50th Weekly Update : Patch Week

Posted on by
Pally vs Skeleton (thanks to Agent Cooper for this nice screenshot!)

Pally vs Skeleton (thanks to Agent Cooper for this nice screenshot!)

Alright, it’s getting better ! :)

I still worked a lot last week, but less frenetically (at least since last weekly update) and got some well deserved sleep, but probably still not enough rest, because I spent a lot of time watching Let’s Play videos on Youtube.

These videos shown me that a lot of players don’t want to spend 2 minutes to read in detail the description of their abilities, and thus just smash the buttons without much idea of how to organize their fight. Game is forgiving at start, but the difficulty quickly raises up so I wonder if they’ll make it to the level 5 or not.

Except that, Dungeon Guardians should arrive soon on the Humble Store (but still through Steam Keys), and I contacted GOG but still haven’t got any answer from them.

So next step is to put the game on the Mac AppStore, but before that, I’d like to add the Modding support to allow adding custom portraits.

And even before that, I have to create my own text input field for the Linux version, because my attempts at bypassing the Unity3D bug seem to have failed… :-?

Cya next week for more news !

FacebookTwitterGoogle+RedditEmailShare

49th Weekly Update : Steam Release !

Posted on by
It's done !

It’s done !

Pfffffff… (for the last time ?)

If you follow this blog, you know that normally I publish the weekly update on Sunday or Monday.

Today is Wednesday. That says it all, no ?

No ? Ok, so let me explain..! :mrgreen:

Last Friday I released The Fall of the Dungeon Guardians on Steam, like this :

Naively, like I always am, I thought it’d be a bit rough, with a few little bugs & fixes to do here and there, but it’d settle within 24 hours.

How wrong I was ! It took me almost 4 days to fight bugs and integrate in emergency popular requested features into the game, so everybody could enjoy the adventure nicely.

I think with the last update of this morning, it should be (nearly) ok. And I will be able to finally get some rest, before doing a bit more bug hunting (text input doesn’t work on Linux coz of an Unity3D engine bug :roll: ), and then switch to Modding support (SDK + Steam Workshops) and getting the game published in other Stores (GOG, Humble Store, Mac AppStore).

In term of sales, the game did an ok start, but nothing fancy, I’m still not on my way to buy a Porsche (or more important, fund a more ambitious sequel). But within 6 months or 1 year, I may be able to get my investment in money and time paid back.

Hopefully, it’ll catch on with Christmas season, with the help of the additional stores and maybe a bit of marketing (if I get some ideas or get lucky :) ).

That’s all for now, cya soon for the next weekly update !

48th Weekly Update : Rogue Done !

Posted on by
Hungry Bone Dragon!

Hungry Bone Dragon!

Pffffffff (again), I finished the Rogue and I’m glad I did because I’m near implosion ! 8-O

The week has been ok without too much bumps (except in my neighbourhood, but that’s another story, hum, stories actually, which include birds, dogs, bugs & dead mouse amongst other annoying things), so I managed to do the 2 final specializations of the game : the Duelist, a Rogue tank spec, and the Ranger, the only spec able to use bows & crossbows in the game.

For the Ranger, I cheated a bit… :oops:  I didn’t do anything too special for him (except the bow/crossbow) so he’s kind of a patchwork between several other specs. But except if you do plenty of runs with many different parties, you will likely never notice that… :-P

Anyway, the game is now fully done ! It just needs to be proofread by an English native speaker, as well as to get the French translation (I’ll get to it :-? ) and the German translation, and then I’ll need to build all the different versions correctly (Windows / OSX / Linux) and it’ll be all set to be released for next Friday on Steam, yippee  ! :mrgreen:

Cya soon for more news !

47th Weekly Update : Assassin !

Posted on by
The 1st Rogue specialization : the Assassin

The 1st Rogue specialization : the Assassin

Pffff, hard week, hard times… :-?

I still had to do many little things this week, including more bug hunting than expected, so I could finish only the 1st Rogue specialization, the Assassin.

Result is pretty nice, though, with a very special gameplay, that may be a bit hard to apprehend (the Man at Arms is much easier to handle), but the Rogue ought to be a bit more technical than the warrior, no ? :)

I just started the next specialization, a tank one, so I hope this incoming week I’ll be able to finish the Rogue, if nothing unexpected comes through.

I set the release date on Steam on November 6th, which should give me the time to get the game proofread and do the French translation.

But I’m getting super tired, especially as I’ve got an army of birds waking me up almost every day around 6:00am (but I swear I’m not a egg snatcher pig :mrgreen: ).

I’m almost there, so hopefully, I’ll hold !

Cya next week to check how it’s going… :)

46th Weekly Update : Steam & Mac OSX

Posted on by
Ice Dragon

Ice Dragon

Another good week of work !

The game is now available to play on Steam, with Steam Achievements, for anyone who already bought the game from here . And the Steam Store page is visible here : http://store.steampowered.com/app/409450 . The game should be available to buy on Steam within a couple of weeks.

I also built & packaged the Mac OSX version for ManaGames.com (but still not for Steam), and it seems to be working nicely… :)

Things have been less crazy so I even have been able to rest a bit..! :P

So now, we’re just left with the Rogue class (and maybe the Scavenger Hunt, if I get the mood & energy) and the Steamwork shop integration and it’ll be all done.

Goal for next week is to do almost 2 Rogue specializations ; I’m not sure it’s possible or not, but we’ll know that soon enough ! ;)

45th Weekly Update : 1.0 Baby !

Posted on by
It's Christmas before Christmas ! :-p

It’s Christmas before Christmas ! :-p

Wohoho !

I did it, the game is finally in a state where it can be seen as complete ! :mrgreen:

Last week hasn’t been exactly easy with Greenlight and everything (see the previous posts in the blog), but I managed to do a little bunch of things in addition of the Arcanist specialization for the Mage. Mostly I added a few abilities for the Mobs so they have more varied sounds & visual FX and the result is impressive ! I hope it’s not too much..! :-P

The Arcanist is a new beast to tame so it seems it’s different enough. I didn’t give him any AoE spells, but instead he got the best solo Crowd Control spell of the game.

I polished & fixed a few bad bugs reported by the first customers, and now the game should be in a solid state and left with a minimal list of bugs (I guess there are still a few ones hidden here and there but I’ll squeeze them soon enough!).

Anyway, I’m nearly dead, really need to catch some sleep.

Hopefully, rhythm is going to calm down now.

This week, the main goal is to get the game on the Steam platform, so I’ll be able to give Beta Steam Keys to possible reviewers : it seems more convenient than using my own system, as reviewers are short on time and are more used to Steam, they might be more willing to give it a try if they receive a Steam Key.

I’m thinking about releasing the game on Steam around end of next week, so after that I might be working on the Steam Achievements. In that case, the Rogue class would come as a bonus update a few weeks later.

Cya soon for more news ! :)

5% Grimrock

Posted on by
 Which one is from Grimrock ?2015-10 - Env Grimrock
2015-10 - Env Old Dungeon 2015-10 - Env Evil Crypt
2015-10 - Env Mines 2015-10 - Env Abandonned Palace

 

Ok, so the game got a lot of comments about looking too much like Grimrock, even Juho, one of the Grimrock’s creators came to comment on the Greenlight page.

Both games get their main inspiration from Dungeon Master and its grid-based movement, so they ought to look similar.
But I also played Grimrock when it was 1st released back in early 2012 and I really liked its mossy dungeon and asked my environment artist to create an old mossy stone wall set. I didn’t ask him to copy Grimrock’s one, though. If you look in details, you’ll see that nothing is same, but despite that the general impression is similar.

How it came to this result ?

It (almost) started with that :

1st version ever of the Old Mossy Dungeon

2nd version of the Old Mossy Dungeon (I don’t have any screenshot of the 1st one! >_< )

For me, it was looking good without being too similar from Grimrock.

Notice how the column, the ceiling and the floor are different from the final version as shown on the 2nd screenshot at top of this post.

The artist refined and changed a few things, little step by little step and delivered the assets. I checked them 1 by 1. Every asset looked different from Grimrock : different shapes for models & textures, different saturations, different colors, different contrasts ; all was good.

Then I set up everything and put all pieces together in the game, and here : “oh jeez!”. It felt similar to Grimrock. I was a bit annoyed, so I went back playing Grimrock, and once in-game, I knew in less than 1 second I wasn’t in mine : although it looked similar, it still didn’t feel the same when playing, so for me it was ok. And it had to, because I was on a super tight budget and couldn’t afford to drop 1 environment.

Moreover, the Old Mossy Dungeon is only 1 environment out of 4, so that’s 25%, and actually even less if you count the little variations (each environment has 2 or 3 variations), so more like 20%. Then you add all the creatures, the visual FX and the GUI, and that’s only 10% of the whole visual a bit too close of Grimrock. You add the gameplay & the controls, and you’re left with 5% of the whole game a bit too similar to Grimrock.

So please stop to complain because I wanted to have green moss on my walls and try to see the game past that..! :-)

I mean except if you think no one should ever be allowed again to do stone walls with moss in a video game, of course ! :-P

 

44th Weekly Update : Intense Week !

Posted on by
Yeah, I already posted a screenshot of that dude, but now it's the final version ! ;-)

Yeah, I already posted a screenshot of that dude, but now it’s the final version ! ;-)

Pfffffffff ! That was an intense week !

So in the order, that gives :

  • worked my ass off to provide good game footage to the Motion Designer so he could create a good trailer, which included the addition of a smooth mouse mode and then an advanced smooth flyby mode with waypoints in the game
  • designed & refined the trailer’s storyboard
  • screenshots & gameplay video for the Greenlight page
  • Key system & buy system for the game
  • Race bonuses : it was even faster than what I planned ; instead of using the Talent System, I used the Class system which was very straightforward to apply the race bonuses (eg: +1 Strength, and stuff like that) ; and it contains the root for the Talents, so I could extend it if some Modders ask me about it :)
  • some serious debugging & cleaning in the game
  • pre-releasing the game for sale here => http://www.managames.com/DungeonGuardians/buy-the-game/
  • writing & sending French Press Release
  • posting in Forums over the Internet
  • writing the English Press Release, feeling “meh” when reading it, and thus ending hiring services of a professional marketing agency in emergency !
  • feverishly looking the Greenlight “Yes votes” counter  raises, minute by minute, till breaking the Top 100 in 60 hours, and being #36 at time of this writing ! Hopefully, it means the game will get greenlit this week, but it still needs a bunch of votes to reach the Top 10, where it’ll be almost sure to get Steam’s eyes on it

So this new week will be hopefully a bit more quiet, with “only” :

  • English PR handling
  • finally designing & integrating the 3rd mage’s specialization
  • adding a few different attack visual FX for the mobs, to bring a bit more variation to the game
  • releasing the final 1.0 version (the Rogue class will come with v1.0a at end of the month)
  • try to get some reviews on popular sites
  • resting & sleeping a bit before I die..! :-P

Cya in 1 week if I make it..!