First of all, thank you so much for all of the support!! All of the feedback, livestreams and encouragement has been insane and is absolutely flooring me!
I managed to fix a few issues that have been brought up - but there's one here definitely worth mentioning on its own:
If the game is crashing for you when entering water, or weather is active, this might be a solution:
Your version of DirectX might be out of date and might have something to do with a Windows 10 update (thanks to Binaryferret for this fix).
Now for the patch notes:
Fixed 16:10 aspect ratio crashing the game when starting a new game, right before the name entry screen
Fixed parallax and background layers for 16:10
Fixed 16:10 jankiness on the title screen
[*Fixed ]mouse positions in menus in 16:10 (they were incorrect!)
Fixed a bunch of graphical glitches from drawing the game at 16:10
Fixed exiting a room that did not have an adjoining room assigned to it crashing the game (i.e. jumping up outside of the screen bounds would crash the game if a "north" room wasn't assigned)
Pressing the left key in video options where water FX is would turn on water shader effect (resulting in a crash if DIrectX isn't up to date)
Fixed eating items and consumables from the inventory menu locking the player, forcing you to reload your save
Throwing axe pickups ("Hurlbat") no longer give you "+0"
Throwing axes ("Hurlbat") no longer drop below 0 quantity
Removed ship docks (were accidentally left active!)
Added a few materials and items to loot tables for enemy drops
Death fully restores your HP once you respawn at a checkpoint
Favor now subtracts much slower on death
Improved base drop rates
Thanks again and stay tuned for a much bigger news post and update!
-Matt
Cultural Differences - New Build!
**IMPORTANT**
GameMaker games and Windows 10 seem to be butting heads on certain systems. If your display goes black and then white (showing nothing and no response from Savage) when starting the game in Fullscreen, here's what seems to fix the issue.
TO FIX:
RIGHT CLICK on the Savage .exe and open Properties and navigate to the Compatibility tab. CHECK the box under Settings labeled "Disable fullscreen optimizations". Click APPLY.
Doing this seems to have worked for the user that reported it (THANK YOU Gallus!).
I come to you now at the turn of the tide... Or, with a big fat update. This is probably the biggest update I have put out of the game as far as new features and content go. But before we dig in and get our hands (or blades) good and filthy, there are a couple new Savage related things I'd like to point out:
Let's Finish SAVAGE
Going forward, every Friday at 1pm Central, I will be doing a weekly wrap up show on my Twitch channel called "Let's Finish Savage" that will coincide with a weekly game update (big or small, whatever gets done and is ready for deployment that week). I'll go over new content added, bugs fixed, tweaks and polish, and ANYTHING and EVERYTHING you can expect in these weekly builds. The plan is to also cover any future plans and roadmaps (i.e. what you can expect in following updates and builds), followed up by some Q and A, provided anyone watching has any questions!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WQZK0cggUE
Feel free to also hop into the Discord to keep up with any and all news posts related to Savage, including livestream announcements. There are also a couple handy channels you can use to give me feedback, report bugs, or just chew the fat about the game:
OK! With those out of the way, let's dig into this shiny (and broken) new build.
New Friends
A big batch of new NPCs and characters have been added into the game, each with their own personalities, tasks and animations. Some of them vendor new items! Some will be a trigger for new events and story elements. In addition, new rooms and buildings have been added to Gussek, the border village you first see when exiting the Mining Prison.
Slay them ALL
One of the biggest features I've added to the game is the ability to actively attack ANY NPC in the game. Doing so will make them permanently hostile to you and they will then behave like an enemy object to you until slain.
Doing this has consequences, of course. Now that you've met them, kill them.
Eat, Drink, and be Careful
You used to be able to totally spam healing items, regardless of your player state. NO LONGER.
You will now have to find a safe moment or location to STOP and eat meat, drink potions etc.
It Wants to Kill You
The world is a dangerous place, and it's gotten worse. A whole slew of new and terrible things can happen to you in the form of Status Ailments.
These include Burning, Paralysis, Poison and becoming Cursed. But worry not! With every new deadly affliction comes a remedy.
In addition to the new status ailments, you can no longer swim completely submerged indefinitely. You run the risk of drowning if you stay in the depths for too long.
In addition to using an item like the Balm to mitigate Burning, jumping in the water (as well as being out in the rain or snow) can put the fire out.
You Are Being Hunted
Dying results in you dropping your hard earned Essence and any matured Essence Orbs that can later be reclaimed by returning to the site of your death. BUT - some interesting things can and will happen on the place of your death surrounding your dropped Essence. Depending on your Favor stat, things can go South pretty quickly...
The number of times you've died and dropped Essence can cause said Essence to go wild, eventually transforming into a shadowy Twisted Self - an entity without any direction other than your demise.
Dying and dropping Essence within a randomly generated encounter on the Overworld Map will LOCK IN the encounter, allowing you to run through it again and attempt to regain your dropped Essence.
If slain by the Twisted Self, the plan going forward is to have him persue you in various locations and on the world map until one of you lies dead.
CUNNING!
A brand new third Major Stat called Cunning has been added to character advancement!
In addition, the level up and character sheet has had a major overhaul (visually and mechanically), allowing you to see all of the sub stats that are affected by leveling up your Major Stats.
Everything Else
In addition to some of these more dense features, there are a whole bunch of other changes, improvements and bug fixes to list.
FEATURES and NEW STUFF
Added weather and region specific dynamic background tile layers
Added functionality to pressure plates
Added new item sprite and description for the Walljump item
Added new "shard" themed props and assets
Added exciting, horrible and frustrating new hazards, like beams and lasers
Added streams of lava and large bodies of lava
Added new "Slave Garb" armor set, including new pieces to allow me to make more visually different armor sets
New status ailments: Drowning, Burning, Poison, Paralysis, Curse
New status ailments "bars" that appear above the player
New enemy healthbars
Added Leeches (cures Poison)
Added Crogue Needles (cures Paralysis and mitigates being grabbed)
Added Soothing Balm (cures Burning)
Added God Bone (removes Curse)
Added several new NPCs
New rooms and buildings in Gussek, the border village
ALL NPCs can now be attacked and/or made hostile, and as a result, can be killed New NPC related items
New lock and key system for "background" doors
New shortcut within Devil's Shade, both in the actual level and outside on the overworld map
Access to Gosenian Highlands and dungeons (Hell's Teeth, Highland Cliffs, Kuchvek's Crossing)
New CUNNING stat
New player sheet with redesigned UI elements showing which sub stats are being affected when leveling up main stats (Might, Resolve, Cunning, Favor)
IMPROVEMENTS and CHANGES
Rewrote physics for pickups and items
Dropped items from inventory now get "dropped" in the direction you are facing
Improved and fixed many rooms (traversal problems, prop placements, etc.)
Skull Wound tokens now equal 4 hit points per Skull instead of 2 hit points per Skull
Fixed torches outside at certain times of day drawing an ugly transparent square (improved "lighting" FX)
Changed texture page sizes to 1024x1024 from 2048x2048 - Overworld map runs MUCH better as a result, as well as improved performance across game
Game is now compiled in the YoYo Compiler for Windows target platform resulting in (pretty awesome) improved performance (mostly during testing now - future builds will be compiled this way)
TONS of code and asset optimization, resulting in better performance
Fixed AI behaviors for Argeshii Brute and similar enemies
Carried undead corpses, if flagged as able to return to "life", once re-animated, will be dropped and do damage to the player like a normal enemy
Changed the color of "healing" number popups from green to gold (green looked like poison and was terrifying)
BUG FIXES
Fixed NPC in border village turning into headless corpse
Fixed items from crates and other breakables getting stuck in walls (FINALLY)
Fixed giving Gal'Vek's remains to Losech and the player freezing up bug
Fixed Kell appearing in middle of screen in mid air if exiting left from the small cinematic intro screen of burning village sequence
Fixed dropped Fetishes giving you FAVOR (i.e. player could pick up a new Fetish, get FAVOR, then drop the Fetish again, pick it up again, and still get FAVOR)
Fixed using Fetishes NOT removing FAVOR
Fixed Kell NOT locking to breakable solid container objects when ledge grabbing onto them
Fixed hit box NOT updating to smaller size hit box when dodge rolling out of a ledge climb animation
Fixed Kell's feet getting stuck in a moveable block when ledge climbing up onto the block (if block is on upward moving platform)
Fixed inventory screen matching a fade in or out - you can now see it clearly if you pause during a fade
Fixed falling hazards landing on enemy corpses crashing game
Fixed a bug where Jailer in intro prison cell scene is in a constant attack loop
Fixed a bug with brown spider enemy "jittering" between animations during an attack
Fixed game crashing when viewing the level up screen when sub slot 2 has a weapon equipped to it and NO weapon is equipped to sub slot 1
Fixed a bug where, carrying a corpse and jumping up into a solid (i.e. ceiling) would cause the player to get stuck in the solid, or slowly travel up through the solid
Fixed carrying corpses marked as undead, returning to "life", then crashing game
Fixed carrying corpses marked as undead stopping their "coming back to life" animation when carried
Fixed game crashing when ledge climbing up onto a "push block" resulting from variable "can_move" not being defined
Fixed certain enemies, when carried by player and killed, crashing the game
Fixed Star Flail breaking game on pickup, or creating a Pocked Sica on pickup
Fixed Blacksmith in Gussek not caring if you RETURN to him either naked or wearing slave garb (he should be upset)
Fixed "angry" NPCs not deactivating their dialogue interaction objects
And probably other stuff I missed.
Anyway, that's a wrap! I'll see you all again next week!
Thanks again!
-Matt
Retropalooza - Coming Up for Air and Mini-Update
Hi everyone!
Firstly I want to apologize to you all for the lack of updates. I have been buried up to my neck in this game (for probably too long, ha!) and I forget to come up for air sometimes -- especially with the end of the year looming.
I'm still grinding away on Savage full time, and then some. Some things I'll bring up real quick are that I switched compilers within GameMaker: Studio and the dang thing (Savage) runs LIKE BUTTER after compiling in the new setup. A lot of this has been in preparation to switch over to GameMaker Studio 2 (YoYo stopped supporting Studio 1 in June/July) which will make things better overall (including potential porting to other platforms).
It hasn't all just been raw systems level work, though -- the game is popping with new locations, armor, items, enemies - ALL NPCS CAN NOW BE KILLED (and/or engaged in combat/made hostile) -- so there's a ton to go over. I'm hoping that within the next week I'll have one of those nice big juicy magazine style updates - AND the new build -out for you guys.
Speaking of magazines, for a long while I had been getting asked questions like, "Is the MegaDex a real thing?" -- the "MegaDex" referring to the fake magazine prop used in the Savage trailer. My response was always something like, "Nah, it's just a goofy joke". Well, NO LONGER - real quick here I'll say that I have also been working on bringing that thing to life. Essentially, it will function as a Planet Tobor fanzine in the vein of Diehard GameFan, some of the stuff I really enjoyed about Nintendo Power, and old gaming publications in general.
The goal with that is to get you guys a digital copy of the thing that goes over fun Savage lore stuff, the comic, any and all future Savage updates, showcasing the fan art I've received, and generally ANY other fun stuff I feel like throwing in there.
So new build, new "magazine", new update and a convention coming up!
I'll be at Retropalooza in Arlington, Texas this weekend, September 29th and 30th along with Savage and a booth space (sorry for the short notice - I too only just got the 100% go ahead that I'd have a booth space there) - so if you're in the area or already attending, come say hi!
Again, sorry it's been so long since the last update. I wanted to hop on, let you guys know I'm still alive and STILL working on Savage!
Thanks for all the support and patience, and I'll talk to you next update!
-Matt
2017.12.13 - Corpse Party and New Build!
Hail, Loinclothed Heathens!
Let's get some bad news out of the way RIGHT NOW, shall we? It is becoming crushingly apparent that I won't get to a 100% finished Savage powerhouse of a game by the end of this year. BUT, what I've got right now is fantastically close. It's feeling better (mechanically and content-wise) than I could have ever imagined, so we're getting there!
There is indeed a shiny new playable build to talk about, too, so let's dive in!
Leveling the Playing Field
Item number one for me over the last couple of months has been to MAKE. THE MAP. MATTER! I'm churning out stages, levels and areas like crazy, so here's a sneak peak at one of the more complicated areas I've had to tackle:
Here's a visual guide I've been using to manage this maze-like location known as "Hell's Teeth" (which has some equally menacing lore behind it. Details will be found in item descriptions and NPCs for players to piece together)....
... And, upon entering any of those lettered "nodes", or entrances, we wind up in the above grid (this is pretty much my ode to the Death Mountain stage in Zelda 2).
Navigating the catacombs, ruins and caves that comprise this area is no joke, and you can expect some nasty surprises!
Here are a few glimpses into some of the new nightmarish locations:
These new areas also feature a host of new props and background assets:
Shield Slammin' Noctwurmin' Nightmares
With new places comes new faces. And things with which to murder them. Among them is the Nocturm Cult - a clan of Gosenian death worshippers. Specifically, they bow to The Noctwurm, an aspect of the horned serpent, Abhan Yloth. The two have been seperated so long, they have confused each other for separate entities and have therefore become enemies, one attempting to devour the other.
Some of the new pieces of gear:
It was personally exciting to me to FINALLY get in some heater shield type designs, as well as finally getting in some two-handed axe slaughter time!
Let the Bodies Hit the Other Bodies
One of the hallmarks that I have really tried to get right about the game world I'm trying to create has been interactivity and rules. Rules that all other actors/entities/objects should adhere to (albeit in a whacky 2D barbaric environment). A lot of the feedback I've gotten from viewing folks playing the game has shown some holes in the delivery of this philosophy - one of them being, EVERYBODY tries to pick up corpses!
Well... be disappointed no further!
Yup - you can now pick up, carry, and throw corpses (this includes all the savagely hilarious situations that spring from this, like picking up a downed undead warrior, tossing him into another, and both of them shattering in a shower of bone fragments).
On a related note, this following depiction of more fun with corpses is coming in the next update:
You can see there that corpses will be affected by fire and will stop arrows, making them (corpses) makeshift shields against hazards coming at you from above (including things like falling spikes, acid, etc.)! This also means LIVING enemies, where applicable, will ALSO be affected by things like fire, acid, etc.
Music and Mayhem
Here's a peak at some of the tunes I'm working on that you'll hear in a later game *spoiler*, where *spoiler* summons the *spoiler* causing the player to *spoiler* the *spoiler*:
Though there's work yet to do, all the art, programming, music and mechanics are already blending together to create something that is not just fun, but satisfying to play for you all, and a world full of interesting things and places to discover.
Patch Notes and Update List
That about wraps it up for the highlights of the update. Here's the usual detailed breakdown of what's new in the latest build:
Fixed making Crogyle hostile and breaking Losech NPC
Fixed game crashing when pushing, pulling, or carrying a solid outside of screen boundaries
Fixed player getting "sucked" into an enemy shield when striking enemies with high knockback resist
Fixed player not bouncing off of larger enemies that use unusually shaped damage masks when downward striking them
Fixed player not bouncing off of enemy shields when downward striking them
Fixed downward or upward striking with main weapon causing attacks with sub weapon not being reset to horizontal
Fixed a bug where lifting an object near a solid sends you into the solid, getting you permanently stuck
Fixed a series of enemy corpse hit boxes to make them more appropriately sized
Fixed grabbing onto jump-through ledges sometimes not working. Now about a billion times more reliable (actual math... Actually, not really. But it works way better)
Fixed walking down slopes while carrying an object resetting the state to look like the animation isn't playing
Fixed carried block "landing" on a jump-through platform or solids triggering landing FX (like dust clouds) when it shouldn't. This also fixes the player's vertical speed being killed for a frame when doing so
Fixed if roll dodging, pushing jump while overlapping ladder will descend ladder - THEN, pushing down to climb down, running out of ladder space, Kell will be stuck in the duck state until landing on solid ground and pushing jump
Fixed moving on platform shifts kell when platform changes direction
Fixed if vspd < 0 and kell jumps up into platform, kell is stuck in air state, presumably stuck inside platform. he then moves along with platform
Fixed Kell rubberbanding around moving platforms if you are in the wall cling state (walljump prepare) and the moving platform changes direction
Fixed one-way moving platforms causing issues if they pass over kell while he is ledge hanging/climbing a different platform or solid
Fixed Kell not "following" a moving one-way-moving-ledge if ledge hanging off of it
Changed the method of corpse hit box assignment, making lifting them, tossing them, and generally interacting with them more visually accurate, AND it just feels better
New NPCs
A series of new shields
New "SKS" flavored easter egg weapons and item descriptions
Tweaked stat requirements across multiple pieces of gear
Fixed throwing weapons returning "0" amounts of ammo
Tweaked spawn types on overworld map
Tweaked healing properties on some recovery items
Player can now upward/downward strike with weapons equipped to sub slot
Player can now attack with throwing weapons upward and downward
Player can now lift, carry, and throw corpses (for some savagely humorous results)
Added running water FX (shallow water, waterfalls, etc.)
New pretty (er, I mean, brutal) waterfall backgrounds
Added Noctwurm cultist enemies (with several randomized elements)
Completed Hell's Teeth location
Added new visual props and graphics elements for Noctwurm cultist locations
Added consistent visuals to the contextual item menu
Changed the "level up" menu method (now, drinking from Essence Vessels gives you "level up" option. Choosing this takes you directly to the level up menu where you can assign stats)
Begun work on "Kuchvek's Crossing" area
Changed frequency of bad weather
Tweaked "darkness" of bad weather (especially at night)
Streamer Roundup
There has been a whole HOST of very talented and entertaining people taking a crack at the game and introducing it to their audiences. To them, I say THANK YOU for giving the game a shot and spreading the word!
Click on those links and give those fellas a follow, if you'd be so kind!!
SourKoolaidShow's stream specifically had me in stitches: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/207509016
And that's a wrap on this update! If you want to follow along with development more closely, come take a look at my Twitch page where I stream live development!
https://www.twitch.tv/toborprime
If you're curious for more insight, I have the HUGE pleasure of hanging out with my friend Tim to bring you a brand spankin' new podcast! We're going to make this a thing every other Wednesday from now on!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc8lACP1eks
I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday season! Thank you SO MUCH for all your support, and I will see you next year!!
-Matt
2017.09.12 - Thrusting All Over (and New Build!)
Horizontal thrusts? Up thrusts? DOWN thrusts?! I've got you covered, Barbarian Horde!
The last few months I've been grinding away at the one last juicy feature I felt was necessary to make Savage really shine: Directional combat! I mean, I can't cite one of my big inspirations as Zelda 2 without allowing players to strike their enemy's head from above. Let's have a look.
Directional Combat
Across several new player states, new sprites (774 frames), new armor sprites (2,322), shield positions (you can also shield bash upward and downward!), and weapon positions, bringing the pain to the baddies is now possible from WHEREVER. This has also fixed certain issues I wasn't excited about. Situations like climbing a ladder and having a stubborn enemy directly above you, or some harder to hit, low lying enemies like the cave crawlers and rockbiters.
This also makes existing enemies (like skeleton warriors that spawn with specific gear sets, for example) that are able to mimic the down/upward attacks feel a LOT more fair, giving the player the same strategic choices -- making combat feel WAY more interesting.
Timing a perfect downward strike and HOLDING the attack button also gives you some good air on your bounce!
Let's Talk About the Weather
In those gifs above, I'm sure you've noticed some new sprites and visual effects, like new clouds, and an honest to goodness SUN in the sky. Good eye, I say! There is now a fully functioning dynamic weather system, along with new sun sprites and effects, moon sprites (with actual phases, i.e. new, waxing, waning, full), new cloud sprites that reflect the day/night/weather change, and star constellations that correspond to the different deities worshiped (or abhorred) in the world of Lor.
Here's a look at all of that in action in the 2D platforming sequences and the 3D overworld:
The weather system is also dependent on what in-game season it is (and what location you are currently in -- probably not going to snow/blizzard in the desert, ha!). Along with it, a slew of new backgrounds reflecting things like snowstorms (and winter) have been added:
New weather types include clear skies, cloudy, thunderstorms, light rain into rainstorm, snow, and blizzard.
The combination of location, day/night, season, weather, moon phase, and dominant constellation can, and sometimes WILL affect what sort of randomized encounter you are going to have on the world map.
There are also some secrety fun things constellations can do, depending on what God's fetish, fetish level, and FAVOR stat you currently have (more on that in a future update!).
Daggers in the Dark
The new Gosen Highlands location also brings with it some new areas, dungeons and baddies, like the Noctwurm Assassin, courtesy of the Noctwurm Cult (all with their own backstory and lore)!
Patch Notes and Release Breakdown
NEW FEATURES
Able to attack upward and downward from all appropriate player states (i.e. DOWNTHRUSTING!)
New animation sets (across 774 player frames, 2,322 armor frames!!), weapon and shield placements, and armor sprites to reflect the new directional attack feature
Dynamic weather added:
clear skies
cloudy/foggy
thunderstorms
light rain
rainstorms
snow
blizzard
(sandstorms are planned for appropriate areas)
The dynamic weather is dependent on the current area (biome) you are in, and what game season (fall, winter, spring/summer)
New sun sprites and effects to reflect runrise, noon, sunset, and if there is currently "bad" weather
New cloud sprites that actively reflect the time of day and current weather
New moon sprites and moon phases
New stars and constellations that change over time
New seasonal backgrounds for different areas to reflect the change in season
The day/night system, along with factors like season, weather, moon phase, and what constellation is currently dominant in the sky will affect the randomized encounters on the overworld map. Constellations and their corresponding gods will also trigger certain events and secrets on the overworld map (MUCH of this is still being worked on!)
COMING SOON <*>New Gosen Highlands overworld props and locations including the "Hell's Teeth" dungeon
<*>Gosen Highland specific enemies, including members of the Noctwurm Cult (assassins and ambush-y warriors!)
<*>Vanaheim overworld props and locations
<*>Vanaheim specific enemies, including icy themed monsters, frost giants, and the Vaniir - hardy frozen wasteland warriors
<*>Bug fixes... ALWAYS bug fixes
A reminder - Kickstarter backers can access all the newness via Steam, provided they redeemed their Steam Keys.
Groupees Greenlight Bundle folks can access the same from their product pages (their Steam Keys will unlock once the game is released).
Why Is This Taking So Long
I have zero excuses why this is taking me as long as it's taking, but the reasons are pretty important. Wanting to deliver a game to you all that is worth your time to play is chief among them. It turns out trying to make the best damn game I possibly can takes time, and more time than I initially accounted for. That's 100% on me, and I'm sorry for making you all wait so long.
I will also not release a crippled, ugly thing that I am not proud of, ha! So, the battle continues, but the end is certainly in sight. With the directional combat completed, in the game, and fully functional (and actually feeling pretty great), aspects of the game like personality, mood and atmosphere are coming together very quickly. Especially with the new atmosphere and weather effects in place, the game is looking and feeling like the game I wanted to bring to life in the first place - and I have all of you to thank for that.
The current step is content, content, content (finishing dungeons, NPCs, items, weapons, armor and shields, and a handful of enemies that are not completed to flesh out certain areas).
So again, thank you for your patience, your involvement, and your support - it is keeping the fire going bright, strong and SAVAGE... (*ahem*)!
Your loinclothed (is that even a word?) friend,
-Matt :cartridge:
P.S. Forgot to mention! If you're curious about checking in on the game's progress more frequently, I have been very active with live development streams here: https://www.twitch.tv/toborprime :cartridge:
New Playable Build!
Yes, new build! But we'll get to that in a second -
- I've been down in a development hole working like a demon to get this game polished, feeling great, and worth your time to play. I'm finally coming up for air to show you all the shiny new progress that's been done, and I'm sorry it's taken me since January to do so - but here we go!
NPCs Finally Added, New Dialogue Font!
The mining prison is now teeming with characters you can interact with in the current build - their stories might continue on from here, or end tragically depending on how you handle these interactions. I also completely redesigned the dialogue font for better legibility while retaining the dark fantasy theme:
There is also a new KEYS section in the inventory to store mundane Iron Keys, Gold Keys, and unique quest keys and items:
Updated Controls, Tutorial Prompts and Sequence
The game FINALLY has a tutorial sequence with appropriate prompts (the prompts are purely optional and can be interacted whether you choose to or not) at the start of the game, leading up to the intro story bits:
There is now also a DEDICATED GRAB button for grabbing objects, pushing/pulling them, lifting and tossing them:
Tutorial prompts have been placed elsewhere in the game world where necessary, also:
GUI Madness, Mouse Support and Options
The user interface elements have all gotten an overhaul (visually and mechanically) and now have mostly functioning mouse support! In addition, you can now fully remap either a gamepad, or mouse and keyboard to play EXACTLY how you want to play!
Swapping between gamepad input and keyboard input will also be reflected now across ALL prompts, user interface elements, and HUD elements:
New Essence, Level Up, Restore Point
You can now gain Essence Points from battle and spend them at designated restore points (or, for the lore junkies, "Essence Vessels"; artifacts left behind by ancient beings as they carved their way through the old world):
Spending Essence Points on your three primary stats (FAVOR is a liquid stat, which can also raise and lower depending on other actions) will increase your level, but also increase sub stats like knockback resistance and knockback power, dodge speed, allow you to equip more powerful gear, and lots of other things that we'll go over closer to release!
Vendor System and Gear Comparisons
You can now sell and buy things! FINALLY!
As is included in the vendor system, you can also compare potential weapons, shields and armor stats against your currently equipped gear to see whether you will gain any increases (or decreases) in things like damage output, resistance, armor hit points, and whether you have enough MIGHT or RESOLVE to use a piece of equipment:
New Music
Here's an assortment of new (and redone) music tracks that have made it into the game! These are mostly done, but still need an eventual final pass for EQ-ing and mixing/mastering:
There are many other improvements, additions and bug fixes in the latest build - to many to go into detail over, so here are the patch notes!
DreamHack Austin
I had the spur of the moment opportunity to bring the game to DreamHack in Austin over the weekend.
I was incredibly nervous and didn't quite know what to expect (and wasn't sure if we were going to make it), but the show went well! I got a LOT of good feedback, and PC Gamer came over and did a video interview and captured some game footage. Here are the videos if you fancy watching me be a sleep deprived idiot in front of a camera!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkbq_L5z304
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmEhsoiKwVI
(the Youtube comments sections are especially hilarious)
Anyway, thanks for checking out the update! That's all for now - more to come soon!
-Matt
'Tis The Trailer!
Merry (post) Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year!
You've got one more present to open before the year's over:
2016 Pre-launch Trailer!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtcM_Svj6TU&t=3s
The credit for direction, cinematography and visual FX goes to the insanely talented Christine Carstairs!
Go check her site out and other works here:
http://www.escapingwestlawn.com/
https://twitter.com/DSLR_Girl
Sorry this wasn't shot to you all sooner -- I've been in and out of consciousness all week thanks to a cheerful little holiday flu ('tis the season!). As soon as I'm able, I'll fire off the next update to the live playable build!
Updates that you can expect:
New NPC interactions and story events
LOTS of traversal bugs fixed for the main character (game feels MUCH better now)
UI fixes
Gamepad and keyboard fixes (especially as it relates to the UI)
LOTS of new stuff (including enemies)!
Expect a more in-depth change log once the build goes live!
Until then, have a safe and happy New Year! See you in 2017!
- Matt
2016.11.21 - Seven Palette Army
Hail, Barbarian Horde!
Sorry this update has been a long time coming -- October turned out to be unusually busy and I had a number of large game-related issues I wanted to tackle before delivering you all an update. But rest assured, challenges hath been slain and there's a ton of new work to talk about!
Here's what's been going on since the last update:
NEW/Retro-fitted Bad Guys
I've been diving into my already-finished bag of tricks to produce some newer baddies, especially for the starter areas that many people are having trouble with.
For example, the bats (which a LOT of people have been getting slaughtered by) have been nerfed and are more manageable now, as far as their speed and aggressiveness. I've done a palette swap of them to create a newer, deadlier bat monster. This little process has been done on a series of baddies to help balance out the overall experience a bit more, especially in an attempt to teach the player early on what is expected of them, mechanically.
Here are some other screencaps and examples of newer critters I've crafted:
Area and Level Tuning
Some of the areas go on for WAY too long (in my opinion) and feel like filler. I've been cutting down on area maps and tossing rooms that feel excessive.
I've also been going through the finished areas and FINALLY adding physically visible and interactive save/checkpoints:
... AND, adding shortcuts (probably letting my Dark Souls fetish show)!
There are certain areas, too, that I felt lacked a solid visual identity (mainly, background images and graphics)-- especially unique locations. I'm fixing that:
All of these aspects are finally making certain areas feel "complete" and polished.
Massive Mechanical Tuning
Across all of the finalized content I'm addressing and tuning several things:
<*>Platforms/breakable platforms timers
<*>XP drop values
<*>XP gain distribution across player, equipped items
<*>HP/defense values
<*>Attack/damage values
<*>force resistent values across all enemies
Those have been my main priorities. Now, here's a BIG one:
Anyone who has played the live development build would notice a lack of effective area surrounding your weapon strikes, especially when you are flush up against something you're trying to hit, or trying to hit one of those pesky, smaller and agile bats.
Here's an example of this problem:
Each weapon has it's own unique hitbox, usually using a type of 'precise' collision detection. Obviously, this can be a problem when you have a situation like the one pictured above; the player is standing RIGHT NEXT to a door, they strike it, trying to open it, but their weapon's hitbox winds up OUTSIDE the door's hitbox, therefore resulting in NO collision.
I've taken steps to fix this by reworking the combat system to accommodate an additional invisible, inverted hitbox that bridges the gap between the player's bounding box and their weapon (in other words, a hitbox that is an arm's length).
This took a lot of doing and re-engineering of the current system, but is WAY worth it. Combat feels more responsive since you have better coverage, and attempting to strike things like levers, switches and doors will now no longer (mostly) result in a complete whiff.
Unintentionally, this also introduces an interesting 'direct hit' kind of system; if you are not striking an enemy with the actual bounding box of your weapon, BUT your mirrored arm-length hitbox collides with an enemy, it won't do quite as much damage is slicing an enemy directly with your rad sword would. Accidental, but interesting and offers a bit more depth to the combat!
MORE Events
I've added a TON of new dialogue and NPC interaction including but not limited to:
<*>unique events based on dialogue interaction
<*>side quests
<*>hidden enemies
<*>mini-boss and special enemy encounters
<*>
In addition, I've gone back to previous dialogue and edited it for either length, or to bring it all up to speed with current character arcs and goings on.
Fixed Issues and Bugs
I've been pouring over all of your feedback (thank you!) and issue reporting, and I'm busy at work cracking all these little suckers, and addressing a few other issues.
I'm also working on RE-working the save system -- at present, it isn't perfectly future-proofed, and some technical issues need to be ironed out, but this probably won't be 'perfect' until closer to launch.
Anyway -- thanks for reading another update! There will be a big juicy patch coming to the live development build soon including all of these changes, content, and more!
Thanks again for all your support and patience, and have a great Thanksgiving!
-Matt
2016.09.11 - I Have Something to Say!
"... It's better to burn out than to fade away!"
Sorry -- I've been listening to too much (is that even possible?) of the Highlander soundtrack while working. On a completely unrelated note, how about a project update?!
Talk!
I've begun the process of rewriting old bits of dialogue, as well as creating brand new bits of NPC dialogue and story events. I've updated the old dialogue system to better perform under different circumstances, like whether or not the player should 'trigger' a dialogue event to auto start, or whether they should press the 'interact' button when colliding with a dialogue object to start a conversation with an NPC...
In this one below (don't worry -- the ugly green box is just there for debugging purposes), the player waits until colliding with the dialogue object before pushing 'up' on the gamepad or keyboard:
This system was already in place, but not wholly hooked up to NPCs. It was also super clunky and a bit all over the place in terms of multiple different dialogue objects that would handle different scenarios. It's all been condensed and trimmed down to one tidy little dialogue object.
Direction!
In addition to tidying up the dialogue event system, I've added practical events to the game that will give the player hints and objectives, as well as main and sub quests:
Music Break!
There's plenty of audio and music work left to be done, but every once in a while I'll run over to my music creation and editing software and crank something out to help emphasize the mood and tone of the content I'm working on. Here's a little bit of that (rough and work-in-progress):
I want to thank everyone who's been playing the alpha demo for all of their feedback and bug reporting across Steam, Kickstarter, Castlevania Dungeon Forums, IndieDB, Gamejolt -- I'm hearing all of it, adding your reports and issues to my todo lists and replying where I can! Thank you so much - it's a huge help!
There isn't an update to the alpha demo this week since there's a bunch of dialogue and quest content yet to be added to make the beginning area stuff make more sense, but expect it soon!
Thanks again! 'Til next update!
-Matt
2016.09.04 - Super (re)Sized!
Happy Sunday!
This week sees quite a few fixes to issues plaguing the alpha demo! Let's talk about a couple of the biggest and most obnoxious ones:
Alt+Tabbing
This... this has been the bane of my existence for quite a while -- BUT, there's finally a fix for it!
Once upon a time, the game, when minimized, or not in focus, still accepted input. Gamepad buttons would still register, as well as keyboard key presses. So if, say, you were alt+tabbed out and Googling something, any keys that performed an action in the game would register.
I tried to fix this by locking out controls when the game registered an "OS pause event". The problem with this, was that locking out controls if you were in a menu screen, title screen, fade in/out -- ANYWHERE but the actual game-y bits, you could not regain control when maximizing your window or trying to get back into the game again.
Now, you can alt+tab like a monkey on too much caffeine and the game (maybe) won't break! YAY!
Display Size
Currently, the game only draws to an aspect ratio of 16:9, and this caused issues when in full screen on some displays.
Now, the game will respect the size of ANY crazy aspect ratio, while still maintaining it's visuals and aspect ratio.
I even got some use out of this older monitor to test display sizes with!
Different aspect ratios will be supported down the road, but at least now you can play the demo without having vital information cropped from the screen (like the player character's life bar).
Anomalies and Weird Stuff
Here are some (hopefully) extreme edge case issues someone reported to me:
My first response to this would have been to take the cartridge out and blow into it.
Super weird (and very unsettling from a technical standpoint)! Though, I did get some silly enjoyment from seeing those screens. I have no idea what's going on here, but hopefully no one else is experiencing this madness. Let me know if you are!
Steam Keys
If you are a Kickstarter backer, you should have your keys and can redeem them -- check your email!
Anyone waiting on Groupees Build A Greenlight Bundle 5 keys will get them very soon!
Latest Build and Fixes
he latest build for the alpha demo, if you don't get it through Steam, is here:
<*>Alt tabbing no longer causes certain screens to become unresponsive
<*>When application loses focus (alt+tabbing or clicking outside of game window), added click prompt to unfreeze game
<*>Fixed a bug that caused playtime to reset once you exit a procedural encounter on worldmap
<*>Fixed the game crashing if you navigate to the 'skills' or 'quest' menus
<*>Fixed mining prison elevator wait time
<*>Pickups are now drawn in front of everything to make them more visible
<*>Improved game scaling based on display size
<*>Tidied up a couple door, tile, object and enemy placements in mining prison
<*>Fixed save/load system and ironed out a ton of bugs (more probably remain)
<*>Deleted save files will clear their display data when deleting a save slot from the load game menu
<*>Game would crash when backing out of Sound menu if a "yes/no" prompt was up Smith hammer drops off of a certain boss
It's a somewhat short list, but a big chunk of last week was spent making sure all of the Kickstarter backers Steam keys were sent out. Again - if you DID NOT get your key and you are a Kickstarter backer, make sure to check your email.
Thanks again everyone, and I hope you all had a great weekend!
