INURBIS DL-016 ∞ SURGE
Hello. I was sick for like two weeks over the last month - it really hit my game dev time hard. But I managed to scrape together a new ability in between sick days - Surge. I’m still not 100% of the way through tweaking this, but it’s good enough for alpha. Check out the video below:
I have a fairly large list of cards and I plan on slowly implementing them throughout alpha > beta > EA. Surge is great example of my strategy here - I finished the bulk of the work with the power system, and implemented the slime river, so I wanted to give the player the ability to alter their surroundings in an immediately visible way, as well as increase the potential solutions for every puzzle. Speaking of puzzles, I also implemented physics based, stackable, pushable crates. Getting the physics just right was interesting. I’m looking forward to implementing more physics based gameplay in the future.
In the future, Surge will have STRS cost in addition to its HLTH cost. I am really excited to implement STRS, it’s a very dear and personal mechanic influenced by my own struggle with PTSD, depression, and other health issues. Many folks probably haven’t given much thought to having to deal with their stress in a quantifiable way every day, so it’s my hope that other disabled folks will find this mechanic relatable and those blessed with health can have a window into another existence. Ultimately I think that’s the greatest thing you can do magically with art - share and grow the collective understanding of humanity and its various struggles, even if we can’t experience them ourselves.
Jack, the first cloneling has a militant personality style. He’s more comfortable dealing with problems with violence, and will restore STRS by killing enemies. Many future clonelings will not. Anyways, that’s a ways off. Because of the way STRS will be architectured, it makes the most sense for me to add it towards the end of alpha. Maybe I should share “the list”:
Flora expansion - more varied plantlife dependent on sector energy, influencing plant growth and behavior
Finish the security door and destructable wall expansion (visually fragile walls)
3rd enemy - “Hunter”
Rudimentary CHROMBUS exposition dialog system - press the button and CHROMBUS will talk about what you’re looking at.
CARDS (excited, this will expose the various RPG systems implemented even further)
CHROMBos 1.0 (the first implementation of a new system menu, character / card menu, and scanning) (not to be confused with CHRONos, the city’s operating system)
a sneak peak at the entrance to a new area, accessible by environmental puzzle.
Once I have “good enough for alpha” versions of these, I’ll be moving forward with the closed playtest. I’ll be implementing STRS throughout closed alpha. I’ve got a discord set up, so once the time draws nigh I’ll send out invites via the mailing list (sign up on the home page if you missed it). I’ll continue to polish and develop new features over the course of the alpha playtest.
A large part of my effort now is architecting sustainable code for all these features. For some reference just because I think it’s interesting, I’d estimate it took me about 30 hours to get STIM and all of its related systems (HLTH, LIFE, EXRT, HEAL) built out. Surge took me maybe 4 - 6 hours, and the vast majority of that was doing the hand animations. Another example - I have a new slime I’ll be adding soon, and I estimate that will take me about 2 hours - when I was building the first slimes, I also built out the framework to add all other slimes moving forward. Just sharing development things because I feel like it. I feel like typing these words. I feel like making this game.
I will keep updating and sharing once per month. Thanks so much for checking out my game!
HHRRIISSTT
