Tyran Jaager: The Tyrant Hunters [7drl 2017] [Success]

[ignotus17]

After lurking in the roguelike forums for years, I have finally registered here at roguetemple and have decided to try my hand at a 7DRL.  I've already learned plenty in the past few months preparing for this event, mostly about Unity and C#.  Hopefully I'll learn more throughout the week and maybe even have a fun, playable game by next Sunday!

Below is a very brief game design doc for the project.  Tonight, the work begins.

A GDD Template for the Indie Developer
http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/JasonBakker/20090604/84211/A_GDD_Template_for_the_Indie_Developer.php

Intro
“In the far future, heroes wielding magic swords hunt tyrannical masters of sorcery and superscience.”

Distant future, 7 day roguelike, with emphasis on tactical combat. 

Inspired by Thundarr the Barbarian, Bakeretsu Hunters, and Samurai Jack.


Character Bios
Arbider Haalvgot, The Daring Scoundrel, The Golden Serpent, noble brigand
Apomekanes Prinssesaa, The Warrior Princess, The Red-Storm Lion, action girl
Szabre Evokaant, The Sorcerous Fencer, The Blue-Sky Eagle, master swordsman
Kavalir Braavuro, The Magical Knight, The Celosian Cavalier, gentleman adventurer

Four characters will be available to play.  Each will have a set of starting abilities based on starting gear, including one unique ability based on a character’s individual Magic Sword. 


Rough Plot
Fight through ten levels of “dungeon” to defeat a procedurally generated Tyrant.

Each level:
•   introduces new types of enemies to fight
•   has terrain that affects the tactical possibilities of combat
•   provides opportunities for civilian NPCs slaves to liberate


Gameplay Description
Turn-based tactical combat
Special abilities based on pen & paper RPG tactical games
Fight through enemies, avoid traps & hazards, liberate slaves, travel to the next level
Level 10 is the boss level
Once the boss is defeated, fight back out through with fewer enemies and more environmental hazards

Artistic Style Outline
Oryx pixel art
Oryx Design Lab
oryxdesignlab.com/

Modified color palette chosen to easily distinguish objects and to make the game colorblind-friendly
Simple GUI, buttons for items/special abilities; simplicity and clarity are most important
Main menu for selecting character
Pause menu to adjust settings & exit game
No in-game menus: no separate inventory or spells/abilities screens

Sound effects by BFXR
Bfxr. Make sound effects for your games.
www.bfxr.net/

Music, MIDI generated from classical scores; currently considering arranging a couple Schubert pieces


Systematic Breakdown of Components
2D and/or 3D renderer, state machine, save/load system, UI system, collision system, particle system, etc
Unity 5.5 coding in C#
Using Rog Roguelike Framework
Rog - Roguelike Framework - Asset Store
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/52479
Possibly using pieces of Unity’s 2D Roguelike Tutorial
Unity - 2D Roguelike tutorial
https://unity3d.com/learn/tutorials/projects/2d-roguelike-tutorial
Possibly using pieces of RogueSharp
Unity and RogueSharp(C#) : roguelikedev - Reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/roguelikedev/comments/3517mj/unity_and_roguesharpc/
https://www.nuget.org/packages/RogueSharp
https://github.com/FaronBracy/RogueSharpUnity
Bits from other projects and tutorials might creep in as well:
Master Unity By Building 6 Fully Featured Games From Scratch | Udemy
https://www.udemy.com/make-mobile-games-like-a-pro-using-unity-game-engine/
ORK Framework - RPG Engine - Asset Store - Unity
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/14419
Music and sound effects will be handled with Finale Notepad and Audacity.
I’ll be sure to note if I grab code or assets from anywhere else.


Asset Breakdown

Art Assets
Player, Enemies, Worlds: modified Oryx art
UI/Menus: modified from Udemy tutorials
Effects: Probably won’t have time for much animation, but any done will incorporate Oryx art
Image manipulation will mostly be done with GIMP

Text Assets
ToolTips will be the bulk of the text needed.  Descriptions will be short & simple to start, possibly more descriptive if I take the time to expand on them later in the week.
Little Scripted Dialog: Enemies and Bosses reacting to seeing Player.  NPCs reacting when freed.
Opening narration possible?  Closing narration is the game is won?

Sound Assets
Unique effect for each ability
Sound effects are desired for attacks, damage, enemy actions.  Keep to a minimum?
Background music: Schubert arranged for the game


Suggested Game Flow Diagram
Opening Narration ->
Title Screen ->
Main Menu ->
Levels 1 through 10 ->
Boss Fight ->
Levels 10 back to 1 ->
Ending Narration / Game Over
 

Suggested Project Timeline
Day       Date          Item
      Earlier      Game design document, tons of ideas, Unity, C#, tutorials, libraries

Sun       5-Mar-17   Begin Sun afternoon (1500 CST; 2100 Zulu), 5+ hours
                  Working game loop
                  Modify sprites
                 Import initial art assets
                 Items and abilities
Mon      6-Mar-17      Full Day's Work, 8+ hours
                 Working menus
                 All "needed" features" in game
                 Fully playable game
Tue      7-Mar-17      1-2 hours
                 Complete anything missed on Days 1 & 2
Wed      8-Mar-17      2-3 hours
                 Audio: Music and Effects
Thu      9-Mar-17      2-3 hours
                 Cut any "wanted" features that are not fully functional
                 Tie together gameplay affected by cutting features
Fri      10-Mar-17   2-4 hours
                 Compile & distribute to friends (3 playtesters lined up)
                 Playtesting and feedback
Sat      11-Mar-17   All day?  8 hours+ if needed / wanted?
                 More playtesting
                 Write README.txt
               Add tutorial-like ToolTips and Help screens
                 Troubleshooting, polish, adapt game to player feedback
Sun      12-Mar-17   Finish before 1500 CST (2100 Zulu)
                 Compile & test on several systems
                 Absolutely runnable on PC
                 Maybe others, in order of probability: web, Unix, Android, Mac
      
25 to 40 hours total


Additional Ideas and Possibilities
Four playable characters – cut to one if needed
Pen & paper-inspired tactical abilities – heart of the game but might be the most effort to make work; reduce if needed
Push what can be procedurally generated?  Not just level maps.  Enemy abilities, boss characteristics, item properties, names of almost everything, possible styles of each level?
Is anything missing?  7 days is a tight timeline – do as much as can be done and deal with the end results.

[ignotus17]

Decent progress made so far.
On target:

• working game loop
  some sprites modified
  some art assets imported
  

Behind target:

• spent too much time fiddling with art assets
  no functional items yet
  abilities mostly not implemented

Plenty of time tomorrow to catch up.
For now, here a a couple preliminary screenshots:

[ignotus17]

I forgot to post yesterday.
Some progress made.
On Target:

• All enemies in game. 
  Enemy movement AI set up.

Behind Target:

• No items or abilities.
  No menus.
  All "needed" features not yet implemented.

Here's another screenshot.



I have other obligations tonight, so I'm not expecting to do much more today.
Tomorrow, I'll try to work in things I'm behind on.  I doubt I'll get to audio and music... probably not until the weekend at my current pace.

[ignotus17]

Day 4
I put some time today into enemy abilities.
Enemies can now shoot projectiles at the player character.  Details of the attacks need serious tuning though.

[ignotus17]

DAY 7
SUCCESS

Well, it's finished and fully playable.  I had to cut out most of what I had wanted to put in and it doesn't play at all like what I had envisioned a week ago.  But that's how I expected this to go: big list of "wants" and cut out features as the clock ticked down.

What made it in?

Descend to Level10 then defeat the Tyrant
Unity 5.5.0f3 using ROG Framework v1.51 and Oryx graphics

Known Bugs
climbing up stairs can crash game
colliding projectiles can crash game
health display doesn't always update after being hit

Controls
"WASD" to move, cardinal only.  No arrow keys, no VI, no numpad.  The framework I used began with WASD and I didn't take the time to implement more traditionally roguelike keys.
"Space" to pick up items or use stairs
Left mouse button to move, cardinal only -- careful, seeing enemies doesn't stop movement
Right mouse button for ranged attack (ranged projectiles can move diagonally)
*****Be careful when mouse-clicking to explore!  Enemies will still attack you while you move.*****

Time budgeted
25 to 40 hours

Time spent
28 hours.
So I was in the range of time I had planned on investing.  I wish I would have freed up more coherent time.  Another 12 hours could have implemented player abilities that would have given the game the tactical combat feel I had in mind.

Not included
Most features were cut
- No audio, no music or sound effects
- no sprite animations
- Almost all player abilities
- Many enemy abilities
- Choice of player heroes
- Main menu
- No NPCs to liberate on the way
- little set dressing

That's it for now.
I plan on playing through other entries throughout the week.  I was lurking on a couple threads... no posts though.  Hopefully I can find more time for positive reviews of others' work!

Screenshots of the final build
http://imgur.com/a/b5h6w

[javelinrl]

I may be very stupid but I can't seem to find a download link?

[ignotus17]

Not stupid at all -- I didn't post it here!

https://ignotus17.itch.io/tyran-jaager