Robot 505 [DEVLOG] - WIP

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From the Asset Store
Platform shooter mechanics inspired by an 8-bit blue robot. (mega man)
  • Progress Update : 4-21-15

    I have been hammering away on "The Maker" boss. It is about 80% done - which is pretty sweet. Wanted to share some details of development and of the boss in general.

    Boss Details / States :

      1) Off State : Connect hoses, Set Variables, Etc. 2) Initialize : Boss turns on / Off guard / Resets / Checks for hose connects & Pump brains in : Set to Attack mode 3) Attack : Checks for hose connects (used for minion spawning #) 3-1) if hose connection is present (1 of 4) Boss Spawns minions, can harm player on contact - Each hose connect = 3 spawn-able enemies - Boss checks connects and multiplies it by 3 (bossSpawn = hoseConnects * 3) 3-2) Alternate Attack (still working on) 4) Guard : Stops Attack / Pulls in armor plates : Set to OnGuard 5) OnGuard : Completely guarded - invincible to player attacks

    I went through a lot of iterations in terms of boss designs (3 alone just with the current design) before landing on the current one. (I'm sure there will be some more minor changes)

    As far as development is concerned, I wasn't 100% sure on everything for the boss and how it would interact /attack / etc with the player. So I started with a sketch, and a basic idea of functions. I then quickly mocked something up with pre-defined behaviors / plugins to get something working. I'm visual so the ability to visually interact with something, goes miles for me. Obviously It's not 100% perfect right out of the gate, but it gives me a great starting point to build from and/or refine & polish.

    Stay tuned for I will be posting more throughout the week as I refine "The Maker" boss

  • Great devlog, thanks for sharing. Looking really good.

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  • Thanks Ethan !!

    4-23-15

    Some updated screenshots of “The Maker” boss for Robot 505. The Maker will not let you camp out on platforms to get the advantage. It will send shocks of electricity through it’s brain pump hoses to stun and damage you.

  • looks great, can't wait to buy it..

  • This looks excellent - some awesome attention to details.

  • Much appreciated! jobel You'll be able to play the demo before any of that

    Colludium Thanks a lot! I have spent most of my time on art, polish, and refinement. Great to hear it's noticeable

    Devlog Update 4-26-15

    As it stands the game is just about ready for it's demo debut. I'm just nailing down all the minor bugs, and level testing so I'm not bombarded with known bug / issues feedback, instead of quality feedback. 3/4's of the way into development, I changed directions, and as a result I put level design on hold. Seemed I was rebuilding levels to compensate for changes made to player, enemy mechanics, and/or any idea implementation. Which ate up a bunch of time.

    I am anxious to see how the game will perform on other machines. At the moment it's playable on an i3 with integrated graphics, at the games original resolution of 832 x 480 (only other machine I have been able to test) - I have been developing on 3.4GHz Xeon / 32GB / 10Krpm & SSD / 2GB 650ti setup, so it's hard to tell how well or poor it will perform on other hardware. :/

    NW.js (For those wondering about desktop exporting) :

    I have been exporting to NW 10.5 - 12 works just as well for me... BUT 12, for me, uses twice the memory and about 15% more CPU. That said, both versions when observed in comparison to actual system resources being used, are off by about 10-20%

    If I export and the game says it's using 20% of CPU - It actually correlates to about 3-5%. I'm sure there is some reason for this and perhaps it's an estimated amount that C2 displays? Either way, when I demo it I will export to both versions of NW.js, to get some comparisons from users.

    (** FPS drops due to screen capturing)

    On a side note, I'm rather excited! This is my first 'actual' game!

    I will be posting more throughout the week as I get near demo release.

  • Top notch. It's obvious you've put just as much thought into the game design as the graphics.

  • OMG it's a process... lol : http://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comment ... _saturday/

    1. Use Fraps to record

    2. Import to VirtualDub, remove every 3rd to 4th frame to keep file size down, and export as animated gif.

    I've been working on this for my game.. yes it's not easy! I'm not able to keep my GIF filesizes down though.. even 10 second videos come out to 5-8MBs. Trying to keep it under 3MB to post to twitter and so far haven't been able to do it. I've been using GifCam and ScreentoGif. Haven't tried the GIMP step or VirtualDub...thanks for the reddit link...

  • Devlog Update : 4-28-15

    I wanted to share some more progress. In one of my previous updates I discussed how I had put level design off until I had a solid direction of functionality and overall game play. The reasoning behind this is that, every time I added, changed, or removed something during the early stages of development, it directly effected game play. Which resulted in me rebuilding levels to compensate for changes. That ate up a lot of time (as level design does) which was frustrating early on to keep redesigning levels... This is pretty obvious for most, but considering this is my real first game with some direction, I wasn't directly aware of it.

    I switched focused to player mechanics, enemy AI, art, etc. and took my time polishing it all up. Now with everything in place and working as intended (player, enemies, obstacles, a boss, etc), I have begun to work on level design. Interestingly enough, the early levels were very small and enemies came from everywhere. As development progressed, the levels (or test LEVEL) got increasingly longer, but still very platformer'ish mario bro's style. I assumed this would be the ultimate direction in terms of level design. Long platform levels.

    I recently wrapped up on “The Maker” boss, which for me personally was a milestone to move forward with level design and to wrap up all the ideas bouncing around in my head. (or on paper) and get a demo out for people to play. That said... I had 3 level designs that I was going to offer in the demo due to my uncertainty of what works best.

    1) Platform (long mario style)

    2) Tall Platform (vertical platformer)

    3) Metroid Level

    #1 was done (as it was my overall testing level) so I started on #3 the “Metroid Level” over the weekend figuring it would be the most challenging. As I had assumed, it was a challenge. I realized early on that my tilemap art was not created for such a levels, so I had to make a few adjustments. I also had no real way of getting the player from a high point to a low point (or vice versa) without platforms to jump on. So I had to create an elevator. ( A smart one that returns when you are near ) After I took care of the little issues that arose, I began to test out the level. At first I was unsure of the direction, (most likey due to being used to a specific level layout) but that feeling soon went away after I let some close friends play test it. The response for this level was better than I had thought. Seems this layout style really gave the game an extra boost, along with opening the door up for some more possibilities in relation to overall gameplay. Admittedly this adds a bit more to the process but, it's an addition that's well worth it.

    Test / Current level :

    Metroid Style Level:

    Development To-Do's :

    1. Add some more weapons

    - EMP Cannon

    - Laser

    - Rail Gun / Disk Gun

    - Proximity Mines(?)

    2. Stationary enemies (turrets, mines, etc)

    3. Boss defeat scoring

    4. Speed & Jump boost level indications on UI

    5. Story / Game Tip Art

    6. Replace particle explodes with animations (optimization)

    Promotional To-Do's :

    1. Add devlog to tigsource

    2. Add concept to steam (?)

    3. Robot 505 website

    4. More Promo Art

    5. Press Kit

    6. Post, post, post

    I am pushing for a playable demo release within the next couple of weeks. Stay tuned for more info on Robot 505

  • great devlog... a really neat job..... I can not wait to test a demo

  • Update 5 / 1 / 2015

    I updated the links and game again to reflect a couple of mentioned crucial issues.

    Jump explode bug : fixed

    Fades speed up : loads twice as fast

    Full Screen for NW 10.5

    Hello All!

    I am facing a couple of performance uncertainties and I am asking for some feedback from the C2 community in the form of performance reports.

    Pretty strait forward not looking for too much other than CPU Usage and FPS Drops during game play. There are a few areas I feel I need to improve with relation to performance. One being my enemy crawlers / when launching bombs I sometimes get jank. I am assuming it's physics related, but I lack info... I am testing in a vacuum - ie: I only have two machines to test on 1) a Xeon / 32GB / SSD Which is super fast. And 2) an i3 with integrated graphics (which at actual game resolution is pretty good. (minimum janks)

    I am hoping to get some ideas of how the game will perform on different hardware and at full screen and orig. resolution. At the moment the desktop version is for windows only. If you would like to test the Linux or MAC versions : Just shoot me a PM and I will create an export for you as soon as possible.

    1 level repeating (3 times) and a boss level. At the end of boss level - game will repeat and you will be on round 2 - 1st level. Difficulty ramps up each level along with un-lockable weapons.

    * Keyboard Support (not as easy as a gamepad)

    * Gamepad Support (way easier) - At least for me.

    * Game (at the moment) requires WebGL

    Robot 505 v 0.1.3 pre alpha

    How to Play & What is What

    Browser Version

    http://facecjf.com/R505/

    Desktop Version. (exported to NW 10.5 - zipped)

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/u8xxt3ev3bg1lm1/R505.zip?dl=0

    Obviously any and all feedback is very welcome but I am really trying to focus on performance.

    Have fun, get frustrated, and report back here

  • I got a mid range system (alienware alpha, dual core i3 with gtx 860m). I'll download it and let you know how it goes later today.

  • Thanks blekdar I really appreciate it

  • Hi ,

    On i7/gt970 perf are ok (62fps, ~15-20 cpu usage)

    Nice flicker effect on menu

    I'll test again later

    Edit: on How to Play & What is What: you have both x and a to jump

    on NW the developers tool is present

  • Thanks for testing and letting me know about the dev tools and button reference. MadSpy (ooops)

    Updated links and images. Also removed the Dev tools

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