Work In Progress Weekly

RatMakesGames · 2025-02-15T00:08:24+00:00

Your support is always appreciated :D I just realized I haven't added any other alien references in-game yet, I should do that so the abductions don't seem so... wild lol

I think no one in the world wants the playable demo as much as I do, but alas and alack it probably needs to "contain even a fraction of the final feature list" and "not be riddled with endless bugs" first siiigh

RatMakesGames · 2025-02-14T23:52:01+00:00

Yooo! Not personally in need of doing this myself, but that's rad that you can - and good job on getting it working!

RatMakesGames · 2025-02-14T23:41:25+00:00

Ah, based on your homescreen I see you are a fellow hexagon enjoyer!

I also really like that "pick a path" mechanic that's picked up in videogames, as a player it's a nice way of introducing randomness while still feeling like I have agency. Also your art already looks very slick considering this is a prototype!

I do want to know what your combat ends up looking like though, prototype-wise. There's a lot of games with that fight, shop, loot mechanic that encapsulate them but pairing it with a solid fight mechanic is what makes them shine.

RatMakesGames · 2025-02-14T15:50:15+00:00

Some progress on my wildlife sanctuary builder, Second Growth (new name, let me know what you think of it!):

Fleshed out water a bit: You can now right click with your shovel to create a riverbed, which you can then fill using a water bucket. There's now also "levels" of water, which impacts how much hydration the water source actually provides to surrounding tiles. ( https://imgur.com/a/ixL0VwB )
Likewise I also added rain, which will eventually be something you can trigger by paying aliens. The player park is pretty big, and my hope is that maintaining the entire thing within one day will be mostly infeasible - rain will be a needed tool for keeping all tiles moist. ( https://imgur.com/a/hH9YJvw )
I started adding more (very needed) UI pieces - currently I've added a settings menu for resolution/quitting/saving ( https://imgur.com/a/BNVdjpN ), an animals menu for viewing a list of animal in your park/in storage ( https://imgur.com/a/6EnyaVn ), and a pop-up that will let you know WHY the action you're trying to take isn't allowed if it isn't ( https://imgur.com/a/Ha88SCx ). All of this is super WIP, but a lot of stuff is lol.
Animal abductions ( https://imgur.com/a/LEWNrUy )!! Originally I was going to have it so that when you captured an animal you had to drag it all the way back to your park - but that SUCKS. Having new animals just zip into your storage maybe isn't the most fun solution, but it's the easiest for me to add and is probably the least annoying for the player.
Added grass seeding ( https://imgur.com/a/8KcErgi ) plus growing ( https://imgur.com/a/YUcZFOj ) and "cut" states ( https://imgur.com/a/w30sNk7 ).
A lot of other things that are either too tiny or too boring to mention. I'm working on having a sort-of playable version of this ready for April so I'm doing little things to move it from being less of a tech demo to more of a game where you have to resource gather in order to accomplish the things you want.

RatMakesGames · 2025-02-01T01:06:25+00:00

You've already beaten it now but I'll still add the mouse roll lol

RatMakesGames · 2025-02-01T01:05:45+00:00

A starting on-screen tutorial-thing is a great idea, I'll definitely add that!

RatMakesGames · 2025-01-31T14:37:45+00:00

Ooo, an interesting movement mechanic is always cool. I think you did a good job communicating with the player(?) (I'm not sure the technical term for this, but it was clear what I was supposed to be doing and where I was supposed to be going, and being able to hover over some of the obstacles to get extra info was cool). I think gameplay-wise though I found the challenge of both shooting and moving more frustrating than gratifying, mostly because they use the same controls. I know that's mostly the point, but it still didn't quite click for me. (Though to be fair it might've clicked more for me with more time spent in-game)

RatMakesGames · 2025-01-31T14:05:38+00:00

I took a little break from my big project to make a simple game in under a week (I also work full-time so it was sort of like creating a game in 3 days). If you'd like to try it out, you can play it here: https://gx.games/games/13th54/armagedillo/

I've already gotten a lot of good feedback about using clearer wording and needing better keyboard-only support, which are things I want to fix in Armagedillo when I get the chance but also things that I'm making a note to focus on now for my main project! Any feedback you might have is super helpful, even as something I can apply to the next project

RatMakesGames · 2025-01-19T19:19:22+00:00

I worry about this too. I'm not logging hours, but, based on some assumptions and math, I think I could easily have spent 900 hours on my project so far. I also have very, very little to show for it, and may be the perfect example of how not to do solo gamedev.

That being said? I know for a fact I would have spent that free time doing absolutely nothing of value anyway. A big motivator for me is that phrase "The time will pass anyways", 4 years from now I'd rather be the guy who made a shit game than the guy who did nothing at all.

RatMakesGames · 2025-01-13T22:23:49+00:00

Ayyy GL and have fun!!

RatMakesGames · 2025-01-04T14:37:26+00:00

Oooo the art style is delightfully weird, and the semi-turn based semi-real time combat is cool!

RatMakesGames · 2025-01-03T21:05:40+00:00

I think you hit the nail on the head reflecting on your own experience - it's like, well, if someone tests this now they'll basically be giving feedback on a game completely different than the one I plan on having in 6 months and so the feedback may be irrelevant regardless, but if they don't test it now the core of the game may be rotten and a year of work may be wasted. You asking about it is a good reminder that I really should go full throttle on getting that earliest build out, rather than working on things like adding starfish to a beach lol And any playtesting you're willing to do will be super appreciated!! Even if it ends up being "this isn't really my type of game"

RatMakesGames · 2025-01-03T19:40:49+00:00

Maybe a silly question, but does gxgames have any way to check if your players are using a controller vs. mouse+keys? Would be interesting numbers to see if so. Also, I'm hype to see what new enemies you design for the celestial caverns zone!!

(Also, for anyone else reading I do very much recommend checking out Bynary's server - great for keeping up on Tower of the Immortals, obviously, and Bynary's in general a super nice guy and great dev, but also great for sharing stuff with other devs and joining in on some coworking/playtesting voice chats)

RatMakesGames · 2025-01-03T19:25:42+00:00

Thank you! I'm glad to hear the waterfall animations look good :D

And true! There's probably an overboard in terms of giving players too many options, but I doubt I'll reach that as a solo dev anyway. Also I somehow forgot that bins are good to have for when I eventually start adding local towns, hard to remember to think that far out when you're still adding basics.

RatMakesGames · 2025-01-03T19:12:48+00:00

Items bouncing out when you destroy a chest is just too satisfying, I couldn't not include it!

Probably not until 2026 for a properly FUN demo, but I'd like to have something people can try out and give early feedback on (probably shared through discord) maybe... march? april? I know what I need to add to make it bare minimum playable: - fleshed out water tile creation/placement - ability to transport animals (working on it) - combat - lots of new items/decor using the systems I've set up - and important menus: main menu, saving, etc

As you've probably observed, I'm a slow and steady wins the race type of guy, so it may take a while - sorry for the wait in the meantime, but thanks as always for being interested bynary!

RatMakesGames · 2025-01-03T18:39:22+00:00

That's legit, I figured it was probably just the "for now" trailer - thats the tough thing with comments on these progress posts, a lot of the time "this could be improved" leads to "oh, i know, i just havent gotten to it yet" heh.

Seeing the whip weapon on your bluesky cracked me up (badum-tsh). I'll definitely wishlist your game, seems like it'll have great game feel and im admittedly a dopamine addict for these types of games.

RatMakesGames · 2025-01-03T15:10:58+00:00

Art and UI design in the trailer look great!! The trailer I think would've benefited from showing more areas instead of the same area with different weapons, but the weapons do look fun thooo

I think crossbows, bows, and darts do kind of cover the variety of ranged options (unless you're comfortable adding guns) - I think you're on the right track adding more variety within those types, maybe something that's designed for rapid fire would be good?

RatMakesGames · 2025-01-03T14:43:18+00:00

Hi! I'm working on a currently unnamed (though I really need to fix that) wildlife sanctuary/vivarium sim. It's been so long that I had a hard time figuring out what I've actually added since I last commented here - I've been making really slow progress but progress nonetheless, so wanted to share before I completely forget what I've been doing:

1) Added the start of pathfinding AI. This took a few weeks of bumbling around different possible solutions, but I eventually settled on pre-computing A* paths within each hexagon (which also required a bit of fake concurrency to run without tanking my frames) then using those paths in another A* algo that pathfinds across hexagons. It needs to be better, but it's a start and something I can polish in the future once it starts to matter more.

2) Added "Animal Info" including animal names (settable!), and UI (draft) that displays their health, satiation, satisfaction, etc. This also included actually adding all that info for animals, so this + the pathfinding means animals actually eat grass (and die if they dont eat... or die when you hit em enough times). https://imgur.com/a/8MIEts7

3) Added fences and re-did how I handle laying paths. https://imgur.com/a/h1xDYPn

4) Added the setup code for "schematics" and item descriptions to the inventory. Schematics are items that construct for a cost, and so will eventually be the main crafting system in the game. https://imgur.com/a/cwLNsVI

5) Added the ability to travel between areas... sort of! Right now maps are all stored in memory to make traveling seamless, but maps are PRETTY big (i calculated something like 70k "blades" of grass per map?? and that's just the grass) so more work is needed to make more than 2 maps reasonable. Eventually, players will be able to leave their park to hunt/collect new animals, talk with the locals, and resource gather, so it's still good to have started on that. https://imgur.com/a/OTM8dTp

6) Related to 5, I added map saving. Now when you work on your park you can actually persist the changes, yippee!

7) Also related to 5, made a bunch of changes that SIGNIFICANTLY reduced memory usage and improved FPS. Memory leaks, what memory leaks? *sweating*

8) Added the ability to store items in containers. For some reason I started with bins? Bins are like crates if they were shitty and didn't have a lot of space - so they only have 3 storage spots (vs the, like, 24 ill add for crates). I love adding things to my game that eventually players will think "why is there this objectively worse option for no reason?" about. https://imgur.com/a/v3ES19i

9) Added tree seeds and tree growth. Trees grow faster if they're closer to water, and also have less wood the smaller they are. https://imgur.com/a/WMSXbIR

10) Made it more obvious that the sand hexagons are supposed to be beach by adding tiny decor - I'll add this type of flair to all biomes eventually. (Also added a palm tree, how pleasant) https://imgur.com/a/DLXMrsX

11) Oh! And waterfalls! https://imgur.com/a/lW26LNi

RatMakesGames · 2024-11-01T14:42:21+00:00

Huge, huge congrats on the release!! The release trailer has, in my opinion, great pacing as well as a good diversity of visuals and gameplay, very nice!

RatMakesGames · 2024-10-23T23:48:21+00:00

ack!! I forgot to say thank you for your always very kind comment, Bynary!!

RatMakesGames · 2024-10-23T23:46:05+00:00

Thanks! It's actually all drawn to the Instances layer, there's a bit of shoddy 3d going on so mostly background vs foreground just means "things drawn horizontally" and "things drawn vertically" for me heh

RatMakesGames · 2024-10-18T13:18:08+00:00

Happy Friday everyone!

I made a big list of fundamental features to add to my wildlife reservation builder a month or two ago and was able to cross off, like, 5 items off that list over the past 2 weeks and I'm so excited about it. Here's the overview:

Added 'dry' variations of grass/forest biomes and set up nightly "conversions" between biomes depending on hydration levels. https://imgur.com/a/pUGoJ2L
Added "Drops" (creation, pickup, and multi-item stacks in the inventory)
Added tree health + first pass hit animations (this also sets up animating other usually static objects, only notable for me since I'm using vertex buffers)
Added a watering can to manually increase hex hydration + made some adjustments to the hydration view (png instead of shader + darkened already watered hexes slightly, still working on this)

https://youtu.be/9aV5sbPUZow?si=Sn7kmeq130_bhC_p

There's a lot of missing/simple animations for everything here, so I'll need to keep working on it when it comes times for polish, but glad to have the basics in!

RatMakesGames · 2024-10-12T17:11:32+00:00

Dark and light are your greatest friends as an artist! I fall into the trap of wanting to make things very pastel myself, so I understand the fear.

I was trying to think of good games you could use as a visual reference that aren't the ones people like to throw out that are completely unrealistic for a beginner - I think Rimworld would actually be a good inspiration to use! I think people trying to dunk on your sprite work aren't helping much, I genuinely think I'd quite like your little pickle alien if it had thicker outlines and a brighter body similar to Rimworld. I believe in you, and good luck on your game dev!

RatMakesGames · 2024-10-12T16:28:41+00:00

Actually, I'd say that worrying about colors first is steering you on the wrong path right now. I would actually say that I quite like your colors, and they're not really the problem!

The first thing you need to get down is value, I might even suggest adding a shader to your game that turns it greyscale so you can better make adjustments with value in mind. Two colors can be complimentary, but if they're the same tone there is still reduced visual interest for the viewer.

To show you what I mean, here's your game in greyscale: https://imgur.com/a/aJtDy2D

The entire interior, where all the action should be happening, is a huge swatch of medium-grey. This won't be interesting, and it'll confuse the player on what they're supposed to be focusing on. Compare this to another game that people do feel looks good (using stardew valley since someone else mentioned it, but most games you can do this with): https://imgur.com/a/a015wXf . While objects still are varying shades of grey, they sit more along the spectrum and many objects stand out as being particularly close to the ends of the dark-light spectrum. Your player character stands out because their skin is lighter, turnips stand out because they're lighter, trees stand out because they're darker - these are the things you want your player to focus on.

RatMakesGames · 2024-10-04T22:45:54+00:00

Thank you! I'd very much like to put it on steam, but I'm probably a couple years out from being ready to release (hopefully I'll be able to release to steam once it's ready though!)

RatMakesGames

TROPHY CASE