It's been a while since I posted an update here, but I've made some good progress in the past year so I thought I'd share! Progress has been slow due to university and a lack of motivation, but the game is still coming along little by little.

Graphical Improvements

Since the Worldbuilder trailer last year, I have done major work on the game's visuals.

Tiles

I have redesigned terrain tiles to fade to black deeper in the terrain. I found this makes the visuals more readable and the tiles themselves appear to have more depth. This also opens it up to have silhouettes of decorations in the foreground.

Backgrounds

Not much has changed with the existing distant backgrounds, though I have added a new one for a new area - the Toxic Caverns. I have greatly improved support for background objects, including many quality of life features in the level editor to make them easier to work with. One major issue before was they would interfere with selecting foreground objects. I fixed this by adding 3 modes to the worldbuilder: Tilemap mode allows you to edit the tilemaps, Object mode lets you modify sandbox objects, and Background mode lets you modify background objects. You can no longer interact with objects in one mode from the other, allowing you to ignore the background when placing and moving interactive objects, and vice versa. Clicking on an object now selects the frontmost object, and clicking multiple times without moving the mouse will cycle through overlapping objects. This makes interacting with the editor much more intuitive.

Lighting and Effects

The lighting has been updated to look much better. I have added basic normal maps to tiles, making them respond to the direction light shines on them. This adds depth and can break up the repetition in the tilemaps, and can respond nicely to moving light sources. I have also cranked up the brightness and range of all the light sources, which even on its own vastly improves the appearance of the game. One of the coolest new graphical effects are the new essences. Those fuzzy glows that appear when something exists in the other dimension can now take on many shapes, and respond to the player's location. Tile and object essences now blend into each other, helping to bridge the gap between tiles and objects. I also redesigned the Rupture portal effects. Again. This final iteration is my favorite by far, and will likely make it into the final game.

UI and Gameplay

I have overhauled the design of the interface, making it look metallic and increasing the contrast. It now has sounds when you interact with it, giving even more feedback while you use it and reducing the awkward silence of the Worldbuilder. Oh, and- it can now be navigated with a controller.

Controller Support

This brings me to my next point: Controller support! I have done a ton of work on controller support, and you can now navigate menus and perform all gameplay actions on a controller. The system supports all major controllers, including the Xbox, Switch Pro, Dual Shock, and other generic gamepads. While I have not tested it, combined with Linux build support the game *should* be able to run on a Steam Deck now. Adding support for these new input devices required me to create sprites for every button on each controller, as well as generic ones for other controllers. I also made icons for all North American keyboard keys, as well as extra mouse buttons. These input icons can all be integrated nicely into the text system, being swapped out on the fly depending on your input device. All inputs can be rebound, even on controller, allowing players to pick the most comfortable control scheme for them.

Other Changes

I have rewritten all the player scripts to be more maintainable. This means less bugs, and easier programming on my end. I spent a few weeks finalizing player movement and ability values, so I can really start to dig into the level design of the main game. I started working on the dialogue system. It existed before, but was extremely basic and hard to work with. Now, dialogue will be made in the worldbuilder, allowing players to add stories to their worlds. More work is needed, but it's a solid start, and should help drive me towards implementing the story in the main game. Of course, progress has been made on the main game, and the first two areas, Delta Facility and The Lost Mines are entirely blocked out, and have entrances to the surrounding areas. Still a ways to go on level design, but it's getting there bit by bit.

Augmentations

Saving the best for last, I have begun prototyping the augmentation system! I decided to simplify it drastically from my original idea, as that was too convoluted and clunky to implement in a way that was fun to interact with. The new system is inspired by Paper Mario's badges and Hollow Knight's charms, but with a twist: Augmentations can be overclocked. Augmentations take the form of chips that can be found throughout the world. These chips can be slotted into a limited number of sockets, which can also be found in the world. Chips can do many things, from increasing dash speed to increasing energy regeneration to summoning a probe to fight for you. Overclocking Cores are mini-chips found throughout the world, and can be slotted into regular chips. Overclocking takes the existing effect of a chip and improves it, but at a cost. For instance, you can dash even faster but it becomes harder to control. You can fall very fast but take fall damage. My personal favorite that I've come up with, you can hold double the energy, but being at max energy for too long makes the chip explode, damaging the player and becoming unusable until it is fixed. I intend to be very generous with the positive effects and very devious with the negative ones, to hopefully make building augmentation setups fun. That's about it for this development update, thanks for reading this far! There has of course been more miscellaneous progress in the meantime, but most of it is much less exciting. If you want to keep up with development, I post regular progress updates in the Ruptured discord server, linked here: https://discord.gg/YvW2qBfj5C Until next time, have a good night!

[ 2025-02-09 02:57:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

After a whole year of not finishing it, I have finally released the trailer for the level editor, which is now know as: Worldbuilder. You can watch it here: [previewyoutube=II6L_wfn05g;full][/previewyoutube] And of course, you can join the official discord server, linked here, to engage with the community and get much more regular progress updates, and to watch my mental state plummet as I look at code I wrote 2 years ago.

Introductions

This is my first time doing one of these, so I should probably introduce myself. My name is Dan, and I am the sole developer working on Ruptured. I started Ruptured in May 2020 as my final project for a high school course, and I just kept working on it. I eventually started coming up with a story, which is why I am still making it to this day. The game is inspired by a Halo 5 map, which had the same core mechanic built entirely within forge, which I thought was cool. I now know that making the same world twice is twice the work, which is why I made the Worldbuilder to do most of that work for me. On that note, here's some development insight!

Development Update

I have started work on a massive refactor of the player code. Originally I had put everything in a single file with over 1800 lines of code. This made it impossible to find things, and was very prone to bugs. So, I decided to rewrite it almost from the ground up. I separated the general, movement, ability, and animation logic into different scripts, all referenced from the main one. This is much more extensible, which brings me to the next thing...

The Combat Update

Feedback from testers so far, and from my own experience, shows a huge problem with the game: The combat is not fun. Currently, you just aim at an enemy and spam click until it dies. And sometimes waiting for your energy to recharge. This is not engaging gameplay, and so I have come up with a plan to fix this:

Energy and Health

Health will be much more limited, with a maximum of 10 throughout the game. Getting hit will deal one damage, or two if it is a powerful hit. This simplifies the player's health, so they can focus more on the combat itself. Next, energy will no longer recharge on its own, or if it does it will be painfully slow. Instead, you can recharge using the rupture core. This limits your movement, but can recharge your energy to full relatively quickly. You can then use it to shoot, recover some health, and finally...

Rupture Attacks

You can't have magic in a sci-fi universe. Unless you call it a rift in space. Players will be able to expend a large amount of energy to unleash powerful AoE attacks. These will use a full un-upgraded energy meter, encouraging players to use them sparingly.

New Enemies

The current crop of enemies serve their purposes, but they are not very interesting. We have stationary ones that shoot at you, ones that pursue you and shoot at you, ones that push you, ones that walk back and forth... You get the idea. Very generic. And most importantly, they don't rupture. I have this cool mechanic that enemies can utilize, but they don't. I want to add enemies with more advanced AI, movement, and that can actually engage with the player instead of letting them simply walk past in the opposite dimension. I also want to add some trap ones, just as a little prank. The core combat will not change. You will still aim and shoot at enemies, and the movement will stay the same.

Future Plans

After the combat overhaul, my next focus will be NPCs. This will include a dialogue system, interactions, some form of quests, and shops. Beyond that, I plan to work on cutscenes, putting storyboards in-game as a placeholder as I build the necessary systems. Throughout this, I will be expanding and refining the world, fixing bugs, and adding content to the level editor. Ideally, I want the game to be in a state ready for February or June NextFest of next year, which of course comes with a playable demo. If you have read this far, thank you for the support! Don't forget to join the Discord server and wishlist the game here on Steam! I might start doing these monthly, if this does well.

[ 2024-03-06 10:10:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Story

The year is... Well, you don't really know. Probably some time in the 2100s, but the year is the least of your concerns. The universe has been split in two in some unknown cataclysm.


You are an Index Company worker android with the ability to switch between the two similar, however slightly different, dimensions. You must use this ability, and many more unlocked along the way, to learn the secrets of this broken world. All that stands in your way is a malfunctioning super-AI, hell-bent on stopping you. Simple. Unfortunately, your memory has been cleared. On your journey you can find hidden data logs containing deeper lore on objects and enemies in the game, as well as further details allowing you to reconstruct a picture of what happened.

For a further challenge, or an easier experience, there are Reality Crystals hidden throughout the world which once collected, allow you to augment your gameplay experience on new saves.

Level Editor

With the level editor, you can create and share your own levels and even entire metroidvania campaigns. Create a challenge, tell a story, or make a puzzle with ease. Share your creations on the Steam Workshop, or download and play other creators' levels. Want to make a bullet hell? Fight 5 bosses at once? Just want to mess around with the game mechanics? The freedom is yours, as nearly all the developer tools will be available in the level editor!

Challenges

There will be built in challenge levels in the game. Beating these challenges will unlock various customization items, including colors, facial expressions, and hats. Go for a fast time to unlock better items, and flex on your friends!