Everpixel Tactics Devlog 5
Some of you may have seen my previous update, but I got overly busy with my real job. In the "real world", I am gainfully employed as a data/software engineer. I had big profile demos this holiday season. And so, to make sure said demos went on without a hitch, I worked. A lot. And then burned out. And continued to work. In other words, I didn't have a lot of time (or willpower) to work on Everpixel Tactics this holiday season. But! I have since recharged my batteries, and I have been working on some major updates to Everpixel Tactics, hopefully to be delivered in February/March.
Everpixel Tactics took many inspirations. I wanted it to look reminiscent of the Super Nintendo games of the past while having the tight, tactical combat of titular tactical titles like Battle Brothers and XCOM. I also wanted a zany, living, breathing world not so different from what you might find in Dwarf Fortress. Top priority was also a deep, unlimited character build system somewhere between D&D and Blizzard's heyday titles. Connecting it all was to be a campaign not so different from XCOM's own globe-spanning campaigns. I wanted a game where your favorite penguin samurai getting munched by a gigantic dinosaur was just another setback you'd have to overcome in your unique campaign.
Well, as I've released Everpixel Tactics, I've read a lot of feedback. From my pixel artist partners, I've gotten feedback that the game needs a coat of paint in order to get the pixels "more pixely." From many of the gamers, I've heard that they'd like to explore the world of Everpixel Tactics (and that not being able to explore it really breaks the immersion!) And for my own part, I didn't really like Everpixel Tactics' campaign. At all.
Especially with this final point, I found myself wanting to explore the procedurally-generated worlds of Everpixel Tactics. Why generate such fantastical worlds if you could not explore them? And so I reserved some of the harshest feedback of the game for myself.
So what to do when faced with such feedback? Everpixel Tactics is a bucket list item; something I plan on supporting for many years to come. So naturally, I am tossing out the bad, keeping the good, and polishing up the "meh" until it is "good."
I've given the entire look of the game a once-over, going so far as to have completely redone many parts of the UI. I've completely scrapped the current campaign system. I will go more into detail with the upcoming campaign in the next devlog...but I will give a sneak peek below.
Crunchier Pixels
It's always been important to me that Everpixel Tactics "look the part." I cut my teeth on the SNES era and I wanted to make a game that - while not necessarily being slavish to the SNES games of my childhood - at least evokes that era. And I was fortunate enough to have discovered a brilliant pixel artist (Benvictus) whose art meshed perfectly with my vision.
In part to showcase his art off more, I have redone the UI. All icons now are scaled to match the dimensions of his raw pixel art. I think that the results speak for themselves - the game's pixels pop out much more.
World Exploration
Many initial players of Everpixel Tactics evoked a desire to explore the world. Being the only lone, mere mortal developing this game, I limited the scope of Everpixel Tactics so that I could focus on the combat. But as I've seen the feedback and played the game myself (not to mention I've felt the urge to explore the procedurally-generated worlds), I've come to realize that Everpixel Tactics needs to allow players to explore its unique, surreal, pixelated worlds.
And so it shall be. The next update of Everpixel Tactics will allow players to explore the world. But more on this below....
Campaign
As mentioned above, the previous iteration of Everpixel Tactics' campaign took inspiration from XCOM. In XCOM, you had to manage limited resources while researching new technologies in a desperate hope to keep ahead of the game's creeping power curve. But in Everpixel Tactics, your crew of mercenaries magically teleported across the world from mission-to-mission. Sometimes there was an Apocalypse, and you had to run successful missions in order to win. But it felt hollow. Put bluntly, it didn't work well at all.
Being a passion project, I'm not about to let any major feature of Everpixel Tactics be anything shy of "awesome." I do not depend on the income from Everpixel Tactics to eat, and I do not need what little money it makes. If a feature isn't good, it's either getting some polish until its good - or its getting the axe. Being unsalvageable, the old campaign system has been tossed out entirely. Nothing of its previous iteration will make it into the next update.
Instead, what will exist is something not so different from Battle Brothers. In the initial parts of the campaign, players will be able to accept one-off missions from myriad cities in the world. These cities will also be where players can purchase gear, hire mercenaries, so on and so forth.
But here's where I want Everpixel Tactics to be unique. Some time after the first few missions, world-changing events will occur. These events will very much change the shape of the world.
It is then that players can accept quests (themselves being a series of missions) as a part of this world event. These quests are inspired by Lord of the Rings and will play out something like the Grand-daddy of them all: "Oregon Trail." For example, in Tolkien's epic, the Fellowship didn't just trudge up the Mount Doom, throw the evil ring in, and call it a day. Throughout, they had to face all manners of horrors and make all sorts of decisions.
That's what I want from Everpixel Tactics's new Campaign system. Players will be able to embark on a quest (itself being a series of missions) that will lead them all throughout the procedurally-generated worlds of Everpixel Tactics. Being Everpixel Tactics, though, they will have to contend with dinosaurs, wereslugs, and vicious packs of man-eating wiener dogs. Along the way, your crew of ragtag mercenaries may acquire artifacts of tremendous power, may be bitten by wiener dogs (and thus become wereweens), or succumb to horrible diseases.
Preview Screenshots
