TownDev

Hi, I'm TownEater, and this is my development blog. I'll be posting about various major and minor projects of mine here, so if you want to keep up with any of them, this is the place to do it. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, my ask box is open, feel free to fill it. Twitter: @towneater

[towndev]

Are you still active? Also are you still working on Quirk Assist?

I am still around, yes. I haven’t really been writing devlogs here for any of my projects, though. It’s not that I’m writing them somewhere else, I just haven’t been writing devlogs (maybe I should be?). As for Quirk Assist, I haven’t done any active development for it in a long while. I had aimed to use Java to create a better version that would work cross platform and work better than the current AHK driven version, but that proved to be difficult, if not impossible. The reason that cross platform Quirk Assist is such a challenge is because each operating system has different input systems and each has to be hooked in an individual and unique way. Java isn’t well configured for this job because it is meant to run in the Java Virtual Machine, circumventing the unique traits of each operating system. I was using a C++ based library that java could hook into that was meant to address these issues on multiple platforms, but some essential functionality was missing. For example, I could send and detect keystrokes, but not intercept them. I had to send backspace keystrokes the moment an input was detected, but that was a sloppy solution and the keyboard felt like it was fighting me, rather than assisting.

The library I was using is called “JNativeHook”, available here: https://github.com/kwhat/jnativehook. It looks like it hasn’t been updated since 2017 so I doubt they added the functionality I need. I see a couple others (from a quick google search there is this one https://github.com/dyorgio/jinputhook) but nothing that provides what Quirk Assist needs. I would need to write a C or C++ program from scratch designed to skillfully hook several different operating system input architectures in precisely the way I need, and that is a very tall order. In addition, I am sure it would set off all kinds of antivirus alarm bells, because someone making a program like that for ill intent would be able to cause significant damage.

In general I have set Quirk Assist development aside, I have other priorities in life and it would take a herculean effort to deliver a stable multiplatform solution. The current version has its quirks and issues, but it still does do what it is intended to, if even just on windows. I still enjoy homestuck stuff here and there but I don’t really follow it as closely as I did years ago.

I know you as the question asker probably don’t care much about my other projects, but for anyone else watching this blog who cares about my other projects like Hardboot, I am still around. I haven’t worked actively on Hardboot in a long time, but I still have everything I need to work on it. When I migrated computers I also migrated my workspace for Hardboot. I often think about finishing it, but it needs significant refactoring. When I started developing it, even the concept of encapsulation was unknown to me, not to mention the poor thread safety. I still want to finish Hardboot but it is not my top priority either.

In general if anyone wants to get in touch with me, sending an ask here should definitely work. I mostly lurk these days but I am around!

[towndev]

Whoops

I forgot to update for like, half a year. My bad.

I’m working on cutscenes for Hardboot right now, on top of other life stuff. I’ll probably post a few screenshots of those, but not the whole cutscenes because spoilers. I built a system for making cutscenes in my engine using a simple interpreted language(I seem to use those for a lot of things), and I’ll just have to see how well it works for what I want to do. I’m not sure I’ll be able to make complex shots using it, but I don’t know enough about cinematography to make complex stuff anyways. I’ll be keeping it simple and hopefully it’ll turn out alright!

[towndev]

Since MSPA forums seem to be down forever, could you post an alternate quirk assist download link?

Well, I’m not sure where I’d post it permanently, but the download for 1.4.2, the latest version, is here:http://www.mediafire.com/download/g4sewjaatnkeisn/Quirk_Assist_1.4.2.zip

[towndev]

Not related to Hardboot development, but a friend of mine drew a sword the other day and I thought it was really cool, so I decided to make a 3D model of it.

[towndev]

I promised another devblog soon, and here it is! It’s not very exciting, but I added a note collection system to the game. Now, players can find dropped notes on enemies to find out more about the game world and the lore. Now I just need to write all the little notes. Other than that, I’ve been working on various ways the game will end. Boss battles, endgame conditions, cutscenes and event triggers and so forth. It’s easy to code but difficult to figure out how I should do it. There are lots of little trip ups and traps I could fall into, and I want to make sure the systems work well and don’t break if something I don’t expect happens. I’ll keep posting updates as I have things to show, but progress is being made!

[towndev]

Whoops, looks like I neglected my devblog for a few months!

Yeah, that’s not a good thing, and I know. I’m still trying to finish the game of course, but a lot of real life has been getting in my way lately. Finding time and spare motivation to work on the game has been difficult, and not a whole lot has gotten done. Don’t worry though, that doesn’t mean the game isn’t going to get done, or that I’m going to abandon it to work on something else. I may have been busy, but I’m still as determined as ever to see this through to the end, no matter how long it takes.

That end isn’t far away at all, in fact it’s laughable how much I’ve been dreading doing so little. Sure, the last 10% of a game is 90% of the work, but I don’t have much longer until I’m at that last 10%. Once I get there I can polish it as much as I see fit, and call it done anytime. I have a lot of other game ideas but I’m suppressing them until this one is done. Look out for more updates soon. I’ve found some more time to work on this game and although I’ve all but given up on having a time frame the game should be done by, it’s always hanging over my head and I’m not gonna get over that until this is done.

[towndev]

Long time, no post, I know. I’ve fallen out of the habit of posting regularly, but I am still working on this game. It’s just harder to find things I want to post now, because most of what I do is polishing, bugfixing, and adding end-game content I don’t want to spoil. I’ve been working on this project about 2 years now, and with every item I cross off my todo list, I can feel the game getting closer and closer to completion. I’ve only ever taken a few games this far before, and I’ve discovered something about finishing games that I didn’t understand before. I see every little flaw in this game, I’m so close to it, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to fix every single one. In fact, I’m almost certain I wont be able to fix every flaw. Sometimes that bugs me, and keeps me from wanting to work on it, but there will come a point that I’ll have to call it finished, with some flaws still remaining. Then all I can do is just try to do it better on the next game. Finishing this game is important to me, it’s been my work for the past 2 years, and I’d like to see it finished sooner rather than later. I’ll keep posting here with any new or exciting progress, as I try to pick off the rest of my todo list.

[towndev]

Progress lately has been hard to pin down to a single topic. I know I’ve been posting less frequently as before, but I’ve been getting plenty done. I just don’t have an easy way to show much of my progress. Pictured above are a few of the enemies I added into the game, which are an easy way to show off. Some designs are by UniverseUsurper, also animated by UniverseUsurper. Besides that, a few of the major milestones I’ve hit include: -Added max lights graphics option -Added new icon graphics for the in-game menu -Completed functionality for all buildings -Added most, if not all, of the enemies for the 2nd floor -Sound effects for every building It’s all really coming together, and it’s exciting to see it play more like a game as development goes on. My beta requirements list is getting shorter and shorter every day, and the tasks are looking more manageable. I’m most worried about when the game is in the beta phase lately, I want to make the game as polished as possible and I just think about how many little things there are to do. I’m going to take it one step at a time though, and make sure all game essential systems get implemented.

[towndev]

A long overdue update! Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve written my last update. I’ve done a lot in that time, too much to put into screenshots but I got a couple which I thought looked cool. A brief overview of some things I finished: -A full move of the source code to online version control, including the engine and the game -A working linux version -New region generation algorithm(depicted above) -Unique light models for every sector -Improved graphical options for slower computers -Sector generation and art for the 2nd and 3rd floors -Several new enemies -And countless other bugfixes and balance changes All that would be really hard to fit into screenshots, and on top of that, I want anyone who plays the game to have a couple surprises at least! the game is very close to beta now, which I’ll be having tested by some close personal friends. I don’t know how much longer before I can call the game finished, but I’m hoping for sooner rather than later.

[towndev]

Respawn chambers! I finally got around to a formal respawn system, rather than just booting the player back to the origin room. Players can build respawn chambers anywhere, then when a player dies, they have the option to respawn at any respawn chamber anywhere in the game world. Players can even come back at chambers built by other players. I know it’s been a while since my last post. Every time I feel like there’s going to be nothing stopping me from getting more work done, something hops out of nowhere and in the way. Regardless, I’m determined to see this game to the end, no matter how long it takes, and that end is in sight. Just a bit more content that’s been planned out, a few more features like this one that need to get hammered out, and a select few systems in the game that haven’t been implemented yet, like how plot is going to be conveyed. After that it’s just beta testing and polish. Over the coming week(s?), I’m going to work on just about anything I can get my hands on in the game, do whatever it takes to bring the game that much closer to being finished. As always, I hope I have something nice to show off next time I post!

[towndev]

Buildings and their GUIs!

So I was tired of having buildings in the game, but having no way to use them. I finally got to work on building GUIs and functionality. I’ve finished like 90% of them, with only a few very complicated buildings remaining. Players can now store items, store charge and oil, generate charge and oil, and more, through building interfaces. I also did a lot of technical work this week that brings the game closer to the exact standards required for a multiplatform program. I changed all save and config data to be saved in the appdata folder on windows and the equivalents on mac/linux. I’m also planning on changing how the program accesses its own local directory, because on linux it has some bugs finding itself. I’m hoping to have some solid multiplatform support soon. The game is steadily coming along and I’m excited to watch it grow so much faster than it has before. I dont know what I’ll work on this week, as always, but I’m sure that I’ll have something to show or talk about next week!

[towndev]

World generation! I’ve been doing a lot of work on world areas, textures, and decor. I created a slew of new unique textures for the world, and a couple new world generation algorithms as well. Many areas still need work, some feel too empty or too crowded. I also still need to have unique lighting for each area. Other than that, I just did a couple bug fixes and added a few new commands to the tile scripts, like mesh changing and set rotation. Most of what I have to show is visual heavy, rather than text heavy. There are a couple more generation algorithms I have to finish, some more decor assets to hammer out, and the matter of unique lighting. I might do that this week, or I may decide to focus on something else. The game is really starting to come together and move towards beta, so I just gotta keep working at it.

[towndev]

Main menu edits and additions, specifically the options menu! Before, the options menu was simply a box for the username, and two boxes for the resolution, but I've gone through and made it into a real, functional options menu. I also added a background to the main menu, minimal as it is. The main menu and options menu will now also scale with a higher resolution screen, although I’m still working on making the higher resolution options menu look pretty. I've been hitting a snag with the resolution options. The user can type any resolution into the boxes, even absurdly high resolutions like 40000x40000. I need some way to limit the resolution so it’s not so high that a large portion of the window is off-screen, while also allowing anyone who needs it to use incredibly high resolutions like 4K. I think I might limit the options menu to 1080p, but higher resolutions could be achieved by editing the config in notepad. My biggest concern would be the user making the screen too big to get back to the options menu to fix it, and not knowing how to find and edit the config manually. I know I didn't post for 2 weeks, I’ve been on a vacation of sorts. With my motivation to work as low as it was, I needed to take some time away from the project. I didn’t want to start any other projects out of fear of losing interest in hardboot, but I was playing other games, and getting some rest in general from the mental stress of coding. After a while I always gravitate back to the urge to code, because seeing implementations in other games makes me think about my own. I haven’t decided what I’ll work on this week yet, it might be more menu stuff, or it could be something in game. Either way I’m going to buckle back down and get as much done as I can.

[towndev]

No screenshots?

Yeah, nothing really new visually this week, that I can show. I finally finished up the boss fight, and it turned out better than I expected. At first I thought I would make it a classic “Boss head with two hands” fight, and I did. The thing is, the boss seems to react and act in ways I wouldn't expect from that kind of boss fight, it just feels different. I’m going to try to get a few close friends to fight him soon, and see just how difficult he is. Other than that, I just mopped up a few bugs, and put in a couple small features I’d been meaning to for a while. The boss was just about the only exciting thing over the week, game wise. This week, I plan to work on either loot balancing(it’s very out of balance right now, too much to ignore), building GUIs, or get back to world generation. Two out of those three would make for some nice screenshots, so we’ll have to see what gets done.

[towndev]

More boss attacks! I've been paying some special attention to the boss fight, giving it all the attacks I've planned out and it’s starting to come together. I’m not sure how much detail I want to go into about what it does, it might be a bit spoilery. I will say that it’s really hard to take screenshots while being attacked by a boss. There are only a few more attacks I need to work on for the battle, then I need to change the setting to something more like what’s at the end of the game, and then have people test the fight and balance it. I also realized this week that this is the first boss battle I've actually built for a game. None of my past games involved boss battles. I’m going to try to finish this boss battle this week, and if I have any spare time, fit him into the world generation somehow. I’m not sure just how long this will take me, so anything else getting done is kind of up in the air. We’ll see what I have next week.

[towndev]

Boss battle! The mainframe is finally a tangible enemy in the game, and an interesting one at that. The head will get knocked around by your attacks but return to it’s starting position. It’s little ball hands also get knocked around, but do not return to start. They’ll do a lot of flailing while fighting. Dynamic chains visually connect the mainframe to the hands, a touch I really like from old games. I still need to finish the attacks and attack patterns of the mainframe, those seem to be trickier than expected. I've started on his “death balls from the mouth” attack, but I can’t seem to get it to damage the player. It has to do with the mainframe being server controlled and I've only ever made client side projectiles. I also added gates at doors, to prevent you from just running through rooms with enemies in them, you have to defeat the enemies to lower the gates. I also had to spawn the player further in the room to keep them from getting caught in the laser door. I skipped a week. I know. I got sick and couldn't really do much development for an entire week. So I pretended the last two weeks were one week, for devlog purposes.  I still don’t know what I’m going to do this week. Maybe more boss, maybe something else. My motivation is still low so anything I can find that I can do, I’ll do.

[towndev]

Status effects and menu toolbar! I finally finished off those enemy status effect visuals. Now, when an enemy is under a status effect, they have a fully animated overlay that shows what effects are ailing them. I also put in a lot of sound effects to accompany the attacks. The laser attack is still whiny and annoying, and I think it's going to take a lot of programming to fix it. I also added a toolbar to open menus. I'm still working out the visual design, and I also need a user friendly way to close the menus. I'm thinking of putting close buttons on every menu, like a big X in the corner, as well as allowing the player to press esc to exit a menu. This weeks devlog came a day late, because I was out of town. I lost a lot of development time over the weekend so there isn't as much to show or talk about. For now, I'm going to start working on the boss battles and the paths to get to them. I haven't yet finished all the sector generation yet, but I want the game to be beatable for testers while I work on the rest of the content.