Shardpunk: Verminfall

Devlog

• Devlog #140: Shardpunk is now live!
  April 13, 2023 by bryqu

  1

  The moment has finally arrived - I'm thrilled to announce that Shardpunk: Verminfall is officially released! I'm eager to hear your thoughts and feedback. Whether you have suggestions for balancing or... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #139: Less than a week to launch!
  April 07, 2023 by bryqu

  1

  The release date is so close I can taste it. And I know that at this point one should not be making any major changes. So I haven't. I mean I did, but they're not major. One of the key mechanics in Sh... Continue reading
• Devlog #138: Release date reveal!
  March 24, 2023 by bryqu

  3

  OK everyone, this is it. My game has a release date. I'm releasing Shardpunk into the wild on Thursday, April 13th. And I've never been more excited in my whole game development journey. With less tha... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #137: Can a game be truly fair?
  March 04, 2023 by bryqu

  2

  Wow. Shardpunk is set to release next month. I can't express how thrilling it is to be nearing the finish line. Although, I must acknowledge that the game's release is more like a checkpoint, as there... Continue reading
• Devlog #136: Reflections on Next Fest
  February 17, 2023 by bryqu

  1

  The most recent Next Fest was an incredible experience, and I found myself spending countless hours engrossed in various demos. Despite the time commitment, I have no regrets - it's clear that we are... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #135: hand-holding tutorial
  January 27, 2023 by bryqu

  2

  Different games have different entry levels. Some of them do not require much knowledge from a player, meaning that even a less-experienced person might play them with little to no introduction to gam... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #134: shelter phase changes
  January 27, 2023 by bryqu

  1

  Ah, feedback loops. Everyone in the IT industry knows that one of the crucial things when creating software is to keep these loops short. You really want to know what the end users think about your pr... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #133: 2022 wrap-up
  December 31, 2022 by bryqu

  1

  This year I learned what it means to finish creating a game. The last months have been insanely rich in lots of playtesting and iterating on some of the game rules/design. Just as you believe that the... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #132: playtests in progress
  November 25, 2022 by bryqu

  2

  Another round of Shardpunk playtests is currently in progress. I am gathering lots of feedback. This is awesome. Such an iterative approach is one of the key things that get me going. Developing a gam... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #131: combat tactics, and more
  November 12, 2022 by bryqu

  1

  The latest progress update on Shardpunk: I'm tweaking the in-game mechanics to improve the fun factor even more. Here's what I have for you in this entry: UI changes You can now access the tutorials -... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #130: do you like being punished?
  October 28, 2022 by bryqu

  3

  Wow, the "last 10% of the project taking 90% of the time" thing is sure real! The awesome community in the Discord server gives enormous amounts of feedback, and I am constantly busy tweaking the game... Continue reading
• Devlog #129: changing few rules
  October 14, 2022 by bryqu

  2

  Hi! Here's a short list of recent gameplay changes that I've introduced to Shardpunk based on all the feedback I received: Burst shots Machine gun rats now can perform a "burst shot" action, which dea... Continue reading
• Devlog #128: more post-feedback changes
  September 30, 2022 by bryqu

  1

  There are two things I want to show this time: first is the expanded information screen present in the shelter, which allows the player to access information about effects that will be applied to a ch... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #127: encounters, interviews and gameplay changes
  September 16, 2022 by bryqu

  1

  Hi! First and foremost, I've been recently interviewed for the FearFest festival that Shardpunk was a part of - you can watch the short interview here: It was a great experience getting featured among... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #126: Side Gigs
  September 02, 2022 by bryqu

  1

  Here I am, back with another update on Shardpunk's development progress. In general, the work is going well. I am working on creating another build for another round of playtests. The previous round g... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #125: Working with feedback
  August 13, 2022 by bryqu

  2

  So my holiday break is over, and I am back to working as hard as possible to finish Shardpunk! And I actually have lots of data to work with, as a week of closed playtests of the game (announced on th... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #124: Tutorial level and a holiday break
  July 16, 2022 by bryqu

  1

  Gonna make this one quick as I'm on my way to a holiday break. I did want to showcase some gifs from the new tutorial/introduction level that I am working on though, so here they are: Teaching the pla... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #123: Rat boomers are here
  July 02, 2022 by bryqu

  2

  Let's talk about the new enemy type that I've been working on recently - the rats that actually explode. The idea was to introduce a suicidal enemy type to the game. You know, to spice things up a bit... Continue reading
• Devlog #122: A chainsaw is always a nice thing
  June 19, 2022 by bryqu

  3

  OK, so here's some info about another playable character - a combination of melee and heavy. This guy - Julius - has a chainsaw attached to his heavy gun. Meaning that he is capable of using it for cl... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #121: Marking these enemies
  June 04, 2022 by bryqu

  1

  I am getting there. I am slowly making my way to the end content. It is indeed true that the most difficult thing is actually finishing the game. Obviously, alongside creating new content, some old st... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #120: Showcasing the game at Digital Dragons conference
  May 22, 2022 by bryqu

  2

  These were some crazy two weeks. It turned out that Shardpunk has made it to Digital Dragons (a Polish gamedev conference), as one of the most promising indie games of the season. This resulted in the... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #119: Working on the game, hard!
  May 06, 2022 by bryqu

  3

  Howdy! I'm gonna keep it short this time. I am sticking to the grind and working towards making the game complete. Working on new level types, new skills and characters. I like how the game is shaping... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #118: New character type
  April 22, 2022 by bryqu

  1

  I am aiming to have ten playable character types in Shardpunk, plus three different automaton types. I am proud to announce that another - the ninth one - has been added to the game. This is Hector, a... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #117: Experimenting with overwatch
  April 08, 2022 by bryqu

  1

  My main goal right now with Shardpunk development is to make sure that I, well, finish creating the game. That means adding more assets, characters, enemies, and levels. Basically creating more conten... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #116: the new demo
  March 25, 2022 by bryqu

  1

  Howdy! There's been a separate piece of news about it on Steam already, but here I am to inform you that the latest demo of Shardpunk is available for you to play. I hope that you will have a blast pl... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #115: working on a new demo
  March 11, 2022 by bryqu

  2

  Man, things really started to suck in this part of world. Yet again, my piece of advice regarding indie game development I gave on Reddit the other day ("there's never a good time to start - just go")... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #114: The medical automaton
  March 11, 2022 by bryqu

  1

  The general gameplay goal in Shardpunk is to escape the sieged Capitol along with an experimental automaton unit, which is equipped with a powerful energy source. Depending on the type of automaton th... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #113: blowing up some stuff
  February 11, 2022 by bryqu

  3

  Hi again! Let's take a bigger look at these blue-ish caves that represent a new level type in the game. As you progress through the map, certain events get unlocked that can make your life more misera... Continue reading
• Devlog #112: More colors, more variety
  January 28, 2022 by bryqu

  4

  Before we get started, here's an invitation: I'm gonna be doing some live streaming on Tuesday, February the 1st: I'll be covering all the changes I've implemented in Shardpunk in the last few monthts... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #111 What if there is no Fusion Core? - alternate version
  January 15, 2022 by bryqu

  3

  Howdy! In one of the previous devlog entries I was figuring out how to deal with a situation in which the player somehow ran out of Fusion Cores. For those of you that don't know what Fusion Cores are... Continue reading
• Devlog #110: Let's make it smoother!
  December 31, 2021 by bryqu

  2

  Well, another year ends! And it's my first year as a full-time indie game developer. The feeling's awesome! Now, there will be time for a yearly summary, but let's wait for the year to end first. And... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #109: Key bindings
  December 11, 2021 by bryqu

  3

  The last two weeks were a little bumpy due to hardware issues. Basically, my PC is dead for a week due to a faulty power supply and the incompetence of a shipping company to deliver the new one. I am... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #108: the support automaton
  November 26, 2021 by bryqu

  1

  Let's talk about the latest addition to the game, and (hopefully) the last major gameplay change that I've implemented: I've added new character types: automatons/bots. Lore-wise, the Empire has recen... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #107: Some new weapon upgrades
  November 13, 2021 by bryqu

  2

  Hello everyone! I am currently busy adding new mechanics for handling and upgrading character skills. As it is totally incomplete, there's nothing I can show you yet. That being said, here's a bunch o... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #106: swapping inventory items
  October 30, 2021 by bryqu

  2

  I am finalizing another monthly build with all-finished localisation support, so I will make this one quick - except that instead of talking about localisation, it'll be about handling character inven... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #105: poison
  October 20, 2021 by bryqu

  3

  Howdy! I love these bi-weekly entries as they allow me to take a look at progress periodically. And there is progress indeed! The localisation support is nearly finished. Well, at least in its current... Continue reading
• Devlog #104: localisation support
  October 01, 2021 by bryqu

  3

  Hello again! With one big technical task behind me (and I'm talking about the controller support), the time has come to deal with the other one, being the ability to handle multiple languages in the g... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #103: gamepad-related stuff progress
  September 17, 2021 by bryqu

  3

  Phew, implementing the controller support was surely time-consuming! The good news is that it's done. Surely, there will be some changes in the game's UI, but I have all the code/design base to handle... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #102: controller support
  September 07, 2021 by bryqu

  1

  Ugh, these last two weeks did pass pretty quickly! It's time for another devlog entry, so I'll make it quick. I'm currently working on making sure that the UI is supporting gamepads. It's a tedious pr... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #101: The new demo is here!
  August 20, 2021 by bryqu

  2

  Yup, you've seen the news - after a year I've released another demo of Shardpunk! You can grab the latest demo on Steam or on GOG. I won't be listing all of the changes that made it to this demo, as i... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #100: Map mutators
  August 06, 2021 by bryqu

  2

  Howdy! Here's some information on the "map mutators" feature that I was working on recently. As you might be aware, there's the "map travel"/"mission select" screen in Shardpunk that allows the player... Continue reading

  
• Back from holiday break
  July 24, 2021 by bryqu

  3

  So yeah - I forgot to publish this entry before I going on my holiday break, hence the lack of updates from my side. Therefore I'm posting it now, as it has some nice gifs from one of my gameplay sess... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #99: Upgrading the weapons
  June 18, 2021 by bryqu

  1

  Woah, so I'm after the first two live streams already! If you haven't watched them yet you can see them at Retrovibe's Twitch channel. The game development is progressing smoothly. I still need to fin... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #98: Retrovibe is publishing Shardpunk!
  June 04, 2021 by bryqu

  4

  Guys, now I can officially share the news with you: after more than two years of part-time, after-hours hobby development I teamed up with a publisher! This means that: a) I am working on the game ful... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #97: Bridge fun
  May 21, 2021 by bryqu

  4

  (totally tired today - will try to keep this short) I believe I did mention previously that the final mission of the first chapter in Shardpunk will be taking place on a bridge. On the contrary to sta... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #96: How to open that goddamn bunker?
  May 07, 2021 by bryqu

  2

  As you might already be aware, the goal of the game (well, at least its first chapter) is to reach the only intact bridge in the Capitol in order to get to the northern side of the city, which wasn't... Continue reading
• Devlog #95: A Man Who Talks To His Gun
  April 23, 2021 by bryqu

  1

  Howdy! I did mention two weeks ago that I was planning to work on another revolver-wielding character. And there he is! Please meet Silas: On the contrary to Mike - the other revolver-wielding charact... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #94: Revolvers!
  April 10, 2021 by bryqu

  2

  So yeah, I've spent some time adding new content to the game. And I'm proud to announce that revolvers in Shardpunk are now a thing! Yeah, that's the tier 1 revolver from the game, named "Old Revolver... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #93: Weapons and upgrades
  March 28, 2021 by bryqu

  2

  As you might already know, citizens of the Capitol were not prepared for the attack from the Vermin Horde. What is more, the attack came from the seaside. No one could ever predict that the rats would... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #92: What's new?
  March 12, 2021 by bryqu

  3

  I have some good news to share - I have started working full-time on Shardpunk! I will be giving more details about this in a near future; long story short is that I've been able to find someone who b... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #91: How They Bleed
  February 27, 2021 by bryqu

  1

  I believe I did mention more than once that traveling through the vermin-infested Capitol is a dangerous thing. I mean there are lots of not-so-friendly big ratmen out there. Which means your companio... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #90: Don't panic!
  February 12, 2021 by bryqu

  3

  The Rat Vermin has launched an unexpected underground assault on the Capitol - a city that was believed to have impregnable defenses. No one was prepared for that - especially as most of the Imperial... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #89: Hiding in the shelter
  January 29, 2021 by bryqu

  2

  Let's talk about the shelter phase again, shall we? First things first - let's introduce the first-time readers to the gameplay loop. Your job is to escape the Capitol that has been overrun by Rat Ver... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #88: new look of the soldier character
  January 15, 2021 by bryqu

  4

  I am not sure whether I mentioned it before, but I had an issue with the "retired soldier" character type. I mean it looks badass and has that great combat suit. The problem was that he was moving too... Continue reading
• Devlog #87: 2020 wrap-up
  January 01, 2021 by bryqu

  3

  We all agree that 2020 was special in one way or another. Nevertheless, I made some progress with Shardpunk throughout the year, and I'd like to review the ways game evolved during that time. Quasi-dy... Continue reading
• Devlog #86: do the characters have to eat?
  December 18, 2020 by bryqu

  3

  Let's quickly discuss the core gameplay loop of Shardpunk, shall we? We start with the "combat" phase. Characters need to reach the end of the map, avoid getting killed and try to find stuff along the... Continue reading
• Devlog #85: What if there's no Fusion Core?
  December 04, 2020 by bryqu

  3

  December has arrived! It means that after one month of full-time (well, kind of, due to all the crazy stuff that hit in November) game development I am back in my day job. Does it mean that my develop... Continue reading
• Devlog #84: Map travel
  November 21, 2020 by bryqu

  5

  Two weeks have passed; the show must go on. Here's the latest update on how things are going. I took unpaid monthly leave in my day job for the whole of November. The goal was to see how fast I'll be... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #83: moving forward, slowly
  November 06, 2020 by bryqu

  2

  Hello - due to a major loss in my family due to COVID, I'm not feeling good about writing about new things and ideas for the game. I did some development and playtesting lately though, and I'm attachi... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #82: Having fun in the sewers
  October 23, 2020 by bryqu

  3

  I finally spent some time adding completely new content to the game. The next tech demo will be featuring two missions, each having different looks. First, we have the sewer levels: The biggest change... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #81: Was sick, but managed to do some work
  October 09, 2020 by bryqu

  3

  OK, so I had a little less time working on Shardpunk for the last two weeks as I managed to get myself sick. Luckily, I already recovered. Here's some update on the progress. Let's start with the stuf... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #80: Stress-related tweaks
  September 25, 2020 by bryqu

  2

  Man, working on a game in one's spare time is difficult. Two weeks have passed from the previous blog entry and I only managed to spend ~15 hours in total of not-always-very-high-quality time working... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #79: XP and levelling
  September 11, 2020 by bryqu

  4

  Welcome to the next entry of the bi-weekly devlog of Shardpunk! Despite the start of a new school year (we have two children - aged 8 and 10) I managed to spend some time on the game, pushing it a lit... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #78: Steam demo is out!
  August 28, 2020 by bryqu

  1

  Alright, so I released 0.3 alpha demo of Shardpunk on Steam as well! I already received far bigger traffic on Steam than I got on itch.io up to this point. Also, I got some interesting user comments o... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #77: 3rd alpha demo is out; what's next?
  August 14, 2020 by bryqu

  1

  For starter, here's a reminder that the 0.3 "Shelter and Stress" update is already live. You can download it on itch.io at Bryqu.itch.io , and the Steam version should be available in a few days. Thi... Continue reading

  
• 0.3 "Stress and Shelter" alpha demo now available!
  August 07, 2020 by bryqu

  1

  Ok, let's keep this one short. I've released the 0.3 alpha demo of the game. You can grab it on itch.io. I am looking forward to your feedback! Also, here's the v0.3 trailer I made. Enjoy!... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #76: So what's new in the 0.3 alpha?
  August 01, 2020 by bryqu

  3

  Aah, here's some piece of good news: it turned out that two competitions that I wanted to register Shardpunk in are back! They were delayed due to the COVID thing, but luckily they will take place. Th... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #75: putting stuff together for the 3rd alpha demo
  July 17, 2020 by bryqu

  1

  I am pretty close to releasing the 3rd alpha demo of Shardpunk! The scope for the demo is sealed, I have all the assets I need and I am focusing on the final touches. The demo should be out in August... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #74: fleshing out the next alpha demo
  July 03, 2020 by bryqu

  3

  Wow, it seems it's already been two years since I started working on the game! I can't believe how fast the time goes. I believe I have to start doing more planning when it comes to creating Shardpunk... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #73: so how the shelters work?
  June 19, 2020 by bryqu

  3

  Ugh. So the Digital Dragons conference (along with the Indie Showcase event) has been canceled this year. Well, they're moving to an online format, but I don't know whether I'll have a possibility to... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #72: designing the shelter phase
  June 05, 2020 by bryqu

  2

  In theory, the submission deadline for Digital Dragons Indie Showcase competition ends in less than a month. The problem is that their submission page is not working (I contacted them about it several... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #71: making top walls more transparent
  May 22, 2020 by bryqu

  2

  Ugh, so apparently I am not very good at reading dates. Digital Dragons submission deadline is the 1st of July. I mean I did get it correctly in my previous post, but I've mistaken July with June, res... Continue reading
• Devlog #70: a story about parallel enemy movement
  May 08, 2020 by bryqu

  3

  Howdy! I checked all the dates and it seems that Digital Dragons competition has its new deadline set to 1st of July. It means I have a few weeks to polish the game in its current state and release a... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #69: new features
  April 24, 2020 by bryqu

  4

  Damn, it's been two weeks since the last devlog already? Time does fly fast, especially when all your daily and weekly routines have been flipped upside down because of the pandemic. Here's a list of... Continue reading
• Devlog #68: Discussing feedback
  April 10, 2020 by bryqu

  I feel like it's time to discuss some post-demo feedback here. It's been a couple of weeks after the demo release, and as the shelter mechanics are not in a showable state yet let's focus on some of t... Continue reading
• Devlog #67: Moving on with COVID-19 all around
  March 27, 2020 by bryqu

  1

  Man, these are unpredictable times. COVID-19 surely hit the world hard. Due to the outbreak, Polish citizens are now asked to stay home. Schools, cinemas and many other businesses have been closed. My... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #66: 2nd tech demo is out!
  March 13, 2020 by bryqu

  Alright folks, so the 2nd tech demo is now out. You can grab it here. Here's a short teaser I made: As previously, I am in need of your assistance - I have worked on the game so close that I surely c... Continue reading

  
• Devlog entry #65: 2nd tech demo is just around the corner!
  March 06, 2020 by bryqu

  That's right, I am almost ready to release another tech demo. It should be available to download in about a week from now. The idea of having these incremental updates seems to be working very well fo... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #64: 2nd tech demo progress update
  February 21, 2020 by bryqu

  2

  So I am working on creating that second tech demo of Shardpunk, that I am planning to submit to Digital Dragons Indie Showcase. Now that the old tactical layer has been scrapped, I focused on making s... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #63: Who needs an airship anyway?
  February 07, 2020 by bryqu

  3

  Ah, the ideas. They seem great when we think about them, but as soon when it comes to execution, it turns out that they are not that good. This is exactly what happened to me and my idea of how the ta... Continue reading
• Devlog #62: The tactical layer
  January 24, 2020 by bryqu

  3

  The winter holiday season in my area is almost over. I have been away for most of it, so I also did not have any spare time to spend on Shardpunk. But that's cool, having a break is also important. My... Continue reading
• Devlog #61: Level generation mechanism
  January 10, 2020 by bryqu

  2

  Initially I thought about creating a blog post summarizing all the progress on the game I made in 2019. However, I decided not to. There will be time to create summary posts when the 2nd tech demo com... Continue reading
• Devlog #60: Evac points overhaul
  December 20, 2019 by bryqu

  One thing that I knew will be changed after I release the tech demo was how the evacuation points mechanic was implemented. There were two evac points being present on a map, and they were semi-random... Continue reading
• Devlog #59: Post-demo feedback and plans
  December 07, 2019 by bryqu

  2

  OK, first of all, I see that there's a top100 voting going on at IndieDB - so do cast your vote for Shardpunk right here! Now it's time for the actual devlog entry: So this was the first time I've act... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #58: tech demo is here!
  November 22, 2019 by bryqu

  2

  Gonna keep this one short: after more than 1,5 years of hobby work, I have released the tech demo of the game. Go grab it here. There are links to Discord channel and a post-demo survey included in t... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #57: tech demo incoming. Let's talk game design again!
  November 09, 2019 by bryqu

  2

  Alright, the good news is that the tech demo is almost here. I have all the stuff ready and I am not planning to add any new features to it. The Steam page is set up (although it is not available yet)... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #56: my thoughts on PGA 2019
  October 25, 2019 by bryqu

  1

  So I spent the previous weekend in Poznan, which was hosting the Poznan Game Arena fair. It was my first gaming fair ever so I didn't really know what to expect. I attended it as a visitor - so I was... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #55: risk/reward and other game mechanics
  October 15, 2019 by bryqu

  1

  As the release of the tech demo approaches and me being mostly busy with some dirty work (setting up the steam page, updating the presskit, etc.), I'd like to share my favorite game design patters (wh... Continue reading
• Devlog #54: New screenshots
  October 07, 2019 by bryqu

  2

  Alright, this entry will be a short one. The tech demo of the game is more or less ready and I am busy with updating the webpage, presskit and such. I've also started working on a new trailer. Then th... Continue reading
• Devlog #53: Corpses and loot
  September 28, 2019 by bryqu

  1

  Welcome back! This has been a very interesting week, as I focused on tweaking some in-game visuals. As I mentioned previously I wanted to do something about the way loot points are displayed. The tech... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #52: Revamping the tutorial system
  September 24, 2019 by bryqu

  2

  Well I'll be damned! It seems that polishing the game requires far more effort than I anticipated! In my defence I can say I didn't have any experience with it up to this point, so I am learning as I... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #51: polishing, adding animations
  September 14, 2019 by bryqu

  1

  Alright, first here's some follow-up information on the "boost" action design that I described in the previous entry: It now basically allows the player to perform an infinite number of shots in a tur... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #50: designing weapon overload mechanics
  September 07, 2019 by bryqu

  1

  Let's talk game design today. As many of your might already be aware of, my game features a slightly different approach to handling weapon ammo. Weapons, instead of having ammo clips, have a heat indi... Continue reading
• Devlog #49: Getting closer to the finish line
  August 30, 2019 by bryqu

  1

  Howdy! Another week has passed, and another small piece of progress has been made on the game. I spent some time on adding more animations for the soldier class to the game and on creating sounds for... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #48: Reducing difficulty and icons count
  August 24, 2019 by bryqu

  1

  Due to a minor holiday break I had to skip a devlog entry last week. But here I am, with some new stuff to tell about. First of all, as in any decent game, the game settings are now being stored in an... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #47: In-game menus
  August 10, 2019 by bryqu

  Ugh, this was a tough week and I didn't manage to spend a lot of time on the game. However, I do have some new stuff to show! Some sounds for the soldier character class have been created. I still don... Continue reading
• Devlog #46: The soldier class
  August 03, 2019 by bryqu

  Until now, two player character classes had their visuals ready: the rogue (coming in two flavours) and the ranger. Now, thanks to Kurt's great work, the last character class has arrived: the soldie... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #45: game teaser, and more
  July 27, 2019 by bryqu

  So due to other duties I wasn't able to post a devlog a day before my holidays - but now I am back and ready to present you with the latest updates. Originally I was planning to work on some in-game s... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #44: making gameplay rules more clear
  July 07, 2019 by bryqu

  One of the common mistakes being made by indie game developers (at least from my experience) is not explaining the game rules enough for the players. As a lone developer spends a lot of time creating... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #43: optimizing time and costs
  June 29, 2019 by bryqu

  Creating your own game is great. Well, at least I feel like I'm having a blast doing it, even though it's a side project. The problem comes when you realise that your simply do not have enough time (a... Continue reading

  
• Devlog #42: first anniversary
  June 22, 2019 by bryqu

  3

  I can't believe that more than a year has already passed since I started to work on the game! Today's gifs are all about the progress the game has made: First jam entry ("1 Room Demon Slayer") So all... Continue reading

  
• Weekly devlog #41: new enemy type
  June 15, 2019 by bryqu

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  Before I present some new gifs, a note to all Unity developers: for the sake of performance, you must avoid creating GameObjects every frame - otherwise it will kill your framerate. I know that I alre... Continue reading

  
• Rebalancing the game; new lighting system
  June 08, 2019 by bryqu

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  Well, it turned out that making sure I am not involved in a single type of activity (e.g. audio stuff) was a good idea. I spent a little time on tweaking some of the sounds, but most of my time I was... Continue reading

  
• Sound/visuals/gameplay balance
  May 31, 2019 by bryqu

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  After my last experiences with being almost burnt out from dealing with audio-only stuff, I decided to balance the time spent on different activities. I did create some new sounds though, and complete... Continue reading
• More sounds and visual tweaks
  May 25, 2019 by bryqu

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  Alright, so here we are! I thought that there wouldn't be enough interesting (at least visually interesting, that is) stuff this week to actually show it to you in a devlog, but luckily that is not th... Continue reading
• Game sounds
  May 19, 2019 by bryqu

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  (alright, before I dive deep into the audio-related subject, grab this rat shooter with a machine gun) Ugh, so when I started working on the game I had literally no idea what I was doing. Sure, I was... Continue reading
• Expanding character traits, working on sound
  May 11, 2019 by bryqu

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  So it's been two weeks since I've published something, due to having a week off. 1st and 3rd of May are public holidays here in Poland, so I've decided to go on a holiday trip with my family. After al... Continue reading
• Character traits
  April 27, 2019 by bryqu

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  Character traits and quirks Finally! I have started implementing mechanics that will make the game closer to Darkest Dungeon vibe; these are, of course, character traits. Side note: XCOM did introduce... Continue reading
• Danger levels
  April 19, 2019 by bryqu

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  Danger levels In one of my previous posts I wrote about the idea of making sure that the player is kept under time pressure that does not require introducing explicit in-game mission timers. Timers we... Continue reading

  
• Weekly devlog update: shooting, dying and more dying
  April 14, 2019 by bryqu

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  Howdy! I am a little short on time today, so I will keep the text to the minimum. Improved death animations Until now enemies were flying through obstacles: Now they don't: Also, bodies now fall in co... Continue reading

  
• Weapon backfire mechanism expanded
  April 06, 2019 by bryqu

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  Hello there! I spent most of this week's time fixing gameplay issues and tweaking camera behaviour yet again. I am just constantly unhappy with how it moves and zooms. Tried number of different animat... Continue reading
• Cheating mechanics
  March 29, 2019 by bryqu

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  Ok, so I experimented with displaying character messages directly above their heads (I mentioned about it it my previous entry). The outcome wasn't very good, as the text was covering other stuff on t... Continue reading
• The webpage is ready. And so are new models.
  March 22, 2019 by bryqu

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  Steampunkratgame.com is here Well, this week was quite different. I decided to spend my game development time to actually set up a webpage. And host it somewhere. And assign a domain name for it. The... Continue reading

  
• Adding more flavour
  March 15, 2019 by bryqu

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  Howdy! (first, a complaint: I got to say I am having an issue with Itch - I simply cannot find my devlog anywhere on https://itch.io/devlogs page, even in the "most recent" section. Already contacte... Continue reading

  
• New gifs incoming
  March 09, 2019 by bryqu

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  Hello, world! Gonna keep the introduction short this week and focus on graphics. You're here for the gifs anyway! ;) Made the coloring more consistent: movement targets requiring two action points are... Continue reading

  
• Fleshing out the UI
  March 01, 2019 by bryqu

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  #devlog, #steampunkratgame

  Ah, so I am back from winter holiday. Here's a summary of the new stuff that I managed to put in the game. UI tweaks The main goal of the milestone was making the UI look nicer. I made the buttons mor... Continue reading

  
• New map, lighting and models
  February 08, 2019 by bryqu#steampunkratgame, #pixelart, #devlog, #xcom

  So I told myself that this week will be about creating a new map and experimenting with lighting. And it turned out that it was exactly what I was doing :) New map During playtesting I figured out tha... Continue reading

  
• Post-january update
  February 01, 2019 by bryqu#devlog, #steampunkratgame, #kickstarter

  Kickstarter! No, not for my game - that's waaay to early to even consider that :) But - a fellow indie developer Jakub Hakiel has just started a Kickstarter campaign for his 2D top-down action rpg nam... Continue reading

  
• Camera effects, and more
  January 26, 2019 by bryqu#steampunkratgame, #pixel art, #xcom, #steampunk, #devlog

  Rats! Someone asked me why I have chosen to use rats as enemies in the game? I guess I just like the Skaven vibe from Warhammer. And as I didn't want the enemies to be human, and because aliens were... Continue reading

  
• Development update
  January 20, 2019 by bryqu#steampunkratgame, #gamedev, #indiedev, #pixelart

  Here's some more insight on the performance issue I had: it was not related to an uneffective algorithm (I am using a decent pathfinding and FOV calculations) - it was related to the way I was calcula... Continue reading
• Performance tweaks, quality of life improvements
  January 12, 2019 by bryqu#steampunkratgame, #pixelart, #devlog, #gamedev

  Well, premature optimization is the root of all evil, as they say. It seems that I am not in the "premature" state in the game, as gameplay combat mechanics are already in place. The game seems to be... Continue reading

  
• New weapon and visuals
  January 05, 2019 by bryqu

  Aaaah, so the holiday break is finally over! I wasn't able to focus much on the game, asn one needs a break sometimes. You do want to keep your sanity in check and spend some time with family, right?... Continue reading

  
• Pre-Christmas development update
  December 21, 2018 by bryqu#steampunkratgame, #pixelart

  Time to sum up my latest work on the "This is The End" game. First of all, let's revisit the map edges thing. Even though a map has a fixed size, the player is able to see tiles that are outside it: N... Continue reading
• Few polish and AI changes
  December 14, 2018 by bryqu

  This week I managed to work on some polishing. Remember the rough map edges I mentioned two posts again? Well I tried out an approach with a layer of "fake" map tiles and a half-transparent texture an... Continue reading

  
• Suicidal AI - by design
  December 08, 2018 by bryqu

  Having updates around end of a working week became kind of tradition, so here goes: I've spent most of the time altering the AI handling code. When trying to determine their best move, the AI was perf... Continue reading
• November update
  December 01, 2018 by bryqu

  OK, so the good news is that the game is already playable and fun. The AI is decent, and not too smart in general - sometimes probably to some poor AI coding, sometimes due to my deliberate efforts t... Continue reading

  
• Entry/exit points
  November 24, 2018 by bryqu

  Idea of the demo mission that I am working on is simple: you squad is dropped in a rat-infested industrial district of the Capitol, and your mission is to scavenge as many resources as possible - and... Continue reading
• Gameplay mechanic update: grenades
  November 16, 2018 by bryqu

  Alright then. Let's talk about explosives. Everyone like area of effect attacks - they help you in crowd control, and allow the player to feel awesome after clearing out a bunch of enemies with one hi... Continue reading

  
• Radio messages
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  Right, so I should be writing here about grenades' mechanic, or about exit points - but instead I decided to experiment in-game with display of radio messages. Here's an example: Hopefully these messa... Continue reading
• Skill cooldowns
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  Obviously some of the skills should not be usable continuously. This is where the cooldown mechanic comes into play, right? As for now, two skills have cooldowns - the "ground stomp" action of the Mec... Continue reading
• New character classes
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  OK, so I've made some alterations and new stuff in character classes to the game. (sad spoiller alert: I am still on a single character model, so all classes are using the same visual representation... Continue reading
• October update summary
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  Uh-oh. Forgot to put some more frequent updates here. Focused too much on the development part. It is now time to evaluate all the new stuff and set next goals. Now, here's a brief update on my progre... Continue reading
• Weapon range
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  Progress update: I've extended weapon range mechanism. Previously it was impossible to shoot the target if it was out of range. This is still the case - however additionally the hit chance gets adjust... Continue reading
• Game pacing
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  Before I go on with game design rumbling: I've made myself a Twitter account - go follow me at @bryquthedev . Now, for a minor update report: I am busy adding yet another gameplay mechanic that will... Continue reading
• Lights and healing
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  Hello! I am currently doing some travelling so didn't have that much time, but: - I've added a healing action, that requires (and uses) a medkit - I've started to experiment with lightning. Here's a g... Continue reading
• Survivor names
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  OK, so I had to make sure that the player will feel a bond between the playable Survivors (as that's how I will call playable characters from now on). The best way is to make sure that Survivors are n... Continue reading
• Work progress
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  So it's been some time since my last update. Was mostly busy with other stuff. However, I did manage to think some things over, which resulted in some changes of priorities when it comes to developing... Continue reading
• Game design: ammo
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  OK, let's make it different today. This update will focus more on game design thing. I won't be showing any new fancy gifs or images. Well, I will try to squeeze a graphic or two, but only for the gam... Continue reading
• Map tiles!
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  Guys, the ground tiles have arrived. I spent quite some time adjusting my in-game level editor to handle them. And this stuff looks good!... Continue reading
• Critical hits
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  Welcome, screenshot lovers! Here's some new stuff depicting the things I was working on this week: I now have critical hits available. Player can see the crit chance for each attack type. A critical h... Continue reading
• Configuration, % to hit
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  It's time for the weekly update. I did some code work to make sure that more data is being stored in external files. "Player1" and "Player2" type names are remnants of the original "Twin Demon Slayers... Continue reading
• More loot
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  OK, I know you guys love gifs and screenshots! So let's make the introduction short this time. I was finalizing the inventory/loot features. Here goes: Clicking the inventory item drops it into the... Continue reading
• Inventory/loot system
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  Hello everyone! So I am back from my holiday break, and here's some progress on the inventory/loot features that I am working on. Each character will have the possibility to carry several items - basi... Continue reading
• Movement range display
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  Hello again! This week I am bringing you the revamped character movement range display: Movement in green area allows the user to perform an action after the move; moving into red area prevents execut... Continue reading
• Enemy pods
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  OK then, so it's time to be activating these enemy pods! The idea behind this is making sure that the enemies that are being encountered are spawning in groups, to increase the challenge for the playe... Continue reading
• Fog of war
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  Hello everyone! Progress has been made, and it's time to brag. As I mentioned before, I was working on the enemy pod activation mechanism. I will post more details about it in a few days however, as t... Continue reading
• A rat!
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  Hi - no major update this week; I am working on enemy pod activation mechanism, and all stuff related with it (e.g. line-of-sight algorithms). But as I know you guys like gif, here's a melee attack an... Continue reading
• Overwatch mechanism
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  The idea is simple - a character can spend their action on entering an "overwatch" mode. During that mode, if an enemy moves within the line of sight of such character, the character will get a free r... Continue reading
• Armor, shredding, and messages' display in general
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  Hello again and welcome to another part of the summary of stuff that I managed to implement in the previous month! Armor mechanics is pretty straightforward: aside from having regular hit points, each... Continue reading

  
• Tweaking the AI
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  So another thing I did work on in June was making sure that enemy characters finally start behaving in an interesting way. Due to the cover system that the whole combat is based on, AI needs to be awa... Continue reading

  
• Targeting and flaking mechanism
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  Targeting and flanking mechanics The tactical combat part of the game is all about positioning your characters in a way that gives them the best % to hit and which will prevent them from being flanked... Continue reading

  
• Hello, world!
  November 15, 2018 by bryqu

  The battle is lost. Capitol has been overrun by the Rat Swarm. It is your job to lead a group of survivors out of the city. === "This is the End" combines the squad-based strategy features of XCOM wi... Continue reading