Devlog #42: first anniversary

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 started when I decided to participate in that 1 room RPG jam. That was back in 2017, so even more than a year away. Anyways, that was the first time I tried out a grid-based, turn-based gameplay mechanics. I basically am using the same code for pathfinding and storing level data as I did back then.

Second jam entry ("Twin Demon Slayers")

In the next jam, 7DRL Challenge 2018, I started to expand the gameplay mechanics. The player was able to control a squad of two characters. I have also set up basics for the cover system. As you can see, the cover/hit points display haven't changed that much since then!

Starting to work with Kurt

After the second jam I decided that I will finally start chasing my dream of creating and releasing a real game. I decided that I will be consequently spending a part of my free time to work on the game. I also decided that I want have big rats in it, and it should have a steampunk vibe. At this time I started to work with Kurt, who began creating graphical assets for the game.

Adding more features, playing with lighting

As Kurt was finishing more and more assets (especially the level tiles/walls), the game started to look more pretty. Also, most of the AI code was ready and overall concept of the gameplay, character classes etc. was already in place. The above screenshot shows my initial approach to light sources: every character was its own source of light. Also, the killed rat was already dropping some loot and a rough version of loot indicator can be seen.

Colorful rats

See the red rat? It's a placeholder for a heavy rat type. At that point only one rat model was available, and coloring them was my way of distinguishing each class (melee/ranged/heavy).

No more crossbows

Two major changes are present here: there's a new rat model (without the crossbow, which I've decided to remove from the game), and the light sources have changed. From that point in time, characters are not shining all by themselves. Also, hit point indicators became smaller.

Let'em bounce off

This is a fairly new screenshot. In shows some new lighting approach (using rotated spot lights), and a death animation that does not involve the rat flying through an obstacle.

What's next?

Even though the game is already for more than a year in development, there's still plenty to do - and I still believe that a demo will be available in 2019. Right now I am focusing on creating tutorial messages, to make the players familiar with the gameplay concepts of "This is The End".

Thanks for reading!

As usual, if you'd like to receive more frequent updates about the development and a heads-up about release of the demo, follow me on Twitter at @bryquTheDev.

Also, do help me out reaching a bigger audience! Share information about "This is The End" with anyone who you think could be interested in this.

Take care!