Entry Four Hundred And Thirty Two

We're at State-10 now, and there only are ten rooms left. Ten InfoPacks, and then a boss fight. These rooms will probably all have cutscenes of some sort, so I won't be able to create all of them in two days, but we're getting to the end of this project as the scope changed recently. Admiral A is also blinking in and out of existence and being replaced by a mysterious scientist who gets called 'Spike' by others. What's that all about?

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 778 hours

Screenshot: A room in State-10

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Entry Four Hundred And Thirty-One

Eighty-nine percent done, the path to get the 88th and 89th InfoPacks was done during the weekend, now I have to fix a giant enemy fight and move on with the redesigned B&R Engine sequence.

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 775 hours

Screenshot: Mini-boss fight

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Entry Four Hundred And Thirty

Alright so, today's an important update on 100RTBD. After all these years working on this project, my aspirations shifted a bit. When I started, about two years ago, I was making this game for myself. I had no illusions that anyone would ever want to play it, and anyways it was a game I'd work on to learn about Unity and see if I could make a metroidvania.

I think I can, I think that the almost eight hundred hours sunk into this thing and the hours of playtime that can be extracted from it prove that I can. I think that the mix of enemies, skills and items, the challenges and the story beats prove that I can.

My aspirations have changed a bit over all of this time. Now I want to make games that people would play and there is NOTHING I can do to 100RTBD to make it more interesting for a larger audience. It's a basic game made with placeholder assets and I don't have the means to make them better and I certainly can't rework the whole thing to add a new gimmick or two in the hopes of salvaging it.

I'm 87% done with the core of the story, based on the number of InfoPacks I have in the game so far, but I'm about 60% done with the total number of rooms. About 35% of the rooms in the game were planned to be inaccessible, only possible to be visited through the B&R Engine, a movement skill that allowed the player to go back and forth from State to State without having to use Breakdown Pits and Restoration Altars. A neat idea that I was looking forward to implementing, but I don't think I will anymore.

Consequently, I'll tweak the ending to not require the B&R Engine and to make it more straightforward. Furthermore the last 10 InfoPacks will be on a critical path and won't require exploration of these 350 or so other rooms. I'll probably not bother to add music and sound effects either. On the plus side, it means that 100RTBD is 87% over, but it still sours me to have sunk so much time in this.

It could've been only 100 rooms, or 500. A thousand is too much when there's so much game to be made out there. Don't get me wrong, I'm not cancelling this project, it'll be done before the end of this year, but I'm cutting the scope by a fair bit, because I want it to be over and move on.

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 770 hours

Screenshot: Pattern challenge

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Entry Four Hundred And Twenty Nine

I wish 100RTBD had something to grab the public's eye rather than it's biggest strength right now - for me - which is sheer volume. I wish I had found my graphical trick or my gimmick that made people care a little bit about it. What if all art was created by someone with talent, would people care then? Anyways. Working on a side area in State-8 where the character can go instead of immediately going back to State-9, there's a hard room with three giant enemies in a challenge there!

Currently working on: Working on a side-area

Time spent on the project so far: 762 hours

Screenshot: Weird Brigadier B room

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Entry Four Hundred And Twenty Eight

State-9 is going smoothly, but now to get to the rest of the story the player will need to breakdown a little and then come back. I'm not sure if there are other significant boss fights or new content to be created between now and the 89th InfoPack (and the B&R Engine, for that matter), but I hope that by the end of next week I'll have completed that stretch of the game. I'll also release a new playable version at this point!

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 759 hours

Screenshot: State-9 progress

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Entry Four Hundred And Twenty Seven

Gun roulette is done and it now works pretty much as I want it; In the same vein, I've made the challenge where you get the Fast Gun, the Fast Gun itself, and time damage. When affected by time damage, the player's framerate will decrease effectively, making everything slower - unlike frozen, which just slows you down. On enemies, time damage puts them in some sort of stasis where they can't hurt you and you can't hurt them; In theory. Right now, time-stopped enemies still hurt you on contact, so I'll fix that tomorrow! The fast gun is really fast and can fire far, but its accuracy decreases the more you shoot it. With a base damage of 1, I managed to get 19 damage per shot, which will really need some balancing.

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 756 hours

Screenshot: Fast Gun

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Entry Four Hundred And Twenty Six

The fight against the Security Six² is pretty much done, so now I'm working on the skill you get after that, gun roulette. It spins a wheel of the guns you own around your character, shooting them slowly and automatically. It also replaces you actual gun. I'm not sure if it's going to be balanced or if I'll have to massively tweak it to make it work, but I should be done with it by tomorrow!

Currently working on: The gun roulette skill

Time spent on the project so far: 754 hours

Screenshot: Gun Roulette!

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Entry Four Hundred And Twenty Five

The fight versus the security six² is almost completely done. All six members of the team merge into three discrete bosses because I thought it would be a mess to have combo attacks done in a reasonable time frame otherwise. Brigadier B and Defender D combine to shoot at you while defending itself with a bomb shield; Colonel C and Ensign E combine to spin swords and shoot elemental blasts; FirstClass F and General G combine to teleport around and spin slot machine reels that determine which kind of airstrikes will be dropped on you. When you defeat them, you get the Gun Roulette skill, which I'm probably going to work on tomorrow!

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 753 hours

Screenshot: Fight against the Security Six²

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Entry Four Hundred And Twenty Four

Today I've made a few more rooms, a small boss fight and a few story bits here and there. I thought the 83rd InfoPack wouldn't be that special, but reading my design doc, I had planned that the character fights the Security Six² to get it and also get a new skill, talk about things that will take more time to create! This is why I feel like linking game total completion percentage with room creation percentage makes sense; Some rooms (like most of the rooms I've been creating for the past few days) are just copied, pasted, modified and tweaked a bit from other states, but some (like 5-3-10) will require a bunch of time, so it all evens out! I know what I'll be working on next week.

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 751 hours

Screenshot: A lot of State-5 is done! Almost all of it!

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Entry Four Hundred And Twenty Three

And we're back down to State-5 where the player will collect the 83rd InfoPack, and then will need to backtrack all the way to State-9. The collection of 80 to 90 is taking quite a bit of time, but the game really opens up in its last 10%, so I'm still looking forward to that. Room-wise, I'm 57% done, things are progressing!

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 749 hours

Screenshot: A room in State-5

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Entry Four Hundred And Twenty Two

Custom made challenges are quite the pain and there are plenty in 100RTBD; In this one, you need to protect Defender D by blocking acid shot at him with your own body; if a single one of those hits the center, you lose. Winning will give you the Riot Shield, a powerful item that can use the Barrier skill whenever you shoot! Now I can move on with non-complicated rooms!

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 746 hours

Screenshot: Defender D challenge

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Entry Four Hundred And Twenty One

Some new gear and items were created today and I'm now working on a challenge that gives some more new gear. I thought it would be straightforward to 90 infopacks, but I guess I was wrong, there are a few meandering rooms that I'll have to make first, but I'll get there for sure!

Oh yeah, I'll release a new playable version just before the 90th infopack, maybe I'll even play the whole thing again to make sure?

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 744 hours

Screenshot: Giant ExaSolBot fight

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Entry Four Hundred And Twenty

A few rooms were done today, I'm at 563 rooms so far and it's going quite well. The rooms I'm working on right now don't have many moving parts, so a bunch of them can be created in a short period of time. Still looking towards that 90th InfoPack...

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 743 hours

Screenshot: Blaze it, Ensign E!

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Entry Four Hundred And Nineteen

I'm currently working on that stretch of the game where the player moves in some unexplored areas of previous States in order to collect Infopack 81 to 90. Not much to talk about here, besides the fact that I'm really excited to get to the 90th infopack, since it means the introduction of the B&R Engine, which will probably change a lot for me (and the player when they find it!) Keep hope, Admiral A, your story will end someday!

Currently working on: Continuing the story

Time spent on the project so far: 742 hours

Screenshot: Some room in State-7

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A Game By It's Cover Entry 9

Content. That's all there's left to do for GEAR LINK, I think. I need hooks for the endgame, but besides that, all that's left is content. I have 53 levels done out of the 100 I want to make, and GEAR is also about halfway done. With the number of days remaining, I'm not sure I'll be able to create all the remaining content before the end of the jam, but the game is totally playable and I think really fun so far.

Of course, I'd feel bad releasing an unfinished game; The very core idea of GEAR LINK is the famicase game ITEM CONNECT, which states "In ITEM CONNECT, there are a ton of items to find. Too many to count! Get ready to ITEM CONNECT." so not having enough content would feel like it doesn't respect the spirit of the original. I'll try to have at least the ending hook done for the end of the jam, and maybe I'll put a few more days on it to complete it before I release it on android!

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Time spent on the game so far: 63 hours

A Game By It's Cover Entry 8

About half of the game's content is done, from GEAR to levels, so that's nice. I still have about a week to finish everything up and since most mechanics are done, it shouldn't take much more than that time. If I don't manage to create all that content, I'll still have a fun game, so it'll be a net win, but I really really want to get everything in before then. Time to GEAR LINK!

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Time spent on the game so far: 55 hours

A Game By It's Cover Entry 7

Now I have music and sound effects in and I'm currently working on testing the mechanics I'm tacking up on the game. I have to be careful not to add too many mechanics, but at the same time, I can't prevent me from integrating my ideas! There's a bit more than a week left and I still have about 75% of the content of the game to create, but I think I can do it!

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Time spent on the game so far: 43 hours

A Game By It's Cover Entry 6

A bunch of levels, items and mechanics were added since last time, the most significant of which are spells. Spells are tiles that don't end your turn and add their power cost to your character. Then, random tiles become empowered and by linking them, you lower your power, when it's at 0, all the spells you have cast since the last time your power went to 0 are cast, so you can queue a long list of spells, but it'll take more power to make them happen. Now I'm working on the specific mechanics of each spell, and today I'll probably try to add music and sound effects to the game.

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Time spent on the game so far: 40 hours

A Game By It's Cover Entry 5

Empty potions are now more or less in the game! They're GEAR that you need to LINK into other GEAR in order to create stat-buffing potions, they are the first GEAR with a multi-colored LINK arrow, so it means they can chain to many types of GEAR! They take two turns to activate, but their effects are powerful and can really help - if you can manage your health. That's one of the issues I'm having with how the game is balanced right now; Just managing your health is enough, if you can heal constantly, enemies die sooner or later. How am I going to fix that?

Time spent on the game so far: 26 hours

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