Secret Agent Wizard Boy and the International Crime Syndicate News

[p][/p][p]I'm glad to announce that our first content update is live! We've decided to name this update "The Groundwork Update." First of all, lemme' tell you about all the new features that we've put into Wizard Boy![/p][p][/p][h3]The Missions[/h3][p][/p][p]We've added the first batch of Spy Missions! These are a variety of tasks that will either be completed naturally over gameplay or will take a bit more planning to complete. Some basic examples are things like "perish x amount of times" or "collect x amount of biscuits," whereas some of the more interesting ones are things like "eat 10 rocks without dying," "reach a height of 20,000," or "have the game run below 10 FPS." All of these missions are totally optional, but if you do complete them, they each reward you with a Spy Emblem. What are Spy Emblems, though? Well, let's talk about the next big addition.[/p][p][/p][carousel][/carousel][p][/p][h3]Upgrades[/h3][p][/p][p]You can now upgrade Wizard Boy however you see fit! Wizard Boy can use his collection of Spy Emblems to equip or un-equip a choice selection of different skills that will allow him to tackle different obstacles better. You can now get extra health pips, more jumps, fall damage reduction. . . or the ability to eat any item you can grab, the ability to flatten like a pancake. . . you know, the necessities. These abilities are meant to be changed in and out depending on what goals you're currently going for, so don't feel bad if you're not able to equip all of them at once. (These will be especially fun next content update). We've also spread lots of Spy Emblems around the castle as one-time collectibles, so you'll get a reward for being curious and looking around.[/p][p][/p][h3]Inventory[/h3][p][/p][p]One upgrade deals with another new addition - the inventory! We've added a scalable inventory that can hold items for you to use at any time, even over perishing. Wizard Boy only starts with one inventory slot, but you can use the upgrade station to have up to four. This might seem like a minor system, but HOO BOY this one was hard to get together. As a reminder, since any object in the game can be shrunk, that means any item can also be grabbed and stashed. . . which brings a host of things for us devs to figure out. We hope you get a lot of use out of this one (and stash a lot of explosives).[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]The Spy Lair[/h3][p][/p][p]Our next content addition is the Spy Lair. This is meant as the chill spot that you (and your friends if you're playing multiplayer) spawn into at the beginning of every day. This area is great for messing around, but notably holds the machine that Wizard Boy uses to change his upgrades. We've got more plans for this area in the future as well, so this one allows us a space to add in cool stuff down the line.[/p][p][/p][h3]HUD, UI, and Effects[/h3][p][/p][p]We've also gone through almost all of the HUD and remade it from scratch. We needed more flexibility and polish on what we had already made to accommodate the new ideas we've got coming down the pipeline, and we also wanted to give new players coming in from the Summer Sale a smoother first-time experience. You'll see a lot of UI changes, new spell effects for all the spells, redone explosion effects, new potion effects, particles on spellbooks, and a lot of other visual changes. We're also pretty happy to have added rebind-able controls (for M&K) and have done a lot of work to make gamepad a better experience in general.[/p][p][/p][h3]Bugs and Fixes[/h3][p][/p][p]We've also done lots of fixing (especially on the new content) over this update cycle. If you're interested in that sort of thing, you can check out the change log here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/3111080/discussions/0/595142333640513858/[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]What's Next?[/h3][p][/p][p]If you've been following along with the dev posts, you'll know the content included in this update is only about half of what we've been working on. We realized that we wanted to get this content done first before diving into the Spider Dungeon, as how upgrades, missions, and to an extent the UI worked was going to influence how we wanted to do the dungeon's design. Since all of this ended up coming together as one satisfying chunk of content, we decided to wrap it into our first content update instead of waiting for another several months to also have the Spider Dungeon finished. But that's going to be our immediate focus once we get any hotfixes that need to happen from this update out into the world.[/p][p][/p][p]Thanks for being here with us! Wizard Boy is doing great in sales and we're super motivated to keep the ball rolling! Make sure to join the Discord if you want to chat with other Wizard Boy players. :)[/p][p]https://discord.com/invite/TPNFGCd[/p][p][/p][p]See ya soon![/p][p]John[/p]

The spies were in progress last update. This update, it's the PROGRESSOR OF THE SPIES BEING IN PROGRESS. We just got our first Wizard Boy paycheck, and it has granted us a lovely space to continue our wizarding development! In this case, we're not talkin' one, but we're talkin' TWO rooms. One is hosting Evan and my desks. One is getting set up for. . . well, some stuff that I'm working on materializing for the future (hopefully more on that later).

Here's a picture of all the Squishmallows I put on Evan's desk since he's not in the office today and if he reads this announcement he'll be notified in advance. (They're to greet him back to work.)





In this time, though, we've still been making progress on Wizard Boy proper. We've finished the baseline of the missions system and implemented a handful. That might sound like a small task, but included is things like getting the UI finished and implemented, figuring out the best way to keep what hopefully will be a nice long set of missions optimized as the system checks for their completion, figuring out what types of missions will be fun, etc. etc. All in all, I think we have a very good start, but as with everything in development, it may need to change based on how fun it ends up being.



(Oh BTW new inventory screen too. Not necessarily replacing the old one but acting as a corollary.)





We've also done the paper design and started white-boxing the dungeon! The dungeon itself is going to be a bit different in design mentality to the castle. The castle is very open-ended and needs to function both as a playspace AND a sandbox area. The dungeon really only needs to function as a playspace, and any sandbox that comes out of it will be icing on the cake. With that in mind, we're taking some liberties on how to design it that we didn't have designing the current version of the castle - mainly, being able to focus on the mechanical functionality of each room as much as the "explorative sandbox" aspect. Next update I'll have more to show on it.



I've gone ahead and pushed up the current version of missions to the public testing branch for anyone to play with if they'd like. Fair warning - we did suffer a bit of data loss early last week from me forgetting to commit my git changes before pulling down code that needed to be reverted, which meant we lost the little test spider dungeon thing I made last update. But of course the ACTUAL spider dungeon will be being sent up for testing soon enough, so I hope that's not too disappointing. (Oh, and as far as we can tell ALL of the inventory icons should be in there now.)

As always, if you're interested in joining the public testing branch, there's a space on my Discord to share bugs and feedback you encounter. (Link below this post)

Hmmm, I've just found out I was recently in contact with lice. I'm gonna' go figure that one out. Until next time!

- John

Hi again! Been a couple weeks, so just wanted to let you all what we've been working on. I (John) hadn't taken any time off from the EA release so ended up taking one of the last two weeks to do at least some work things that AREN'T directly related to coding. So much of the work the others have been chewing on isn't in the codebase yet. BUT, I've got some neat things to share nonetheless!

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]
As you may remember, we now have a public testing branch that I'm uploading unfinished content to. Last update, I pushed up a version that included a barebones version of the inventory and spider enemies. As you might imagine given the nature of the game, this has given a wealth of new bugs and unintended exploits. I've been working to address the most major ones, and although the list is shrinking, there's still a lot of work to do!



[h2]UI Work[/h2]

Evan has spent some good time mocking up and implementing some of the new pieces of UI we'll need for the systems we talked about last update. Notably, we're getting really close to having a working UI for missions, which I feel will be a really fun update to play around with when it's ready. Another huge piece of work is getting inventory icons made for each. . . and. . . every prop in the whole game. We are very committed to trying to make our systems as much of a playground as possible, and since you are able to shrink most objects in the game. . . that also means most objects can turn into items that are small enough to fit in your inventory and need visual data associated with it. Helpful Cody has been hard at work getting render captures for every mesh in the game, and Evan wrote an Adobe script to run image processing automatically on each capture. If you're interested in how that looks, here's a tiny unlisted YT video showing what the script does:

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https://youtu.be/msGSKbBzB3o
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[h2]New Characters[/h2]

SHHHHHHH don't want to talk about this one yet. Maybe next update!

[h2]Loading Between Scenes[/h2]

This turned into a whole nightmare for me. We want the dungeon areas to exist in different scenes for a large variety of reasons. As it turns out, Unreal is a lot less flexible than Unity when it comes to keeping object states between load and, once again, GIVEN THE NATURE OF THE GAME, the player can be in a LOT of different states, as well as can be wearing or holding items that can ALSO be in a lot of different states. After a couple days of research and playing around, it turns out the simplest option ended up being the best - tracking all possible modifications that can happen to a player or an object, remaking them when the scene loads, and reapplying the modifications. This will take up more time in the future as more possible ways objects can be sized, distorted, have states changed, etc. are added to the game, but trust me - doing anything else simply would not be enough.

If you're interested in seeing the progress of loading between scenes, I've uploaded a NEW build to the public testing branch that, instead of taking you to the early access screen when finishing the castle area, loads you into a new spider AI testing(ish) area. It's almost like a little tiny mini bite-sized dungeon!

[h2]That's All For Today![/h2]
I need to go to the gym, so I'll save the rest of the updates for a future post. If you want more consistent looks at what's being worked on, make sure to join my Discord or follow on any of the socials linked below. SPY GUY OUT!

Wizard Intel (AKA John) here! It's been a month since Wizard Boy released into early access, so I wanted to give some insight on what's been being worked on and when you can expect the first content update. But first, I wanted to say a big thanks for the warm welcome you've all given to our very silly game. About 20,000 agents have put their bid into going undercover, and we're on the last leg of the journey to getting to the big 500 review mark. To say this means a lot to me and the rest of the people who have put time into the project would be a huge understatement.

SO. What's coming up next?

[h2]First Content Update: Inventory, Missions, and the SPIDER DUNGEON[/h2]

We have been working on the first major content update, which will involve three major pieces. First, we've been working on a way to give players some extra room to carry items around without taking away from the "find it, use it, be clever" design space that Wizard Boy is developed around. There are some extra complications, like items that change properties due to circumstances or even things that aren't normally small enough to pickup BECOMING small enough to pick up. The system we're trying out now gives you four slots to work with. When you select a slot, that item will automatically go into your hand. Any item that's grabbable can instead be put into an inventory slot by pressing interact. NOTABLY, inventory will save between game closure, and even between different levels. Maybe there will also be an item chest where you can stash more items for use later down the line. . .?



Next, we have plans to give more reason to want to play around in the castle via small side missions. These missions are made to give you reasons to engage with the sillier parts of the systems that Wizard Boy has. As some examples, missions may include things like "reach a height of 20,000 KM," "go from A to B without touching the ground," "have this many props be on fire at one time," "reach such and such amount of armor," or be more progression-based like "dispatch so many NPCs," "find so many secrets," etc. etc. We'd like to split missions into two categories: smaller missions that get rolled anew every week, and longer-term missions that are tied to your save file. Now, just HAVING missions isn't very interesting, so what is the reward for doing them? For the larger "progression" missions, we plan on having them unlock more ways to play like "floor is lava" sections, cosmetics, and maybe even dedicated play modes (tag, hide and seek, etc.) For the weekly missions, though, we have some plans for those that tie into our next content addition.

[h2]What's the Spider Dungeon About?[/h2]



We are working on the first of a handful of dungeons for Wizard Boy to explore. From the main castle, Wizard Boy can enter into a dungeon that is more centered around enemies, puzzles, and preparation. Players will need to choose how they'd like to prepare before entering into a dungeon area, as they'll need to find certain items to bring back out so they can progress further in the story. These items will be behind bespoke challenges in each dungeon that will lightly ask the player to prepare differently depending on the challenge, meaning it's likely you'll be taking several trips in and out before you've conquered it. Preparing in the castle itself will be really important!

Notably, you'll be able to carry items into the dungeon via your inventory. Any upgrades you currently have will also stay. But be warned - if you happen to perish while exploring, don't expect the items you're carrying to come back out with you!

The dungeon is still early on in its development, so it's going to be a while before we have too much to show. But this is the next piece of content that will fill out Wizard Boy, and then depending on how long it takes we will be looking either into the second dungeon area after that or a new sandbox-y area attached to the existing castle.

[h2]YouTube Devlogs and Public Testing Branch[/h2]

First of all, for anyone interested in more detail on what's being worked on, how things come together, or other updates like that, I'll be posting semi-regular dev logs over on my YouTube channel linked below. I posted a video today about what the last couple weeks leading up to release were like (it's a bit of a mess, just like Wizard Boy itself).
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https://www.youtube.com/@Ducky_Dev
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Additionally, since we'd like to adopt a very "open doors" development policy, I'm also opening up a public testing branch that will have incremental updates of pieces outlined above. These will likely be in unfinished states and in some cases could even change depending on how the macro design of the game is coming together, but if you're up for peeking behind the curtain, we'd be happy to have you.

To access the public testing branch, you can type the password "secretwizardwonderment" into the "beta" branch page on Steam. Currently, there's a build that includes a couple spider enemies dropped into the castle (won't stay there for the real update) and a very rough version of the inventory that you can play around with (most items are currently sharing the same icon). If you want to get notifications when I push new builds to the testing branch, you can join my Discord here:
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https://discord.com/invite/TPNFGCd
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NOTE - if you're playing multiplayer, EVERYONE needs to be on the same version or the game will silently fail to connect.

[h2]ONWARD![/h2]

Thanks again for playing Wizard Boy! :) ONWARD AND OUT!