July News (Artscape, Charm City Meadworks, Social Media, and Bloodjak II)

Hello! It's been a busy month, and I just want to take a moment to poke my head in and address the many game projects and events I am juggling.

Regarding Underground Arcade and our events, past and future

First of all, thanks to everyone who attended Gamescape at Artscape this past weekend! It's a favorite event of ours (being Underground Arcade Collective), and that is largely due to the people. I personally loved watching many of you connect with our work in some fashion over the course of the festival. Shout out to IGDA Baltimore's Jonathan Moriarty for doing a stellar job of running the event.

Final high scores for the weekend are as follows:

• Bloodjak II - 11,070 pts - Dom
• Soul Eater - 6728 pts - Liz
• Diablow - 14,264 pts - Stephen
• Star Kid - 5443 pts - Kai
• Aaargh! Condor - 1490 pts - Mr. Older
• Koi Puncher MMXVIII
• 30 Koi Punched in 1 minute - Brandon
• 62 Koi Punched in 2 minutes - DDD
• Monster Truck Power Fantasy - 47,600 pts - Dom (again)
• Astro-Path - 6000 pts - Conlan
• Fungilluminati - 2440 pts -Taylor

Those are some big numbers! I am impressed by everyone's performance. 

We will be showcasing in Baltimore again at Charm City Meadworks on August 14th! Facebook event details are here. We can't wait!

Speaking of Underground Arcade, you can now like us on Facebook (here) and follow us on Twitter (@UnderArcade). We're running for our third year now, and a social media presence has long been overdue.

If you're looking for our games, mine are here, Stephen's are here, and John's are here.

Regarding Bloodjak II

My apologies for the lack of Bloodjak II devlogs. You can better follow the game's progress on Twitter (@BloodjakII). The game is still set to release on August 1st, which means that little time can be spared for devlogs. While I hate to leave folks relatively in the dark, the game will be better for it.

I had a blast sharing the current build of the game as part of Underground Arcade's collection last weekend - we're on the right track, and I can't wait to share the game with the rest of the world.

Bloodjak II Devlog #1

Hello.
We are making a game called Bloodjak II.

What kind of game is this?

It's the sequel to 2015's Bloodjak, an arcade-style shoot-em-up set in the darkest corner of cyberspace.

Footage from the original

Besides its fast-paced and unforgiving gameplay, what sets Bloodjak apart from other games of the genre is its scoring system. Dead players do not get to submit their score - in order to save your score, you must determine when to end your run and survive for the remainder of its duration. Complicating this is the fact that your ship is fragile and is destroyed in a single hit, resulting in a high-stakes, but rewarding, play experience.

The original version of the game was created in 48 hours for the 2015 Indies vs Gamers Jam at Game Jolt. It ranked in the top 10% of over 369 entries for the jam, and as a part of Underground Arcade Collective's exhibit, it's been widely enjoyed at the festivals and conventions at which we've shown it. While I've made countless small improvements over the years, the original is still constrained by the brevity of the original jam from which it was produced.

So, I'm leading an effort to remake the game, bigger and better than it's ever been. The game is being developed as part of Philly Game Mechanic's Profit Jam, an initiative to make, ship, and sell a game within two months. I've been itching to revisit Bloodjak  for a long time, and the Profit Jam seemed like the perfect opportunity.

What new stuff will be in the sequel?

At the very least, Bloodjak II will feature new enemies, more bosses, improved pacing, faster and more intense combat, improved visuals, and higher quality audio. My goal is to make a more complex, action-packed, and visceral experience.

The original was made a small team consisting of myself and Geoff Backstrom, who composed the game's music. To help deliver on the promise of a better game, I'm working with a larger team this time - Alex Cole and Dan Halma are handling the game's sound and music respectively, and Danielle Vuono is handling the visuals. They're all very good at what they do, and I am excited to work with them!

I'll be sharing regular updates about the game's development in the coming weeks - you can subscribe to this blog's RSS feed from the bar on the right, or you can follow me on Twitter @alchiggins. Thank you!

We Meet in the Dungeon

We Meet in the Dungeon is an asymmetrical card game for two players. I originally made it for Philly Game Mechanics' Try-a-New-Jam event earlier this year. The objective of the jam was to attempt something I've never done before - hence, the existence of this multiplayer tabletop card game.

Each participant assumes one of two roles: that of the Dungeon Player, or that of the Adventuring Player. The Dungeon Player is building a dungeon filled with monsters and traps while gathering darkness to summon a powerful overlord monster in an attempt to complete a sinister objective. In response, the Adventuring Player assembles a team of adventurers to conduct raids on the dungeon, attempting to recover two MacGuffins from the Dungeon Player and stop their ritual.

You can download the rulebook and card sheets from Itch.

Farewell, Waker

This is four years overdue, but I am formally declaring that I've abandoned development on Waker.

For those of you unfamiliar, Waker was a fantasy narrative adventure game that I was largely developing by myself from 2012-2014. The talented Ashton Morris was handling audio. It was to be a full length game with distinct puzzles and a branching story. A fair amount of people (strangers, even!) were excited about it. Folks were asking to collaborate. The game was blogged about. I never had as much engagement working on a project in the years since.

What lead to the demise of the game wasn't the scope itself as much as the fact that I had outgrown the project - my skills had improved considerably over the years I spent working on it. There are still a few really neat things happening visually and narratively - I still love Sue the Poggle.

During a couple of years following 2014, I had thought that I would one day return to and finish the project. While this possibility had rapidly dwindled since then, the release of Danger Zone Friends last winter was the final nail in the coffin. DZF became the full-length magnum opus that Waker was once meant to be, rendering Waker obsolete.

The last build I created is now publicly available in the Posterity Archive. It consists of about half of the planned story. The game ends abruptly when you reach the castle of Eldria, which I never populated.

Again, lots of y'all were really excited about the project, and I appreciate it. Thank you for your support.

Cecil Con Updates

Underground Arcade Collective is returning to Cecil Con this upcoming Friday and Saturday! Woo! Stephen, John, and I will be showcasing FIFTEEN VIDEO GAMES this weekend! Which is a lot! It's a lovely event and we are thrilled to return.

The games on display will include:

• Soul Eater
• Danger Zone Friends
• Star Kid
• Monster Hug
• Invasion Versus
• Aaargh! Condor 
• Koi Puncher MMXVIII
• Diablow
• Monster Truck Power Fantasy
• Ungrateful Birds
• Gewgawlicious
• Astro-Path
• Bloodjak
• Fungilluminati
• Digital Toilet World

As is always the case leading up to a con, I've updated some games of mine in preparation for the event.

Danger Zone Friends Update!

In response to player feedback, I've improved the tutorialization in the introductory level of Danger Zone Friends, better explaining JRPG fundamentals to players who may not be familiar with them. The tutorialization was not something I handled gracefully as the game's audience shifted from one person (my partner who has played JRPGs before) to a general audience (who includes... everyone). Hopefully this makes the game somewhat more accessible.

The new version can be downloaded here!

Exclusive to people attending Underground Arcade Collective events is a special demo version of the game that features a demo exclusive boss! The demo exclusive boss is called Demo Exclusive Boss. Yes, the Demo Exclusive Boss is a palette-swapped Screaming Tortoise Sword who can shoot lasers and turn invisible. No, the Demo Exclusive Boss will not be available as paid DLC for the full version of Danger Zone Friends. You have to come to a live event to fight Demo Exclusive Boss. Those are the rules.

 

The Danger Zone Friends demo starts at the game's introduction and concludes shortly after the first dungeon. In the context of the full game, the first dungeon itself doesn't need a climax, but as a stand-alone episode, it badly does. Hence, the creation of Demo Exclusive Boss.

Bloodjak Update!

Four years after being asked by several people to add gamepad support to Bloodjak, I've finally done it! I've resisted buying a gamepad for a long time on account of being poor. I now own a gamepad, but I am still poor.

There is a mechanical difference between playing with the keyboard and playing with the gamepad: the gamepad joystick uses vector math, while the arrow keys do not, meaning that, when playing with a keyboard, you will travel faster diagonally than you do orthogonally. However, the advantage to the keyboard player is slight and does not outweigh the extra finesse granted to the gamepad player.

This difference in diagonal speed would not normally be ideal, however, the physically incorrect keyboard movement has been present in the game for four years. It can be hard to walk the line between updating a game in a way that respects the original work and doing it in a way that fundamentally changes it, and improving the keyboard movement falls in the latter category. Meanwhile, adding physically correct gamepad movement is easier than having it match keyboard movement. Purists can still play with a keyboard if they want the "true experience," but if you own an Xbox controller, that is now the best way to play the game.

You can download the latest version here. Someone please beat Teapawncha’s high score.

Danger Zone Friends Soundtrack

Thank you so much to everyone who's played Danger Zone Friends so far! If you liked it, please share it, and rate it on itch, Game Jolt, and rpgmaker.net. If you didn't like it, please share it anyway, but maybe don't rate it! (that is a joke)

The game's soundtrack is one of my favorite aspects of it, and serves as the emotional core for the experience. You can stream and download the tracks here:

Danger Zone Friends: Now Available

Danger Zone Friends is out! It's a JRPG about two roommates on a grocery trip gone awry. You can download it for Windows from itch.

Agnes and Lulu set out to make a simple errand, but along the way, they find themselves taking a wrong turn into the Danger Zone! Will they be able to survive the hazards of the underground world, return to the surface, and complete their shopping trip?

2+ hours of JRPG adventure, featuring tactical combat, an original score, and jokes.

You can read more about the game here! The trailer is below:

As many of you know, this game is special to me for many reasons. I've been working hard for the past seven months, and at the end of it, successfully produced what is arguably my first full-length game. If you only ever play one of my games, please have it be this one.

I normally offer more thoughts about my projects upon release, but I'm comfortable letting this one speak for itself.

Gamejolt and soundtrack releases soon. Thank you for playing!

In other news, American Wallrunner is now on Gamejolt and itch, with downloadable HTML builds for those of you without Windows. Enjoy!