Development Log — Jérémie Tessier's website

A few systems are in place, now you can do the titular Breaking Down (and the convenient Restoring) but so far it won't get you anywhere, why is that? It's because the stuff you find in that room is broken, that's what I have written in my development document in any case. Maybe I should change the sprite a little so you know it's broken.

Also, the game is a bit difficult so far - you start with one healing item but there's none in sight, the only way to heal is to gain a level and that's easier said than done. I think it's okay so far. Although navigating these enemies with very low life is a bit annoying. I can't wait to be able to heal myself!

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 100 hours

Screenshot 27 and 28 after the jump: Breaking Down & Almost Dead

PostedAugust 26, 2014

AuthorJérémie Tessier

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Didn't have much time to work on my game this weekend, but the gun system is more or less completed. You can now switch guns and socket systems into your gun using a grid. The higher your Energy stat is, the bigger the grid is. I've also made a few maps and laid the foundations for new mechanics, tomorrow I'm going to expand on them.

Currently working on: Creating the breakdown/restore system

Time spent on the project so far: 98 hours

Screenshot 26 after the jump: Guns part deux

PostedAugust 25, 2014

AuthorJérémie Tessier

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Phew, the challenge system is more or less completed, there is no issue with the save system, it's not enjoying being modified on the fly like that. Once starting a fresh game, everything works perfectly.

I'm not completely done with the gun customization system, but the gun window is going along smoothly, although my menu code is now a bunch of spaghetti.

Currently working on: Creating the gun customization system

Time spent on the project so far: 97 hours

Screenshot 25 after the jump: Guns!

PostedAugust 22, 2014

AuthorJérémie Tessier

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I'm having some issues with the save/load system, I think it's because I'm adding new fields to it while I'm progressing through, or something like that. The end result is that saving/loading freezes the game for a few seconds and since it saves every time you leave a room, it's not ideal at all. The challenge system is almost complete but I didn't have time to start the gun customization system yet. That'll be for tomorrow, I hope!

Currently working on: Creating the challenge system and the gun customization system

Time spent on the project so far: 96 hours

Screenshot 24 after the jump: These snails are actually called 'Octobits'

PostedAugust 21, 2014

AuthorJérémie Tessier

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Not much to talk about today, the challenge system is almost complete, I have to decide what happens when you "fail" a challenge, at the beginning, my idea was to simply allow you to reset the map and retry, but I realized that in some challenges (the first one for instance) you could grind monsters easily by simply failing on purpose.

So now when you fail a challenge, it acts as if you had died. No big deal, it's just a reset at the entrance you came in of the current room.

Currently working on: Creating the challenge system and the gun customization system

Time spent on the project so far: 95 hours

PostedAugust 20, 2014

AuthorJérémie Tessier

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In some maps of the game, you'll find challenge terminals, activate them and a challenge will start, sometimes it's to kill enemies under a certain time limit, other times it'll be more difficult and weird. Of course, to make any of this work, I have to create the actual system that governs the way challenges are triggered and what they do to the game. When I'm done with that, I'll have to add the reward of the first challenge, which is a gun part.

You're able to customize your currently equipped gun in 100RTBD, the way it works is simple, you have a grid - its size is based on one of your stats - and you drop parts in it. Gun parts have various effects, simple ones and more complex ones. None of this is implemented yet, of course.

Currently working on: Creating the challenge system and the gun customization system

Time spent on the project so far: 93 hours

Screenshot 23 after the jump: Beginning a challenge

PostedAugust 19, 2014

AuthorJérémie Tessier

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Working on the story adds a lot to this kind of game, working square by square and adding features as they are needed. I've also replayed the beginning of the game a whole bunch and balanced things around. Now when you level-up, your HP is replenished. I decided to do that because there are no healing items for a while and walking around with really low hp can be dangerous.

Making new enemies is taking longer than I expected, but once I'm done with an enemy, it's usually fine and wont need any extra tuning. Same thing with maps, hand crafting everything is quite harder than having random procedural levels. Coming up next is the first challenge room and the first piece of gun customization, that's going to take a longer time than a plain random room!

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 91 hours

Screenshot 21 and 22 after the jump: A room with a map, the world map so far

PostedAugust 18, 2014

AuthorJérémie Tessier

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Today I had set to change the fundamental way some things work in my game, change things so in the future it would be easier for me to make it work. Things like coordinate systems - now replaced with things I drag and drop on a map - and the way the map is made. But then everything broke and I had to fix things up, that's the part of making games that I like less, working a lengthy bit of time on something that won't really have any impact on gameplay.

It's worth it in the long run.

Currently working on: Changing the way warps work, continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 83 hours

Screenshot 19 after the jump: Altar of cube

PostedAugust 14, 2014

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Nothing too noteworthy today, I've just went on with the story and fixed a few small bugs here and there. Nothing special, really!

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 83 hours

PostedAugust 13, 2014

AuthorJérémie Tessier

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Sometimes, enemies get giant in my game, you'll fight many giant enemy as you go through it. Some say that you could theoretically fight each enemy in a giant form... They are going to have special powers and abilities that make them different from their usual smaller selves. The first one you encounter doesn't have anything fancy, more health, more damage, a bigger hit box, it's the first one, after all!

Now the player can die (your health could go down indefinitely before) and when you die, you basically reload into the room (like if you'd exited the game and selected 'continue' from the main menu). The game auto-saves each time you go through a door, so it wasn't too hard to do. Only a few issues with the way I save and load my objects. Now I have to do what happens when you defeat the first giant enemy and move onward!

Currently working on: Adding a boss fight, fixing the main menu, adding a way for the player to die

Time spent on the project so far: 82 hours

Screenshot 18 after the jump: Giant Worm

PostedAugust 12, 2014

AuthorJérémie Tessier

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And now I have a quasi-functional achievement system, which you get by doing things. Achievements have gameplay implications in many different ways in my game, such as reinforcing some gear and unlocking secrets. In that way I think achievements are fine. The cards will act in a similar way, putting secrets to light while also giving the player a reason to do things.

I'm still moving with the story and while I'm making changes to the script I had prepared beforehand, it's still going more or less like I planned. Onto a boss fight!

Currently working on: Fixing a bug with the achievements, advancing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 80 hours

Screenshot 17 after the jump: Achievements unlocked

PostedAugust 11, 2014

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Although I didn't have much time to work on the game today, I've fixed a few issues with the save/load system and moved on with the story. I have to fix some little thing regarding bullets as well and think about a way to make the story system more flexible.

Currently working on: Continuing the story, working on saving/loading

Time spent on the project so far: 75 hours

Screenshot 16 after the jump: The plot thickens

PostedAugust 8, 2014

AuthorJérémie Tessier

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I'm still moving forward with the meat of the game, the actual moving around and the building blocks of the story and the setting. Right now I still only have a wire-frame of what the story is, but as I'm thinking about neat systems to implement and other things, new ideas come for what the characters should be like and how it fits in my original ideas.

I want 100RTBD to have a big story made from bits and pieces you'll pick up here and there, I want the gameplay to feel deep enough for such a game and robust to stand the test of of playability, more than my other games. It's a big goal, and I'll keep at it.

Currently working on: Continuing the story, refining the way enemies spawn

Time spent on the project so far: 74 hours

Screenshot 14 and 15 after the jump: A new type of enemy and the stat screen

PostedAugust 7, 2014

AuthorJérémie Tessier

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I've decided to place static spawn points for my enemies, meaning that they'll always spawn in a few specific points on the different maps, I have also made it so they don't pop in immediately, dealing damage to the player without them having time to react. I also created multiple sets of spawnpoints in a specific map so different enemies will have different spawning zones.

Now the player can properly get hurt and lose durability - but not die, yet - also you can accumulate experience - but not enough to level up yet - and I keep on plinking at the huge map of mostly custom rooms I will have to make myself. About 5 / 1000 done!

Currently working on: Improving the way enemies spawn, continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 72 hours

Screenshot 12 and 13 after the jump: Enemies spawning and spawn point placement

PostedAugust 6, 2014

AuthorJérémie Tessier

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Not much to talk about today, I've implemented a way to spawn enemies in the map and continued the way through the game. I've decided to remove the 'Data' tab I was going to put in, which would've shown you data like the steps you've took and the number of times you've shot, it's kinda useless. The data that will be useful for achievement purposes will be shown in the achievements proper.

I have to fix a few bugs with the map and things, but it's still going smoothly!

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 70 hours

PostedAugust 5, 2014

AuthorJérémie Tessier

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Things are going smoothly! There is a main menu for your stats and things needs, the game also is now automatically saved every time you transition from one room to another, which is cool! It means I don't have to see the whole game everytime I playtest it. I am working on numerous systems right now and while I'm still not churning rooms like crazy, I have progress in other spots.

Maybe my main menu (with your stats and things) is too busy, but that doesn't concern me too much right now, I love the multi-box aesthetic I have here in my current GUI.

Currently working on: Main menu stuff, changing the cutscenes and story

Time spent on the project so far: 68 hours

Screenshot 10 and 11 after the jump: Quit menu and new intro cutscene version

PostedAugust 4, 2014

AuthorJérémie Tessier

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Didn't do much today, again because of outside annoyances. I started the main menu and worked a bit on the continuation of the game in that room.

Currently working on: Making the main menu

Time spent on the project so far: 63 hours

Screenshot 9 after the jump: Main menu skeleton

PostedAugust 1, 2014

AuthorJérémie Tessier

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Not much done today either, too much stuff that prevented me from working on the game. I've still added a knockback system and a way for the player to get hit, it's something..

Currently working on: Adding player vulnerability, continuing the story, adding the experience system

Time spent on the project so far: 62 hours

Screenshot 9 after the jump: Getting knocked back

PostedJuly 31, 2014

AuthorJérémie Tessier

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Not much to show today, I just re-worked how my monsters would work and how guns/bullets works. I didn't work much either because of distractions at home. Still, now my little worm monster things shoot bullets too and I won't have to copy/paste my code in each monster subclass.

I also changed the way the dialog boxes work, instead of pressing 'shoot' to go through them, now you press 'down', the down key isn't used anywhere else and while it feels a bit weird at first, it'll help the players not shoot past some dialogue ;)

Currently working on: Improving the enemies and dialog system

Time spent on the project so far: 61 hours

PostedJuly 30, 2014

AuthorJérémie Tessier

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Although I'm changing a few story bits here and there, I still am following my initial design document. What I didn't expect was how everything would 'unlock' progressively through the first few screens of the game, as in, I thought initially that you would start with your gun and all of the menus unlocked. It now seems to me that it's best to give some of it over time and now I have to think of things I hadn't planned

Such as: If I want the player to kill two enemies in order to act as a 'shoot enemies' tutorial, I have to 'force' the player to do so in a way that doesn't seem contrived. In this case, I've decided to block the path down with some C6-able rubble that will clear conveniently out after the player dispatched the two helpless enemies.

Currently working on: Making the gun and the enemies work, continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 60 hours

Screenshot 8 after the jump: Shooting an OctoBot

PostedJuly 29, 2014

AuthorJérémie Tessier

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