I'm gonna keep it short this time. I am sticking to the grind and working towards making the game complete. Working on new level types, new skills and characters.
I like how the game is shaping up. I am already able to play through the first chapter, right to the end of the second one. Shardpunk is really starting to turn into a tangible product - I'm very excited!
Due to lack of time, I won't be going into details, but here's a bunch of screenshots from one of my playthroughs:
Mycroft getting happy about all the loot, then pretty angry at spotting the vermin
New visuals for the charging station for automatons
Rescuing a downed ally
Medical bot stunning the enemies
Take care!
Devlog #118: New character type
I am aiming to have ten playable character types in Shardpunk, plus three different automaton types. I am proud to announce that another - the ninth one - has been added to the game.
This is Hector, and he is skilled in revolver shooting as well as in melee combat, using his blade.
Lore-wise, he is an Imperial political officer who has been caught in the middle of rat attack on the Capitol. Now he is helping to get the automaton to safety.
This character is the only one who has the "melee overwatch" skill, which allows him to attack enemies when they move through adjacent tiles. This might become useful when guarding narrow passes.
As you can see, the blade overwatch skill has multiple charges - so same as regular overwatch shots (which is related to the overwatch changes I wrote about in my previous entry). The more rat kills, the better the game gets, right?
Other than that, Hector can use his revolver and blade for regular attack, which makes him a pretty versatile warrior.
The fun thing about all these character classes, skills and enemy types is that I don't even know how many fun strategies/meta concepts will emerge in Shardpunk, and I love it. A game where the player tells their own story and which is replayable is something I would definitely like to play! I guess that's why I am still not bored when playing Shardpunk for a thousand time ;)
Take care!
Devlog #115: working on a new demo
Man, things really started to suck in this part of world. Yet again, my piece of advice regarding indie game development I gave on Reddit the other day ("there's never a good time to start - just go") has proven to be true.
There's war at the other side of the border; more than 1 million migrants from Ukraine have come to Poland so far, and basically everyone is involved in helping them, in one way or the other.
As if the pandemic was not enough. Damn.
In the midst of all that, I am working on preparing a new demo of Shardpunk. I can't say too much about the release date, but the fact is that the QA process has already started.
Besides that, I'm working on adding the third automaton type to the game - a combat unit. I'm gonna write more about it after it's done, and for now grab these gifs.
Take care everyone.
Live Development of Turn-Based Tactical RPG Shardpunk: Verminfall
Join Slawek on Tuesday, 8 March, at 10 AM PST / 1 PM EST / 6 PM GMT / 7 PM CET to see him work on Shardpunk: Verminfall and share his design approach when it comes to making a turn-based tactical RPG.
The live stream will be available on Twitch, YouTube, and our Steam card.
Devlog #114: The medical automaton
The general gameplay goal in Shardpunk is to escape the sieged Capitol along with an experimental automaton unit, which is equipped with a powerful energy source. Depending on the type of automaton the player will choose at the beginning of a game, the combat tactics might be completely different.
The first automaton that I already wrote about in one of my previous entries was the support one.
It had some skills that were increasing the aim of characters, doing some weapon auto-reload stuff and it had some means of crowd control.
Now, the second automaton that I want to write about today is a medical unit.
It won't be a surprise for you if I mention that this unit has a healing ability. What is more, this healing effect affects multiple tiles and does not generate Stress for your characters. Also, this action does not require a stimpak, but it does have a cooldown timer.
Additionally, the automaton can be upgraded so that it can buff units in its area, increasing their movement range (and replenishing their Action Points, if the skill is fully upgraded).
Also, this is the only mechanical unit that can revive characters who are bleeding out.
As with any other automaton unit, this one also can spend Action Points to increase its movement range in the next turn. You can upgrade it so that it can self-heal itself, although this skill has a limited number of usages in combat - otherwise, it would be too powerful.
Now, there's a lot of playtesting and balancing that will need to be done now that such a powerful healer unit type is present in the game. I played a number of test runs with the new medical bot and I can see that its presence - and the availability of free mass healing actions - pushed me to a different approach in combat. I was able to become more aggressive and take more risks due to the fact that I knew I'd be able to heal my units more.
That being said, one must remember that Hit Points that become lost during combat need to be manually healed in the shelter phase anyway - so the "healing" done during combat is temporary (that's why I am rendering such "healed" HPs in a different color). This means that I cannot go full suicidal with my units.
That's it for this entry. I hope that you are all staying safe. Take care!
