Soulsoup is an Adventure Puzzle game project I’m making in my free time, wearing the designer’s, coder’s and artist’s hats. I’ve challenged myself in completing it in 12 weeks (not gonna happen!) using Gamemaker. The following post is an update on it’s development.
Hey all! This week was quite slow on development, there was so many thing going on that had to take priority, like a broken car for example… but I got to start arting up the interior of the first area of the game, one that is actually playable. Slow progress is progress nonetheless! Here’s the level in question:
Obviously, doing the first pass of an area is long. Doing the other 100 levels that will use the same tileset is going to be much faster. While I’m doing the tiles I find conflicts with the look and gameplay. For example with sizes of interactive components and such. It’s not a big deal, I just have to take some decision and fix them.
There are also a few moving parts in this level such as the fountain and switches. Animating it will be a lot of fun.
I’m hoping that next week is going to be less busy and that I’ll be able to complete this scene. Fingers crossed!
Thank you for reading and taking interest in my project! Don’t hesitate to reach me at any of the following for a chat:
Soulsoup is an Adventure Puzzle game project I’m making in my free time, wearing the designer’s, coder’s and artist’s hats. I’ve challenged myself in completing it in 12 weeks using Gamemaker. The following post is an update on it’s development.
Hey all! As promised I took a couple of weeks off this project, realizing that it was a bit foolish to think I could end it in 12 weeks haha. To be honest, challenging myself with a deadline like this makes no sense as I work an average of an hour a day on it…like TOP. Finishing a game in 12 weeks would work if I could pour more hours a week.
Anyhow, for the time being I work with the clock off which is more fun anyways = better creativity. I’m still thinking of having deadlines to push myself to accomplish something. We’ll see about a plan later. 🙂
CAULDRON TEMPLE
I started sketching up one of the first area visited in the game. This is far from finished but it gives an idea on the type of mood I’m looking for. WIP WIP WIP WIP!!
Thank you for reading and taking interest in my project! Don’t hesitate to reach me at any of the following for a chat:
Soulsoup is an Adventure Puzzle game project I’m making in my free time, wearing the designer’s, coder’s and artist’s hats. I’ve challenged myself in completing it in 12 weeks using Gamemaker. The following post is an update on it’s development.
Hey all! Here’s the update on Soulsoup. It’s going to be a short one! I’ve decided to take 1-2 weeks off from Soulsoup to replenish some energy. Basically, once I’m out of energy because of … reasons, my focus and creativity are the first things that get penalized. I believe it’s better to take some time to rest, focus on the day job at the studio and come back rested on Soulsoup later.
Don’t forget, if there’s no fun, there’s something wrong. If you’re not taking pleasure in your projects (gamedev or other), take some time off and think of why you’re not enjoying yourself. In my case at this moment, it’s simply that my personal project is the one too many thing to do in the day. Once my schedule becomes a bit less stressful I’ll be able to jump back in!
Thank you for reading and taking interest in my project! Don’t hesitate to reach me at any of the following for a chat:
Soulsoup is an Adventure Puzzle game project I’m making in my free time, wearing the designer, coder and artist hats. I’ve challenged myself in completing it in 12 weeks. The following post is an update on it’s development.
Hi Everyone! Fourth week of Soulsoup development is already behind us, here’s a quick update on what has been done this week.
Level Selection
When reviving the project on week 1, I found a functional and super useful level selection screen. It’s a classic mobile type menu showing at a glance your ranking (how many stars you got) for each level. It does the job but it’s not exactly what I want…it’s dry.
I did a quick pass at integrating a level selection system from another project. What is shown below is far from the final result obviously but it’s closer to what I want in the end product. Travelling through various nodes that have distinctive visuals and specific names will, hopefully, give the sense of voyaging around the world.
Gameflow
I had some sort of epiphany. I had trouble making the two different modes coherent in the same world. They were also difficult to work with as everything in the engine was specific to either one mode or the other. Well the answer is quite simple. Both modes are to be integrated in the same gameflow, feeding each other to create a whole experience. The brilliant thing is that by merging them together, I end up with a simpler game to create, as in: 1+1 = 0.8. Yep, weird mathemagics.
Integrating this flow is my first task next week. I want to have the full loop in and ready for the next playtests.
Getting Some Visibility
I’m also spending some time setting up a proper website, an entry in indie DB and things like that. Better communication with the community can only be good. I am mainly using twitter for communication but I feel like I’ll need to make more effort in order to reach more people. More on that later.
Setting up a website is more complicated than I thought. I’ve never been the best with too many choices. I prefer limitations ;).
Other Updates
A tally screen at the end of a puzzle has been added. It shows how well the player did, his progress and some options (continue, retry).
More work has been done on sketching the ingredients and finding the right recipes.
Thank you for reading and taking interest in my project! Don’t hesitate to reach me at any of the following for a chat:
Hi everyone! Here’s what I’ve been up too in this 3rd week of development on Souloup.
First Playtest
The first portion of the week was all about polishing, bug fixing and refining some rules and mechanics to make sure it was solid enough for a first playtest. Small things such as highlighting the token the player is currently selecting, fixing collisions and such.
Working in a pub. Changing places helps the creative juices.
The playtest was short but worked well. I feel more confident that the mechanics are easy to understand and that people (well at least that friend) was interested by the discovery element of the game. The next playtests are going to be chunkier with actual progression.
Recipes
Some thoughts were put into the combinations that lead to recipes. I almost completelly redesigned this portion of the game as I thought it was lacking. The new system has less ingredients and combination posibilities but most components offer MULTIPLE gameplay choices. I find this to be a very important rule in puzzle design. Components used to make the puzzle should be at least 2-sided by which I mean the same object can be used in different situations. For example, an explosive red barrel in an action game can be used to blow up enemies, blow up a hole in a wall for navigation or be used as a platform on which to jump to reach higher places.
The following image was taken BEFORE the re-design, but it is still interesting as it shows a bit of the process.
Process on finding basic recipes for Soulsoup
Mock Up
Finding the perfect resolution is always a bitch. I’m still unsure where Soulsoup will live but I know it would do well on mobile devices as well as on PC or even console. With that in mind, I have about 46 millions different resolutions to work with. That’s just the way it is now. Resolution is critical for game components, layout and size of the assets. For my projects I have 2 sizes I like to work with, like in the images below you can imagine how the very different sizes of the characters affects how everything else is built.
Miranda from another WIP project. Smaller Character.Big Boss from MGSV. Bigger Character.
Because of the tilebased controls of Soulsoup, I think the smaller version is more interesting, it has this old-school charm that screams puzzle game and that is why I selected that size.
By the way, if you are interested in seeing how this big boss sprite was made, you can look at the timelapse on my (…very empty) youtube channel 😉 Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQKWqumwycg
After many attempts and redraws, I managed to settle the visual style and sizes for sprites and tiles I’ll be using for Soulsoup. Now that this is decided, it should be much faster to create the various assets I’ll need. I am super excited about starting to make sprites and animate them!
The next images show the progress from an early draft to a potential level. The last image does not show the final product, I’m still working on it, but it shows the kind of details I want to have in the game world such as moving water and clouds. It is still rather empty since the game sprites are not present.
AI
As a final task this week, I got to start the basic AI system of Soulsoup. It is very basic as the critters of the forest have very strict movements and no decision making. It is a puzzle game and reactions to the player’s moves must be predictable! For example, the “deer” runs in the oposite direction of the hero when the hero stands next to it.
I have about 20 personalities like this to code which will then be mixed and matched to create all the various characters of the game.
Hi everyone! Already 2 weeks out of 12 down! This week have seen great advancement in the project as my work got propelled by the voice of the legendary David Bowie.
Current state of the Game. Still not pretty but more functional!
Prototypes & Tests
The goal of the week was to refine the games’ rules to find a pleasant balance between randomly mixing ingredient and attempting to create the perfect combination to maximise points. My goal was to get an easy progression in the recipes. I want players to have fun matching practically any ingredients together and get a final recipe out of it instead of forcing strict combinations. The game is primarily about discovery.
I tested a lot of different movement schemes and decided to go with my original plan of dragging tokens around with the mouse or touch screen. I spent a couple of hours polishing this mechanic so it is solid and fluid. It’s almost there. There is also an indicator now that shows when a combination of tokens creates something. This makes for a more fluid and easygoing game experience.
Blackboard items are almost all crossed out now.
I’ve also prototyped and tested the end conditions and pressure mechanics of the game. I’ve tried turn based, time based and error based. The best option for me at this moment for the score mode is time based. Nevertheless, I don’t want the player to feel too much rush, I want them to be relaxed and have enough time to experiment.
The mechanic is simple, as time goes by the Glutton gets hungrier. You need to make sure that enough food is given to him to lower his hunger or else you’re the one who gets eaten! The monster’s hunger is further satisfied when you give him what he wants. When you give him enough, you move to the next level.
A new Glutton
Talking about the Glutton, I’ve started sketching him on Friday. He was originally supposed to be just a head icon moving around the board. I’ve just recently decided to have a sprite of its full body at its “real” scale instead. Its hulking appearance will be very cool on the board compared to other tokens. Now I just need to figure out how to make it move around properly.
Sketching the Glutton (blue monster) standing and sitting.
NEXT WEEK
Next week is a big milestone as I will playtest the game with friends and colleagues to see where it needs refinements. If you are making a game yourself, know that planning and committing to do playtests is not only crucial to get feedback but is also a great way to motivate yourself. Working under a deadline do marvels!
For this playtest, I need to make sure there is enough recipes available in score mode for it to last more than 5 minutes. I also should make sure that 1 to 3 puzzle levels are available. I want to test both game modes. Talking about level design, I leave you with some sort of a spoiler 😉 The following are old level design I found this week. I’ll probably rebuild those levels in the game just for the kicks.
The following images show a bit of how I work. I always design on paper before doing anything in the engine. I find doing these analog designs a much easier task. Working with a pen, eraser and paper helps me think and focus.
Hey all! For my first game project of the year I chose to revive an old game idea started 5 years ago. It’s called Soulsoup. A game about souls…and soups! It’s a puzzle matching adventure that I feel is a simple enough project to finish in the 12 weeks deadline.
The title screen? Loading splash? Not sure but I’ll have to redo it.
What is Soulsoup?
In soulsoup you play as a treasure hunter, more like a thief, that steals an artefact from a mysterious temple in the woods. The artefact is a magic cauldron that comes to life when you attempt to take it away.
You are effectively made prisoner of the woods, stuck there to serve as the cook to an insatiable creature with a peculiar diet called the glutton.
The cauldron’s magic allows you to summon and bind souls into different delicacies that you feed to the glutton.
The game mechanics are quite simple, you have to mix ingredients together to create the dish the glutton requires. The twist is that the glutton and the hero are in the level as well. The glutton eats anything in proximity. The hero must not be eaten while he moves around to do various actions such as harvesting, digging, collecting and moving objects the cauldron can’t. It’s a game about discovery, memory and planning.
Early days!
I want to build 2 modes: the adventure mode which takes you to pre-populated levels where you have to find how to create the correct dish in the least move as possible and an infinite scoring mode where you have to be quick to make dishes and points before the Glutton decides to eat you.
1 week in
This week I spent most of my time going through the old code and cleaning it up… It’s really awful code haha. Seriously I don’t know how it worked. Thank god for those comments though! If there is one thing that I’m glad about is that I always comment my code even if I’m the only one working with it. In this case it saved me a lot of hassle in understanding how that old code worked.
It’s amazing the things I learned in the last 5 years. For example, I remember that one system that took me nearly 2 weeks to understand and develop took me 45 minutes to reimplement in a much better way. I don’t qualify as a programmer and I don’t have a lot of opportunity at work to develop that skill, but this shows that with practice and dedication it is possible to learn almost anything.
Drawing a path to move ingredients around.
The first thing that I made work is the level design tool. It’s a handy in-game tool that allows me to create levels, play them, save them, export them to a script that can be used to rebuild them in the real game. It allows me to design and test puzzles much faster than actually scripting each level and compiling the game each time.
Soulsoup level editor
I am focusing on the score mode at the moment which doesn’t require any level design but relies on all the core features. That way I am making sure everything works properly before attempting to design puzzles.
This week’s clean up payed up and I played a game in score mode for the first time in 5 years. I need to get some rules sorted out to make it more fun but the foundation is there.
It’s a mess of placeholder icons but it works!
Next week is about integrating these design changes to the core rules and mechanics. Maybe I’ll fit in some pixel art too. I’m getting annoyed by these placeholder souls!
Hey everyone! I notice that I haven’t posted anything here since November…and it’s for a good reason I assure you! I’ve been working extra hard on Soulsoup, a video game project. I had it scheduled for release in July and it was going very well with the “no distractions aloud” policy. But on one of my daily trip to the coffee shop to get some fuel, my laptop unexpectedly stopped and crash! My hard drive failed! Anybody who lived this experience knows about the instantaneous panic that ensues when you realize you just lost months of work in a flash. Losing data is a gutting experience and to be sure I never live it again, here are the things I learned:
1.Your PC WILL fail. As sure as you’ll die someday. It’s reality, machine breaks, even top of the line ones. Don’t trust your machines.
2.Data recovery is not for the normal user. Some companies and labs specialize in data recovery from failed hard drive and can even guaranty they will recover your precious photos and document. It might be true but you’ll have to spend a lot of money to get them back. I got quotes from 10 different companies from all over the world and their prices where all located between 800$ and 2000$. The price vary on the amount of data to recover, the type of drive and the type of failure.
3.Try Home remedies. Sometime, you can recover the data yourself. There are so many help forum on the web you can use. The key is to diagnostic your failing hard drive and to be sure you know what the problem is. If your drive turns and doesn’t make any clicking or grinding noises, there are good chances your data is still in good shape. If you have nothing more to lose and are about to throw your hard drive in the bin, you might as well try these first.
4.Let go. At some point, you need to stop thinking about what you’ve lost. The negative emotions will eat all your precious energy you need to build a new project. When you’ve tried everything, let go, and never think about it again.
5.Do your backups! And do them as often as you can based on their importance. In my case, I will backup my projects every day, my photos and other documents once a week and my music once a month.
6. Do your damn backups. Seriously! How many times did my friends, family, windows reminder and my cats told me to do mine and there was always something more important fun to do, right? The best way to make it happen is to use a software that will automate the process. It takes only an hour to set up and you’ll have security and peace of mind. Try Syncback, it’s free and does a very good job.
7.Sync. Syncing is another way to say backup. Syncing your important data every day is the key to never get frustrated by data lost. By syncing all your devices, you ensure that the most up to date data is stored everywhere and accessible anywhere.
8.Store your data in many places. In cases of extreme events like fire, tornadoes and thievery, your data might get destroyed physically. A fire will not spare your back up drive. So either use a safe-box resistant to fire and water, use a free cloud service such as Amazon Cloud Drive or ask a friend/family to store one of your back up drive in his home.
9.Share, don’t be secretive. Which I’ll do in the future! I was waiting you see…The last month on my project (which I lost) was all about polishing the visuals of the game so I could start showing it off. Of course it was never good enough so I waited. Now I lost it and I wish I’ve shared it. Sharing is another sort of back up as you’ll be able to track back at least a part of your assets. Once something is on the web it’s practically indestructible.
I am still recovering from this painful loss which has made me depressed and unproductive for 2 weeks. A friend of mine suggested I should start working on something new instead of going back right away to Soulsoup to rebuild what I’ve lost. I think it’s a good advice and it will give me time to attempt every home remedies I still have to try. (I am currently waiting for hard drive pieces to show up by mail.) I will post news on this new project as soon as I have something to show!
The Bosstopus 