Automon
Automon Arena Steam Page
Automon Arena - progress update #2
Following up on the follow up on the Automon Arena announcement, I'm here again to convince you to get excited or at least mildly less indifferent
First I'll remind you that the game is already publicly playable at the Itch page. In fact, I released a new version few days ago, so you can experience all the new bugs I added!
You can also join the Discord to visit it once per quarter to see how the game is going and get disappointed that I didn't add lootboxes yet. Or follow me on Twitter or BlueSky to see some low-res gifs regularly.
So what's new this time? Many things! At least 2!
Most graphics are now different ("better" is too strong of a word here)!
There are now bots you can play against! If you play solo, the timer is disabled so it's like the original Automon, but with less features!
The bots aren't smarter than players, but they know to use Automons with matching types to get bonuses, and to send out ones that are strong against the enemy. They will also collect duplicates for upgrades AND when facing players, they will try to guess what the opponent will send out and make decisions based on that!
On a second thought, that does sound smarter than players
There is now a proper tutorial when playing against bots, featuring your favourite Professor Jitters!
(Oh yeah and the gyms now give out badges like they did in original Automon, I'm too lazy to record a gif of this (NOT because I tried to but lost before reaching a gym!) so you'll have to trust me on this one)
Yeah but when game?
Next steps are:
- Keep working on how the game looks and use a tazer on myself whenever I want to add gameplay features
- Get splash art and set up a Steam page
- Install spyware on game publishers' computers then blackmail them into giving me money
- Release the game either for very cheap or completely free with microtransactions added later, probably in Early Access but that's still up in the air
- Keep working on it until either I die or the game dies
I would estimate maybe August for the release if finding a publisher doesn't take forever, otherwise probably later but still this year
Automon Arena - progress update #1
Following up on the Automon Arena announcement, I'd like to talk about what's done, what's coming and why.
So, first of all, if you want to be up to date on all of this, you can join the Discord or follow me on Twitter or BlueSky
But if you want to be extremely out of the loop and only read these updates once every 3 months, be my guest.
So, without further aDON'T, newsworthy stuff:
The game is already publicly playable, and will remain so forever, at the Itch page. You can set up a game with your friends, or if you have none, bots. Though there is no tutorial so prior knowledge of the Automon is recommended.
I will try to set up a Steam page for Automon Arena sometime at the beginning of next year, to allow for more organic player growth through Steam. Ideally I'd like the game to look a bit better before that happens.
Some fun stuff to show how the game plays etc:
1. I actually got an artist instead of drawing in MS Paint with a mouse this time. Look at them!
2. Area navigation is completely different compared to original Automon - there's now a big shared map, and all players move at the same time. It's turn based so when going up against players, the game will proceed only when everyone selected their areas
3. To have a PvP fight, you need to physically find other players by going to the same areas as them (going towards each other also triggers a fight). You can see the other player's party, but you don't know what they'll actually pick for their team. But that goes both ways! Great opportunity for mind games.
Players have limited lives before they're out of the game, and PvP is a great way to murder someone out of the game completely
4. There are boss areas where you'll face a challenging mono-typed NPC. Just like fighting players, you won't know their team composition and it's selected by AI smart enough to consider your team's weaknesses in their choices (but not smart enough to arrange their team sensically... for now)
Why would you fight them? For now, just for fun because I didn't implement a reason yet.
(The plan is for these gyms to give out badges, similar to the original game, that boost your team in some way. Also, I'm considering the possibility of having a "Champion" area in the middle of the map, which requires a certain number of badges to enter, but will allow players to face a superboss (and the Pretty Good Three) and win the game by beating it, as an alternate win condition)
Have a Merry Christmas, and see you on Discord (or back here in 3 months I guess?)
Automon Arena now in development
You thought no one was listening when you were praying more Automon. What you didn't know is that I bugged your house. I heard everything. I heard you gasping just now, in fact.
Since the first Automon has reached its peak, with its impeccable graphics and award-winning gameplay, I thought the best course of action is to make a multiplayer sequel. After all, multiplayer games are notoriously easy to make, and that's why indies do them all the time.
So here's the current situation: you can download the first public alpha (and all subsequent alphas) at the itch page and just play against random people (or yourself with 2 instances of the game) with random teams. Are you excited yet?
You should also know that I plan on constantly engage with the community on the (long overdue) Discord server. I'll be posting development progress, discussing the game's direction, taking feedback, posting suggestive artwork of Angrus and more! You can also talk about the first Automon or that other game I made on the server.
And for you Steam maniacs, the Steam page will come a bit later, as soon as the game can be considered "good enough" to be shown here, with proper splash art and all that cool stuff.
See ya, nerds!
Automon soundtrack now available on YouTube!
Here is the soundtrack in all of its glory!
You can now listen to your favourite tracks without all the hassle of actually composing a team and reaching that one part where the music goes really hard but only for like a minute before that's how long the fight lasts
Let me know which track is your favourite! I always liked Pretty Good Three theme the most, it hits really hard when you just made it through Winning Way and now it's time to really focus and make your choices carefully.
Also check the social media of the composer(s):
www.rafaeltorres.mus.br
Instagram: @rafaeltorres.mus
Rafael composed nearly the whole soundtrack and is also composing the soundtrack for my next game, One Armed Bandit. He's great to work with and I can't recommend him enough
"Vs. You" guest track for when you are fighting against that really good run you had and it's really hopeless because how are you meant to beat a 2-star Eelergy, was composed by MammothPlant
SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/mammothplantarchive
Twitter/X: https://x.com/mammothplant
MammothPlant is working on his own game where he also makes the music himself, so check out Mirrored Soul. He also composed a few tracks for Pokemon Clover, which was one of major inspirations behind Automon
Well, back to the coal mines. See you in 2028 which is when I'll announce a physical release on Nintendo Grab (yeah they really called it that)
Trading Cards!
Okay, fine. The least I can do is show the emotes you can get through trading cards!
ːautomonsweatyː
ːautomoncuteː
ːautomonscreamː
ːautomonwinkː
ːautomonchillː
Update 1.3.6 released
Winrate is slightly better this time, 30 wins in 1226 runs. Poison is still a major run-ender. Also, a lot of wins were literally just Fironek swiping everything start to end.
Bosses:
- Boga now has lower difficulty (effectively means that his Automons will have a lower level than other bosses)
Automon Changes:
- Rockover: HP and SPD buffed
- Chompice: HP and ATK buffed
- Clamity: HP buffed
- Octazer: DEF buffed
- Coralgae: HP and Ability buffed
- Fironek: HP nerfed
- Eelergy: HP nerfed
Update 1.3.5 released
Bug Fixes:
- Game crashing when you right click a box after starting a new game
- A debug function existing in the game, allowing for any amount of items to be spawned at will (don't you wish you found it before the update?)
- Items overflowing when an item is put in the inventory through evolution or release of an Automon
Other:
- Items are now destroyed by being put in the Release box. Right clicking does not delete them anymore
- Any Autodox progress made to Nodyel will now also apply to Adyel
- The achievement to reduce enemy speed by 70% will not trigger against a Regibig anymore
Update 1.3.4 released
Primarily the fact that since the Automonniversary update, there were 3803 runs and 21 of them were wins.
Yeah.
Some fun facts from data analysis:
- Out of all Elite Three members, Joseph is the biggest run-ender, followed by Barry, Sadist, Brash/Yolo and finally, Misha with measly 5 runs
- Pengloom, Ivytant, Tongo, Pelifin and Paravour are top 5 overall run-enders.
- There's a general trend of Poison and Rock ending runs very early, especially in Area 10
- Adyel is the most popular Automon, apparently. Only 16 Nodyels existed in the 3803 analysed runs. This would mean only 16 people ever played Swole You, which is a laughably low number
Below are all balance changes in this patch. Mostly inspired but the analysis, but some oddball hunch-based changes too.
General:
- All defeated Automons now award 45 more Exp
(For transparency, the exp formula is (enemyLevel * enemyLevel + bonusExp), where bonusExp was previously 30 and is now 75
Type bonuses:
- Grass bonus from (Tier
- 2 + 2) to (Tier
- 2.5 + 2.5) HP per hit
- Electric bonus from Tier
- 2 to Tier
- 2.5
- Rock Bonus from Tier
- 1 + 1 to Tier
- 1
- Poison bonus from Tier
- 0.75 to Tier
- 0.6
Automon Changes:
- Chilock: ATK and SPD buffed
- Eatoad: HP and SPD buffed
- Torrupt: HP and DEF buffed, ATK nerfed
- Clamity: ATK buffed
- Ramblast: Ability buffed
- Armorillo: ATK and DEF buffed
- Adyel: ATK, DEF, SPD buffed
- Ladybuff: SPD nerfed
- Pelifin: HP and DEF nerfed
- Pengloom: Ability nerfed
- Eelergy: HP, SPD and Ability nerfed
- Coralgae: ATK and DEF nerfed
- Butterage: DEF nerfed
1.3.3 released
Bug fixes:
- Geldya applying copied abilities twice if they're "when battle starts" abilities
- Noskop freezing the game when it commits suicide by attacking (hits Magmelt or has Cactus for example)
- Items getting deleted out of existence when switching or evolving when inventory is full