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.

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.

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.

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)

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)

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.

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