I’ve been pretty quiet lately. Mainly because I've been focused on my application video to the UK Games Fund. Video editing is surprisingly time consuming but actually really fun. The max length of the video was 2 minutes and I used every single second! It made me re-consider vlogging again, but I still think that may be for another time.
I’ve been working pretty hard with my artist to change the skin of the game from Fantasy/Sci-fi to Cyberpunk/Fantasy. We came up with updated concepts for the goblins and main character, check em out. Oh and I did a little thing like finally come up with a name for the game so I formally present to you the logo for System Raid.
New art, new look
Re-designing the goblins was quite fun, and there was a fair amount of back and forth but we finally landed somewhere I thought really worked for this genre, here are the new concepts next to the old ones.
The cards also needed to be re-done. Which was a shame because I liked the old design but I wanted to take a more futuristic tone to them. Taking some inspiration from Netrunner, we came up with this. I have to say … they look pretty darn cool!
We finally came up with two wonderful concept screenshots of what I want the game to look like when it’s done. They are not perfect, but they go a long way into displaying my future vision for the game which is what I needed for the application video for UK Games Fund.
The list ...
So what else have I been up to? Polishing and bug fixing that’s what. I’ve done so many small bug fixes and polishing up touches I can’t count them but on the list are;
Player / Enemy turn banners to tell you when it’s your turn. This is one of my favourite additions as it adds some feeling and consequence to hitting that end turn button and also makes it totally clear when your turn has begun.
A new “beam” attack card (this came with a refactor of the targeting system). I wanted to add this to help add to the strategy around player position, cards like this make it matter exactly where you are and will require some forward planning to use effectively.
New art for the shield. I really did hate the old one...
An improvement on the chest sprite. It looks much nicer and opens up when picking up loot. This adds a bit of permanence to the map which I like.
Particle effects that show when the player is damaged by a game effect. See here the burn effect that damages you when you move. This is probably the most important small addition I've done of late. Feedback to the player is really important and they need to know exactly what is happening and why. Especially in a strategy game.
And countless other small fixes that I continue to work on.
I’m currently experimenting with making the enemy intents look more interesting. Not totally happy with them. I think there are a little busy so will iterate on the design. They are definitely better than before though!
My next big priority is to get nicer sprites into the game. It really started coming to life the first time I got the main character animated with an idle and casting animation, so when there are much more moving parts on screen it’s going to make a huge difference.
It’s finally time to start looking properly at the level and UI too...
Then I want to start the game play for transitions between levels to make it more into a game rather than a sequence of random battles! I can’t wait to put this feature in! Maybe I should do this next actually...
That's all for now. Hopefully in my next update I will be celebrating getting invited to the interview stage for my grant application. Wish me luck!!!
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