The project is still advancing, albeit slower than I’d like. I have enemy generation locked down and am now working on the progression through the game. I’ll probably need some fine-tuning here and there, but the main path through the story is clear in my head and while I have a few more mechanics to implement, I should be done before the end of the month.
Time spent on the project so far: 26 hours
I’m still not 100% happy on my player movement - there’s something weird about clipping into walls and just moving through them if you wiggle enough and the solution I have right now involves some hacky bouncing away from them, but I’ve started working on enemy generation and I’ll soon have the core loop of the game running!
Time spent on the project so far: 16 hours
I’ve been working on the main game flow still and I’m not -yet- at the core gameplay loop, but this’ll happen eventually. I have a week off next week, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I managed to finish the game then! But who knows.
The core concept of Enemy Database is that you scan cyber-data to find enemies which then you need to restore into the database using your ARM Computer. There are 151 enemies to discover and add back to the database and they all will be generated using the Ten Thousand Statistically Grammar-Average Band Names provided as a jam diversifier.
Time spent on the project so far: 13 hours
It’s A Game By It’s Cover time again! I’ve been hard at work on Castle Of Illvision, but I’m taking a small break now to create a little gamejam project, like I’ve done on previous years. Do not fear, friends that wonder if I’ll ruin my other game by starting a new one in the middle of it, for I have a plan! I was inspired by this sweet cart right here:
I’m more or less done with the outdoors area for the moment and now I’m back to working on the Castle zone. Now that the battle system is more fleshed out, the player can go and fight that shadowy crossbowman that killed you if you tried beforehand. Still going at it strong! Here’s an unrelated mirror effect I tried to do today.
Time spent on the project so far: 65 hours
Currently working on: Castle area
% of the game complete according to my current planning: 15.09%
I’m now working on a village where you can do a few things and buy a very important item. I had to figure out a few more of my gameplay mechanic systems before I could continue creating more sections of the map. I also decided to more seriously plan the content of the game and see how much more I have left. This is a very superficial roadmap for the project, of course, because I’ll have more mechanics to create and some sections will take more time than others.
I think my biggest issue with Castle Of Illvision right now is that I just don’t take enough time to work on it. It’s not that the game isn’t interesting to me - it is - it’s just that I have less time than I once did and it’s really showing. Only 60 hours done since February, this is a real shame…
Time spent on the project so far: 60 hours
Currently working on: Village area
% of the game complete according to my current planning: 11%
I’m definitely still working on Castle of Illvision, but I’m getting a bit bogged down in gameplay mechanics - which there is surprisingly a lot for a text-based adventure game - but I have a few more areas done. I’m currently working on the village area that you can get to if you manage to evade some wolves!
Here’s an unrelated octopus.
Time spent on the project so far: 48 hours
Currently working on: Forest area
The project is not dead! I had a few setbacks in the previous weeks, like a bout of really bad mood, then there was a speedrunning week, but now I’m (trying to be) back on the project during all my free time! I managed to finish everything I wanted in my combat system, and that took a while because I couldn’t concentrate enough to write the algorithms I needed. But now you can defeat your foes and that opens up some part of the Castle. I’m back to generating content and story beats and puzzles!
Time spent on the project so far: 38 hours
Currently working on: Areas on the first floor after you defeat your first opponent.
I kept working on the game recently, but not as much as I would’ve wanted. I started working on the battle system and some more areas to explore on the second floor of the castle itself. Once I have the basis of these gameplay systems (they are quite simple so it shouldn’t take -too- long, I’ll go back to other places you can explore with some new abilities under your belt!
Time spent on the project so far: 28 hours
Currently working on: Areas on the second floor
I thought work would leave me more time, but I’m still crunching at the office. I haven’t had time to work on this much. But it’s still slowly progressing…!
Time spent on the project so far: 23 hours
Currently working on: Areas on the second floor
With work and me moving to my new house, work on the Castle Of Illvision had stopped completely, now I’m getting my groove and daily regular life back, so I’ve resumed work on the game this week! I had to deal with going up/down stairs which didn’t work perfectly with how I had planned my coordinates system, but now that’s all fine and good. I’m realizing that creating a text-based adventure game is way more work than it looks like!
Time spent on the project so far: 20 hours
Currently working on: Areas on the second floor
GACHA HELL is on hiatus. The core idea of the game is still there and still interesting to me; Fight a bunch of monsters with a weird team of characters with tons of gear and skills to use in order to get currencies to feed into a gacha in an endless cycle of rinsing and repeating. I don’t think that my implementation that I had was fun enough and the content creation pipeline was a nightmare. I would have to retool significant parts of the game flow and the way I create all of these enemies/maps/skills/etc, which would mean doing a bunch of boring tech busywork for a good while.
So instead, welcome to Castle Of Illvision, my new project for now! It’s going to be a text-parser based adventure game where a brave knight rides on to the Castle to find their friend that disappeared there. Full of puzzles and pitfalls, Castle Of Illvision will probably come out this year or at the beginning of next year. I’m so busy.
Time spent on the project so far: 10 hours
Currently working on: Area outside the castle.
I’m almost really done for real this time! I have two endings out of three completed but the last one will take a bit more time. I really want to finish before Awesome Games Done Quick start this Sunday, so that’s my goal right now. I’m still wondering if I want to add sound effects or if it’ll work without them (it probably is fine) but that would be a nice to have!
Time spent on the project so far: 116 hours
Currently working on: Last (last) boss
I am almost -almost- done with Talk || Take. I just completed the last dungeon with its three mini-bosses and now I have to do the final fight which changes depending on your alignment. I also need to do the ending sequence, but then it’s simply a matter of adding audio, playtesting as needed (hah) and releasing!
Time spent on the project so far: 113 hours
Currently working on: Last boss
I’m done with the shield sidequest, so now I started working on the Sword one, which will take a bit of time since I have to basically replay most of the game in order to gather all the Lightium Ore. It’s an interesting way to go about it because you don’t start with the fairly powerful Great Sword and need to plink away at dungeons and the overworld for a while armed with nothing but a pickaxe. I’m finding bugs here and there and stuff I need to re-design but otherwise I’m still having a blast working on this!
Time spent on the project so far: 103 hours
Currently working on: Sword sidequest
Today I finished the evil sidequests of the game; Notably the acquisition of the Darkness Sword and the Blood Shield, I also made the functionality of using those together. Now I’m working on other stuff, like the way you can get better ‘good’ shields. I have a few more things left to do, but the game is coming along nicely! Almost one hundred hours too!
Time spent on the project so far: 98 hours
Currently working on: Shield Sidequest
Didn’t have much time to work on the game these days because of crunch at work, but I kept plinking away at the Vile Wizard sidequest. You’ll need to do some bad stuff to get there, but the rewards are okay? I’m almost done with making the Darkness Sword stuff work, then I have the Blood Shield to do. Afterwards I’ll work on the main Sword questline and finish the ‘Good’ shield one as well.
Time spent on the project so far: 96 hours
Currently working on: Evil Sidequests
Still working on sidequests! I don’t have that many left to do - although the remaining ones are the ones that will be the most time-consuming - but I’ve completed the Bomb Sidequest today. I still have to do the Staff, Sword and Shield ones, then I’ll tackle Castle Blackmoor!
Time spent on the project so far: 94 hours
Currently working on: Sidequests
Today I almost completed the Bracelets sidequests and the addition of ThiefThief into the game. In order to get Bracelets, you have to go talk to Pilf The Sneak and he will challenge you to a treasure winning game. You can play the game and win them and you’ll need to pay and win 3 of them to get the strongest one. Or you can just steal the bracelet! In this case, ThiefThief, Pilf’s Reepuvian Worm will come after you for the rest of the game and it will try to steal the money enemies drop. He’s not super fast, but it’ll add up!
Time spent on the project so far: 92 hours
Currently working on: Sidequests
Almost done with the ancient battlefield! I only have one enemy left and then I’ll be able to tackle Castle Blackmoore and a few of the side quests.
Time spent on the project so far: 89 hours
Currently working on: Almost done with the ancient battlefield!
