For the last Pirate Software jam, my team did something similar with the little kitchen the game was based in, but all of them were dumb jokes, like the poster that said “We’re not paying you to slack off” having the “to slack off” torn off of it, or one that said “Remember, we have safety standards!”, but somebody vandalized it by writing “No” after “have”. They were so great lol.
@@Deynum You could also do employee of the month walls. Maybe in an executive floor you can put portraits of them on the wall maybe foreshadowing bosses. Bulletin boards. Passive aggressive notes between coworkers.
Rather than picking up desks as materials, why not destroy them to pick up wood? Then the broken table stays there and it still acts as an obstruction, but still gives materials. You could also make the paper-desk-gun projectiles act as boulders, pushing enemies in its path backwards until it breaks. If this becomes overpowered you can always make the projectile burst into paper immediately upon hitting a stronger enemy, but deal its leftover lifetime damage immediately. Looking forward to seeing where this project ends up :)
Yeah I was thinking this same thing, the player being able to just pick up stuff really breaks the ability for enemies to have interesting movement. Like imagine if he wanted to add an enemy that uses desks as cover... how would that work if you can just pick up the desk lmao Having desks be breakable instead of "pickup-able?" would be better
You could even add randomized or differing drops depending on the variant of the object. For example, breaking desks might drop a drawer, or a PC, keyboard, or pen holder that was on it, and a printer could shoot out a stack of paper or an ink cartridge.
@@Moldychip95 I’m too lazy to learn “Real” coding, but I have made so many things I’m proud of. Mostly visual scripting on programs like construct, game maker, Roblox etc
I would also record the sound of a stack of papers being dropped, alongside the _thwump-issk_ of an air compressor (like some potato cannons use), and then add printer sounds for a reload.
Add a mystery element, like being able to read cryptic documents. That would breed intrigue and cause the player to want to keep going. Great work, never give up👍👌
- Spend the first half of the video saying that too much time is spent on art. - Proceed to animate paper for a gun he's not sure how much fun it can be The lesson is unfortunately not learnt.
it is you who didnt learn the lesson. the lesson wasnt "too much time spent on art." The lesson was "too much time spent on making the game *look* good." They're not the same thing
Random suggestion : I've always felt that the player character looks a bit flat, I feel like it may feel broken up a bit more if you give him a little belt. Love the videos :)
@Deynum, is there a reason he doesn't have arms? Or at least has his ball hands in the walking animation and idle animation. Just including the hands might make it more natural to imagine, with the special way the arms and hands move when running.
"Focusing on the art is the reason I lost motivation" then "So I did more art." Just because you lampshaded it, doesn't mean it's not still a problem. There is a reason that art is one of the last things done in a project, because it makes things so much easier to change when you're not worried about the art AND THEN YOU CONTINUE TO FOCUS ON ART with the walking animation. You haven't learned anything... have you? ... why have you continued to focus on art with the desk? You haven't playtested this? You don't know if it's fun. And then all of these hours could be wasted
yes art should be the last thing, but you still need something to work with. Art is a fundamentally important part of a game because it makes the gameplay look better. You need to spend a little bit of time at the beginning on placeholders that get the right idea across - it's super important. There's no formula for how long you should spend on this, but making decent art so that you can focus on satisfying gameplay is needed. Take a look at the gun. Simply adding the screen shake made it go from incredibly boring to use, to super satisfying. It's a fine line to walk
i honestly think some of your old weapons would still work, and be fun, with unique mechanics for them. the stapler could temporarily stun enemies by stapling them to objects or the floor, as an example. or the multi color pen thing (idk what they're called) could have different bullet effects for each color. also, sound effects will make each weapon feel cooler, and maybe some recoil as well? the desk printer gun especially looks like it should have recoil, since you're firing a whole desk at high speeds (edit) but your ideas for crafting weapons is incredibly cool, and it fits the office theme well! if you do wind up bringing the old weapons back, maybe they could be like a starting kit?
i wouldnt say that. sound is what completes a design, but visuals are more important because no matter how good the sound is, if something looks visually bad then it's not going to be satisfying
I have a cool idea for a boss fight: The Receptionist Gameplay: Phase 1:She sits at a desk and doesn't move and only attacks when attacked, she throws coffee and paper at you but mainly types a bunch of words at you. Phase 2: Her head is taken over by her computer and images appear and turns into an enemy e.g. a rat acts like a cursor, a cat just sits there, a turtle spins around the room bouncing off walls like in mario Appearance: Red dress with coffee spills on it and a blue tie, when attacked gets a massive mouth filled with massive sharp teeth, during Phase 2 she stands up and has wire tentacle legs and the computer consumes her heard and an image appears each time a new enemy shall appear I hope you see this and add it to your game (you don't have to I won't mind but LOVE IT if you do)
hey, thank you for the transparency about this! i've been really enjoying your videos, and i really appreciate the step back about what you've been doing and what you need to do. excited to see where this project goes in the future! :D
That desk gun DEFINITELY needs to give recoil to the player and move them backwards a bit. Would balance out the gun a bit so that it can have massive damage, but come at the slight cost of *some* movement. A lot of gameplay and design comes through trade-offs with the game and the player, should lean into those a bit more for more interesting and emergent gameplay my dude
The gun can now have a percent chance to clog and not shoot but after unjamming it shoots a huge paper wad just to fit with paper "jammer" better just spit ballin
One important lesson I have learned from game dev is that you need to add gameplay first, then you polish it, and only THEN you are starting to worry about visuals. You know - the only reason you need good visuals is just to advertise the game, funny enough is that modern gamers (at least the ones that have braincells) don't care about graphics. They only care about THREE things: 1. Optimizations 2. Gameplay. 3. Polish. Everything else is literally optional
ah but graphics still enhance gameplay. as an example from my obsession, you can take hollow knight. It would be a much worse game without the visuals being as good as they are. Despite it being one of my favourite games ever, I would never want to play it if it didn't look good. With game dev, you need placeholders that get an idea across. Visual appeal is very necessary, because eyesight is the main sense that people use, it's the most important one. But you can employ a bit of a psychological trick by letting players "fill in" the visual gaps as long as they have the right idea. Ultimately, if a game looks bad, that's going to be hurting your most important sense the entire time you're playing it. That includes you while you're developing it.
That is pure evidence of a problem I head the solution of at one of those GDC videos: Mess around first, create stuff for the heck of it, on impulse, even. Make the mechanics and stick to one that feels fun, add few of the other meh mechanics... you can put a pretty packaging on it later.
Filing cabinets and their little silver keys should be the treasure chests to allow for puzzles. And office keycards to enter rooms/floors. The keys could be hidden inside the desks, trash bins, clocks, office plants, picture frames etc that you have to loot for stuff to make weapons from. The keycards could be on lanyards certain enemies drop
Love the new gun! Its so juicy with the screenshake and everything! I also like the direction with crafting different guns with objects you find! How many guns is this gonna end up being 🤯
@@Deynum You should think about making it modular. Like, Printer + (any other object) shoots a white prefab of that object, that might make your life easier, AND provide a huge amount of creative freedom for your players
@@Deynum I'm sure you're already doing it but I _really_ recommend looking into all of the knowledge there is on game design, it will make things more fun AND easy to make if you choose smartly what you do. All the good luck!
I think your problem is that your game is not "juicy". It looks like the pixel art is nice, but the gameplay is not very fun. For example, when the character shoots, camera vibrations according to the weapon, bullet speed, even random intensification of weapon animations can be added. I think this is the main reason why games don't look fun. For example, when the enemies in 5:10 jump on the player, it feels like something is missing. I had this kind of enemy in my game and I solved the problem by vibrating the camera when the enemy jumps. You can also use PixelOver if you want to progress more through pixel art (I don't know if you've heard of it before, but animations can be made very simply).
Something else that could be interesting with objects is being able to maybe kick them, either into enemies to do damage, or to create obstacles enemies have to get around, say you're being bombarded by enemies you could run behind a desk, kick it and have it slide across the floor crushing some of the enemies as it slams against the wall.
some ideas keyboard gun - it shoots letters water bottle gun - it shoots water & hold to release heavy attack camera gun - uses flash to immobilize enemy's sticky notes - sticks enemy's on place after pre-placed by player
I have been loving your office rogue like videos for ages, but this video felt different. the final part when you said that you finally had fun made me feel very happy, and I am glad that you are stepping up to try and rectify your past mistakes. I'm excited to see what you add next :]
Something very important that could help YOU find motivation is mentioned almost perfectly on bedsheet ghost video "How Pressure BROKE Roblox" but in short you musn't make a game for people to like, you must make a game YOU like not caring about what other people think but making something you like. It's better explained on the video mentioned but when you make something you like people will naturally interest themselfs on the thing you are making you shouldn't care about the image of the game but instead on what you think is Funny, or Poggers or something else. You can do it. Keep up the good work. 😁
This is a valuable lesson on game development and design. Gameplay is the most important part, after that comes the juice - the stuff that makes the gameplay satisfying. And everything else pretty much comes after that - The art, the sounds (good sound design as arguably as important as things like screen shake or particles), and other types of polish.
This is one of the best videos in youtube gamedev. Really appreciate you being so transparent with the game vs video struggle. Also the paper desk bullet animation is sick
6 днів тому
if you wanted to, you could consider making the camera look ahead of the player depending on what direction you're aiming, could help with longer range weapons so you can see where you're shooting. Good luck on the devlogs, you got a subscription from me!
Deynum: "So let's animate the paper trail animation on this weapon that we get from the crafting, that we get from the feedback, that we get from the testers, that we get once there is a halfway playable alpha, that we get after prototyping the gameplay loop, that we get from the basic concept, that we get once we get motivation."
I totally get you. Making devlogs does interfere with the production procress, one wants to polish things or even solve the graphic side before they should just to please the viewers. And making content is a lot of work, sometimes it takes more time than making the game and the development start to slow down. I'm glad you changed perspectives and find a way back to keep working in the game better than before!
my best tip for fun is to focus on the little things. Its all about the impact of what the player does, so screen shake, particles, and other effects dramatically make the game more fun despite not changing the gameplay.
With the walking animation- I think the biggest thing, at least for me, is just making sure that it actually LOOKS like you're walking right, aside from the direction since it seems to look the same whether you're walking down and left, but it's the syncing between the animation speed and the distance traveled so that way it doesn't look like you took 10,000 steps and only moved 2 feet
@@Deynum "Let's animate the paper trail animation on this weapon that we get from the crafting, that we get from the feedback, that we get from the testers, that we get once there is a halfway playable alpha, that we get after prototyping the gameplay loop, that we get from the basic concept, that we get once we get motivation. I got an idea! Space based inventory system!" Don't. I believe you have the competence to make an awesome game, but not with this level of feature creep and out of order plan. You didn't start over building your dream house. You just moved the decor and accent pieces you crafted to a new empty plot of land and continue crafting.
I believe the issue with the walking is that the character doesn't lean forward to run/walk. It's alright to perhaps try a running as the default instead of walking, since it'll go hand to hand with the dodging you'd often do. For the Paper-Scatter gun you could also add sfx, or a blast-flash from the muzzle to make it feel more big, if that makes sense. Can't wait to see this game heading in a new direction!
This has made me realise why i never finish a project I start. The obsession = motivation bit. Additionnaly, I never have a complete gameplay loop to send to my friend so they can give me their opinio on how the game feels or if its any "fun". Thanks! That made me think a bit and hope your as well can improve your game like your want it !
something that i think the desk-paper-printer-bazooka-gun-thing should have is some exponential slowing on the projectiles. I think it would help sell the momentum of the initial shot without adding too many flashy and distracting effects
I love the new gun and new mentality towards this project! I also came up with a few ideas while watching this devlog. So if ur interested, I would like to suggest two things. First idea is small but if u would want the paper desk to feel more powerful or give more UMPH to it, what if it caused u to be knocked back a little every time u fired it? This may cause the combat with it to feel more dynamic and chaotic. My 2nd idea is to do something with crafting and destructible objects. So instead of using a whole desk and printer as crafting recipes, what if u gather pieces of it after the carnage that happened in the room. This way, large objects can be served as barriers that could be broken down to be used for crafting parts. Not only does it allow intuitive crafting, but allows/gives a more chaotic and hopefully fun look to ur destruction and debris. Anyways, those are my ideas and i hope its within scope. Cant wait to see what else comes out of this and happy coding!
Pretty cool project. Had an idea for the color pen gun. Let the player switch between colors and have certain combos of colors trigger some status effect. Say 3 red shots in a row set the enemy on fire. 2 Green and 1 Blue poison the enemy. One of each color makes the enemy explode into bits (0s/1s). Then add a time penalty for switching colors. I think this could make for a pretty fun weapon.
I'm new to your channel since this video just got recommended to me, but even I can tell you've been stuck in this vicious cycle for a long time, and I'm proud of you for finally starting to break it.
Suggestion: Specific objects add specific traits to the weapon. Like desks make projectiles larger, pens make projectiles faster, coffee machines could add splash damage, that sort of thing.
You can add more variation if you think about how buildings actually work: For an office building, the ground level floor could be either a big lobby, a restaurant or just some shops. Then you would have both elevators and stairs (elevators could let you go up, while opening a door from a certain floor to the stairway could act as a checkpoint/going down path). You can also have floors like you have now, office space, meeting rooms, office utility storage, cafeterias/break rooms/vending machines, etc. After a certain amount of floors you could have a machine room, where they'd keep the AC units and such. An alternative is also that big pendulum they put in tall buildings to counteract wind forces and earthquakes. These could be cool for bosses. Also, what about a few floors where another company is located. Maybe an open floor plan, green rooms, games, lounges, etc. Or maybe a scam farm, where they have a bunch of people in a row making sketchy calls. Or a WeWork type space. At the top you'd have the administrative floors. These should be more luxurious, with wooden finishes, carpets, art works, secretaries and big offices. You could even make the bosses themed after the CEO, COO, CTO, CFO, etc, etc. and the big bad after the shareholders. Even throw some shade at some irl companies with meeting rooms filled with monetization technics or similar. And lastly, consider cigarettes as a form of item that would give you either energy or life, cause a lot of workers escape work by smoking breaks. Either that or coffee. Ooh, or a co-worker that steals your stuff, like they'd steal your food from the fridge. K, this is too much already. Thanks
Its awesome to see another Office Roguelike video! Just a suggestion but what if weapons had different properties depending on the size of the objects you combined. For example the Desk Printer you made would do massive damage, but would only be single shot, while combining something like a stapler and a pen would only do small damage but last a really long time. Finally combining a small and large item could give you a medium weapon that does medium damage, and has medium health / ammo. Maybe they take up different inventory space as well, so you can carry 100 coffee-pen guns but only 2 printer-table guns. Stuff like this would add alot more strategy to the game, and make it alot more interesting to play, as you really have to think about what you want to combine. (Also please add kickback to the printer table, that as well as the screenshake would really show the power behind that paper)
As a small idea for wall decor, outside of posters or unpowered TV screens, on the exective suite consider blank windows or wall sconces. Exective suites also have fancier trim, potted plants/trees, trophies/employee of the month things, graduate certificates, or pictures of whatever the company sells.
Make it so that the paper left behind leaves a hitbox with bonus move speed, so if you walk towards the path of the desk you move faster. Also add a bit of recoil to the gun. You’re shooting a whole desk. Movement related attributes on guns like this add a lot of variation.
id like to give a few suggestions and criticism on the design and ideas for weapons'. 1) you don't need to only make guns, i think it be plenty fun to use a table like a club and smash enemies with it, very strong but very slow, you just pick up a desk in wherever you find it. could make it break after a few hits. 2)I thought about the printer, it be cool if you could like push it and cause some damage and knockback some enemies. 3) the paper table gun. its not a great idea, but for me its cause of the design itself. knowing what you were going for the design didn't really feel clear. imagine you just got the game and you craft it, you'd be confused as to why there's a paper ghost being shot out and why you have a Bionicle drawer in your hands. i think you can make it work but it needs some sort of simplification or adjustment. personally id make your weapon a drawer and you toss random junk thats inside. you can get it by breaking a few desk and gluing wood together. if theres crafting of course. 4) it be neat if you could just use random items found in an office. not only guns but like use a ruler as a sword, maybe use pens like daggers and you run around with one of those cups with a bunch of pens. that be funny. that way you can also have an easy way to replenish ammo.
Hey!!! Best of luck with the game's development :3 I can definitely see the walk cycle being fixed with a more leaned over running animation - never be afraid of *exaggerating* the action! Legs swaying back and forth is always good running! Also making him bounce, of course!
For future weapons, I suggest brainstorming some fun to play ideas and the art can come afterwards. What can the guns do? Stuns, traps, multishot, shots that split after hitting an enemy
I think that if this is the first gun you would craft in the game that you should give it a longer cooldown to make people want to replace it. The longer cooldown could also be explained by saying that the printer needs to print a new desk to shoot
I very much relate to the Motivation = Obsession concept. Such is my life. I just get one focus at a time, so I've gotten to the point where I fear starting new things, because I know I'll get into them, and forget about the other things I'm currently enjoying.
One thing I noticed with the desk printer gun: it looses momentum rather fast at the end, and the last bits of paper seem to stop in place. Maybe having it so that the paper bits keep moving forward would help?
8:50 he got the swagger for real tho, i'm sure some other people in your situation would disappear from their channel or keep faking things; good on you for making the change
I haven't seen all your content yet so maybe there's already an idea in place, but think about progression! A big part of Fun and good design can often mean an enjoyable progression system and the feeling of "spending" or "growing". Maybe a talent tree that needs to be purchased by money and enemies drop their small hourly wages to pick up. I know it' s a cliché nowadays but I could imagine a rouglite where the reason you don't fully check out of life is because some sort of evil entity won't let you die, but still forces you to work sending you back to the lowest floor upon death.
Whats the story, when I created my game the largest thing that helps make it fun was the story as it keeps it interesting from the start, it’s the reason people want keep to play your game, but for games like Baltro this isn’t necessary. Like hotline Miami, it’s fun and fast with a very small story. Also in game development always do paper prototyping as when people love the basic unfinished game the whole game can just be made even more fun.
You have a lot of work in front of you. Every time you add something new that the player can pick up the amount of combinations doubles (assuming anything can be combined, which would be really satisfying)
Ok, so hear me out on some weapons: Pencil Shaving Gatling Gun - Rapidly fires a barrage of pencil shavings. Craft with an electric sharpener and possibly a desk fan or shredder. Eraser Cannon - Fires an enlarged rubber eraser that bounces off enemies and surfaces, losing pieces each bounce. Craft with a box of erasers and maybe a... soda machine? Water Cooler Freeze Ray - Spray a freezing mist to slow and stop enemies. Craft with a water cooler and fire extinguisher. Pencil Crossbow - Fire fast moving, super sharp pencils. Craft with pencils and rubber bands. Tape Trap Spreader - Fires a spray of staple-covered tape on the ground that traps and damages enemies. Craft with a stapler and tape gun. Duelie Staplers - Literally two staplers wielded guns akimbo. Could be an early game craft.
I think it could be really cool to be able to interact with some desks or boxes, and it pulls up a screen of a close up view, and you can grab the stuff you need to make the guns. I'm not sure how many unique, fun guns you can make out of only giant stuff like desks and printers. Maybe make melee weapons too, with rulers, desk legs, etc
I once cancelled a game for the exact same reasons after working on it for 1.5 years. I get what you're saying! When I started working on a 2nd project, I was able to tackle the "fun" really quickly from the start. Like literally, in about 1 week, I had a gameplay loop that was fun to play regardless of the limited mechanics and the grey boxing. No theme, no graphics, no story, just pure gameplay. That's when it hit me... I realized what were the reasons why my cancelled project never took off. I was focusing way too much on the setting, the uniqueness, the theme and the art. The gameplay was never fun and I boxed myself into trying to fit the gameplay into the story or gimmick instead of the other way around. So yeah, I'm glad that you're learning from past mistakes and that you've figured it out as well ! Keep it up man, I like your project.
If it makes you feel any better, 2 years ago i got into game development, and i still dont have any projects worth showing off, i always get into a state of paralysis which prevents me from working on any of my ideas outside of short game jams. Currently im trying to re-approach game dev as if i didn't know the process to make a game, so im recreating old games starting from Pong and it will go all the way up to remaking Doom and Minecraft's basic world generation. Space invaders is where im up to, game 3, ive basically already made it but ive been working so much recently i haven't been able to finish, not only that but i genuinely do not like space invaders so ive been against working on it, though it's been a slow process for this game specifically, i haven't entered a paralysis state yet which overcoming was my main goal. Just the fact that Ive even managed to work on a game i dislike has already made me proud, all im missing from it is respawning and the mothership but they're both rookie stuff so i might just make the respawning and then move on to Asteroids which im really excited about because ive already made a game inspired by it for gmtk game jam this year. I want to learn something new still so that's where i will try to go crazy with game juice. You better finish that game loop though, i genuinely feel hurt by the fact that you faked it, i dont want to see any more guns or a crafting/inventory system until you have a basic game loop. We love to see new content, that's where creativity gets to be expressed, the main goal of game development... but come on man, a couple devlogs working exclusively on making it function isn't gonna kill your devlog series, it will however give your game way more potential and a much better canvas for you to work on. Playing a roguelite is more than just running around shooting enemies, it's completing a level with randomised loot and/or randomised rooms, there needs to be an increase in power, that is a later problem though (still very important to making a roguelite so do not forget it) but before you can add any form of players increasing in power as the run goes on, you need the ability for the run to go on, and for combat to grow in difficulty with each floor. Please work on the basic game loop, then worry about the content, content without a game loop, is not a game, it's just a weapon sandbox, are you trying to make a game to show off cool weapons or are you trying to make a game? Dw though, im all talk, while my motivation never dips, i get overwhelmed and that prevents me from working on my games even though i desperately want to and feel motivated to, we all have problems that try to stop us from achieving our dreams, "just make the game loop" is 10000x easier to say than to actually do but you got this, i believe in you and this project, just remember, a lot of the potential fun for your game is locked behind completing floors and loops and becoming stronger over time, that is generally in every roguelite, weapons alone cannot carry your game's fun factor, prioritise the game then the content.
In the interest of keeping the old art stuff useful and "main loop" fun, do the different weapons have different effects? Thinking along lines of "the stapler will slow down or stop weaker office workers, either for better positioning letting you ignore them while dealing with a bigger threat or build up a mass for a combo". Just thinking more enemy management while moving and shooting adds a layer on top, which might make the player feel like they're thinking more and maybe feel more fun as they exert their actions on the enemies. And different enemies could have different effects when weapons are used; staples on a paper enemy could make them smaller as they get stapled to themselves, a pen weapon could draw moustaches on humans and add words to paper, coffee would "energise" or maybe satisfy humans while slowing down/degrading paper. Simple puzzle enemies making encounters a loop of "dodge while you plan approach->identify possible solutions->decide course of action->win fight". I feel like the fun worry is best solved by the weapons. They're how you interact with the world, and as Gabe Newell has said before fun is the world reacting to your decisions (massive paraphrasing)
Also apologies if these suggestions are totally unhelpful, this is the first time I've seen a video of yours and I'm about halfway through this one when I typed this.
Just got the weapon crafting section. Combing items for crafting sounds fun, but sounds like a black hole. Every item added means either exponential increase in crafting OR potential player disappointment when they realise not all items combo. It could work fine, but easily spiral into burning all your time making craft combos; if that's your unique game selling point then absolutely have that be the focus, but if you're worried about motivation and time it's a potential risk.
I feel like things should be more messy like the clean and neat office just gets messy like if the ink gun was to come back it should have bigger splash radius and leave ink stains on walls and carpet. In all thank you for being transparent with us and keep up the amazing work!
I have a weapon idea: Red tape grenade - anyone who dears to touch it will get their vision limited and will become slower for as long as they are standing on it.
You should make the inventory system, but the more you have i you inventory the slower of harder it is to move. I think that is more creative than a simple cap on how much stuff you can hold. Add risk to picking things up.
Why wouldn't your office themed weapons be fun? Ink pen could be spreading slippery puddles. Stapler could stun an enemy. Add the ability to switch between items quickly and you can make it x then together for debuff against the enemies as well as attacks.
@@Deynum the staple could staple people to each other or walls , that;d be fun , they get a slowing debuff if to eachother or stunned for a bit if to a wall
Also I find i have the most fun achieving something, whether its getting that new power up, getting to the next level, fighting a particularly hard monster / boss and finally defeating it, etc. maybe the mechanics make it more difficult in some way such as limited ammo and the need to reload, loot management as a means to increase your power, just ideas.
Dunno what to say but im really happy to see that death inc is moving in a good direction! Best of luck for what you work on next! cant wait for the next devlog but do take ur time! dont get burnt out!!!!
The whole video I kept thinking about this over and over: You need to add the JUICE, my guy! Particle effects, screen shake, hit stop, sound fx! And, interestingly enough, that involves art
I feel that recoil in the player could make it more “satisfying” like you feel the actual weight of the shot compared to the static pose after a blast.
If you ever continue to create this project and release it into playtesting, one thing that always makes a game more memorable and recognisable is a great main character. In my opinion, the current character you play as is sort of bland and forgettable, he’s just some office worker in the most average clothes imaginable. I propose you make him an epic office agent, all black, red tie, epic shades, and maybe even a fedora or something. But simply making a guy that looks cool Probsbly wouldn’t be enough, so you could maybe re-design the movement to make the most epic action hero ever, flipping around the place and diving over enemies, improvising with the office tools as weapons and making quick decisions to save himself. People like to play as somebody they want to be, and feel epic playing. Anyways, this is just a suggestion, good luck in making the game, and keep up the effort!
Get 60% off an annual Incogni plan: incogni.com/deynum
Nah I'm aight
@@SusDoctor Thanks fine, it's completely optional!
game needs randomness, and a lot of it. unpredictability makes fun
How the heck was this comment posted 12 hours ago and the video 11?
@@KaydenTucker-cn5sd it was unlisted and/or the time ticked over to 12 after you loaded the video but before you loaded the comments
Anothother thing you could add to make the walls more interesting are posters that say things like “Get back to work!” or something like that.
The game actually used to have these! Maybe I should bring them back
@@Deynum Maybe even add poster saying employ of the month or smt
For the last Pirate Software jam, my team did something similar with the little kitchen the game was based in, but all of them were dumb jokes, like the poster that said “We’re not paying you to slack off” having the “to slack off” torn off of it, or one that said “Remember, we have safety standards!”, but somebody vandalized it by writing “No” after “have”. They were so great lol.
@@Deynum You could also do employee of the month walls. Maybe in an executive floor you can put portraits of them on the wall maybe foreshadowing bosses. Bulletin boards. Passive aggressive notes between coworkers.
Maybe the posters can also be collected as crafting materials as well!
Deynum: I focused on art too much
Also Deynum: Lets overhaul the art
I am aware of how ironic it is...
@@Deynum this is why we love you tho Deynum ♥️
167 likes!?!? the number of the
💀
WOAHH GAMEDEV CROSSOVER
Rather than picking up desks as materials, why not destroy them to pick up wood? Then the broken table stays there and it still acts as an obstruction, but still gives materials.
You could also make the paper-desk-gun projectiles act as boulders, pushing enemies in its path backwards until it breaks. If this becomes overpowered you can always make the projectile burst into paper immediately upon hitting a stronger enemy, but deal its leftover lifetime damage immediately.
Looking forward to seeing where this project ends up :)
Yeah I was thinking this same thing, the player being able to just pick up stuff really breaks the ability for enemies to have interesting movement. Like imagine if he wanted to add an enemy that uses desks as cover... how would that work if you can just pick up the desk lmao
Having desks be breakable instead of "pickup-able?" would be better
GET THIS ON TOP BOYS
You could even add randomized or differing drops depending on the variant of the object. For example, breaking desks might drop a drawer, or a PC, keyboard, or pen holder that was on it, and a printer could shoot out a stack of paper or an ink cartridge.
I was going to comment the same thing.
TO THE TOP
I refuse to believe that it's been 2 YEARS
I KNOW! It's crazy!
wait IT HAS BEEN 2 YEARS?!
Post corona time is crazy
@@parsydevfr these last couple years have all felt the same
Oh my😅
I’m happy that you’re being transparent I don’t think people realize how long it takes to make a game let alone make it fun
If you have made anything, you know motivation is a problem. Especially if you like to bounce around like me 👍
@@xXMr.SealXx I haven’t made anything yet but I am planning on taking a class next year to learn game development
@@Moldychip95 I’m too lazy to learn “Real” coding, but I have made so many things I’m proud of. Mostly visual scripting on programs like construct, game maker, Roblox etc
@@xXMr.SealXx still more then what I could make
@@Moldychip95 try making a game on google slides ;) if you make a card game you can print it off in real life and play it.
Newton's laws of game dev: Big bullets need big kick-back. Maybe a couple of steps.
I would also record the sound of a stack of papers being dropped, alongside the _thwump-issk_ of an air compressor (like some potato cannons use), and then add printer sounds for a reload.
Exactly what I was thinking, the paper desk gun needs some recoil
Add a mystery element, like being able to read cryptic documents. That would breed intrigue and cause the player to want to keep going. Great work, never give up👍👌
You might be closer to the plan I have for this game than you realize lol
@@Deynum Looore
like slime rancher??
Honestly, you are one of my biggest gamedev inspirations, and I am going to closely follow along this project forevermore!
Talk about a prophecy of doom disguised as a compliment!
- Spend the first half of the video saying that too much time is spent on art.
- Proceed to animate paper for a gun he's not sure how much fun it can be
The lesson is unfortunately not learnt.
this
it is you who didnt learn the lesson. the lesson wasnt "too much time spent on art." The lesson was "too much time spent on making the game *look* good." They're not the same thing
Random suggestion : I've always felt that the player character looks a bit flat, I feel like it may feel broken up a bit more if you give him a little belt. Love the videos :)
I actually agree. The problem is the lack of space, he's only like 6x20 pixels, so a belt would seem insanely large lol
@Deynum, is there a reason he doesn't have arms? Or at least has his ball hands in the walking animation and idle animation. Just including the hands might make it more natural to imagine, with the special way the arms and hands move when running.
@@Deynuman item that gives him a comically large belt, it boosts damage but reduces firing speed
*knees*
"Focusing on the art is the reason I lost motivation" then "So I did more art."
Just because you lampshaded it, doesn't mean it's not still a problem. There is a reason that art is one of the last things done in a project, because it makes things so much easier to change when you're not worried about the art
AND THEN YOU CONTINUE TO FOCUS ON ART with the walking animation. You haven't learned anything... have you?
... why have you continued to focus on art with the desk? You haven't playtested this? You don't know if it's fun. And then all of these hours could be wasted
Your anger is both as hilarious as it is understandable.
yes art should be the last thing, but you still need something to work with. Art is a fundamentally important part of a game because it makes the gameplay look better. You need to spend a little bit of time at the beginning on placeholders that get the right idea across - it's super important. There's no formula for how long you should spend on this, but making decent art so that you can focus on satisfying gameplay is needed. Take a look at the gun. Simply adding the screen shake made it go from incredibly boring to use, to super satisfying. It's a fine line to walk
i honestly think some of your old weapons would still work, and be fun, with unique mechanics for them. the stapler could temporarily stun enemies by stapling them to objects or the floor, as an example. or the multi color pen thing (idk what they're called) could have different bullet effects for each color.
also, sound effects will make each weapon feel cooler, and maybe some recoil as well? the desk printer gun especially looks like it should have recoil, since you're firing a whole desk at high speeds
(edit) but your ideas for crafting weapons is incredibly cool, and it fits the office theme well! if you do wind up bringing the old weapons back, maybe they could be like a starting kit?
A new video revisiting those weapons would be great!
The #1 thing that makes things satisfying in video games is sound design. Adding huge thwumps and swooshes makes it 100% more engaging.
i wouldnt say that. sound is what completes a design, but visuals are more important because no matter how good the sound is, if something looks visually bad then it's not going to be satisfying
I have a cool idea for a boss fight:
The Receptionist
Gameplay: Phase 1:She sits at a desk and doesn't move and only attacks when attacked, she throws coffee and paper at you but mainly types a bunch of words at you. Phase 2: Her head is taken over by her computer and images appear and turns into an enemy e.g. a rat acts like a cursor, a cat just sits there, a turtle spins around the room bouncing off walls like in mario
Appearance: Red dress with coffee spills on it and a blue tie, when attacked gets a massive mouth filled with massive sharp teeth, during Phase 2 she stands up and has wire tentacle legs and the computer consumes her heard and an image appears each time a new enemy shall appear
I hope you see this and add it to your game (you don't have to I won't mind but LOVE IT if you do)
hey, thank you for the transparency about this! i've been really enjoying your videos, and i really appreciate the step back about what you've been doing and what you need to do. excited to see where this project goes in the future! :D
4:56 Ah the AAA game mindset, glad you got yourself out of that line of thinking. Can't wait to see where you go with this!
I have the *exact* same issue with working on long-time projects like you so I can absolutely understand you. Great vid ;)
"To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom."
-Socrates 370BC
(when asked for his #1 tip for game dev)
That desk gun DEFINITELY needs to give recoil to the player and move them backwards a bit. Would balance out the gun a bit so that it can have massive damage, but come at the slight cost of *some* movement. A lot of gameplay and design comes through trade-offs with the game and the player, should lean into those a bit more for more interesting and emergent gameplay my dude
ESPECIALLY if it's a roguelike, emergent gameplay with players mixing and matching different items to completely change up the playstyle is HUGE
Idea:Sound design can also give characyeristics to weapons. Also, can we call the paper desk gun "Paper Jammer?"
The gun can now have a percent chance to clog and not shoot but after unjamming it shoots a huge paper wad just to fit with paper "jammer" better just spit ballin
Take your time and don't rush this project. Mistakes are inevidable but you used them to make some amazing progress. Keep it up
One important lesson I have learned from game dev is that you need to add gameplay first, then you polish it, and only THEN you are starting to worry about visuals. You know - the only reason you need good visuals is just to advertise the game, funny enough is that modern gamers (at least the ones that have braincells) don't care about graphics. They only care about THREE things: 1. Optimizations 2. Gameplay. 3. Polish. Everything else is literally optional
ah but graphics still enhance gameplay. as an example from my obsession, you can take hollow knight. It would be a much worse game without the visuals being as good as they are. Despite it being one of my favourite games ever, I would never want to play it if it didn't look good. With game dev, you need placeholders that get an idea across. Visual appeal is very necessary, because eyesight is the main sense that people use, it's the most important one. But you can employ a bit of a psychological trick by letting players "fill in" the visual gaps as long as they have the right idea. Ultimately, if a game looks bad, that's going to be hurting your most important sense the entire time you're playing it. That includes you while you're developing it.
@@hashtagrex it's a 2d game, I am currently talking about AAA fps slop
The tiles work so well that 50% of the time they don't show up on youtube xD
That's actually exactly what I was going for lol
@@Deynum "It's not a bug, it's a feature."
Okay, wait, I'm rewatching the video again, and wow, the compression on the tiles is crazy! Maybe I should do something for the next video...
That is pure evidence of a problem I head the solution of at one of those GDC videos: Mess around first, create stuff for the heck of it, on impulse, even. Make the mechanics and stick to one that feels fun, add few of the other meh mechanics... you can put a pretty packaging on it later.
Hey, it takes strength to admit all that.
I'm excited to see where the game goes!
Filing cabinets and their little silver keys should be the treasure chests to allow for puzzles. And office keycards to enter rooms/floors. The keys could be hidden inside the desks, trash bins, clocks, office plants, picture frames etc that you have to loot for stuff to make weapons from. The keycards could be on lanyards certain enemies drop
Love the new gun! Its so juicy with the screenshake and everything! I also like the direction with crafting different guns with objects you find! How many guns is this gonna end up being 🤯
I have no idea lol, I might be in over my head
@@Deynum You should think about making it modular. Like, Printer + (any other object) shoots a white prefab of that object, that might make your life easier, AND provide a huge amount of creative freedom for your players
@@Deynum I'm sure you're already doing it but I _really_ recommend looking into all of the knowledge there is on game design, it will make things more fun AND easy to make if you choose smartly what you do. All the good luck!
I think your problem is that your game is not "juicy". It looks like the pixel art is nice, but the gameplay is not very fun. For example, when the character shoots, camera vibrations according to the weapon, bullet speed, even random intensification of weapon animations can be added. I think this is the main reason why games don't look fun. For example, when the enemies in 5:10 jump on the player, it feels like something is missing. I had this kind of enemy in my game and I solved the problem by vibrating the camera when the enemy jumps. You can also use PixelOver if you want to progress more through pixel art (I don't know if you've heard of it before, but animations can be made very simply).
Aye! Glad to hear you’re still working on it, excited for the future man.
Something else that could be interesting with objects is being able to maybe kick them, either into enemies to do damage, or to create obstacles enemies have to get around, say you're being bombarded by enemies you could run behind a desk, kick it and have it slide across the floor crushing some of the enemies as it slams against the wall.
some ideas
keyboard gun - it shoots letters
water bottle gun - it shoots water & hold to release heavy attack
camera gun - uses flash to immobilize enemy's
sticky notes - sticks enemy's on place after pre-placed by player
I have been loving your office rogue like videos for ages, but this video felt different. the final part when you said that you finally had fun made me feel very happy, and I am glad that you are stepping up to try and rectify your past mistakes. I'm excited to see what you add next :]
I haven’t seen this channel before this video but I’m so hyped to see where this game goes in the future!
Something very important that could help YOU find motivation is mentioned almost perfectly on bedsheet ghost video "How Pressure BROKE Roblox" but in short you musn't make a game for people to like, you must make a game YOU like not caring about what other people think but making something you like.
It's better explained on the video mentioned but when you make something you like people will naturally interest themselfs on the thing you are making you shouldn't care about the image of the game but instead on what you think is Funny, or Poggers or something else. You can do it. Keep up the good work. 😁
This is a valuable lesson on game development and design.
Gameplay is the most important part, after that comes the juice - the stuff that makes the gameplay satisfying. And everything else pretty much comes after that - The art, the sounds (good sound design as arguably as important as things like screen shake or particles), and other types of polish.
This is one of the best videos in youtube gamedev. Really appreciate you being so transparent with the game vs video struggle. Also the paper desk bullet animation is sick
if you wanted to, you could consider making the camera look ahead of the player depending on what direction you're aiming, could help with longer range weapons so you can see where you're shooting.
Good luck on the devlogs, you got a subscription from me!
I think knowing what you need to do to improve is probably the most important thing, if you don't know what needs doing you can't make progress
Deynum: "So let's animate the paper trail animation on this weapon that we get from the crafting, that we get from the feedback, that we get from the testers, that we get once there is a halfway playable alpha, that we get after prototyping the gameplay loop, that we get from the basic concept, that we get once we get motivation."
I totally get you. Making devlogs does interfere with the production procress, one wants to polish things or even solve the graphic side before they should just to please the viewers. And making content is a lot of work, sometimes it takes more time than making the game and the development start to slow down.
I'm glad you changed perspectives and find a way back to keep working in the game better than before!
my best tip for fun is to focus on the little things. Its all about the impact of what the player does, so screen shake, particles, and other effects dramatically make the game more fun despite not changing the gameplay.
With the walking animation- I think the biggest thing, at least for me, is just making sure that it actually LOOKS like you're walking right, aside from the direction since it seems to look the same whether you're walking down and left, but it's the syncing between the animation speed and the distance traveled so that way it doesn't look like you took 10,000 steps and only moved 2 feet
maybe with the inventory system, it can be sorta space based? like larger objects take up more space so it encourages strategic organization!
This. Literally this is my idea
@@Deynum "Let's animate the paper trail animation on this weapon that we get from the crafting, that we get from the feedback, that we get from the testers, that we get once there is a halfway playable alpha, that we get after prototyping the gameplay loop, that we get from the basic concept, that we get once we get motivation. I got an idea! Space based inventory system!"
Don't.
I believe you have the competence to make an awesome game, but not with this level of feature creep and out of order plan.
You didn't start over building your dream house. You just moved the decor and accent pieces you crafted to a new empty plot of land and continue crafting.
I believe the issue with the walking is that the character doesn't lean forward to run/walk. It's alright to perhaps try a running as the default instead of walking, since it'll go hand to hand with the dodging you'd often do.
For the Paper-Scatter gun you could also add sfx, or a blast-flash from the muzzle to make it feel more big, if that makes sense. Can't wait to see this game heading in a new direction!
Small recommendation, add some kickback to the paper table gun ( or at least an animation of the player character being pushed slightly by the gun)
Imagine if this guy went to the petscop direction
Love how he keeps changing the thumbnail & title
This one will stay for a while... but yeah, it took a lot of trial and error to get here
This has made me realise why i never finish a project I start. The obsession = motivation bit. Additionnaly, I never have a complete gameplay loop to send to my friend so they can give me their opinio on how the game feels or if its any "fun". Thanks! That made me think a bit and hope your as well can improve your game like your want it !
something that i think the desk-paper-printer-bazooka-gun-thing should have is some exponential slowing on the projectiles. I think it would help sell the momentum of the initial shot without adding too many flashy and distracting effects
I love the new gun and new mentality towards this project! I also came up with a few ideas while watching this devlog. So if ur interested, I would like to suggest two things.
First idea is small but if u would want the paper desk to feel more powerful or give more UMPH to it, what if it caused u to be knocked back a little every time u fired it? This may cause the combat with it to feel more dynamic and chaotic.
My 2nd idea is to do something with crafting and destructible objects. So instead of using a whole desk and printer as crafting recipes, what if u gather pieces of it after the carnage that happened in the room. This way, large objects can be served as barriers that could be broken down to be used for crafting parts. Not only does it allow intuitive crafting, but allows/gives a more chaotic and hopefully fun look to ur destruction and debris.
Anyways, those are my ideas and i hope its within scope. Cant wait to see what else comes out of this and happy coding!
First time seeing this project and it looks fun! Cant wait to see what you add next!
Love this! Happy to see the direction the game is taking. Nice job on the new gun too😁
Pretty cool project. Had an idea for the color pen gun. Let the player switch between colors and have certain combos of colors trigger some status effect. Say 3 red shots in a row set the enemy on fire. 2 Green and 1 Blue poison the enemy. One of each color makes the enemy explode into bits (0s/1s). Then add a time penalty for switching colors. I think this could make for a pretty fun weapon.
I'm new to your channel since this video just got recommended to me, but even I can tell you've been stuck in this vicious cycle for a long time, and I'm proud of you for finally starting to break it.
I’ve been following these dev logs for a while. Love ’em! Keep them coming!
the way this was filmed, especially the ending, dude you're a cinematic genius
Suggestion: Specific objects add specific traits to the weapon. Like desks make projectiles larger, pens make projectiles faster, coffee machines could add splash damage, that sort of thing.
This new direction is looking sick! Keep it up 👍
You can add more variation if you think about how buildings actually work:
For an office building, the ground level floor could be either a big lobby, a restaurant or just some shops.
Then you would have both elevators and stairs (elevators could let you go up, while opening a door from a certain floor to the stairway could act as a checkpoint/going down path).
You can also have floors like you have now, office space, meeting rooms, office utility storage, cafeterias/break rooms/vending machines, etc.
After a certain amount of floors you could have a machine room, where they'd keep the AC units and such. An alternative is also that big pendulum they put in tall buildings to counteract wind forces and earthquakes. These could be cool for bosses.
Also, what about a few floors where another company is located. Maybe an open floor plan, green rooms, games, lounges, etc. Or maybe a scam farm, where they have a bunch of people in a row making sketchy calls. Or a WeWork type space.
At the top you'd have the administrative floors. These should be more luxurious, with wooden finishes, carpets, art works, secretaries and big offices. You could even make the bosses themed after the CEO, COO, CTO, CFO, etc, etc. and the big bad after the shareholders. Even throw some shade at some irl companies with meeting rooms filled with monetization technics or similar.
And lastly, consider cigarettes as a form of item that would give you either energy or life, cause a lot of workers escape work by smoking breaks. Either that or coffee. Ooh, or a co-worker that steals your stuff, like they'd steal your food from the fridge.
K, this is too much already. Thanks
Its awesome to see another Office Roguelike video!
Just a suggestion but what if weapons had different properties depending on the size of the objects you combined. For example the Desk Printer you made would do massive damage, but would only be single shot, while combining something like a stapler and a pen would only do small damage but last a really long time. Finally combining a small and large item could give you a medium weapon that does medium damage, and has medium health / ammo. Maybe they take up different inventory space as well, so you can carry 100 coffee-pen guns but only 2 printer-table guns. Stuff like this would add alot more strategy to the game, and make it alot more interesting to play, as you really have to think about what you want to combine. (Also please add kickback to the printer table, that as well as the screenshake would really show the power behind that paper)
As a small idea for wall decor, outside of posters or unpowered TV screens, on the exective suite consider blank windows or wall sconces. Exective suites also have fancier trim, potted plants/trees, trophies/employee of the month things, graduate certificates, or pictures of whatever the company sells.
Good on you for being honest with yourself! This is the best way to improve from my experience 🙂
Looking forward to what comes next!
Make it so that the paper left behind leaves a hitbox with bonus move speed, so if you walk towards the path of the desk you move faster. Also add a bit of recoil to the gun. You’re shooting a whole desk. Movement related attributes on guns like this add a lot of variation.
7:10 youtubes compression hates this trick
id like to give a few suggestions and criticism on the design and ideas for weapons'.
1) you don't need to only make guns, i think it be plenty fun to use a table like a club and smash enemies with it, very strong but very slow, you just pick up a desk in wherever you find it. could make it break after a few hits.
2)I thought about the printer, it be cool if you could like push it and cause some damage and knockback some enemies.
3) the paper table gun. its not a great idea, but for me its cause of the design itself. knowing what you were going for the design didn't really feel clear. imagine you just got the game and you craft it, you'd be confused as to why there's a paper ghost being shot out and why you have a Bionicle drawer in your hands. i think you can make it work but it needs some sort of simplification or adjustment. personally id make your weapon a drawer and you toss random junk thats inside. you can get it by breaking a few desk and gluing wood together. if theres crafting of course.
4) it be neat if you could just use random items found in an office. not only guns but like use a ruler as a sword, maybe use pens like daggers and you run around with one of those cups with a bunch of pens. that be funny. that way you can also have an easy way to replenish ammo.
Obsession and motivation is so true, glad you're finding a way around it
very excited for more focus on making the gameplay fun!
i have learned after 4 different failed games to NEVER prioritize looks over gameplay until you KNOW that actually have fun gameplay
also i definitely think that the large weapons need some recoil
Transparency just got you a new subscriber mate, keep it up!
The gun actually looks really fun, I think the eventual sound design will amplifiy the amount of fun you (and I) will have!
Hey!!! Best of luck with the game's development :3
I can definitely see the walk cycle being fixed with a more leaned over running animation - never be afraid of *exaggerating* the action! Legs swaying back and forth is always good running!
Also making him bounce, of course!
For future weapons, I suggest brainstorming some fun to play ideas and the art can come afterwards. What can the guns do? Stuns, traps, multishot, shots that split after hitting an enemy
I think that if this is the first gun you would craft in the game that you should give it a longer cooldown to make people want to replace it. The longer cooldown could also be explained by saying that the printer needs to print a new desk to shoot
WELCOME BACK.
Add water dispensers! You could have ranged enemies based off it too. Would be a great addition to basic enemies!
You could have them be some sort of healing system. Defeat some water cooler culture Nancy’s and get a heart. Or something like that.
I very much relate to the Motivation = Obsession concept. Such is my life. I just get one focus at a time, so I've gotten to the point where I fear starting new things, because I know I'll get into them, and forget about the other things I'm currently enjoying.
One thing I noticed with the desk printer gun: it looses momentum rather fast at the end, and the last bits of paper seem to stop in place. Maybe having it so that the paper bits keep moving forward would help?
8:50 he got the swagger
for real tho, i'm sure some other people in your situation would disappear from their channel or keep faking things; good on you for making the change
I haven't seen all your content yet so maybe there's already an idea in place, but think about progression! A big part of Fun and good design can often mean an enjoyable progression system and the feeling of "spending" or "growing". Maybe a talent tree that needs to be purchased by money and enemies drop their small hourly wages to pick up. I know it' s a cliché nowadays but I could imagine a rouglite where the reason you don't fully check out of life is because some sort of evil entity won't let you die, but still forces you to work sending you back to the lowest floor upon death.
I think adding sound effects would definitely contribute to the making the guns more satisfying
Yes, absolutely. But I'm gonna wait with sound until a lot later into development.
Whats the story, when I created my game the largest thing that helps make it fun was the story as it keeps it interesting from the start, it’s the reason people want keep to play your game, but for games like Baltro this isn’t necessary. Like hotline Miami, it’s fun and fast with a very small story.
Also in game development always do paper prototyping as when people love the basic unfinished game the whole game can just be made even more fun.
You have a lot of work in front of you. Every time you add something new that the player can pick up the amount of combinations doubles (assuming anything can be combined, which would be really satisfying)
Ok, so hear me out on some weapons:
Pencil Shaving Gatling Gun - Rapidly fires a barrage of pencil shavings. Craft with an electric sharpener and possibly a desk fan or shredder.
Eraser Cannon - Fires an enlarged rubber eraser that bounces off enemies and surfaces, losing pieces each bounce. Craft with a box of erasers and maybe a... soda machine?
Water Cooler Freeze Ray - Spray a freezing mist to slow and stop enemies. Craft with a water cooler and fire extinguisher.
Pencil Crossbow - Fire fast moving, super sharp pencils. Craft with pencils and rubber bands.
Tape Trap Spreader - Fires a spray of staple-covered tape on the ground that traps and damages enemies. Craft with a stapler and tape gun.
Duelie Staplers - Literally two staplers wielded guns akimbo. Could be an early game craft.
I think it could be really cool to be able to interact with some desks or boxes, and it pulls up a screen of a close up view, and you can grab the stuff you need to make the guns. I'm not sure how many unique, fun guns you can make out of only giant stuff like desks and printers. Maybe make melee weapons too, with rulers, desk legs, etc
Great devlog! Man some of those UA-cam video self reflections I can feel in my bones lmao
I once cancelled a game for the exact same reasons after working on it for 1.5 years. I get what you're saying!
When I started working on a 2nd project, I was able to tackle the "fun" really quickly from the start. Like literally, in about 1 week, I had a gameplay loop that was fun to play regardless of the limited mechanics and the grey boxing. No theme, no graphics, no story, just pure gameplay. That's when it hit me... I realized what were the reasons why my cancelled project never took off. I was focusing way too much on the setting, the uniqueness, the theme and the art. The gameplay was never fun and I boxed myself into trying to fit the gameplay into the story or gimmick instead of the other way around.
So yeah, I'm glad that you're learning from past mistakes and that you've figured it out as well ! Keep it up man, I like your project.
If it makes you feel any better, 2 years ago i got into game development, and i still dont have any projects worth showing off, i always get into a state of paralysis which prevents me from working on any of my ideas outside of short game jams. Currently im trying to re-approach game dev as if i didn't know the process to make a game, so im recreating old games starting from Pong and it will go all the way up to remaking Doom and Minecraft's basic world generation. Space invaders is where im up to, game 3, ive basically already made it but ive been working so much recently i haven't been able to finish, not only that but i genuinely do not like space invaders so ive been against working on it, though it's been a slow process for this game specifically, i haven't entered a paralysis state yet which overcoming was my main goal. Just the fact that Ive even managed to work on a game i dislike has already made me proud, all im missing from it is respawning and the mothership but they're both rookie stuff so i might just make the respawning and then move on to Asteroids which im really excited about because ive already made a game inspired by it for gmtk game jam this year. I want to learn something new still so that's where i will try to go crazy with game juice.
You better finish that game loop though, i genuinely feel hurt by the fact that you faked it, i dont want to see any more guns or a crafting/inventory system until you have a basic game loop. We love to see new content, that's where creativity gets to be expressed, the main goal of game development... but come on man, a couple devlogs working exclusively on making it function isn't gonna kill your devlog series, it will however give your game way more potential and a much better canvas for you to work on. Playing a roguelite is more than just running around shooting enemies, it's completing a level with randomised loot and/or randomised rooms, there needs to be an increase in power, that is a later problem though (still very important to making a roguelite so do not forget it) but before you can add any form of players increasing in power as the run goes on, you need the ability for the run to go on, and for combat to grow in difficulty with each floor. Please work on the basic game loop, then worry about the content, content without a game loop, is not a game, it's just a weapon sandbox, are you trying to make a game to show off cool weapons or are you trying to make a game?
Dw though, im all talk, while my motivation never dips, i get overwhelmed and that prevents me from working on my games even though i desperately want to and feel motivated to, we all have problems that try to stop us from achieving our dreams, "just make the game loop" is 10000x easier to say than to actually do but you got this, i believe in you and this project, just remember, a lot of the potential fun for your game is locked behind completing floors and loops and becoming stronger over time, that is generally in every roguelite, weapons alone cannot carry your game's fun factor, prioritise the game then the content.
In the interest of keeping the old art stuff useful and "main loop" fun, do the different weapons have different effects?
Thinking along lines of "the stapler will slow down or stop weaker office workers, either for better positioning letting you ignore them while dealing with a bigger threat or build up a mass for a combo".
Just thinking more enemy management while moving and shooting adds a layer on top, which might make the player feel like they're thinking more and maybe feel more fun as they exert their actions on the enemies. And different enemies could have different effects when weapons are used; staples on a paper enemy could make them smaller as they get stapled to themselves, a pen weapon could draw moustaches on humans and add words to paper, coffee would "energise" or maybe satisfy humans while slowing down/degrading paper.
Simple puzzle enemies making encounters a loop of "dodge while you plan approach->identify possible solutions->decide course of action->win fight".
I feel like the fun worry is best solved by the weapons. They're how you interact with the world, and as Gabe Newell has said before fun is the world reacting to your decisions (massive paraphrasing)
Also apologies if these suggestions are totally unhelpful, this is the first time I've seen a video of yours and I'm about halfway through this one when I typed this.
Just got the weapon crafting section. Combing items for crafting sounds fun, but sounds like a black hole. Every item added means either exponential increase in crafting OR potential player disappointment when they realise not all items combo. It could work fine, but easily spiral into burning all your time making craft combos; if that's your unique game selling point then absolutely have that be the focus, but if you're worried about motivation and time it's a potential risk.
I feel like things should be more messy like the clean and neat office just gets messy like if the ink gun was to come back it should have bigger splash radius and leave ink stains on walls and carpet. In all thank you for being transparent with us and keep up the amazing work!
I have a weapon idea: Red tape grenade - anyone who dears to touch it will get their vision limited and will become slower for as long as they are standing on it.
You should make the inventory system, but the more you have i you inventory the slower of harder it is to move. I think that is more creative than a simple cap on how much stuff you can hold. Add risk to picking things up.
Why wouldn't your office themed weapons be fun? Ink pen could be spreading slippery puddles. Stapler could stun an enemy. Add the ability to switch between items quickly and you can make it x then together for debuff against the enemies as well as attacks.
Oh, they absolutely COULD be fun. It's just that the way I made them: they weren't fun.
The ideas aren't bad, I just didn't execute them well
@@Deynum the staple could staple people to each other or walls , that;d be fun , they get a slowing debuff if to eachother or stunned for a bit if to a wall
@@Deynum The paper desk gun's paper tril can slow down enemys for acouple seconds!
Nice video, now lets wait another couple of years for the next devlog
Also I find i have the most fun achieving something, whether its getting that new power up, getting to the next level, fighting a particularly hard monster / boss and finally defeating it, etc. maybe the mechanics make it more difficult in some way such as limited ammo and the need to reload, loot management as a means to increase your power, just ideas.
Dunno what to say but im really happy to see that death inc is moving in a good direction!
Best of luck for what you work on next! cant wait for the next devlog but do take ur time! dont get burnt out!!!!
Great episode! I had a lot of FUN watching it
The whole video I kept thinking about this over and over: You need to add the JUICE, my guy! Particle effects, screen shake, hit stop, sound fx! And, interestingly enough, that involves art
I feel that recoil in the player could make it more “satisfying” like you feel the actual weight of the shot compared to the static pose after a blast.
If you ever continue to create this project and release it into playtesting, one thing that always makes a game more memorable and recognisable is a great main character. In my opinion, the current character you play as is sort of bland and forgettable, he’s just some office worker in the most average clothes imaginable.
I propose you make him an epic office agent, all black, red tie, epic shades, and maybe even a fedora or something. But simply making a guy that looks cool Probsbly wouldn’t be enough, so you could maybe re-design the movement to make the most epic action hero ever, flipping around the place and diving over enemies, improvising with the office tools as weapons and making quick decisions to save himself. People like to play as somebody they want to be, and feel epic playing. Anyways, this is just a suggestion, good luck in making the game, and keep up the effort!
You should make the paper desk slow down over time