Feels Bad Man

Time Worked: 

2/15/24: 3 hrs

2/16/24: 2 hrs, 45 mins

2/17/24: 2 hrs, 15 mins

So I showed my game to a friend. And, unfortunately (but not surprisingly) it fucking sucked! The real problem is, I have implemented absolutely zero explanation of the controls, what you're supposed to do, etc. It's just the start screen, a menu (with no explanation), gameplay with no UI, and about fifteen different ways you can very easily break the game completely. 

There were so many obvious issues that needed to be taken care of such as the title screen not even having a screenshot from this game (it was the EndSoldier title screen), buttons for features I know I removed etc. It was a mess! It was so painful to watch. But there are many lessons here, I'd say the biggest is that I need to get back to playtesting with people. I did that with EndSoldier all the time, and I think that's why it turned out decent. I have now spent more time developing this game than I had with EndSoldier, and it's worse off. Because I haven't been playtesting.

So, I decided the next things I'll be focusing on is thinking from a player perspective. Adding in some explanations, give the player some direction, add essential UI, etc. I talked a while ago about how great a fast iterative process is, but I have been getting so caught up in improving the features of the mission gameplay that I am neglecting very basic things the game absolutely needs.

One interesting thing that I did however before I had him playtest, is develop a way to have fast-firing projectiles actually register hits. I was playing around with other top-down shooters just to get some inspiration, and I found The Ascent had some pretty nice top down shooter feel without slow moving bullets. I also noticed that it, as well as Enter The Gungeon, Boltgun, and several others all have the player projectiles move quite fast, while enemy projectiles are noticeably slower.  So, I decided to do that in my game - make the player projectiles very fast, and enemies moderately slow (but still not too dodgeable). 

I did some quick google research about how FPSs such as COD or Halo handle projectiles, and learned about Hit Scan. So, I just do a single instant raycast now for fast-moving projectiles to tell if it hits and do damage, and spawn a sprite that moves from origin to hit target (or 500m out or something for non-hitting projectiles) and deletes itself. The slower moving projectiles still use colliders however. This was pretty interesting and fun to develop, and I don't regret spending the time on it.

I also added in platforms that allow an actor to shoot over walls (and get shot at).

Anyway, today I just spent time replacing the title screen. I honestly hate the result here, but it can't be worse than showing a title screen for a game that isn't even this one. I'll iterate on it and come up with something better. It'll work for now.  

 

Wiggly Time

Time Worked: 4 hours, 45 mins

Today I made huge steps! 

I added little wiggle animations for when the characters are walking and my God it made it so much more fun. Like I was having so much more fun playing it now that I've added these in. I also added in gun kickback animations and weapon flash effects.

I wasn't considering doing this for a while, but last night I was just struck with an idea and I had to try it out. And I am so glad I did! I feel very powerful, like things are not as hard as I thought they were. Obviously there are challenges but I suppose I don't think the kind of animations I want to implement are as hard as I thought they were. It makes me feel really capable and hopeful that things will work out!

I don't know, I just feel very impressed with how much of a difference this made and how easy it was to do. Hell yeah. Super excited. Alright, see ya next time!

Adding Some Fluff

Time Worked:

- 2/8/24: 7 hrs, 22 min

- 2/9/24: 2 hrs, 41 min

- 2/10/24: 3 hrs, 45 min

It's been a good week. I have still been struggling to get in time on days other than Thursday Friday. I have been better I think about handling stuff on those days, and I also have been relaxing on those days. So maybe that's okay. 

Anyway, this week I got some pretty good work done. I cleaned up that Scriptable Object Comparer inspector script and I think it works really well now. Still can't modify complex types like sprites in it, but that's okay. It's really the most useful for balance, etc. But I will continue to develop it as I go.

I also, after a friend pointed it out to me, decided to prioritize theme (i.e. Fluff) in the game. I have been so focused on the basic gameplay, and for good reason - if the basic gameplay isn't good, it's not worth playing. However, perhaps I was undervaluing thematic stuff. I always loved customization in games, and I had it on the backburner, but kind of considered it a secondary task. However, I took a look at the "feeling target" I have for this game, and it goes like this: 

"Feelings of tension. Triumph in the face of danger. The situation being dangerous. Characters becoming someone you know. Devastation when loss happens. Tension. Connection. Camaraderie."  

I remembered some of the things that inspired me, such as the book/movie The Outpost, and the true story behind it. You can't have any of these feelings I mentioned without the guys having faces. They have to be made more than just little "units".

So, I decided to go ahead and implement backgrounds. There are 3 right now - Prisoner, Laborer, and Mercenary. The tiers go up from left to right, i.e. Mercenary is the best background but most expensive. These are kind of just prototype - things are going to change and their effects are going to change. I want the backgrounds to be a major system in the game, like in Battle Brothers. But for now, they are just some description flavor, and stat rolls.

I also finally implemented unique faces for each character. I increased the size of the character head as well in order to give more room for details and personality. They are still pretty damn small as is clear, but then again this is an RTS, and you need a bird's-eye view.

Finally, I decided to make a test scene for missions, so that I don't need to click through a bunch of screens if I just want to test a new weapon, or really anything that is just in-mission. I can spawn enemies and friendlies and do basically anything with a button click, which is really nice and a big time saver.

Anyway, this is one of those times where I feel really good about things. There is still so much to do, I have a feeling there will always be so much to do. But I really feel like it's coming together. Sooner or later I'll need to see the final form of things. But I have the foundations in the game and they are looking kind of decent. 

Editor Tools Improvement

Time Worked: 6 hours, 45 minutes

I spent a lot of time on an editor script today trying to improve my workflow. I have thought about the fact that different gun stats are a little hard to compare as well as comparing them to actors health etc. So, I decided to make a custom editor window that can show and allow the editing of scriptable objects. It was a pretty neat little project, took me most of the day today unfortunately. I have heard that spending time on making tools for your game is worth the investment, and I have a little experience doing such. But I am not sure if this was worth it or not, I guess we will find out.

It doesn't really feel good not making direct progress, but I guess this is trying to sharpen the saw, which I know is a good thing to spend time on. The idea is that it will be easier to do balancing etc. down the line as I add new enemy types and weapons. Hopefully this proves to be worth the effort later on. 

I also cleaned up a lot of the workflow around weapons and projectiles. 

I'm gonna try to put in a little more time later.

 

Fixing The Warrior and Reworking Projectiles

Time Worked: 4 hours, 17 minutes

Today I fixed some issues with the Warrior that were left over from the other day. I also removed a lot of redundant code - including some controller support code, since I don't really care about supporting controller right now, and I just need to focus on making the game solid. I also began the rework of the system for implementing weapons and projectiles. When I added the alien weapons I realized how much work it took to create a new one and it just seemed really unnecessarily complicated. So I am working on streamlining that. 

Of course, that lead to this problem and that problem, you know how it goes. But it's all good, I am just chugging along fixing things and tweaking things. Also added some sprites for projectiles.

Tomorrow I will need to wrap that up and get that third weapon implemented to see what the game ends up like, and decide what to prioritize next.

Peace.