Thursday 21 August 2014

Roaming Death Alpha V0.99

Update notes

Download
Google drive
game maker sandbox

Monsters
Skeleton mages now have improved pathing
More paths added

Abilities
Ice attacks now work as intended and slow more
Fire attacks now do more damage
Scientist ability 1 added but doesn't yet work as intended
Scientist ability 2 added and working
Scientist ability 7 added but currently has no functionality
Skillshots upgraded and no longer centre on the player

Environment
Torches upgraded
Day/night cycle upgraded

GUI
Bug fixed with day/night cycle
Weather GUI compacted
Day/night counter sprite upgraded

Other
Title screen upgraded as always
Chest for first quest moved
Scientist weapon added

Known bugs
Skeleton pathing still not the best
Taser doesn't go off half the time on fist try
Scientist sprites still not finished

Wednesday 20 August 2014

Dev Blog - Roaming Death Alpha V1.0 (#2)

In the last dev blog I set some goals for version 1. I released 0.98, a minor revision recently to encourage testing and soon I will release another update - version 0.99. The highlights of this new version will be the scientist abilities and the rest of the enemy pathing upgrade.

I have been developing the first scientist ability for over a week, as it is quite different from the mage's first ability. It will be a claw-like projectile attached to your weapon that sends shocks of power when it hits an enemy, basically a taser rifle.

The second scientist ability didn't take too long to make. It is a deployable shield that will block all attacks for as long as it lasts (timed).

There are also changes to the day/night cycle, torches, and more bugfixes as always.

Sunday 10 August 2014

Roaming Death Alpha V0.98

Update notes

Download here

-Monsters

tentacle beasts now have improved pathing

-Ice mage


added ability 5 (aura)slowing passive now works almost as intended (against tentacle beasts only)
-Shadow mage

added ability 5 (aura)
stealth ability added (not yet fully functional)

-Scientist


Added ability icons and more sprites, not ready to test yet.

-NPCs

trainers have been added, talk to them for advice

-Environmental

first dungeon texturing updated (not final)
more dead tree sprites added
torches turn on at night
new main room added (very empty right now)

-Bugs fixed

ice mage path speed bug
damage bug
spawner bug (they now spawn again)quest text bugs

-Known bugs

mana regen is broken (regens too fast, not game breaking just too easy)No exits for the second dungeon or the main rooms





Thursday 31 July 2014

Dev Blog - Roaming Death Alpha 1.0

Goals for Alpha v1.0

I am going to get more interaction into the game by introducing friendly NPCs. They will have creative names and you'll be able to talk to them to get advice or quests. I want to update the neglected quests with the quest screen I made to complete the first room.

Work in progress
-03/08
I got a lot of work done today. I upgraded the enemy pathing, fixed a few bugs and implemented a proto-save-feature (only saves character name for now). Although I say "upgraded" pathing, it works best in open spaces right now and with only a few enemies at a time, but it's getting there.
-04/08
Not too much done today, some sound effects have been added experimentally, and I'll add more soon.
-11/08
Decent progress, 0.98 ready for release.

Stealth

Stealth is being worked on. I made the ability for the shadow mage (number 7), and I got the basics for that working. Now I need to make the enemies react to stealth (confused, or not able to target properly), and make casting spells break your stealth.

New auras

Two new auras have been added.
The soul-stealing aura of the shadow mage does a small amount of damage and returns some health and possibly mana.
The ice defence aura of the ice mage intercepts enemy missiles with ice chunks and can have 3 chunks active at once.

Effects

Visual effects have been updated for the ice mage. I also plan to update more of the effects before v1.0.

Bug fixes

No one likes bugs. I fixed a couple of bugs that I hadn't seen earlier, or that weren't game breaking enough to get done. The ice mage's abilities no longer speed up enemy pathing, and using an ability right after an aura now does the correct amount of damage.

Thursday 24 July 2014

Roaming Death Alpha v0.96

Update notes

Download here.

-fixed typo causing an error (shadow mage)
-added new enemy, shadow cultist (recycled sprites)
-added music (non-looping for now)
-cleaned up the level text

Roaming Death Alpha V0.95

Update notes

Download here

-Monstershealth bars added
depth improved

-New GUI
stat screen added (not functional)
equipment screen added (semi-functional)power-up bar added

- XP and Level GUI
Position modified for the other classes

-All classes
added weapon sprite (staff)

-Ice mage
bugfixes

-Fire mage
no changes, still OP

-Shadow mage
bugfixes

-Light mage
bugfixes

-Scientist 
still in development, not in this version

-Ground texturing v1.1
additional textures for lava

-Environment
Level expanded
grass added
paths added

-Title screens
overhauled again

-Misc/Engine
Optimised for speed
Depth improved/fixed for more objects.
Collision boxes improved for more objects
improved skillshot aiming graphics

Not a bug
power-up bar has no effect yet (coming soon)

Known bugs

- level text placement is still bad
- Spawners don't spawn or have any effect other than granting xp
- Fire aura can create a targeting bug when it's target is destroyed before the aura attack gets to it, making it change direction and seek the next nearest target.
-Fire aura has a targeting bug making it prefer skeleton rangers, then skeleton magi, over tentacle beasts, and it will change direction if a preferred type is in range.
-Pets do not attack spawners, and currently cannot be targeted directly by enemies
-Tentacle beast pets all use fireballs


Wednesday 2 July 2014

Roaming Death Progress Update



As you can tell from the screenshot, I have added the grass decoration (with proper depth), and expanded the tutorial map somewhat. Also the grass colour has been changed to be darker.

I'm experimenting with footprints... and I have mixed results so far. They are looking good for a start but I need some way of clearing them, as they look bad after a few minutes of running around. I'll probably do that with snow, it seems to make sense.

Saturday 14 June 2014

Dev Blog - Roaming Death V0.95

In this dev blog I will document my upcoming goals for the game and my progress on the current goals. I am slowing down on development and getting a bit distracted but I am improving some of the sprites and researching some interesting things.


Sprite Upgrades


The trees are first on the list. Basically I added texture to them and changed the colour, then touched up some of the detail. Also the shadow was on the wrong side before, so that's been fixed.

Next to be updated are the mage sprites. They weren't too bad but the hood looked different from some angles and I wanted to give the robes some extra trim. I have given the light mage some cream trim, the fire mage orange trim, the shadow mage purple trim, and the ice mage a light blue
trim.

New Environments

On my to-do list are the realms of the elements so I will need more environment textures and interactive objects.

New Classes

The first new class will be the Scientist. This class will have exclusive access to advanced human technology, including computers and robots.
The second class will be the Engineer. Using this class you can build structures and weapons from different materials.
The third class will be the Hunter. The Hunter can make traps, uses long range weapons and has a unique tracking skill.
The fourth class will be the Brute. The Brute is a big character that can take a lot of punishment. This class is very strong and can move heavy objects.

AI

My AI is quite bad right now, but there is hope. There is a way to set up a grid that the AI can use for dynamic pathfinding. I'm going to attempt to utilise this function.

Sunday 25 May 2014

Roaming Death Alpha V0.9a

Update notes

Download here

-Monsters
Skeleton boss now moves again
Bigger tentacle beast added

-New GUINow shows light state
Now has a darker border
Wind speed now shown

- XP and Level GUI
Now has a darker border
Position modified

-Clouds & Wind
Wind now has a bigger range of speeds
Cloud positioning and direction changed, randomised
Clouds now improved to blend in better
Clouds no longer create a smoky effect

-Day/night cycle 
transitions modified for improved consistency

-Fire mage
Aura particle effect half as frequent
Aura sprite size halved
Aura damage lowered to 25 (from 40)
Fire spell particles now centre on sprites
Ability bar sprite now reacts to cooldown (in progress)

-Shadow mage
Aura particle effect created (aura in development)

-Light mage
7th ability added, skillshot aimer and cooldown timer
Mana regen bug fixed

-Pets-Player no longer starts with tentacle beast pet
Can now be damaged (needs work)
When they die they respawn (respawn point is strange, but it works)

-Experimental - ground texturing v1.0
New isometric ground textures for grass, lava, dark ground and snow

-Environment
Lava river reworked
New level texturing started (new realm)
objects have been added to the new realm

-Title text intensity dialed back

-Font updated on more of the GUI

-Particles for spawners
They look quite bad, but the depth fix improved them somewhat (in development)

-Misc/Engine
Optimised for speed with the help of the new Game Maker 1.3 debugger
Depth improved/fixed for many objects.
Collision boxes improved for many objects.

Known bugs

- Fire aura can create a targeting bug when it's target is destroyed before the aura attack gets to it, making it change direction and seek the next nearest target.
-Fire aura has a targeting bug making it prefer skeleton rangers, then skeleton magi, over tentacle beasts, and it will change direction if a preferred type is in range.
-Pets have a targeting issue against some skeletons, do not attack spawners, and currently cannot be targeted or damaged
-Tentacle beast pets all use fireballs



Tuesday 20 May 2014

Roaming Death Alpha V0.89

Patch notes

-New particle effects (version 1.0)
fire mage abilities
shadow mage abilities
light mage abilities (not final)
enemy abilities
torches
-New GUI for weather
-New monster sprites
-New quest interface
-Added 5th fire mage ability
aura that casts fireballs at your enemies
-Bugfixes
light mage is still the buggiest
fire mage is the best right now (OP)

Get version 0.89 here.


Monday 19 May 2014

Dev Blog - Roaming Death Alpha V0.9 (#3)


In this dev blog I will attempt to explain the things I'll be working on soon. I want to improve the game before I release the next version and I think I have found how to do it.

Particles
I have been using the built-in effects for abilities and weather so far, but they aren't very good for the abilities. A new tutorial on programming particle effects in GML means I should be able to make some of the effects look significantly better and run a lot faster than the built-in ones. I have started playing around with the particles so it shouldn't take too long.

Power-up and Weather Icons
I wrote about power-up bars in the first dev blog for this version, but I haven't done them yet. I am working on the weather icons first because they are more important.

Tuesday 6 May 2014

Dev Blog - Roaming Death Alpha V0.9 (#2)

Upgraded monster sprite.
In this dev blog I will be going over some of the things I'll be working on this month in Roaming Death. I have  bunch of improvements that will make 0.9 a better experience overall.

Quest interface

I have made the quest starting interface in photoshop, and it looks nice. I am adding it to the game to go along with the quest rewards to make quests easy to understand.

Monster upgrades

I have updated the sprites of the "eyes". I now call them "tentacle beasts", and you will be rewarded one as a pet from the first quest, which involves killing a bunch of them.

New ability icons and auras

There is a 5th fire mage ability in the game (though not fully working yet). The ability, "aura of thrombosis", shoots auto-targeting fireballs at your enemies that also lock-on. Don't expect this ability to be available at level-1 though, it is for now because I need to test it. Also I made some other ability icons like a light mage 7th ability concept- a beam of light thats splits into two smaller beams on impact, and the (shadow mage?) concept aura "aura of stagnation"- occasionally blocks an enemy hit and returns a small amount of health and power.

Major bugfixes

I fixed an important bug that was halting progress and was responsible for the view, mana regen and skillshot aimer loss bugs. I also fixed the bug that was causing the pets to stand in one spot instead of following you.

Wednesday 23 April 2014

Roaming Death Alpha V0.86

Patch notes

-Added the fourth ability for the fire mage
-Added weather system (rain/snow/wind/clouds)
-Added day/night cycle
-Added torches (lit with fire mage)
-Added a slow to the ice mage abilities
-Added difficulty icons
-Improved difficulty scaling
-Improved hp/mana GUI
-Improved title screen
-Fixed some bugs from last patch (some remain...)


Get the updated game here.


Monday 14 April 2014

Dev Blog - Roaming Death Alpha V0.9



Casual difficulty icon.

In this dev blog I will be explaining the direction that I will be going with Roaming Death, and what can be expected in the new version coming soon.

Environmental Effects

There will be a day/night cycle. I am also planning weather particle effects such as rain, snow, wind. These environmental changes will have an impact on the tactics of the game.

Power-up Bars

The bars will give extra effects to your skills, depending on the class. You can begin to power the bar by using your skills. Between 25-75% the initial buff is granted, at over 75% the buff is increased in strength significantly. For this to happen you will need to have an environmental advantage. For some examples, a fire mage gets a bonus from a windy environment, and a light mage gets a bonus in sunlight.

Difficulty changes

In the 0.8x versions I added a selection of difficulties, but I didn't do much to balance them so the higher difficulties weren't that big of a deal. I will try to balance it so newbies can learn to play and higher skill players can have a challenge.

Progress

- Day/night cycle (15/04)
- Rain particle (16/04)
- Snow particle (16/04)
- Clouds/wind (23/04)

Sunday 13 April 2014

Roaming Death V0.852 & V0.853 bugfix

Download the new (bugfixed) version here.

Download the new buggy version here.

<Edit> Bugs discovered! Please wait while bugs are squashed...
<Edit 2> Bugs successfully squashed! (the major ones that I found)

Wednesday 9 April 2014

Roaming Death Alpha V0.85

Apologies for not posting in a long time. I am still very much alive and working on new updates.
An upcoming change for Roaming Death is a brand new font designed by me, which I will also have for download.

Below are the patch notes for the current version, but I can't link it yet because the AI is still broken making advancing to the second quest almost impossible.

Patch notes

-Added a burning effect to the fire mage's abilities
-Added a lifesteal effect to the light mage's abilities
-Added inventory GUI (press I to show, inventory not yet functional)
-Added coin GUI that displays when collecting coins and when I is pressed
-Added 6-difficulty selection (casual/normal/evil/maniacal/unbalanced/impossible)
-Added pets/minions (experimental)
-Added sprite for dead skeletons
-Added loot bags (3 variations) that contain coins
-Added range indicators to enemies (when hovered over),
and spawners (when walked into for the first time)
-Reworked all mage class player sprites
-Reworked all skeleton sprites
-Reworked health and mana GUI
-Reworked menu background
-Reworked buttons and fonts
-Reworked XP bar and tutorial text (still not perfect)
-Reworked mana pickup (sprite + effect)
-Improved grave sprites
-Improved AI (still not very good)
-Improved light mage projectile sprite
-Improved subclass select button for ice mage

More notes will be added soon, along with screenshots and download link.

Tuesday 11 February 2014

Dev Blog - Roaming Death Alpha V0.85 (#3)

A lot of new features added with this version. I was thinking of posting the update on the 10th, but it still needs a bit of work so I'll do it in a few days. There is a preview with most of the new features available now.

I experimented with pets for a while, and almost got them working but they will not be in the 0.85 game.

I added sprites for defeated skeletons, and added randomised loot-bags for drops in 3 variants: common, uncommon, rare. I also made a money system, but it is not in this preview as I need to put in the GUI for it.

Get the 0.85 preview

Wednesday 5 February 2014

Skeptic Master Alpha V0.2a


Get the new version here.

Patch notes

- Added in-depth dialogues (v1.0)
- Upgraded naming system and categorisation (v1.0)
- Improved title screen etc.

It may not look like much but this is actually a major update.

Tuesday 4 February 2014

Dev Blog - Roaming Death Alpha V0.85

A much needed patch for Roaming Death is coming soon... next week in fact. I've been making steady improvements today, so the following will be a brief list and discussion.

- Health and mana GUI rework (again)

Yes I have improved it again. This time it will have a nice textured look to it, and a border that isn't glitchy. Even the accuracy of the circles, and the font have been updated.

- Ability GUI border added

The abilities were looking pretty plain and boring, and there was a gap for the ones that haven't been made yet, so now there will be a background and border for the whole ability bar.

- Font and button touch-ups

The main menu buttons were terrible I admit, so I fixed that little problem and tidied up the font so it all looks the same.

- Improved menu background (again)

Speaks for itself this one... I improved it with some more gradient tool.

ETA on this update is 10th February, so I'll see what else I can get done this week and do another Dev blog if needed.

Monday 3 February 2014

Dev Blog - Skeptic Master v0.2a

Some very significant changes coming to Skeptic Master soon as I approach version 0.2a. Lets go over some of the improvements in the latest alpha test.

- Added NPC categorization, which improves naming and adds variety

There are now 4 distinct types of person to talk to, each with unique (hidden) stats that change their behavior. More types planned for future updates. I have also added many new names and removed some of the old ones.

-  Improved topics and topic selection

More topics and more in-depth dialogue for topics, custom topics for different types of person. Different sources for topics coming next patch.

Skeptic Master V0.2a ETA: Feb 4-5

Thursday 23 January 2014

Skeptic Master 2014 V0.1a Screenshots & Demo

I finally have a demo to show! (.exe, windows only)
Here's a link to the HTML5 version (only use if not running windows)



Dev Blog - Update

I have been experimenting with backgrounds in photoshop for the menus and screens in the game and I'm happy with the results so far, just a bit more tinkering and I'll have a demo ready. 

I still need to clean up some graphics and add the leveling system.  Although it will be a text based game I want to make the few graphics I have look good.

Sunday 19 January 2014

Dev Blog - Update

-19/01/14
My new text-based project has been started and some initial progress has been made. It is not yet ready for a first alpha v0.1 demo, but maybe it will be soon.
If this project is successful, I can reuse the code to add better dialogues to roaming death or any other project I may start.

-20/01/14
More progress, some GUI added, it is starting to get some interaction but still quite dull so far. More work needed to get a demo that is playable. First screenshots on the way once more progress has been made.

-21/01/14
I ended up getting quite a bit done last night, and I continue to make progress today. The latest noteworthy feature is the quote system I added to the title screen. It shows a random skeptical quote from the ones I have put in it's database (around 20 so far) at startup, with a button to reroll for another one.

Wednesday 1 January 2014

Dev Blog - Update

I have been thinking about the future of my game engine and some fresh ideas for games...
I may or may not continue to develop Roaming Death in the future, but I will be making more games soon using some of the same code.

I was running out of steam with Roaming Death, as I couldn't really animate the sprites without making them all 3d models and taking screenshots (that is what I would need to do if I wanted to continue the project later). I tried working with 3d modelling but I am really useless at it and as with a lot of things the best software is far too expensive.

The main idea right now is an educational topic in the strategy-simulation genre. The player must confront a believer of some sort of nonsense, and convince them to re-examine their belief. This would be a text-based game with lots of dialogue, but much more realistic in scope than a fully animated ARPG. More details in future dev blogs as I start development.

I have other ideas but first things first.