Shardpunk News

So my holiday break is over, and I am back to working as hard as possible to finish Shardpunk!

And I actually have lots of data to work with, as a week of closed playtests of the game (announced on the Discord channel) has recently ended. I received lots of valuable feedback!

The most important thing is that the game is enjoyable and combat is fun! The players tend to like the game and they have fun. Great stuff!

Two key points that I know needed some attention are:

a) The game is pretty darn difficult,

b) The players had moments in which they were unsure how to proceed.

Here's how I addressed them:

Point a) was something that kept on appearing since the days of the first alpha demos, and I was hoping that I made the game easier since then. I adjusted the difficulty level yet again - hopefully, the game will provide a reasonable challenge now.

As for point b), I've introduced a tutorial level (which I mentioned about in my previous entry) and expanded the number of tutorial messages. Also, I've added many visual cues that will help the player with navigation. Here are some examples of the UI highlights:

Hint about unspent team skills - which are accessed from outside character details.


Information about the possibility to upgrade your gear and a new gear upgrades popup.


Food distribution screen is now actually saying what the lower right corner icon is all about.

There were a bunch of other elements that I've corrected/planning to correct in the upcoming weeks, and hopefully, I'll be able to write more about them in the previous entry. I'm gonna be wrapping this one already though, as I need to make sure I spend enough time polishing the game. I really want to release it this year!

Take care!

Gonna make this one quick as I'm on my way to a holiday break. I did want to showcase some gifs from the new tutorial/introduction level that I am working on though, so here they are:

Teaching the player about pickups:


Meeting the rest of the team:


Fighting some rats:


Spotting an injured technician:


Meeting the automaton:


Playing the tutorial level will be optional, but recommended in the first playthrough.

Anyway, that's it for this entry. However, do stick around the Discord channel, as a round of playtests for the latest version of Shardpunk will start soon! and you can opt-in via Discord.

Take care!

Let's talk about the new enemy type that I've been working on recently - the rats that actually explode.

The idea was to introduce a suicidal enemy type to the game. You know, to spice things up a bit, force the player to change their strategy.

Technically, the challenge did not appear tough - I simply had to make sure that the enemy can perform an AOE attack, which destroys them in the process. However, the enemy was also supposed to explode after being killed by the player.

Here are the early prototyping gifs (I was using a regular rat model, colored red):





And then of course, chain reactions should be possible:



Stuff worked correctly. Well, most of the time:



In the end though, I made it work:



The next step was to add graphics. My main pixel artist did a great job at creating the explosive-packed rat model.

Here are some final gifs. Enjoy!





That's all for this entry. Have a great day! Don't forget about the Discord channel!

OK, so here's some info about another playable character - a combination of melee and heavy.



This guy - Julius - has a chainsaw attached to his heavy gun. Meaning that he is capable of using it for close combat.

Yeah, I know that he shouts the same text in both gifs. That stuff is random and is meant not to be repeated twice in a row, but these gifs come from different playthroughs.

To make this attack different from katana-based attacks of other characters, I made some changes to it. The first thing is that the chainsaw attack consumes weapon heat just like a regular shot - meaning that a weapon might need to be reloaded after such an attack.

The good thing however is that there's a 100% chance to hit your target. Period. Also, this attack can be expanded in two ways: first, by leveling up a correct skill, which gives you a chance that an attack will refund all your Action Points (that can actually be observed in the above gif). Additionally, the player can upgrade the weapon itself, which increases the damage and critical chance. Here are some combinations of upgrades for the "Shredder" gun that Julius is wielding:



I'm finishing earlier tonight, so I'm wrapping this entry up. Still lots of stuff needs my attention, but the finish line is closer than ever!

We'll see each other on the Discord channel! Take care!

I am getting there. I am slowly making my way to the end content. It is indeed true that the most difficult thing is actually finishing the game.

Obviously, alongside creating new content, some old stuff gets revamped from time to time. Recently I've reapproached how status effects are displayed on characters. By status effect I mean things like "stunned" or "poisoned".

There's now a dynamic list of icons present above HP bars of characters.





What is more, I've introduced a "marked" status that makes characters easier to hit. Some of the existing actions (support bot's "intimidate" action) are able to apply these effects. A new character - one wielding a chainsaw, which I haven't talked about yet - can taunt enemies that will mark/stun them.



Also, on higher levels taunting can apply the "ruptured" status effect, which increases the damage dealt to enemies.

Additionally, rat snipers have the ability to mark a target. This will make them even more formidable.



And as for the chainsaw-wielding character, I will write more about it next time. And right now I'm back to grinding!

Take care! And do remember about the Discord channel!