Crawlyard
Crawling with developers đź”´ Side B
We welcome all to a Next Fest stream where the Pigeon Eye studio members will present an updated demo and will try to pass the unsurmountable game tutorial.
And we hope the next stream will go smoothly (not like the last one, ha)!
So, jump in, say Hi and let's crawl together!
Crawlyard Crawling with developers đź”´ Side A
So, jump in, say Hi and let's crawl together!
More focused battle encounters - Devlog #7
How could this broken shell of a man, barely able to carry the weight of his own sword, be the Burning Terror which drove me to hide here? He seemed to have Demons of his own, that he struggled to contain... and he was losing.
Changes to the battle system
We’ve made a complete overhaul of Crawlyard's battle encounters. Before, it felt like a hybrid of Vampire Survivors and Loop Hero, but now it’s more like Hadean Tactics. What I mean by that is that each encounter now has its own battle zone, borders and enemies, all happening within the stage of your chosen performance.
Basically, we aimed to arrive at a seamless transition between exploration and skirmish like you'd see in modern JRPGs. Each battle is a pretty much consistent experience and enemies won’t spawn totally randomly (well, there's still a hint of randomness within specific conditions). Here, a fancy gif where I'm using battle brushes to create a zone for the next battle encounter.
Mapping out a death zone in sleepy dorms
Encounter system
So I was talking about randomness, right? Well, our encounters aren’t exactly fixed - each time you visit a stage and engage in one of its battles, there's a tiny invisible counter that goes up by one. The higher the value of that counter is, the more new random enemies we add to this encounter's list, until it reaches a pretty round number like 10 or 100, and then you’ll have such a wide roster of enemies that it might indeed seem random (but not totally random still).
Better yet, each encounter adapts to your class, level and build. Even if you make a Knight build that's really good for dueling single foes, I will make sure that at some point a hoard of lesser enemies with a poison attribute will spawn at once, and you’ll have to improvise, adapt and overcome.
So, no steamrolling dungeons with a meta build, but I promise you WILL have a good time you little munchkin bastards.
Is it a roguelike already?
I like to have some kind of adaptive randomness. Things need to be spicy and interesting with you guys, because once you figure out a winning strategy you’ll get bored with the game. Making the game adapt to current circumstances is a good way to keep you engaged (and die, a lot, which I like, a lot).
And as much as I would love to just delegate every decision to some randomizing algorithm, I can't deny the pleasure or torturing you guys. Thinking about you suffering in those encounters is a thing that keeps me alive and motivated, which is what you want from your favourite developer.
Should I talk about the new navigation system in the next devlog? Or about our roguelite progression? Or both? Let me know in the comments or nudge me in Crawlyard Discord.
Anyways, wait for the new demo for Steam Next Fest: October Edition - we will be there.
Until next time, your one and only
Vovun-Bubblegum, game designer.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1637560/Crawlyard/
Devlog #6 - Going fully Isometric
So people are starting to notice the change and it's time to tell about it properly.
Yes, we changed the visual look of the game.
I know a lot of people like Crawlyard for its cartoony and simplistic graphics. But the truth is, most of it were graphical assets from the Unity store, which is not really our level - we can do so much more.
There's also always not enough assets there either way, we need a lot of out custom graphics to use it as an element of environmental storytelling. I guess now you can say that 70% of visuals is fully made by our 3D modellers.
After the October's demo we also wanted to make the visuals more theatrical. What I mean by this is that all of the objects on scenes would be made out of cardboard or paper, clouds would hang on the threads from the ceiling, and the floor would always be made of wood.
But when we tried it out, we quickly understood that this style of visuals will always be perceived by players as a very "niche" game, and that's not really the direction we want to undertake. While our first priority is to make a deckbuilder that would surprise the fans of the genre, we also want to make this game as approachable as it could be. That means going with safe, but solid directions in terms of visual style.
We also changed camera perspective to isometric as it allows for more depth and more space covered by the camera, so battle arenas become larger and thus open more possibilities during combat. The Break Distance card, that every one of you hated in the demo, now works way better with this camera view.
Really curious to hear what people that tried the demo think and feel about the new game's visuals.
Cheers, I'm out. See ya in the next one.
--
Always yours, Crawlyard's game designer.
Devlog #5 - Sinister Laboratory
Fleshing out the game
We are currently focusing on polishing our new "dungeon" system, performances, and revamping card and progression mechanics. Performance production actually consists of several steps going in strict order: first, we have the general structure and lore background suggested by the writer, and then our game design team develops interesting mechanics to go along with it.
Graphics, music and sound come next, and the levels are brought together by proper lighting and asset placement. Although we're still running regular playtests to make sure the levels stay engaging from start to finish.
Check out Sinister Laboratory (Mad Lab for short), the Victorian-themed performance we completed first!
Style and substance
Our 3D team has recently finished making original assets for Crumbling Temple, one of our "ancient" performances that refer to an older period in the game world's history. This adventure is styled around tomb raiding, and you will have to evaluate your risks carefully while you're trying to escape the decaying ruins. The more treasures you decide to carry with you, the trickier it becomes to leave the temple alive.
Design works
And our concepters are gradually moving further, preparing initial 2D art for a story set in a completely different "biome": Abyssal Train will make you fight your way through several carts filled with cultists and technodemons. The train has no breaks but neither do we, so get your tickets and hop on board!
Afterword
That’d be all. The mansion and its inhabitants are slowly being worked on in the shadows, too, so we will be sure to give you another update on them soon.
As always, you can join our Discord to chat about the game and get sneak peeks into the development process. Everyone is welcome!
Your one and only, not so mysterious game designer.
Watch Crawlyard team stream the game development
They will stream Crawlyard development process, show the updates coming to the game's demo including new visual look and gameplay mechanics, discuss the state of roguelike deckbuilders genre and much more!
The stream will on the game page
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1637560/Crawlyard/
Crawlyard participates in Women's Day Steam Event
Crawlyard dev team is thrilled to participate in Women's Day Steam Event!
Women-led studios are behind some of the most creative, popular & unique games on Steam.
With over 200 games made by women-led studios, this Event features games from developers all over the world, with demos and discounts on select titles, plus previews of soon-to-be released games.
Meet and say Hi to Daria, our lead narrative designer, and Vovun, the gameplay designer! They will stream the game, discuss the development process and the future of the deckbuilding games.
Something to perk you up
So what is a perk in Crawlyard?
Well, I assume you all know what the general idea of perk is, but in general, now you acquire action points (basically this is exp, but we wanted to be fancy) and spend it on perks. What can they do?
Everything!
Mostly they give you new cards, cause I want to ditch the bored to death “get 1 of 3 cards after each battle” mechanic. But they also can give you passive abilities (i.e. you deal fire attacks on low HP or get bonus armor for each point of damage you get). They also can change cards behavior, and even remove and upgrade cards in your deck. They can give you items, and change the gameplay mechanics in general. And we’re going to unleash our internal creative demons designing the perks.
And how interesting perks are going to be?
Well, it depends. We want them to be your general progress meter and make your puppet grow with time spent in the dungeons. Perks will replace attribute growth, so perks can also raise your stats, like health, damage, speed, etc.
For now, we are only sure about the general outline and possibilities the perks can give you. We throw in ideas about it, but it’s more about testing and figuring out the best ones. And also don’t forget about balancing all of that to keep the gameplay fun and hardcore - you should get more powerful with perks but not too much, or else challenges you face will become too hollow and dull.
So wait, now you upgrade perks now instead of stats?
Yeah, that’s what we’re going to implement. It just sounded like a good idea and I had no arguments with myself why we shouldn’t do it.
But still, it’s not the only thing that will interact with your cards/abilities. We will also showcase a character that can upgrade cards in two different ways, and also a bit later I’ll tell you about “dark cards” that bosses use against you… but it’s a story for another time.
Your regular "horny and depressed" indie game developer, signing out.
Media:
Discord: https://discord.gg/4FhbeD2h6B
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@crawlyardgame
Twitter: https://twitter.com/crawlyard
Big changes vol. 1: Performances
What?
Performances will replace the rooms and affectors system we have currently. Before, you had a straightforward floor layout that contained battle rooms and empty spaces for you to place the affector cards onto. Now, we decided to merge them together, creating the ultimate beast - a proper theatrical performance.
It works like this: in the beginning you have a floor with only a starting room and a boss room, and a number of free slots between them (usually, the deeper you go the more slots there will be). You draw performances into your hand just like you did with affectors, and you can place them on the floor map according to your battle strategy or quest requirements. The layout's structure is also non-linear now, which means at some point you can choose between several performances to go to.
Okay, but why?
When we claimed that you can build your own dungeon in the game, just putting 2-3 rooms inside a predetermined pattern doesn’t sound that impressive. Having you physically assemble the majority of the dungeon? Now that sounds like a fancy feature!
Mechanically it doesn’t change the flow of the game much – each performance still has battles, enemies, and special modifiers that twist the rules of the game. But we also wanted to highlight the game's narrative potential, fixing the disjointed experience of breezing through dozens of generic rooms randomly slapped together.
Gimme more
Okay, so let’s break it down in a bit more detail:
- Each performance contains a set of 3-6 encounters with enemies unique for this biome, or even created specifically for this particular story.
- Each performance is a small story in itself, exactly like a real theatrical play. It expands on the world of the game without unnecessary walls of text, relying heavily on environmental and mechanical design, and may sometimes include the characters you meet in the Mansion.
- Each performance has a set of unique conditions that change the game’s rules to some extent. Imagine a performance about escaping from a dilapidated temple, where each reward makes you slower and your risk falling into the abyss together with the crumbling floor, or a performance where previously defeated enemies haunt you as ghosts.
- Each performance has its own set of mini-quests and conditions that, if completed, provide you with extra rewards.
And did I mention that all of them are visually distinct and contain a set of unique graphics, lighting, and visual effects?
So these are performances in a nutshell. Check out the next devlog for more information about upcoming changes and inner workings of the development process!
Your regular "horny and depressed" indie game developer, signing out.
Media:
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@crawlyardgame
Twitter: https://twitter.com/crawlyard
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crawlyard
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crawlyard
Discord: https://discord.gg/4FhbeD2h6B
Crawlyard DevBlog #4
That only means that the game’s becoming even better than it was. Now, for the updates.
Stances passive effects
Remember the Knight puppet having different stances tied to the main stats? Well, guess what – they now have passive effects that work when you activate a specific stance.
- Shield stance - blocks one attack per 3 (or maybe 4? not sure) seconds. In the future, we might rework ability cards in a way that will further reduce the blocking cooldown, allowing you to potentially negate EVERYTHING that comes at you.
- Spear stance - gives you bonus damage based on your speed. That doesn’t really sound that impressive, but hear me out - it also accelerates you while you’re moving. So your first attack will basically be a charge that sometimes one-shots enemies (the feebler ones, anyway). It should also have a good synergy with Break Distance and Charge abilities, since they affect your mobility on the battlefield.
- Sword stance - deals splash damage to surrounding enemies and boosts your damage based on missing health. So positioning yourself right in the heart of the battle and always being on the brink of death is a winning strategy for this stance. Not ready yet, but will be added soon.
In-run progression
As you probably already noticed, we’ve added a progression system within the dungeon run. You develop your stats and get new cards that are generally tied to their respective stats. The Pulse cards will be implemented later as they have special mechanics.
And as for progression between runs, aside from the fact that you unlock new NPCs of course, we have quite the pool of options to test and find out what suits the game most of all. "Cross-run" progression will be a part of what we call the "Big Changes" list we'll be presenting to our publisher. Which leads us to...
The publisher
So we figured that in order to elevate Crawlyard to a different level and keep making games after that, we’d need financial and marketing support from a publisher. And we found one, or should I say they found us.
We will be partnering with Crunching Koalas to update visuals of the game, deepen the gameplay, create more characters and flesh out their stories, and also implement all those numerous features we had to painfully archive before. We'll probably move the release date further, but not too much. Besides, having stable salaries will help us avoid relying on Early Access, so we will be able to actually deliver the full game earlier than we initially planned.
Afterword
That will be all for today. Keep an eye out for other devlogs – we might drop another one soon where we explore the ways to bring our characters to life, and maybe one more dedicated to the game's visual design. And then we'll finally be able to share the Big Chances with you, and the pipeline for improving the game, widening its scope and polishing it further.
Your regular "horny and depressed" indie game developer, signing out.
By the way, we have TikTok now!
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@crawlyardgame
Twitter: https://twitter.com/crawlyard
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crawlyard
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crawlyard
Discord: https://discord.gg/4FhbeD2h6B