INSPIRE News

Hi everyone,

The end of the year is almost here and what a wonderful year it's been. I'm thrilled to have you all on this journey with me and have received so much great responses from you all the past year. The game is growing which each week and I've got some super exciting new features coming up early next year!

For this month, I've been working on level designing mainly. I've fleshed out the jungle zone and also improved upon the desert zone. I can't wait for you to see how these turned out.

In terms of optimization, I've also made an awesome improvement. One of the main bottlenecks for performance was actually the fur on the animals. This was still being rendered when the animals weren't in view. Removing the fur when the animals are outside of the view made a big difference!

Now I'm ready for some downtime with family and I hope you'll have an amazing end of the year too.

Here's to an amazing 2023 and thank you all for the massive support!

-Nick

Hey Everyone,

It's been another awesome month in the development of INSPIRE. The main focus has been getting the demo ready for publishers, which I sent to publishers today. So hopefully some good news to be shared soon! Even if there are no responses, this has been a major milestone for me, getting a playable demo ready.

This month I've re-done the main trailer of the game. I think it now shows much better what the game is about and I'm really proud of it. It's available now on the Steam Page.

Next to polishing up everything inside the first few levels, I've also introduced a new feature to the game and that's an awesome ability system for the backpack. Which can now also transform into a cluster rocket launcher, which shoots homing projectiles.

NEW FEATURE
Backpack Revamp. The backpack can now deploy gadgets, become a flashlight, shoot rockets and fly as a jetpack. The backpack has two modes: Attack Mode and Gadget Mode. In Attack Mode, the backpack can use an ability that is on a cooldown. This system will be expanded upon but for now, it's got an awesome cluster rocket attack. In Gadget Mode, it's used to display gadgets in the mouse position.

NEW PLAYTEST
Since I sent the new demo out to publishers I've also updated the playtest on Steam. The playtest is now exactly the same as the demo that has been sent to publishers.

For this playtest, I've focused on polishing the game as well as I can. I have been polishing and bug-fixing the past few months so I can now send it out to the public and get back on bug-fixing duties back in January. December is a holiday month so I want to focus more on new features like the expanded world and the expanded battle system throughout the world.

If you're interested in helping me out, feel free to head over to my discord and provide your feedback. It would really help me out.

That's all from me this update. I hope you're having a fantastic day.

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I appreciate all your support and if you'd like to be the first to know about updates, make sure to follow the INSPIRE socials!

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/afmfNjB7Cw
TWITTER: @inspirethegame_
INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/inspirethegame


-Nick

Hey Everyone,

It's been another great month in the development of INSPIRE. This month I haven't introduced many new features, instead, I've been working hard on polishing everything for the upcoming public demo.

NEW FEATURE
One major quality-of-life improvement that has been added to the game is fading out of trees and big objects in front of the player. This greatly improves the joy of playing the game.

NEW PLAYTEST
There's a new playtest coming this Friday! I'm currently building the demo out for everyone to play later this year but I'm really looking for people who can playtest the current state of the demo so I know where improvements should be made.

For the playtest, I've also made a DEBUG menu where you can easily toggle on and off certain things like invincibility, UI, Music, and a way to select a specific zone or weather.

If you're interested in helping me out, feel free to head over to my discord. It would really help me out.

That's all from me this update, It's time for me to re-do the INSPIRE trailer, I hope you're having a fantastic day.

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I appreciate all your support and if you'd like to be the first to know about updates, make sure to follow the INSPIRE socials!

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/afmfNjB7Cw
TWITTER: @inspirethegame_
INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/inspirethegame


-Nick

Hey Everyone,

I've been super busy with preparing the game for Alpha 1.0, the first playable version that is coming soon!
Via this report, I'd like to share with you some of the major updates that have come to the game in the past month.

SEASONS

The main feature that is added this month is dynamic seasons, which change the whole world. For now, this change is mostly cosmetic and will spawn different vegetation and props during each season. Later in development, I will add also certain seasonal events.

SHOP SYSTEMS

There are now shops in Realle and the Northern Forest where you can buy and also sell items, each shop has its own inventory which gets restocked after a certain time.

CONTRACT MANAGER

Next to quests that you receive from quest givers you can also accept contracts, right from your inventory. These contracts come in a few different variants and will be built upon in the future.

UPGRADE YOUR WEAPONS

All weapons can now be upgraded from level 1 until level 5. Each upgrade will increase the damage output that a weapon does. To upgrade weapons you need the right materials, which you can find throughout the world. In the future upgrading, a weapon will also give the possibility to add perks to your weapons.

ENEMY PATHFINDING

After a lot of experimenting I've managed to find a much better way to handle the navigation of enemies, they should now be able to find and reach the player, even when the player is on a difficult-to-reach spot.

HUD & UI Overhaul

I've overhauled the general HUD & UI to make it more streamlined and give it a cleaner look. This is of course still open to interpretation and will probably change and improve in the near future.

PROCEDURAL ANIMATION

After a lot of iterations, I've managed to get the first fully procedural animated enemy in-game. This is a major milestone for the bigger enemies in the game and gives those enemies a lot of weight.

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Next to the above, I'm continuing to fix bugs and make the overall experience as good and as fun as I can. I appreciate all your support and if you'd like to be the first to know about updates, make sure to follow the INSPIRE socials!

DISCORD: https://discord.gg/Yfpct7nA
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/inspirethegame_
INSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/inspirethegame

Much love,

-Nick

Hey all,

For the past few months, I've been working together with super talented artist Daniel Ang(who also did Len's Island's artwork) on the main artwork for the game.

Next to this, I've also changed the name of the game to 'INSPIRE'.
The main reason for this name change is that during your time playing the game you will be inspiring others to help you fight against the aliens. This will also become one of the main gameplay pillars that dictate how the world will change depending on your actions. It also helps that this is much easier to pronounce for me, as opposed to 'Wrath Of The Mad King' ;).

So what's next?

Currently, I'm working towards the ALPHA 1.0 release! I'm approaching the ALPHA in a similar way that early access is approached, except for the ALPHA being free for everyone.

Once the ALPHA 1.0 is ready for release, you'll be the first to know, but for now, enjoy the new trailer on the main page!

All the best,

Nick