SAVAGE: The Shard of Gosen News

Hail, Barbarian Horde!

I've got a handful of things to show you and discuss, including an upcoming playable developer build (more on that below!) for the backers to try out.



I've talked before about making the traversal within the game more "platformer friendly", in that I have a bunch of bad guys that aren't necessarily learn-able in the sense that they are much more reactive; the environment and player position largely dictates their behavior. I've been trying to solve this by adding enemies that have a more dependable, hazard-like set of rules.

I've added a couple more baddies to my arsenal of insidious creatures that fill that hole:





First, we've got a new enemy that I've affectionately dubbed "clingjaw". It's mostly a static monster; it's claw clinging to the ground and walls, with segments and a head that move about in relation to its claw position. It's great for "blocking" the player's progress, forcing the player to figure out a way around the thing (hacking it to pieces is always a good option).

Another beastie I've been messing around with is the slime (finally - yay, slimes!). The basic variety just sort of wobbles around and will occasionally launch itself at the player. Since it's design is so basic, I've kinda gone hog-wild with it, producing a bunch of different varieties and appropriate palette swaps:



The Blue Slime is the derpiest of the bunch, as pictured above. The Red Slime is a bit more aggressive, and has an attack animation. The Green Slime behaves like the Blue Slime, but upon death, pops apart and produces a series of hazardous acidic droplets. The Purple Slime is the real jerk and can cling to ceilings, drop onto the player, and attack him like the Red Slime.





Also, for anyone interested, I've been using a free piece of software that's saved me a ton of time to map out enemy behaviors:

Visual Understanding Environment -- http://vue.tufts.edu/



Beats the heck out of scratch paper!

Also, I've finally dropped in a working collision-based spike trap -- simple, and a no-brainer for games like this, but it's great to have it in, now.





In addition to the newer Devil's Shade forested area, there is a new underground forest zone, Helsgarten, that connects to it along the path to the Highlands area on the overworld map.



For this, I've been able to reuse a ton of assets to create a new area. For example, tree tilesets have been reused to create sort of organic pillars, inverted roots allow me to create trees that "grow" upside-down, along with inverted grass tiles.



I have been working from a very convoluted and clunky system that draws the appropriate seasonal tiles, based on the season and biome you're currently in. I've scrapped a LOT of that particular way of doing things, and simplified stuff like crazy. For example, I used to have a layer dedicated to "green grass", and another layer dedicated to "summer weather". Likewise, I had a "winter snow" layer, and a seperate "snow" layer for the Northern regions of the game where snow falls year round. Apply that logic all across the other areas of the game and you can probably start to see how unmanageable it eventually becomes.

I've cut all that out and now just have a global "summer weather" layer, "fall weather" layer, etc., regardless of the zone type you're in. Having redone that, I've also gotten rid of the old random encounter system -- or at least shaken it up a bit. In conjunction with the old seasonal rendering system, I had a set of rooms that would ALWAYS be randomly picked from when you triggered a random encounter on the world map. The array of rooms picked from would always be the same, regardless of your current biome, and then "skinned" appropriately based on biome and the current season/weather situation.

Nope. No more. I now have biome-designated rooms that will be appropriately picked from. This also lets me create signature geometry styles based on your current region, adding some much needed character to each zone.



See?! SO MANY less tile layers! And less headaches, as another positive result!



The old way of rendering the day/night cycle got the boot, too. I used to clumsily "draw" a semi-transparent rectangle over the front of the screen with a color appropriate to the current time of day -- I hated it and always wanted to change it. So, I rolled up my sleeves and did. The rectangle made it hard to see the screen in a lot of cases, especially at sunrise, dusk and full night.

Now, instead, I blend a color into the application surface (the end result of all the game's drawing events -- or, the screen and what you're seeing every frame). This gives me a lot more control over adjusting the color values of what the player is seeing, while still maintaining readability over your character and environment. Blues are now bluer at midnight, oranges and reds are more apparent at sunrise and sunset, etc.

This also allows me to do fun stuff with my light sources during the evening and night times, "cutting out" a circle around, say, a torch, where I don't want any color blending:



On top of that, the transitions between day and night on the world map have gotten a lot smoother and more varied (albeit a little buggy at the moment), also thanks to now applying color transitions to the 3D fog:







With the content that's in the game and already finished, I'm going back and tightening up existing story sequences and cinematics:





From here on out, starting this weekend, I'll be posting weekly updates on the project's progress -- I've gotten into a bad habit of releasing this updates every 4-8 weeks -- no good and I'm sorry about that! ... Which brings me back around to the subject of getting a playable build to you!

Within the next couple of weeks, I'm aiming to release a playable build to the backers and those who picked up the game via the Groupees Greenlight Bundle, containing the first few areas and such brought up to a polished and near release-worthy state. Polishing up and finishing the content that comprises the first chunk of the game will give me a good idea what it will take to finish this game, as well as getting feedback from anyone interested in giving it a go!

There are several things that I'd like to get in place before doing so, like getting a working save system in place, now that I know what it looks like to progress through the game (things like tracking opened/unlocked doors, solved puzzles, defeated bosses, completed cinematics and quests, etc.). I'll keep you all posted as I get closer!

'Til the next update, have a great one!

-Matt

Hi everyone!

Sorry for the silence through April -- allergy season plus our new location hit me pretty hard for a couple weeks which wound up getting me sick. Annoying! We invested in a neat little air purifier though, and that thing seems to be helping out big time. But enough complaining and excuse making -- onto progress!!



You remember Tra Tibowt from the last update, yeah? I felt like something was missing with her to make her fight more memorable and give it more character. I decided to go back and revamp her bear companion (Mag, the Avatar of Magdragh) visually and mechanically, and allow her to ride into battle on the guy!





This gives the fight an initial, more interesting phase with different behaviors. Damaging them enough eventually knocks her off the mount and you wind up having to take them out as a pair.



I have been going on a grayboxing rampage with the remaining levels and zones, stopping to whip up a couple necessary assets. The most recent of these being a revamped tileset to make the deep forest areas visually more exciting.



I've also done some palette swaps and some minor adjustments to some older tilesets to bring it up to snuff with the rest of the finalized ones.



These are all added to the growing arsenal of bits and pieces I'm using to crank out rooms. SO MANY ROOMS.





As I grind through the room and area content, I am mopping up the remaining enemies and entities that still have to be created and dropped into the game. A couple examples are the brand new "platform wasp" and "forest ape".



The wasp enemy in particular is starting to fill a growing need for the game to include more of what I call platformer-friendly hazards. I have plenty of enemies that sort of track your movements and are largely reactionary in how you deal with them. I need more enemies like this that are more "learnable", or have a much more apparent pattern. This makes platform-heavy situations more satisfying, since you have readable obstacles that you can navigate around.





This guy, on the other hand, is a bit of a hybrid of those two enemy/hazard types. He can be set to a more static sort of artillery behavior, where he lobs boulders at you from a fixed position -- or, he can engage the player and bust out a few interesting attack moves. He is also one of the more vertically aware enemies in the game, following the player up onto, or underneath ledges and other obstacles (being a big monkey guy and all).

Here are the previously mentioned elements (tilesets, new assets and enemies) all working together:





Those are some shots from one of the new areas, "Devil's Shade", that bridges the Gosen Hills and Highlands areas of the game.



With all of the new elements and rooms I am creating for the game, I am slowly addressing my game flow concerns. Things like, "Is this too repetitive?" "How do I make these rooms more interesting?" have come barreling their way to the front of my concerns. Pacing things like interactivity, enemy placement, and things like powerups are a real concern for me. After all, how many times can someone smack something with a sword before it starts to get boring? Hopefully, quite a few times if the core combat mechanics are good enough, ha!

Structuring levels and rooms, I have started to notice annoying design crutches that I repeat. Like tunnel shapes and similar geography elements. It's like writing music -- you start to realize that maybe you are using similar progressions across multiple songs. This is not necessarily a bad thing in some situations, I guess, since this also evokes a certain style, but I feel it's necessary to be aware of so I don't wind up with a finished game and thousands of rooms that all feel too same-y!

Here's a bit of an example of how I sort of map out general flow and some of the critical path out:



Using visual aids like this helps in defining pacing for me, and shaping those "peaks and valleys" that compose the player's overall experience with the game.



I've also, finally, gotten around to knocking out the game's more lore-heavy sequences, which will be delivered in the form of Ninja Gaiden-esque cinematics.







As of now, I've got the majority of these sequences completed, but there are still a few more that need doing.

Also, with a lot of this stuff getting wrapped up, I submitted the last bit of game footage to my friends at Escaping Westlawn Productions for the launch trailer!

Here are some work in progress screens from the visual FX shots Christine Carstairs is working on:







I am really excited to see this thing!



So there we have it -- I am in the middle of grinding out TONS of rooms that will make up the final areas and levels of the game, and I hope to have a build finished soon that I can play through from start to finish. I can't believe I just said that - pretty unreal!

I know it's taken a lot longer than I initially planned for, and I'm sorry about that, but even more grateful for all the support and positive feedback from you all! I am continuing to work hard to make this thing fun, and a suitably brutal and bloody adventure!

Thanks for letting me share with you all! Have a great one, and I'll see ya next update!

-Matt

Man, what an em-bear-assing headline (sorry, I can't help it. It's, like, a serious problem)!
Ahem. Anyway... Progress goes on, my to-do list grows ever shorter and the game gets closer to something I'd consider fun and playable! At present, there is enough rough content (still in desperate need of a polish and balance pass) that I can speedrun what's mostly finished in about an hour and a half -- and I'm enjoying it, rough edges aside!

Here's what's been going on behind the scenes:

New Location and Sub-Areas, Cairns of Magdragh

This zone is heavily populated with the cannibalistic hill tribes, the Ilgogi. Worshipers of bears and the bear god, Magdragh, their weapons and clothing mirror their brutal way of life.







This area features a few new modular enemy types:

• Ilgogi Maneater
  
• Ilgogi Huntress
  
• Kin of Magdragh (Hill Bears)
  
• Rockbiters
  

Yes, Rockbiters are back and working within the new enemy system! These little buggers were a pain to bring back into the fold, but worth it. Here's a debug screen of me attempting to snap them to their new locations -- challenging, given their wall-crawly nature.



The area also features some new puzzly mechanics:



New Boss - Tra Tibow't, Mother of Bears, Feastbreaker and Warcaller of the Ilgogi... and her bear Mag!

Here are some work-in-progress bits for the new boss and her pet, based on a friend of mine and her online twitter persona, @twobitart!





I had built out the boss room a certain way, and after some testing, found out I was really not very happy with it. It had too many small platforms that sort of created small uninteresting choke-points during the fight.



The rebuild of the room came out much better - still keeping a bit of deviation in the terrain, but keeping it open enough for everyone to move around.



New Gear

Pictured in the above gif madness are new Ilgogi and bear themed shields, bone based weapons like spears and clubs, as well as a shiny new powerful polearm called Phalanx!

Archived Livestreams

As some of you know, I livestream every now and again on Twitch. I have recently decided to start archiving the streams on my Youtube channel, which you can find here! https://www.youtube.com/user/planettoborTV

That's all for now. Thanks again so much for all your patience and support! I'm as ready to be done with this game as I'm sure you are to play it, and I'm working hard to make it worth the wait - we're gettin' there!

See ya next update, and have a GREAT one!

-Matt

Hi everybody! Sorry for the quiet during January (speaking of, hope you all had a great holiday season and your new year is off to great start!), but I have been cranking out ALL the things! ... ALL of them.

Productivity levels have been super hot, so let's take a trip down to update-city so's I can show you all the shiny new stuff, shall we?

NEW LEVELS

I am at a really exciting place with the game right now. All the grinding out of props, animations, baddies, etc. has supplied me with what feels like a massive bag of legos to play with. This weird piece of software is starting to look like what I imagine the final game will be. I actually have fully functional, final versions of areas and stages to play through - YAY!!

As a (crude) example of a stage in the making, here're some pictures and stuff!







... And some in-game shots from the new areas:









NEW NPCS

Parts of these areas (including towns) need a few non-aggressive denizens to chat it up with. I added a whole slew of mining prison-specific unfortunates that you'll run into.





NEW PROPS/HAZARDS/INTERACTIVE BITS

There are lots of new ways to navigate areas and engage with puzzles, enemies, and other dangerous bits. Included below are also a few shots and examples of one of the new and finished areas.

















TUNES

The shower is great. Not only does it make me smell better than I usually do, but for whatever reason, pieces of music tend to assault my brain while scrubbing. Clean + music = yay!

Over the last few days, a couple of tunes materialized and pretty much demanded to be recorded/commited to ones and zeros. I OBEYED and did this:



To actually HEAR the new music, go here (and scroll to the bottom): http://www.planettobor.com/savage-devlog/2016/2/7/201627-you-shouldnt-run-with-knives-but

Whew. I went a little gif-crazy there. Sorry about that! But again, thanks so much for letting me share all of this with you, and for all of your support!

The game is going great and work is happening pretty darn fast.

Until next time!

Happy Holidays, everyone!

Sorry for the lack of updates through November - I've been nose to the grindstone over here and sometimes it's hard to remember to come up for air. Before we get to the new stuff, let's talk about release since we're about to head into the new year.

To be frank, the game isn't finished yet, which is as big a downer for me as I'm sure it is for you. I was hoping to be close to wrapping the project up by this time, with mostly sound, music, and quality assurance work left and well underway. I'm not quite there, mostly because I feel that what I have isn't the game I want to play yet. When this game launches it needs to be well worth your time to play through! Sorry to be a bit of a broken record, and thanks so much for your patience and support!

On the other hand, what I do have is coming along great! Over the past year, I have essentially been building myself a toybox full of cool action figures and set pieces at my disposal. It's a relief (and very gratifying) to be able to pick and choose from an array of neat looking stuff and build out interesting little rooms and levels. I have learned that this is also one of the most challenging parts of the process - to produce interesting and playable levels that don't get boring, and keep the experience fresh from start to finish. The map maker and designer in me is having an absolute ball throwing all of this together, while the obnoxious art-coward in me is throwing a fit at the challenge. The map maker part is totally kicking the coward's butt, last I checked ;)



As a small example, here's what the old pre-alpha starting dungeon looked like:



And here it is again after a pass using some of the new art assets and props to populate the scene:



It feels a lot more alive and a bit more "real" (as real as a low resolution pixel art scene can feel, anyway, ha!).

So, New Stuff!

Here's a sampling of the new area, Blackfen, in the works:









An example of the new visual props I've cooked up:



New Boss!

This particular character has definitely been the most challenging to create thus far. He does a lot of things that I'm not used to - flying around, shooting magic, teleporting, etc... From a raw engineering perspective (and an art one), it's been a real battle trying to get it right - but I think I've finally nailed down something I am very satisfied with.

Here is a graphic representing his most basic finite-state machine loops (horrible graphics tablet handwriting and all!):



Some character fluff - because!

He was called Gizmotin - a sorcerer from from an ancient civilization who reached too far into esoteric wizardry, flinging his body across time and space into the Beyond, a realm composed of madness, nightmares and raw psychic energies. He has spent so long away from the physical plane that the sum of years comprising his absence are trivial. He has since re-materialized in the world of Lor where his body and mind are broken and in a constant state of flux. Bits and pieces of his ego phase in and out of reality, quadrants of his psyche are constantly fragmenting and reshuffling, existing in several places at once. His sojourn has made him alien, mad, and even more dangerous.

With him he brings things strange and vile; creatures that devour, break and bury anything not of their own.





My gif software doesn't like the game's framerate, so Gizmotin's teleporting animation looks strange here





Trailer Update!

The super talented Christine Carstairs of Escaping Westlawn sent me some composite shots of the Savage "TV commercial" she's been working on - Behold!









To see the full update including a sample video, go here: http://www.escapingwestlawn.com/savage-the-shard-of-gosen-commercial-preview/

To check out some of the new music, go here: http://www.planettobor.com/savage-devlog/2015/12/22/what-sorcery-is-this

So that's all for now - again, sorry for the delay everyone. I can't tell you how grateful I am for your patience and support - it means everything! It will be super worth it once your game ships!

The Happiest Holidays to you and yours!

-Matt