I'd like to take recommendations for improving the collection.
Hello, We're CODELIFE Studio
Many users have left various feedbacks for a short time, so we are reviewing and modifying them! You've also given us a lot of opinions on the collection. I wrote this because I wanted to hear from the users about the modification direction.
Many people seem to feel uncomfortable about collecting herbs, so I brought some amendments.
1. If you press F, it will just be pulled out.
2. Play the game as before, but if you succeed, you will get 2 ea. if you fail, only 1 will be pulled out.
3. Leave it as it is.
If you leave comments about which direction you want, I think it will be very helpful to set the update direction.
Please feel free to let us know if you have any other good ideas other than the one written above!
[Notice] Urgent improvement applied
Hello, We're CODELIFE Studio.
Among the parts that caused inconvenience to users in the beginning, we revised the parts that can be corrected urgently.
# What has been modified in this update - Some of the terrain that could fall below the ground has been modified. - After the first conversation with the guild master, we modified it to receive all three kinds of weapons/skillbooks. - We modified it so that you can set the difficulty level before starting the game. - The basic difficulty level of the game has been modified from 'Challenging' to 'Fun'.
# What will be modified in the next update - After purchasing the house for the first time, a UI on how to use the house will be added.
Thank you.
GIGDC 2022 Grand Prix!
Hello, We're CODELIFE Studio.
Runteller won the grand prix at GIGDC 2022, Korean indie game contest. Wow~~~ Luckily, the announcement date overlaps with the release date, so we're sharing good news!
The other award-winning games are all fun and cool games, so please visit and take a look. See other award-winning games
[NOTICE] Schedule After Early Access Launch of Rune Teller
Hello, We're CODELIFE Studio.
Many people were curious about when the official release will be and what changes will be made when it is officially released. So I'll share you the roadmap of what we have planned, what are the priorities, and what is the approximate schedule.
# Early Access Release ~ Before Korean Thanksgiving Day (About 3 weeks)
During this period, I think it will be a period to see how the users react. We will focus on whether there are any fatal bugs or balance problems, and we will focus on responding to them.
Since it is our first release, we are worried that there will be problem after the release, so we set it as a feedback check period for about 3 weeks. Of course, we will continue to fix bugs and balances in the future, but I think we should focus on fixing bugs and balances rather than new work during this period.
From this point on, we're going to start working on what we've informed you that we'll add to the official release. It's written briefly on the Steam store page, but here I'll tell you in detail what we intend to add the features below.
It consists of tasks to improve the user's play experience. The following tasks are added to this period:
1. Controller Compatibility
We plan to work on this so that you can enjoy the Run Teller even with the controller like the Xbox controller.
I think we need UI/UX that fits the controller, not just the controller button, so I will make it with care.
If the Rune Teller is loved by all of you and is able to do a console platform release, it would be a great help then.
2. Custom Key Mapping
I'm sure there are some keyboard users who are uncomfortable with the basic key setting we set.
So we'll add a function that you can use by changing it directly to the key you want.
3. Add Text Module
Rune Teller is an action game, so it's hard to chat in urgent situations.
If you play with your friends, you can use Discord, but it's not easy to chat with strangers.
We'll add the function to send essential phrases for these situations with a button.
Since Rune Teller is aiming for a global game, it will be printed according to its own language so that the game with overseas users will be smooth.
4. Add Colosseum
We're going to add challenging content for those who want to do something after the ending because they enjoyed Rune Teller so much.
We will deal with a combination of monsters that you have never met before, so that you can enjoy a different battle.
In the process, we are also considering a plan that allows them to record based on clear time. (The details of the plan may vary at the time of release.)
5. New Translation
We plan to provide additional translations to various languages so that Rune Teller users can experience multi-play with more diverse overseas users.
Actually, this part can vary greatly depending on the sales volume of the early access, so it's hard to promise, but I wanted to tell you that we have a need.
We will consider the schedule of 2 to 3 months for the work we promised above and then officially release it after that. However, it is difficult to confirm the schedule for this part at the moment.
As I mentioned above, it is not easy for us to predict the situation after the release of Rune Teller because it is our first release... If there are many bug/balance issues or if there are additional work to be done before the official release, it may be delayed a little more.
However, please note that you can enjoy all the contents we designed including the ending even if it's the early access version!
Development Notes #5 - What Happens While We Are Developing One Content
Game design changes frequently even in the midst of development. The design can change for a variety of reasons, such as lack of fun, low volume, or technical difficulties.
Like any game, Rune Teller has many new contents added during the development process, too. Today, I will summarize what happens to both of us in the process!
Usually, we start by feeling something empty while playing a test.
It's kind of boring... What's the problem?
When you need an idea, you two go to the cafe in front of the office and drink a cup of iced Americano, and when you charge caffeine like that, ideas start to come to mind. (Taeng is much better than I am.)
The Effects of Caffeine, Google Recognized If you throw any ideas, it takes about one good design, and from this point on, you will increase the scale of the design by adding idea. Since we are both developers, we also come up with how to implement them, so we may be discarded immediately if we do not have an implementation plan. Anyway, through such an idea meeting(?), we decide on the content for Rune Teller to be fun.
After the content is decided, we select the person in charge in a very democratic and efficient way. In particular, the similarity with the existing work of the person in charge is very important, which is a part that must be considered because it has a very significant effect on the work speed.
"You've done something similar all this whole time." - Exactly same meaning
Even if the selected person in charge complains, most of us proceed as we are because we cannot refute the saying, "It takes a long time if I do it." Of course, Taeng is in charge of UI work entirely, and I am in charge of sound work entirely, so when related work is needed, we respond to each other. Once the person in charge is selected, the person in charge can develop everything, including the work method and detailed planning, at his discretion!
Please respect me, However, feedback from upcoming test plays should be reflected.
"Develop whatever you want. But my opinion needs to go in." - Develop it at your discretion
When content development is completed through a democratic method, the content is tested again. First, simply check the difficulty, balance, and bugs, and immediately reflect them if necessary. And the most important part, the verification of fun, is included. In the first place, it is confirmed whether the purpose of adding this content has been achieved. (Is it fun? Has the content become rich? etc.)
So, did you become funny? (If you're familiar with this image, it's a misunderstanding.) Here, the content that the two unanimously passed will immediately join as official content. However, if the newly added content is still problematic, it will go back to the beginning. I bought Americano... I'm just gonna throw anything idea.
I thought it would be difficult to summarize the three lines, so I drew it in flowchart. I can see what I've been talking about from above at a glance. (Laughing.)
In fact, I think this kind of development method was possible because we were two friends of the same age. This is because I was able to freely express and work in an equal position, not in a position to instruct and receive work.
Fortunately, it wasn't like a family
I think horizontal culture in the company is actually a culture that is hard to achieve without real friends. However, if possible, I think the efficiency in terms of work speed and creativity will be tremendously improved, so if there are people who start a business with friends, it would be good to develop it like us!
However, it should be noted that all decision-making is based on both tastes, so you can be trapped in it! After making it, we are having fun, but there are many concerns about whether other people will have fun. (But when else would you make a game for us?)
Today, we talked about relatively light topics. I'm sure it's the same for you, but the topic is light, so it's less burdensome. I think the next upload will be the release date of early access. I think it would be better to organize and share the plan after the release. Thank you for reading until the end! If you enjoyed it, please like it/please leave comments.
Development Notes #4 - Why is it possible to multi-play up to 3 people?
This topic was written because many people were curious about the limitation of the number of multi-players to three.
Actually, I've never designed a game before I started Runteller, so I'm careful if I can write something like this... I thought it was right to share our thoughts about what many people were curious about, so I took the courage to write it. If anyone who is well-versed in game design sees this article, I would appreciate it if you could share your opinions on the wrong contents or problems.
In the game world, I think people started to like the number 3. The boss of the Super Mario series collapses under 3 attacks, and there are 3 races in Starcraft. There are 3 role groups in Overwatch, and there are numerous 3-stroke champions in League of Legends.
3 is the national rule?
If I think about why, there seems to be a sense of stability given by the number 3.
"It's not too much, but not too little." - Too... subjective..?
But this isn't the only reason we've concluded that there are up to three players... (If so, this article would not exist.) As other designs were taken based on 3, such a conclusion was finally reached. So let's first look at the other effects of the number 3 on Rune Teller.
In the RPG game, the role consists largely of three types of Tank/Damage/Heal. These days, roles are often subdivided or hybridized, but most of them seem to be derived from Tank/Damage/Heal. You can play Rune Teller alone, but since Rune Teller is an RPG that has multi-play as its strength, we really wanted to give it fun from the division of roles. Therefore, considering the single play, the distinction between Tank/Damage/Heal is not clear, but we tried to create synergy of the party by playing a role that friends cannot play in multi-play. That's how we made 3 weapons types.
The first time you select a weapon, After making three types of weapons, we also need armor type for each type of weapon. Although armor type is not enforced depending on the weapon, the ability required by each weapon was given as the main effect.
Two key systems of the game have already been made up of three. However, this is not the only 3 that exists in Rune Teller. Gathering and crafting in open world games is a great system that makes a reason to explore the world. However, we didn't want the process to be too complicated because there are many users who feel tired of such gathering and crafting. Therefore, we limited the production system to only three types, because we felt that two types were too small to be called systems, and more than four types were judged to be able to give users fatigue.
For Runteller, the number 3 was becoming an inseparable design system. The process of designing the world will also include content such as setting rewards, such as "giving key materials for weapons production" or "increasing proficiency in production" as rewards for each region. As a result, the areas encountered from the middle of the game were also divided into a total of 3 core areas.
# What if there's a 4-member multiplayer in this situation?
In fact, until the middle of the project, we were not able to decide on the number of multi-players. There are many 4-man co-op games, so we wanted to support Rune Teller even 4-man multi-play. However, in a world of three, including weapons, defenses, production and world,
"We imagined four players running around and we began to see problems."
First, a situation in which roles overlap occurs. There is no problem if users who use the same weapon in multi-play, but we think that people couldn't feel the fun from the role-distribution we intended. Second, as the equipment used overlaps, there is a need to clear the same dungeon several times for item farming. It results in that goes against our design policy, because Rune Teller tried to exclude repetitive play as much as possible to provide the experience of playing package games. Third, problems also begin to arise with balance. Due to the nature of action games, sophisticated judgments or damaged action are very important, and as the number of players increases, it is often crowded and chaotic. In addition, if four players took turns and put in a groggy action, the monster could die without doing anything. This was a problem that could not be solved by spawning many/strong monsters depending on the player. Rune Teller has no limit on the number of targets in non-targeting, so when there are more monsters, it has become a Warriors Series game.
Due to the above-mentioned problems, we had no choice but to limit the number of users to three in order to provide the maximum fun we intended. (Sorry for those who want more than 4 people)
In addition, users with four or more people can be divided into two or three combinations. For example, if it is a four-member composition, it can be divided into two people and two people, and if it is a five-member composition, it can be divided into two people and three people.
Therefore, it was concluded that even if the friends together were composed of more than four people, everyone could enjoy multi-play with at least two people, so they would not be left alone among friends. If there is a situation that the limit on the number of people has to be changed for some reason, the current goal is to come up with solutions to the aforementioned problems so that they do not provide unintended discomfort to users.
In addition to the above-mentioned reasons, there were systematic problems with network costs, but they were too technical to include in the article. In the next episode, I'll write a story about what happens while we're developing a content! Thank you for reading until the end, and if you enjoyed reading it, please like/comment!
Development Notes #3 - How Rune Teller Project Started (Vol.3)
# Role Distribution
After leaving the company and becoming a full-time worker, it was clear what to do. "We develop all the content we have piled up." As the number of repetitive tasks increased, each role began to become clearer. [table] [tr] [th][/th] [th]To Do (This week)[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Mokyok2[/td] [td]Action, Skill, Animation, FX, Monster, Sound, Mastery, Numerical Balance[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Taeng[/td] [td]World Design, Quest, UI, NPC, Monster AI, Cutscene, Gathering, Crafting, Map[/td] [/tr] [/table]
At the beginning of the work, we looked at each other's work and read the source code, but there was a constant pile of content to develop, so we couldn't afford to look at that at the end... We trusted each other and did our best in our work. (I had no choice but to do so.)
If something comes out that we don't know while working on it, we didn't know each other, so we just googled on our own.
In this period, the last week of each month was used as a period to test the works so far. We focused on "Is the content fun? Is this enough?"
"Is the content fun? Is this enough?" - The second most important concern after today's lunch menu
And in this process, if we were not satisfied, it disappeared boldly or was replaced with other content. On the contrary, new content was added in sections that seemed insufficient or empty.
[table] [tr] [td]The one that wasn't in the original plan, but was gradually added[/td] [td]Swimming, Fairy Tree, Ship, Gold Box[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]The one that disappeared while developing[/td] [td]Climbing, Horse Riding[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]The one that we wanted to add but gave up[/td] [td]World Event, Battle with NPC (like Skyrim), PVP[/td] [/tr] [/table]
Things that weren't in the original plan In particular, horse riding was studied for two to three weeks, but the quality of the horse riding did not come out. Taeng said this was enough when he saw what I worked on, but I couldn't accept it because I rode Torrent in Elden Ring after work at the time.
In addition, it was concluded that the inclusion of horse riding, which was not planned, would affect the level design of the world, so unfortunately, it was decided to discard it.
# The story of watching the ending for the first time
After many twists and turns, we developed everything we planned and began to test play in earnest.
"We fixed it when we met the bug, and if the balance was a problem, we fixed it. And kept playing."
Taeng was sufferedhappy to experience the elaborate skill shot of the monster I made, and I was fooled by the NPC by choosing options from the map and quest made by Taeng. What if I don't get the quiz right? Like that, we finally had only the final boss left for a few days in the test play, and after several attempts, we were finally able to face ending credits. (But our names were the only names on that ending credit. lol.)
Please let everyone in the world watch the Rune Teller's ending.
Watching the ending credits of our own game was more touching than we thought. We left work so pleasantly that day.
Of course, watching the ending didn't mean that the work was over. The impression was only brief, and all bugs that occurred in the process had to be fixed. Among them, there was a bug in which an animal kept floating in the air while running. At first, a wild boar that hit me and ran away flew into the sky, which made me speechless and annoying. (Laughing) So we let it fly away and put an FX that cross the wind under its feet, and it was very cool. Rather, it was decided to leave it as it was, judging that users could happily accept it.
A wild boar preparing to fly On the contrary, there were bugs that required a lot of fix. Rune Teller is a P2P-type multi-play, so a server user exists and an attack/hit decision occurs based on the server user's screen. As a result, from the client user's point of view, there are cases where they are attacked even though they obviously avoided it. This bug gave the client user such an unpleasant experience that we modified it to make their own judgment.
It wasn't just the bug that had to be corrected. We tested it with two people, but many people would play alone, so we had to verify that people could see the ending alone with normal difficulty. If there was anything too easy or too difficult in the process, it had to be fixed. We watched the one-person ending three times for each weapon, and we watched the two-person ending three times for each combination.
We killed, killed and killed the last boss. In the process, we realized that the game was too difficult to play alone. So, we have created a system like a simple mercenary(?) for users who play alone. When we added a scarecrow that could protect me in front of me, we felt balanced.
A friend of a single-play user
It was also necessary to verify the three-person play, but it was not easy to check the balance because there were only two of us, so we had no choice but to test based on functions.
The development is over and we have tested it several times. Then what should we do from now on? From here on, it seems that the story of a different topic will begin. However, the only thing we did wrong was that we thought naively, "We're done developing it, so we'll have to market it from now on."
I think I can write about marketing if I have a chance. I'm done with three episodes of how the Rune Teller project started. In the next episode, I'll talk about why the number of multi-players is up to three. If you enjoyed reading it, please leave a comment. We always welcome your questions.
[NOTICE] Early Access Release Date Has Been Released!
Hello, We're CODELIFE Studio.
The release date of Rune Teller's early access has been confirmed at 00:00 on August 19th (PDT)! In addition to the release date, the Early Access teaser video was also released, so please show a lot of interest!
https://youtu.be/VPdenwgzrm4
+) Wish/Follow authentication event is underway at Naver Game Lounge. +) Everyone, please participate in the event and get Naver Pay. +) Link : Event Shortcut
Development Notes #2 - How Rune Teller Project Started (Vol.2)
# Office setting
We didn't know what our future would be like day by day, so we decided to develop with a laptop.
I had to buy a laptop, a monitor, a stand, a keyboard, and a mouse. Taeng had a laptop, monitor, and cradle that he had already used, but I didn't. (Crying.)
We went to Daiso to buy small office supplies and household goods, and also brought a development server made by mixing various parts.
In addition, Taeng's sister gave us a small refrigerator to celebrate our start!
Hyperbolic time office
This is how much development equipment has been set up, and work has begun in earnest.
However, we didn't know where to start the development. Only if we've ever developed a new one.
First of all, we thought about the system that should exist if it was an RPG game. Based on the movement and action system in Taeng's prototype, we summarized other contents to be developed.
Items, inventory, quests, NPC conversations, status, attacks, skills, monsters... So much was needed.
Early Rune Teller's appearance (※ Low Resolution)
Eventually, we decided to create a tutorial section of the game. In order to create a tutorial, we had no choice but to create all the essential infrastructure functions.
For two months like that, we only built a system. UI was needed when the system was created, and sample data was required when the UI was created. (Of course, there are not many systems that have preserved their appearance so far... lol)
Tutorial screenshot
By the time we can clear the tutorial, we can finally say that the form of the game is in place.
"At last, we have the form of the game." - CODELIFE
Thinking that we finished developing the tutorial, I think we were really excited to make an open world. At that time, we bought and used a geographic design asset called Gaia, and a large-scale geography was created in just a few clicks! We began to create terrain, imagining the themes we each wanted to create.
The world we originally planned
When we finished building the terrain, we placed our characters in the world once, and something was wrong.
It's like we zoomed the Earth in Google Earth to find our neighborhood. After zooming in several times, our characters began to look like ants.
We should have realised what was wrong at this time.
The terrain that was created as planned. The character is smaller than 1 pixel. (※ Much of it has now been submerged.)
However, at that time, we were full of greed and full of unfounded confidence, so we passed it on lightly.
"f it's an open world, it should be this big!" - Words we'll regret later
We didn't know that the size of the world was ridiculous, so we started to design by dividing sections. We designed the initial area and developed it to have about two hours of play time. Since then, content work has been needed on an already created system. After the tutorial, we needed a village where the user would arrive. The village needed NPCs. The NPCs needed a quest. A monster was needed for the quest. And for compensation, items too...
A panoramic view of the town of Darkess, where users first arrive Somehow, it was December when the village and the surrounding area were completed. We couldn't take a day off for six months, worked fully on weekdays, and developed a runteller for 12 hours on weekends, and we were very tired.
We decided to find someone to help us with the decision. We decided to call in acquaintances around us to play the game and get feedback.
"If there's a lot of negative feedback, let's stop here and go back to our daily lives. However, if there is a lot of positive feedback, let's quit and start in earnest." - Our conclusion at the time
We called our friends who like games and colleagues who worked together in the game industry to conduct tests and listen to feedback.
How it looked when it was tested When we tested it, people's tastes were really diverse and feedback varied widely. There was good feedback, and there was a lot of stinging feedback too.
Among them, there was no reason to quit our project.
We have concluded that it is not bad to try once in our lives. That's how we left the company.
This story is also too long, so I think I have to divide it into three parts... I'll be back with the last episode after leaving the company. Please ask us questions in the comments, and if you enjoyed reading them, please like/comment!
Development Notes #1 - How Rune Teller Project Started (Vol. 1)
# Viewpoint of Mokyok2
It was in the summer of 2021. Almost two years since I moved to a new company, I'm getting used to working at a large company. As I did when I moved from N company to another N company in the past, I was living my life wondering if there was any new motivation in my life.
No Jam
Then, Taeng had an opportunity to show the game, he had been working on alone, to the startup CEO and I heard that he heard good feedback from him.
It's amazing to meet the CEO of a startup, but there's a game he was developing alone, too! Even when he heard good feedback from the game, I couldn't help but visit it out of curiosity. It was the start of the Rune Teller project, Friday, July 23, 2021.
It was the start of the Rune Teller project, Friday, July 23, 2021.
I made an appointment right away and ran to Taeng's house. It's past dinner time, but I was more curious than hungry so far, so I begged him to watch the game first.
Until then, I thought that single-person development games were only possible with 2D pixel dot graphics. It's a craftsmanship game made by a dot-skilled person who even studies programming.
Korean single-person developped indie game UNSOULED (※ It has nothing to do with Rune Teller.)
But in Taeng's monitor, cute 3D characters move around and attack among monsters! Although there is no function, the UI was implemented in its own way, so the scene looked better than I thought. (Now that I think about it, I think I was fooled by that scene...) Anyway, there seemed to be no shortage of the game to kick the warm blankets of large companies and raise it like my own child. I had no reason to hesitate in the face of such a great choice to fulfill the bucket list of 'Making My Game' which I gave up because I thought it would not be possible while satisfying the new motivation I was looking for.
So I immediately suggested to Taeng that "Shall we quit and do this from tomorrow?"
"Shall we quit and do this from tomorrow?" - Mokyok2
2021 was a year of many things. This is because it was my fourth year as a game server developer. It's a time when junior developers are worried a lot, and it's been a year where I have a lot of worries as well. It was a moment when I was worried about my skills and how to develop my career as a game developer in the future.
I am a junior developer...
For this reason, most developers start toy projects. To explore skills that I don't use and measure my skills through results. When I was working on the toy project in passion, I happened to see the CEO of the game startup and received good reviews. And when Mokyok2 heard the news, he came to my house. Mokyok2 suggested completing my toy project and even launching it. I wondered if my project looked that good, but my heart was pounding.
"I wondered if my project looked that good, but my heart was pounding." - Taeng
However, on reflection, neither of us has conducted any new development or undertaken any business. I wondered if we could really make and release this game to the end. In particular, thinking that we were buying both art and sound resources and proceeding, I had a vague fear of what would happen if we were stuck in something we couldn't do.
We discussed our future plans.
We calmed down and began to think together about what we needed. We talked about survival-related problems about home loans, family members, and income disconnection, and game-related problems about whether the game we want to create is the same or different.
'The game we play fun!' was the most important thing. It had to be our favorite genre because users could never enjoy it unless it was even fun for us.
Then I had to know what game I like and what game Taeng likes first.
[table] [tr] [th][/th] [th]Favorite Game[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Mokyok2[/td] [td]Action RPG like Legend of Zelda, Dark Souls, Monster Hunter[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Taeng[/td] [td]Nonlinearity and story-based RPG like Legend of Zelda, Skyrim, Witcher[/td] [/tr] [/table]
At the same time, we hoped it would be a game that we could play with our friends.
After thinking that way, it eventually became the genre of Open World Multiplayer Action RPG. We felt like the drawing paper would be torn while drawing a big picture, but we couldn't be satisfied ourselves without this.
How fun would it be to enjoy BOTW in multi-player..?
The final target feature was concluded as follows. 1. Create a seamless world so that there is no waiting for each other after the first connection. 2. Guarantees the same content as single play even when playing multi-play. (Without any restrictions.) 3. Various actions are provided through multiple weapons with different concepts.
However, as this happened, the size of the game became so large that it had to be clear what to take and throw away. For example, it seemed impossible to implement deep interactions with NPCs like Skyrim.
Instead, we decided to proceed with three features without compromise.
The two men's ideas were very different here. I was in the position to quit our job and make it from tomorrow (I've never even done Unity.. haha), Taeng was in a position to study more and make plans before deciding.
He also gave me an assignment using Unity and suggested that we develop it using a shared office only on weekends first. Recalling when I last received the assignment, I thought that his intention was as follows.
1. Is this a tough guy? 2. Are you passionate about learning enough to trust and quit? 3. Do we two get along well?
Now that I think about it, it was very reckless.
Anyway, from my point of view of not knowing any of Unity, I had no choice but to trust and follow him, so I agreed with his proposal and promised to go to work at the shared office every weekend.
The first office we rented was a small room of about 3.3 sqm without a window, but we consoled each other that this was enough, recalling the first start of Amazon.
The amount is longer than I thought, so I think I need to divide it into two pieces. In the next episode, we will talk about various changes and events from the beginning of the project to becoming the current Rune Teller.
If you ask me anything else you're curious about in the comments or how we felt at the time, I can answer you as much as you want, so you can ask me comfortably.
