As some of you have probably noticed, I took some time off working on Evolve Lab at the end of last year. This was mainly due to the workload of my computer science master but also because my wife did not have the capacity to do any more art for the game and therefore I had to make the difficult decision on how I should continue the art direction of the game.
In the end I decided that I would try to create all the art for the game by myself instead of looking for another artist that could mimic the art-style of my wife. This meant that I would have to recreate all the game assets from the ground up and that sadly none of the amazing assets that my wife had already created would stay in the game.
An upside to this doover is that I can use a much simpler art-style and therefore asset creation will be faster and I can create new actions and creatures at a faster pace. It is also easier for me to iterate on the art and make small adjustments according to your feedback.
Since I had to start recreating all the art from scratch I also decided to code the whole game again from the ground up and switch to the newest version of the Godot game engine which allows for better performance and has some nice new features that make development easier.
This means that some content and features from the previous alpha versions will be missing in the next one, but I’m doing my best to add everything back into the game!
The Patch introduces the following new shop options:
Actions:
Convert (Turn enemy living actions into friends)
Battle Dance (Perform a dance to temporarily boost your stats)
Blood Magic (Sacrifice health to gain power)
Net (Stun the enemy to prevent him from moving and using actions)
Modules:
Shield (Shields your living actions from damage)
LivingBattery (Living actions increase your power over time)
Cores:
Anchor (Create a temporary wall between yourself and the enemy)
Witch (Curse the enemy at the end of your state machine)
Balance Changes:
Actions:
Avoid/Aproach: Duration increased to 1.5s from 1s
Bubble: Damage decreased to 1 from 2
Hammer: Speed increased to 3 from 2
Poison Cloud: Damage decreased to 2 from 3, now applies double its damage as poison
Cores:
Power State: Transition time decreased to 1 from 2
Closed Beta is live now!
Hello Everyone I am thrilled to announce the official beginning of the closed beta for Evolve Lab Online.
In order to participate, head over to the official discord and request a key.
I'm looking forward to your participation and feedback!
I have also released a new Trailer:
A look into what's to come
Hello everyone!
It`s already been a bit more than two years since I've started working on EvolveLabOnline and I must say, creating new content and interacting with the community has been a constant stream of joy for me! During this time, the game has grown a lot and I've gained plenty of insight into what works for the game and what still needs to be improved.
Reworking the whole game
All of your feedback has encouraged me to rework the look of the game from the ground up and rewrite most of the code base to provide the best possible game experience for you.
I'm happy that I can finally show you the progress, I've made over the last few months of hard work.
Besides reworking all of the UI aspects, I have also implemented some new game mechanics. First and foremost: Creature Cores:
Every five depths, you can choose one core for each creature and it permanently changes the behaviour of that creature. This allows for even more creative and unique creatures for you to use and battle against!
I am also currently working on a new system that will replace the map system from the older version:
The player can now choose between different challenges. At the beginning, these will be automatically generated by the server, but later down the road I plan to allow the players to create their own customized challenges as well, which others can encounter on their way down.
Fully moving to Steam accounts
I have also reimplemented how user authentification works. Startinmg with the new version, players only require a Steam account to play EvolveLabOnline and the third party accounts are not needed anymore.
Road map for future releases
I plan on running a closed beta test for this new version starting in the middle of June. If you are interested in participating, please join the official EvolveLabOnline-Discord. This closed Beta will be updated almost daily with the focus on improving the UI and creating a better and more guided experience for new players. Further, I will slowly reintroduce most of the creatures, actions and modules from the old version and also add the missing features that haven't made it into this new version yet.
Once the game has reached a more stable state, I will switch to a limited open beta with a slower release cycle, which will be open to more players.
I want to thank you all for playing my game and for all the kind and encouraging messages that I've received from you over the past years!
Also a big thank you to my amazing fiancée, who has been hard at work creating all the new art assets for the new version.
Patch 1.1.5-B and ladder reset!
Patch 1.1.5-B is now live!
Balance Changes: Size increase adjusted for all actions
Discharge: Deals 1 damage for each 3 health that your creature is missing (rounded up) Torpedo action: Damage reduced to 3 from 5 Size of explosion increased
Egg: Health decreased to 2 from 1 Damage decreased to 1 from 2 Size increased by 0.2 Spawns 2 tadpoles per health
Plant: Health increased to 3 from 2
Tentacle: Size increased
Bug Fixes: Fixed a bug where poison still damages a creature after the other creature has died Fixed a bug where tadpole hitbox didn't line up with the sprite
Patch 1.1.4-B
New Creature: Starfish - This creature doesn't move and spawns children when it takes damage.
Improved damage timer if no creature takes damage for some time.
Patch 1.1.3-B
Reddit New: Jellyfish creature: This creature deals all strenght based damage as poison.
Torpedo Action: Fire a torpedo at the enemy. If it hits anything it explodes.
Balance changes: Barrel: Increased size. Friendly actions don't stop a flying barrel anymore. Egg: Increased damage to 2.
