...there was the last blog update.
Interesting. The name of the game in Development is "Beyond the End". So true for the current state of the project.
It has gone trough end at least twice already. Every single time ended in "Development hell".
We are stubborn enough to restart this project once again. This time it will be delivered.
Why am I so sure about it?
We no longer gamedev fresh meat we were years ago. This project brought us to professional game development and now we have finished projects behind the belt.
The craft of game design is no longer a pure magic art we the are masters of. ^_^
Fun fact, the more you know the more humble you are.
Back in the days we were knew that we were doing everything right, however we literally were "..busy idiots, working hard in the wrong places" (Tynan Sylvester "Designing Games" 2013).
Understanding the limitations of our knowledge is top priority for game developers.
Okay, enough for today. I don't think I'll keep updating this blog religiously, at least until playable version is ready. We will see.
Procedurally generated roguelike rpg set in the underground world waking up after a major catastrophe.
Apr 13, 2020
Nov 28, 2016
Art Report #4 - Mechanowizard Archetype
Hey everyone,
Presenting Mechanowizard and her Hog Automaton today:
This cunning technician focuses on Mechanowizardry Discipline, opening the following options to her:
- Construct a trusty Automaton from selected material - mundane stuff like Wood and Stone on lower levels and experimental things like Living Fire, Frost Crystals and Wild Mana on higher levels (who knows what abilities he will have from those materials ;)
- Quickly assemble a Lighting Turret which fires piercing bolts which can help a lot with hordes of enemies, but can also accidentally hit the player if he's not careful with his positioning. On higher levels of this ability the player can swap positions with existing Turret.
- Tactically Reset Cooldowns on some of her abilities when needed.
As usual, some sketches from the design process:
1) Initial ideas:
2) Hog automaton design:
3) More or less final option...
4) Which i decided to spice up with more interesting gadgets:
Of course, all of those cool items and weapons will be obtainable ingame :3
See you next time for a Thermosorcerer archetype sneak peak.
Presenting Mechanowizard and her Hog Automaton today:
This cunning technician focuses on Mechanowizardry Discipline, opening the following options to her:
- Construct a trusty Automaton from selected material - mundane stuff like Wood and Stone on lower levels and experimental things like Living Fire, Frost Crystals and Wild Mana on higher levels (who knows what abilities he will have from those materials ;)
- Quickly assemble a Lighting Turret which fires piercing bolts which can help a lot with hordes of enemies, but can also accidentally hit the player if he's not careful with his positioning. On higher levels of this ability the player can swap positions with existing Turret.
- Tactically Reset Cooldowns on some of her abilities when needed.
As usual, some sketches from the design process:
1) Initial ideas:
2) Hog automaton design:
3) More or less final option...
4) Which i decided to spice up with more interesting gadgets:
Of course, all of those cool items and weapons will be obtainable ingame :3
See you next time for a Thermosorcerer archetype sneak peak.
Nov 22, 2016
Art Report #3 - Steam Knight Archetype
Hello,
Steam Knight archetype is here:
This mighty warrior focused mostly on the Steam Power Discipline which allows him to:
- Overpower and push enemies around into disadvantageous positions and even pick them up and throw them in the nearby chasm/spiked wall/fire.
- Quickly Charge in the midst of battle, crushing everyone around him or Charge away from the battle when things get nasty (it's not a retreat, it's a tactical regrouping!)
- Parry enemy swings, counterattacking them in the moment of weakness and even reflecting enemy bullets and projectiles back at them!
Also don't forget that players are free to mix and match Abilities from all Disciplines, so for example you can make a Steam Power/Necrochemistry monster who overdoses on mutagens and rips everyone apart in melee.
For those who are interested in the design process:
1) First of all i had these designs after my course with Anthony Jones:
2) Like with Necrochemist before, i decided to repeat the process to test what i've learned, starting with the rough pen silhouettes:
3) And once i've decided with the general design, i experimented with the color schemes, selecting the "rusty" one (A) and rendering out til the end, changing it in the process to the more orange-looking armor rather than brownish rust:
Next on the line is Mechanowizard archetype and her trusty automaton companion.
Steam Knight archetype is here:
This mighty warrior focused mostly on the Steam Power Discipline which allows him to:
- Overpower and push enemies around into disadvantageous positions and even pick them up and throw them in the nearby chasm/spiked wall/fire.
- Quickly Charge in the midst of battle, crushing everyone around him or Charge away from the battle when things get nasty (it's not a retreat, it's a tactical regrouping!)
- Parry enemy swings, counterattacking them in the moment of weakness and even reflecting enemy bullets and projectiles back at them!
Also don't forget that players are free to mix and match Abilities from all Disciplines, so for example you can make a Steam Power/Necrochemistry monster who overdoses on mutagens and rips everyone apart in melee.
For those who are interested in the design process:
1) First of all i had these designs after my course with Anthony Jones:
2) Like with Necrochemist before, i decided to repeat the process to test what i've learned, starting with the rough pen silhouettes:
3) And once i've decided with the general design, i experimented with the color schemes, selecting the "rusty" one (A) and rendering out til the end, changing it in the process to the more orange-looking armor rather than brownish rust:
Next on the line is Mechanowizard archetype and her trusty automaton companion.
Nov 16, 2016
Art Report #2 - Necrochemist Archetype
Hey everyone!
We've been busy working over at our Trello board and neglected this blog for quite a while - time to change this.
We'll explain our revamped rpg system a bit later (since it's currently under heavy debates), but what's certain is that it will be mostly classless and players will be free to pick Abilities from any Discipline as they build their character. Disciplines are merely a groups of similarly themed abilities ranked by their power and EXP cost. Today i want to show you how the character who pursued the Necrochemistry Discipline might end up looking like:
Some of Necrochemistry abilities include:
- Spraying Toxins and creating deadly pools of acid to limit enemies movement
- Spawning Corpsesauruses from dead enemies. Type of summon depends on the type of the corpse, so you might get Fanged Corpsesauruses from dead wolves, Poisoned Corpsesauruses from toxic bodies, etc
- Unleashing Confusing Gas to disorient enemies and even force them to attack each other
Here's my design process for her:
First of all, i had these sketches from a mentorship course with Anthony Jones (highly recommended btw):
That's where i learned a LOT about the nuances of the design process - before that i was doing it in a semi-random way, without giving to much thought about the PURPOSE of elements and design PRINCIPLES like Balance (having a busy parts full of details contrasted by very light detail free parts so the eyes of the viewer can rest) and Unity (having a number of repeating elements/patterns throughout the design). As a challenge i decided to repeat the design process completely by myself. I started with lots of super rough silhouettes, focusing on an insect/creepy/toxic themes:
Afterwards i picked up the ones that looked interesting and developed them into simple sketches:
Initially i went for the Ratlike option:
But eventually switched to the Spiderlike variant because:
1) There will be ratlike race inhabiting the world so i wanted to avoid overlapping themes
2) For illustration purposes we needed more ranged heroes because we already had enough melee guys (you'll see them in the following days)
3) I instantly fell in love with the idea that Necrochemists use partly hollow shell of an insect as their backpack/exoskeleton. They are manipulating it by sending electroshock impulses to the insect's nerve system and forcing it to move its limbs to help reload a rifle or slash nearby enemies
Even though i really liked the Syringe Spear from the first sketches, i needed a cool and appropriate looking gun for the Spiderlike design:
With colors i focused on the idea that Necrochemists are both creepy/dealing with toxic things (green), and are usually found in the upper echelons of society (golden) - i'll eventually address how this works out in a later City post.
Hope this looks interesting enough and tomorrow i'll share a Steam Knight archetype.
Have a great day!
We've been busy working over at our Trello board and neglected this blog for quite a while - time to change this.
We'll explain our revamped rpg system a bit later (since it's currently under heavy debates), but what's certain is that it will be mostly classless and players will be free to pick Abilities from any Discipline as they build their character. Disciplines are merely a groups of similarly themed abilities ranked by their power and EXP cost. Today i want to show you how the character who pursued the Necrochemistry Discipline might end up looking like:
Some of Necrochemistry abilities include:
- Spraying Toxins and creating deadly pools of acid to limit enemies movement
- Spawning Corpsesauruses from dead enemies. Type of summon depends on the type of the corpse, so you might get Fanged Corpsesauruses from dead wolves, Poisoned Corpsesauruses from toxic bodies, etc
- Unleashing Confusing Gas to disorient enemies and even force them to attack each other
Here's my design process for her:
First of all, i had these sketches from a mentorship course with Anthony Jones (highly recommended btw):
That's where i learned a LOT about the nuances of the design process - before that i was doing it in a semi-random way, without giving to much thought about the PURPOSE of elements and design PRINCIPLES like Balance (having a busy parts full of details contrasted by very light detail free parts so the eyes of the viewer can rest) and Unity (having a number of repeating elements/patterns throughout the design). As a challenge i decided to repeat the design process completely by myself. I started with lots of super rough silhouettes, focusing on an insect/creepy/toxic themes:
Afterwards i picked up the ones that looked interesting and developed them into simple sketches:
Initially i went for the Ratlike option:
But eventually switched to the Spiderlike variant because:
1) There will be ratlike race inhabiting the world so i wanted to avoid overlapping themes
2) For illustration purposes we needed more ranged heroes because we already had enough melee guys (you'll see them in the following days)
3) I instantly fell in love with the idea that Necrochemists use partly hollow shell of an insect as their backpack/exoskeleton. They are manipulating it by sending electroshock impulses to the insect's nerve system and forcing it to move its limbs to help reload a rifle or slash nearby enemies
Even though i really liked the Syringe Spear from the first sketches, i needed a cool and appropriate looking gun for the Spiderlike design:
With colors i focused on the idea that Necrochemists are both creepy/dealing with toxic things (green), and are usually found in the upper echelons of society (golden) - i'll eventually address how this works out in a later City post.
Hope this looks interesting enough and tomorrow i'll share a Steam Knight archetype.
Have a great day!
Oct 7, 2015
Architecture Over Hacking
Okay, okay! I was saying it to myself and anybody else for many many times:
Don't code when you are tired or worse, exhausted. Don't code if you don't imagine final result in your mind! Spend as much time as you need for figuring out the architecture then you may code for few minutes (yes, it happens sometimes).
It doesn't mean you always get unworking code, sure not, but.. well.
For example, I have 'map validation routines'. This code is stable, relatively fast, but I sweat every single time I have to look into it. Better keep it untouched, 'Legacy Code' as it is. Except, it is Your legacy code. ^_^
The same thing happened.
If you check our Trello board you can find that I am adding Z levels to global map storage, so game can track your travels to slums, generate them and so on.
At first, I thought: 'ah. easy task, do it on fly '.
You think what?
What?
Chicken butt!
Come on, I have been coding it until understood: I am going veeery wrong way. I made an attempte to hack a way and add a record with a dynamic array to every game location.
Ugh. bad idea! It was hard to work with even during current work! What about halve of a year later? Huh?
Yeah. Take a deep inhale, delete you crappy code and think about Architecture!
Think first, Constantine!
PS
Current task:
Class that will push new levels into self, give them to game and report errors!
Simple and elegant.
Do it!
Oct 1, 2015
Art Report #1 - Scavenger Union
Hey guys!
I've just finished the Scavenger Union design, narrowly evading the Lazy Snail that Konstantin sent for me, so let me share what i've done so far (click on the images to see the bigger version with details).
First of all, welcome to the City:
Here the humans hid during the Catastrophe and survived, sealing themselves from the rest of the world. A lot of time have passed, the resources in the City became extremely sparse and it was decided to finally open the gates and explore the world beyond.
For that purpose, the Scavenger Union was created:
Since there was an overpopulation in the City and food supplies were becoming smaller and smaller, the government created a new institution - Scavenger Union, tasked with exploring the world outside, bringing back useful resources, exploring good places for the mushroom farms and slowly filling map of the world.
Once a person decides to join the Union, he is given some small starting items and is sent on a specific mission to the outer world. Because this job is extremely risky (most of the members die horribly on their first mission), but there is a small chance of getting insane rewards and money by finding an Old World Artifact like a functioning machine or even an abandoned Factory, it become very popular among the poorest people of the City, who would otherwise just die of starvation.
The Union uses rank system for their members - the competition between the lower ranks is severe, even to the point where some malicious members can kill their competitors in the Outer World, just so they'll have a higher chance to find the Artifacts and bring them back.
The higher ranks on the contrary, consists of reputable gentlemen who managed to survive a lot of trips Outside and became a veterans. It's very hard to get into their ranks, but once you are in, you'll be given a lot more lucrative jobs and have an access to the Union's Quartermaster who sells unique items for reputation points.
The player begins as a newly joined member of the Union, ready to prove himself to the world and find riches beyond imagination!
Here are some props that i designed for the interior of the Union:
And here is the final design of the 1st floor, where the lowest members of the Union hang out, receive missions from the Manager and discuss their recent adventures while sipping cheap beer (other floors will be available in later versions):
Next in the plan is the concepts of the City Street and the Slums (which will be our first dungeon). Hopefully the world that we designed will be interesting to explore and atmospheric enough to be immersed in it :3
Thanks for reading and see you in the next Art Report!
Vadim
I've just finished the Scavenger Union design, narrowly evading the Lazy Snail that Konstantin sent for me, so let me share what i've done so far (click on the images to see the bigger version with details).
First of all, welcome to the City:
 |
| For the next version we are focusing on only one small district, fully filled with content. But in later versions you'll be able to fully explore the City, the world beyond it and maybe even other surviving Cities. |
For that purpose, the Scavenger Union was created:
 |
| We decided to go with the first option in the bottom row. |
Once a person decides to join the Union, he is given some small starting items and is sent on a specific mission to the outer world. Because this job is extremely risky (most of the members die horribly on their first mission), but there is a small chance of getting insane rewards and money by finding an Old World Artifact like a functioning machine or even an abandoned Factory, it become very popular among the poorest people of the City, who would otherwise just die of starvation.
The Union uses rank system for their members - the competition between the lower ranks is severe, even to the point where some malicious members can kill their competitors in the Outer World, just so they'll have a higher chance to find the Artifacts and bring them back.
The higher ranks on the contrary, consists of reputable gentlemen who managed to survive a lot of trips Outside and became a veterans. It's very hard to get into their ranks, but once you are in, you'll be given a lot more lucrative jobs and have an access to the Union's Quartermaster who sells unique items for reputation points.
The player begins as a newly joined member of the Union, ready to prove himself to the world and find riches beyond imagination!
Here are some props that i designed for the interior of the Union:
And here is the final design of the 1st floor, where the lowest members of the Union hang out, receive missions from the Manager and discuss their recent adventures while sipping cheap beer (other floors will be available in later versions):
 |
| Welcome to the Union! Take a mission, drink some beer for the bravery - and good luck! |
Next in the plan is the concepts of the City Street and the Slums (which will be our first dungeon). Hopefully the world that we designed will be interesting to explore and atmospheric enough to be immersed in it :3
Thanks for reading and see you in the next Art Report!
Vadim
Sep 25, 2015
Weekly report
As I mentioned in a previous post, we have finished save/ load map routines and it took more time than I planed. Doh..
From other hand, it is done, at end of all and future client/server routines will not be so hard to implement, because we will have main architecture done already.
What does it mean to you as a player? Well, you will return to exact level you left instead of new one.
After such an Epic goal I started another epic one, quest mechanism.Quests can break your game with ease, so I spent more time developing architecture then actually coding.
It is obvious idea, well, it would be great if got it couple of years ago. ^_^
Basic quest interface is ready and the next step is creature ranks in groups.
Once it is done you will get this tutorial 'Talk to Master of Scavengers Guild' quest!
From other hand, it is done, at end of all and future client/server routines will not be so hard to implement, because we will have main architecture done already.
What does it mean to you as a player? Well, you will return to exact level you left instead of new one.
After such an Epic goal I started another epic one, quest mechanism.Quests can break your game with ease, so I spent more time developing architecture then actually coding.
It is obvious idea, well, it would be great if got it couple of years ago. ^_^
Basic quest interface is ready and the next step is creature ranks in groups.
Once it is done you will get this tutorial 'Talk to Master of Scavengers Guild' quest!
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