Codename: Project Dungeon - Focus Shifting and New Tentative Name

After deliberating the game systems we have created, and looking into scrapping what had no significant gain on the gameplay we decided to change much of the focus for Codename: Project Dungeon; which I will now be referring to as: "You May Be Eaten By a Gru" as Project Dungeon seems to be someone else's project name. The new streamlined systems should help increase the flow of the game, hopefully giving a much more arcade feeling to the game; this was the original idea for the game, one that was lost in the abyss of crazy ideas.

The first thing to go was the crafting system. I know what you might be thinking: wasn't that kind of the whole basis for the game? Yes and no; the idea for crafting came with the original game idea, but you can't be nostalgic for something that just overall wasn't any fun. Crafting added nothing to the gameplay, other than a mess of menu systems, while simultaneously slowing gameplay down to a crawl. It's gone; maybe another game some time, just not this one. Although the idea may come back in a different way, you wont be placing objects to solve puzzles.

The inventory is now gone. No need. You don't collect items to craft any more, so the objects you collect can all be stored on the main hot bar. This was done in direct correlation to one of the other major changes, rendering the system nearly useless.

Professions are now gone. Again, without the crafting there was no real purpose anymore. They were deemed unworthy and have been stripped; like crafting, they may come back in a different way much later on, but for now there was no point in keeping them around.

The Alpha maze will now be a 10 x 10 grid. We needed to work on getting a solid foundation for the aesthetics for the maze. This is not to replace the 20x20x2 maze we have already created in the final product, this is just so we can get a basic implementation of everything done, and have a product that players can actually play; completed. The overall goal is to then use the feedback we receive from players about the smaller maze, and use it to make the larger one even better. We also have no intention of scrapping the larger maze since the layout and foundation has already been created; we wouldn't want to let all that hard work go to waste.

The upgrade menu is now going to be at the beginning of the game, created as a load out screen. You will be able to upgrade your player attributes, and select what main weapon, and alt weapon you want to take with you on your journey. We feel like this will allow players to focus on a variety of combinations and play-styles without being overcome by the amount of items they have available. Main Weapon, Alt Weapon, Health Potion, Mana Potion; that's it. You will collect money and experience throughout the maze, money is used to buy potions from the shop, and is lost upon entering the maze; experience is kept permanently. You can also find Mana and Health Potions in the maze; they are simply added to your stacks. When you die, all of your Mana and Health potions are dropped.

Player Attributes have been reduced significantly. You now have Vitality, Strength, Intelligence, and Dexterity. Vitality increases overall health, Strength increases melee damage and defense, Intelligence increases magic damage and overall mana, and Dexterity increases ranged/trap damage and movement speed. There was no reason to have as many as we did; it added too many options for the player, which we came to realize detracted from the overall fun of the game.

Weapons and Magic have been reduced, we felt that duplicated items served no purpose to the fun of the experience and so they were dropped in favor of balancing the attribute systems. Main Weapons will be: Axe, Bow, Magic Staff (Fire and Ice Magic). Alt Weapons will be: Dagger, Caltrops, and a Healing item. This gives us a balance of heavy melee, direct ranged, and offensive magic for the main weapons; and light melee, indirect ranged, and support magic for the alternative weapons. Obviously the system allows for expansion, but for now we felt like creating balanced and unique weapons was a better route than simply throwing duplicates at the player.

I think that about covers the major changes for "You May Be Eaten By A Gru" (tentatively titled). If you have any questions or concerns leave us some feedback! We always like to hear what players and potential players think; hence all the major changes. Remember that we are still only a few weeks into this project, all of this is subject to change at any time.

Extinction Plan Continued Hiatus and Codename: Project Dungeon

A couple weeks ago, I decided it was becoming harder for me to work on Extinction Plan; not necessarily lack of motivation, but more lack of overall vision. I started seeing the project as something that needed a complete overhaul, but didn't know where to begin. After deliberating with a mentor of mine, they suggested I simply leave it where it sits and start working on something new. Something that the learning focus would differ greatly from what I set out to create and learn with Extinction Plan, and then go back and use my new knowledge to fill in the holes. So I did.

I started laying down the rough groundwork for what would become Codename: Project Dungeon; overall game direction, and some system implementations to see what was possible and what I needed to learn to create the project. I set out to gather as much user input as possible, knowing that my original idea could never possibly be the best right away. I got some great feedback from some close friends, and in the process gained a development partner: Spencer Bunton. Together, Spencer and I took my original idea along with a majority of the feedback I got from my other close friends.

Since that day we have spent countless hours working on creating a unique world; one that we hope players will want to spend a lot of time in. We want players to feel like part of their surroundings, growing and shaping the dungeon to their unique play style; giving enough room for a varying range of solutions to the problems they may face, hoping they will want to discover the answers in their own way. With interaction between the player and the dungeon set to a natural level, enemies and inhabitants respond to the way you approach situations; allowing the actions you chose to speak louder than any dialogue selection. Killing enemies may grant you new powers, but at what cost? What's beyond that barricade, that strays from the beaten path; and how does one unlock the secrets that may be found there?

As the player explores they will be presented with options, not directed towards them, but worldly options; that which one may find if the realm of the dungeon could exist in our world. Using the information gained from exploration, dungeon goers will be required to forge their own opinions and come to their own conclusions about what steps to take next. Do you grab that book off the shelf? What if it turns out to be cursed? What if taking that specific book were to set off a chain reaction that shaped your experience throughout the entire dungeon?

It is from those idea's that we began forging our massive playground. Two floors, each one a square kilometer of discovery and peril. With roughly 60 crafting recipes to discover, spanning 6 unique professions; players will have to build their way through the dungeon. Building isn't the only use for crafting though, simple actions like drinking water can be deadly if one decides to forgo caution. Blessing water will decurse it, boiling water will remove any toxicity that may linger. Simple actions that other games allow players to take for granted is where we put the majority of our systems focus. What happens if you don't bandage a major cut in the real world? You bleed to death. What happens if you don't heal a fractured? It becomes nonunion. Curses don't just go away on a timer. Poison doesn't cure itself.

We want the game to look visually pleasing, as well as be fun to play; and while the focus is more on gameplay features than on AAA visuals, Spencer has been working night and day to make sure the game will be far from an eyesore. Sculpting the world will take months. Each room will be unique in layout, sections of the dungeon will be completely unique visually; from Ice Citadels to Mushroom Forests, we want the player to experience as much versatility as they would come to expect in a sandbox style game.

While the overall game is a maze, the main focus is to make the dead-ends just as important and just as unique as the main path. Together, we have created the groundwork for some uniquely dynamic scripted events. Knowing that there are multiple directions players can choose to wind their way through our nearly 800 rooms, and having two floors to work with allowed us a vast range of traps and shortcuts, secrets and horrors; hoping players will want to go back and discover everything that they missed. We opted away from the randomly generated trend, the overall concept lacked in the depth we envisioned for our players experience, and would have restricted the types of puzzles we were looking at creating.