I don't believe I'll be able to make the end of September date for the demo. Earlier in the month a cardboard bale almost fell on me (they're around 800lbs each) when I was helping the recycling courier load the bales onto his semi (he also has a really shitty tailgate so I was helping prop them up from the bottom as he only has a manual pallet jack), so I've been lieing down after work for the most part or playing the odd game here and there.
Now onto the game.
Work has been done filling out the demo area just so there's enough for people to play around in and be satisfied.
I was asked to go into further detail on how the augmentation is split.
Each "Series" of augmentation pertains to a specific action that the player makes whether it be crouching, recharging energy (ammo), blocking, reflex parry, or picking up health orbs. Many with downsides depending on what the cost opportunity is and how well this could benefit the player as the game runs. Only 1 augment per action type or "Series" can be equipped at a time or none at all if you don't want to deal with any of the negative effects.
Many of these have to be crafted from materials that you find out in the game unless it's a mandatory augment to progress through the game in which they are obtained via boss fights or found outright.
Some new portraits have been implemented into the game.
Artwork is being drawn for the radio ui, more on that later.
Thanks again guys for reading and I'll see you next time.
August WIP
A lot of things in the works and a few new happenings this month.
Last weekend I was able to attend the Alberta Game Jam featuring developers from Calgary, Lethbridge, and Edmonton in Alberta and was able to crank out a quick concept by myself along with some help with sound effects by Kyle Daly.
It’s a dungeon delver featuring a quick delve mechanic after a level clear and a steady hand mechanic for sword play. You can grab the game at.
Now to get back on topic. Some new adjustments to current mechanics. I was on my Quake/UT hit and borrowed some inspiration from these games as shown below.
Similar to the bomb jumping from Metroid except with a bit more punch.
Odal is still being worked on, this is the swordsman boss soon to be “The Honored Flame Swordman” once the additional mechanics get implemented.
Odal is a re-occuring boss that you’ll face as you progress through the game. Although a bit complex, I thought this would be the best opportunity to expose the player to their first temperature based boss battle. As the area is naturally Cold, it would make sense for a heat based boss to be showcased first as the Heat would naturally be easier to deal with in a cold environment. More details soon.
I’m aiming for the end of September for a fully playable demo for everyone. I’ll see you guys then!
Mini Update July 24th
Most of the adjustments have been internal (mostly bug fixing and adjusting a lot of physics stuff to prevent the player from falling into the tiling)
Here's a youtube link to the current alpha demo build.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0PxrRT1wU8
You'll see there is a lot of different changes to that specific area to coincide with a lot of things I wanted to implement for a while now.
Singularity rifts have been placed in more areas to help change up the encounters when returning to them so that we are not always killing the same things each time. These will also get stronger as the player progresses more throughout the game.
Before I release the demo I want to give you guys a couple more bosses that use the actual marine AI and the temperature system, more on that later.
Last weekend I attended the Game Jam in Calgary hosted by Direct-Play and was able to churn out a small game called Wizard Duel, a 1vs1 dodge ball style game featuring wizards. It took about 35ish hours to do and is available at.
https://www.designandgameawards.com/jam/
https://itch.io/jam/design-and-game-jam-2019
Requires DX11 and 2 360 controllers to play, local 1v1 only. It's really rough around the edges but none the less I'm quite happy with what was accomplished in little less than a weekend.
If you're attending SaltMines YYC 2019, we'll be having a table featuring all of our game jam projects from the weekend so feel free to stop by and say Hi! and also vote for my project.
https://smash.gg/tournament/salt-mines-2019/
Update: June 1st
Hi everyone,
Apologies for the sparse updates, polish and more UI studies was taking place throughout the month.
As you can see, some standard fair items have been instantiated, health bars for major bosses are present and a few of them have undergone some revisions to better suit what the player is suppose to know before reaching the boss.
Door locks that require you to defeat enemies in the room akin to other action games exist but in Organism 8 however, you'll be able to use "door breachers". These are cheap craftable items that you can make but can only hold few at a time requiring you to think about when you just want to force a door open and skip a fight.
They are also needed to reach certain chests that hold new items and blue prints
I'm a big fan of lore books in games. Here we have a simple page flipping mechanism in which you use your mouse to turn the pages.
Log books, documents, and vlogs will be the primary exposition method in the game. You'll also need to read through them for clues on how to solve certain puzzles (they'll also hold certain bonus items the first time you pick them up).
Some new sliding ui panels have been placed in the game for easy view.
I can't wait to show you guys once the models are finalized and better art is made for the UI.
Thanks again for your time everyone and the wishlist adds.
Progress Report April 08 2019
Hi Guys,
I took a couple months break just to learn some better ways to animate characters using Unity's animation system, some inventory management protocols and cleaned up some deprecated code that is no longer viable.
If you guys remember the floating shield boss from the steam trailer that had no arms or animations, well... He now has both!
The actual fight has also seen some changes that better suit the area. Since this is part of the beginning and I wanted the player to focus on simply reflecting shots and taking advantage of the opportunity from it early on in the game, it would make sense to refocus the fight on those mechanics.
Status effects and crowd control have also started to make its way into the game along with animations for them.
Thanks again for your patience and support.
Mini Update: Jan 29 2019
A lot of learning/research in 2018. I would like to apologize in regards to the interval in updates these past few months. I've been going through workshops and text in regards to various different things and as you can see in the top left, a lot of time has been spent on learning what Vulkan is about, something I've been aggressively following since mid 2016ish (recently supported by Unity).
The result?
Almost triple the amount of frames in certain areas or at the very least a 60% increase in framerate for high load areas such as underwater rooms where the water utilizes an acute grid system for temperature handles(currently WIP, this may be swapped for localized behavior).
So far I am quite happy with the transition (some crashes, no blue screens though).
Also we have an elevator boss battle.
Next up, I'll do a post in regards to how we'll handle the giant insects like the crimson queen or the hopper mother as seen in this gif.
Website finally back up
First post of 2019!
A jerry rigged wordpress is up and running for some of my bigger blog posts at https://mind-framesoftware.com/.
I'll have to spend some time to design a custom font and various other things to get away from the default templates and get something going that is more original. None the less, the first blog post of 2019 is up on the website and I hope you guys enjoy reading it.
What are your guys' new years resolution btw? mine is to get a playable demo up and running.
Thank you guys again for the continued wishlist adds and views. Happy Holidays and Happy New Years!
Nov 16, Mini Update: Loot Crates
Hi Everyone,
I've been meaning to add this in for a bit, a simple addition to the environment, loot crates of various sizes. Smallest ones introduced near the entrance of a room with the largest and most plentiful located off the beaten path.
The main focus of development is still on the marines at the moment. Currently the game goes into alert phase the moment the player is seen by a marine, this is to be replaced by a radio mechanic that will give the player time to respond to an alerted location.
As always, thanks again for your time.
Small Update: Nekril Marines Nov 06
Hi everyone. The progress of the marines is moving forward. Work has been busy so progress has been slow but still steady.
One of the main design choices I've made in regards to the marines is modular attributes based on what armor and equipment is generated for them. As you can see, there are different helmets, chest pieces, legs, etc for them. These will dictate various factors such as whether they generate an aura or if they grant Amp to fellow marines. Helmets can dictate whether they either see or hear things as both a sight and audio component is assigned to them. AI has been worked on as well.
I look forward to providing a detailed post once more has been accomplished in regards to their array setup and the new weapons that I have in store for them.
As always, thank you guys again for the continued interest.
