Vapourware Codexian Game Development Thread

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

^

 

[Jaesun]

I'd buy it too. Just be sure there is a free demo first. That's what sold me on Underrail.

 

[shihonage]

Lowered price to $1.99 TEMPORARILY. Cannot go any lower than that because it would be insulting to the amount of work that was put into the gameplay content.

shihonage

I've watched this video 5 times now.

CHURCH OF THE GREAT A....? Atonement?

The letters were eroded with age. No one knows!

(I am a dick)

Who is Anna? Protagonist's daughter?

Yes.

Around 0:50, what are the white "stars" - weapon particles?

NRG-8000 behaves exactly like BFG-9000 from Doom. Those stars are the initial blast, which unfolds, collapses, and then the big green blasts expands from it.

Looks like your really put your soul to it.

Thanks, man

 

[Kosmonaut]

Why just two bucks?

 

[shihonage]

I edited it to be a temporary "EARLY ADOPTER" sale. After that, $2.99 may be the right price... it's the price of an ugly game called "Super Amazing Wagon Adventure" which people nonetheless enjoy due to its fun gameplay.

Of course "VVVVVV" is $4.99 and it looks super simple too.

I will find out after releasing a new trailer, because this trailer was a massive fail. So confused right now.

 

[Kosmonaut]

Why it was a massive fail? Fun game by the way. I'm currently creating a lot of bridges with my rail gun (I suppose those have some kind of utility, the bridges I mean).

 

[shihonage]

Thanks, man But bridges only let you get across water

Massive fail it was because it doesn't relay how the game plays. And on Steam Greenlight page everyone judges it by the trailer and hates it.

EDIT: Thanks for Desura rating/comment by the way

EDIT2: Made a gameplay trailer:



Now it's time to forget this project ever happened. Possibly after I put in ASCII mode. Or not.

 

[Niektory]

Finished the game, it's pretty fun. Looking forward to you next one.

The low health effect is pretty annoying. Yeah, I know. "Don't get low on health."

Fighting near doors is annoying too. Maybe they should take a little longer to close.

Seems you can avoid all NRG-8000 damage by ducking. Intended?

Some items seem to not have names. You can see it at 1:17 in the video, the text box just says "Picked up".

 

[shihonage]

Finished the game, it's pretty fun. Looking forward to you next one.

Thank you sir

The low health effect is pretty annoying. Yeah, I know. "Don't get low on health."

It's turned off on difficulties "Rookie" and "Fragile". I thought of making it a video option. Still not sure...

Fighting near doors is annoying too. Maybe they should take a little longer to close.

Maybe.

Seems you can avoid all NRG-8000 damage by ducking. Intended?

Whoa, nope. But since ducking only served one intended function (duck rockets), maybe this unintended mechanic should stay in. Unless it really breaks the game.

Some items seem to not have names. You can see it at 1:17 in the video, the text box just says "Picked up".

I will look into this. Currently issuing a quick patch addressing the most common peeve of the Greenlight feedback crowd - overly flashy gunfire/rocket effects. It adds an option to subdue all the flashing.

(And yeah I know the game isn't making it to Greenlight but this feedback was rather universal - "overwhelming lighting" - so hence this patch).

There's an inert framework for 2-player LAN (or low-latency Internet) coop thru campaign. I will put effort into making it work properly if the game continues to sell... any number of copies. Same goes for level editor and additional features like random/infinite levels...

EDIT: toned down the "low health effect" dramatically. Patch releasing soon...

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

I just bought it.

 

[shihonage]

Gonna give it a few more days to ensure that

a) there's no sudden upsurge in sales that warrants adding on things I wanted to add on if the game sold well: i.e. 2-player coop, random levels, etc.

and

b) there are no outstanding technical problems

_________________

THEN, I will dump the game's codebase out of my head and start reacquainting myself with Shelter's again.

Years wasted? Yeah. Well, some people wasted more years on cocaine. So there. Every day is a new start.

 

[Rpgsaurus Rex]

Years wasted? Yeah. Well, some people wasted more years on cocaine. So there. Every day is a new start.

 

[eric__s]

Last few days were crazy. This art place in New York was doing a thing on post-apocalyptic architecture and asked us if we could send them a demo or something. Our game is way, way not ready to be played yet, but we thought it would be cool and fun to send an awful, broken, buggy demo anyway. We worked non-stop and I think I got like 6 hours of sleep total in the last 4 days. In the end, we were able to send them something. It's really weird and bad but I'm actually really happy with it because it represents a lot of work, looks fantastic and has good writing. So it's a buggy mess, but it's also a fun milestone and I don't mind if people in this art place break it or think it's shit or whatever, because that's kind of what it's supposed to be right now, a goofy, unplayable demo. Anyway, I don't know if any of you are in Brooklyn but I can give you more info if you actually want to see it.

sea - I haven't played your Dragon Age mod yet, I'm looking forward but I don't know when I'll be able to get the time, but do you mind if I ask a couple questions about it, or more specifically, about your work distribution? I think I read that it has about 10-20 hours of content, which is pretty hefty. How much dialogue is in it? Do you have a word count estimate? How much does the average NPC say and how much does the most verbose NPC say? If you had to give me an estimate, how many hours in a day and throughout the whole course of the project did you devote to writing dialogue? How much of your overall time, in relation to all the other work you put into the game, was on dialogue writing? Obviously you did way more than just dialogue writing, but that's specifically what I'm worried about right now.

The reason I'm asking is that I've found that my limit for writing quality dialogue that I'm pleased with is about 5,000 words a day. I don't know whether that is a lot or a little, at times it feels like both. Obviously the quality of the game isn't determined by the quantity of text, but I'm trying to find a way to balance my time between writing and my other jobs on the game, as well as get a feel for the kind of output other writers have gotten. If I'm significantly above or below what other people tend to get, I can probably readjust my schedule to work on other things (or write more).

I guess this question is for anyone who has ever written a lot for games. Thanks!

 

[Kosmonaut]

Gonna give it a few more days to ensure that

a) there's no sudden upsurge in sales that warrants adding on things I wanted to add on if the game sold well: i.e. 2-player coop, random levels, etc.

and

b) there are no outstanding technical problems

_________________

THEN, I will dump the game's codebase out of my head and start reacquainting myself with Shelter's again.

Years wasted? Yeah. Well, some people wasted more years on cocaine. So there. Every day is a new start.

Will you disclose how much copies did you sell?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Multiple rocket-launching robots in cramped rooms? Oh really?

 

[shihonage]

Multiple rocket-launching robots in cramped rooms? Oh really?

By that point you have the room-clearing power of the NRG-8000!

... and those robots can't shoot diagonally.

Kosmonaut: Maybe.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

By that point you have the room-clearing power of the NRG-8000!

... and those robots can't shoot diagonally.

How do I use NRG-8000? When I press direction key nothing happens.

Also, I have noticed that robots can fire a rocket before they get into my line of fire when crossing corners.

 

[shihonage]

How do I use NRG-8000? When I press direction key nothing happens.

You have to have at least 40 ammo.

Also, I have noticed that robots can fire a rocket before they get into my line of fire when crossing corners.

I was hoping no one would notice that.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

You have to have at least 40 ammo.

Oh XD . I think I have only 16 ammo.

I was hoping no one would notice that.

I noticed because they very often kill me that way XD .

By the way, are enemies sometimes not being able to find their way around corners and items intentional :D ?

 

[shihonage]

Their pathfinding was never meant to exceed Wolf3D nazis. It works for this sort of game... but it does have more variety to their behaviors than Wolf3D did.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Their pathfinding was never meant to exceed Wolf3D nazis. It works for this sort of game... but it does have more variety to their behaviors than Wolf3D did.

The enemies get stuck a lot. And often they end up stuck in locations where getting to them means getting hit.

Another thing is that the difficulty is very uneven - for example for most of the first 3 parts of the game, most of the time it's banal with sudden difficulty spikes, mainly due to the cam bots behind doors or in cramped spaces. I started out on standard but very quickly changed it to the most difficult level.
I have noticed that higher difficulty levels replace some squids with greens. The problem is that greens are much slower and their damage output doesn't compensate for their slowness, so they are basically easier targets to hit that are less likely to deliver damage which makes them less difficult opponents than squids.

Now I'm stuck in the level before the last level with the rocket robots. I have noticed that on that level, there's no longer auto-saving before significant challenges. Luckily I saved game when I had to leave the tank, but it would be nice to have an autosave after entering the yellow door and before the part that is crawling with rocket bots.

 

[shihonage]

The enemies get stuck a lot. And often they end up stuck in locations where getting to them means getting hit.

You don't have to chase enemies that are not in your way. With the exception of the final boss, who has the key to the door that lets you out.

Another thing is that the difficulty is very uneven - for example for most of the first 3 parts of the game, most of the time it's banal with sudden difficulty spikes, mainly due to the cam bots behind doors or in cramped spaces. I started out on standard but very quickly changed it to the most difficult level.

Doom1/2 levels had easy areas interspersed with rooms of terror. Cyberdemon in the middle of a lake surrounded by grunt enemies, sudden rooms full of plasma spiders and cacodemons... blahblahblahHELL KNIGHT!

Having seen IRL people get confused and killed on the first level, I may have gone a bit overboard coddling the typical player who is not used to the game's unusual controls and the tile-based aiming concepts.

And yes, another guy pointed out that he only started worrying near the life extensions area in level 3. But he's also played this game extensively in alpha back in 1996 when it was written for DOS.

I would like to hear from more than just 2 people, preferably from a range of skill levels, so that some kind of statistics could be gathered.

I have noticed that higher difficulty levels replace some squids with greens. The problem is that greens are much slower and their damage output doesn't compensate for their slowness, so they are basically easier targets to hit that are less likely to deliver damage which makes them less difficult opponents than squids.

Yeah, this was a concern. I added difficulty levels not too long before release. The main thing they do is suffocate your ammo and health supply. I'll remove the squid->green conversion but will leave green->stealth conversion. Maybe suffocate it some more.

Now I'm stuck in the level before the last level with the rocket robots. I have noticed that on that level, there's no longer auto-saving before significant challenges. Luckily I saved game when I had to leave the tank, but it would be nice to have an autosave after entering the yellow door and before the part that is crawling with rocket bots.

I will look into that.

 

[Destroid]

I played the demo for a while and there was probably about 5x more health pickups than I needed. I still think the sound effects the best thing about this game, they are excellent.

 

[shihonage]

First level is littered with health on purpose. It's a glorified tutorial.

. . .

BAH, posted this under the game
" Currently looking into making highest difficulty harder, and possibly a random adventure mode."

... and the same guy who said he breezed through levels 1-3, replied:

"Harder? Holy crap! I only finished the Seasoned difficulty and the end of the game was violating me like a new guy in prison. I can only imagine how hard Reckless will be. Looking forward to it though. "

Me so confuse. Gonna leave difficulty alone for a bit and do something fresh with the random adventure mode.

 

[Niektory]

Seems you can avoid all NRG-8000 damage by ducking. Intended?

Whoa, nope. But since ducking only served one intended function (duck rockets), maybe this unintended mechanic should stay in. Unless it really breaks the game.

You also avoid rocket explosion damage if it explodes near you when you're ducking. Not sure if it's a problem, didn't really bother me.
EDIT: The NRG part might be too broken after all. You can just duck the NRG shots and the monsters will not only kill themselves but other nearby monsters too, while you're almost completely safe.

You get damaged by explosions even if you're behind a solid wall. That bothered me... until I learned to use it to my advantage.

Should bots leave blood stains? Because they do.

There are some weird things going on with controls when ducking and shooting in rapid succession.
Try this quickly: Press shoot, press duck, unpress shoot. The hero will duck, then stand up for a second, then duck again. After that unpress duck and try shooting in the same direction as before. The hero will not shoot.