Creating Upgrades For My Roguelike Game - Devlog #4
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- Опубліковано 10 чер 2024
- In this devlog, I made an upgrade system and began working on procedural generation.
0:00 Intro
0:16 Redesign
1:54 Screen Shake
3:28 Procedural Generation
5:38 Power Regeneration
6:17 Upgrades
7:58 Outro
Discord Server: / discord - Наука та технологія
![My Game Needed A Thieving Robot Frog [Disinherited Devlog #4]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LuMXYAJi_nw/mqdefault.jpg)
Artifact Ideas:
-Stopping time for the enemys
-Sidedash where you fire arrows while dashing (resulting in a wall of arrows flying at the enemy)
-Some type of Mele
-Turning invisible or letting the enemy chase a dummy while you are in the bush.
i'm amazed how good the art looks while being just simple shapes
It would be wise to procedurally generate levels for the most part. If you have to hand curate everything that will take a ton of your time to do once and then change again and again as you learn more, besides that procedural generation is essential to making every run feel different since you want people to start over in a roguelike a lot. It might be wise to curate the tutorial to make sure they learn the right lessons and at the right time though, but after that use an algorithm.
You can name upgrades "BITS". Because they look like "BITS". And "BITS" are actually cool
"BITS" ARE COOL!
Maybe than they are counted binarily. For example in the deathscreen (if there is anny) they could be displayed in a binary combination or to level the upgrade up you need 1BIT, than 2BITS, than 4... that way the player wont become so strong so quick.
Yeah cuz power shards just sound corny
Data bits?
@@viridian8786
data bits.
Those bushes really complement the art style. It's very rare that I come across an indie game like this with graphics that I love so much. Can't wait for the next devlog. Keep it up!
Nice progress. "It's working.. almost". Haha I feel that every time i add something new. Keep up the good work!
I did not know the channel, but after this one Devlog: instant subscription with notifications :)
From perspective of roguelike random levels - this is my main goal in my game with hand drawing. I hope I can make it!
4:23
Maybe take the same approach Spore did. They created a system to randomly generate all sorts of creatures and planets, then went through them and hand-picked the ones they wanted to leave in.
Take the randomness as a foundation and build a level on top of it.
I suggest 'catalysts' as a unique term referring to upgrades that's simultaneously evocative, implying that they're changing the player character's very nature, instead of just being your traditional "thing gives me +damage"
Past that an upgrade that fires an arrow in the same direction as a dash'd be cool, and would even further incentivize agressive play
I was waiting for this Devlog. Great Progress, Great Video, Great Game. The Bushes look really good in my opinion and fit the art style. I also have to mention that the obelisks animation and overall design fit perfectly: Not to simple and not to detailed. For Powerup Ideas I had following things: A powerup that makes your passive stamina refilling faster, one that makes you attack faster and one that increases your damage. But I dont really know if the attackspeed and attackdamage fit since there are multiple bows with different stats.
Thanks a lot for your feedback and these great ideas!
Hide in bush mechanics if your gonna have them. A delayed mine laying enemy. Power up artifact should be red and have more power looking explosion on impact... maybe turn the character red...maybe stackable to 3 for further levels. And maybe a yellow chraracter colour switch when speed up is on with a yellow counter for the time left in the bottom hub, or make this should be the blue artifact. a double shot power up. Health power up should match the hud colour, in this case white. random Sand traps that reduce recoil and movement speed. And a whole much more. But nonentheless, you have more than a beginning. Tell you more after the next upload. Good Luck & Good Skill.
I am so jealous of your artistic talent! It looks absolutely gorgeous while being insanely minimalist!
this game looks amazing and I am very shocked this channel doesnt have enough subscribers underrated! Keep up the good work!
Looking great! Although I feel like whenever you collide with the upgrades there should be some sort of visible effect such as particles because currently its not entirely clear anything happened excluding any UI changes.
Your completely right! I will definitely add some visual feedback :D
Really liking the progress of the game so far. The art style is still looking super kool. Also the camera shake adds a power feel to the arrow. Keep it up! :)
Looks amazing! I _love_ games with boss battles, and rogulikes so I'll _love_ this game!
This looks amazing.
I really like the map design. It kinda looks like a digital forest and I really think you should lean into that with more foresty type things like vines in the foreground.
For your upgrades I think they should have tiers very similar to the Weapon Cores in Deap Rock Galactic.
Basically the simple upgrades increase stats:
Health, movement, power, bow draw speed, bigger crit chance
Balanced upgrades add more but remove a little less:
More damage when at lower health
Dashes regenerate faster after critical hit
Killing enemies on crit gives a temporary shield
Unstable Upgrades completely change something (these can be super rare):
Bow becomes automatic (like a gun) but you can no longer crit and damage is reduced (upgrades to bow draw speed increase rate of fire)
I also think you should add bug nests at room generation. Bug nests will are big structures that can be destroyed and don’t come back afterwards but they have a lot of health. They can spawn a maximum amount of “tiny bugs” (smaller weaker version of the red bug) and they will chase you a certain distance from the nest. So if the player leaves the nest range, the tiny bugs will go back to the nest.
I think this would really add a lot because these nests will lockdown an area making very difficult to traverse through so the player has to decide on taking it out or going somewhere else.
Can’t wait to see what’s next from you!
These are some amazing ideas! I will try out the bug nest idea very soon because I think it will add a lot of depth to the game. Thanks so much!
Portals populate the walls, sending the player to a random place on the map; a sub-level with a challenging wave of enemies; the other side of that wall; the location of an unused obelisk.
Some artifacts are Arrowheads which have three different modes, one for each arrow type and modify arrow behavior corresponding to the arrow's type. This could be a type of archetype system.
Each obelisk gives the player a Quill, a form of currency in this realm. A list of four artifact icons and their price in Quills flashes every 30 seconds in the top right of the player's screen. Every flash randomizes the items in stock. When you first start playing, there are only a few lesser artifacts available in the shop, but in between runs you can unlock items to appear in the shop and disable others from appearing. The idea is that these items can be purchased at any time during the run, but the quills are difficult to acquire.
These are my ideas from watching your logs over the past half hour :D
ok, i have some upgrade ideas,
Arrow upgrades:
piercing = makes arrows pierce enemys
dual/burst = makes it so that u fire one extra arrow for how much the level is
fire arrows = makes it so the arrows does more damage and adds a cool fire particle system to it that can incrise with how much u have/level of it
grenade = makes ur arrows explode on impact
basic upgrades:
dash = adds a..... dash (duh) to the players movement set
magic:
forcefield = creates a forcefield around the player that proctects him from enemys and if activated on an enemy it pushes them away
referance to a dude from the youtube that is norweigen and drinks milk:
magic sword grapple thing = a sword, with a grapple at the back that u can grappel onto enemys
that is my ideas, thank u for reding
It's looking better and better with each update! Great call on the walls, I didn't even notice them before today 😂
6:13 "Much less frustrating" - Chin Chan' Chon Chin'
Your game is looking really good sir, would love to see some bits of how you organize your ideas and time management.
Great job on the environment, it looks a lot better
i absolutely love this
please, please make the obelisks give a visual cue for when you need to kill enemies
A very smooth and neat game, keep it up!
since the power bar is segmented, you could have the passive regen only fill up the first segment.
and maybe there could be some items that increase it, or totally change how it works.
I think is worth testing a "camera follow mouse direction" because sometimes I feel the sight range is kinda small when you want to hit enemies, so having the camera slightly move towards the mouse could give that extra range.
Again, just a test haha
I feel like u can add more maps into the game that each have their own theme and enemies. For example, the default map could be the starting map where u will spawn in first round no matter what, and the player could be able to move levels by getting all of the obelisks in the current level. Each level should have at least 4 to 5 different unique enemies ( this is including the boss which should also have unique skills but can just bee a stronger default mob ). You can put unique upgrades pertaining with the theme of the maps to make players exited to enter a new map where u can get an upgrader where u can't any ware else. Other than that the game looks great and looking a lot smother so keep up the great hard work man.
adding a light area around the player, kinda like a flashlight, and making the rest of the screen darker would help people see the walls when they're close to them, while not hurting the aestatic of the game.
Hand designed levels will defeat the purpose of the rogue like genre, which in part is the way that players get better at the game: Players progress by gaining personal skills (not built in game skills) which help them cope with the unpredictable level layout, enemy spawns and upgrades, of course there can be hand designed parts or sections that are always consistent but these are usually the start area, or checkpoints, if levels are hand designed the game changes from gaining skill, to memorizing the best path/strategy. Great video! :D
You are right of course in that the player shouldn't be able to predict the level layout. But I think that the combat skill of the player is much more impactful than memorization of levels. Still, I will try out procedural generation and decide if I want it then.
@sussy baka I do, working on proc gen terrain in my own game, and it is for sure not easy. :)
You should look into the Spelunky level generation (chunk based) system. There are some hand crafted chunks, then they are joined together randomly to make the level. It allows for a great variety of levels while keeping the structure somewhat under control. The game looks awesome BTW!
Great Devlog! I have an idea; when you hold down the (whatever key to shoot) key player will slow down... just an idea! Love the progress tho. It's going great; keep up!
I have some ideas for upgrades.
1.) An upgrade that makes it so when you dash you leave a mine in your wake and this mine can damage enemies on contact but breaks after a taking enough damage or lasting long enough.
2.) An upgrade that makes yor arrows stick to enemies and deal DoT (damage over time)
3.) An upgrade that makes your arrows pierce enemies.
4.) An upgrade that creates a follower that shoots at enemies (kind of like familiars in the binding of isaac).
and lastly
5.) An upgrade that makes your arrow explode when it hits an enemy, this explosion can hurt you.
3 of these upgrades can be arrow types too
You could call the upgrades Trinkets.
You could have a portal random on the map with enemies spawning on location to stop the player. Level design you could keep the rhombus shape from what I saw and have walls spawn sprinkled everywhere to give variation with changing the level size slightly and moderately. Your level design is awesome and it feels like it would make the game fast paced while limiting the hunter. Sorry first time watching your dev logs. But love the game so far.
This is really cool looking (thank you algorithm) I'd love to see where this goes. To answer your suggestion requests, I personally prefer premade maps with maybe a few variations of each map, but if that is the case I would definitely recommend making them a bit larger than the one shown here.
The big highlight is how smooth everything looks and how everything looks extremely responsive.
Some other possible suggestions (I'm not a programmer so I have no idea how easy or difficult/impossible these are to add):
Visuals:
-Maybe an even brighter layer to the wall graphics that becomes visible only when the player is close to it.
-having several different style of levels could help a lot, (this could be as simple as a recoloring at first, but different enemies in each style would add a lot as well)
-The bars dividing the health pool sections should get a bit skinnier as more health is gathered so that way it doesn't eventually become a black bar that you cant see if enough of those upgrades are collected. (or a second bar/bar overlay should happen at a certain point.)
Gameplay: (Ill save general power up ideas for now, because it looks like you are just starting on those hand already have plans for many more)
-Having a powerup type that is a secondary weapon I think would be cool (like a mine or a bomb etc...)
-Having some kind of permanent upgrade/unlock system seems really important for the replay-ability of many roguelikes. It allows for your runs to matter and affect future runs.
-Having different playable avatars would be great too, but I think that seems farther down the list to add.
-Someone else said having a limited number of upgrades and I think that that could be great, as long as you can get stronger upgrades added to the pool of upgrades as a run continues, but that also means there would have to be some way to select which upgrades are lost as a run continues.
UI:
I think that some sort of UI that indicates how many Obelisks are left and also that indicate what upgrades have been picked up would be great.
Also maybe an indicator that shows where remaining enemies are (even when off screen) when there are fewer than x amount of enemies left, or when there is only one obelisk left.
Anyway, it seems like you have a decent handle on what you want to get out of the game and it looks really promising! Keep it up and I hope to be able to get my hands on it eventually!
Could be cool to also have a sniper type arrow. Takes longer to charge up, but does high piercing damage and the camera zooms out as your charge it. Can snipe enemies from longer range at the cost of a longer. Slowing the player during the charge timer would also make for more challenging gameplay, where you have to create space between enemies before charging up a powerful shot.
This game looks awesome! I love the minimalist art style. Despite this, I think the upgrades should look more different from one another. Different shapes or particle types could work, but I think that only having color as the main difference would create some accessibility issues.
Yeah, I agree! I already played around with differen shapes like you see in the thumbnail of the video.
This game looking good so quickly I can’t wait to see what you do in the future
You could do half procedural, half hand made. Dead cells and Isaac do this, where they have a set of rooms, or room chunks, then they procedurally assemble the rooms. The dead cells creators have a really good talk about how they do it actually, maybe check that out.
Maybe you could hand build a bunch of different sections of a room and have it randomly combine them together.. that way it’s partially hand crafted and partially procedurally generated
artifacts fits with the obelisk theme
Walls look cool
Make levels randomly generated, but allow for certain sections of a level to be handmade and placed randomly in locations while the level is being generated. For example, the Obelisks could have rooms hand designed to wrap around them and be good "Arenas" for when the enemies spawn, but still be randomly located. It's much easier to design 20+ good "Arenas" than full levels. You can get a lot of complex yet balanced sections of a level that would be hard to randomly generate. But the levels will still always feel unique.
Your style is really good 👍
Had to click on the video because _wow_ the art is crisp. Not exactly sure what the theme you’re going for is, but if this game is going to have magic abilities, obelisks, and artifacts/relics, you could be at the grounds of a shrine, or in some kind of sacred forest or cave, or enemy camps at the outskirts of a village. Alternatively it could just have an abstract-looking background, but I like building a more detailed environment :)
I think there should be a small animation, when activating the obelisk, just to give some feedback to the player. Maybe they can light up blue for a second...
had ideas
upgrades spawn on pedestals with two spots from which you need to choose one
more complicated upgrades (not simple hp/energy/speed ups) have lower chance to spawn (maybe separate them into tiers? tier 1 for stat ups, tier 2 for weaker special upgrades or stronger stat ups, tier 3 for special upgrades and tier 4 for powerful ones)
upgrade that makes enemies drop healing shards with small chance (every stack +%) or either always drop but small restoration (every stack +hp restored) (tier 3)
upgrade that damages enemies that you dash into or upgrade that damages enemies that were near the spot you dashed from (every stack +dmg) (tier 2)
upgrade that adds an extra arrow, arrows shoot at an angle to your own rather than alongside it ( \|/ ) (every stack +1 arrow, all of which shoot at an angle to the previous ones (maybe have a degree that limits the spread and make the volume of arrows higher with every arrow added after that?)) (tier 4)
upgrade that expands range you pick up shards on (every stack +range) (tier 2 or probably tier 1)
maybe add upgrades that have downsides too? probably getting too complicated so im stopping
Upgrade idea: increases the power of the bow (but also increases the recoil as well)
Something I think would be cool to name the different upgrades would be *"Procedures"*, since they are going to be upgrading the player itself they are like surgical procedures that enhance the body. i.e. "Health Procedure", "Speed Procedure", "Energy Procedure". It might not make to much sense but it sounds cool.
You can animate the obelisk, rotating those squares outside the white square.
i really like the bushes
The environment looks real nice.
I think the obelisks should glow when they are activatable and have some sort of particle effect while activated. When they are deactivated they should stop glowing. It think that what be nice for identifiyng in which state they are in at a glance.
I think that the camera shake is at just the right level.
I think something that would force players to be closer to the enemies the shrine summons could be neat. Maybe like closing walls or a force field
Enemy idea:
A yellow guy with a rhombus-kind shape that moves slowly and occasionally pulls out a fast moving spike attached to a chain from his body which all attachs to a wall. This will slow him down (due to the "elastic" force of the chain if you decide to keep it a chain) but since the enemy won't retract the spike immediately it would make an interesting challenge for the player since a significant amount of the way is blocked. I imagine the enemy having multiple spikes.
Combat system idea:
Perhaps on top of having multiple arrows you could add multiple bows that vary in lenghth (maybe a longer bow could shoot an arrow faster and further but taking longer to charge), they could have more than 2 indicators (the blue lights) that may mean more levels of critical hits or just the possibility to have an even more powerful shot if charged for longer. Also these bows could be part of a tech tree of some sort.
Enemy idea:
A centipede-like enemy which if not hit in the head will divide in 2 other centipede-like enemies.
Enemy idea:
An air enemy which can fly over walls and have an infinitely long and thin laser beam which can't rotate while attacking.
Ability idea:
Temporary shield which deflects enemy attacks.
Point of interest idea:
An economy based on a kind of crystal which could be obtained with special types of obelisks scattered through the map. This currency could be useful to unlock new areas or to advance in a tech tree. These new obelisks would just add variety to the objective of the player making him choose between fighting the boss or collecting crystals.
That are some pretty neat ideas. Thank you :)
@@timberdev it's a pleasure (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*.✧
great content keep it up!
I think calling them artifacts is a good idea. The game kinda has a medieval dungeon vibe.
Lookin' nice! Though, I feel like the rocket enemy should indicate when it's about to charge up to you.
This game is looking more and more interesting with every devlog. You can also check Archero mobile game to get inspiration for updates/upgrades
heres an idea, rouge likes are all about different play styles, to give it that re-play ability, and makes it easier for all people to play, so i have an idea for different bows you could add, or different players, because right now the only play style, is run and dash away from enemies so then you charge up your bow to max power, again this is just a thought, not trying to be mean i love what you have made so far
Remote detonate arrow?
Rope/cable arrow -> too similar to every other one though.
drone bow - another bow which follows you around.
inceptarrow - arrow which fires another arrow which fires another arrow... perhaps popping out the top of the launching arrow so they're not quite at the same position. the longer the flight, the more surrounding arrows? also stack with other effects (see Noita for a game with stackable modular upgrade system)
respekt hast es einfach drauf...
Hey TimBer, have you considered making the enemy spawned by the obelisks not dropping power shards (or reduced drop) when dying?
Right now it looks like the obelisks doesnt really challenge the player any differently to the regular game, maybe the reduced power shard gain can alleviate that?
Some other things I can think of:
1) Maybe an area you need to stay in to charge it (drawing from games like RoR or DRG here) or block you from leaving
2) Power Manipulation
a) Shards dropped by enemies are reduced / removed
i) Maybe this could be applied to the enemies spawned or globally(?)
ii) If the enemies dont drop shards anymore, maybe on activation the obelisks gives you some shards, so players dont have to "grind" for shards to fill their bar b4 the obelisk
Anyways, while I think some of the original aesthetic is lost, I really like the new map look! Looking great dude!
I will think about that, thank you :D
Make sure to add a way to disable camera shake or make it weaker! I disable it in almost every game and am disappointed when I can't do that.
What about adding a spear/sword/melee arrow? Just a normal arrow with a much elongated tip, not able to be fired (or if so, it’s more like a piston/the end of the arrow csn’t go past the bow) but does damage when the player spins. I saw you get surrounded a few times so this may be good
Could also give you the chance to add some sort of "win a level by never firing your arrow" achievement, which could also otherwise be done by having projectile enemies kill their friends and then themself
I’m not sure wether this will be of any help but maybe you could add rarity’s to the upgrades like one that adds an entire bar of health or completely restores power could be really rare while one’s that add a slight bar of health or the speed boost could be more common in comparison and I think you should call them bits as I’ve seen another person say that and really liked the sound of it
If you wont use Artifacts or Relics for the upgrades, Artifacts could be gathered to unlock abilities and Relics could be gathered over multiple runs to unlock bonus levels or achievements.
I like the idea of artifacts and relics, but they seem too medieval for your art style so I gave them individual names that fit better (in my opinion).
Vital augment
Speed Enhancer
Energy Capacitor
Maybe like a trip wire which you start and then after a certain length (while moving around) stop and deal damage to players within the 'trip wire'.
maybe to make your game a little more unique and have some depth you could make it so enemies would interact with each other. like maybe the purplish fast dudes would spin around something stronger than it as a shield stuff like that so the player could approach different groups of enemies differently and add more skill to it
what about some kind of enemy attack warning or a charge bar because i feel like if i get a little distracted i will not know when it will attack. Nice game btw keep it up
Idk if you’re going to name each upgrade individually or just refer to all of them with one word. I like “artifact”/“relic” because they have archeology vibes, but if you wanted to lean into magic more you could use “vessel” (specifically for upgrades that increase capacity), “charm”, “talisman”, “focus”, “conduit”, or “conductor”
Make it so that obelisks drop upgrades upon completeion
Please add some sort of outline on the walls, because your current background's colors are sometimes almost the same as the ground's color
I think when upgrading the health of the player it would be nice if you changed the color of the newly added health bars. This would likely give you a nice sensation when a lot of your health bar is yellow (any color really) after a long run.
Thanks for the idea! I'm unsure if it would look so great but I will try it out and decide then.
hey your videos are awesome what software do you use to create the animation at 2:24 ?
I edit my videos and animate all sorts of things with Adobe Premiere Pro :)
You should make an ability like in hollow knight that lets you heal yourself using a large amount of power! It makes getting power from beating obelisks a much better reward lol
Wow
hey timber! you've inspired me to develop games! but first.. what apps do i need to do to start developing?
Hi, I'm happy to hear that.
You will probably need a game engine (like unity), a code editor (like vscode) and maybe some sort of design program to make some art. But be aware that game development is extremely challenging and sometimes really frustrating. But I wish you the best of luck!
@@timberdev thank you, you too!
çok iyi oyun
Hello, you see the black squares which separate each white squares of your life ?
You should make the black squares thiner and thiner each time the health points incrases.
I would love a tutorial on how you made the art ^-^
one idea that may or may not be fitting for your game: one thing I love in these types of games is customizing my character to make it feel like my own. I think putting a limit on the amount of upgrades you can get could force the player to make sacrifices and could result in a lot of different playstyles. no idea if this would fit, but just an idea!
Basically, new camre is somewhwat like in NuclearThrone?
Design big area but have the order they generate in randomly I’ve seen a few videos on this
Flowers
kind of reminds me of hollow knight with the power connecting many parts of gameplay.
hit to get power vs kill to get power
^spells ^healing ^dash ^future abilities
Yeah, Hollow Knight inspired this a bit :)
Hi I love the dev logs but can you make a tutorial for when you pick up an upgrade and the health bar resizes, there aren’t any tutorials anywhere else. Thanks
Good idea! I will see what I can do :D
When will you be making a steam page for the game? I'd like to wishlist it so I can remember to buy it 🙂.
It will probably still take a long time until the game is even close to be done. So you will sadly have to wait some time :D
@@timberdev Aww, fair enough! Thank you for your response! :) I'll just subscribe in the mean time, haha.
I feel like the camera shake is not noticeable unless you're standing still.
What coding software do you use?
And if you use extensions which ones?
vscode with the c# and unity extensions + monokai pro (color theme)
@@timberdev Thanks!
How do you implement your dash?
you could call them emblems, they kinda look like it
What do you use for the art?
I use Affinity Designer
@@timberdev cool! I love the art style
How about calling the upgrades 'Augments'?
you shold do some made maps by your self
Call them "Chiplets" maybe?
attack speed or somthing like that and a sheald and more stuf like that and then a custome ablity wer you can only ues evry 40 sec
Hay one question
What’s the name of this game ?
Or are you still thinking about it
I actually dont have a name yet