Happy Holidays!!!

I first of all wanted to start out by saying happy holidays to everyone and happy new years! It's been an outstanding year at the least. With the new year comes a time for change and a fresh start to arise. Still Im celebrating by putting new items everywhere in Darkness and a Crowd for you all to discover in the near future.

So what's new?

It's recently come to my attention that Slimes have not been introduced to the community, along with a ton of new ideas that are soon to be shown in the game come the near future. I have so many new ideas I want to explore upon and so many things implemented at the moment. But before going through that I wanted to elaborate on what slimes are and they're capabilities. However that's not to say not much has been added. A new puzzle idea is in the works that requires the player to stack blocks using the spirit that glides along with you.

Slimes

Slimes are grounded creatures only capable of launching themselves sideways and attacking the player at all costs. They don't tend to have much health but they're heavy hitters to say the least. Although they wont one shot the player, at two or three hits without further upgrades to health, you're doomed. However with their lack of further movement its easy to get at your advantage point and take shots at them without resistance.

What else though?

Well besides this, I'm working on a new toggle light system in which you have to toggle each light in an array connected to two power lines to activate certain electrical systems that otherwise wouldn't be possible. You'll be prompted with a set amount of GUI buttons with each altering a certain set of lights between on and off. I've done something similar in a separate project but I'm extremely excited to test this out. It's just one more puzzle aspect of the game that wont get players stuck but will add to the feeling of the game actually being of a puzzle nature.

Image of the power lines being used

I'm also planning on editing the powers ever so slightly to make it even more of an RPG game. By damaging creatures, you'll fill up a bar allowing you to use you're ability with certain set amounts. The maximum of the bar can always be increased and this just helps moderate when players are allowed the use certain moves. The only problem with that is I planned on having abilities only last for a certain amount of time but that would mean when there are no more enemies in an area and you've wasted your ability, you're trapped. So the other alternative is a waiting method that slowly regains your power points (PP for short... lol) and using creatures as a speed up, or just having abilities be permanently used. Or even better I can have creatures spawn infinitely in specified places where this could be a problem, but then the creatures can become a problem as well.... So I'll figure something out.

Mission Alterations

I've been brainstorming with missions a lot as well and I have a large document highlighting key elements that I want to test with as well. (Yes this is starting to feel like a longer project. I'll explain THAT in a bit lol) I have three core ideas that will be used in continuation with story in between to make the game much much less repetitive. There will be something for everyone and it'll aim for a much better experience. I'm so so so excited to test all of this out!
So anyways, there are about 6 different core ideas I've chosen to work with so far, until I come up with even better ideas in the future. I'm going to cover these in different headers so it's easier to navigate. :guard:

Protect the generator

Protect the generator types of missions will be spread out into two different methods of attack depending on the style used for the mission. You will be asked to get to a specified area within the world and protect the generator that took roots there. While protecting the generator, one of two styles of hordes will be released at the player.
Waves: As in most games, waves of enemies will be hurled in your direction as you face off against them with nothing but you and your powers (which will of course contain fighting moves in the near future). Waves will be separated by a set amount of creatures that continuously get stronger as the waves rage on. However in waveform they shouldn't get too overwhelming.
Time: Speaking of overwhelming, Time mode will be as it sounds. You will be set off to specified area and asked to protect a generator for a certain amount of time rather than for a certain amount of waves. This means there will be no break in between spawns and it'll be easy to get overwhelmed. However the enemies won't be too tough and crowd control abilities should be all you need in the long run.
This is a mission mode I'm really excited to begin work on but haven't yet. It's likely it'll be in the game but I can't guarantee much. So many glitches and bugs could get in the way of development. Which will ALSO be explained in the future along with my devious master plan to get it done and worked out.

Puzzle Solving

Puzzle solving is the simplistic puzzle solving aspects that you'll find in every day missions. Thrown in the real world like scenarios, you'll be asked to enforce magnitude and weight to specific objects in order to break through barriers, use your powers to open new doors, move objects to reach new heights or experience the green light button system being implemented fairly soon which requires turning all of the lights green in order to activate a form of electricity.

Fight The Wave

Just as it sounds, you’ll be faced up against waves of creatures and asked to survive through a certain amount of rounds, this also will lay the foundation of a minigame when the time comes but first the current system needs to be worked on and perfected before it gets to that point. However I can see numerous opportunities where this could be used in story situations.

Return The Item

However boring this sounds, this can be used to establish new powerful abilities that can be used in the future. Things that will propel your character to new heights could just now make their home in this game adding a new level of freedom with simple item returning quests.

Sabotage

Just as you have strongholds, so does the enemy, meaning they will need to be weakened in the long run if you wish to retake your lands. Enemy strongholds could be a cool new implementation that brings you into a new area where you’ll be forced to face off against new types of enemies. You’ll need to find your way to the center of each stronghold and destroy the core that turns all things corrupted. I think this would be fun however it’ll certainly require many deaths and learning opportunities to take advantage of the abilities you had learned in the past.

And now?

Well despite having all these plans, they have not been tested as programming continually throws new challenges in my way. Many bugs get me caught up or simply trying to deal with everyday situations and time management. When I get home from school I take some time to relax and soak up everything, I eat dinner, I work on homework or personal projects such as upgrading my computer, and then I work on the game. Currently I’m writing this a day late at 12 in the morning on a google sheet with a few set notes that I wish to talk about. I have had this announcement planned for two days along with working in between on the game and sending out emails to major companies asking for help or publicity. I had no idea how much work went into making a game outside of just making the game. But regardless it’s still great I just am really dying to get back to work on making it. The greenlight system is going to be so fun to program again but the texture and animations are going to need to be customized to fit the style of the game. As descent of an artist I might be, I absolutely HATE gui. However It’ll certainly get done before release which I’m now afraid to put another date on due to not accounting for numerous issues that have been popping up in codes. All the scripts are now so very unorganized due to the way I have the missions set up but I think after a bit of moving things around I can get back into the swing of things at much faster pace.

So Life?

This is going to be a portion where I talk about things not revolving around the game but still do affect the game itself in one way or another.
I mentioned receiving a GTX 1060 graphics card over the holidays, which has now finally arrived. This means my games can now include more crazy graphics scenarios that won't lag down the usual computer. This means I get to experiment with shaders and new types of systems, animations and pure gameplay aspects that I wouldn’t be able to in the past. My current graphics card is not applicable, or in other words, integrated. The 1060 will allow me to slightly compete with the bigger titles if necessary.
I also wanted to talk about a current change in the way I post these posts. I’ve been trying to talk more down to earth and not as if I’m a one man team relaying information. Looking back at these posts I’m proud of my accomplishments and understand my thought process much better than I did when I attempted to be the product I was selling. I’m not quite sure if it gives the same effect to other that read these but I do know how much it helps me. I am fully aware that the grammar is probably tremendous or a few of the sentences don't make sense, but I do get my mind across which is really the current aim. Things would prooobably be better if I wasn’t doing this half conscious and on the verge of falling asleep but that’s for another day.
I’ve also recently seen some advantages for taking my time to make the game and releasing the beta mode fairly early. It’ll help me gather a dedicated fan base. Ones that won't exactly play the game every day but come back monthly to see how things have changed and to input their opinions when necessary. Which is really something I’m looking for. Those who aren’t interested will play the beta once, say “this game sucks” and leave it at that. Which really isn’t bad because no one is dedicating any money into the game quite yet and are not able to post bad reviews that’ll affect this games success greatly if not allowed to be completed first.
I also wanted to elaborate on what my plans are to further work on making a successful game. Currently I’m attempting to contact a few amazing companies to help mentor my work along its process. People I can seek to for help if I come across a broken bridge. Code can be fussy sometimes and having some first hand experienced programmers at just an email away would be amazing. I’m not going to name any companies quite yet but if my plea for help is answered, they will be praised greatly for their help, by both me and our fan base. I know how amazing you guys are.

Am I done yet?

That’s about everything. I got through all my notes and for those who stuck through it to the end. I’d hope you found my current approaches interesting. I wasn’t prepared to scatter the entire page with pictures so I’m just going to re-use a few. :)
Thank you all so much in advanced. Especially those who read through my boring paragraphs. I’ll try to update the game as soon as the green light system is up and running.
Seth Albertus