SWOOOORDS! - Multiplayer Action Roguelike-like (now at v1.3)

[nihilocrat]

Update: It's finished!

Web Version (Unity Webplayer)

Gameplay Video

Windows Download
Mac Download
Linux Download

Greetings!

I am nearing completion of what might be called  roguelike-like, an action-heavy multiplayer slash-em-up with procedurally-created levels and permadeath. The design is extremely focused on the combat, inspired by beat-em-ups old and new (Golden Axe, Gauntlet, Spiral Knights, Bastion) but with the added unpredictability and improvisation of roguelikes. There is more authored content than I'd prefer (enemies, weapons, dungeon chunks) but I'll be working to make all of these have more procedurally generated attributes after the initial launch.


Gameplay Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib0amTPOREs

Older, longer Gameplay video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo-6_b2nNbw

Devlog: http://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=26354.0
IndieDB Page (the game will be downloadable from here): http://www.indiedb.com/games/swoooords

Please feel free to leave any comments or feedback! I'm aiming to release by the end of the month, so check back in!

[getter77]

Looks rather fantastically far along----keep at it!   

[george]

always love your style nihilocrat and this is no exception!

a couple of question/comments:

* contrary to one of the YT comments I like the environment visuals

* didn't read the whole TIGS thread but will there be other attacks like throwing swords, jumping off wall attacks, push attacks...have you ever played the RL DDRogue?

http://roguebasin.roguelikedevelopment.org/index.php/DDRogue

* I know it's a bashing game but those puzzle-y things looked pretty cool, would be great to have more of that DROD style.

looking forward to it.

[Legend]

By Odin! That looks so damn jaw-some! It's like if rogue, Zaxxon Motherbase 2000, and Gaunlet all got together for the orgy to end all orgies and birthed a child born of pure awesomeness and destined to be a legend.

That does look really cool. Will there be different weapons and power-ups?

I really like the graphic style.

I know I've heard that hurt sound somewhere else before. I think the enemy is making it when they die.

Can't wait to play it.

[nihilocrat]

Different swords will give you different special abilities. Several swords turn your charge attack into a throw-sword attack, and some swords turn your dodge into a more offensive rush which will push back anyone you collide into. There's no environment acrobatics, but some swords turn your dodge into a jump instead (allowing you to jump over enemies).

The pain and death sounds are from Quake.

Thanks for the feedback!

[Chex Warrior]

This looks sweet. I already got my friends pumped on it.

[nihilocrat]

It's finished! I added links to play the game to the first post. You can follow future developments via one of  these pages:

http://www.indiedb.com/games/swoooords
http://nihilocrat.tumblr.com
https://twitter.com/nihilocrat

[Legend]

Cool. I'll check it out this week.

Btw, what is the control scheme? Gamepad, keyboard, mouse +KB?

[getter77]

Congrats on making v1.0 and definitely keep us updated on your even bigger project to come.

[george]

this is one of the few games where I stopped to listen to the title screen music.

I get the feeling this is best played with a gamepad, anyone else have a comment on this?

I love the action and the visuals. There was one part where four or five enemies were inside a walled spinning blade track thing (is that part of the roguelike generation?) and jumping in there to fight it out was great.

[Legend]

yeeeeeeaaaahhh.... uuummmmmm.....


This game is pretty awesome.

The mouse and keyboard control is pretty awkward though. HAven't gotten to try controller support yet, but I hope it works more like a twin stick hack n slash. One stick to control direction, the other to control attack facing. Probably right trigger for attack.

Pretty bad ass otherwise though. The graphics, the music, even the game over screen was cool. If this was an arcade machine back when arcades were still cool and relevant in the US, I would have pumped a lot of quarters into it.

How do I exit out of multiplayer? I pressed the "coin" button and got sent straight to multiplayer and can't figure out how to get out.

EDIT

How do I use a gamepad in single player? I have one plugged in and set the buttons, but it's not working. The gamepad only registers in a co-op game as player one. I can't configure the joysticks in the input config screen. Only the buttons.

What is the gold for?

[nihilocrat]

You should be able to hit "Escape" now to pause or quit the game from either singleplayer or co-op, I guess I need to see if the readme is out of date regarding the quit command.

Gamepad in singleplayer wasn't working due to a dumb oversight on my part (I didn't set up the bindings for the special "singleplayer" player). This has been fixed in the 1.1 version: http://www.indiedb.com/games/swoooords/downloads/swoooords-11-windows

The gold doesn't do anything yet   I had some plans but I didn't have time before launch. Version 1.2 will use gold for something, likely two things:  starting at deeper depths, and starting out with better swords. Gold accumulates when you die so that you are still rewarded in some way upon death, sort of a "new school" permadeath.

Thanks for playing!

[getter77]

v1.2

It's finally out! I had a few new features sitting around and just wanted to go ahead and get them out. 1.3 is in the works, it will give you something to do with your gold and encourage frequent replays a lot more. I just didn't have the time this month to get all of that done, though, so look for it next year!

If you can get deep enough, you may see some of the new swords. I'm really curious what people think about them, they are a bit weirder than all the swords before them.

== v1.2 CHANGELIST (Dec. 13 2012) ====

    -Linux build, thanks to Unity 4.0
    -Localized versions: French, German, Russian
    -Switched to a perspective camera- Fonts are now a bit easier to read
    -Life meters are now directly under players
    -Falling off a ledge will no longer kill you, it will damage you then teleport you back to the last safe location.
    -The number of enemies spawned on earlier levels reduced a little. Don't worry, deeper levels are still hard.
    -Depths 5 and beyond now have "elite" versions of all enemies
    -Depths 5 and beyond have a few new super-rare swords. They are a bit harder to learn to use properly.
    -Fixed: Enemies are now hurt by traps if they are standing still directly on them
    -Fixed: Level-specific music wasn't being played
    -Fixed: Barrels, chests, and debris were being spawned midair: it was a bit hard to notice

[Legend]

Still can't exit out of multi player. Esc has no effect.

Still can't seem to use the gamepad in single player. The buttons will make the player take actions like attack and guard. But can't get the character to move with any of the joysticks or d-pad.

Would be nice if the main menu could be controlled with the gamepad too.

[getter77]

v1.3

It took awhile because I'm lazy, and got pretty distracted by games I made for onegameamonth.com. With 1.3, you are finally able to spend your gold on something, hopefully making the game a lot more interesting and replayable. Also, for co-op, the "Spelunky style" respawning with ghosts was replaced with a less challenging, but much more intuitive "Left 4 Dead style" revive. I spent some time fixing up the UI so that the entire game is now navigable with a controller or the keyboard. There are a large number of tweaks to major components of the game (namely the dodge and the new sprint ability) which have significant consequences to the basic gameplay and the sorts of strategies you can use.

This is the last major release for the game, I will probably have a 1.4 release that's just bugfixes, tweaks, and polish. I'll be moving on to other, hopefully awesome games, just keep an eye on my blog.

== v1.3 CHANGELIST (Mar 14 2013) ====

-New Translation: Spanish
-Title menus and pause menu are navigable with the gamepad or keyboard
-Title screen music changed for something less overwhelming... more time to lower the volume if you need to.
-You can now sprint by holding down the "Dodge" button.
-Dodge is a bit more difficult to use, it is slower at the beginning so you'll need to plan your dodges better
-New dodge physics mean you can perform a high-velocity "dash attack" by attacking while dodging- Improved dodge and jump animations a little
-The basic dodge is now highly controllable, a skilled player can use it to "sidestep" enemies- Tracking speed of most enemies lowered to make it easier to sidestep them. It's an exciting and dangerous alternative to countering.
-Shielded enemies have special block decals to make it obvious that you can backstab them.
-Made some enemies slightly faster, and all elite enemies significantly faster
-Healing token is now a piece of meat. OM NOM NOM.
-You now have to buy your swords and meat, but they're relatively inexpensive.
-Chests appear slightly more often, now that gold has a use.
-You can spend Gold to start the game at a lower Depth. You can only start on levels you have already completed.
-You'll start with a depth-appropriate weapon equipped so you're not totally screwed
-Revive changed so it's a lot more intuitive; the now-classic "run over and hold down a button to revive your buddy" method
-Ghosts removed due to revive changes.
-Gates will tell you how many enemies there are left to kill until they open. If you clear the room but the gate doesn't open, you may have left some enemies behind in earlier rooms.
-Optimized AI and combat code to reduce slowdown when fighting lots of enemies.
-Blazon generator should use a lot more colors, and only SOMETIMES choose hideous color combinations.
-A few swords were renamed
-One new enemy added, he acts very differently from the rest.
-The window to cancel an attack into a block is a little bit smaller now.
-Added sounds to various special attacks

Singleplayer-only restriction removed from the web version because of feedback. It's now just like the downloadable version.
Fix: you can no longer dodge while holding down the attack button
Fix: the charge-dodge with blue swords no longer stops if you collide with terrain
Fix: if a joystick is connected during a singleplayer game, the player will no longer face the mouse pointer
Fix: When you quit the game manually, the gold you earned will be added to your total. Gold was only being saved if you died.
Fix: Returning to the title screen from a co-op game no longer keeps the cursor hidden
Fix: Finishing a level with a "gap" in players (ex: P1 + P3, but not P2) will spawn players with the correct weapon on the next level. Formerly, it was resetting players to the longsword.
Fix: Weapon trails no longer appear when you pick up a weapon.
Fix: Tutorial text is now billboarded so it's easier to read
Fix: The title menu wouldn't react to input if the credits weren't showing