Hello everyone, and happy new year!
Welcome to (hopefully) the first of many development updates this year! You may have noticed that this isn't the usual place I've posted development updates. In the past, I've used the Development Log section of Abyss, as it was the only game I've published thus far. Going forward I'll start posting updates and information here instead. I've also taken the time to retroactively add all previous updates to this page.This first update of the year probably won't be too big, but I'm hoping it's at least something. So without further ado let's begin!
Game 2(Bullet Rites?)
I don't refer to the game as Bullet Rites anymore unless I'm talking to friends, it's a matter of me not liking the name. It's a cute pun that I came up with while incredibly sleep-deprived. I haven't settled on a new name so for now, it's just internally called "Game 2". Exciting, I know.
Development has been relatively smooth so far, though I'm saying this after having Covid for almost 2 weeks at the start of the month and spending the past week overhauling my camera and UI system to make them more robust. As I'm mostly a solo developer having reusable base assets like a good camera system makes the development of future games a lot easier. Unfortunately, all of this did throw off my development schedule by a month or two, I expected the prototype to be finished and be in testing by now. All that said however, I'm proud of the progress I've made since my last update.
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| Me (badly) trying out the combat for the first time |
Admittedly, this is also from about a month ago at this point, a good portion of this stuff has been re-balanced (and the gameplay loop works now, this was just me testing out the combat for the first time) I was hoping to have the lighting/shader system done by the time I released another development update. Evidently, that didn't happen.
So , if it wasn't obvious: Game 2 is a roguelite. You'll be fighting through hordes of cultists in procedurally generated arenas. And like, they ARE shooting at you, so they must have a good reason for it! If you're lucky maybe you'll find that out as well.
Occasionally, you might find a mysterious artifact beckoning you with ancient power...
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| Hey,these look familiar! |
If you paid any attention to the designs, they might look a little similar to my icon on pretty much everything. There might be some lore implications there, but the main reason why is that they're all drawn by the same person(@_SIMULAZONE_)!The icon I currently use is a design salvaged from something we were working on in 2019. Sadly it fell through but we both loved the design , and I decided to update it and make it my icon so it could live on. I've always wanted to work with her again on some similar designs and with Game 2 I finally got that chance. All of them so far have been incredible, and I can't wait for you to see them all.
Currently, the gameplay loop is a lot more streamlined compared to most roguelites. I feel like the strongest part of the game is its combat so I just want to focus on doing that well and having that be fun. This is already the biggest game I've ever made, I feel like adding on complexity would ensure it never got finished. That said, I'm trying to add as much depth as I can with what I've got. I'm really proud of what I have so far, and I can't wait to get it in your hands. I'm taking extra care to ensure this game is the best it can be, so please be patient. <3
Abyss
Unfortunately, I've got nothing to report about the game. As I said before, I learned that working on 2 games at once is a bad idea. Admittedly I have been rethinking what I'm going to do for a "final update". That said I've recently been thinking about how personal of a game Abyss is for me, and I feel like at some point in Labyrinth's development I kinda lost that to an extent. Labyrinth was still a success in my eyes from a level design perspective (some weird balance issues notwithstanding)but a lot of the other choices I made took away from the experience for me personally. Expect some changes to be reversed/overhauled in any future updates.
When I look at my documents for this final update that I've been planning since before Labyrinth, honestly as I understand the headspace I was in when developing the original game the plans feel wrong now. At the same time I fully understand that when I go back, I'll never truly be able to recapture the same feeling I had when making it. That point in my life has come and gone, and trying to cling to it in some act of desperation is silly. That said, I feel like I can still make something that satisfies me personally and ties up one or two loose ends along the way.
In the meantime, the game's anniversary comes in less than 2 months, and I want to do something for it. I'll try my best but don't get your hopes up.
That's about everything I can talk about right now, I'm hoping to see you all again in a few months with more news about Game 2. I've had a lot of fun working on it and I can't wait to show you more once it's in a more complete state. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this year's first development update!
I love you all <3
~Madi
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