- Talking point: what have you been playing recently? - 27 June 2021
It's coming to the end of another week so let's all catch up in the comments about what you've been playing recently. Read the full article here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2021/06/talking-point-what-have-you-been-playing-recently
- Devlog: Alpha Bugfixing & Merry Christmas - 25 December 2020
As Christmas is not quite as active as it usually is, I have more time on my hands for Devader. My gift to you are tons of big and small changes and improvements. If you feel like giving me a small gift, I would really love a review. Hint, hint. So what did I fix? To be honest I probably can't even remember half the stuff I've done. The first alpha was a bit of a mess, as I was mainly interested in finding out if upgrading to a new version would fix a weird game-pad input problem on Linux. I ended up just making an alpha for Windows/Linux that was way ahead of any planned schedule. Devader was no longer running on my 10 year old Linux laptop. The new alpha uses a 8192x8192 texture atlas for all the game images. But older graphic cards do not support that size. I managed to find an acceptable solution by simply scaling down the art and switching to a different rendering style. It's a lit…
- Devlog - Fresh Alpha - 17 December 2020
I'm not sure if this is the right thing to do or not. But I've got a devlog over on tigsource and decided to maybe start posting here too. Variation or Chaos The original release of Devader has 14 different types of minor enemies that are just spiders. There are others too, but the spiders are pretty much the filler unit to add that extra bit of chaos and support the bigger enemies. In an earlier post I mentioned adding a ton of new alternatives to the spiders with different behaviors. So instead of 14 small enemies (peons) I had over 60... A level in Devader is split into 6 waves + boss wave. Each wave has a simple definition specifying which of the 14 spiders will appear. This can look like this or or . means only spider 2 can appear. activates spider 1 and 8. allows all spiders from 0 to 5 to appear. To prevent having to redo everything I made 4 groups out 56 peons, so 4 groups of 14…
- Just Joking! Devader won't become an RTS! - 30 April 2020
Looks like my last post (1. April) was taken seriously. To be frank there have not been many sales since (not that there were many before). I've been working on some pretty crazy stuff, but it will take some time for me to get them release-ready. https://i.imgur.com/IxCoErh.gif https://i.imgur.com/7IPqNXh.gif I started a small side-project that I hope will allow me to make more interesting bullet-pattern-designs for new enemies and bosses. Then I got slightly side-tracked by this bullet-pattern-designer and started creating a small prototype for a relaxing, playful game that's actually nearly finished after not even two weeks of work. short video of the current state
- Devader will transition to RTS - 1 April 2020
Devader has been out since September last year and sales have not lived up to what I was hoping for. So I've taken steps to make the best of the situation and will be converting Devader into an RTS. I have quite a few assets already made and the basic prototype works and synchronizes for a current max of 3 players. https://i.imgur.com/cmEwLiV.gif
- February Update VI - 29 February 2020
It's not often you get to post an update on a leap day, I'm rather impressed with myself for pulling it off. I've made a few updates to Devader. Some minor bug fixes and enemy adaptations. Most noticeable could be: - the menu is less "jumpy" when using a controller, it now requires you to move the stick a bit further. - recalling turrets/switching into hedgehog mode is now game-speed independent. You can lower the recall/switching time under Gamepad->Recall Warden. (I've just made a note for myself, that this option should be under Gameplay and be called "Turret Action") - if you lower the game speed (or increase it) sound effects for shots and explosions will also be played at the changed speed. When you die, time slows down for a bit and you might notice this change there too. - I've made a redesign of some destructible bullets, they now have a black outline and a colorful core Today…
- February Update V - 19 February 2020
So I am going a little crazy on the updates right now... Sorry? Watching TravelDemon destroy Deity using turrets made me question a few of my balance choices again. At launch there was a sort of soft limiter to the turrets, as going down that path would remove all weapons from the Devader. Players didn't like it, but I stuck with it for quite some time. It did prevent the turrets from getting out of hand though. Without the soft limit, turrets in masses can get crazy strong and I see no reason why they could not just dominate pretty much every path I've designed. This is not what I want, as I believe this could prevent players from trying out different strategies. I've had a solution up my sleeve for quite some time, but I did not really want to do it. The more turrets are on the field, the less damage every individual turret does. If you have less than 4 turrets, they will actually do…
- February Update IV - 18 February 2020
After talking to the new record holder TravelDemon and finding out he plays on Linux, I just had to update the Linux build today. Along with that I made a small update to the Upgrade UI, hoping this will lead some players down my intended upgrade paths. https://i.imgur.com/3r6oDv8.jpg The explosives spawned by Centipedos now slightly pulsate, I hope this will make them a bit easier to spot, without completely changing the visuals. I tried using alternate colors, but did not like the result. If you want to check out TravelDemon's deathless Deity run: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REDiE2ppNzk
- February Update III - 17 February 2020
First of all: TravelDemon totally destroyed all previous high-scores. Looks like even Deity mode was no match for the demon. I'm impressed to say the least. https://i.imgur.com/jBB8OMf.jpg I've added some engine-noise to the tank, so far it was silent. You probably wont notice it, unless you turn down the music though. Still, I felt like it was something that was missing. I fixed an issue with the final boss on the score path. The tentacles were not getting created anymore due to an optimization I made in an earlier patch. Ups. Not game-breaking, but the boss was a lot less interesting and a lot easier because of this. Don't think anyone noticed though? I'm still working on a new batch of enemies, to make each run even more diverse and interesting. This creature looks pretty cool, but I need to come up with an interesting mechanic/attack pattern still. If you have any ideas, I would gla…
- February Update II - 11 February 2020
I mentioned reworking the "Tank" Devader in the last update. The tank received a new rocket launcher and is now much more viable, as you can do damage from a long distance. It's still hard to handle, but it's no longer just a gimmick. I managed to get the third highest score on Deity using the tank. Currently I hold all three Deity high scores, I hope this will change. https://i.imgur.com/qzm9Pxm.gif The rocket launcher was the second special upgrade on the "Protect" branch. Taking it was a pretty easy solution for the tank. I first felt like I could get away with just moving the remaining special upgrade up a notch. Lazy solution. But.... it did not feel right, so I had to come up with something. The new upgrade comes with a pretty drastic change to the Blinker (no more Hedgehog mode) and a less invasive one for the Warden. I hope you like the new challenge. I did make a few other chan…
- February Update - 7 February 2020
- waves will no longer endlessly spawn foes, if key enemies are not destroyed - hp of some enemies reduced - added some more info text - bullet grazing visualized (+audio) only on bullets that can be grazed - a few additional enemies on Easy - some small visual changes to a few enemies - small fixes Currently just Windows, will be adding a Linux update soon.
- Game Feel Update - 22 January 2020
I received some feedback on tigsource regarding game-feel. Additionally,I found the very well hidden information about returned products/refunds. In it there were 2 mentions of missing co-op. I guess I need to make that more obvious, or they were hoping for online multiplayer. I've not actually tried Devader with steams remote-play, my internet will probably be to bad though. There were also a few with "not fun", one of which was mentioned the starting weapon does not feel good in a short comment. This does tie into the game-feel mentioned on tigsource. I've added quite a lot of fluff to make stuff feel better. I hope this will not be too detrimental to performance. Most of it is framerate dependent, so if you have low framerates it should not add more effects. - Muzzle effects on the weapon while firing - more screenshake - slight dust particles are thrown up when the Devader or assist…
- Devader 2020 - 12 January 2020
Happy New Year! https://i.imgur.com/oOZKVvg.gif New Year, New Hope After 4 years of working on Devader, I've vowed to invest more time into showing people what I made. Silence is pretty deadly in this industry and I hope I can be better. I love making games, but exposure is crucial. Balance Since release I've made quite a few balance changes. Most thanks to valuable player feedback. In some cases I adjusted too far and had to roll back, but overall it's been a great experience. Hearing what players think and watching streamers play is very informative and I've spent way too much time doing this. I will continue to show progress on the "experiment" beta branch, so if you want to know where things are heading, that's the branch to be on. I only support Windows on the beta branch, but if there is enough demand for Linux/Mac builds, I will consider making experiment builds available for tho…
- Devader: Post Release Update - 21 September 2019
After releasing Devader I felt a bit lost, I got a lot of support from friends but only very few streamers picked it up. I am very grateful for the ones that did! Watching the streams/videos gave me a lot of new insights about how the game is played and where people struggle. I still have a few of these issues to address. It feels like I need to add more tutorials, namely for nuke targeting (gamepad), turret handling and bullet grazing. But I hate destroying the flow with more clutter. To get out of the lost state, I just decided to dive back in and improve wherever I could. So a lot has happened in the last 2.5 weeks, also thanks to some very helpful people on my Discord. What you will first notice is the front page now has a whole bunch of blacked out icons. I became aware that nearly no one understood that Devader offers a huge variety of different paths leading to different play-sty…
- Highscores Reactivated - 4 September 2019
Something was wildly wrong with the Server. CPU was maxing out and I was not able to access any database related stuff in spite of root access. I unfortunately had to restore the entire system from a 5 days old backup, meaning high-scores got lost. Sorry!! I must still add some fallback method to be able to restore the Database in case of further issues. But I have removed some code that might have been responsible and am monitoring the Server more frequently. CPU is hardly doing anything as should be expected from high-scores. What currently is no longer working: Seeing friends high-scores. This required me to check the friend-highscore-tables of steam and was possibly the cause of the whole problem. I will look into finding a solution to this, but not right now.
- Highscore Issues - 3 September 2019
Sorry to say but something is going wrong in the high-score department. Looks like primarily a server issue, but I have not got the bottom of it yet. Currently the server is down, meaning you wont be able to view or create any new high scores. Working on finding a fix asap.
- Devader Released - 2 September 2019
Devader has just been released. Finally. It took a lot longer than expected. I was very close to releasing a year ago, but decided against it. I was promising 17 endings, but it all felt the same. So why was I offering so many endings? It seemed more like a chore. This forced me to rethink. Instead of going the sensible route of just scrapping the alternate endings, I did the opposite. Just so that you understand what I am on about in the next section, I need to explain. Devader is a one room game, there are no levels in the common sense. You are defending a hexagonal matrix in the center of the game world. At your disposal are your standard guns, a crowd control weapon, turrets and some other cool stuff. The enemies attack in waves and each level/section of the game is built up out of 6 waves and a boss wave. All in all there are 7 levels -> 49 waves for one full run. There are 8/12 di…
- Final Update for Release 01.09 - 1 September 2019
- Woushellios less tanky - "lingering" battle was much too hard, improved - Rotario has less weight, was pushing too much stuff around - Magenta spiders now have less HP - I broke the highscores with my last update, fixed - noticed Easy highscores were broken all along, fixed Will be making Linux/Mac builds now!
- Update 31.8 - 31 August 2019
- tweaked weapon level 6 vs final boss as with missing chest cannon it's near impossible - fixed arrow targeting speed preview - keyboard info is shown in all caps, should be better for Chinese + consistency - phasing revisited. there is now a limiter that goes down while phasing instead of corrupting the nuke timer - Japanese partial translation added - turret upgrades were adding too much hp/sp -> reduced again (still more than at first) - leaving the game at the end of a level, allows you to come back with score intact and no loss of continues - server side updates
- Devader Update 30.8 - 30 August 2019
- Final Boss Stage, the explosive bullets can be shot down - Sacrifice Skill damages all players equally (near death, but no kills) and kills or halves hitpoints of all enemies - Pumpkin Rain, slight range increase - Ball of Destruction will attract enemies - Accomplished paths are visualized on front screen - Bullet Sponge images extended - Fixed small server bug that would allocate a path to a score, even if you had left it - Phase Shift causes more nuke delay Still Windows only, will be making Linux/Mac builds soon. But demand does not seem high.
