Catacomb Kids (Linux, Windows, Mac) (Roguelike Platformer created by a Black Game Developer)
- Thread starter Responsible Allen Iverson
- Start date
This game is HARD
March Dev Update!
So, it’s been a little over a month since the Early Access release!
Q: How’s it going so far?
A: GOOD.
Following the first quick bugfix build a few days after the initial steam launch, I continued working on fixing bugs and crashes, and easing back into game dev mode after the hectic weeks leading up to Early Access.
Then, March kicked off with the Game Developer’s Conference, where I gave a talk about procedural level generation. People seemed to like it, so that’s cool! Since I had to gather some resources and make slides for that presentation anyway, I’m gonna use that as an excuse/jumping-off point to finally do that write-up about CK’s level generation that I’ve been talking about making for a while, so look forward to that happening sometime very soon.
At GDC I also met a ton of rad people working on groovy things, like moppppin, who’s making Downwell, and Tim Keenan, who got me excited for Duskers, and Nihilocrat, who does cool nice things that I dig. And, I mean, there were a ton of other folks. Like wow so many — all doing groovy cool rad things. Jeez, just too many.
Anyway, after recovering from GDC and getting that wombat of creativity dug down in my gut again, I got back to The Kids.
Since the EA release I’ve been keepin’ three eyes on Twitch streamers and Youtube Let’s Plays of the game - due in part to narcissism but also so that I can see the areas people are having trouble with, take note of bugs and balance issues, and laugh at their many, many (many, many) deaths. Watching these videos has brought about a few balancing changes, like making enemies hit softer on the earlier floors, severely shortening the duration of the spell Shadow Cloak, and a few other tweaks and changes to make the game easier or harder in the proper places. Here you can see Shadow Cloak’s new duration:
I mean really, why did Shadow Cloak even last that long in the first place?
During the Monday streams, I continued work on Trance, adding another valuable tool to the player’s arsenal. Trance is the counterpart boon to Overload: where Overload focuses on making spells more outwardly powerful, Trances are more about imbuing the player with a more passive aspect of the spell. This doesn’t mean that Trances are always merely defensive - though that is a trend they have - but that rather than having an immediate outward effect, they grant the player some trait or ability that persists for a short duration.
I’ve also made Trance and Overload require Charge Stars, which was actually the intention for them all along but which I didn’t have finished in time for the release. Essentially, casting a spell as an Overload or Trance will cost a kind of spell charge called a ‘Star’, and that spell can’t be Overloaded or Trance’d again until its Charge Star has been recovered. Charge Stars can be found in fancy chests and may sometimes be dropped by tougher enemies.
They also make a nice sound when they hit the ground; a consequence of the work Hryx and Doseone have been doing to make the game sound amazing.
Hey did I mention here how pumped I am to have Doseone working on the game? I don’t think I have, so there’s that. Him and Stevie have been killin’ it together aurally for nearly a year now, and I can’t wait to make some headway on the Anticropolis so you guys can hear the beauty it’s shaping up to be even in these early stages.
Lastly and most recently, I’ve set to work knocking out some of the inefficiencies of the code that had been having a significant impact on performance. Not least among these elements are gasses, which have been completely reworked. They now are able to spread around corners an be blown around by Whirlwind, in addition to their previous functions. This is also good because gasses will be an important aspect of the Anticropolis, and even moreso the Deep Dark.
So that’s how my month has gone. The first real monthly build update to the game will happen sometime later this week, and include all of the above changes plus a bunch more, as well as a couple other announcements.
Look forward to it!
So, it’s been a little over a month since the Early Access release!
Q: How’s it going so far?
A: GOOD.
Following the first quick bugfix build a few days after the initial steam launch, I continued working on fixing bugs and crashes, and easing back into game dev mode after the hectic weeks leading up to Early Access.
Then, March kicked off with the Game Developer’s Conference, where I gave a talk about procedural level generation. People seemed to like it, so that’s cool! Since I had to gather some resources and make slides for that presentation anyway, I’m gonna use that as an excuse/jumping-off point to finally do that write-up about CK’s level generation that I’ve been talking about making for a while, so look forward to that happening sometime very soon.
At GDC I also met a ton of rad people working on groovy things, like moppppin, who’s making Downwell, and Tim Keenan, who got me excited for Duskers, and Nihilocrat, who does cool nice things that I dig. And, I mean, there were a ton of other folks. Like wow so many — all doing groovy cool rad things. Jeez, just too many.
Anyway, after recovering from GDC and getting that wombat of creativity dug down in my gut again, I got back to The Kids.
Since the EA release I’ve been keepin’ three eyes on Twitch streamers and Youtube Let’s Plays of the game - due in part to narcissism but also so that I can see the areas people are having trouble with, take note of bugs and balance issues, and laugh at their many, many (many, many) deaths. Watching these videos has brought about a few balancing changes, like making enemies hit softer on the earlier floors, severely shortening the duration of the spell Shadow Cloak, and a few other tweaks and changes to make the game easier or harder in the proper places. Here you can see Shadow Cloak’s new duration:
I mean really, why did Shadow Cloak even last that long in the first place?
During the Monday streams, I continued work on Trance, adding another valuable tool to the player’s arsenal. Trance is the counterpart boon to Overload: where Overload focuses on making spells more outwardly powerful, Trances are more about imbuing the player with a more passive aspect of the spell. This doesn’t mean that Trances are always merely defensive - though that is a trend they have - but that rather than having an immediate outward effect, they grant the player some trait or ability that persists for a short duration.
I’ve also made Trance and Overload require Charge Stars, which was actually the intention for them all along but which I didn’t have finished in time for the release. Essentially, casting a spell as an Overload or Trance will cost a kind of spell charge called a ‘Star’, and that spell can’t be Overloaded or Trance’d again until its Charge Star has been recovered. Charge Stars can be found in fancy chests and may sometimes be dropped by tougher enemies.
They also make a nice sound when they hit the ground; a consequence of the work Hryx and Doseone have been doing to make the game sound amazing.
Hey did I mention here how pumped I am to have Doseone working on the game? I don’t think I have, so there’s that. Him and Stevie have been killin’ it together aurally for nearly a year now, and I can’t wait to make some headway on the Anticropolis so you guys can hear the beauty it’s shaping up to be even in these early stages.
Lastly and most recently, I’ve set to work knocking out some of the inefficiencies of the code that had been having a significant impact on performance. Not least among these elements are gasses, which have been completely reworked. They now are able to spread around corners an be blown around by Whirlwind, in addition to their previous functions. This is also good because gasses will be an important aspect of the Anticropolis, and even moreso the Deep Dark.
So that’s how my month has gone. The first real monthly build update to the game will happen sometime later this week, and include all of the above changes plus a bunch more, as well as a couple other announcements.
Look forward to it!
0.1.0! Anticropolis! Bows and Arrows! Wayward Kids! More!
6 Comments
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8 likes
The Anticropolis
Welcome to the frigid deep
I mean wow guys, for real.
Welcome to your new snowy wonderland: The Anticropolis. Once the underside of Abys' floating fortress beefore it fell to become The Catacombs, the Anticropolis is now locked in an everlasting, magical cold. Within, you will find undead that roam freely, and grumbul hunters whose excursions have brought them far from their comforts in the Upper Dungeon. Many fun new deaths await in the frigid depths, including but not limited to: being swallowed whole, crushed by giant icicles, spat upon by ghosts, and torn apart by winged beasts while caught in a bear trap and desperately fumbling for a potion. With it being so cold in the Anticropolis, you'll also have to keep an eye on your temperature to make sure you don't suffer from frostbite: Keep dry, dress warmly, and seek fire.
Wayward Kids
Meeting a friendly face
But it's not all bad in the snowy deep; with new enemies also come new allies in the form of other wayward Kids that you can find and form alliances with (after doing them a favor, of course). These Kids are a very early version of what they'll become, with the hope being that you'll eventually come to forge relationships with them over the course of a run and encounter individuals multiple times as you both descend and grow stronger. But that's something for later.
For now, they just want stuff (and are formidable foes, should you incur their wrath).
Bows and Arrows
May your aim be true
You'll also find bows, a new type of weapon, and the first that exists apart from the five weapon archetypes. Bows are great ranged weapons that allow you to strike from afar, but their ammo is limited and precious, requiring you to retrieve your arrows after each fight. Once your arrows are exhausted, you may find yourself ill-equipped to handle the trials of more close-quarters combat.
Bows don’t have any weapon skills of their own like the other weapon types, but they do synergize with both the Focus Strike and Trajectory boons.
What's Next?
Now for a disclaimer: This might be obvious, but this release doesn't mean the Anticropolis is done. Far from it: this is the first version of the AC, with much, much more to come. With feedback from players, it will evolve into something even better. Notably missing in this build are transition stages unique to the Anticropolis. I've already started work on them but they were proving problematic and would delay this release even further had I pursued them to completion, so I've simply excluded them for now. There are also several more enemies and environmental features I have plans to implement, as well as a new boss creature (or two?). Anyway my point is: This is just the beginning.
I've learned a lot of things over the past several months of working on the Anticropolis -- things that I hope to employ going forward to help make the game progress faster, so that another months-long absence of updates doesn't happen again.
The first of these is: Hiring people helps LOADS. I have previously mentioned that I brought on one (1) John Sandoval to help lighten the animation workload on me, and subsequently he did most of the animation on many of the new enemies you'll be seeing in the Anticropolis. And gosh, as much as I love doing animation and pixel art that was a huge load off my shoulders. So this is the part where I implore you to spread the word about Catacomb Kids, since my hiring of people is still contingent upon paying them. I would love to bring on another coder and continue to employ the skills of John.
Another thing I've learned is: If I want to work on ~Secret Stuff~, I have to be economical about it. The Anticropolis' delays were ultimately caused by my failure to spread the work out evenly across prior updates, leaving an utterly massive amount of work to be done with little groundwork laid. When I look at how long it took to get the Upper Dungeon to where it is and realize I expected to make another 60-70% of that amount of content again for the Anticropolis release, it's no wonder my projected timeline for the area was overly optimistic.
To help mitigate that from happening again, I'm going to be starting work on the Deep Dark immediately, even though I don't anticipate it to be released for at least as long as it took for the AC to come together (the better part of this past year). Even if the going on the Deep Dark is slow, the hope is that by the time I'm wrapping up the AC and ready to dive into the DD, work on the area will already be well underway.
I Love You All
Let's peer into the vast unknown -- into the future.
My beautiful backers, though there is still quite a journey ahead I am indescribably thankful for your patience, and know that I would never have gotten as far as this without you all. I have made promises to you all and I fully intend on keeping them, even if it's taking a much longer than I had ever imagined. But if I am not a man of strictly kept timelines, I am at least a man who hates being in debt; and I am yet indebted to many of you. Don't think I've forgotten.
I will not -- I can not forget.
It haunts me.
Tyriq P. <3
PS. Sorry Linux users -- due to certain circumstances that I can't really control or get around, your build will be coming in a few days, but I love you too!
6 Comments
"">
"">
8 likes
The Anticropolis
Welcome to the frigid deep
I mean wow guys, for real.
Welcome to your new snowy wonderland: The Anticropolis. Once the underside of Abys' floating fortress beefore it fell to become The Catacombs, the Anticropolis is now locked in an everlasting, magical cold. Within, you will find undead that roam freely, and grumbul hunters whose excursions have brought them far from their comforts in the Upper Dungeon. Many fun new deaths await in the frigid depths, including but not limited to: being swallowed whole, crushed by giant icicles, spat upon by ghosts, and torn apart by winged beasts while caught in a bear trap and desperately fumbling for a potion. With it being so cold in the Anticropolis, you'll also have to keep an eye on your temperature to make sure you don't suffer from frostbite: Keep dry, dress warmly, and seek fire.
Wayward Kids
Meeting a friendly face
But it's not all bad in the snowy deep; with new enemies also come new allies in the form of other wayward Kids that you can find and form alliances with (after doing them a favor, of course). These Kids are a very early version of what they'll become, with the hope being that you'll eventually come to forge relationships with them over the course of a run and encounter individuals multiple times as you both descend and grow stronger. But that's something for later.
For now, they just want stuff (and are formidable foes, should you incur their wrath).
Bows and Arrows
May your aim be true
You'll also find bows, a new type of weapon, and the first that exists apart from the five weapon archetypes. Bows are great ranged weapons that allow you to strike from afar, but their ammo is limited and precious, requiring you to retrieve your arrows after each fight. Once your arrows are exhausted, you may find yourself ill-equipped to handle the trials of more close-quarters combat.
Bows don’t have any weapon skills of their own like the other weapon types, but they do synergize with both the Focus Strike and Trajectory boons.
What's Next?
Now for a disclaimer: This might be obvious, but this release doesn't mean the Anticropolis is done. Far from it: this is the first version of the AC, with much, much more to come. With feedback from players, it will evolve into something even better. Notably missing in this build are transition stages unique to the Anticropolis. I've already started work on them but they were proving problematic and would delay this release even further had I pursued them to completion, so I've simply excluded them for now. There are also several more enemies and environmental features I have plans to implement, as well as a new boss creature (or two?). Anyway my point is: This is just the beginning.
I've learned a lot of things over the past several months of working on the Anticropolis -- things that I hope to employ going forward to help make the game progress faster, so that another months-long absence of updates doesn't happen again.
The first of these is: Hiring people helps LOADS. I have previously mentioned that I brought on one (1) John Sandoval to help lighten the animation workload on me, and subsequently he did most of the animation on many of the new enemies you'll be seeing in the Anticropolis. And gosh, as much as I love doing animation and pixel art that was a huge load off my shoulders. So this is the part where I implore you to spread the word about Catacomb Kids, since my hiring of people is still contingent upon paying them. I would love to bring on another coder and continue to employ the skills of John.
Another thing I've learned is: If I want to work on ~Secret Stuff~, I have to be economical about it. The Anticropolis' delays were ultimately caused by my failure to spread the work out evenly across prior updates, leaving an utterly massive amount of work to be done with little groundwork laid. When I look at how long it took to get the Upper Dungeon to where it is and realize I expected to make another 60-70% of that amount of content again for the Anticropolis release, it's no wonder my projected timeline for the area was overly optimistic.
To help mitigate that from happening again, I'm going to be starting work on the Deep Dark immediately, even though I don't anticipate it to be released for at least as long as it took for the AC to come together (the better part of this past year). Even if the going on the Deep Dark is slow, the hope is that by the time I'm wrapping up the AC and ready to dive into the DD, work on the area will already be well underway.
I Love You All
Let's peer into the vast unknown -- into the future.
My beautiful backers, though there is still quite a journey ahead I am indescribably thankful for your patience, and know that I would never have gotten as far as this without you all. I have made promises to you all and I fully intend on keeping them, even if it's taking a much longer than I had ever imagined. But if I am not a man of strictly kept timelines, I am at least a man who hates being in debt; and I am yet indebted to many of you. Don't think I've forgotten.
I will not -- I can not forget.
It haunts me.
Tyriq P. <3
PS. Sorry Linux users -- due to certain circumstances that I can't really control or get around, your build will be coming in a few days, but I love you too!
http://kotaku.com/the-roguelike-platformer-where-anyone-can-lose-a-limb-1790764622
The Roguelike Platformer Where Anyone Can Lose A Limb
Heather Alexandra
Yesterday 2:29pm
Filed to: Heather's Indie Pick
2712
Catacomb Kids is a mix between a roguelike and a platformer, with equal parts magic potions and goomba stomps. You can also chop body parts off pretty much everything. It’s one heck of a challenge and a damn Cool Indie Game.
Game designer Tyriq Plummer wanted to do many things with Catacomb Kids. He wanted a game that he found fun to play, he wanted a game that could explore health systems and character bodies, and he wanted diverse heroes.
I wanted to make a roguelike since before I knew what roguelikes were,” Tyriq told me. “Then I tried playing roguelikes and learned I was bad at playing roguelikes. But I was good at playing platformers.”
The result was Catacomb Kids, a game that satisfied Tyriq’s desire for adventurous exploration with a decidedly arcade game feel. Players assume different roles and try to last as long as they can in a procedurally generated dungeon. Movement is swift, jumping has a strong sense of control, and combat is dangerous.
I have trouble playing Catacomb Kids sometimes. It’s a pretty hard game where I even struggled to get through part of the tutorial. Tyriq believes that an important aspect of Catacomb Kid’s difficulty is that it has things that are discoverable and fixed. You might drink a lightning potion once and fry yourself but after that, you know not to drink that potion.
“I enjoy secrets and discovery but I also want people making informed decisions.” Tyriq said. “I want players to be able to make assumptions and predictions about what they can do.”
There’s some pretty nasty complications thrown into the mix as well. Catacomb Kids features a simple but effective health system that adds in limb damage, extreme cold, and many other features. If you mess up fighting a goblin, they might cut off your shield arm. If you’re really unlucky, you might lose both you legs and hop around on bloody stumps.
The notion of human resilience and fragility was the subject of a talk that Tyriq gave at GDC 2016 called “Made Out of Meat.” It’s an insightful look at the ways that games abstract health and how they can take some extra steps to make health systems more interesting.
Catacomb Kids falls into an area that Tyriq calls “simplification,” where the health systems begin to acknowledge that bodies are made of distinct parts can endanger the player through alterations to movement or abilities based on damage. You can watch the talk down below. It’s great stuff.
As a natural consequence of a design that focuses on human bodies, Catacomb Kids ends up being a diverse game. While you can select a class and character at the start, the bodies of the potential characters are random. Skin tone, hair, and body type are distinct. Anyone can be a hero.
“I value diversity in games,” Tyriq said. “In Catacomb Kids, there’s a fifty percent chance of being a boy or girl and they play the same. Characters and be super pale or super dark. As a developer, it’s easy to do that.”
Additionally, in designing items and armor, Tyriq made a point to focus on practical gear, avoiding the dreaded ‘chainmail bikini.’ He noted that these considerations took very little time or effort.
“As a developer, it’s super easy to do. It’s not a challenge or something you need to go out of your way to get done. You can just do it.”
It took far more time to create the game’s newest dungeon layer than to toss some diversity into the title. The Anticropolis is a snowy dungeon realm that was recently added to the game. The update also added co-op to the game.
“It took much longer than I anticipated,” Tyriq said. “When I first put it together, it was madness.”
Catacomb Kids will continue to grow over time. The goal is to have a total of four area and a final boss. For now, player can enjoy dangerous and exciting trips into the first two levels. I lost several hours of my weekend to Catacomb Kids and definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a new dungeon crawler.
The Roguelike Platformer Where Anyone Can Lose A Limb
Heather Alexandra
Yesterday 2:29pm
Filed to: Heather's Indie Pick
2712
Catacomb Kids is a mix between a roguelike and a platformer, with equal parts magic potions and goomba stomps. You can also chop body parts off pretty much everything. It’s one heck of a challenge and a damn Cool Indie Game.
Game designer Tyriq Plummer wanted to do many things with Catacomb Kids. He wanted a game that he found fun to play, he wanted a game that could explore health systems and character bodies, and he wanted diverse heroes.
I wanted to make a roguelike since before I knew what roguelikes were,” Tyriq told me. “Then I tried playing roguelikes and learned I was bad at playing roguelikes. But I was good at playing platformers.”
The result was Catacomb Kids, a game that satisfied Tyriq’s desire for adventurous exploration with a decidedly arcade game feel. Players assume different roles and try to last as long as they can in a procedurally generated dungeon. Movement is swift, jumping has a strong sense of control, and combat is dangerous.
I have trouble playing Catacomb Kids sometimes. It’s a pretty hard game where I even struggled to get through part of the tutorial. Tyriq believes that an important aspect of Catacomb Kid’s difficulty is that it has things that are discoverable and fixed. You might drink a lightning potion once and fry yourself but after that, you know not to drink that potion.
“I enjoy secrets and discovery but I also want people making informed decisions.” Tyriq said. “I want players to be able to make assumptions and predictions about what they can do.”
There’s some pretty nasty complications thrown into the mix as well. Catacomb Kids features a simple but effective health system that adds in limb damage, extreme cold, and many other features. If you mess up fighting a goblin, they might cut off your shield arm. If you’re really unlucky, you might lose both you legs and hop around on bloody stumps.
The notion of human resilience and fragility was the subject of a talk that Tyriq gave at GDC 2016 called “Made Out of Meat.” It’s an insightful look at the ways that games abstract health and how they can take some extra steps to make health systems more interesting.
Catacomb Kids falls into an area that Tyriq calls “simplification,” where the health systems begin to acknowledge that bodies are made of distinct parts can endanger the player through alterations to movement or abilities based on damage. You can watch the talk down below. It’s great stuff.
As a natural consequence of a design that focuses on human bodies, Catacomb Kids ends up being a diverse game. While you can select a class and character at the start, the bodies of the potential characters are random. Skin tone, hair, and body type are distinct. Anyone can be a hero.
“I value diversity in games,” Tyriq said. “In Catacomb Kids, there’s a fifty percent chance of being a boy or girl and they play the same. Characters and be super pale or super dark. As a developer, it’s easy to do that.”
Additionally, in designing items and armor, Tyriq made a point to focus on practical gear, avoiding the dreaded ‘chainmail bikini.’ He noted that these considerations took very little time or effort.
“As a developer, it’s super easy to do. It’s not a challenge or something you need to go out of your way to get done. You can just do it.”
It took far more time to create the game’s newest dungeon layer than to toss some diversity into the title. The Anticropolis is a snowy dungeon realm that was recently added to the game. The update also added co-op to the game.
“It took much longer than I anticipated,” Tyriq said. “When I first put it together, it was madness.”
Catacomb Kids will continue to grow over time. The goal is to have a total of four area and a final boss. For now, player can enjoy dangerous and exciting trips into the first two levels. I lost several hours of my weekend to Catacomb Kids and definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a new dungeon crawler.
Here's a podcast the developer was on recently
GameEnthus Podcast ep306: Catacomb Kidding or Song: The Game -
GameEnthus Podcast ep306: Catacomb Kidding or Song: The Game -