Sign in to follow this  
elvaq

[RELEASE] Johann's Baton

Recommended Posts

Going to try and tackle drawing/mouse-based gameplay with this one. My current idea is something like "Typing of the Dead but with magic sigils a la Okami"

 

Not sure if it'll be demon hunting or demon summoning but I'm leaning towards summoning big powerful monsters to defeat everyday and/or absurdist obstacles.

 

Doing a lot of design thinking this weekend along with working on the basic drawing mechanic. Need to get "symbol/picture recognition" in as soon as possible.

 

Gonna re-listen to the episode to see if it contains any weird/good ideas to include

 

Current progress:

busting.PNG

 

 

FINAL BUILD AND GIFS

 

PC (Windows/Mac)

 

WebPlayer

 

fromtitle.gif

inprogress.gif

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

What are the trails/paint made of? Are they gameObjects, particles, or lines?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Currently it's pre-fabbing a 32x32 sprite GameObject. Or rather, it's getting prefabs from an object pool, something I've been meaning to try for a while. It's pretty cool, they disappear and release back into the pool after a few seconds so there's a neat "erase effect" that basically traces over your path deleting stuff.

 

I'm not happy with the look though so I'm going to try some of the LineRenderer solutions out there. Look fairly easy. Will probably have a series of "gates" to detect collision with the line, like checkpoints in a racing game.

 

As far as goals/objectives, I'm thinking of pulling a bunch of random situations/quandaries from an XML file and then assigning them difficulty levels. Sort of like the custom dictionaries in the PC version of Typing of the Dead Overkill. There's a lot I could do with generating text meshes and putting various colors and effects on them to indicate difficulty (the player would be able to choose between a set of things which they want to tackle).

 

But the real bugbear is going to be the core design of "difficulty" with drawing these sigils. I haven't got it all down yet but right now I'm thinking of some combination of color swapping, timers, and "sigil complexity." Anyone have ideas?

I'm going to keep programming basic stuff while I think about it all more~

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Something you might consider is taking some cues from the Battle Ogre series if you go the summoning route with it. Basically those games were RTS/RPGs where you would send groups of units across a map and when two opposing groups met it would open up a window that would show the two groups engaging in combat for two rounds. After the two rounds of combat the groups would be thrown away from each so that if combat didn't go in your favor you could retreat and actually have a chance of getting away. You might want to ditch the combat window part for sure I would think, but overall I think it would be a good way to give the player control over several monsters and not overwhelm them. Making the main objective for the player identifying what monster is best for what scenario, with managing the already summoned monsters a secondary goal. Or at least it is in the version of your game the exists in my head. ;)

 

I'm not sure how relevant any of this is to you but for some reason the idea of summoning monsters via sigils brought that series to mind.

 

Here's a Youtube video that shows what I'm talking about:

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Something you might consider is taking some cues from the Battle Ogre series if you go the summoning route with it. Basically those games were RTS/RPGs where you would send groups of units across a map and when two opposing groups met it would open up a window that would show the two groups engaging in combat for two rounds. After the two rounds of combat the groups would be thrown away from each so that if combat didn't go in your favor you could retreat and actually have a chance of getting away. You might want to ditch the combat window part for sure I would think, but overall I think it would be a good way to give the player control over several monsters and not overwhelm them. Making the main objective for the player identifying what monster is best for what scenario, with managing the already summoned monsters a secondary goal. Or at least it is in the version of your game the exists in my head. ;)

 

I'm not sure how relevant any of this is to you but for some reason the idea of summoning monsters via sigils brought that series to mind.

Interesting! I've been thinking/working on turn-based strategy stuff so I'm aware of the retreat mechanics but not quite like that. Pretty cool stuff though I don't think it's a fit with where I'm going right now.

 

Got a lot of basic systems and setup done today. Also made a surprising amount of progress with design and implementation of basic features. Have got one basic sigil going with checkpoints clearing and failing. Will need a hell of a lot of polish to make it feel good but I'm over the moon to have stuff just responding properly already.

 

I think from here, I need to work on being able to transition to the next sigil, choose from one or two options (you'll rotate the wheel left or right, as seen in the gif below). And also think about a good content creation process because I now have to set up checkpoints for god knows how many sigils... I guess it's sort of like level design.

 

Day two progress gif: i am a child.

dayone2.gif

 

I even started developing the 'story' because hey, why not!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Have been slowly and consistently building out the base systems of the game through the week. The core game loop of drawing the sigils and choosing the next one is in there, as seen here:

 

sigilsmultiple.gif

(good thing i added tons of particles since GifCam doesn't seem to like the mouse cursor)

 

 

So now I'm at the halfway point and need to start making big decisions that will let me finish with a relatively complete. I had a silly backstory worked out, explaining that Johann was a minimum wage wizard who deals with outsourced anxieties and dispels them by summoning demons. Kind of a grandiose concept which boils down to rote actions and a quota, which I really like.

 

But after listening to Sean & Danielle discuss creators hamfisted-ly dropping in weighty themes or stories into what are otherwise simple puzzle action games, I think I might drop it. I generally agree more with Danielle that the personal touch is always great but I don't think I'd have the capacity to get something in there that I'd be proud of with the time remaining.

 

So I'm just going to double down on what's in there and make it as wild of a "babby's first demon summoning" arcade game as I can, with more particles, screen shake, and all of that. Which means that those anxiety text strings will probably be replaced by regular old demon names. So long, 'extra hair,' I'll miss you while I'm testing.

 

Besides, I think I'll just barely have enough time to push in a lot of content while tweaking the balance and bullet-proofing the systems. Two weeks suddenly seems like a very short time indeed!!

 

 

Here's a bonus shot of my in-editor reference plane for building levels:

workingfromreference.PNG

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

That actually looks pretty good, how is the performance when you are mass spawning so many objects at runtime?

 

If you want to take the game further, maybe it would be ideal to look into drawing it into a single or a limited number of Texture2D's.

 

 

But keep up the great work, it looks it could be quite a fun experience.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks! I did switch over to using LineRenderers so performance is still okay. I do need how to tweak how they're working though, as it creates a new LineRenderer for each stroke until it's cleared by a success or failure. Would be nice to get them to delete themselves visibly, following the trail you used to draw them as well. Ahh, there's so much possibility to improve even without adding in any other mechanics or big story stuff!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Put up a playable build because why not.

 

Timer doesn't completely work, and existing sigils need some tweaking for the drawing system adjustments so that's what I'm focusing on for today & tomorrow (along with looooots more sigils).

 

Also could really use some sfx and art!

Any 2d artists out there want to have a crack at a title screen or background? And with sfx I've got all my needs written down now, in case I have to raid freesound and bfxr for my own resources.

 

My ideal art target would be something like a Kyary Pamyu Pamyu video

...so maximalism and general throwing-crazy-crap-at-the-wall is appreciated!!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

The deadline extension is truly a blessing from Jah. Finding the motivation to work on this for more than an hour each night after a full day of actual game programming is pretty difficult. Mornings are better and usually super productive but alack, there is only ever so much time.

 

Final list of features I'm burning through now. Will try not to add too much because of the extra time, just polish and bulletproof what's left:

  • 16 Sigils with ramping, semi-plotted difficulty curve (while still giving player options on how to proceed after completing a sigil) - 9 complete right now
  • SFX - ideas for most, less than 10 total
  • Title Screen with Start and Quit selectable, show high score in corner
  • Add "Sigils Cleared" as secondary stat and display during game
  • Add left and right indicators on sigil complete to people know to press keys
  • Add mouse support to selecting the next sigil so people don't have to press keys
  • Record high score and display on game over
  • Let there be a game over
  • Screen shake on failure

If there's time / bonus round

  • Pause screen?
  • Music?
  • Record high score to non-writable file
  • 3-initial name input for high scores

 

Currently working on the Title Screen and High Scores!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

This video neatly sums up the emotional roller coaster that is me finishing a game jam:

 

Current status- killing my feature darlings, adding as many levels as I possibly can, squashing my many bugs while praying I don't end up with a tattered mess at the end

 

Got music and sound in, plus a title screen and a complete color overhaul. Going to upload a playable build now in case my fixes end up breaking everything.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I finished! And on time!

 

Most of the problems that I thought were going to be huge and hard to fix turned out to be fairly simple. I did catch and fix one major bug about 5 minutes from the deadline. OF COURSE. This was after my first web version had already been submitted and the Windows version was half uploaded but they're all fixed now with a bonus Mac version on top.

 

Please check out my spooky arcade drawing game! It's pretty dang weird and maybe kind of okay? It's relatively complete and has a good difficulty curve once you figure out how to draw fast and predict the checkpoint order

 

PC Version (Windows & Mac)

 

Webplayer

 

(I didn't upload WebGL because the build size 330mb and ain't nobody got time for that)

 

More development pics from the last day!

 

haconel.png

New colors

 

main%20menu.PNG

Main menu (see it animated in the gif on the top-post!)

 

development%20pic.PNG

What the editor looks like now..

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Confused me a lot when I first tried to play, not helped by the interface apparently not always recognizing clicks very well, but it was pretty fun other than that. I dunno if it was cheating but I used my graphics tablet: A more demanding, streamlined version of this could actually be a pretty neat tool for practicing pen strokes. Like, if it wanted perfectly straight lines and perfect ellipses and graded you on how close you could get.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I don't think I understand what I'm supposed to do.

This first one makes sense, I draw a line from the right circle to the left and it gives me the next one.

 

Fd30kqd.png

 

But then what am I supposed to do? I tried drawing lines both directions and both seemed to fail. I don't think I understand what the green checkpoints mean.

 

NF6UhXj.png

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah I did a super poor job of explaining how to play!! You need to draw a line all the way through all circles.

It's not helped by that new bug that seems to sometimes delete the first few bits of your current line buuuuuut-- in that example above (Dino), you want to click and drag from the left side of the left circle through to the right of the second circle. It is a bit easier to get when the first line of the sigil has more than two points.

 

Communicating all the steps of play is something that troubled me with my last jam game too. I get so intent on creating unusual systems and finding a way to implement them that I don't worry enough about communication. And communication is so important to design! It's like, the biggest part! I mean, there is a bit there, what with particles, sounds, etc., but there's no intro or how-to or tutorial at all and that's not a good look

 

Creating a tutorial is always kinda gross so maybe there's another way? How about a set of (skippable) animations-with text-laying out the basics at the start of the game?

 

There's a small handful of bugs already I want to quash before I'm finished so I should definitely maybe add that explanation/intro too

 

ps P. Machine - if i WAS going to develop this further (which i'm definitely not, beyond the above [definitely.]), that would be a good direction to head in. Making it into something more like Nintendo's educational games, clean and cheery, would be pretty fun too

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I think the problem I'm having is a technical one, sometimes my line refuses to draw, then the game crashes after the 3rd or 4th sigil. That said, I like the spooky music, the action does feel arcane.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Hmmm, were you playing in the browser? I was noticing some weirdness myself earlier... I think there might be a lot of weirdness around mouse input and different browsers.

 

I'm uploading a new build now that should fix two major bugs, including a null reference crasher on the browser version. But if you're hard-crashing on the PC version that's something else entirely!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Yeah this was in Firefox, I'll try the download version when I get a chance.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

New builds are up for Windows/Mac/Web. Sorry for the problems y'all but thanks for playing!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I like this! I like this a lot! My initial instinct was that I'd hate trying to perform these tasks with a wobbly, fusty old mouse, but I had a pretty good time playing the game. I think a lot of credit can go to the music - really helped with the mood. Perhaps a tool akin to the ZBrush (or just cg sculpting) lazy-mouse (

) would be a good addition to ease out some of the mouse jitters? I could also have done with a better indication of which circle to start with - marking the circle as black just didn't attract my attention (...what does that say about me? Hmm. =( ) Otherwise... might have been fun to add some ratings for player performance. I might only get "Shitty Wizard" in this game, but the rating would still make me laugh. =)

 

 --Rev

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Sign in to follow this