Category Archives: Development Diary

20 Levels in 1 Screenshot !

Updating the project to Unity 5 has been pretty quick, but there was a severe hiccup.

I hoped to switch to the new Physically Based Rendering (PBR) ; this kind of rendering produces very realistic lighting and it can be really nice. But unfortunately, there’s no automated process to convert from the classic rendering to this new one, and moreover usually it needs assets created especially for it, else it’s not really physically correct anyway. So PBR may come only for DG2.

So I kept the old lighting system. It’s not bad and it can be prettier than real life, as it kinda amplifies the reflections…

But at least, upgrading to Unity 5 let me load the whole dungeon at once and do the screenshots you can see all around this post ! That gives a pretty impressive mess, no ?

And although I couldn’t remove the Loading screen, now the loading time for the 20 levels is shorter than the time it needed before to load only the 8 levels of the Beta 2, as it’s under 15 seconds, which is really acceptable.

I spent the end of the week upgrading my selling system, as I had to do some changes after the release of my tennis game on Steam and the brutal change in Euro exchange rates since the beginning of the year.

Next week, I’ll have also plenty of little things to do that are totally unrelated to Dungeon Guardians, but hopefully I’ll get back to it before the end of the week. I might either start the final boss fight, or do some small improvements & changes from Beta tester feedback.

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Basilisk roaming in the 18th Level

This week went well : I created 2 new levels, and they’re great !

1stly, the Level 17 looks like a kind of fortress lost in the middle of abysses, which leads to unseen sceneries & exploration so far in the dungeon. The idea came to me from LoG2 : early in the game, you can see a castle with stairs on its side, in the middle, relying doors to the inside floors ; I thought it’d be impressive to walk on these stairs, going in & out like that in the middle of the castle ! But actually, they were just for the show, we never walk on these stairs, nor see them from close…   So in Dungeon Guardians, we will ! It’ll look a bit less good, because the gameplay actually handles them, they’re not just for show, but it should still be pretty impressive..!

The Level 17’s puzzle is mix of timed based & observation & trial/error puzzles. I really wonder if it’s too easy or not, hopefully I’ll get some feedback on it before the game release. But anyway, it should at least take a few minutes to solve, to take the time to observe everything, so it’s not too bad.

Due to the verticality of the level, I also hid plenty of “jumping” secrets, where you have to fall of the edge of the fortress to find an hidden entrance.

2ndly, the Level 18 is also a very particular level ! It’s a kind a labyrinth on 2 levels, which gives some great exploration, full of dark corners and surprises, with a bunch of teleporters to spice up the progression. Its puzzle is a teleporter maze, pretty similar to the one from Dungeon Master. I was not a big fan of it, but it brings some nice variation in the puzzle list ; I put plenty of visual indications to avoid feeling too lost & disoriented while in it, and it matches perfectly the theme of the level (labyrinth & teleporters! ).

I gave some thoughts for the Level 19 and I think I’ll go with a more classic approach : a kind of crypt with big rooms & corridors. After a bunch of really special levels, it should feel nice to get something more straightforward. For the Level 20, I still don’t have any clear idea : it’ll be the final level, so it should be special. I have a very special final boss fight in mind, so I should try to build up a level that matches it, but I’m not sure what it means right now.

So all next week will be spent on creating the last 2 levels of the Dungeon, and if things go fast, I’ll start to take care of the bosses of that final Tier.

Cu in 1 week for the next update !

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Elder Wyvern Breathing Fire

This past week has been mostly marked by some bad things that happened in my little family and physically took me away from work for a couple of days and impaired my mood for more.

So I did less than planned but I still managed to do a good part : 2 boss fights have been significantly spiced up ; 1 has partly become a “hide-or-die” game, and the other one a more classic “handle the minions” one. As the last boss fight of Tier 4 was already naturally partially avoidance based (ie: need to avoid big fire flood ), then there’s only 1 fight which is mostly tank & spank (with also a hint of avoidance). So on that front, all good !

After that, I integrated all the needed mobs for Tier 5. So now the bestiary is complete with nearly 100 kind of mobs (including variations) ! And that, without counting the 20 bosses ! In the screenshot above, you can see the Wyvern in action ; in-game, it looks more big than in the picture as it’s flying up & down : it gets pretty impressive ! (yes, I put many exclamation marks, that’s how much excited I am to approaching the end of the development! ). I’ll still have to do some tuning and create a few additional abilities to bring some variety, though, but it’ll be done in a few weeks.

And… that’s all for the week…

Oh, I got an great idea for the Level 17, so now I’m just short of 2 good ideas to finish the Dungeon (as I still got 1 in stock).

And maybe I’ll tell you more about it next week !

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Crypt Environment

Pffff, I’m getting tired… I integrated the bosses’ assets and give them abilities, but I didn’t design any boss fight so far, so they’re more or less basic tank & spank at this point.

I created & finished the Level 16, though. Result is nice enough, but I feel I’m getting nearly dry ideas wise. I’m not sure how I’m going to create 4 more levels, while I have ideas for only 1 right now. Hopefully, my imagination will trigger and I’ll get some more ideas soon !

Anyway, the Level 16 got 1 impressive architectural place, a couple of pretty well designed level flows, and another strange room. Unfortunately, 1 third of the level is pretty basic, it feels kinda random ; on the other hand, I didn’t do much zones like this in the whole dungeon so far, so maybe it’ll feel as a variation. In all cases, I think it’ll be ok if the fights are still interesting. Plus, I nicely placed some secret passages to keep the exploration interest up.

The puzzle is a timed one… But if you take it as only that, it’s nearly impossible to beat it (or you’ll need a ton of tries). Actually, if you take a couple of minutes and observe everything, it becomes significantly less hard, and although it’s still not easy, it should be doable by most players.

So next week I’m planning to spice up a couple of the boss fights of tier 4, and then switch to tier 5 (ie: Levels 17-20, the final tier!) and integrate all mobs for it and then start and hopefully finish the Level 17.

Cya in 1 week !

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Gateway to Hell ?

I did everything planned last week !

Or almost… Ok, I cheated a bit, I finished this morning before to write this post…

So I finished the Level 13 : just by adding a puzzle, the loot and some secrets, its soul came to life ! Now, it feels much more right than last week, and I’m more happy with the result : it’s a classic level, but still a good level. Especially as it features the best puzzle of the game so far ! I’m really happy with this one ; it’s actually not that hard to solve it, but it requires to really observe and not rush things, so it looks very intriguing at 1st, feeling like a timed based puzzle, but actually it’s just an observation one.

After that I created the Level 14 ; it’s a relatively classic one as well, but with a bunch of elements, architectural & gameplay ones, that make it unique. For the puzzle, I recycled the one from the Level 13 but transformed it to be a timed one ; like that, people who would have thought the Level 13’s puzzle was time based and spent a lot of time to try to solve it in that way will be able to use that training to easily solve the puzzle in the level 14.

And finally, I created the Level 15 ; this one feels special enough as well, featuring some lava (as seen on the screenshot above), it makes me feel like a level from Doom¹. It’s also less linear and globally pretty efficient. I also broke a few of my habits so it brings some variety. And its puzzle is good ; it’s dexterity based but nothing too hard.

And on top of that, I managed the release of my tennis game on Steam, which was kinda erratic, so all in all it has been a pretty busy & intense week !

The good news is that now I create levels much faster than before… More exactly, I create them in less cumulated time… I still need a couple of days to create a level, but I don’t have to work as much every day, so it gave me time to take care of Steam & stuff.

So the objective for this incoming week is to create the Level 16 which will be the last level of 4th tier (actually, it’ll belong as much to the 4th as the 5th), and then set up the 4 boss fights of the 4th tier. I’m not sure I’ll be able to do all that, except if I come pretty fast with ideas for the boss fights, or decide to do more simple tank & spank fights, but we’ll see in next weekly update the results, like usually !

1. yes, the FPS from 1993! ↩

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Level 13th Boss Room

Last week has been a bit slow again, but there was not much more to do to finish the integration of the 4th tier mobs, so I also almost finished to create the 13th level : now it just misses 1 puzzle, some loot and a couple of secret rooms and it’ll be done (except for the boss fight, as usually).

I’m not super happy with this 13th Level though. After the 4 previous levels, which were pretty nicely varied with all their own distinct taste, this one is a bit more generic, classic and straightforward. It still has its own character though, but it’s less strongly marked.

Hopefully, having a more simple level will actually feel like a variation and a nice break after a few harder levels.

I have big goal for this week : finish 13th level, and create the 14th & 15th levels ! Let’s see if it can be done for next weekly update !

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Ratkin Gunners Firing at Will !

Last week has been slow & short, so I didn’t do much…

It’s always hard to switch back to a creative project, and this time was no exception so I didn’t have much mood nor energy last week to work on Dungeon Guardians. Anyway, I managed to integrate almost half of the new mobs needed for the 4th tier, including the Ratkin Gunner featured in the screenshot above, but I didn’t begin the level design as hoped.

So the goals for this new week are to finish the integration and create the 13th level !

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