The Road to Alpha - Part 1 news - Dungeon Buster Game

Over the last few days I have been deliberating over whether or not to focus efforts on the creation of a playable alpha demo; but as I delved deeper into the pros and cons of pursuing it I realised it was the right step forward for the game.

So here we go, entry number one in the development diary that will track the progress of the demo.

The inventory system is in place at the moment, but it doesn't really do much right now besides show a lovely static image and show you how many rusty keys you've collected. Obviously it isn't very feature complete in this state, so what needs done here? Well first off, the game items need to be decided; this will directly dictate how many slots the inventory will have, as the inventory is going to function like the Zelda inventory (you either have the weapon or you don't, and weapons cannot be sold, only upgraded. Consumables such as loot and other junk *may* be tradeable, their inclusion hasn't been decided yet. In it's completed state you will be able to see all of the items and consumables you've collected, assign left and right hand weapons, and view per-dungeon information such as how many door keys you've found. Here's how it looks at the moment:

There's the main inventory slots, which are populated as you collect items & weapons. This will more than likely be split into two separate sections; one for items/consumables and another for weapons. There's the obligatory gold count area, along with what you've got equipped in your left and right hands. The per-dungeon section is below that, showing how many iron keys (used for doors) and gold keys (used for secret chests & secret doors) you've collected. There is also a fourth unused section, which will more than likely be dropped from the design if no use is found for it.

Combat at the moment consists of a throwing knife projectile that insta-kills everything it touches. Whilst awesome, the combat needs to be a little deeper than this. A planned list of upgradeable weapons is to be added to the game, although it isn't extensive so it won't be hard or lengthy to implement. What will be hard and lengthy is the animations, but that sort of thing just takes time. There will be both melee and ranged weapons, and these will be selected through the inventory and set to either your left or right hand (left or right mouse button at the moment). Enemies will have access to the same array of weapons, and as you get more powerful they will too. As of now there is one fully animated enemy; the 'Ninja Skeleton'. He's ridiculous, to put it bluntly. His kunai knives are deadly and he lapses in an out of invisibility when he's pursuing Buster. Here's a lineup of all the skeleton types so far:

And for the sake of showing progression, here's what they looked like way back in the beginning:

2spooky. The skeletons will all have their own set strengths and weaknesses (the Ninja's strength being his speed, his downfall being his low HP).

Physics puzzles, combination puzzles, as George Takei says, "Oh myyyy". There are any number of things I could write here, but I don't want to give anything away. You'll just have to wait and see what sorts of devious puzzles are included! Muhahaha!

What you can see here is an early version of the spike trap. It is triggered by some projectiles, and will damage both the player and enemies. You can also see a ridiculous bug in the animation for Buster throwing his kunai... I'll get round to fixing that! But on the plus side, you got to see the early version of Buster, and how he's changed.

That's right, you'll be privy to a custom dungeon that won't be in the final release! It'll have it's own little self-contained story to keep you interested too. Sadly there aren't any screenshots to show just yet, the most amount of time possible is being dedicated to writing the short story for the place, so creating the dungeon itself will start at a later date.

That's it for now. There's so much to be done, so keep an eager eye for more updates!

-Mitch