New movement options for Hoplite

A couple of new options for movement have been added in version 2.2.4 (released today for Android and soon for iOS)

Moving to distant tiles while demons are nearby now requires confirmation by default (by tapping a second time on the same tile.)

"Swipe to move" is just about exactly as it sounds.  I've become quite a fan of this myself as it gives a decent boost to accuracy on a small screen without really taking anything away.

"Fat finger mode" requires you to confirm every tile tap while demons are around just like moving to distant tiles.  You can have "swipe to move" enabled at the same time to cut down on some of the extra tapping required.

Long press to inspect has also been moved to a separate button.

Gameplay changes in 2.2.4

• "Plant Spear" cost reduced to 1
• "Pacifist" achievement is harder, requiring you to go an extra depth without killing

Other changes in 2.2.4

The tutorial has had a minor revamp.  I've tried to simplify it, cutting out blocks of text and replacing it with animations.

Lots of bugs fixed.

7DRL: Day 7 (Ragtag is a success)

You can play Ragtag here

I was actually very close to declaring this a failure last night.  I had simply tried to do too much in one week and the game was a mess.

This morning, I decided to cut it way down in an attempt to salvage a game within seven days.  I'm glad I did as I'm quite pleased with how it has turned out.

Synopses

You control a ragtag band of monsters attempting to loot treasure in a dungeon filled with heroes.

Only one monster can be controlled at a time.  Tag them out to let them regenerate health or access another set of abilities.

The game focuses on area of effect, knockback-type abilities.  Heroes can be killed instantly by knocking them into walls, traps and so on.

Use the dungeon map to make your way through the dungeon as efficiently as possible otherwise the heroes will gain XP and become too powerful.

7DRL: Day 4

7DRL: Day 3

Very, very "early alpha" playable version here:  ragtag.magmafortress.com

I fixed up all the major bugs (that I know of,) added some more abilities then set it up so that you respawn with a randomised set of abilities whenever you die.

Then I wasted a lot of time trying to figure out why the game was not running the same on Google App Engine as it does on my desktop.  I wish I'd tested this more before the challenge.

It basically came down to differences in the way some openGL resources are initialised.

Anyway, I'm happy to have a version released already.

7DRL: Day 2

Day 1:
I came up with a new idea while coding a bunch of player abilities.  My current focus is to have a game based around knocking enemies into environmental hazards to kill them.

Dungeon rooms would be full of traps, explosive barrels and so on and you'll have a bunch of abilities to force enemies where you want them, get around the map quickly and create more hazards.

Day 2:
Having interesting rooms is going to be the big challenge in this game and it basically consumed the whole day.  So far we've got spikes, pools of water, explosive barrels and bear traps and a bunch of other random clutter to fill up rooms.

I'm going for a sort of Sin City style look where it's mostly grey scale with effects in colour.

I like the candles

Fus Ro Dah!

7DRL Preparation

The 2014 7DRL has begun and I'm now half a day into it.

I thought I'd do quick a post showing my starting point for this year's challenge.  The following screenshots show what I'd done BEFORE the challenge started.

Isn't this cheating? I don't think so because I consider it to be working on the "engine", not the "game".  Also, the official rules say it's fine, especially if I state what pre-existing code I started with, which I'm doing now.

Basically, I'd rather spend the 7 days working on gameplay instead of implementing path finding algorithms and so on.

basic layout and mouse input done

oryx graphics

basic path finding added

monsters, basic AI, target

HP, bars

So there you go.  The monsters are low on health because they've been attacking each other and the game crashes if your health drops to 0.  I have a long way to go but I think it's going to be a fun week.

I'm using oryx's tileset and targeting a HTML5/webGL release that should be playable in any modern web browser.

I've also been playing around with shaders recently and the engine already supports basic "glow" effects.  If you're still reading, you can check out the "test app" running on Google App Engine at test.magmafortress.com and see the amazing glow in action by pressing "f" twice.

Edit: one more thing I forgot to mention that isn't shown in the screenshots is that my engine also has a simple particle effect system, which causes pixels to fly out when you hit a monster.  Just thought I'd mention it in the interest of full disclosure as there's no way I'd have time to spend coding such a thing during the challenge.

Hoplite News

Happy New Year!

The iOS release of Hoplite has been going very well.  Thank you all so much for playing the game, telling your friends and tweeting about it.

Some recent Hoplite features/reviews:

Pocket Tactics - With your shield or on it
Indie Game Enthusiast - iOS Spotlight
Hoplite on German radio

Version 2.2.1 is under way and the beta is now available.  See the beta testing page for more details (Android only)

Changes so far:

• fixed bug causing game to keep going after player won or died
• fixed crash if game is paused immediately after giving an achievement
• fixed crash on quitting game if google play service killed