Soul Dream: Undesired Shift cover
Soul Dream: Undesired Shift screenshot
Steam
Genre: Adventure, Indie

Soul Dream: Undesired Shift

17/6 - More content and bug fixes, gameplay paradigm 360-kickflip and update!

Hey y'all, got a second update on this game!



Hello and welcome to Soul Dream: Undesired Shift's second (hopefully) bi-monthly update as we head towards release, which should be around the corner...

Except I've decided to move that corner again to December. I'll explain more in the progress update section, but simply put, I want to be able to take my time and not worry about rushing things.

Anyways, lets get to the first section!

Demo Updates


Going from most exciting changes to least

  • Soul Dream: Undesired Shift has now been renamed to Undesired Shift
  • Aviary and Evan's HP is now COMBINED - gone are the days of having one of your characters awkwardly left alone!
  • In addition to COMBINED HP, there is a now a HP Regain effect where if you attack after losing HP, you will be able to get some back
  • Three new enemies have been introduced into the demo that'll (possibly) change the way you approach combat!
  • Dendamama has new bombs! Now distinct from your own mines!
  • Visuals have been spruced up again, as the worlds have more colour, props and visual variety!
  • The mantra icons are now pictographical - no, I'm not explaining what that means
  • The Vibe ability now does a bit of auto-targeting if you slightly misclicked an enemy
  • A new set of weaker stat Mantras are now available - this is to slow down scaling in the demo
  • Certain special encounters are no longer repeatable by changing locations
  • The game now loads you from the last position you were standing - no more repeating an area because you quit the game!
  • The buff from the Block ability is now visible
  • Fixed a bug where sometimes you wouldn't be able to move the characters
  • Fixed some sound bugs
  • The title screen has also been updated


Progress Report



Alright before we go any further, let me explain the delay.

So far, I've been working on UD since last year as a solo-dev on part time basis. I probably go 5-20 hours per week working on this game and I've really underestimated the effort required to finish developing Undesired Shift early on. I do not kid when I say a lot of early UD development is me de-scoping the game to make it doable for July release and even then it turns out it's still quite a mountain to overcome.

And then of course, I think if you look at UD's development history, a lot of pivoting has gone on to get gameplay, visuals and UI systems right, and that has pushed the release back, for the better at least.

Fortunately, a lot of things are now set in stone and I don't see the visual approach, gameplay and UI changing much from here, and surprisingly there almost half the content for Undesired Shift is done, which means I could release by August possibly, but I'm leaving it for December because why not - what if a horrible bug showed up?

Anyways, enough blogging, lets talk numbers!

Summary

  • Story/Script - 98%
  • Music - 55-65%
  • Locations - 15%
  • Mantras/Abilities - 75%
  • Characters/Manifest - 30%
  • Programming - 95%


Story/Script has been fully reviewed and finalised for the most part! Our scenario have been set and I'll probably won't making any further changes to it. Anyways the missing 2% is in case I do decide to change something

Music is going. I got a sick track I want to share, but it's spoilers, so uh... Trust me it's good!

Location has moved backward somehow. Weird right? It's not so much that the scope has increased, because it hasn't, but the systems and visual approach have changed, and so the locations had to be redone to fit those changes.

While no new mantras have actually been made, adding in the new lower tier mantras should be balancing the gameplay a lot more manageable. The newer mantras will come, but it really doesn't take long to program them

Character/Manifests have progressed somewhat, I got around to getting plenty of reskins in, and fully animated a new boss (albeit he isn't ready to go into the demo yet).

Lastly, Programming...

Thanks for reading the update! Go and enjoy the demo!

21/4 - Some QoL Updates and Spring Cleaning

Hey y'all, new update post!



Hello and welcome to Soul Dream: Undesired Shift's first update post!

I guess it's been pretty dry here for a while, and considering an update for the SD:UD demo has just been released, I thought I make post to let you know what's changed and what's coming!

Demo Updates


So going from least technical changes to most

  • All characters have been recoloured/coloured! Now everyone's just a bit more pleasing to look at!
  • Nearly all art has bilinear filtering - This means almost everything looks just a bit smoother
  • Typos and writing inconsistencies have been touched up
  • Snare damage increased on 0.2 attack per second to 0.5 attack per second
  • Dendamama is a bit more shovey
  • Labahitams are less likely to rupture your ear drums
  • The Leave Shop Button now works
  • No more INFINITE RUNNING - This game breaking bug is now gone; it had been caused by general button mashing. You can now button mashing knowing SD:UD won't break!
  • Other technical changes I forgot about


If you haven't played the demo yet or have had trouble with a certain game breaking bug, be assured that the demo is now good to go!

Progress Report



Progress report?! Well, I may as well go off on how the final game is coming along

Summary

  • Story/Script - 80%
  • Music - 50-60%
  • Locations - 25%
  • Mantras/Abilities - 70%
  • Characters/Manifests - 20%
  • Programming - 95%

Since it's our first time here, let me break it down a bit!

Story/Script consists of Scenario Design, Game Progression and the implementation of scripts into the game. Currently Scenario Design and Game Progression are all done, most of the cutscenes have been built into the game, but haven't been tested and integrated. There's also a few final scripts that need to be written and reviewed before the game's story script is complete,

Music is straight forward. The game isn't too big or ambitious, so we won't need much more, probably just 10 or more tracks to go!

Locations haven't shifted much since Steamfest, because it isn't a priority as this can be done towards the end of the game's development. This category also includes props and tilesets which haven't been prioritised. Fortunately the number of these locations have been decided, so there is a clear and countable goal for this category.

Mantras/Abilities like Locations has also been sidelined, but the reason for this is simply that most of the planned mantras/abilities have already been implemented and are available in the demo

Ooooo boi, Characters/Manifests is going to be the biggest time sink out of all of these and it's what I've been most of my time on recently. Art takes time, and animation is just art done 50 times over. Thats not even mentioning the fact that I then have to bring these spritesheets to life in Unity, set up animations and then movesets.
Have a link to appreciate what has been done
Some gifs

Last, Programming is at 95% for the same reason your English teacher never gave anyone 100%. It's pretty much done, and all there's left is just bug fixes, and just whatever new (minor) functionality suddenly comes up

Thanks for reading the update! I hope you enjoy the demo!

Speedrunning Soul Dream: Undesired Shift Demo on Misery mode?!
Deddonotto (me) tries to speed through Soul Dream: Undesired Shift Demo on Misery mode, which is the hardest difficulty in the game, making all enemies incredibly tough and hit way harder

Come watch me suffer trying to get good times on the Demo and exploit the game in ways only a developer could know