#Game Dev Blog

[wishbonegame]

Wishbone Summer Y1 Beta Release!

At long, long last, the Wishbone Summer Year 1 Public Beta is COMPLETE! Download it here!

For those who haven't been following the project: Wishbone is a character drama-slash-farming sim game that takes place in a wild west-inspired setting. The player takes the role of a farmer, fresh off the wagon in a new town and tasked with building a successful ranch. The town of Wishbone might seem sleepy and mundane--albeit full of weirdos--at first, but there’s trouble brewing on the horizon: a fierce, prolonged standoff between the lawmen and the outlaws that will decide the fate of the town itself.

The Summer Year 1 beta represents a complete vertical slice of the first 25% of the final game. It contains around 10-20 hours of playtime, depending on how thorough you are.

[frank-game]

Hey, first post! We're trying to make a game where you play as cats trying to escape a wizard tower. Here's a first look at our player characters.

From left to right we have Frank, Lucy Lou, Bone Disease, and Gannie! All named and modelled after real cats.

[bioware]

We asked the game team what jobs our #DragonAge companions would have if they worked at the studio. Check out where our devs thinks their favorite heroes would fit into the BioWare family!

[akabaka-dev]

Double art reveal day? Yeaaaah double art reveal day ✨️

Aka has been COOKIN' this week 👀

Hh'eily, the Color out of Space 🌈

[brightatmidnight]

Hey Tumblr, do you want to live out your space smuggler fantasies, piloting your very own ship in a galaxy full of adventure? Do you enjoy casts of diverse oddballs and misfits with lots of heart? Do you like Star Wars-esque universes and the writing style of Kid Icarus: Uprising? Do you want to support two queer game developers? Then we have the perfect game for you!

The Chaser's Voyage is a 2D single-player space flight adventure game where you have to pay off your debt to a notorious pirate lord before it's too late. Shake off hostile pursuers while transporting clients to earn money. Pilot your ship while also managing your systems to survive your voyage!

Cool things our game has: • Random Runs! Your clients and encounters are procedurally generated, so no two runs are the same • Fun and lovable characters! Fully voice-acted and with lots of backstory • Cool, creepy, and cute aliens who all have a story for why they need your help • Multiple difficulty modes for gamers of any and all skill levels (Including one-life modes for those seeking a challenge) • Tons of written lore, split up into over 300 entries, complete with crew commentary • 23 unlockable modifiers that drastically change how the game plays • Complete control customization for gamepads and mouse and keyboard • Customizable ship colors • An escalating war between two galactic factions • Asteroid fields, ship graveyards, minefields, and other obstacles await • Face bloodthirsty pirates, ruthless bounty hunters, and more!

Buy the Chaser's Voyage on Steam now!

[gowerhardcastle]

Innovative Relationship Stats in Interactive Fiction

This is the write up I've been most excited to do--this is one of my favorite things in interactive game design--doing cool stuff with stats. I really, *really* wish someone had told me this stuff when I was starting out.

The most ordinary way to handle a relationship stat is to track it with a number that goes up and down according to choices and tests in some predictable fashion.  So, for example, if I do something that Gilberto likes, according to some reasonable option, like “support Gilberto in the argument,” I get:

*set rep_gilberto %+10

And this makes sense to everyone.  I gave Gilberto a gift, I get reputation points with him.  I showed that I’m good at swordfighting, this impresses him, and I get a higher number.

Similarly, if I insult him, if I’m nice to his enemy, if I do something stupid in front of him, I get

*set rep_gilberto %-10

For my first game, this is the only kind of relationship stat I used.  It was the only one I knew!

So the relationships were very simple to track and very simple to test.  If, by the end of the game, Prenzie likes me 72 much, and that’s over the romance tester of >= 65, congratulations, Prenzie and you can have a happy ending together.

You can write a totally fun game never using anything weirder than that.  But I thought it would be fun to share with you some other interesting ways to conceive of relationship stats.

A character who only goes to 0 or 100. That's it. Her relationship stat with you is essentially a boolean true/false. You can do everything for her, but the second you do something she doesn't like, it's down to 0. She loves you or she hates you. This is very character defining. The number tells you everything you need to know about the character.

That same character, who only goes to 0 or 100--except that you can do something over the course of the game to change them, to allow them to have a broader range of relationship numbers. Suddenly there can be shades of relationship. You did something to help them mature, to understand people better.

A hidden relationship number. If you look at the stat screen, whatever you do, nothing will change their number. They neither like you nor dislike you. They are professional, perhaps, and nothing more. However, you can do something to break down their shield or facade, and then, you can see the number moving; or perhaps the number doesn't move at all until that shield is broken.

The above, but in reverse. Something happens to chill someone's heart, and then nothing you do can affect the number. Or perhaps it can only go down, and then you are in a constant battle of attrition where you can only lose affection from someone.

When you reach a certain level of love and trust from someone, the bottom of the scale raises permanently. No matter how much I annoy my true love, the number just bottoms out at 40.

A relationship number that can be tapped as a resource. The bartender at the Noble Gases Club likes me reasonably well. Let's say she likes me 60 out of 100 much. When I need something in an emergency, she can do astonishing things. If I have over 35 relationship with her, she'll help me. Each time I use her, it depletes her by some amount depending on how big a favor it is. So this one is interesting, because now I have to balance whether I want to keep her liking me because I want to pursue this relationship, or whether I just really need her help right now.

A relationship number that can be a catch-all variable for a test. If you have a high relationship with Toppers, the club millionaire, I can throw that in as a variable in a test to see if you can impress someone by talking about high finance on the grounds that you may have had a conversation with Toppers about her money in the past. (*if intellect + toppers >= 50) Then, if you pass the test *because* the Toppers variable made you cross the threshold, you can add flavor text talking about that conversation with her. This is very, very good, because it tells the player that the game has taken into account your having done things to get close to Toppers (and there's a reward for it--you passed the test, sure, but...here's more content, too!)

A degrading relationship stat is incredibly powerful and characterful. This stat declines, scene by scene unless you do something to raise it. This is a "what have you done for me lately" person, and even though it take a little setting up, code-wise, it's really powerful, and your player will feel smart for figuring out that's what's going on. Also, it's stressful. If you want to create that stress, this a great way.

You can, of course, do the opposite--this is how you code your biggest fan. I like you, and I just keep liking you more and more and more and more!...until you do something to halt that, at which point, the growth shuts down, which is a gut punch. The numbers tell such a story here.

Finally, numbers that seem to tell a different story than the narrative. Players are going to look at numbers; they are going to look at the stats. Not everyone, but a lot. And so they are part of the story, they just are. So you can make them part of the push-pull of romance, for example, or rivalry. What does it mean that as my relationship number with Haze goes up, they are more and more standoffish? Does their scale mean something different from other people's, and if I figure out out, will I understand them in some sense? Perhaps there's a tremendous amount of pushback in the 60-75 range, but once you get through that minefield, something changes?

More musings on game design and other Jolly Good stuff here (I just wrote up a thing on "hidden relationship stats and their use")--I'm on a relationship stats kick today, I suppose:

[saeiken]

hey i made a little game!! you can play it for free in browser! see if you can collect all the bugs in the park :D

[carnyx-int]

The wait is over! (Finally) Introducing Carnyx Interactive, a BRAND NEW game development studio made up of queer and neurodiverse game and art industry powerhouses. Founded around the goal of amplifying voices hushed by colonialism, our games emphasize the innate worth in every being. 

As a studio, we are passionate about making the games we want to play, and driven by the lightning-in-a-bottle feeling of experiencing our favourite games for the first time. We’re very intentional about the stories we tell and choose the genres and gameplay that will best support those stories, rather than the other way around. This allows us a flexibility to creatively explore all ideas and the constant ability to grow our skills, game after game. 

The third pillar of Carnyx is mentorship - each of us is coming in with a unique set of experiences and skills, and we strive to create an environment where we both play to our strengths and leave space to mentor and be mentored in return. We grow best when we grow together. 

This ethos drives every part of our business - from the stories we choose to tell, to our approach to research, to the way we treat our coworkers - every person is worth the space and time they occupy. To this end, we strive to create and uphold an environment of compassion, where every voice and idea is considered equitably.  We’re very excited to share our journey with you! Stay tuned for our first two project announcements (one launching this year) and check us out at https://www.carnyxinteractive.com/ and https://carnyxint.itch.io/ for more information and dev blogs.

Also! Join our Discord!

[twoconfusedgamedevs]

Birbs! I'm definitely learning that I enjoy making small things much more than large things in pixel art

[sproutylunch]

Hello, G/t community!

I'm a long-time member of our little fandom, but I come to you now with a freshly-created alt account.

Why? Because I recently left my soul-crushing job at a big tech company, and I'm gonna try to hack it as an indie game developer!

I have my own ideas for a game, and universe with G/t elements, but I've come to realize it's too big and I need more experience first. So that being said...

It's time to make some Giant/tiny video games!!

I know the community is starving for them!

But uh... What exactly is a G/t game?

It sounds silly, but I feel like we never really sat down and discussed these things properly... About what people would want from a G/t game, what the appeal would be, and what the challenges are.

So first things first, we need to have a discussion about G/t games, what they can possibly be, and how we can make that happen. Because I'm literally just one programmer with no drawing or 3D modeling talent. And we are gonna need to start small *hehe*

Expect many more posts about the subject, along with some polls and stuff.

EDIT: To encourage discussion, I'm fine if you put forward general ideas. But do NOT interact with these posts or send unprompted DMs with ideas if you want to retain copyright, IP, etc.

By submitting ideas to me personally, you are relinquishing your ownership of the idea and waive any right to sue over ownership.

Seriously, I'm not planning to steal anyone's ideas! I'm mostly just trying to get a feel for what aspects are important to the community. I do not want drama and lawsuits!!

[crowscales]

Testing some shaders in UE5 for Bug Soccer Game

ignore centipede texture glitching tf out

[omeletcat]

I have had this joke stuck in my head for weeks now and i finally decided to crudely draw it i'm sorry y'all this is the peak of my comedy skills.

[ourloveiselectrifying]

OLIE NOT SO MONTHLY UPDATE!! :3

Hi sorry I dissapeared, I uh got kicked out of my home and have been recovering from that!! :D (found a place & I'm safe now)

What I've been working on!

SPOILERS AHEAD

‣ We have censorship... yay? /silly

Added an option at the start to enable hiding of NSFW art :3

‣ Interactive ingame content warnings too (WIP, lol)

‣ Finally fixed the lag for the customiser and the player icon!!! If any dev wants any advice for a customiser: If you're making a small simple one, go for condition switches, BUT if you're planning to make a large one with lots of customisation use as little condition switches as you can!!! Opt for a layered image with if statements instead, I know they might seem overwhelming but they're so worth it, you do NAURT wanna re-code an enitre customiser, trust me!!

‣ Added expressions for the player icon, and injuries that gradually worsen as the MC looses health! Also special injuries too :3

‣ Two new character sprites! They're a secret so you'll just have to wait sorry :3

‣ Lots of writing, adding in different reactions for sanity/hate/love/docile/personality

‣ Sketches are done! Have some :D

‣ Created even more fonts, with the help of my love @xcadaverdogx <3 (There is a toggle for fonts and removal of coloured text for accessability!)

Anywaysss thanks for sticking around, sorry I can't have a normal life for 5 minutes, I hope you enjoy my silly little project whenever it's done :33

[cultofgalaxy]

Hey folks! It's been a while since I posted on tumblr. We tend to be more active on bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/cultofgalaxy.com

However, would like to do try use this platform more along with a few others, so lets just cut to the chase!

Demo is released

The demo has finally be released a month ago where the playtime is usually around 5 minutes.

The demo takes place in a tutorial room and it's suppose to give a demonstration of how Kinoko and the Starsprites would move and what the general gameplay might be like. Of course any feedback we get will be taken into consideration!

There's still plenty to refine, and we'll do our best to make sure the gameplay is as smooth as possible.

If you're interested in the demo, is it free to play in our Discord server where you can download it.

[akabaka-dev]

Aka has been noodling on concept characters for SFL 3

Meet Nan'si and Yan'si, the Twin Blasphemers🕯👯‍♂️🕯

Based on Nug and Yeb, the spawn of Shub and Yog-sogoth and parent(s) of Cthulu

"As for little Nug and Yeb (only ten feet in diameter when in their average form), they are a bit destructive sometimes, though it's only a playful, good-natured roughness. I like to have the little fellows about (even though they sometimes do dissolve visitors and passersby, and cause occasional troublesome enquiries), for they are basically very friendly and companionable"

- HP Lovecraft

[wishbonegame]

May Update!

Late on this one, oops! I've been... really really busy. Just totally slammed by work and life and stuff these last couple months, but sneaking in work on these very important cowboys where I can...

Currently working on implementing a bighuge quest starring Mayor North! Only the final (fairly long) scene remains.

Not a whole lot else to report, but I am really hoping that after this next week things start to clear up a little and I can get back into my "working on Wishbone" groove again!