Battle Keep

This is an Indie development blog of Battle Keep, a fast paced, Bomber Man meets Gears of War meets 16bit Gauntlet boom-em-up! Developed by Last 17 - a bunch of people, 2 cats and 1 dog that love to push pixels around and polish them till they shine. var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-36215928-1']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })(); (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1&appId=128456933947737"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));

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Lots of new bits and bug fixes are coming together now as we rumble slowly towards some kind of single player beta version

- New dynamic lighting system (this has dramatically changed the 'feel' of the game)

- 8 way movement cycles

- object carrying and placement

- coin system re-instated

- NPC path finding and chase algorithms

- bug fixes across procedural map generation

Next up boss levels, story triggering & player respawns...

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"He aint heavy, it's my BOOM TIME!"

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And then there were 8

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Through BlendModes and a RenderTexture we now have a dynamic lighting system that can be applied to any game sprites, time to get it running on wall torches etc. with flickering effects etc. and see if there is any impact on performance.

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Might not look like much, but this is the start of a more dynamic lighting system for the game... Oh and I fixed the mini-map too!

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I have promised to start updating, so here is a quick shot of the big switch over to Sarling v1.4. The pros; Draw calls have been dramatically reduced thanks to batchable text (which will also allow a few more 1 pixel shadows at no GPU cost)... The cons; Vanished minimap and floating weapon icons after placement... nothing is ever easy. NPC dialogue/interaction coming up next.

New build is coming soon I promise...

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Working up the fair ground setting (minus shadows)

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Inside a kill room - Defeat the guardians to progress.

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New boom times! Animated mushroom clouds for destruction to keep everything a bit more snappy.

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Procedural maps ... with door switches. One beast of code.

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Ingame grabs! Fountain in, blood in, damage in, exits in ...

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Fountain of youth!

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Holding at 60FPS!

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In game screen grab, with dynamic shadows.