Derelict on a Hold. For now.

May 1, 2017 fpedro 0

Hello, As you  have noticed I have did not post that much about Derelict recently, and there is a reason for that. I have decided to put Derelict on a hold for now. What I had planned was way to ambitious for a single developer to accomplish in a reasonable amount of time. So until I will scrap the main idea into a smaller one, I will work on a smaller project that I will announce soon. Art, Level design, game design, coding… If I am going to do it all I need a smaller project, that I can finish, and not just a project to work on for an “infinite amount of time”, with little or no progression for long amounts of time, that is a motivation killer. Sorry to let you down.

The AI Challenge AKA The Road Block

April 4, 2017 fpedro 0

Implementing Artificial Intelligence that does not feel like the game is cheating is one of the -many- challenges game designers and game developers face when idealizing/implementing a game. At the moment Derelict is facing that challenge. While designing the AI for the first creature type most of the times it just feels like the game is always one step ahead of the player. After several iterations and tweaks it still does not feel “natural”, and most of the times it seems the game has aim-bot  – and indeed it does – making the game play experience more frustrating than I expected when I started implementing the AI. At this point I need to prevent the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) to trigger and prevent me from finishing the AI, and I may need to make it “less tuned” in order to finish a “vertical slice”[1] of the game. Let’s hope that by the end Read More

Objectives for the first Release (this is not a date announcement)

March 29, 2017 fpedro 0

As stated in the title, I am not announcing a date for the first Alpha of the game. I am just presenting the plans for the content that will be available in first Alpha play tests. 1 Class (Soldier); 1 Procedural Generated Level (you will see it as static, they will be created at design time and then I will use them as persistent); 3 Power Ups (Health, Ammo, Double Damage); 4 Different creature types with different AI Behaviours and different characteristics; Online Scoreboard; Level completion; Rudimentary UI (Text Based); Level is composed of basic shapes, no textures yet. With the above implemented, I can extract some metrics and gather some feedback from the players on the core game mechanics and adjust accordingly.

What is Derelict? (Part II: Gameplay and Mechanics)

March 27, 2017 fpedro 0

We continue our journey to the introduction of Derelict with the presentation of the GamePlay and the game mechanics. If you are an avid gamer you will be familiar with most of the mechanics that will be described in this post. The game will be based upon mechanics that have been used for several years, and that proven to be quite successful among the gaming community. 2. Gameplay and Mechanics 2.1. GamePlay 2.1.1. Game Progression There is no progression as a story point of view, there is a base story that gives the game setup, else it will be a pure competitive game based on leaderboards for the different game types. The player can improve his times and gain new achievements. 2.1.2. Game Difficulty To give the game high re-playability the difficulty is “endless”, meaning that the HP and the Damage of the mobs will take into consideration the level Read More

What is Derelict? (Part I: Game Overview)

March 27, 2017 fpedro 0

The objective is clear: Create a game to get things started, don’t try to innovate, try to have fun doing it. Derelict gets inspiration from some of the games that I play and that I really like. Names like Diablo III, Torchlight, Alien Swarm come into mind when I think “what do i want Derelict to be?”. I am not saying that I will come remotely close to what those games achieved, not only because they were created by teams of several experienced developers but simply because I lack the time/skill it takes to accomplish it working alone on the project or the means to assemble a team to accomplish something that can even be comparable to the games Derelict gets inspiration from – Yeah, my art skills kinda suck. So let’s get things started. 1 – Game Overview 1.1 – Game Concept Fast paced Sci-Fi action shooter game based Read More

Welcome to my fortress of solitude

March 27, 2017 fpedro 0

Welcome stranger, You are now aboard the log of my adventures as a game developer and other random related stuff related to me. In this blog I will share the progress of a game I am currently developing as a “one man army team”. The progress is slow but the will to finish the project is enormous! almost as enormous as the probability of me failing at completing it! Say tuned for the next post where i will share the plans for the game, was well as the game design document, after that, the progress reporting will begin! By the way thanks for visiting the blog! you are awesome! 🙂