Space Grunts - in development

[Krice]

so perhaps this isn't the audience I was aiming for

That's correct. You are in a wrong place, this is a roguelike forum. But the game looks quite nice anyway, nothing wrong with that.

[orangepascal]

anyway..

working some more on the game over screen, adding the stats. Obviously need some darkening behind the text, but it's getting there:



also added a new enemy type: warper. They teleport near you, take a shot, and warp back out.. hard to counter!

[getter77]

I'd say you are on a good track actually---this is far from your first rodeo, so stay the course and trust your instincts while continuing to polish, add content, and generally get things as slick as your can.  If you find yourself pondering on the Roguelike efficacy or whatever of any given element or attribute you hope to employ as an ace in your hand---just take some time to compare and contrast it with whatever other projects you reckon to contain examples of it done in a good or interesting manner and take it from there.

Variety and fusions of arcade sensibilities are a good thing, keep at it.

[Worthless_Bums]

My first thought is that it looks cool. My second thought is that people are going to confuse it with Nuclear Throne and you should work really hard to highlight why it is not Nuclear Throne.

[orangepascal]

Mouse controls are now also set (along side keyboard or controller):



And the latest gameplay video, with the new light-system in place
can be found here:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tjQaruXQMo

[orangepascal]

Little view on the inventory screen, this is where battles will be won: using the right items at the right time
currently I'm just extending the inventory with as many items as I can come up with, still some months away from release, so should be a bunch of items on release

[Samildanach]

The game is Space Grunts, designed as an action arcade game, but plays like a turn-based roguelike..

No it does not play like turn-based roguelike. It's just an action shooter.

it does actually, but okay

Don't let Krice bother you. He baits people and picks fights. It's kind of his hobby.

[akeley]

It`s a good thing that people voice their objections, no point pretending there isn`t a little schizm in the Temple and that the subject doesn`t exist.

 Space Grunts might be a decent game, but the likes of it are released every (other) week. True roguelikes, not so much.  And the risk that they`ll be swept away and forgotten is real.

[Paul Jeffries]

And the risk that they`ll be swept away and forgotten is real.

Well then go post on a thread about one of them.

[akeley]

You sound frustrated, what with italics and such, but that`s understood - it`s a feeling often expressed when there`s an elephant in the room.

@orangepascal: it`s unfortunate that a spill occurred in your particular dev thread, but it is a function of a bigger issue at hand. But, you asked for a feedback and Krice`s input - however crude or inadequate - qualifies.

In any rate, it`s hard to provide any substantial commentary judging just by gifs and videos - some playable code would be nice, though I don`t suppose your publishing model allows for that.

[orangepascal]

@orangepascal: it`s unfortunate that a spill occurred in your particular dev thread, but it is a function of a bigger issue at hand. But, you asked for a feedback and Krice`s input - however crude or inadequate - qualifies.

In any rate, it`s hard to provide any substantial commentary judging just by gifs and videos - some playable code would be nice, though I don`t suppose your publishing model allows for that.

I indeed asked for feedback, sadly, I'm still waiting for any actual feedback besides the "it's not a roguelike"  

if people, including you, don't see this as a roguelike but as "one of the many" then tell me what makes this seem like not a proper roguelike? give me feedback and it can help me make the game better or at least keep it in mind for my next game

Sadly I can't do a demo yet at this time, but if someone can say it's not a roguelike based on what's shown.. then you can also tell me why it looks like not a roguelike and just "one of the many" (simple info like examples would be cool).  I really haven't seen a game like this so would love to check out the "competition"

[akeley]

Ha, I supposed that this phrase  - "one of many"  - won`t be to your liking, although it wasn`t actually intended as a slight. Just my take on the endless wave of new, ahem, roguelites - this week it`s Enter The Gungeon, last week Guild of Dungeoneering and so on.

Yes, yes, I know - your game is totally different. And these two also differ from each other...and yet

This subject - what is a true roguelike - is a swamp cum minefield, and discussions on topic rare and often explosive (hence my earlier post). Here`s the last one: http://forums.roguetemple.com/index.php?topic=4627.0 I couldn`t tell myself, it`s an elusive definition - something about complexity, intricacy, longevity, replayability - but even then, probably not. But, I`ve been playing Crawl every day for last two years, while Dredmor... a few times. So there is something to it.

Is your game "it"? Impossible to tell without playing -and quite possibly even after. To me it looks like another of the -lite wave, yeah, but again, it`s not a diss. I play and enjoy lots of them, Tallowmere being my latest favourite. It doesn`t matter though and it shouldn`t concern you. Just try and write what you feel is a good game, mission accomplished. Does it really have to be labelled with some elusive genre?

But as for real feedback, as I said before, rather hard without access to a working prototype. Look at other games in this section, they are all playable, hence multi-page replies.

[Paul Jeffries]

You sound frustrated, what with italics and such, but that`s understood - it`s a feeling often expressed when there`s an elephant in the room.

I'm frustrated precisely because it isn't an elephant in the room - in order for it to become one people would have to stop moaning about it at every opportunity.  What we actually have here is a room with a colossal amount of shit in it, which you are attempting to blame an elephant for when it is perfectly obvious that the culprit is a bull.

@orangepascal: Apologies for the disruption to the thread about your game, which I for one am interested in hearing about.

[akeley]

People "moan about it at every opportunity"...really?  Must`ve missed it. Last similar outburst that I recall was months ago. But even if "they" did, well, it`s kind of what goes on internet forums. People post about things that bother them and some of these moans won`t fit your narrative. And yes, it`s sad it happened in some innocent dev`s thread but I`m sure he`ll get over this great trauma. There are worse things than a thread derailment.

However (let`s leave animal idioms be for a moment) here it`s more like that grand ol` family meeting where talking about what happened to Jenny is forbidden, and only now and then somebody will slip while others recoil in horror. That one recent thread regarding the subject, one I linked to in previous post lied dormant for weeks, had a burst of interesting activity, and fizzled out. And no, I didn`t see you contributing there or in fact any other regulars apart from few usual suspects.  How disappointing. I don`t know, maybe you guys done it to death before and everybody is sick of this subject, just like it happens in some small communities. But forums aren`t just for the bunch of old time regulars - there`s noobs and lurkers too.

Well, whatever. Let`s leave it for now, till that next time when Uncle Krice has one too many and blurts out what some are thinking, some aren`t, but nobody wants to discuss in the open.

[orangepascal]

meanwhile..

I've been adding the animation scene's that setup the story/introduction stuff:



and also added a datacard+cpu system to give some hints, tips, and general lore:



you'll find cpu's sparsely spread around  the moon-based, and datacards even more sparsely in a "collect-em-all" style: