Hey everyone,
It's been a while since the last update on SZKELETAL. Well, I'm alive and informing you that I'm still actively working on this piece of crap. Time is short, but hopefully we are closer to the end than the beginning with this mess. The last update from the battlefield was probably back in June and was about the Orc Ki-Shak. Meanwhile, so much has happened that there was simply no time to load the wheelbarrows and post regular updates.
So, what did I manage to implement into this piece of junk recently?
🎮 Local Co-Op (and maybe online too)
Honestly, I don't even know where this idea came from, but initially, I figured I'd throw in a local co-op, where a few Draculas (well, 2 to 4) could play this crap together in one basement. Will anyone actually use it? Probably not. But it caused way more problems than I expected and took way too much time, and currently it works at maybe 80%. As if that wasn't enough, I also started experimenting with online co-op. So far, I have a somewhat functioning lobby with a chat and the ability to host your own shady game rooms, so I still don't know if I'll be able to implement it smoothly. If not, instead of trying to survive as long as possible in co-op, you can always turn on friendly fire and have a deathmatch.
👾 New Mobs
Aside from the above, I threw a few new mobs into this crap to make the gameplay slightly less boring. Among the new personalities that will torment the Estrogen Dracul on the battlefield, you will find:
Gameslav: dropping laggy meteorites all over the board.
Pilarski: a boy protecting himself with a barrier of orbiting books about ludological losers, which he also throws at Dracula.
NRGool: performs a whistling teapot attack, sucking the last potatoes out of the player, as well as nearby, uncollected ones.
Arkon: sends waves of suicidal, combat guinea pigs at the Count, because why not.
Bąkol: shoots himself with eco-pea coal.
Elven Doctor of Science: drops poisoned, hallucinogenic potatoes.
Technolols: a four-person brigade of youtubers locking Dracula in an energy cage.
Pimkek Doggos: classic, they don't bite, they just want to play.
Charging wild boars.
🏘️ Expanding Dracula's Village (and pseudo-interactive objects)
The world of this crap has become denser and a bit more interactive.
I (probably) finished implementing all the gravestones and buildings that could be ordered during the crowdfunding, plus I added a few of my own. I even managed to make some of them somewhat interactive. Using minigames in the game world, you'll be able to get a buff, eat a kebab from a real Romanian, devour a croissant at Masa's, lose potatoes on gypsy and drunk gambling games in the casino, drink a beer with an intoxication effect in the tavern, and pop some hallucinogenic pills in the asylum. You can even try building a tower out of boxes in the arcade. There's also a nod to the famous Wykop server room and a handful of other easter eggs to find somewhere on the map.
Additionally, the huts got a major visual refresh, there are vehicles, outhouses, bus stops, or other rocks lying around here and there.
⚙️ Steam Integration, QoL, Visual Tweaks, and Bug Fixes
A lot of work went into making our monstrosity look and work more like a full-fledged, commercial product:
Steam Integration: the game already compiles to an executable file via ElectronJS, supports cloud saves (Steam Cloud), global Steam leaderboards, native achievements (though only a few are typed in so far), and the system overlay. So far I have native builds for Windows and Linux, but maybe I'll manage to throw in Mac and Android versions too.
Added vibration for gamepad support.
Ability to reroll upgrades upon leveling up, instead of the initially proposed ones (with a drunk penalty and level points).
Added multithreading support for better FPS - and it actually helped a lot.
New music tracks and a main menu rebuild.
Replaced emoji icons with dedicated graphic equivalents.
Guestbook with AI moderation.
Support for multiple language versions (currently, the 31 most popular Steam localizations are implemented!).
Dozens of other minor tweaks, QoL improvements, and... tons of new bugs to patch.
Error catcher & bug reporter – if the game crashes for someone, they can automatically send me the logs to the bug tracker with one click.
Fixes reported by Valve support. Before the game comes out on Steam, it is validated by their employees. The last build failed the tests, I've implemented the fixes, and I'm waiting for the verdict.
Steam Deck & Steam Machine Optimization: implemented full controller support (haptics, complete UI navigation), automatic Steam on-screen keyboard (OSK) invocation on text fields, zero external launchers, and 1280x800 display scaling.
What else absolutely needs to be finished before this crap finally comes out?
Adding a few more mobs like Kwaz, UWał, Bez Godności, KolektorCPN - I have the graphics almost ready. If you have any ideas for their attacks, drop them!
Weapons - this is something that currently really lacks. I need to add some new junk that won't take me ages to implement - again: if you have ideas, shoot.
Achievements - the system is implemented and working. I just need to come up with names, descriptions, icons, and hook them up to actions. Feel free to pitch ideas.
Fixes in local co-op and steam overlay.
Steam Deck & Steam Machine Certification: submitting the game for the official Valve compatibility review (Steam Deck Compatibility Review) to pass all criteria and target the "Deck Verified" status.
Online co-op - I'm giving it a few more days for player synchronization tests.
Quests - currently, the game has no specific goal (endless loop). I figured I'd add at least a few generic tasks like "kill XX boars" or "plow a potato field somewhere," so that completing them results in finishing the game.
Comic outro + a song for finishing the game - I already have a certain idea for this.
Music - still need to add this and that.
Beta tests - to polish things up, gather your feedback, and fix the game's balance (because currently, it doesn't exist).
Advertising and marketing.
Biggest mistakes made so far?
The fact that I even started this. It was supposed to be a joke, and it turned into a full-time, one-man project.
Not using a ready-made engine early on, and instead building layers upon layers on top of a mess running on HTML5+JS.
Fixating on features that take up too much time (like local/online co-op).
Lack of consistency in graphics. A dedicated graphic designer would be handy. The current AI generator handles it poorly – it lacks a single perspective and proportions, but I'm just ignoring it now because I couldn't draw it better myself, and I can't afford graphic designers.
Believing that this can ever pay off. If it sells even a few hundred copies, it will be a miracle.
Alright, so when is it coming out? And for how much?
Originally, the goal was August. Currently, I estimate I need about another month to wrap up what I envisioned, finally forget about this crap, and get an honest job.
As for the price, I'll probably set it somewhere between 10 and 15 PLN on Steam. I'm thinking of 12.37 PLN + maybe some optional "support pack" for more generous crazy people (e.g., OST for another 9 PLN) to make a nice, round number.
Alright, that's probably it. This turned out to be a really long report anyway, but if anyone is still waiting for this piece of junk, I prefer to be honest about where we stand.
TL;DR:
Szkeletal is alive, work is booming, maybe we'll finally manage to release it in September!