New Vlog - Storyline Integration, Gameplay Genre Overhaul!
In this blog, I've begun integrating a new map that will become incredibly important as it will serve as the basis for the storyline being integrated into the game.
In addition to that, I've begun development on a simple yet important overhaul to the game's genre and difficulties.
The game's current genre, RTS, is quite an interesting one to say the least. But players inexperienced in RTS games, and more importantly players inexperienced in Fragment's Moonrise as a whole, might be a little turned off with the difficulty curve the RTS mode presents. Introducing the Simplified game mode, which allows you to only have to control a single unit, with all camera controls adjusted to account for this. While in-game you'll freely be able to switch between both Simplified and RTS Mode, and play to your own preference. This mode will be available come the next update, which is still underway.
In addition to the Simplified Mode, new Difficulties will be added come the next update. I figured the game's base difficulty has quite a learning curve, and while I enjoy its current challenge, newer players might be a bit intimidated by this. As such, I've added a new difficulty option to account for this. In addition, I've added some new features that veteran players would enjoy, as they offer a greater challenge. Its worth mentioning that these difficulties too can be switched to in-game.
The difficulties include:
Disciple (Easy): The easiest difficulty, where enemies deal half damage and have half HP. This should be the base difficulty for those struggling with the game currently.
Apprentice (Normal): This is the game's standard difficulty.
Follower (Hard): An increased challenge, this takes the normal difficulty and doubles the health and damage of all enemies.
Master (Hardest): For those seeking a serious challenge, this takes the hard difficulty and kicks it up a notch. If any Player Unit is hit by an enemy's spell, that unit will be instantly killed. This essentially sets the game into a "don't get hit" mode. While this game mode does sound intimidating to start off with, its an important mode to tell all new players: in this game, as the developer, I'm committed to ensuring that all enemy attacks are dodge-able, and if you get hit, it's YOUR fault. (As a side note, I'm certainly thinking of playing this mode for an upcoming vlog, and showing how challenging it truly is!)
Grandmaster (Custom): For those seeking interesting and unique challenges, the Grandmaster difficulty will be the home for that. This game mode is meant for essentially adding in custom features and gameplay alterations to increase the replayability. In its current state, you're only able to adjust Enemy HP and Damage modifiers. However, in the future, I would like to add support for various custom features to really tailor and create a unique challenge. Its worth mentioning that if you're a player struggling with even the Easy difficulty that you can technically use this game mode to make the game that much easier, should you so desire! (Alternatively, if you want to play the game on Master but with enemies featuring 1000% bonus health... you can as well).
With all that being said, that concludes the vlog!
In the next vlog, I intend on furthering the Storyline integration, beginning an overhaul to the Saving system, and hopefully getting to the new Random Maps feature I've been interested in developing! See you in the next one!
The latest update is now live- and a day early at that!
Hello all!
As of right now, the latest update is now live! ːsteamhappyː
So, what's changed? Well, quite a lot of new content has been added!
The best way to describe the changes is in the most recent blog:
However, if you'd like a brief summary, allow me to discuss the major changes:
TWO brand new maps: the Home Base, where the player will be able to advance their Units, and the next explorable Map, where a host of new content has been added, including...
A new Miniboss, Arunaiya the Disciple Dragon: she's quick, with a deadly lightning bolt, and the ability to maneuver and dodge your spells unlike any other miniboss previously.
New Enemies: the dreaded Disciple Dragon, whom cast a powerful fireball, and the Blighted Flower, whom summons poisonous clouds.
New Worldly Beings: with the return of the Fountain, a healing structure, among many new plants to destroy, the concept of Elemental Combat is making its return with this early installment of attempting to teach the player about the Elemental affiliation behind each spell.
Newly fleshed out class, the Apprentice. Advanced from the Disciple after defeating the wicked Barein, the Apprentice has a new slew of spells to make use of. To name a few- the Great Fireball makes its return as the Empowered Fireball, a devastating Fire spell that scorches the land around. The Greater Mystic Bolt, a powerful Mystic spell that can decimate a target caught in its blast. A poisonous cloud, which slowly boils its foes to nothing with deadly poison. An entangling spell... for those enemies that just can't stop moving! And many more!
...the above changes of course come with a significant amount of bug fixes, balance adjustments, and overall improvements to the game.
Curious about what the new map is like? Well, look no further- I have a full playthrough of said map in great detail, showcasing it alongside all of the new spells. Check it out below:
With the launch of this update, Fragment's Moonrise has transitioned out of Free to Play. But worry not- I didn't start the initial price off at anything too high, and I only plan on steadily increasing it as I feel a sufficient amount of new content is added to the game.
Because of the transition out of Free to Play, Valve has informed me that the review score for the game has been reset. I would very much so appreciate a new review! My main goal is to continue building and improving upon the current game to create something that truly earns a positive score, and is a game worth investing your time into.
Now, for a bit of sad news- with the latest released update, your existing save file has been reset. While I didn't want to do this, and was trying to write update routines to remedy this and account for the numerous changes from Demo 1.0 to Demo 2.0, it was just not reliably plausible. I hope this is okay, and I hope you still enjoy this latest update!
So, with all that being said, thanks for checking out Fragment's Moonrise!
Update will be launching Friday! So, let's check out the new map!
Hello All!
In the previous update post, I discussed that Fragment's Moonrise will be transitioning out of free-to-play, and made mention of a big update. Well, I'd now like to announce that update will be launching this Friday, March 24th (Pacific Time)!
If you missed the previous post, click here to check it out!
So, what's this update all about, anyway?
Well, I created a full playthrough of it and posted it as the latest blog on the game's official YouTube channel. I'd recommend checking that out!
But, if you're simply interested in a synopsis, here's a list of the newest features:
TWO brand new maps: the Home Base, where the player will be able to advance their Units, and the next explorable Map, where a host of new content has been added, including...
A new Miniboss, Arunaiya the Disciple Dragon: she's quick, with a deadly lightning bolt, and the ability to maneuver and dodge your spells unlike any other miniboss previously.
New Enemies: the dreaded Disciple Dragon, whom cast a powerful fireball, and the Blighted Flower, whom summons poisonous clouds.
New Worldly Beings: with the return of the Fountain, a healing structure, among many new plants to destroy, the concept of Elemental Combat is making its return with this early installment of attempting to teach the player about the Elemental affiliation behind each spell.
Newly fleshed out class, the Apprentice. Advanced from the Disciple after defeating the wicked Barein, the Apprentice has a new slew of spells to make use of. To name a few- the Great Fireball makes its return as the Empowered Fireball, a devastating Fire spell that scorches the land around. The Greater Mystic Bolt, a powerful Mystic spell that can decimate a target caught in its blast. A poisonous cloud, which slowly boils its foes to nothing with deadly poison. An entangling spell... for those enemies that just can't stop moving! And many more!
There's much to the update than what I just listed, so be sure to check it out when its finally released!
Now, a small aside, because I felt it to be necessary to warn you ahead of time: your save files will be restarted with the coming update. I apologize for this, but with the newly overhauled map mechanisms (among many other things), creating a conversion from the previous save file to the new one proved to be too unreliable. I apologize for this, but do know a great deal of adjustments went into this update, so I hope this is acceptable. If you have any need of quickly returning to where you were previously in your journey, feel free to check out the game's official YouTube channel to get some tips and tricks about beating the first map. I've created both an Any% and All Bosses speedrun for the game which should hopefully be sufficient!
Thanks for all your support!
Fragment's Moonrise will be transitioning out of Free-to-Play
Hello All!
An upcoming major update is close on the horizon, incorporating a significant amount of content changes discussed in our latest blog post. Here's a link to it if you're curious:
With it, the game will be transitioning out of Free-to-Play and into a paid model. Don't worry, the price of the game won't increase dramatically, and equally as importantly if you already own the game, you won't have to buy it again. All the more reason to snag a copy of the game now!
Developing a game is costly, so here are a few of the main reasons why this is occurring:
There has been a significant amount of content created. The game features 2 modes- the original Classic version, which allows you to freely explore the Grove and play around with a large amount of mechanics, and the 3D version which is currently the primary version and is receiving (and will continue to receive) frequent updates.
Assist with development costs. While I enjoy designing and working on the game as a hobby, acquiring new assets isn't plausible without some form of capital. From 3D models, to new music, to new art, all require compensation for the work they perform. I'd like to be able to continue to work with them, and make this the best game I can make it, but I can't do so without support.
Increase the player base. It seems odd that a price increase would increase the player base, but psychologically it does. If someone invests money into something, their more interested in it than if they got it for free. This reflects upon the existing game model, where there are a lot of copies 'sold', but not a lot of downloads nor players as a result. While the existing player base and community is great, we could certainly use new players to increase the community and player base as a whole and make it a much more enriching experience.
In addition, here's some additional info about what to expect from the transition:
Existing owners of the game will NOT need to purchase the game again.
Existing reviews of the game will not count towards the current review score. I would very much appreciate it if you'd leave a new review on the game after the transition! ːsteamhappyː
There are no plans for in-game purchases. Buy the game once, and be able to play it (+Classic) forever.
With all that being said, the next update is anticipated to be released next week!
Thanks for all of your support! :)
Beginning to get Mac build functional
For a while, the Mac build was non-functional. This is the first attempt at trying to get it playable on Mac. Its worth noting the Classic build should be functional already.
Check out the Next Map I just created for the game!
This next map, among one additional map, will be coming with version 1.0!
Check out my All Bosses Speedrun of my own game!
How quickly can I beat my own game?
Check out my Any% Speedrun of Fragment's Moonrise!
Fragment's Moonrise is participating in GDWC 2022!
If you're liking the game, we'd love it if you could come to our GDWC page and drop us a like!
Linux: Resolved a Graphical Issue where the Game was upside down and flickering
This was a Linux-only issue.
A graphical bug exists while launching the game with OpenGL on Linux, in which the game's screen would be upside down and the lower left corner would be flickering.
As it turns out, this was not an issue while using Vulkan. I've switched the game to exclusively use Vulkan while launching the game from Linux.
I'll be looking into why there exists this graphical error with OpenGL, but for the time being in order to get the game playable on Linux, this modifications was necessary.
*This was tested on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS using the game's 'recommended' hardware.
