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

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.

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

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.

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.

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