Red Triangle Games Projects (Development Thread)

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RMZ
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Re: Red Triangle Games Projects (Development Thread)

Post by RMZ »

I've already updated the collection files to add in Cthulhu's Paradox and made a small list of things I wanted to do for the project. I had one idea that I always wanted to do but it was just would have taken up too much time during the contest and I plan to add it to this. In the 3rd world there will be a break in the game where you embark on an Oregon Trail inspired batch of content.

I also decided since this will be released outside of SS that it's probably important to put some type of a disclaimer to kind of let people know I'm poking fun at people without malicious intent.

I may or may not do more after the Oregon Trail stuff but right now I'm kind of content just doing this idea while I wait for the artist to produce the art for the collection so I can release it. The biggest challenge with this will be making it FEEL like Oregon Trail but not making it too long so I'll have to do some thinking on that. I don't want to overshadow anything else while I go for a silly laugh.
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Re: Red Triangle Games Projects (Development Thread)

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I've underestimated my energy/motivation for this time of year and what energy I think I was gonna use for the Oregon Trail joke I wound up using to rebuild the dancing minigame. Previously it used code that was in Vikings of Midgard, but I have since rebuilt it from scratch using what I learned from my lesson with Charbile doing Fox in the Woods. After spending a Sunday playtesting the game and sorting out bugs with it I think I've decided whatever energy I do have for this release to just put towards minor enhancements to the game and not anything big like a new cutaway gag. I also have to sort out Steam achievements and such too. Perhaps my Oregon Trail idea will surface again somewhere else someday.

The artist who helped me with the Fox in the Woods promo art says she will be available this coming week so I am hoping to have Cthulhu's Paradox in the collection and sorted as mentioned by end of the week or end of next. I'll hope to have a Let's Play recorded for this release much like my other entries to it.
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Re: Red Triangle Games Projects (Development Thread)

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Finished up the Cthulhu's Paradox update for the Super Collection this week. I did a giant Let's Plays last night all in one sitting if you're interested in that. I didn't go overboard adding achievements per game in there but there's anywhere from like 2-6 per game, so I did 5 new ones, they mostly follow the narrative with only one of them being unlocked through an optional prompt. At the time I though the contest was in poor taste, with the whole roasting, but in the end I made something I was a bit more proud of than I planned to be by trying to write something a little more complex than my other titles.



PJ has been taking on the task of doing the music for Takoyaki Surprise and some of the demos he's sent me has been outstanding. That will NOT be a big giant complex story, haha. I'm looking forward to getting back into that one. Work has been wiping me out mentally so I've not felt like computer tasks when I get home but I hope to regain that motivation soon.
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Re: Red Triangle Games Projects (Development Thread)

Post by SwordPlay »

Cthulhu's Paradox is so neat and polished. Really underrated!
I like that you released a video to preview it and provide supplemental commentary.
Great idea, more people should do this kind of stuff.

(yes that contest did result in a lot of things that were a bit poor taste, eh? thought i was going crazy here... but who am I to talk)
"Imagination. Life is your creation."
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Re: Red Triangle Games Projects (Development Thread)

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Been a little bit since an update.

I've finished Axe Cop, sure, but there were two things I never did. So I've been using January to kind of fix all bugs, make some suggested edits and implement those changes. I think when this is done I'll try a more aggressive approach to marketing it myself. I'm not a huge fan of it, talking about myself in a non-blog-like form feels icky but I'm gonna try it out. It's supposed to be very helpful with getting people to experience your art I hear, haha.

There were two segments that weren't done, both are cutscenes as a reward basically. The first is a conclusive scene with the Ben Matanga as they confront General A. I had written this scene maybe a year ago and have loved it even coming back to it now. I think I actually had this written along the time that I did the retrospective with Soda Piggy for 2021.
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Next up is what I'm currently working on, and that's the secret memory station where Axe Cop learns he is actually brothers with Flute Cop. It's going to basically be the adaptation of Issue #0 from the comics. There's a follow-up portion I don't know if I feel like doing involving them being raised by chihuahua people. There's a lot more art and stuff involved with that that I don't know if I feel like doing. I think Issue #0 on it's own is probably fine.
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Next up... somebody on Steam wanted a guide on how to find Baby Man's moves (blue magic) so I updated the Bad Guy List to have a Baby Man icon after Baby Man is unlocked in the game to see which enemies have moves to learn from. There's I think 2 or 3 enemies that you get their moves from one opportunity only.
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Hoping to be done with my scenes by end of next week and then updating everywhere and seeing about putting the game in more places and then trying to market it better. After that my focus will be kind of split between Surfasaurus, Takoyaki and the RGC Demake game. I'm hoping to get my Surfasaurus update done before the summer, just have interior tiles to go for that one to be done. Takoyaki I think will run into 1st quarter next year.
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Re: Red Triangle Games Projects (Development Thread)

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Another week and more juggling of multiple projects! I'm nearly done with the Axe Cop scene to finish, maybe halfway through it. I'm trying to light a fire under myself to really finish everything this year. I think I'm gonna shoot to have Takoyaki done for Soda Piggy's birthday, 12/24. I think I can reskin the game and make sure it works decently well before then. I've got an artist lined up for the promo art and am having her art do double duty and also work as title screen art as well as art for achievements. This is a small game so it doesn't need a lot. I've been debating with myself a lot on what I actually need for it. On one hand, achievements based on linear progression are rewarding in the sense that they are constant, but they can be boring and predictable. It means I make 6 of them for each stage, or I make X amount for other achievements. Part of me says one side of each equation. The other side says maybe do both? I might after I get the key art sorted and have firm designs of all the bosses. I'm still super conflicted. Right now I'm focusing on the main characters to cycle in the title screen.
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I'm still planning the Digibeasts game and hope to chip away a little more of that soon too. Last session I worked on it I got the screen background sorted and made a workflow for spriting the creatures.
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Re: Red Triangle Games Projects (Development Thread)

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I made a goal for myself to be totally done with all hanging threads in Axe Cop in January and I did it, feels good.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app ... ?l=english

I was so burnt out from that project I don't think it hit me until maybe early last year during production of Cthulhu's Paradox. I put so much of myself and my own energy into it that when it was over I guess I did the equivalent of a gamedev collapse. The entire time I made that game just feels like this blur. I know it probably seemed silly to go back and touch the game again, but in my mind, these were items that needed to be done for me to feel like I had closure for the project. Everything I wanted to do or started in the game is done. I had some dream update stuff, like another Fighting Zoo Cup, and maybe that can happen in the future, but right now I think I'm at peace with where it's at. I'll probably do another full playthrough of it soon to record footage of things for some videos on youtube. I think guides for the main side quests could be good things to have on the channel, so I might try to get that done by end of March I think.
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Re: Red Triangle Games Projects (Development Thread)

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I've been playing a lot of Minecraft lately and not working quite like I should for my personal goals, but I am making small accomplishments on the games nonetheless. Takoyaki has the title screen done, the artist I hired to do the promo art did the main characters first to cycle through on the title screen, it looks super dope I think. PJ is chipping away at the soundtrack too, having just recently finished the boss theme which is super killer.



Been also chipping away at the sections of Digibeasts. I set up the feeding aspect last week and am pretty proud that different types of food can be fed to a creature, which will be a variable effecting evolutions. Feeding your monster lots of bread will certainly turn it into a goose! I'm trying to work on that when I feel like it and not make it feel like work so that it's enjoyable every time.
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Re: Red Triangle Games Projects (Development Thread)

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Since I've been doing less Minecraft, I've been working on Digibeasts more regularly. I'm nearly finished with all menu items, I expect combat to take me a while.
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Rival codes were Spoon's idea, and a good answer to the single player battling if people wanted it versus just fighting against a random enemy. The four digits are gonna be form, level, health and stamina. Some values will be randomized based on these but it'll still simulate as close to your rival's monster as I can get without making the code stupidly long.
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I spent a day and expanded my Sonic Mania palette I downloaded online, which I am using for Takoyaki as well. So I am more or less trying a lot of color schemes out in this game. I used the opportunity to make my palettes a little bit better for the devices. I also added some more later.
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I started combat last night, and this gif doesn't have a ton to show, but I got the battle loop implemented at least. It's going to be a long road to get it the way I am thinking but I feel good about how it's going. Basically the player has two attacks. A physical attack and a fireball attack. Physical will use the least amount of stamina and fireball the most. You can also use stamina to deflect or counter. Deflecting a fireball will just cause it to fizzle out, but blocking a physical attack will let you get in a free attack if you time it right. Right now I have just the commands for the player for physical and fireball.
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Re: Red Triangle Games Projects (Development Thread)

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I'm nearing the finish line for the Digibeasts game. It's been fun, but it is time to be finished and move on. I'm looking forward to wrapping up my Surfasaurus update and then diving into Takoyaki Surprise full steam until I hit that finish line.
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All aspects of Digibeasts are done except for adding in monsters and the variables that generate those evolutions. Right now I'm putting them all in, and then I'll go do the code portion for how to get them. I'm pretty pleased with combat and the rival codes. Rival codes last for 24 hours, so if you have one logged for more than a day it clears itself out. There are some limitations with the rival codes that I don't think anybody will experience, but all in all they work really well. Great idea Spoon, thanks for sharing it. Actual battles have you fight a random evolution of the line you are. Monsters match all of your stats within a small range up or down randomly except for defense. All monster forms have a base defense.

I have a lot of respect for the damage formula in the OHR after doing my own. Perhaps if I used the stats more I wouldn't have struggled, but it was a lot of work getting the battle damage exchanges to feel acceptable/right.

I think I have about 5 more monsters to draw, going overboard and doing as many as possible feels like wasted effort. There's only so much I can do to manipulate stats to make each one feel unique without going totally nuts, so giving branch evolutions to the extent of my planning feels more than fair. I was debating on each monster having an element and then an elemental weakness, but... that would be a ton to do and then I'd have to convey it somehow. None of my monsters were designed with elements in mind either so that would be confusing for players. I do think I'll make some monsters be more efficient at certain tasks, like some would use less energy to do physical or fireball or counters. A fireball that costed 2x the normal cost would most certainly make someone rely on physical which could result in counter attack damage. That kind of stuff feels right.

Think I'll hope to have Digibeasts totally done in maybe a week or so.
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Re: Red Triangle Games Projects (Development Thread)

Post by Bluefeather42 »

I'm amazed at what OHR can do. What Charbile said on the podcast seems to be dead on, once you learn to speak the Hamsterspeak language...
RMZ wrote: Thu Apr 06, 2023 12:20 pm
I have a lot of respect for the damage formula in the OHR after doing my own. Perhaps if I used the stats more I wouldn't have struggled, but it was a lot of work getting the battle damage exchanges to feel acceptable/right.

Pretty much. I don't mind using the default systems where I don't actually need to do something different. The battles, inventory, menus, save games and all that.
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Re: Red Triangle Games Projects (Development Thread)

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Well I finished the game! It's not totally released yet, as I'm going to wait until I have an APK file 100% approved since I have some videos made, like this one, that are unlisted and will be made public after I can have everything on Google Play and Steam done at the same time. Spent the better part of this week prepping for James to do his android magic. There's no real credit section of the game, my logo or name aren't even in it, but I'd like to thank Ravan for all of the great beeps and boops and letting me use one of her songs for my trailer.

I'm tentatively planning to have this released on 5/1.
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Re: Red Triangle Games Projects (Development Thread)

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Planning on Digibeasts to go live in the Super Collection on Friday. Since we're busted on Google Play, that and itch.io will be the only places to play it.
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I'm getting back to my Surfasaurus update and trying to gauge my own motivation for this, as it would be easy to go overboard. The main things I wanted to do were to clean up some of the basic art of the game, which I felt the tiles were the worst offenders. Before I stepped away from this last year I had done most of the exteriors. I'm planning on spending rest of the month to be totally done with all exterior things, then I'll have the interiors done before RGC and update the game. Think this will be a good opportunity to up the price of it from a dollar. I'm leaning towards spending next year and year after doing something similar to MTA. I think if I take my time and enjoy it, 1.5-2 years is plenty of time to be happy with it. I designed MTA to feel entry-level for artists of the engine and that backfired on me. So I think it'll be fun to just go for it. After that, I'll feel good about the state and presentation of all the things I set out to do as RTG.
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Re: Red Triangle Games Projects (Development Thread)

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Another session down, tonight I got it set up for street lights to turn on at night. Made a list of what details I wanna add to the exterior, so I hope to chip away at that soon.

Digibeast IS out now for the Super Collection! Has five new achievements. A form guide video will be out soon on my youtube channel as well.
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Re: Red Triangle Games Projects (Development Thread)

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I finished the exterior updates for Surfasaurus and was pretty proud of myself and wanted to see the before and after. Then I figured maybe other people would too and had fun editing the video. I'm hoping to have the update done by mid-May at the latest, I dont' think the interiors will take too terribly long. I just plan on updating the art that I think is very bad, do some shading and call it a day. The layer effects have been wonderful in this game in particular. I mean, I had fun with them in Scare Spree, but this is super fun. Studying how Feenick and Bena did them in their projects helped a lot here.
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