The Steam Next Fest is starting soon! This will be a great opportunity to test out some interesting games - including Shardpunk, as I've just released a brand new demo!
This demo allows you to pick a new character for your party: Julius, an Imperial shock trooper, who is skilled in dealing heavy damage with his heavy rifle - and with a chainsaw attached to it!
I've also included a tutorial section, which will guide you through your first turns of the game.
I hope that the demo will get you hooked! If it will, do make sure that you've wishlisted the game - nothing gives me more clear feedback than your interest.
Thanks for reading! Enjoy the demo! And do leave me some feedback!
Devlog #135: hand-holding tutorial
Different games have different entry levels. Some of them do not require much knowledge from a player, meaning that even a less-experienced person might play them with little to no introduction to game rules (think platformers, mobile stuff). These games are perfect for public showcases at, say, gaming expos, as you can basically get anyone to sit and insta-play it.
Shardpunk, on the other hand, needs some more introduction. I mean it's not a genre-defining title, but it does deviate from XCOM-like games. So it does need a tutorial - and one that guides the player through their initial actions, explaining the rules.
Long story short, I've added such a tutorial to Shardpunk.
It guides the player through the first few turns, teaching them the basics of combat, looting, and other useful stuff.
This rat shotgunner from tutorial should always relocate itself to the same place and reload its weapon.
After a few turns, the game opens up. And then there's another tutorial part when the player enters the shelter
Furthermore, I made sure that this tutorial (in a slightly changed form) is present in the new demo that I am working on - so you will be able to give it a spin in the nearest future!
Take care!
Devlog #134: shelter phase changes
Ah, feedback loops. Everyone in the IT industry knows that one of the crucial things when creating software is to keep these loops short. You really want to know what the end users think about your product.
This is even more important when creating a game. After all, there are no user requirements that came from the customer. I mean the players will have some expectations (if it's an XCOM-like title, they won't expect dynamic, real-time battles... or at least I hope so), but the main requirement is that the game should be simply fun to play.
(Shooting rats is fun! Though they sometimes fight back) (I mean it was really the rats who started the fight, so it's the player who is fighting back)
And because it's not really easy (maybe even impossible) to define what "fun" is, iterating becomes the most important part of the game creation process. And I'm happy that I have a great community of playtesters that give me lots of awesome feedback!
Recently I've decided to take a closer look at feedback regarding the shelter phase, and I found some very interesting observations there. Here's what a shelter phase looked like in one of the older builds:
As you can see, there were shelter actions available at the bottom. The player was also able to hover their cursor above different things, and for some of them, a text near the mouse cursor was displayed.
When the player clicked something on the screen, two different things could happen:
if it was a lore-only prop, a short character message was displayed:
If it was something related to an action, a proper action button would become highlighted at the bottom. This also included characters - when you clicked on them, the "heal" action would become highlighted:
It turned out that players were getting confused when they first entered the shelter. The most common issues were that:
a) they didn't know that it was possible/necessary to change the active character to see different actions,
and
b) they thought that the whole phase has a point'n'click interface, and action buttons at the bottom are redundant, as all stuff could be reached by just clicking on different parts of the shelter.
Clicking on a character with LMB (so a legit way of switching characters during combat) was not working here (RMB was working, but it was counterintuitive). Also, seeing all the healing actions for every character all the time was implying that the actions menu indeed holds all the possible actions and that they don't depend on the currently selected character.
As a solution, I changed the approach to the shelter healing actions. Previously, every character had the possibility to heal every other character. Now I've made sure that only one "heal" action is visible at a time, and that it belongs to the currently selected character.
The other thing I changed (and it was slightly heartbreaking) was removing the mouse-clicking-on-screen thing completely. There are no more mouse hover texts over shelter objects. The only way to interact with the actions is by using the buttons. Yes, I had to sacrifice some of the coolness of clicking through shelter elements; on the other hand, that feature would not be available on a console port (assuming it will become a thing), as there'd be no mouse cursor there.
These changes helped make the shelter UI more readable, and that was confirmed during recent playtests.
Feedback loops are awesome. Still, the biggest piece of feedback that I'll receive will come from all the people who will try out the full game after it releases. And that's gonna happen in the nearest future. I am extremely thrilled (and scared) because of that!
OK, this post is long enough, so I'm gonna wrap it up already. Take care, have a great day, and do join me on the Discord channel!
Devlog #133: 2022 wrap-up
This year I learned what it means to finish creating a game. The last months have been insanely rich in lots of playtesting and iterating on some of the game rules/design.
Just as you believe that the game is done-done, there are some new suggestions/issues that should be addressed before the release. And I'm not even talking about the good old scope creep, as it's often not a case of "I need to add more playable characters" thing, but more of a "this character needs rebalancing, and this mechanic could be made more meaningful".
This is how games are made. Their core goal is to entertain, and I am lucky enough to have people around the game that are constantly giving me feedback on how to improve the product. This is great, and I'm extremely joyful because of it. The game is in its best form since, well, ever!
Currently, Shardpunk is undergoing the process of transitioning from "done" to "shippable". I cannot wait to join the ranks of indie developers who actually managed to ship their first game as a commercial product!
With the release date scheduled for Q1 2023, it won't be long before Shardpunk will be publicly available. I mean we're still talking about a few months - but as I am working on the game for a few years already, that's literally nothing.
2023 will be a good year, and I wish all of you the best! May all your wishes come true! Take care!
Special Devlog for #TurnBasedFest!
What a time to be alive!
#TurnBasedFest has just started, and I'm proud that Shardpunk can be part of it along with many awesome games! I'm sure I will be playing or at least checking out many upcoming titles in the genre that I am a big fan of (otherwise I would not be creating my own turn-based game, would I?).
Speaking of playing games, here's the big news: I have released a brand new demo of Shardpunk: Verminfall!
Go check it out, as the game went through LOTS of changes since the previous demo, including new enemies and combat mechanics, more progression options, and numerous quality-of-life improvements. As always, I will welcome all the feedback from you, so come into Shardpunk's Discord server and share your thoughts on the game.
Along with the demo, here's the latest gameplay trailer to give you a glimpse of the full game!
Does it mean that the game is close to being finished and released? Well, yes and no.
I know that I am almost at the finish line, and I am pretty excited because of it. I also know that the last 10% of the development is the hardest part. This is why I decided to push the release date to Q1 2023.
This extra time will allow me to make a better, more balanced, and optimized game. I’ll probably spend it mostly on playtesting and tweaking. You’re all invited to participate in this process on Discord too!
The amount of ideas we're bouncing off each other there is amazing! I would never have thought that I would be getting that many responses and reactions to the game I am making. It’s humbling and very motivating.
I hope you watch the new trailer, play the demo, wishlist the game, and then join me on Discord as I’m preparing to release Shardpunk: Verminfall.
Have a great day!
Join me for this special livestream!
I'm happy to inform you that Shardpunk will be featured during the #TurnBasedFest (December 8-12)!
I'll share a few big updates during the event and join kormakrtv on his Twitch channel to talk about the game. He'll also play the latest build to give you a sneak peek into the game.
Another round of Shardpunk playtests is currently in progress. I am gathering lots of feedback. This is awesome.
Such an iterative approach is one of the key things that get me going. Developing a game as a solo programmer does leave a mark on my sanity, but feedback from people who found the game interesting gives me hope that pushing all the way to the finish line makes sense.
Instead of writing about new features, here are some gameplay gifs from one of my test playthroughs:
Have a great day everyone!
Devlog #131: combat tactics, and more
It's Independence Day here in Poland - so I am planning to play more and work less today!
Still, here's the latest progress update on Shardpunk: I'm tweaking the in-game mechanics to improve the fun factor even more. Here's what I have for you in this entry:
UI changes
You can now access the tutorials - which have been rebranded as "Codex" - from the main game screen so that you don't have to open up the pause menu. The same happened to the unlocks screen.
Overwatch triggering indicator!
Yes! You will be able to see where the enemy overwatch reaction shots will get you.
Combat tactics
You will be able to discover combinations of actions during combat that will grant you special bonuses. I don't want to spoil them, so here's a screenshot of one of them being activated:
As you can see, this tactic is about performing two overwatch actions with characters who are standing next to each other. This grants you some accuracy boost. Things similar to these are hidden in the game, waiting to be uncovered (and then used frequently) by the player!
Wow, the "last 10% of the project taking 90% of the time" thing is sure real! The awesome community in the Discord server gives enormous amounts of feedback, and I am constantly busy tweaking the game based on that.
The things I want to showcase today are the features implemented to counter the "game being too punishing" remark.
#1: Auto-healing mechanism
When character's HPs reach zero, they enter a "bleeding out" state. Another character can then approach them and use the "revive" action on them, which will bring them back to life.
Sounds fair. The thing is, sometimes it's not possible to reach the other character in time, or without exposing your other characters. Or you might not have any other characters left.
That's why it turned out that characters in Shardpunk are equipped with personal CPR units, that can be used to self-revive them! Well, you need a Fusion Core to make it work, but I believe it's a fair tradeoff. Also, the game has now extra usage for Fusion Cores!
#2: Close calls. And retaliation attacks!
It seems that Shardpunk characters have started to be luckier recently - there's a chance that they can avoid a lethal blow coming their way using the newly added "Close Call" mechanics. Every time a Close call is triggered, the probability of it happening again gets reduced.
What is more, there's a chance that after a Close Call a character will trigger a retaliation attack, which is an always-hitting, enemy-interrupting move. Even if you don't manage to kill the enemy with it, they will lose the ability to perform any other actions this turn.
#3: increased cap for revivals
Up until now, the characters could enter the "bleeding out" status only once in combat - so after they've been revived once in, the second time their HPs go down to zero they insta-die.
I've increased the number of allowed "bleeding out" states to two (at least in the easy difficulty; the normal difficulty has it still at one). This should help the players out!
Peace out! Have a great weekend!
Devlog #129: changing few rules
Hi! Here's a short list of recent gameplay changes that I've introduced to Shardpunk based on all the feedback I received:
Burst shots
Machine gun rats now can perform a "burst shot" action, which deals AOE damage. This will make them even more deadly!
Poison that... heals
Poison mortar rats can now target their allies, which will apply healing effects to them:
That lead to a nice "feature", when the poison mortar rats were healing themselves:
And despite it looking funny, I actually removed that self-healing behaviour from the game as it was too annoying.
Stun grenades!
Grenades can now be used in an alternative way - if the player purchases a certain team skill, the characters can use them in stun mode. This will make the combat even more interesting.
I believe that Shardpunk is shaping up nicely, and I can't wait to finally release it! Take care!
