itch.io

Have you played Dwarf Fortress? You can't get more complex than tha

1. Hi there! What's your name? Want to introduce yourself?

Hello! My name's Rahul and I'm a senior Computer Science undergrad from India.

2. Did you participate in the last jam we held? If so, what do you plan on doing better this time? If not, what's your reason for joining?

No, but I did participate in Summer last year. That was my first ever time making a game. I'd joined a couple of others since that, but only ended up submitting 1 more game.

3. What games are your favorites? Did any of them inspire you, or made you want to make your own?

My favourite games are mostly from the Strategy genre. I do like a bit of immersion/survival here and there (like The Long Dark or a heavily modded Skyrim), but I find that it's games like FTL (a legendary game this!), X-COM (RNGod bless you) and Into The Breach (Pacific Rim Chess) that keep me hooked for hours on end. And it's these that inspired me to join my first game jam.

4. Do you have experience with game development? What did you do/with what engine?

I have created 2 games so far, both in the Godot Game engine (Support Open Source, people!). My first game was a turn-based one, which had the player moving across a chess-like board killing spiders in some godforsaken forest. The second was my attempt at a tower-defense game, but with the additional challenge of keeping the summoner(who summons defenses) awake for the fight.

5. Tell us about something you're passionate about!

Computers! And making them do stuff through languages. Just thinking about the processor gets me all philosophical about the human brain.

The Universe and it's physics! Somewhere around high school, I started to get really into Astrophysics and stuff.

I blog about video games, and dabble in some pixel-art from time to time.

6. What are your goals for this game jam?

It's been more than half a year since I even touched a game engine. Seems like my productivity rises after every Summer, and falls back in Feb.

So, my goal here is to get back to it. Planning the design and development process is something I miss.

7. Any advice to new jammers (if you're a veteran)?

Since everyone's already mentioned the scope thing, I'd like to say that planning is important, especially if you're short on time. A lot can be accomplished in 2 days, but not if you spend too much time perfecting the UI.

Also, a coding tip: Proceed step by step, testing everything as you go. The last thing you want is to write pages and modules of code and get a Segmentation Fault at the end of it all.

8. If you're a returning jammer, what can the admins do to improve your jam experience?

Nothing need be done. The experience is wonderful as is :)

Godot is brilliantly simple, isn't it?

Thanks for the feedback. The bar thing(even bars for unit health) was something I was considering, but due to 'Real life' issues, I ended up having to make most of the game in the last 4-5 days. So I had to leave that out, which I regret. Will be implemented in the next patch, maybe with some story too.

As for the wake up issue, do you mean when she's fully awake? There are currently 3 states: Asleep, Groggy and Awake. You can wake her from Groggy to Awake, but waking while Awake should have no effect.

Actually, there was a 4th state that I didn't fully implement. When awoken while Awake, she turns Annoyed. This makes her so that she won't respond to your commands 70% of the time, but uses very less mana for any summons. But I chose to disable this till I either tweak it or remove it completely.

Pro tips: There's some text to the right of the board telling how long you have until the wave ends or begins.  Get her fully awake at the 2nd or 3rd turn of a wave, but try to time her sleep to occur right as the wave ends. Also, use a combination of the knights and 1 - 2 turrets, unless you have lots of mana. The knights are there to stop enemy advance, while the turrets pick them off.

Liked the aesthetic a lot, but the game felt tad a bit too slow. 

Also, after I give units an order, they get deselected, which goes against my RTS instincts :P

But great work nonetheless!

It is, but randomly, there won't be a green tick

Even with the required items, sometimes it just won't accept it. I tried like, 5 times. Always had this error

Can't find the required items even though I searched and tried trading everywhere!

Hmm... I feel I can't rate this game, 'cause I have'nt played it multiplayer. Since my campus network is very restrictive, I'm using a VPN right now. And assuming that you're from the US, I'm halfway around the world(India): timezone issues. So, I don't think I can make multiplayer work. And I feel that, since I can't play it in the intended way, I can't rate this game.

Anyways, I can tell you my thoughts on the singleplayer experience. It was quite rough. I could never reach the boss fight you mentioned.

Those Skull enemies! Is it possible to kill them without losing a ton of health? Also, I feel the enemies should be slower than the player, rather than accelerating and then decellerating to get to them. Maybe make the enemy summoner's els' easier to kill too? He just keeps spamming those.

Love the aesthetic, though! Great artwork! Also, the very fact that you even tried a multiplayer game is great enough!

It is, actually, fully turn based. After you press wake, she takes 3 in game turns to become Groggy. If you wake her while she's Groggy, she takes 2 turns to fully awaken. If you leave her alone, she goes back to Groggy, and then to Asleep, in 5 turns each.

But I guess I need to indicate it all better in-game.

Thanks for the feedback, though. Much appreciated!

Nice game, but the controls are clunky. How do I go upstairs? I try jumping, but I just land back down again most of the time. Only in rare cases could I go up.

Great mechanic! I like the story and setting.

But the game's too slow. I suppose if you increase the movement speed, that'll fix it.

Great take on the theme! I love the monologues, and how you can just make the Demon/Teacher solve everything for you.

You could, though, make the teacher animation faster. It's quite a drag, waiting for the teacher to come in and go out.

The controls were a bit confusing, too. Why should I ask help from the demon, if I can just make them solve it? Is there any advantage?

And what was that on the page about RMB control? I never used that mechanic.

Good game, anyways!

Loved it! So much content in 10 days! And great music!

A wonderful experience!

Now, if only you could change the jump button, I'd stand a better chance :P

Good controls. I like it. Even though you stick to the side-walls and can jump from there, it felt like part of the game.

But while definetely sticking to the summoning theme, I felt the game was a bit empty. After the first few letters, it got quite boring.

There's the problem of collecting 'T' twice, if you don't approach it carefully. And that the jump is affected if you're running on a slope. I guess you already know these.

But, all in all, a good experience. Keep it up! Maybe you could have added some enemies or something(that the demigod must destroy).

Like the whole mirror breaking - bad omen concept, but theme wise it's a bit fuzzy I feel.

The game was definetly engaging, but it's a bit confusing how you have to click again to interact with the object. If you could disable the object highlight if not within interactable distance, it would be better.

Really like the art, by the way. Wish I could rate that. Would give you all 5 stars!

Hmm... I can see the window outside the screen(lower right) when I minimize it, but I can't move it by shift-right clicking the taskbar and selecting move. It just won't budge :(

The game window goes outside my screen, and I can't see it or move it back.
Windows 10 on 4k resolution

Yes, that's fixed now. However, I ran into a bug wherein I would get stuck after hitting a snow flake, until I got hit by another one. Happens randomly. Maybe I hit it just as it hits the bottom?

First of all, nice game! I like the fact that you have to store the collected nuts in the shed. But then the problems start.

1. The game speed only progresses if the nuts are stored and the score registered. I don't know if this was intentional, but it encourages one to keep collecting without storing.

2. The game speeds up to impossible speeds. The moment I stored like 70 nuts, the game became extremely fast. Unplayably fast. It wasn't fun anymore.

3. When you reset the game, the speed does not reset.

Knight Terrors - A Post Mortem

So this was my first time designing and developing a video game, and it was awesome! A brilliant learning experience. I didn't I could release a prototype within the deadline, but I did! And I learnt a lot about the game development process along the way.

So what went wrong?

To my utter surprise, nothing much! The game felt very much like how I'd initially imagined it. I had a problem with displaying movable cells depending on remaining Action Points and Enemy positions, but I figured it out in the end. My one current issue is that the code is a mess. It works, but if I'm to build on this, I'll need to clean it up. 

There was the art work, though. I wasn't experienced at making pixel art, let alone any kind of art. So, my character ended up with a different perspective than my board and the enemies. I shrugged it off as the sprite being just a symbolic representation of the player, but it still naggs me when I look at it. Maybe, I'll fix it sometime. Maybe, I won't, and call it the game's character.

What didn't go wrong?

Pretty much everything else. Turn based action, enemy spawns and art, the sound, the FEAR system, everything went according to plan. I ticked everything off of my Alpha build checklist, and am extremely pleased with it.

Well, this is probably my last post on this forum. I will join the next Jam in winter, too, if the situation permits.

Till then, see ya!

Cool, simple little game! I kept coming back till I could make it to 2000 :P

I like the changeover at 600 or so, but it feels like I'm missing the sheep even when I'm clicking them. Maybe it's just my frustration. Or maybe something to do with the black and white sheep overlapping or something?

It was pretty short, but I guess it was meant to be.

I was planning to implement extra enemies and maps at a later point, but I think I will do pretty soon.

You're right. The animations are pretty slow. But that can be changed easily. Just need to clean up my code too.

Thanks a lot! Your feedback is invaluable!

• As an action game

It's good, I like the whole corrupted sector concept, but the AI feels too sluggish. I couldn't understand what the induvidual powers did, either, but used them anyways. Also, the two levels felt identical, with the same enemies and boss. But, I believe you can improve all of these.

• Is the game balanced?

As far as balance goes, the game felt too easy. I rarely lost health. At some points, the sheer number of enemies coupled with the small size of rooms provided some difficulty, but the boss was too easy. (Maybe give him a melee attack too?)

• Easy to keep track of things during combat?

Mostly. Player health and enemy positions were simple to keep track of, but enemy health wasn't as all the enemies bunched up together. Ability cooldowns were fine, but since I didn't know what they did, I just kept cycling them.

As for AI...

I'm not really sure how. Since the rooms are already quite narrow, there's less scope for convincing enemy AI. Maybe you could add extra enemy types, like one that heals other enemies.

For the boss, you should add a melee attack or something. Maybe add boss stages, triggering when health goes below some level.

You should probably go through a few articles on Boss design. Those will help.

Overall, pretty good concept you've got going on. With a little more polish and a few additions, this could be great! Just think it through.

Game URL

https://ataciturngamer.itch.io/knight-terrors

I'd like feedback on...

• How tactical the game feels
• Did you apply any strategy, or just go for the first enemy you saw?
• Is the game interesting to play? Would you play it again?
• How do you think the gameplay can be improved?

Thanks! Feedback would be immensly appreciated!

Alpha 1.1 is live!

There are some notable changes, mostly to the UI.

The Full Screen button now toggles fullscreen mode.

I've also added the much needed 'How to Play' option. It provides a basic overview of the game's systems and method of play.

The 'Back', 'Prev' and 'Next' were hastily put together, but the rest of it is pretty good, I feel.

There's a crossbow animation now. Finally!

I was having problems with the Algorithm to find accessible tiles, but a bounded Djikstra came to the rescue :)

This is also my last log on this forum, since the Jam is almost over.

Well, what are you waiting for? Go Play it Now!

Working on some fixes and changes for Alpha 1.1.

Earlier, enemies would show the same sprite, regardless of how much they promote to fear.

On the first turn, they give no FEAR. Then 1 FEAR/turn. After 5 turns or so on board, they give 2 FEAR/turn. But they all looked the same, so it was difficult to prioritize. But now...

Enemies spawn as eggs. After 1 turn on board, they turn to Brown Spiders and promote 1 to FEAR.

After 5 turns, they turn into Red Spiders.

These simple changes actually boosted my average score by about 30! So, that's proof of atleast some thinking involved!

Also, and I don't know if you noticed, but I changed the board art. Looks much better in my opinion, but I need shadows from the creatures.

Still no crossbow animation :P

BTW, if you haven't played it yet, please give Alpha 1.0 a try and tell me what you think. https://ataciturngamer.itch.io/knight-terrors Linux version will be up by tomorrow.

Found a tool called JPixel on itch. Can't believe I worked without this! Makes pixel art so much easier to create! Thank you, Emad.

Here it is, if you're interested: https://emad.itch.io/jpixel

I've been thinking up some ideas for Alpha 1.5. Crossbow pickups and movement modifiers will be there, but it'll take some time. More maps and enemy types in the long run.

I need a break after this jam. It's been pretty taxing, and I've been quite ill all the while.

Alpha 1.0 is up! My first ever video game!

Download it here: https://ataciturngamer.itch.io/knight-terrors

Feedback is immensely appreciated!

Wow! Really good! Got me engaged for quite some time.

Really good concept. I was never a fan of flappy bird, but this is something else!

Great art too! The colours are brilliant.

31/7/2017

The Basic game is ready. I've ticked almost everything off of my checklist.

We now have attack animations(except crossbow) and sound effects. I found some soundtrack that would fit the game perfectly on Audionautix. Thank you, Jason Shaw!

As for mechanics, the sword and crossbow attacks are ready. Just need some animation sprites for the crossbow.

Menu art is pending, but that can wait.

The GUI has been updated. A font was imported(Avara). There's now a score board on the right.

The meter on the left is FEAR. When it fills, game over! The highlighted green spider indicates I have a clear, unobstructed shot at it with the crossbow. The crossbow shots don't end the turn, but the bolts are limited in number, so save them!

Now that I mention it, there isn't a visual bolt counter!

Nice! I've never played an Interactive Fiction before, but I'm into cosmology too. Looking forward to your work.

30/7/2017

Made the basic background design. It's a sort of dark-forest theme, with the cells randomly choosing between 3 textures.

The move overlay has been fixed. Earlier, enemies didn't block the player's movable tiles. Now, the game searches for a valid path to those tiles.

I'm also in the process of implementing the FEAR bar graphically.

Not too shabby, if I can say so myself :P

The longer enemies stay on board, the more they contribute to FEAR (red box)

Also working on movement modifiers and crossbow system, to make gameplay more entertaining.

Still no sound. Should probably see to that.

Hmm... currently I've implemented a simple score system which increments by one every turn and also for every enemy killed. Could change that, but now I'm thinking of ways the very board could affect gameplay. Maybe the crossbow could have pickup-bolts? Or certain modifiers could be applied(like Double Action Points and 1.5xScore, but movement restricted to that of a Chess Knight)

Thank you! Here in my university, not many people are serioulsy interested in Game Development. We don't have that kind of community here, but I'm glad most of these Game Jams are online. No restrictions as long as you're connected to the internet :)

I was delighted to find this jam. The very name encouraged me to join!

Definitely! Godot's GDScript is very easy to pick up, and once you understand the scene-tree object concept, you can do many things.

Having used both Unity and Godot, I highly recommend Godot for beginners. Far easier to learn in my opinion.