Shardpunk News

(totally tired today - will try to keep this short)

I believe I did mention previously that the final mission of the first chapter in Shardpunk will be taking place on a bridge. On the contrary to standard missions where your goal is to reach the next shelter, where the player is tasked with surviving for enough turns so that the sewers entrance becomes open:



The vermin keeps on spawning on a constant basis. They can be approaching from both sides.



Now, the biggest problems I had on this level were to make sure that a) it's fun and b) it's not too difficult.

The difficulty issue is a tough thing, and I am aware that I'm still not in point in time to be balancing stuff, especially as I am still tweaking with the weapon upgrades system (which I plan to write about in a separate blog post).

About the "fun" part, I decided to add a twist to the level. I don't want to spoil too much, but escaping will not be as easy as just opening the sewers entrance.



Also, to make sure that the player tries to push their luck, there will be some loot crates placed further away from the exit shaft. It'll be up to the player to decide whether these goodies are worth it.



And what will be in these goody crates? Well, that's a very good question, which I am trying to answer myself as well! I mean currently they hold weapon parts, but I am pretty sure that won't be the case anymore. I will write more about it in my future posts.

Take care, and have a great weekend!

As you might already be aware, the goal of the game (well, at least its first chapter) is to reach the only intact bridge in the Capitol in order to get to the northern side of the city, which wasn't hit that hard by the sudden rat vermin attack.

Your characters traverse the city in small chunks, and (in most places) they have the possibility to reach a shelter.



Shelters are used as safe places, where you can rest, upgrade your gear and perform shelter-specific actions.



Until now, there was only one way of opening up the shelter - the player had to use a fusion core (so a fuel-like resource, if compared to, say, Pathway; it's far more than that though, but that's something for another entry) to power it up.



In order to make the game less predictable, I've added two more ways in which the bunker needs to be opened.

Also, I removed all the lock mechanisms from the front of the door. The mechanism is not accessible from the outside, as - obviously - the rats would be trying to destroy it.

And I've added some nice thud sounds and camera shakes to make it meatier:

Obviously you cannot hear the thud sounds. But the screenshakes are there.

One of the new ways of opening up the shelter entrance is using a remote valve. I mean first the player still needs to use a fusion core, but then it becomes clear that it will be more difficult:



Only after the player reaches the valve and opens it, the door is opened.



The last variation is that the door comes with a timer - meaning that after you activate them, you need to wait a number of turns.



The type of door opening is right now randomized for every mission, and the player is not aware of which one is used.

That's it for this entry. I hope you will find these new bunker entrance mechanics fun and challenging!

Take care!

Howdy! I did mention two weeks ago that I was planning to work on another revolver-wielding character. And there he is! Please meet Silas:



On the contrary to Mike - the other revolver-wielding character who's kind of of a "leader" type - Silas is more of a loner.

Well, calling him a "loner" might not be the most accurate thing. Here's his starting trait:



which means:



This makes the guy immune to external stress-altering factors; other characters cannot cheer him up.



(Frankly, I am a little worried I will be getting mentally closer to Silas's personality as the game development progresses. Hopefully not!)

Now, here's the thing: our crazy friend can spend stress to enter a more aggressive mode, making him slightly overpowered. In the upgraded state, the "All in" action grants significant bonuses to aim and critical shots AND grants an extra action point. This state lasts for a few turns. The downside is that it generates stress and reduces your defense. Still, it's a good way to kill some more enemies.



Silas calms himself down by telling jokes that aren't funny to anyone else (which increases the stress levels of other party members). He can also spend action points in the shelter on... whispering sweet words to his revolver - which obviously increases the max damage output!



I had the most fun designing the skills for this character. It was the first time I decided to use Stress as a resource.

Also, Kurt (the talented pixel artist I work with) came up with a great way of presenting Silas as that gunslinger guy, who is keeping his weapon holstered. This might actually be a very good decision for the future if I decide to visualize different weapon types on characters - as Silas's weapon is not being displayed in most of his animation frames.

Anyway, that's it for this entry. Thanks for reading and you'll hear from me, as usual, in two weeks!

So yeah, I've spent some time adding new content to the game. And I'm proud to announce that revolvers in Shardpunk are now a thing!

Yeah, that's the tier 1 revolver from the game, named "Old Revolver".

Still, do remember that there are no weapon "bullets" in the game's world (weapons are more of energy weapons type) so these revolvers don't have real drum magazines. But they still look cool!

Now, this new weapon type does not deal as much damage as other types, but shooting a revolver does not end the character's turn. It means that you can spend both action points on shooting:

Killing rats is the most fun thing in the game; doing it twice a turn is double the fun!

Or on shooting and reloading, if necessary:

Enemy is dead and you're all set for the next turn!

The first revolver-wielding character (which was already present on the above screenshots) is Michael: a "revolver leader" character type. He has some abilities that help others in combat, like the possibility to reduce their stress:

This will keep the other guy from the crazy zone for a little longer.

Another action type for this character is the ability to grant an extra action point to a character that can be spent on whatever you like:

With 3 APs, a dash AND a shot is a thing!

That's it for now! I will be working on another revolver-wielding character now, so expect the next devlog entry to be about it.

Take care!

As you might already know, citizens of the Capitol were not prepared for the attack from the Vermin Horde. What is more, the attack came from the seaside. No one could ever predict that the rats would be able to somehow... dig tunnels undersea?



But - the characters you will be controlling (survivors of the initial attack, who try to escape the city) won't be defenseless. Citizens of the Empire have basic training in weapon usage and every character you control does have a piece of weapon.

So let's talk about these weapons a bit.

I am planning to have four different weapon types in the game. Three of them (shotguns, rifles and heavy guns) are already present. The fourth one (revolvers) is in the making.

Every character has a single weapon proficiency - meaning that a shotgun-wielding medic girl will only be able to use shotguns, and so on. With sixteen planned characters, there will be four characters per weapon type.

Shotguns suck at long range but deal more damage. Also, they have an increased % to hit for point-blank shots.



Rifles, on the contrary, are not very good at short distances. They do prove useful for taking out targets that are further away though.



Heavy weapons are the main damage dealers and can be used as melee weapons (e.g. the ground stomp weapon of the retired soldier character).



Every weapon comes with different tiers. Right now there are three weapon tiers available - but as I will be playtesting the game, I will see how many are necessary to keep the game progression interesting. Here's a shot of three shotgun tiers:



What is more, every weapon has a number of upgrade slots, which come in three flavors.

Aim modifier slots allow you to install a scope/aim to the weapon, which can increase its accuracy and/or critical chance:



Energy cell slots allow you to increase the "ammo" capacity of a weapon and reduce the chance of the weapon backfiring when used in the overheated state:



Special slots can hold various different items: It can be an auto-cooling mechanism that allows the character to perform free reloads, or a damage amplifying module that, well, increases your damage output but reduces accuracy.



Weapon modules can be upgraded (well, repaired) by spending resources, or you can scrap them. The same goes for the weapons.

Finding weapons and upgrading their modules gives a nice feeling of progression between missions, and is a nice addition to the character level progression. In games like Darkest Dungeon, the player had their home base that could be upgraded. Here it is not possible (as your characters are always on the move), so I believe that these weapons/modules are a nice alternative.

I'm looking forward to seeing you trying out these new mechanics yourself! Take care!