What a productive week! Since last Wednesday, we’ve been on a roll making new parts for Fingeance. I guess showing your game off to a group of kids has that effect.
Character Select Screen
Charles has redesigned the character select menu. It took him a few days, but it turned out really nice. Check it out:
This fancy new menu comes complete with animations, telling you when you’ve changed from your current character. In addition, the new character select screen makes it easier to see what you’ll get when you pick your favorite fish. It’s quite an improvement!
Old CSS vs New CSS
Readying up is also less tricky than it was before, as we’ve implemented a smooth transition from picking your character. We also added an “everyone is ready” screen. When all players have decided who to start with, the screen fills with a border telling you it’s time to fight.
We’ve also added made it so that if one character is picked, other players cannot jump in the game as that character. This should reduce confusion in-game, though unfortunately you can’t go Team DNA with Gil’s Laser Deploy anymore.
Character Augments
Not pictured in the character select images is a recent addition to each character’s ship.
Each character now comes with their own unique augment to start out with. These augments cannot be bought in the shop. They have particularly special effect from the parts you’ll find in game too. Finn’s, for example, will cause him to enrage when his ship health dips under 30%, healing his ship health by 50% of its maximum health. As you can see, Finn is no gentleman.
Adding these augments makes character selection a little more important. These augments are unique per character, and each can help push a build in a novel direction. These augments have been tuned to support flexible playstyle, however, so don’t be opposed to grabbing that supporting gadget which Bubbles (even though she wouldn’t like it!).
Cooldowns
Lane’s been hard at work implementing several balance changes to the game, but gadget cooldowns are especially cool.
We’ve realized that – though spamming your gadgets is fun – sometimes you need a crazy powerful boost to your enemy-blasting abilities. That’s where cooldowns come in. Some gadgets now have a wait time after activating them. These gadgets have some seriously powerful effects, and when used at the right time can be a huge buff to the team.
You can keep track of any gadget’s cooldown by looking at the pulsing ring around your ship. The ring can split in up to three parts to correspond to each gadget currently attached to the ship.
So that’s that. Another menu made excellent, player roles made more diverse, and ship parts made crazier than ever. Join us next week, when we’ll no doubt have a LOT to say about making support parts and demoing in Minneapolis. We’ll be at Rally Cry | Video Games tomorrow, see you there!
Last week has been somewhat difficult productivity wise. We’ve all been preoccupied with other projects, and so creation has somewhat been slow. That doesn’t mean we’re empty handed though!
New Shields
Lane introduced you to augments last time. The bulk of our work has been in making augments, but we’ve also introduced a new mechanism that ships can use.
Shields protect a player (or miniboss/boss, possibly) from damage for a duration. They also have a set amount of damage, shown on your health bar, that they can take. Once its damage limit has been reached, the shield breaks and your ship takes regular damage again. Think of a shield from a game like League of Legends; that’s pretty much how shields work here.
Augments and Other Parts
With this addition, we’ve added a few tentative parts as experiments. These may not be in the final game, but they’re definitely proofs of concept.
Panic Button – Augment
• -25 health
• Large, long lasting shield is deployed when the player reaches 20% of their total health.
• Useful for beginner players, or those player who like to take large risks.
Energy Chalice – Augment
• Energy regeneration is increased based on the amount of energy your ship is missing.
• Regeneration scales based on the amount of missing health, not a percentage (missing 200 energy will increase regen twice as much as missing 100 energy).
Shell Shot – Cannon
• Provides the player with a shield when the player stops shooting after a period of time.
• Lower rate of fire and range, but damaging bullets
Bloodlust – Augment
• Ship is healed a very small amount each time the player hits a target.
As you can see, adding in the ability to make an augment or add a shield to players gives us more design space to work with. Shields in particular are very useful effects for tanks. Keep in mind, a player can add as many augments as his/her ship has room for, so feel free to experiment!
In a previous version of our game (we’ve been doing this for nearly a year now), every cannon came with an alternate fire option. This was back when different kinds of hulls existed for the player to buy. Alternate fire shots were accessed by holding the shoot button down for a period of time, which depended on the cannon chosen. Back then you had tap to shoot constantly.
We had decided on this option for players as a method of increasing uniqueness in the cannons. Alternate fire would add interesting choices while playing the game, and keep each cannon different from others by having a powerful shot special to that cannon. It did its job well: we felt like charging up a cannon gave players decisions that could feel special without making the cannon complicated, in addition to having to make a conscious decision to lose out on dps in order to gain access to the alternate fire shot.
Unfortunately, we ran into the downsides of alternate fire. In our playtests, we noticed players opting not to use them. Players had more fun just shooting. Some players also found it tedious to have to mash the button to continually fire. The input was also not optimal; players could not constantly press the shoot button with the correct timing every time it was possible. This was especially problematic with the varying rates of fire, making us unable to make fast shooting cannons for fear of causing the player to hurt their fingers mashing the shoot button.
We came up with a solution: have the alternate fire charge while the player is not firing, and allow players to hold the button to shoot. This resolved many of the problems of the original alternate fire system. It was also more obvious to players that the weapon was charging since it would happen automatically in a game (there are some times when firing is discouraged, like in a minefield). Currently, we don’t have many finished cannons with an alternate fire, as we’ve noticed that novice players still don’t use them and we’ve been focused on the earlier parts for the demo. The Ice Trident is an example of such in the demo (in the updated build). Try it out there, and let us know what you think!
Hope you’re having a good time playing the Fingeance Alpha Demo! If you’ve played it a few times, you’ve no doubt come across an enemy or part that applies freeze. That is an example of a debuff. A debuff in most games weaken a target’s abilities in some way, and in our game they work the same way.
Debuffs are generally not used in shmups, but the way Fingeance is designed allows for the utility debuffs provide. The potency of each debuff scales with the power of the enemy. This means that even bosses can be affected, though they’ll be affected more briefly than standard-issue enemies. Here are a couple of the ways you can mess with your foes.
Freeze
This debuff I’ve talked about before. Freeze causes a target to slow down significantly, both in movement and rate of fire. This is likely the most common debuff you’ll see in the game as while it can be a strong effect, the impacted target still has plenty of agency. Freeze is best used on fast moving targets to make them more easily shot, or fast shooting enemies to lower their potential danger.
Stun
Stun works just as you’d expect; the target is unable to do anything for the duration of the debuff. This debuff is used sparingly in the game right now (the only part that has it in the demo is the Bouncing Burst) and the durations are left deliberately short. The ability to stun is a powerful strength especially in a genre of game where movement is vital, so we’ve tried to limit its benefits to creating openings in enemy shot patterns. Super fast shooting turret won’t let you pass? Hit them with a stun!
There are also regular buffs you can use in the game (the Frenzy Engine is an example of one in the demo) but I’ll save those for another time. See you next week!
Get it now:
It’s here at last: the Fingeance Alpha Demo is ready for your enjoyment. Before you dive in, here’s a few suggestions to maximize the fun:
- Controllers – Gamepads are best for a shmup such as this. Keyboard controls are also provided, but not recommended.
Battle the evil underwater enemies as you enact your Fingeance!
- Allies – Fishy foes are less fearful with friends! Fingeance supports up to four players, so bring extra allies with you underwater.
Pick from four furious fish, each with unique cannon and gadgets at their disposal!
- Creativity – The Fingeance Alpha Demo is packaged with many varieties of weapon parts, from the simple shooters to the complex cannons. Feel free to explore different combinations of cannons and gadgets included with this build. Let us know your favorite mixes!
Buy from a huge selection of parts to customize the ship you want!
Thank you for following us this far. We’ve been bursting with anticipation to bring you this demo. Let us know what you think, and be sure to follow us on our blog and Twitter, and like us on Facebook for more Fingeance content!
Escape Industries has been working really hard to bring you fine folks the Alpha Demo of Fingeance on June 1st. I’d like to share a couple new parts we plan to have ready on that day. Keep in mind that these parts are still in progress. Unfortunately, I can’t get pictures of these parts (the art isn’t in quite yet).
Piercer
This cannon pierces through all enemies. It deals less damage than other parts, but because of that piercing aspect, it has much more potential. Getting enemies to line up horizontally will multiply your damage output significantly. This new part is simple to use, but an advanced player can use that piercing mechanism to deal great damage to crowds of enemies.
Laser Deploy
This new part deploys a powerful laser turret that creates a giant beam, destroying all but the toughest of enemies in its path. You’ll want to be somewhat stingy with the use of this gadget, as it takes a while to regenerate the energy required to set up another turret to decimate foes. This weapon is great to use in a pinch, though the turret takes a little while to charge up before it shoots.
Snowballer
This seemingly weak weapon fires a concentrated blast of snowy goodness at your enemies. The snowball explodes on contact, dealing minor damage and freezing enemies for a significant time. This new part is an example of a utility gadget, as it is best used on fast firing or quick foes to slow them down for your team (or yourself) and makes most enemies caught in the blast much less threatening.
These new parts can take a lot of time to design and make, but it’s worth it to bring you the varied gameplay we want from Fingeance. Sorry for the shorter article though! I’m just so excited to bring you all this demo I can’t stay away. See you Monday for the release!
In preparing for Fingeance’s demo release (out June 1st!), I’ve been updating older chunks and creating a new beginner level as an introduction to the game for newer players. If you’ll bear with me, I’d like to go over what a beginner level for Fingeance looks like.
Start of the level is completely devoid of enemies.
Right in the beginning, the player is dropped into an empty ocean. The players won’t see an enemy for several seconds, and will not be in danger of taking damage even if they don’t move for quite a while. This allows the players to experiment with the controls before having to deal with any consequences. A beginner can feel free to make mistakes, spam their gadget, shoot off into nothing, and be safe from any enemy retaliation.
After the introduction, players are introduced to the simplest enemies in the game, Mini-guppies, in an easy to deal with pattern. The guppies are placed in such a way to encourage movement. Players with an understanding of the game will move downwards while shooting to hit each of the first group of guppies. Beginner players (who maybe don’t fully grasp shooting) will be able to easily avoid the guppies.
A wall of guppies follows after. These guppies are a little harder to avoid, but still easy enough to deal with. It’s a more interesting enemy pattern for all players, new or old, to go through.
Bullets 101
20 seconds into the level, the players are introduced to the first shooting enemy, Guppy Gunners. Beginner players can avoid these by slipping between its shots. More advanced players will power through them.
Part way through the Guppy Gunner section is a Treasure Chest. This is meant as a reward for more advanced players by giving them extra scrap for avoiding or killing the gunners. Beginner players can avoid the Treasure Chest without having to worry though, as it is not a requirement.
Afterwards is an intro to the turrets. Some of the chunks in the game play out somewhat like an obstacle course, so this is a small taste of that for beginners. Note the Treasure Chest in an inconvenient location.
Here is a more advanced version of a turret pattern. The turrets are set up so that the level is split into three different lanes. Teams can split up and access each of the lanes, and can easily hit all of the upcoming enemies. Advanced players can slip between each lane too, if they’re up to the challenge.
Near the end of this level, right before the boss encounter, is another Treasure Chest. It’s a little difficult to grab for beginners, but it’s a nice heal for more experienced players before the boss.
The boss of this beginner level is another fairly simple encounter (compared to other boss encounters in the game) with a simple “target furthest player” attack pattern. An easily exploitable pattern for advanced players, and a manageable threat for beginners.
That’s one of the beginner levels we’ve got going for the demo release. The beginner levels (at least for the demo) work differently from chunks because we wanted more control over how players experienced it. Each level will be randomly chosen when the team starts the game.
This past week has actually been productive for me design wise, despite having to get through finals week (maybe it’s from all the procrastination I’ve been doing…). I’ve completed a few parts that I’ve been meaning to hash out for a while, and am now currently working on the level design for Fingeance. I realize that we haven’t gone over how levels will work in the game though, so I think I should elaborate before I go any further.
Level design in our game works fairly differently from other shoot ’em ups. Since a large focus is put on replayability and adaption in our design philosophies, we’ve established a level system that allows each playthrough to be unique, but not by the use of procedural generation. Levels are made out of several different small instances that last from 10-30 seconds (we call them “chunks”), with scattered minibosses and an end boss. This allows us to create experiences within the game that feel like full polished levels, but still have that random generation feel that is standard in most roguelikes. Some of the best chunks in the game have novel encounters you’ll recognize with experience, and because each session gives you different parts to play with, the encounters will still feel fresh.
With all that said, I’m working on improving the quality of some of the older chunks and levels right now. Early in the process, I looked to classic 2D platformers (Super Mario and the like) to help guide me. I would create chunks that introduced a gameplay aspect and build on it. I realized though that this strategy makes the level way too long, and slows down the pace of the game significantly. I’ve changed my strategy to creating shorter instances with more action inside, making a level more hectic but more fun too!
I’ll be sure to let you all know how the process is coming along next week. See you then!
Hey folks! It’s that time of the year where the more exciting and fun stuff (like this blog…) has to get put on the backburner for the more important and boring things (like finals…). Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to do much game design work this past week. This blog post and likely next week’s are going to be sparse.
What little work I have done has been relatively unfruitful; I’ve been working on designing some new parts for Fingeance, but for the most part the designs haven’t panned out. One successful part is the Gatling Gun: a high damage cannon that increases in fire rate the longer it has been firing. It should be familiar to players of FPS’s or the like. The faster the cannon is shooting, however, the slower your ship will move. It’s a high risk, high reward kind of weapon; control over your ship’s speed and damage with this part will give you higher damage over time than other weapons, if you can handle the slower movement speed.
A lot of my game design work this week has been devoted to making a simple cannon with a similar playstyle to the Gatling Gun. The Gatling Gun’s play pattern is based on finding ideal points to deal large amounts of damage safely, but I feel like it is a more difficult weapon to get a hold of. Novice players will likely constantly hold the fire button down, resulting in a frustrating experience with the lower movement speed. What I would like to do is develop a cannon that has that same play pattern, but in more simple package, although if you also like other type of games such as slot games, you can visit studybreaks.com to find great options to play and also make some money.
Hopefully, next week I’ll have much more exciting game design news to bring you all. Until then, may the grading curves be ever in your favor. I certainly hope they will!
This past week, I’ve been looking at the movement options we have in Fingeance currently. This blog post is gonna get pretty in depth in some of our design philosophies and understanding of our game, as well as the history of this game’s creation a little. Hopefully you get something interesting out of it.
(Quick note: Lane and I have decided to switch our blog posts around. Lane will be posting on Mondays and I will be posting on Fridays starting this week.)
Initially, player ships had three different parts that could be attached: cannons, gadgets, and hulls. Hulls contained all of a player’s movement and health, as well as had an additional action we called a “defense effect.” These effects ranged from giving the player a shield around him/her ship that protected it from bullets, to a dash that let players move around the screen more quickly. We realized that adding these additional options in the game made customization more complicated. It also made designing unique parts a harder ordeal than we would have liked. Adding in an additional action for players made it necessary for the complexity of each action to be smaller, and we didn’t like the direction that led us.
So, we decided to remove hulls as an option for customization. The stats gained from hulls were moved to cannons and gadgets. However, we were still considering leaving the “defense effect” action in the game by making it the same for all players. This would still give players more ability, but since the action would be consistent across the board, cannons and gadget complexity wouldn’t have to change. As we had difficulty making shields work in the past and liked the gameplay of a dash, we made dashes an action all players can take.
Dashes in previous iterations of the game varied a bit. There weren’t a ton in the game when we decided to remove hulls, but there were three kinds of dashes: a dodge (a dash that made you intangible to bullets when active), a dash (a regular dash with a cooldown), and hyperdash (a regular dash with no cooldown). Each of these dashes came with their own sets of problems. The dodge was satisfying to use when it worked, but was not clear when the intangibility was active and was fairly situational. The dash was clear and less situational, but wasn’t satisfying to use. The hyperdash was fun to use, but it overtook regular movement because it was so safe.
In my analysis, I looked at why we wanted to give every player a movement option, and what that would add to our game. I looked to many different sources for this, including platformers such as a Mario game. In the 2D Mario games, they have a run mechanic that lets players move faster while the button is held down. I actually implemented a run mechanic in our game to see how it would feel. After testing this run mechanic, and retesting the older dashes, we felt that giving movement options to each player’s ship was not necessary, and didn’t add much to the game. We’ve since removed them, but that doesn’t mean we can’t revisit it later to add to a gadget.
Thanks for reading this! It seems like a lot of obvious stuff, but sometimes as a creator you need to step back and look at what you’re making.