Development Blog #6
4 difficulty options are simply not enough! This clearcut and simple system (Relaxed, Standard, Challenge, and Insane Mode) leaves the potential for players to find one difficulty too easy and another too hard! This has to change!!! Obviously, I needed to make a more intricate system; simple just isnt my style! So, instead of pressing a difficulty option to start the game, the difficulty options get their own screen!
To start the game, you simply press that Start Game! button on the game landing screen? I dont really have a good name for that screen
You heard that right, there are over 70 trillion difficulty options. Each one of these 12 difficulty sliders found on the previous screen can be adjusted independently from each other, leading to this absurd amount Theres no way I can test them all, so there may be a few that are broken Dont worry, the 4 initial difficulty modes wont be going away, theyll still be there. These modes are now presets, pressing them will set all of the sliders to be options that these game modes happened to set these sliders before, you just didnt know about it. I may add an option to save more presets, however, thatll be something that comes after 1.0. [spoiler]These presets can be set beyond the values that Relaxed and Insane mode set them, leading to even harder or easier difficulties than was possible before. You can also set one slider to be easy and another to be hard in case you didnt figure that out from the two previous paragraphs.[/spoiler]
Well, you may be asking, how do all of these difficulty options reflect a balanced game experience? Well, thats where the score multiplier comes in! As it turns out, that useless thing in the demo that was always stuck to 1.0x now actually has a purpose! The way it works is, each difficulty slider (on the difficulty page) will give a message on how easy or hard it will make the game. After some dark magic, you get a single number that reflects the estimated difficulty of the game. Higher values represent harder games, and lower values represent easier games. The score multiplier is 1.0x when you set everything to Standard (using the Standard Mode preset), and is what you will get right out of the bag. (Fun options may affect the score multiplier too, so Standard Mode may not be 1.0x if you have some fun options enabled.)
Why a score multiplier, though? Well, as you may be able to tell, the score multiplier multiplies your score! But only at the end of the run. So your score may jump a significant amount when you die. This score will be used to determine whether you got a high score. Which leads me to this point: No longer will you have 4 separate high score databases! Now there will be only one, and everyone competes for the same scores! (Well, everyone on your machine, at least.) [spoiler]Ill try to see that I cant get them connected to your Steam profile, post-1.0.[/spoiler] The score multiplier will adjust your score based on the difficulty you have selected. Playing on a harder game mode for 5 minutes can now potentially compete with a player playing on an easier game mode for 3 hours! Note, however, that the score multiplier may magically decrease if you play for less than around 16 minutes. (1000 seconds, technically.) This is to prevent players from abusing the initial ramp-up. The score multiplier is designed to adjust scores so that scores reflect a persons capability to play Solar War. I personally can achieve up to around 400,000 points; can you beat me?
Looks like another shorter development blog Well, shorter is relative. Therell be one more, before the full release. Expect it around the 2nd week of March, and the full game, sometime after that. Honestly, Im running out of creative ways to try to convince people to follow Solar War and put it on their wishlist. Dont you know how hard advertising is? Until next time! -Andrew
[ 2025-03-01 18:31:42 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello! You are currently reading one of my development blogs. I write these development blogs so that I can talk about my game, Solar War. (If youre not here for Solar War, then somethings gone terribly wrong!) This is the 6th development blog in a series that need not be read in any particular order. (Mostly because I dont care.) This development blog will talk about difficulty options; there have been some major changes because I felt that 4 difficulty options were just a bit too lacking!
The New and Improved Difficulty
4 difficulty options are simply not enough! This clearcut and simple system (Relaxed, Standard, Challenge, and Insane Mode) leaves the potential for players to find one difficulty too easy and another too hard! This has to change!!! Obviously, I needed to make a more intricate system; simple just isnt my style! So, instead of pressing a difficulty option to start the game, the difficulty options get their own screen!
To start the game, you simply press that Start Game! button on the game landing screen? I dont really have a good name for that screen
Over 70 trillion difficulty options!!!
You heard that right, there are over 70 trillion difficulty options. Each one of these 12 difficulty sliders found on the previous screen can be adjusted independently from each other, leading to this absurd amount Theres no way I can test them all, so there may be a few that are broken Dont worry, the 4 initial difficulty modes wont be going away, theyll still be there. These modes are now presets, pressing them will set all of the sliders to be options that these game modes happened to set these sliders before, you just didnt know about it. I may add an option to save more presets, however, thatll be something that comes after 1.0. [spoiler]These presets can be set beyond the values that Relaxed and Insane mode set them, leading to even harder or easier difficulties than was possible before. You can also set one slider to be easy and another to be hard in case you didnt figure that out from the two previous paragraphs.[/spoiler]
Score Multipliers!
Well, you may be asking, how do all of these difficulty options reflect a balanced game experience? Well, thats where the score multiplier comes in! As it turns out, that useless thing in the demo that was always stuck to 1.0x now actually has a purpose! The way it works is, each difficulty slider (on the difficulty page) will give a message on how easy or hard it will make the game. After some dark magic, you get a single number that reflects the estimated difficulty of the game. Higher values represent harder games, and lower values represent easier games. The score multiplier is 1.0x when you set everything to Standard (using the Standard Mode preset), and is what you will get right out of the bag. (Fun options may affect the score multiplier too, so Standard Mode may not be 1.0x if you have some fun options enabled.)
And a unified high score, as well
Why a score multiplier, though? Well, as you may be able to tell, the score multiplier multiplies your score! But only at the end of the run. So your score may jump a significant amount when you die. This score will be used to determine whether you got a high score. Which leads me to this point: No longer will you have 4 separate high score databases! Now there will be only one, and everyone competes for the same scores! (Well, everyone on your machine, at least.) [spoiler]Ill try to see that I cant get them connected to your Steam profile, post-1.0.[/spoiler] The score multiplier will adjust your score based on the difficulty you have selected. Playing on a harder game mode for 5 minutes can now potentially compete with a player playing on an easier game mode for 3 hours! Note, however, that the score multiplier may magically decrease if you play for less than around 16 minutes. (1000 seconds, technically.) This is to prevent players from abusing the initial ramp-up. The score multiplier is designed to adjust scores so that scores reflect a persons capability to play Solar War. I personally can achieve up to around 400,000 points; can you beat me?
Sorry, everyone, thats it!
Looks like another shorter development blog Well, shorter is relative. Therell be one more, before the full release. Expect it around the 2nd week of March, and the full game, sometime after that. Honestly, Im running out of creative ways to try to convince people to follow Solar War and put it on their wishlist. Dont you know how hard advertising is? Until next time! -Andrew
[ 2025-03-01 18:31:42 CET ] [ Original post ]
Development Blog #5
Welcome to Epsilloni! Although this solar system may be a bit lacking in planets, there is still plenty to see, because each of those planets has a ridiculously large amount of moons. Seriously, who put them all there??? (Spoiler alert: it was the developer) As you can probably see from the description I put in the last paragraph, this solar system puts a lot of weight into its moons. How much weight? Well, here come the statistics! Epsilloni will include 5 main sequence planets. These planets can spawn moons, of which there are 47 in total. (10 of which are annoyances, but still!) There will also be rare events, and 8 (regular) bosses were also thrown in because I felt like it. The main sequence planets themselves are large gas giants (with the exception of Crisp, which looks suspiciously like Mercury), and likewise are slow-moving and come with a lot of health. Most of the moons come from these gas giants, with a record-setting 14 moons from Gargantua, which also happens to be the largest planet in the game, boasting a size twice that of even Jupiter! Rather than share a bunch more boring facts about this solar system, Im going to instead shut up and show you a bunch of pictures instead.
Caption: Heres some of the planets!
Caption: Heres some more planets.
Caption: Oh look, a boss has shown up! And youll see, this boss is special because it promotes its moons to main sequence planets!
Caption: OK, thats enough planets now
Caption: Whoops
Yes, yes, theres a new Solar System. But what about Tour Mode? I wanted to talk about Tour Mode as well! Now now, what is Tour Mode anyways? Well, Tour Mode is an alternate game mode where The Earth hops around from one solar system to another. That way, they get to experience all of the solar systems! Before we continue, let me get one thing straight: The only reason why I said Tour Mode is an alternate game mode is because Tour Mode was not the first game mode to be added. Arcade Mode, where The Earth stays in a single solar system for the entire game, was the first game mode to be added, and was included in the demo. Tour Mode came second, but that doesnt mean it is less important. Let me reiterate, Tour Mode is not one of those Fun Options that can be enabled for laughs and giggles. Tour Mode is a legitimate way to play! Youll even have the choice to select it on the Start Game screen, instead of having to go into the Fun Options screen! Seriously!
Caption: See? Proof! I have proof! Im not making it up!!! (Dont worry, I dont see Fun Options as an illegitimate way to play. Havent you heard about acting?)
Alright, fine, time for serious talk where I actually talk about game features instead of making fun of myself. In Tour Mode, you do not get to choose where you go, which is in contrast to Arcade Mode, where you can choose the solar system to play in. Instead, Tour Mode will tour through all of the solar systems one by one, starting with The One and Only Sol, then going to Alphy Centauri, and finally going to Epsilloni, where players will stay for the remainder of their run. In each solar system, players will battle it out like normal, though greater bosses will be allowed to spawn sooner. After a few bosses, the sun boss will spawn! The Sun Bosses, which are more like checkpoint bosses rather than the climatic final boss, have reduced health so that players can get through them faster. Once the Sun Boss is defeated, players will be shunted off to the next solar system. Epsillonis Sun Boss is the exception, though. I wont have a climatic final boss for Tour Mode (at least for 1.0), so Epsilloni has normal health to compensate for that. In addition, once Epsilloni is defeated, players will stay put in that solar system. Thats pretty much the gist of Tour Mode. Any questions? Good! [spoiler]Oh, by the way, if you have the Angry Sun fun option enabled, then the sun bosses wont have reduced health. Then, youll get to face the full fury of all of the suns, one by one! Oh, what fun it will be![/spoiler]
So all of that has been added to Solar War. So, what else is coming? Well, in terms of game development of new features, were *mostly* caught up. However, there are still some features that I have been keeping secret, and probably will until launch. (You dont want to know all of my surprises, now, do you?) That being said, game development for me comes in sprints and lulls. Ill work on it heavily for a while, then not work on it very much for another while. Currently, Im in a sprint, and Im pretty close to finished and can see the light at the end of the tunnel (I just hope its not an oncoming train!) As I add more new features, Ill write (most) of them in a development blog. I currently anticipate releasing a few more development blogs at a pace of around once every other week until launch (not including release announcements).
Id like to speak to the people who somehow made it through this entire development blog and are thinking Wow, this game is looking really good!: Why dont you follow this game (and add it to your wishlist while youre at it) so that you can receive notifications when I post another of my [strike]lectures[/strike] development blogs? Until next time! -Andrew
[ 2025-02-10 21:59:51 CET ] [ Original post ]
Welcome, everyone, to yet another development blog, where I pour my heart out to the bleak empty void! Ill be talking about more shiny new features today in a desperate bid to get more people to buy this game!!! All jokes aside, this development blog will be quite long; I have a LOT to talk about. Some of the highlights include: The third solar system, and a method to tour through all of these solar systems instead of sticking with a single solar system until you wear out and die.
The Third (and final, for v1.0) Solar System will be called Epsilloni
Welcome to Epsilloni! Although this solar system may be a bit lacking in planets, there is still plenty to see, because each of those planets has a ridiculously large amount of moons. Seriously, who put them all there??? (Spoiler alert: it was the developer) As you can probably see from the description I put in the last paragraph, this solar system puts a lot of weight into its moons. How much weight? Well, here come the statistics! Epsilloni will include 5 main sequence planets. These planets can spawn moons, of which there are 47 in total. (10 of which are annoyances, but still!) There will also be rare events, and 8 (regular) bosses were also thrown in because I felt like it. The main sequence planets themselves are large gas giants (with the exception of Crisp, which looks suspiciously like Mercury), and likewise are slow-moving and come with a lot of health. Most of the moons come from these gas giants, with a record-setting 14 moons from Gargantua, which also happens to be the largest planet in the game, boasting a size twice that of even Jupiter! Rather than share a bunch more boring facts about this solar system, Im going to instead shut up and show you a bunch of pictures instead.
Caption: Heres some of the planets!
Caption: Heres some more planets.
Caption: Oh look, a boss has shown up! And youll see, this boss is special because it promotes its moons to main sequence planets!
Caption: OK, thats enough planets now
Caption: Whoops
Dont forget: I wanted to talk about Tour Mode too
Yes, yes, theres a new Solar System. But what about Tour Mode? I wanted to talk about Tour Mode as well! Now now, what is Tour Mode anyways? Well, Tour Mode is an alternate game mode where The Earth hops around from one solar system to another. That way, they get to experience all of the solar systems! Before we continue, let me get one thing straight: The only reason why I said Tour Mode is an alternate game mode is because Tour Mode was not the first game mode to be added. Arcade Mode, where The Earth stays in a single solar system for the entire game, was the first game mode to be added, and was included in the demo. Tour Mode came second, but that doesnt mean it is less important. Let me reiterate, Tour Mode is not one of those Fun Options that can be enabled for laughs and giggles. Tour Mode is a legitimate way to play! Youll even have the choice to select it on the Start Game screen, instead of having to go into the Fun Options screen! Seriously!
Caption: See? Proof! I have proof! Im not making it up!!! (Dont worry, I dont see Fun Options as an illegitimate way to play. Havent you heard about acting?)
What is Tour Mode??? I want to know!!!
Alright, fine, time for serious talk where I actually talk about game features instead of making fun of myself. In Tour Mode, you do not get to choose where you go, which is in contrast to Arcade Mode, where you can choose the solar system to play in. Instead, Tour Mode will tour through all of the solar systems one by one, starting with The One and Only Sol, then going to Alphy Centauri, and finally going to Epsilloni, where players will stay for the remainder of their run. In each solar system, players will battle it out like normal, though greater bosses will be allowed to spawn sooner. After a few bosses, the sun boss will spawn! The Sun Bosses, which are more like checkpoint bosses rather than the climatic final boss, have reduced health so that players can get through them faster. Once the Sun Boss is defeated, players will be shunted off to the next solar system. Epsillonis Sun Boss is the exception, though. I wont have a climatic final boss for Tour Mode (at least for 1.0), so Epsilloni has normal health to compensate for that. In addition, once Epsilloni is defeated, players will stay put in that solar system. Thats pretty much the gist of Tour Mode. Any questions? Good! [spoiler]Oh, by the way, if you have the Angry Sun fun option enabled, then the sun bosses wont have reduced health. Then, youll get to face the full fury of all of the suns, one by one! Oh, what fun it will be![/spoiler]
Whats next?
So all of that has been added to Solar War. So, what else is coming? Well, in terms of game development of new features, were *mostly* caught up. However, there are still some features that I have been keeping secret, and probably will until launch. (You dont want to know all of my surprises, now, do you?) That being said, game development for me comes in sprints and lulls. Ill work on it heavily for a while, then not work on it very much for another while. Currently, Im in a sprint, and Im pretty close to finished and can see the light at the end of the tunnel (I just hope its not an oncoming train!) As I add more new features, Ill write (most) of them in a development blog. I currently anticipate releasing a few more development blogs at a pace of around once every other week until launch (not including release announcements).
Alright, alright, Im done now!
Id like to speak to the people who somehow made it through this entire development blog and are thinking Wow, this game is looking really good!: Why dont you follow this game (and add it to your wishlist while youre at it) so that you can receive notifications when I post another of my [strike]lectures[/strike] development blogs? Until next time! -Andrew
[ 2025-02-10 21:59:51 CET ] [ Original post ]
Development Blog #4
Unfortunately, I have decided that it is in our best interests to shut down the demo version of the game at full release. This is because so many things have changed, that it almost feels like another game at this point. Plus, I really dont want to be maintaining two versions of Solar War. And, because newer versions are more polished, I dont want everyone to think that the demo, which is an older version of the game, is an accurate description of the game. Therefore, around the time the full version of the game comes out, I will be shutting down the demo. I hope you understand.
In Development Blog #3, I officially pushed back the release date of this game to Q1 2025. Well, it is now Q1 2025, so when should the game be expected? Those with a keen eye may have noticed that I had quietly updated the planned release date to say March 2025. This wasnt done arbitrarily; I can now say with near 100% confidence that the game will be released sometime in March! Im not announcing any specific date, because either 1.) I will put it too far ahead, causing me to sit on the game and deprive you of playing it even though it is ready; or 2.) I will put it too soon, technical difficulties arise, and I end up having to put an announcement the day before the release stating, sorry, Ill have to push it back a week. With that out of the way, I will say: I will release Solar War as soon as it is ready, and I expect Solar War to be ready sometime in March. Ill provide further updates as we get closer to the release.
Let me get one thing straight: I would never release a product that I do not feel is ready to release. Ive heard countless stories of games being forced to publish on the release day even though they werent ready yet, and if a game has a disaster launch, then the game is kind of ruined forever even if it turns out to be a good game 6 months down the line. At least, thats how I see it, and Im sure a lot of other people see it the same way. That being said, I wont actually be done with Solar War when I release it. There will be some more (free) updates in the future that will add some more features, but the reason why Im putting these updates after the main release is because I find that these features arent strictly necessary for the game, even though they will bring good content into the game. I havent actually decided what I want to add yet, but it will probably be something along the lines of more solar systems, more fun options, more bosses, and more chaos. That being said, I do want to focus on what is actually coming into the original release of Solar War: In Development Blog #3, I mentioned that I was adding a second solar system, Alphy Centauri, along with the One and only Sol that is already in the demo. I will say now that there will be a third solar system, with further details in a future development blog. In Development Blog #1, I mentioned an Upgrade Store. This Store is already beginning to be implemented, with a fully functional currency and upgrade system already in place. This is coming to the full version immediately, though I may do some more tweaks after launch. There will also be more Fun Options. In the demo, there are currently 4 Fun Options; however, there will be more by the full release. I wont say how many, though. There will also be some more features that I wont be mentioning yet
Solar War will launch sometime in March, and this release will include:
If you want to hear more updates as they come out, then Ive heard that following this game and adding this game to your wishlist will enable you to receive notifications on critical events, like the game actually releasing! Until next time! -Andrew
[ 2025-01-25 17:22:02 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello again! It sure has been a while, hasnt it? Life has been keeping me busy for the past few months, preventing me from writing to this blog. But here I am now! I havent forgotten about this game! This development blog will be on the shorter end, and although I wont be talking about any shiny new features today, I will be going over a lot of technicalities regarding the release of the game. (TLDR at bottom)
The Demo is to shut down on full release
Unfortunately, I have decided that it is in our best interests to shut down the demo version of the game at full release. This is because so many things have changed, that it almost feels like another game at this point. Plus, I really dont want to be maintaining two versions of Solar War. And, because newer versions are more polished, I dont want everyone to think that the demo, which is an older version of the game, is an accurate description of the game. Therefore, around the time the full version of the game comes out, I will be shutting down the demo. I hope you understand.
About the release date of my game
In Development Blog #3, I officially pushed back the release date of this game to Q1 2025. Well, it is now Q1 2025, so when should the game be expected? Those with a keen eye may have noticed that I had quietly updated the planned release date to say March 2025. This wasnt done arbitrarily; I can now say with near 100% confidence that the game will be released sometime in March! Im not announcing any specific date, because either 1.) I will put it too far ahead, causing me to sit on the game and deprive you of playing it even though it is ready; or 2.) I will put it too soon, technical difficulties arise, and I end up having to put an announcement the day before the release stating, sorry, Ill have to push it back a week. With that out of the way, I will say: I will release Solar War as soon as it is ready, and I expect Solar War to be ready sometime in March. Ill provide further updates as we get closer to the release.
What is coming with Solar War?
Let me get one thing straight: I would never release a product that I do not feel is ready to release. Ive heard countless stories of games being forced to publish on the release day even though they werent ready yet, and if a game has a disaster launch, then the game is kind of ruined forever even if it turns out to be a good game 6 months down the line. At least, thats how I see it, and Im sure a lot of other people see it the same way. That being said, I wont actually be done with Solar War when I release it. There will be some more (free) updates in the future that will add some more features, but the reason why Im putting these updates after the main release is because I find that these features arent strictly necessary for the game, even though they will bring good content into the game. I havent actually decided what I want to add yet, but it will probably be something along the lines of more solar systems, more fun options, more bosses, and more chaos. That being said, I do want to focus on what is actually coming into the original release of Solar War: In Development Blog #3, I mentioned that I was adding a second solar system, Alphy Centauri, along with the One and only Sol that is already in the demo. I will say now that there will be a third solar system, with further details in a future development blog. In Development Blog #1, I mentioned an Upgrade Store. This Store is already beginning to be implemented, with a fully functional currency and upgrade system already in place. This is coming to the full version immediately, though I may do some more tweaks after launch. There will also be more Fun Options. In the demo, there are currently 4 Fun Options; however, there will be more by the full release. I wont say how many, though. There will also be some more features that I wont be mentioning yet
TLDR
Solar War will launch sometime in March, and this release will include:
- 3 Solar Systems
- More Fun Options
- An Upgrade Store
- Some other new features
Thats everything for today
If you want to hear more updates as they come out, then Ive heard that following this game and adding this game to your wishlist will enable you to receive notifications on critical events, like the game actually releasing! Until next time! -Andrew
[ 2025-01-25 17:22:02 CET ] [ Original post ]
Development Blog #3
When I first created the games webpage, I wasnt really sure when I would release the final product as I was still pretty early in development. At the time, I thought sometime in 2024 sounds good to me! so I put that in as the release time. Now that I am further along in the development process, I can now say with slightly more confidence that, assuming everything goes well, I will still be able to release this game before this year ends. However, something always goes wrong in the development process, be it programming difficulties, real-life time conflicts, etc. So, I will be going with the safe option and will be announcing now that I will be releasing Solar War sometime in Q1 2025. (January-March) I hope you understand.
In Development Blog #1, I had mentioned that I was going to add more solar systems into the game, each with their own design and gameplay feel! I believe that now is a good time to be revealing the first of these new solar systems. Let me introduce you to Alphy Centauri! (For those who were looking forward to images, sorry, there will be none! I like to let each planet be a mystery, and if I associate a planets likeness to its AI, then I will kind of be spoiling the game for newer players. And no, I will not be putting images under spoiler tags! I will only be putting other things under spoiler tags!) Alphy Centauri is a binary star system with 10 main sequence planets in the system. These planets can spawn moons, though none of them can spawn nearly as many moons as the Sol System can. [spoiler](Tidal can spawn 3 moons, as opposed to Saturns 6)[/spoiler] Rare events can also hit this system, [spoiler]which can spawn planets, asteroids, comets, Things, nukes, and even suns![/spoiler] And, of course, there are 8 bosses that can spawn in. The thing that really makes this system challenging and fun(?), though, is this: Annoyances (the small gray balls that are really hard to hit and can shoot The Earth) spawn in much greater frequency here, making it much more difficult to effectively recover your HP when you accidentally run into one of the bigger objects. A lot of objects in this system are smaller, but there are a few big objects that can really ruin your day. Note that in harder game modes, annoyances can kill you directly!
I wont be going over all of them, but I will be going over a few of them.
This is a planet that you may not want to destroy because if you do, multiple annoyances will fly out of it, wreaking havoc on your health! Stats: [spoiler]
Lente is a real beast, with 300 max health! It slowly slumbers toward a random location on the screen, and when it does it fires a Lazer beam at The Earth! Stats: [spoiler]
With all of those annoyances flying about, all hope may be lost; but there is another planet that can help clear them out for you! That right, its todays [strike]planet[/strike]hero, Shroud! Shroud is an AOE planet that can help clear out some of the smaller entities for you. It does follow you, though, and it can defeat you if youre not careful so? Do you keep it alive so that it can help clear the board, or do you defeat it so that it doesnt clear YOU? Stats: [spoiler]
Since this is a binary system, it makes sense that the final boss has two suns. I coded in the ability for two boss bars to display simultaneously just so that I could effectively pull this off. Ill leave the details of the boss fight itself for all of you to figure out when the game is released. Dont worry! Youll be fine mostly.
If all of this sounds interesting to you, then why dont you wishlist this game on Steam? It would mean a lot to me, AND it also enables you to receive a notification when the game is released! Until next time! -Andrew
[ 2024-09-14 18:51:01 CET ] [ Original post ]
Greetings, and welcome to my development blog! In these blogs, I like to share features that I am working on incorporating into the full release of my game. This is my third development blog, but if you are new here, then dont worry; reading them in order is not strictly required. :)
About the release date of my game
When I first created the games webpage, I wasnt really sure when I would release the final product as I was still pretty early in development. At the time, I thought sometime in 2024 sounds good to me! so I put that in as the release time. Now that I am further along in the development process, I can now say with slightly more confidence that, assuming everything goes well, I will still be able to release this game before this year ends. However, something always goes wrong in the development process, be it programming difficulties, real-life time conflicts, etc. So, I will be going with the safe option and will be announcing now that I will be releasing Solar War sometime in Q1 2025. (January-March) I hope you understand.
The actual thing that I wanted to talk about today
In Development Blog #1, I had mentioned that I was going to add more solar systems into the game, each with their own design and gameplay feel! I believe that now is a good time to be revealing the first of these new solar systems. Let me introduce you to Alphy Centauri! (For those who were looking forward to images, sorry, there will be none! I like to let each planet be a mystery, and if I associate a planets likeness to its AI, then I will kind of be spoiling the game for newer players. And no, I will not be putting images under spoiler tags! I will only be putting other things under spoiler tags!) Alphy Centauri is a binary star system with 10 main sequence planets in the system. These planets can spawn moons, though none of them can spawn nearly as many moons as the Sol System can. [spoiler](Tidal can spawn 3 moons, as opposed to Saturns 6)[/spoiler] Rare events can also hit this system, [spoiler]which can spawn planets, asteroids, comets, Things, nukes, and even suns![/spoiler] And, of course, there are 8 bosses that can spawn in. The thing that really makes this system challenging and fun(?), though, is this: Annoyances (the small gray balls that are really hard to hit and can shoot The Earth) spawn in much greater frequency here, making it much more difficult to effectively recover your HP when you accidentally run into one of the bigger objects. A lot of objects in this system are smaller, but there are a few big objects that can really ruin your day. Note that in harder game modes, annoyances can kill you directly!
Some of the new objects that you can expect to find
I wont be going over all of them, but I will be going over a few of them.
Caged
This is a planet that you may not want to destroy because if you do, multiple annoyances will fly out of it, wreaking havoc on your health! Stats: [spoiler]
- 20 Max health
- NO Recovery
- Can spawn up to 8 annoyances when defeated, with a minimum amount dependent on difficulty
Lente
Lente is a real beast, with 300 max health! It slowly slumbers toward a random location on the screen, and when it does it fires a Lazer beam at The Earth! Stats: [spoiler]
- 300 Max health
- NO Recovery
- Can fire a lazer beam at Earth, making it currently the only main sequence planet to do so
- Can also spawn a moon, which I will not be talking about today
Shroud
With all of those annoyances flying about, all hope may be lost; but there is another planet that can help clear them out for you! That right, its todays [strike]planet[/strike]hero, Shroud! Shroud is an AOE planet that can help clear out some of the smaller entities for you. It does follow you, though, and it can defeat you if youre not careful so? Do you keep it alive so that it can help clear the board, or do you defeat it so that it doesnt clear YOU? Stats: [spoiler]
- 100 Max health
- SOME Recovery
- Has an oversized collision box due to its really thick clouds
- Deals damage to every planet that contacts it
- Damage rate due to direct collision with The Earth is reduced
- Can be terraformed, which eliminates its threat to you while still keeping its helpful abilities
- Can also spawn a moon and its cloud, which I will also not be talking about today
Alphy and Beaty Centauri (The final boss of this system!)
Since this is a binary system, it makes sense that the final boss has two suns. I coded in the ability for two boss bars to display simultaneously just so that I could effectively pull this off. Ill leave the details of the boss fight itself for all of you to figure out when the game is released. Dont worry! Youll be fine mostly.
I guess Ive said enough today
If all of this sounds interesting to you, then why dont you wishlist this game on Steam? It would mean a lot to me, AND it also enables you to receive a notification when the game is released! Until next time! -Andrew
[ 2024-09-14 18:51:01 CET ] [ Original post ]
Development Blog #2
Because, of course, an unbalanced game does not play well! But no, seriously, Ive been trying to balance the game for months now. Well, to be honest, Ive been trying to balance this game since I started working on it which has been a few years at this point? But more recently, I made some changes to powerups that make them more balanced. (Fortunately, all of my changes make them stronger. This time.) You may have seen some of those changes in the demo update that I recently released, but Ill talk about them here anyways.
Originally, The Moon (the powerup, not the enemies) had only 30HP and a partly 0.5 HPps recovery rate. That doesnt sound very much here, but when you realize that that means that each moon would deal only around 15HP to planets before being destroyed, those numbers become a lot worse, actually. The Large Moon, however, was a significant improvement to the regular Moon, with 150HP and a 0.5 HPps recovery rate. Wait, why did I say that that was a significant improvement, I didnt mean that at all! So, what we had was a useless object that essentially dictated a wider berth around enemy planets that was only good at preventing Hamuena from spawning (once), and awarding 100 points upon its defeat. But we already have a 100 points powerup, and for once, it doesnt have any other negative effects associated with it! Clearly, some changes are in order. The first thing we did was raise its max HP to 100, which is the same as The Earth. This means it can withstand a whole lot more blow (2 seconds of blow, in fact!) before being defeated. The Large Moons max HP was also raised, to 500HP. We didnt stop there, though; we also raised The Moons recovery rate to match The Earths. This not only represents a general improvement across the board, but it also makes it such that The Moon will recover differently depending on what difficulty level youre playing at. This now means that you have an object that you can swing into enemy planets, dealing a lot of damage or you can keep your distance and use the moons to help shield against projectile shots. Or, of course, you could find some new mechanism that fits your playstyle, the choice is yours! To help counteract this change, we made it such that The Moon could only be spawned from powerups, which means that The Thing will no longer spawn moons. These changes are already in the updated demo, go check them out!
Did you know that you can terraform planets in order to make them help you? The methods that allow them to be terraformed are pretty complex and I do need to make them simpler, but thats not for today. Instead, I wanted to address the issue that they are too weak! The problem is, 2 of the terraformable planets, Mars and Titan, have glaring holes in their defenses that can mean that they are defeated almost immediately after being terraformed. (Ganymede, fortunately, does not have this problem.) Since terraforming planets can be quite expensive, this will not do! One of their biggest problems is that they can be ripped apart by water projectiles, which actually leads right into our next section
In its current form, each water projectile deals 2HP of damage to any planet that it hits, with a few exceptions. While this may not sound like much, planets such as Europa and Callisto can shoot up to 300 projectiles at a time, which means that this is the end result if youre not careful
(Sometimes? ONLY sometimes?) This applies to not only Earth, but (almost) every other planet, enemy or not. But we have a powerup for that! Its called Wipeout, and it doesnt even damage your allies! So we nerfed water by making it deal only 0.2HP of damage. Now, while planets can still be defeated by water (especially if their health is already low), water is more likely to deal just a splash of damage. This means that Europa and Callisto wont clear the board, yourself included.
The Wipeout powerup, however, is supposed to clear the board. However, when Heat-seeking shot was active, then all of those wipeout shots would automatically seek toward the nearest enemy planet. This didnt look real good, so we made it such that heat-seeking was disabled during the duration of the wipeout. Full Health is also a good powerup to get (especially when your health is running low!) However, when Golden Health was active, then Full Health would not heal The Earth at all. This was changed such that Full Health would heal The Earth by 100HP no matter what (bounded by max health), just like what Needy Health does when it is activated. As a small bonus, this means that terraformed planets will now be healed by Full Health as well.
It means a lot to me that you took all of this time to read whatever I felt like writing here. It would also mean a lot to me if you would wishlist this game on Steam! Until next time! -Andrew
[ 2024-08-06 15:44:38 CET ] [ Original post ]
Hello again! Welcome to my second development blog! Its only been around 2 months? since my last development blog, so Id thought Id give an update on how things are going. To be honest, though, summers have always been slow for me, so there hasnt been as much stuff done as I would have hoped. But still, Ill be showing you my progress anyways!
Why its important to balance your game
Because, of course, an unbalanced game does not play well! But no, seriously, Ive been trying to balance the game for months now. Well, to be honest, Ive been trying to balance this game since I started working on it which has been a few years at this point? But more recently, I made some changes to powerups that make them more balanced. (Fortunately, all of my changes make them stronger. This time.) You may have seen some of those changes in the demo update that I recently released, but Ill talk about them here anyways.
Making The Moon generally better in everything it does
Originally, The Moon (the powerup, not the enemies) had only 30HP and a partly 0.5 HPps recovery rate. That doesnt sound very much here, but when you realize that that means that each moon would deal only around 15HP to planets before being destroyed, those numbers become a lot worse, actually. The Large Moon, however, was a significant improvement to the regular Moon, with 150HP and a 0.5 HPps recovery rate. Wait, why did I say that that was a significant improvement, I didnt mean that at all! So, what we had was a useless object that essentially dictated a wider berth around enemy planets that was only good at preventing Hamuena from spawning (once), and awarding 100 points upon its defeat. But we already have a 100 points powerup, and for once, it doesnt have any other negative effects associated with it! Clearly, some changes are in order. The first thing we did was raise its max HP to 100, which is the same as The Earth. This means it can withstand a whole lot more blow (2 seconds of blow, in fact!) before being defeated. The Large Moons max HP was also raised, to 500HP. We didnt stop there, though; we also raised The Moons recovery rate to match The Earths. This not only represents a general improvement across the board, but it also makes it such that The Moon will recover differently depending on what difficulty level youre playing at. This now means that you have an object that you can swing into enemy planets, dealing a lot of damage or you can keep your distance and use the moons to help shield against projectile shots. Or, of course, you could find some new mechanism that fits your playstyle, the choice is yours! To help counteract this change, we made it such that The Moon could only be spawned from powerups, which means that The Thing will no longer spawn moons. These changes are already in the updated demo, go check them out!
Terraformed planets
Did you know that you can terraform planets in order to make them help you? The methods that allow them to be terraformed are pretty complex and I do need to make them simpler, but thats not for today. Instead, I wanted to address the issue that they are too weak! The problem is, 2 of the terraformable planets, Mars and Titan, have glaring holes in their defenses that can mean that they are defeated almost immediately after being terraformed. (Ganymede, fortunately, does not have this problem.) Since terraforming planets can be quite expensive, this will not do! One of their biggest problems is that they can be ripped apart by water projectiles, which actually leads right into our next section
Making Water less like Wipeout
In its current form, each water projectile deals 2HP of damage to any planet that it hits, with a few exceptions. While this may not sound like much, planets such as Europa and Callisto can shoot up to 300 projectiles at a time, which means that this is the end result if youre not careful
(Sometimes? ONLY sometimes?) This applies to not only Earth, but (almost) every other planet, enemy or not. But we have a powerup for that! Its called Wipeout, and it doesnt even damage your allies! So we nerfed water by making it deal only 0.2HP of damage. Now, while planets can still be defeated by water (especially if their health is already low), water is more likely to deal just a splash of damage. This means that Europa and Callisto wont clear the board, yourself included.
Some other tweaks
The Wipeout powerup, however, is supposed to clear the board. However, when Heat-seeking shot was active, then all of those wipeout shots would automatically seek toward the nearest enemy planet. This didnt look real good, so we made it such that heat-seeking was disabled during the duration of the wipeout. Full Health is also a good powerup to get (especially when your health is running low!) However, when Golden Health was active, then Full Health would not heal The Earth at all. This was changed such that Full Health would heal The Earth by 100HP no matter what (bounded by max health), just like what Needy Health does when it is activated. As a small bonus, this means that terraformed planets will now be healed by Full Health as well.
Thank you for making it this far!
It means a lot to me that you took all of this time to read whatever I felt like writing here. It would also mean a lot to me if you would wishlist this game on Steam! Until next time! -Andrew
[ 2024-08-06 15:44:38 CET ] [ Original post ]
Demo Updated to v0.5.1
(They say a picture is worth 1000 words which is why I put a screenshot of the aforementioned screen up top.)
Have you ever wondered, at the end of a run, where those 94,718 points came from? There are multiple ways those points could have been awarded, but there was no way to see how you got your points. UNTIL TODAY!
(I was gonna say something but I forgot)
Nothing much to say here, except for the fact that weve buffed the Moon (powerup, NOT enemies).
Weve added a new setting called Auto Fire. This setting, when enabled, causes The Earth to continuously fire as soon as its cooldown has been exhausted (kind of like continuously holding down the mouse.) This setting could prove to be very useful for those who play with a trackpad!
Bug Fixes:
[ 2024-07-24 13:46:47 CET ] [ Original post ]
Greetings! I am pleased to announce that I have updated the demo! (to v0.5.1!) This update brings a lot of QOL features and some new UI improvements that make the game generally more enjoyable to play.
New Start Game Screen
(They say a picture is worth 1000 words which is why I put a screenshot of the aforementioned screen up top.)
- Weve added a new Start Game button in the title screen that takes you to this screen (see image above). Here, weve rearranged everything to give it a more coherent look.
- Speaking of which, weve also changed the font to Retro Gaming. This change has appeared on (almost) all UI objects.
- You may have noticed something called Fun Options. These are options that change the game in a small but significant way when enabled. These features actually already existed in the demo, but they were hidden under the Gameplay Settings, which required a few button presses to access. Feedback has shown that that was a few too many!
- Since all of the Gameplay Settings have been moved to this screen, the System Settings screen has become just the Settings screen.
- And please ignore the score multiplier! It doesnt do anything!!!
Score Summaries
Have you ever wondered, at the end of a run, where those 94,718 points came from? There are multiple ways those points could have been awarded, but there was no way to see how you got your points. UNTIL TODAY!
(I was gonna say something but I forgot)
- Now, when your run is over, you will get to see exactly where your points came from.
- This screen comes after the Game Over screen, and is the last screen before you return to the Title screen.
- Some feedback is shown on top of all of the score types. This feedback is randomized.
- Speaking of which, if you dont want to enter a high score (for some reason), you can now skip high score entry. Im not sure how relevant this is to score summaries, but Id thought Id include it here anyways.
- You can still see the planets moving around in this screen, by the way. Also, in my opinion, this would be a really cool place to take a screenshot in order to boast how good you are at this game!
Moon Buff
Nothing much to say here, except for the fact that weve buffed the Moon (powerup, NOT enemies).
- The Moon now has 100HP (from 30HP)
- Large Moon now has 500HP (from 150HP)
- Both The Moon and Large Moon now have the same recovery rate as that of Earth.
- Hamuena (the white oval moon that gets in your way) will now instakill a Small Moon if both are found to be active. However, if the Large Moon is active when Hamuena attempts to spawn, then that spawn attempt results in no damage at all!
- The Thing (the molten planet that barrels toward you at max speed) no longer spawns moons upon successful collision.
- Moons also take less damage from projectile shots.
Accessibility
Weve added a new setting called Auto Fire. This setting, when enabled, causes The Earth to continuously fire as soon as its cooldown has been exhausted (kind of like continuously holding down the mouse.) This setting could prove to be very useful for those who play with a trackpad!
Other Things
Bug Fixes:
- Planets will now properly destroy themselves when their boss version spawns when Disable Health is on.
- Nukes should work properly upon subsequent spawns
- The Moon now plays the correct hit sound when colliding with water
- The screen width has been reduced from 9 units to 8.9 units to better fit with the 16:9 aspect ratio.
- When Wipeout is active, Heat-seeking is temporarily disabled.
- The death note that shows when The Earth is defeated by corruption at the hands of Iapetus has been changed.
- [spoiler]Weve also done some things to the Secret Boss, as well as what happens after[/spoiler]
[ 2024-07-24 13:46:47 CET ] [ Original post ]
Development Blog #1
(NOTE: The name is subject to revisions.) The first thing Ill be talking about is the Upgrade Store, which is a system of applying upgrades to The Earth to make it stronger(?). This will allow the player to survive longer, and it will also allow sooner waves to be much stronger, ultimately resulting in more points! I wont give away the whole system just yet, but I will provide a few summarizing sentences that pretty much give away the whole system. The Upgrade Store will appear on a certain interval, like, for instance, after each boss. A multitude of upgrades will appear each time the Store is rolled. The player can grab some of them for free, but if they want more, then theyll have to pay.
(Concept Art of Upgrade Store) Speaking of which, there will be space rocks that can be collected after defeating planets. They wont be an instant collection (like points), but they wont require too much effort to collect either. The upgrades themselves will follow a tier system from Common to Epic, where Common upgrades are more basic boosts while Epic upgrades are much more... sophisticated. (Internal chatter speaks of Legendary Upgrades, though their existence has yet to be proven.) The Upgrade Store system can also be configured in numerous ways prior to starting a run, which includes the option to turn it off entirely.
The other thing Ill be revealing today is multiple star systems! The Demo version of the game already provides one star system, which is the One and Only Sol. However, I have been working on adding new star systems, each with their own design and gameplay feel!
(Some of the new planets that you might be facing) Im not going to tell you exactly how many star systems that will be in the final release of the game quite yet, but I will tell you that it is most certainly more than one and probably more than three. In addition, there will be two main game styles: Tour Mode, which allows The Earth to tour all of the star systems one by one; and also Arcade Mode, where The Earth stays in one star system for the entire run.
but I will tell you this: Everything I mentioned today will be fully accessible from the moment you first get the game; nothing will have to be unlocked. I know that a lot of other games have unlockable content that requires you to play the game for a certain period of time in order to unlock it, but thats not what I envision for this game. Everything will be unlocked from the start. This game will actually have a roguelike element, however: There will be hidden quirks in the game that can make runs easier when discovered. And, of course, the game will encourage you to try harder game modes so that you can earn more points I think thats all I have to say today. I dont think Im going to write these development blogs on a strict schedule, but it (hopefully!) should be less than 7 months before you hear from me again. Until next time! -Andrew
[ 2024-06-02 15:38:05 CET ] [ Original post ]
OK, so I guess that this is the first time that Im writing something that the whole world could see Here goes! Hi, Im Andrew, the main developer for my game, Solar War! I know that its not generally best practice for game developers to announce a game, release a demo, promise a full release sometime in the future and then not say anything for 7 months Well, better late than never, I suppose! I guess I can at least partially attribute my absense to the fact that I am a full time college student I dont think I need to explain more. Anyhow, I probably should get into the topic that I wanted to discuss today: full release plans! I know that I was a little vague on some of the features of my game, especially the ones that were not already implemented into the demo. The main reason for this was that I had actually not quite figured out in fine detail what I wanted to implement at the time but now, I have. So today, Im going to share some of the new features that you can expect to find in the full game!
Upgrade Store
(NOTE: The name is subject to revisions.) The first thing Ill be talking about is the Upgrade Store, which is a system of applying upgrades to The Earth to make it stronger(?). This will allow the player to survive longer, and it will also allow sooner waves to be much stronger, ultimately resulting in more points! I wont give away the whole system just yet, but I will provide a few summarizing sentences that pretty much give away the whole system. The Upgrade Store will appear on a certain interval, like, for instance, after each boss. A multitude of upgrades will appear each time the Store is rolled. The player can grab some of them for free, but if they want more, then theyll have to pay.
(Concept Art of Upgrade Store) Speaking of which, there will be space rocks that can be collected after defeating planets. They wont be an instant collection (like points), but they wont require too much effort to collect either. The upgrades themselves will follow a tier system from Common to Epic, where Common upgrades are more basic boosts while Epic upgrades are much more... sophisticated. (Internal chatter speaks of Legendary Upgrades, though their existence has yet to be proven.) The Upgrade Store system can also be configured in numerous ways prior to starting a run, which includes the option to turn it off entirely.
Multiple Star Systems
The other thing Ill be revealing today is multiple star systems! The Demo version of the game already provides one star system, which is the One and Only Sol. However, I have been working on adding new star systems, each with their own design and gameplay feel!
(Some of the new planets that you might be facing) Im not going to tell you exactly how many star systems that will be in the final release of the game quite yet, but I will tell you that it is most certainly more than one and probably more than three. In addition, there will be two main game styles: Tour Mode, which allows The Earth to tour all of the star systems one by one; and also Arcade Mode, where The Earth stays in one star system for the entire run.
I wont be revealing any more major things today
but I will tell you this: Everything I mentioned today will be fully accessible from the moment you first get the game; nothing will have to be unlocked. I know that a lot of other games have unlockable content that requires you to play the game for a certain period of time in order to unlock it, but thats not what I envision for this game. Everything will be unlocked from the start. This game will actually have a roguelike element, however: There will be hidden quirks in the game that can make runs easier when discovered. And, of course, the game will encourage you to try harder game modes so that you can earn more points I think thats all I have to say today. I dont think Im going to write these development blogs on a strict schedule, but it (hopefully!) should be less than 7 months before you hear from me again. Until next time! -Andrew
[ 2024-06-02 15:38:05 CET ] [ Original post ]
Solar War
Andrew M.
Developer
Andrew M.
Publisher
March 2025
Release
Game News Posts:
7
🎹🖱️Keyboard + Mouse
🕹️ Partial Controller Support
🎮 Full Controller Support
🕹️ Partial Controller Support
🎮 Full Controller Support
Solar War! A fast-paced, space-themed, shoot-em-up, bullet hell, arcade style game where players attempt to shoot and weave through a horde of enemy planets in a bid to survive just a little bit longer.
Why planets? Because why not?! You won't see a single spaceship in this game, for we're thinking about bigger things!
(With all this planet talk in this game, we've made the main player be the entire Earth.)
Features
Every game has to include a list of features, otherwise, it isn't really a game at all! Solar War can't be left out, we have our own list of features as well! These include:
Numerous distinct planetary objects spread throughout multiple star systems, with their own quirky behavior! (And some of them are based off of real astronomical objects!)
Power cubes that can grant useful powerups when collected!
Random events and spawns can change things up for better... or for worse. (Usually worse though...)
Ruthless bosses that are designed to be challenging! (And annoying. Yes, very annoying.)
An upgrade store with upgrades that will help you survive just a little bit longer! (But not much longer. No refunds.)
Action-filled gameplay that has you shooting and weaving for hours at a time!
Numerous difficulty options, for those that want to spice things up a little bit...
Fun Options ensure that the game always remains fresh chaotic!
And finally, a high score system! Compete with your friends and see who can get the most points!
Runs will continue to last indefinitely, as long as the player is skilled enough, and the game is merciful enough. (Players that are not proficient at the game will find that their runs take a lot less time!)
MINIMAL SETUP
- Processor: Intel Core i3-4170Memory: 500 MB RAM
- Memory: 500 MB RAM
- Graphics: Nvidia GeForce GTX 570
- Storage: 200 MB available spaceAdditional Notes: I don\'t envision anyone not having good enough hardware
GAMEBILLET
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