Hello reader!

Thanks so much for following this project. I am about 5 years into this project and taking my time learning about game design and wearing many hats to do everything for the project on my own.

I started this devlog to be able to submit this project to  <Improve My Game Jam 20>

...but I suppose it is time I actually communicate with future fans of the game to help prop up the game's strengths and polish some of its weaknesses.

so... In that case...

CHAPTER 1 (BETA) Released Today!

 I am happy after so long to be able to submit a playable demo of the game after so long. I know it still needs ALOT of work, but I think the general structure of the game is intact enough to be playable (and fun!!!:) 

Some of the major focuses I have are :

Graphics:

• Polishing visuals (Asking a friend of mine to help touch up the look of some sprites)
• I've recently added lots of effects to the combat system... but I intend to add more
• Gore + blood will be a (togglable) feature. I have started the system but didn't program it into combat yet. You'll see it in the future. For now... you get blood puddles.

Content:

• Creating Levels
• Story
  • Most of the story is fleshed out (aside from some details)
• Cutscenes
• Designing Characters
• I know who I want them to be, just not how I want them to look
• Audio
  • Lots of sound effects are coded into the game, they just haven't been recorded yet
  • Randomized pitch on sound effects. Tell me what you think.

Mechanics:

• Adding a system of realistic circuit blocks for puzzles later on
• Just added the way-marker in story mode.
• NPC AI
  • You have no idea how long it took to get Aden's brother to go on the correct path for the first few rooms while waiting on the player to do things. My cutscene system is getting better every day... but it is still in shambles. Expect clunkiness.
    
• Enemy AI
  • I stayed up all night one night coding the system for enemy staircase pathfinding and I'm constantly patching holes in that behavior.
  • Enemies will not shoot through other enemies (at least not the ones in the demo) This should help the player be able to focus on just a few bullets.
    
• Enemy Collisions
  • Enemies like to bounce around and act like their collision box is 3X bigger than it is so that is also something I'm figuring out
• Framerate Issues
• One of the funniest things about this project is that it is on an outdated version of Gamemaker (tried porting to 2, didn't work out) This means that there are lots of bugs and poor optimization in areas there shouldn't. I chose pixel art because I didn't want pushing hardware to be an issue. LOL live and learn. (optimizations are on the way)
  
• Crashes
  • There may or may not be a few poorly made while loops in the code I haven't traced down yet.
• Resolution Issues
  • Gamemaker lets you do weird things you shouldn't with pixels (rotate, shrink, increase resolution)... sooo I'll keep you updated on how that goes. (you might see a character or two floating off the ground, or a sharp looking pixel)
  • Right now there doesn't appear to be any reason to raise the resolution from the default. Full Screen should still scale. (F4)
• Player Platforming
  • I'm not married to the player's weight and the feel of the gravity. could be floatier or heavier. Let me know what you think
  • The fall damage doesn't make alot of sense... It may be reprogrammed in the future but I feel it is fair in the current version.
  • You aren't supposed to be able to use the knife item to climb walls yet, but somehow that made it into the demo. If you made it this far into the devlog I salute you and appreciate you very much... Hold B while wallsliding to climb walls. Have fun... It's broken. (;

More updates on the way!

Please enjoy and feel free to leave lots of feedback under the Itch Game Page!