex and an apartment that smells like a bunch of new stuff! Because it is. New, I mean. We've had our little Amazon shopping spree (thanks, insurance money!), received all of it and we're feeling a lot happier and more comfortable.

    July has definitely kicked my ass. So much has happened: There was the fire on the 4th, and... well, that's pretty much it, but hot (heh) damn, what a loaded event! Each day after within those first two weeks felt like a whole month of their own. We are so lucky and blessed and have had so much help from so many wonderful people I can't even begin to compose another weighty run-on sentence like this! Actually I probably could, but I won't (for now). I can see the trail of red tape behind us and we're making tracks.

    Here's what my shiny new "office" looked like about a week ago: 

     

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    Not demons, not deadites, not Ted Raimi in a giant, sweaty latex suit can bring old Ash (I will spare you any more fire-related jokes on that one) down - Hail to the king, baby. And thank god for buying crap on the internet. Without all that packaging material, I would not have been able to construct that luxuriant designer desk you see pictured above. I have a future in carpentry. 

    I feel like I have about a bajillion (or some other equally absurd and hilarious fake number) hours of sleep to catch up on. Like that's going to happen.  I have too much to do, and I'm too excited to not do it. I think that came out right. More comics to do, a game to release this year, a shiny new podcast to do with my buddy Gabe (ya know:  that brave soul who braves the under-dark of the film industry to bring you outrageous/disturbing/funny reviews of such classics as (The) Legend of Sorrow Creek, and Killjoy, all that and more RIGHT HERE ) and... other stuff I haven't thought of yet or forgot to mention.

    Anyway, I'm going to go try to fight through the aftermath of a Benadryl coma. Thanks for reading and stay flame retardant!

    -Matt

    The Roof is (No Longer) On Fire

    The Roof is (No Longer) On Fire

    Indeed - it's more like... caved in, or collapsed. Verily - what used to be our apartment now looks like what happens to a tiny village hamlet when the denizens make the local dragon angry. The roof (what's left of it) looks like it was raked by giant talons, the interior mostly buried in debris, insulation, ceiling and ash. It's difficult to describe the picture that still comes to mind when I think about our apartment -

    Read More

    The Roof Is On Fire

    And it really was yesterday morning! What a crazy way to start a 4th of July holiday - opening up the front door at 6 a.m. to a wall of very angry and very real flames. Our apartment is pretty much destroyed with most of our belongings. No one was hurt or killed in the fire, but there are a lot of (something like 50?) other residents who shared the building with us that are kind of left scratching their heads and wondering where their new homes are going to be. It's been a pretty crazy day today, and the fire feels like it happened such a long time ago, as opposed to just yesterday. Lots of trying to get a hold of property management - lots of talking to our insurance provider - lots of not sleeping, ha!  

    It's a pretty surreal situation, and we don't really know what's coming, so needless to say, updates on the ol' Planet Tobor are going to be a little thin in the coming weeks... at least until we find some new digs.  

    We are so grateful to all the awesome firefighters who were braving the blazing inferno that was our place of residence, and the amazing folks at the Red Cross that showed up on the scene, providing everyone with comfort and information on what to do and where to go next. 

    I'll keep you guys posted on the goings on here as often as I can. Thanks for reading/listening/watching, and there is lots more to come!  

    -Matt

     

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    MOVING!

    First off, for you awesome handful of fine folks who keep visiting the site despite my appaling delinquent lack of updates - Thank You So Much!! 

    The site is not dead (though, perhaps on life support for the past, what, 7 months?? Yikes), but is definitely, finally, going through a bit of a transition.

    Planet Tobor started out as something entirely different from what it's become, and I can't help but feeling like I need to shed some skin and start the process of replacing it with a newer, shinier, more personal coat. That said, I'll be moving some things around, redesigning and moving to a new domain name: www.grinningmonster.com, which is already associated with planettobor.com.

    The Planet Tobor comic strip will remain intact and see a lot more love soon, thanks to me finally getting (relatively) comfortable with the development of Savage. The game is one thing that has been moving along full speed ahead and I'm excited to finally post some progress on it in the form of some videos and new screen caps.

    More updates to come, and thanks for sticking around!

    Mayday

    So, our computers here have been suffering from a strange case of WTF I CAN'T EVEN DO ANYTHING ON THE &*@#* DESKTOP syndrome. Stupid, stupid viruses. I swear, this sumbitch is dug in deeper than an Alabama tick. Or something. I seem to be cracking it's disgusting membrane open and I've regained some semblence of control over my wife's laptop, but it still feels like an uphill battle. A big part of me wouldn't mind taking that dark and dangerous road up the scary volcano and casting into the flames from whence it came...

    Anyway, in much better news, some of my music is featured in this episode of Gridlock TV; a show for cycle, car, generally anything that goes vroom gearheads.  The show is put together by my very talented buddy Eddy Montiel of Compadre Productions - watch the badassery at work:

    There is also a shiny new animated intro in the works for the above show being stitched together by yours truly. More updates to come!

    I ain't got time to bleed,

    -Matt