How One Change Made My Game Fun - Devlog #6
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- Опубліковано 18 тра 2024
- In this devlog, I made some major changes in terms of movement and improved the inventory and fragment system in my game.
0:00 Intro
1:03 Movement System
2:50 New Level Design
3:28 Improved Inventory & Fragments
5:27 Enemy Reworks
6:31 Outro
Discord Server: / discord - Наука та технологія
Suggestion: If you are considering sticking with the idea that the main character is like a fish then you could make the player accelerate slightly when it reaches water to help preserve momentum which I think is key for movement shooters. The player should only loose momentum if they make a mistake rather than loosing momentum because of the way the level is set out.
This was an ingenious design shift from top down to side scroller. No wasted time on redoing assets at all!
I did enjoy the more cave like levels because they could tie into the lore of relics and artifacts stuff.
The main thing I think you should experiment with is a grappling hook mechanic where you shoot a hook from your bow to pull you in a direction (this would work really well in a cave setting).
You can make some simple crab-like enemies that crawl on the “land” and continue to crawl on it even if they pass through water.
You could also make a simple tank flying enemy that shoots a barrage of projectiles and you have to get behind cover until it goes on cooldown. I feel like this type of enemy will force the player to prioritize playing defensively and will break up the play space with dangerous bullets.
That are some really great ideas, thank you! I have thought of a grappling hook but didn't want to make something generic. I will experiment a bit and then decide how the grappling hook should work.
@@timberdev sometimes generic grappling hook is also very fun to play with, so don't ditch this idea away too soon please :)
adding to the crab idea, a boss that is only on land and is far away from water
@@timberdev i actually think adding grappling hook will hurt leveldesign. Instead of carefully choosing path from A to B using environment, player will just mindlessly grapple to the place he wants to go.
This is just my speculations, but those kinds of huge mobility increases should be carefully considered with game that has such a grate leveldesign potential
@@timberdevmaybe the player could switch between land and water movement? Right now it might feel like the land is just air, so being able to switch between swimming in water to rolling (you could charge up while in water, using more power than a dash but traveling farther). In water rolling would move slower than a dash, on land it would move faster, with more bounce on the walls.
This looks honestly really cool! I know this is one of the lamest parts of game development, but please take a look into making the colors stand out a bit more. Not because of art-style (it looks great!) but because it was pretty hard to recognize water and non-water on my screen. Make them feel like two different colors instead of two shades of the same one. About the new changes, they look super cool and I'm glad you're back at it! :D
I feel the same
Here here
yeah
Glad to see you back! You have one of the coolest art-styles on YT
Honestly, I do think that dashing enemy could def come back. Seeing em fall to their deaths while coming for you would be pretty fun
I second this! Really clean and colorful art-style.
The changes are awesome!
I think it would be really natural if you added a bhop mechanic where if the player times their dash just right as they hit the wall they go bouncing off in a certain direction with bonus power/speed. Could feel really satisfying!
Omg that sounds pretty amazing! Thanks :D
I love this minimalistic and modern art style for the game, and the video editing as well as everything else, amazing work!
I love to see how you iterate your design over time! Love the changes
I think that shift in perspective from top down to side view and how that changed what ideas you could use was pretty neat. I like the changes that you made with the new perspective too. Keep up the great work!
Thank you very much :D
Have just gotten your channel recommended for the first time, I am really excited to follow along with any future devlogs! The game took a sharp turn towards something I could potentially enjoy a lot, keep it up man!
WOW! Production quality really shows in this video and I wanted to let you know I appreciate the extra effort put in. Game is looking awesome and as soon as you showed the first iteration of your new level style I thought of the next fix you ALREADY implemented with having floating water areas! So I think you're going in the right direction.
One idea I thought of was to add a shockwave/shotgun style effect to the bow when you charge it up to a certain point, it seems obelisks are spawning a bunch of enemies right in your face and it's extremely difficult for the player to not get hit when challenging them, so Charging your bow pre-challenge to give a nice blast to any enemies in your face along with perhaps giving the player a super jump from that shockwave would make it feel that much better. Could tie that into your fragment system as well.
Such a unique way to change the gameplay up, making it feel fresh and fun. Glad you are back to working on it, cant wait to see where it goes!
I really like the movement combos where you use the bow knockback to get an extra boost. Maybe there could be some wacky stuff with this like an arrow that acts as a grappling hook or has greater knockback?
Yea that's a pretty good idea!
Some enemys that need to be killed while mantaining a certain combo
I'm loving this devlog, it's great to see your thought process! Please keep it up, and thanks for sharing!
this game looks awesome and I can't wait see it finished!
I think it would be cool to also have fragments that gave a change that was not a clear boost but that could make a new playstyle like a fragment that made you fast with less heath/quick charge low damage arrows or the opposite where you move slowly with more heath/longer charge time for a powerful shot. it would also add complexity with synergizing those fragments with normal ones.
You honestly have so much potential I love the idea of the equipment system
I just discovered your channel through this video. Love the overall style of the game! Can’t wait to see how it continues to develop.
Your design skills are just 10/10, I JUST LOVE the aesthetic
Nice to see you back again 👍
Now that you have these floating bubbles and gravity outside, you could also think about if the general gravity should always come from the bottom, or change.
This could make the movement more fun, but also make the level design harder and more limiting
Well done, this really is a good change! Opens up a whole different layer of movement while also keeping the old one. And man your inventory system does not only look amazing and simplistic, it also seems to be very functional. I love the idea if having to weaken oneself in order to be able to be rewarded!
The UI and overall look of your game is incredibly clean and great to look at. Keep it up.
Wow, really great changes to your game! You're on track to make something really special so don't stop now 😀
This is the first I've seen of this game but I already love the idea around it. Two of my favorite video game genres are roguelikes and very fast-paced high movement games. So I always get really excited when I've found another game that implements both of those things.
Game looks really dope. Love the look and you’ve done a great job with game feel! Amazing job
Whoa, this is great! Can't wait to see where the perspective shift goes.
Inspired by _The Aquatic Adventure of the last human_, you can add a giant angler fish which will look like a small light in the background that will slowly come closer to the foreground as you approach it and snatch your character if you didn't pay attention
What if its lure looked like a fragment
@@TaleshicMatera but it had a slightly different shape and was white instead of other colors
@@comm_gt any colour of the fragments already in but maybe just make it so you have a few seconds to avoid it.
Great to see you come back to this project!
Dude this is turning out to be a legit incredible game, I’m 100 present buyimg it when it comes out, honestly there are some really bad game dev logs on UA-cam your series is by far one of the best I’ve seen. Keep it up man
i just found this game and the artwork+gameplay got me excited to play it, such a cool concept
such a great video! can't wait to go back and watch the previous devlogs
Glad to see that you're back!
I do hope you feel better working on your project again since that's a very common feeling with all of us that work with creative related things and eventually the burnout gets the best out of us. The lack on motivation that we don't know exactly from where it comes from sometimes.
I've been watching you since the beginning of this project and it has been a inspiring journey. It's very fun to see you work and your decision process as you also allow us to give ideas and feedback that affect the game directly. Seeing your work has been such a inspiration to me. Every time I watch your content, I feel inspired to work on my projects again. It's like working on them with a friend!
I felt pretty lonely while working on my projects since game developing isn't attractive where I am and the market isn't as big here (I'm from Brazil). I don't feel as lonely anymore now that I managed to get a job in the industry and they have been so welcoming and inspiring as well.
I've always been someone who feels best around people who are working together to achieve the same goal, so for me it was always nice to see people that think alike working on their own projects, like you! So, thanks! Hope this message inspire you to keep going! I really appreciate you and your work!
And also now that I know, I'll join the discord server 🦀
your editing is so juicy! and im glad you picked your game back up, although i totally understand losing motivation... you earned a sub :)
Now this is the game changer!
much more potential!
Good luck!
I dont know why youtube recommended this but it was the right choice, just subbed, and the game looks amazing and sounds reallyfun to play with the artifacts and stuff, if you continue developing this I would definitely want either play or playtest it
Impressive as always, no pressure. please have fun most of all. that will make the best game :D
Ahhh, I'm so happy to see your see devlog. It's understandable that you couldn't work on your game for a while but the break you took helped out in someway.
Awesome improvements, definitely made the game pop more! Keep up the good work :)
First video of yours I've seen, game looks great!
I really love the art style here, it's so simple but just works. The UI also reminds of Material Design, which is one of my favourite design systems ever.
I love this idea! I feel the movement shooter-esque mechanics are a really strong element that can make this game extremely satisfying to play. I'd continue to play into that aspect, increasing bow recoil and giving the player a lot more bounce when they dash/recoil themselves into terrain. I really look forward to seeing this system progress!
Wow, great idea to change perspective! I love that! Completely different game!
You're a cool dude , very cool artstyle and the devlog songs are so catchy
Congrats on your progress!
glad to see you back! new movement reminds me of a game called ynglet
With the fragment system you could make merging fragments and super fragments that give bigger buffs. Also I really hope you are able to continue working on this game, because it's great!
This was amazing. You got a new subscriber
I find this video really great! Your art style is amazing and the video quality is astounding, especially for a smaller channel.
Suggestion: Maybe an enemy that would experience a lot of air gravity and reverse gravity in water. It would also slowly make its way towards you and once it does it blows up and does area damage even to enemies. it could probably do the same thing on death too.
Nice! Excited to see where this game goes!
Wow this is actually really cool foundation. Im sure with developed level design and interesting set of bosses, this is something i would play!
Amazing video man and your game looks so cool :]
Pls continue, your content is awesome!
I'm so glad that you're back!
What about an enemy that can only stay in the water, doesn't shoot,
but instead attacks the player by jumping from one pool of water into the next when the player is in between the two pools with the enemy?
Hi there, I stumbled onto this video and i think the game looks really interesting and fun! I help spitball ideas for a dev friend of mine and this instantly sparked ideas in my head, so imma spitball a couple if you are interested. A way to possibly differ water and air could be a shift in the UI or there could be a darkening color in the water that represents a "breath meter" which you could balance based on the ratio of air to water in a level.( there could also be one for air, to encourage swapping a frequent alternation between the two?) Also since you have a "bow and arrow" gravity affecting the arrow while in the air could be another way to make the player distinguish/think about what environment you're in. I really look forward to the games further development.
yo I just discovered this game and it looks sick I love the art style and the fragment system sounds super cool
Keep pursuing your dream, your creativity seems to be limitless. Never stop
It looks so good...so inspiring
Looks absolutely great! Love the change in perspective and new gameplay mechanics!
If I may throw an idea your way, I'd like to see a large air enemy that's quite tanky but if you manage to manoeuvre it into water (e.g with your arrow knockback) it becomes very slow and takes bonus damage.
Bro, your game looks fantastic.
i'm so glad ! i missed your videos !
I think this is a really good change for the direction of the game! I'm super excited to see this project advance in the future!
I think it would be a good idea to have the first level be mostly or completely underwater to get the player used to the gameplay, then the second level would add in above water terrain
THANK YOU for talking about your motivation. It's nice to hear that you can do good work; but still lose motivation for a while.
Hi, this is the 1st vid I've seen on your channel. I think the video is really well done and I like a lot of your clever design ideas for the game showed in this video, keep it up, I'm excited where this will go. You also seem to have a great taste in video games :)
Here's also one idea for an enemy type which I think could be interesting: This one could have quite high hp and only moves around on a fixed path on the waters surface and only damages the player when they come into contact. The player could then decide if he tries to take them out or live with a more challenging way in and out of the water areas.
Greetings from Germany
Holy shit this game's artstyle looks absolutely amazing! I LOVE the geometric, solid color style incredibly much!
I love the debuff for later reward idea, reminds me of pelts from inscription which are really fun
This is a greatlooking game! Keep it up!
Good movement is an essential element of any great game. It not only makes the game more immersive, but also more enjoyable to play. When movement feels fluid and responsive, it allows players to feel more in control and engaged with the game world. It also allows for more dynamic and exciting gameplay, as players can move around more freely and creatively. Additionally, good movement can add an extra layer of challenge and skill to the game, as players learn to master the movements and use them in more advanced ways. Whether it's running, jumping, or flying, good movement is what makes games fun and keeps players coming back for more.
This is an impressive game with a stunning art
This looks really cool! I feel like the grappling hook idea could definitly work now and it'd probably be a lot of fun.
Dude... That game look absolutely beautiful! Please, keep on doing what you are doing. I've started to make my own indie rouge-like game and our games look so similar. But your artwork looks definetely better. The enemies, environment, UI all looks so clean and the colors of them fits so well. Just subscribed to your channel and will wishlist your game when it's announced. Ah... I really want to praise your game for pages. But there's no place that can hold this much words. I don't know if this words will motivate you but please keep going...
This is the first I'm seeing of your game, and it looks really cool!
Maybe you could have an enemy with a shield that rotates slowly? This would force you to use the movement mechanics to get behind the enemy and shoot it quickly before it turns to face you again. It might also protect enemies behind it in certain situations
This is a massive improvement. Your game now looks fun and unique. The negative buff fragments also strike me as a great idea. Accept a handicap to redeem it for a reward later. I like it.
This looks like a really cool project, I love your colour palette; I'd buy it for that alone lol. The water movement part is similar to an old project I worked on that had me learning quaternions for the aiming/player movement bit.. the physics based movement is indeed super fun :D A few ideas for potential additions:
- When the player hits the water, there should be some sort of splash/particle effect indicating entry, possibly a sploosh-like sound effect (just not annoying or overly loud for your own sanity)
- The bushes/grass on the land areas seem pretty cool, perhaps there could be a moss-like similar one for underwater or a pickup of sorts? For some reason glowing moss comes to mind
- When the player bounces off a wall or hard object, if possible it might be neat to give it a tiny bit of squash & stretch to give the character more personality. I see the body as the white portion and the black as an eye, but it's a bit rigid. Likewise, if there's like a boss enemy or something for the first time you might have an animation that shows a shiver racing through the player (like an audio waveform, if that makes sense) and similar types of character-oriented movement. The more you add, the more people can connect with the player which can push it past just being a roguelike.
- Please have it run on SteamDeck, as I feel this would be really, really fun on the go
- If you add a 3-layer parallax background, it will give the game a *lot* more depth, especially if the setting was like a cave. As reference, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet has some good examples for something in a similar visual style to your game. Some people in comments seem to have mentioned wanting the colours to stand out more, although I think the palette itself is rather great. Perhaps add a couple of mechanics to address this:
-- 1. A lighting system. Dynamic lighting where the player illuminates the surroundings could add a lot of gameplay elements to this, especially if you had lanterns or something similar in various areas, maybe something organic for underwater? Not sure, but an idea. I'm envisioning the player emitting their own light/glow and having to move around to make sure nothing spooky is lurking around the corner. Might be a bit harder for the above-water levels I suppose. There are a few games out there that employ a similar system but I've not personally seen it on this type before
-- 2. If lighting is added, then it might make sense to add some specular highlights to the edges of the level bounds. I want to say some of the variations in colour in something like Hyper Light Drifter could be referenced, but I may be overthinking this part. With a parallax background of a slightly lighter colour it wouldn't matter as the movement would clearly define the bounds to the player.
- Environmental effects/items and stuff unrelated to gameplay but adding to atmosphere could be fun as well. e.g. little bugs, tiny blade-like grass, small rocks falling when entering this or that area, destructible obstacles between certain zones that need to be broken to get past. A game that employs a lot of this type of stuff would be PixelJunk Eden, different art style/mechanics, but may be useful reference. If you want to get fancy, maybe add a setting to make it optional for players who prefer a pure minimalist experience
Overall, fantastic progress on this. I know burnout's a thing so don't over-do it, but I'm looking forward to seeing more of this in the future! :D
First Devlog I watched and damn the game looks awsome. I think it has a lot of Potential and id love to see you working on it more. The idea about the debuff with delayed payoff is really good in my opinion aswell. (Maybe you could get some sort of special non statrelated upgrade for those for example you gain a passively generating hp shield but idk)
I think a sort of grappling hook could fit well with the new perspective and the leveldesign but im not sure how well it implements into the game overall.
You could also create a new meele weapon with a dash. That could be cool.
Maybe adding some sort of highlight or particle to enemies spawned by the obelisk to let you distinguish between ordinary enemies and required enemies since you might loose an obelisk enemy and get stuck.
Also more complex designs for upgraded fragments and a limited number of upgrades.
Maybe a fusing system with interlock able fragment designs so you can have the fragments sprites on their own or connected half-half style to have half they functionality of each but more versatility?
I'm loving seeing this game develop and the devlogs!
Looks great!! I have high hopes for this game
really cool, love the process
Just found your channel a few minutes ago and I already love it! For the new exploding enemy, maybe it could be based off of a pufferfish? It could throw spikes to make it another projectile to avoid, I also think it would be really cool if the push could be timed just right and used as an offensive sheild! I also love the almost origami look to the game, it's very original and pleasing
This is really cool. I can definitely see myself playing this like Vampire Survivor already.
The new level design might be better for gameplay, but it's not clear from just looking at the game that it's a sideways perspective.
You might've explained what the goal of the game is in other vlogs, but it wasn't clear in this one.
But really, this is huge. I know from experience that it takes a ton of coding to make this. It's really impressive!
I love the art style so much! It's so satisfying to look at.
Idea, if you're accepting them: maybe an enemy that has a shield? It turns slowly though, so you have to use your swiftness to get around it? Otherwise your arrow will bounce off and possibly hit you in the face.
The bouncing back the arrows from the front sounds like a really cool idea
this is the first video i have seen of your games and it looks amazing and a idea for the design at something like a boss fight or a important moment you could maybe if you have the time add more details into the map
The UI looks really clean! I'd love to see an enemy type which has critical points that you need to hit which detatch that part of it - I'd imagine that being quite satisfying!
I also have this problem where I start a project, but even though I want it to work, I have no motivation to work on it. For me, it feels like the efforts that I have to put in are not worth the results, which can lead to a couple of months break, after which I start feeling like workng on it again.
I wish I could just "be motivated", but that's not how it works. I wish I had more control over my motivation.
Anyways, just wanted to show some appreciation for such a cool project. Devlogs like these are super cool and you're so cool lol. I'm glad for you that you're back working on it 👍
Woah the game looks really coool, I really like the art style.
I know it's a shooting game, but maybe you can add melee combat into the game, that would be pretty cool :3
Nice work and welcome back!
Grappling hooks are always fun. I was imagining the character swinging around some of the objects to get from one pool to another
yo it looks amazing from the first site.
you can add a special kind of terrain which needs a power up to behave with, something like making it be pulled by gravity to damage a group of enemies
or make it draggable like a mace (with a chain)
keep up the great work!
I had a thought for the movement, it might be nice to build up speed and momentum while darting around the level, you could also use this with a grappling hook(I saw another comment mention one) and swing around objects.
But this looks great, the determination you have to carry on working on it is very very admirable and the art & design is beautiful:)
Loving the direction that this game is going in. One small thing I thought of after noticing that you can block a projectile by shooting it is the idea that crit shots could not only break the enemy bullet but would persist and continue moving. (But it would probably only work for one bullet pass-through)
It would create this cool scenario of an enemy shooting at you only to have the player's arrow split through it and hit the enemy.
Maybe it'd even be an achievement for killing an enemy that way.
I need to say that i admire what you did. This is amazing.
The thoughts I came up with are:
I would limit the amount of double jumps and dashes in a time
I would add some passive unique perks each run, which will add/change some basic mechanics (like availability to breath under water, or reduce your damage under water, or vice-versa), and their synergy/combinations
If you need any help with anything just let me know. I am a frontend developer, but I would like to learn game dev things.
Great video! You could make the water wavy as if it’s been held there by another gravity source. You could also make a splashing effect when the character enters the water.
Wow this game looks sick!!
That's awesome! I thought of another cool way to make some combat and movement more engaging, is to make some sort of melee ability. Or have a way to deflect incoming projectiles back the the sender. Just a thought, and you could even have the bow function as the melee.
This is so awesome! Good Movement in games is a must for me. I don't know if this is the game's focus, but a grapple and a low-damage knockback ability would be great for setting up combos with your bow. Using this knockback ability, you could also allow debuffs to be placed on the enemy, such as armor piercing/vulnerability. This game and its art style are very unique and extraordinary!
These movement mechanics look really satisfying! My only suggestion would be to add white pixels of foam around the outside of the water because it’s sort of hard to see the water against the dark background
Loving the game so far! one small feature i would add to give an extra level of movement is a teleport major just the ability to teleport to your last shot arrow while it is traveling would add a lot of fun
I think an interesting mechanic to add would be some sort of overcharge system with the stamina/energy. Basic idea is if you pick up energy while already at full, you get some sort of small speed boost or shorter dash cooldown/infinite dashes for a very short time. I think this could encourage players to not just hover near 0 energy the whole game, and reward players who use energy specifically when needed. I also think it pairs well "thematically" with the timing-based crit window for the arrow. However, if it doesn't fit well as an inbuilt game mechanic, it could also work well as a fragment. Not sure what the arrow part of the fragment would do, but I think something about cooldowns or rewarding careful gameplay would fit.
i like the risk vs reward fragments idea. lots of games employ this kinda idea, simply because it works
Hey! Great video and love the look of the game - can't wait to see where you take it :)
On the topic of enemy designs I was thinking - if we're sticking with the marine theme, some sort of electric eel could make a great fit - just make it contained to a section of water, and have it "zap" that section of water at certain intervals ( obviously the state of both the eel and whether water is "electric" or not would need to be communicated to the player). While a section of water is electric, it could damage the player
This serves two purposes - one, the same purpose any enemy serves, variety - but two, it creates an interesting change in how a player navigates a space, so that rather than following the same path they just took, they may have to wait / kill the eel / path around.
0:13 ah yes extremely relaxing.
I think that the inventory is a great idea!
I love your way of game designing. Can you make more tutorial videos like the ability system video you made? I would love to learn from you.
Something I really want to learn about is your systems, like enemy system, inventory system, etc
This new movement mechanic is really original, I dont remember seeing it elsewhere, seems fun :)