hack&/ devblog

Posted by Fabio on May 26, 2013, 8:11 p.m.

From now on I'm just going to keep all of the updates on my latest untitled obsession to this one blog. Consider this the development log.


About:

In short: hack, slash, shoot, and cast your way through wave after wave of baddie. A true-blue gauntlet-like. Choose a hero and start killing stuff. Simple.


Downloads:

Download current build here. (.EXE, 2.3 MBs, riddled with viruses)


Controls:

WASD: move

LEFT MOUSE BUTTON: primary attack

RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON: cast selected ability

1234: select ability

Q/E or MOUSE WHEEL: cycle selected ability

P: pause

Left click an ability icon or press the corresponding key to select it. Right click to use your selected ability or right click the ability icon to instantly cast it (even if it isn't your active ability).


Changelog:

5/29/2013:

- Added new enemy, the Nightstalker

- Chamber maxspeed changed to 3 (down from 3.5)

- Changed the way Chamber's roll scales (5/5.5/6/6.5)

- Added random hero to selection menu

- Grove Ranger's attack cooldown changed to 10 (up from 5)

- Grove Ranger's Fire Pit now grants him extra attack speed

5/28/2013:

- Arena has been redesigned

- Hero selection screen added

- Boar Lord added

- Bodies made a shade darker for clarity's sake

- Korak no longer gains extra damage from Totem AOE

Comments

panzercretin 11 years, 5 months ago

Golgatha sounds really fucking cool, like you're slowly crafting a graveyard from scratch. I love your more creative heroes.

Fabio 11 years, 5 months ago

Some gameplay footage of a new hero, Boar Lord. Also added a video of Golgatha's gameplay.

eagly 11 years, 5 months ago

Golgatha looks really cool. He's got some pretty nifty abilities! But I have to say… I love Boar Lord. Really good stuff! :D

Charlie Carlo 11 years, 5 months ago

Fabio, I love your voice, holy shit. I had always imagined you sounded like James Earl Jones for some reason.

EDIT: This game is fun but I suck horribly at it.

I was playing as Chamber.

I have two small suggestions, though.

1, could you make the character selection menu easier to navigate? Like only have it rotate when the mouse is off the center character card, or switch it to using A and D or something?

And 2, corpses could do with being faded a bit more, I kept shooting at corpses and getting angry when I realized they were corpses. Although, that's the kind of thing that I'm pretty sure I'd get used to eventually.

Fabio 11 years, 5 months ago

I think my voice sounds strange on camera. Strange like not how I hear it in my own ear strange. But isn't that how it works for all of us?

Check out the ballin' new selection screen, 'yall. Still needs some tweaks but it's there. The arena has also been redesigned, no more ugly black border! Uploaded newest build with this stuff in it (and Boar Lord!)

EDIT: Made the bodies darker and fixed an issue where blood smears weren't showing up.

panzercretin 11 years, 5 months ago

When I get home I am so playing the shit out of this.

ps can i design/program heroes pl0x? I sent you an idea but in retrospect it was a bit weird and I don't know how it'd control. Besides that though, like I said I can totally see this being a collaborative effort - not to encroach on your own work, of course, but get the right people to design some cool shit and we could have a pretty meaty roster here.

Fabio 11 years, 5 months ago

@panzercretin

You can definitely help me design heroes. I can handle the programming aspect but I am always searching for new ideas! Keep 'em coming.

Fabio 11 years, 5 months ago

Quick update.

added new enemy, the nightstalker

chamber maxspeed changed to 3 (down from 3.5)

changed the way chamber's roll scales (5/5.5/6/6.5)

added random hero to selection menu

grove ranger's attack cooldown changed to 10 (up from 5)

grove ranger's fire pit now grants him extra attack speed

By the way, those Nightstalkers are invisible when outside of light. Have fun!

Fabio 11 years, 5 months ago

New hero, Buckwheat! (Kind of a long video, in the future these hero videos will be edited and more concise.) You can download him now.

And an addition to the controls: you can now use the mouse wheel to cycle through abilities.


Behind Buckwheat's design process, for those interested:

Recently I've been adding heroes that use some object with an AOE effect (First Korak, then Golgatha, Grove Ranger's new Fire Pit). I liked the idea, and saw more possibilities with it. The first thing that came to my head was using the AOE in a healing aspect for a melee hero. Not a heal over time type deal. Something different. So the only other thing besides abilities and runes that heal was the food that Barbarians and Skeleton Archers with packs occasionally drop. So of course a farm pops into my head, and the concept for Buckwheat was born.

First skill that I conceived was Killing Fields. Next up I wanted to add an escape/Princess' Rage type ability, and Moonshine was conceived. To balance it, instead of a drop in health, I thought the staggered movement was perfect.

His nuke, which turned out working much better than I expected for him, was something I saw in a League of Legends cinematic. I don't play League, I'm more of a Dota guy, but I remember seeing this scarecrow hero who shot out a green blast. Both that hero and Buckwheat had a scythe, so I got the inspiration for the look and feel of the ability from that video. When I finished adding the ability I ended up loving what it added to Buckwheat, who I gave low friction to make him appear more 'stumbly'.

The decision to give Buckwheat comparatively low health for a melee hero came from the whole 'glass cannon' idea. I wanted to apply glass cannon for a melee hero, but couldn't think of how to do it. Once Killing Fields and Moonshine were added, it became clear to me that the way to do it was just like you do it for a ranged hero–make him light on his feet with a low attack speed and it really was that simple. Sometimes overthinking things hurts.

So now I've got this slippery quick, fast-slashing drunken farmer running through fields that generate food to heal him. What does he need next? I wanted to keep the hero feeling interesting and fresh, while continuing to work with his already frantic gameplay. So what could do that? Something with a little micro-management and decision making. Something that could help his end-game.

So the Chicken was born. What's the next best thing to food drops? Rune drops. We have come full circle. I wanted something that could fit in with the whole 'farm' aspect, obviously, but it couldn't be a plant or anything. I wanted the Chicken to stay in the area of the player's already created farm, so they wouldn't be too hard to manage. But I also wanted them to be fragile, and quick enough to force a decision by the player: do I need to eat this food, or should I let the Chicken have it?

At the end of Buckwheat's design and implementation process, I realized that most of the ability/synchronization ideas come from the themes of the heroes I create. Go figure.

JuurianChi 11 years, 5 months ago

Quote:
And an addition to the controls: you can now use the mouse wheel to cycle through abilities.

Awesome!

I had started doing so without thinking.

Now I know I'm not crazy. :|