ProgressIons - 2

Today marks the one year anniversary of me starting to work on this game. I am not exactly sure how I feel about it, because overall I barely managed to do any work on this project, less than two hundred hours in a year means that I haven’t even worked on it one hour per day. As time goes by, I find it more and more difficult to make time to work on personal projects and this is no exception. I still have a ton of ideas, but the will just isn’t there! In normal 40 hour work weeks, I would’ve done the same amount of work on the game in a little more than a month…

This is not all doom and gloom, however, I have completed enough mechanics and content for one whole solar system’s worth of gameplay. It’s still unbalanced and overall pretty ugly, but I’m having much fun making it. Releasing it as a paid product isn’t my top priority anymore, but I’m not sure. I have to do a bunch of improvements and refactors for now and I want to add another solar system’s worth of mechanics before deciding where do I go with this project.

In any case, I’m still pretty satisfied with the core loop and the things that I have made work in this project! I hope I manage to finish everything I want for a first playable version soon enough!

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ProgressIons - 1

Hello everybody! It’s been a while since my latest post on this DevLog part of my website and I wanted to update you all about what I’m currently working on in my free time; An incremental game called Progress-Ions! I wouldn’t exactly call it an idle game at the moment because fully passive play is not supported yet, but I have a ton of ideas!

In Progress-Ions, you will explore islands, planets, solar systems and the whole galaxy, gathering new skills, knowledge, hire workers, juggle with resources, fight monsters, research science and much more! I have been working on the game about 100 hours so far, and I don’t plan to post daily DevLogs because I have very little free time and having to devote any of it to writing up something sucks the fun out of the projects I do a little.

My goal at the moment is to create a version of the game up to the point where you can leave the first solar system and then release it on Steam Early Access for a small price. I could work away at it forever and release it when it’s 100% ready, but that wouldn’t help me test and balance anything out, and I don’t think I could keep the motivation for a big project like this. Therefore the first release probably won’t have monsters and many of the mechanics I have in mind.

I’m somewhat happy with the 3D models I’ve made in MagicaVoxel so far, but the UI is terrible, so I’ll probably buy some UI assets and try to make it look like a real game before putting it out there. I hope you consider supporting the project if it seems like your jam when it comes out! Thanks!

Jérémie out!

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Sweet Home On The Hill - 68

I’m almost done! I only need to fix some bugs, add audio where needed, polish some features that do not work very well and then my objective of creating the first chapter of the game will more or less be complete!

• Time spent on the project so far: 111 hours

• Currently working on: Bugfixes, polish, audio

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Sweet Home On The Hill - 67

I’ve done most of the work needed on the first floor of the mansion and all that is left for chapter 1 to be completed is the first boss fight against The Ram! Pretty excited to get that done :D After that I’ll need to add sound effects and test the whole thing, but it’s almost over.

• Time spent on the project so far: 108 hours

• Currently working on: Chapter 1 boss

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Sweet Home On The Hill - 66

Some good progress done! The first aid kit is fully functional and the Confusing Mirror is good as well! Next up is the paintbrush miniboss, which shouldn’t be too difficult, then I only need another enemy and the big chapter boss, and I’m more or less done! :D

• Time spent on the project so far: 103 hours

• Currently working on: Paintbrush mini-boss

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Sweet Home On The Hill - 65

Still going strong to try and finish the game! I’ve gotta say that there’s still a bit more stuff that needs to be done for the first chapter, but progress is going well! I’m still super happy with the visual scripting system I have for map events, still hasn’t let me down so far!

• Time spent on the project so far: 100 hours

• Currently working on: Map exploration, first aid kit

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Sweet Home On The Hill - 64

A lot was done since the last update; I’ve been working mainly on the first miniboss and this implies a bunch of new mechanics. This boss can summon enemies, explode them up and swap places with them, so that’s all new things to do! I realize that even this “first chapter demo” idea is taking way more time than what I want it to. Ah well, that’s life!

• Time spent on the project so far: 95 hours

• Currently working on: First Miniboss

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Sweet Home On The Hill - 63

A bit more work was done on many aspects of the game recently, locked doors, new enemy, testing all the TK powers (I only have to tweak Zeal at the moment) so the list of things to do before this first chapter is completed gets shorter!

• Time spent on the project so far: 93 hours

• Currently working on: New enemies, map, power tweaks

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Sweet Home On The Hill - 62

I’ve spent yesterday and today working on the various TK powers you’ll be able to use in the game, I only need to create four more and I’m done with that!

I’ll probably test them once to make sure everything works as well :)

• Time spent on the project so far: 90 hours

• Currently working on: Telekinetic Powers

Sweet Home On The Hill - 61

Did more radio UI today! I think I’ve finished that part of the game where you can upgrade your tools and switch which one is passively used! I’ve also added the framework for level-up based upgrades and stuff like that. Tomorrow I’ll have many options, either I work on the TK powers, the minimap, more enemies… I think I’ll try to clear out the various telekinetic powers.

My strategy in order to finish relatively quickly is to have no visual effects for any of them (except the three ones I’ve already done).

• Time spent on the project so far: 87 hours

• Currently working on: Radio UI

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Sweet Home On The Hill - 60

Working on the Radio today! Doing good progress, you can now move around the UI and save your game! I think the tool menu will take a bit more time, but then this will be done!

• Time spent on the project so far: 85 hours

• Currently working on: Radio UI

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Sweet Home On The Hill - 59

Some map work done today, planned the layout and blockers of the first floor of the mansion and continued working on the radio interface.

• Time spent on the project so far: 83 hours

• Currently working on: Chapter 1 map, radio UI

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Sweet Home On The Hill - 57

Still in a weird on-and-off hiatus with the project, but I made some progress with battle flow, skill placement, and I’m overall happy with how everything looks and works so far. I’m now working on the first radio you encounter. Radios are used to save your game, buy upgrades, get hints, things like that. I’ll be working on that UI for a few days I reckon!

• Time spent on the project so far: 80 hours

• Currently working on: Radio system

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Sweet Home On The Hill - 56

Still working on this, although very sporadically because of a work/life balance that I have a large difficulty to maintain during these trying COVID-related times. I have to admit that the project kinda lost its luster for me at the moment, but again, I blame entirely the strangeness of my daily routine.

Today I’ve worked on finishing TK Arson (the fire spell) and deal properly with fight victory situations (so you don’t get into another fight immediately). The second fight (without any tutorial at all) seems to have a few bugs (I don’t think I clear the state well enough between fights), so I’ll look at that next!

• Time spent on the project so far: 78 hours

• Currently working on: Battle system

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Sweet Home On The Hill - 55

It’s been a while! I’m not currently happy with the way the monster revealing system works, the logic governing what kind of data you’d see on an enemy wouldn’t make much sense and I just am not happy with it, so I’m changing it to make more sense and less arbitrary!

• Time spent on the project so far: 77 hours

• Currently working on: Monster data refactor

Sweet Home On The Hill - 54

I finished writing the flavor text for all telekinetic powers and now I’m back on the mechanics of that first fight. Balance is an issue at the moment, so is the way your notepad works relatively to what you know. I feel like it’s not going to be that huge of a problem, but I still want the game to be hard and punishing while not being stupidly difficult, so what do I know!

• Time spent on the project so far: 76 hours

• Currently working on: Telekinetic Powers, first real fight balance

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Sweet Home On The Hill - 53

I’m back on this project after my work on my AGBIC 2020 entry! I’m working on the use of telekinetic powers in battle, improving the menus and allowing you to defeat the first ‘real’ foe you’ll encounter!

• Time spent on the project so far: 75 hours

• Currently working on: Telekinetic Powers, first real fight

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A Game By Its Cover 2020 - Entry 7

I added music and sound effects (thanks to Wario’s Woods and Link’s Awakening) and created the level generation algorithm. I just need to test the whole thing and I think the game is done!

Time spent on the project so far: 16 hours

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