Devlog #40 – Re-construction

Posted on by ignas

Last two months I been talking about new ball bouncing PVP turn based game, and now I will be talking how I post poned that and started working on new game. Thats life.

What?

When I was making ball game I had trouble with servers and I knew it will be a bigger scale game then anything I done before, so.. I had to have good servers and I couldnt just make them and test it fully by myself, as servers are thing that breaks the more people join.

Which resulted me into making new game with new server architecture, which will be way better, I will be using the same servers for all future games, the setup wont take a lot of time, I could setup everything for new game in couple of minutes (authentications, saving/loading, match-making etc.) as its reusable for every single game.

The first project

So first project that will be launched with the new server architecture will be a speed running platformer, as it was the simplest idea I could start at. Also I like speed running platformers so might just make my own at the same time.

Main Menu
Small gameplay preview

The game... Continue Reading

Devlog #39 – Ball bounce game (visuals)

Posted on by ignas

I mostly worked on visuals and gameplay tweaks this, not much, but the game looks way better now visually more appealing. There might be some issues still, as its hard to test a multiplayer game without a bigger player count. (more players more bugs per minute)

Expect a lot of screenshots and videos, not much to talk about as no extra systems were added.

Actually forgor that I did not name treasure missions
Continue Reading

Devlog #38 – Ball bounce game (server stuff)

Posted on by ignas
some blog stats for this month

So last month I have wrote about how I started new game, which is a ball bouncing PvP/PvE game, last month there was only main parts of the gameplay done, but this whole month was spent making servers for the game and database, so everything is stored in database on the profile person creates with his ‘google’ account sign-in.

Servers

Only ‘issue’ per se is the networking code, as I never worked on it solo, never built servers, only the gameplay block. I’ve searched for what programming language I want to use as I’m solo-dev and want to make the process as easy for myself as I can. The final decision was between java and nodejs, considered java for few days but the whole structure of building server on java is too big of a time investment. Went with nodejs.

Authentication

Authentication server is pretty simple, dumb server, which does only one thing, makes the account or sign-ins the account if there is account created with the google account you have selected, one callback that is received from google, and pretty much it.

Master Server

Master server is used for managing player stuff, all... Continue Reading

Devlog #37 – Ball bounce game

Posted on by ignas

Another month passed, I have stopped working on the astrodud myself, because the other developer have been gone for 3 months now, and trying to “carry” out the project myself is a waste of time. With that note I started making new game, completely solo, as there is no one that are motivated to make games it seems, people rather waste time then work on something.

The new project

This game idea was in my mind for a long time, always wanted to make it, it’s inspired by few different games, with addition of my own twist and more content, to have different types of gameplay available, no need to be chained to one type of game.

So first thing I did was main gameplay code and some base art for the game, which came out pretty nice, still there is a lot of work to do, server code and all the UI and game props (environment objects)

Gameplay loop

So the main-gameplay loop is smashing your balls into others 🙂 . The idea would be to have multiplayer PvP matches with some singleplayer story driven matches too.

First thing that I worked on, was the controllers for the balls and multiple different... Continue Reading

Devlog #36 – AstroProgress

Posted on by ignas

This month I have done a lot of stuff for the astrodud, however I was the only one working on it and there havent been update nor any other features apart the ones that I did, which sucks, might move on at some point, cant carry the game alone.

AstroDud

Emotes

I wanted to make emotes for a long time, but never had the time for, but as there is no feature were coming in, had to think of something to do. So I did the emotes.

The idea would be that players could buy emote-packs they would open, get some emotes, and equip them to one of their 5 emote slots.
Emote usage is simple, you just right click your mouse in the game, drag your mouse on the emote and release it, now the emote will pop up above your head.

Spike Arena – GameMode

This was the biggest thing I have worked on in the past month, making a completely new game mode, which is spike arena, more about it:

Spike arena would be a game in which your astrodud hold a spike, spike can kill other players, it grows by killing other players or by collecting red... Continue Reading

Devlog #35 – One Month Passed

Posted on by ignas

Hello, so one month has passed since the last post, which will probably be like that from now on, as the weekly posts are boring af, there’s more to talk about each month then each week.

All I did the whole month is work on AstroDud and brain storm for future projects game and not-game related, which is always good to have something under the sleeves when the time comes.

Wish there was more work done, but its very hot this summer and hard to keep the tunnel vision on the projects when temperature hits 31C inside, but that was to be expected, as summers are usually slower and more chill – as there are more temptations that stop the grind.

AstroDud

Gamemodes

What I have decided to introduce into the game this month are gamemodes, which will add a different look to the game, possibly attract more players.

First gamemode will be a simple agar style game, in which you will eat space farts and grow bigger making it possible to eat other players, you can also sprint – which results in losing coins and making space fart trails behind. Had to start from something simple to get the feet wet and... Continue Reading

Devlog #34

Posted on by ignas

Its been two months, long time no see.

AstroDud

Reworked whole UI design

The one thing I’m always unhappy with is the design of the game, its models but in most cases its the UI of the game, so I came back to the UI, tore it apart and made a new one! A better one! it looks way slicked, also have different screens for battle pass and shop, isnt as repetitive as before. I include couple of images of the new UI:

Main Menu
Battle Pass Menu
Shop
Shop Modal
Cosmetics

End Game Messages

Qualified
Disqualified
Map ended

More AD rewards

I’m always looking ways to add more monetization to the game, but dont want for it to be mandatory or annoying for the user, so I always have to offer something in return, otherwise, why do it?

So this month added free chests, that can be opened each hour, these chests are unique from other, contain more items, it would contain coins too but.. there was a problem when making chests and items, we cannot set value/amount of the item in the chest. Its all good with cosmetics, as you only need/get... Continue Reading

Blog #1

Posted on by ignas

No devlog, nothing developed, sadge.

Fill-in

Its been 2 weeks since anything got done for astrodud still hoping it will be updated, there are some useful features done which adds more gameplay and not a lot is left to do for it to be complete, just would like that my work and effort wouldnt be wasted in the end. Not in my hands.. so whatever

The lack of game-development progress was the reason of skipping out the devlog. In that time I have earned more hours in photoshop then I do in half a year, in other words – I been on my grind.

Been coding a bit python, some fun exports, converting scripts, making a lot of clipart, working on new e-shops, brainstorming – which resulted in few cool ideas.

New website idea, which might come to reality, will know for sure this week, not a big one, but useful, for me, other small game developers, no personal gain – which is always good, as it means it might be used by people, haha. Just wanting to create stuff, and feel kinda sad when I’m not making anything.

Came to realisation, I dont like and probably will never like playing games, I havent... Continue Reading

Devlog #33

Posted on by ignas

Not such a productive week as AstroDud development kinda slowed down a bit, but made some interfaces and a logo for another game that might not be created but.. yeah.

AstroDud

At the moment the only thing that was accomplished in astrodud was remaking the item system completely, making the equipment groups dynamic, different item types, everything is an item, coins, customizations, rewards, boosts, chests etc.

It required a lot of refactoring which I didnt do, another team member did, but this will allow us to use this item system for all the future games as its very generic, we can now even have shop with items in it not just chests, limited items etc. Many fun stuff can be added now, the main reason to do it like this was for daily challenges and battle pass system.

Ludo

So, we were thinking about making something simpler after the astrodud, just to chill and work on something to see how everything can be handled from the last projects and how to manage everything with multiple projects and servers.

I began drawing some ludo game related logo and a interface, its almost finished, could’ve finished it easily in a week, but hesitated a lot... Continue Reading

Devlog #32

Posted on by ignas

Still streaming from monday to friday on twitch come hang 🙂

AstroDud

This week have worked more on customizations and reworked the gameplay completely, which was a bit pain in the ass, but managed to do it in a week, still some things to do for the update but it should be within a month, the biggest update yet.

New items

So worked on a lot of new items, like we tripled or even quadrupled total items in the game, which will all become available in the update, these items arent associated with battle-pass, they just an extra items that people can get from the chests

and these are some new battle pass items

New gameplay cycle

So, this is the biggest thing I have worked on in these 2 weeks, as with the update we will change the gameplay cycle completely, with a lot of new maps (which can be seen in previous blog)

Before the change it was each game is one single map and thats all, there couldve been multiple winners and after the game ended, its done, you go to main menu and search for another game

So now after the change we have matches and... Continue Reading