After several months of development, Chapter 2 has been released! Guide Squally through the scorching desert of the Underflow Ruins! The focus of this chapter is mainly on `cmp` operations, and conditional moves. Our assumption would be that conditional moves are easier to teach than branching, but if this turns out to be untrue, I'll put out patches to change this. [previewyoutube=mgLxDHgnKRU;full][/previewyoutube] We've started to work on more puzzles, for example this logical OR puzzle: [previewyoutube=MfhpKnenSYg;full][/previewyoutube]

Upcoming plans

The game's engine has become much more structurally sound, allowing for quicker development of content. This means future chapters will be released fairly quickly! We plan to release 8 chapters total, although most of the important concepts will be covered by the end of CH4. - Develop and release CH3 - Iterate on CH1/CH2 based on your feedback to improve the educational quality. - Release a better version of the deprecated mini-game Cipher. Cipher was a flop, so we'll be redesigning it to be more fun and educational. This will not be released until after CH3 probably, exact details TBD. - Address issues below.

Changelogs

- All CH2 content released -- enemies, puzzles, story, etc. - Engine now supports multiple layers, giving maps depth! This allows for more creative and engaging maps. - Slight CH1 revamp. Story dialogue updates, some maps redone to take advantage of new layer system. - Added real hacking tool tutorials as a separate menu on title screen - Added objective tracker to top right of screen. - Implemented out-of-combat consumable usage. - Warps between worlds added to Mages Guild / Mage Shrines - Improved tutorials/help on hackables. - Fixed crash on localization change - Fixed rare crash in Hexus help menus

Known issues

- A couple maps are under-developed, as well as the CH2 boss fight. In the next week or so I'll be putting out hotfixes to improve these issues. - Walking animations sometimes do not play for enemies. (Resolved, but unreleased) - Sometimes equipment visuals do not load when entering a map. Purely visual bug, no gameplay is impacted. - Hacking UX could use improvement. - Some abilities like the Goblin Shaman Curse are under-explained. ============== Thank you for your continued support!

[ 2020-06-20 01:36:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Squally is a 2D puzzle RPG game that teaches video game hacking -- WITHOUT boring lessons, lectures, nor the need for prior experience. Instead, Squally teaches hacking through fun engaging puzzles where learning is a by-product.

This is not crappy education software masquerading as a game. Entertainment and education are equally important, and this game won't disappoint.

A 12 year old should be able to complete the main storyline in this game. For the more hardcore players, there will be more challenging side content. Topics such as data types, data structures, bin/dec/hex, and x86 assembly are gradually introduced through puzzles and gameplay.

In other words: this game teaches you the hardest parts of computer science in the coolest way possible.

Early Access Notes

Currently we only have our card game Hexus released. This mini-game teaches binary/decimal/hex and binary operations like SHL, SHR, XOR, AND, OR, and a few others. There are over 150 opponents to play!


We're constantly pushing out updates, our next focus is storymode gameplay with x86 tutorials