Hello. I haven't made any updates about the progress of this game in here for a long time, so I decided to make this. I'm just showing a few things I've been working on recently. I've been making new kinds of enemies, weapons, explosives, abilities and skills for the player. I took some breaks from this game during this summer, so I haven't been very productive, but I'm still making constant progress, especially after demoing a build of this game in an event and playtesting. I also made settings to potentially reduce the motion sickness, but luckily that hasn't really been necessary during the playtesting yet.
Recently I've worked on the UI and the enemy behaviour, and I finally added a functioning parry mechanic to this game. That one took a while to add because the way I had initially made the weapons and other game mechanics, had made it quite hard and unintuitive to use. Luckily that one has been fixed now.
Testing the parrying :) Now I'm going to work on the procedural generation again, because there are still some issues that I need to address. For the most part I've just been wanting to add new mechanics and other things, but I don't think I can add all of my ideas into this game without it taking forever to finish. It's already taking quite long, but I'll get it done.

[ 2024-08-14 14:39:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

Weapons, Abilities, Procedural Generation Improvements, enemy improvements, etc

Weapons and abilities

Hello guys! I decided to make a post showcasing some things I've made recently to this game :) I've made many many different weapons to the game and different abilities.. However I'm only going to show a few here.

There's a giant double headed hammer and below is a small double headeds scythe. I really like weapons with two ends.

Procedural Generation

Below you can see an interesting bug that I got while messing with the procedural level generation system.

I've been working hard on the procedural generation of the game. Currently, the game has procedurally generated levels, and randomly generated level graph. There are different types of levels, such as boss battle levels, shop levels, predesigned levels and completely procedurally generated levels. I've made a system that generates a graph that connects areas and levels together, and the levels in those nodes are chosen randomly with some restrictions based on what kinds of levels the neighboring nodes contain. There's also some additional graph rewriting to make this connection graph even more varied each run. When you leave the game and come back mid run, you will be able to continue your run from the exact spot you left it, in the level you were, with every enemy and an item being in the spot they were when you quit.

Enemies and their behaviour

I rewrote the whole enemy ai system in the game. I've made behaviour trees and added much more behaviour to the enemies in this game. I've spend a lot of time working on implementing tools to easily edit all of the enemies, their attributes, their weapons, their droprates, their abilities and other things, but that's not very visual so I'm not showing picture sof that here. I'm working on the demo at the moment, so if you want to do some playtesting, just join my Discord and let me know :)

[ 2023-11-19 18:38:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Forward Shifting

Hello! This is just an update about some stuff I made last week to this game. I've been making a forward shifting mechanic, because that's something that would be handy. This is what it looks at the moment. The camera can make it a bit disorientating, but I think I know how to fix that.
I also added this thing that allows people to quickly spawn back when they fall (you don't get punished from falling):
Otherwise I've just been playtesting, designing new weapons, adding new enemies (that are extremely buggy) and fixing a billion bugs. I also had to balance some weapons that were way too op, like the default bow, that just oneshotted almost everything... So I just wanted to show some stuff I made very quickly in the past few days. PS: If you want to help with playtesting this game, just join my Discord server and let me know.

[ 2023-06-05 12:50:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Gifs and screenshots

Here's some pics of stuff I've improved in the game recently:
I have improved the grappling hook significantly thanks to playtest feedback... Here's a gif...
I have obviously done much more, including more enemies, weapons, attribute upgrading, and a dialogue system, but I will show off those things in more detail later. This is just a quick post of some stuff I've been up to :)

[ 2023-05-04 18:57:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

Playtesters needed! Join my discord server!

Hi guys! I'm looking for playtesters to test this game. Shifter is a third-person roguelite game with a unique gravity-shifting mechanic (which has a bunch of bugs). It's a passion project I have been making for 2.5 years in my free time, and I would like to get more feedback on the game itself and to find more bugs so that it can reach its maximum potential :) In the Discord server, you can also talk with others and get updates on the game. Also, if you're interested, feel free to wishlist it so you can get an update when it gets released. If you're a fan of roguelite games and you want to experience the mind-bending world of gravity shifting, feel free to join. :) Join here:

[ 2023-03-25 15:10:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Shifter new game mechanics and areas and weapons.

Hi guys

I've been making new weapons to this game and making changes to some game mechanics. In the game, you can now shift the gravity while in the air and make the grappling hook attack while in the air too. The grappling hook attack now slows the time for better aiming. I also made a mode for the bow, where it automatically calculates the angle for an accurate shot.

I also started making a new area, that looks completely different. One of the problems in this game is that the visuals don't change enough, and I'm planning to fix this. I planned this area years ago already, but I wasn't sure if I even can make it back then. Now I am sure. The area is still in progress which is why it isn't shown here. I haven't made many updates with significant changes recently because I haven't made changes that are big enough to make updates about. Recently I remade the weapons system completely and added new weapons. Here's a gif of a new weapon called "Arm weapon":

[ 2023-01-30 14:17:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Useless progress update

Hi. I'm showing some of my progress here again.

Here's a new weapon I'm making. It's a severed arm that holds a weapon in its hand. It's not exactly ready yet because I had to rewrite a huge amount of code that I wasn't happy with, but getting this working should now be easy because of it.

I have also been making big changes and overall improving the game a lot. I don't show a lot in my videos and pictures, because I don't want to spoil anything, even if nobody actually cares. I like to make these "useless" posts here just so that people don't think the game is dead. I'm working on it everyday and I'm very passionate about this project. I don't know if this is how I'm supposed to make these posts, but I don't care. I guess I should be making some kind of exciting marketing stuff here but I just like to write whatever I feel like, and I like to be honest. Right now I'm working to get the demo done soon, and I need people to test the game and get feedback. It would also be nice if we could find many bugs in the game. The trailer to this game is outdated, and I will make another trailer when the new stuff is polished enough. You can join to the Discord server from here:

[ 2022-12-18 14:09:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Playtesters needed! Here's also some random screenshots of the game...

This is Shifter

This is my game, that I have been making for the past two years as much as I have had time. Sometimes I didn't have a lot of time because of school and other stuff, but I think I've gotten quite a lot of stuff done. My progress will now get much better and I would like to get help with testing stuff and get other kinds of feedback. Here's some screenshots of my game :)

Stuff

Please, join my Discord server, and my mailing list, so that you will be able to help me out with testing out the demo and stuff :) I really need some people to help me. Here's also a trailer for my game. [previewyoutube=INU5n-yajrY;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2022-11-23 13:41:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Weapons And enemies!

Hello! In this post I will show some weapons that I have been designing and some of which have been added to the game, and some that aren't added yet. I will also show some of the enemies.

WEAPONS

In the trailer for this game, you will see the styche very often. It's one of the starting weapons, that you can choose at the start of the run. Other starting weapons include: a katana, a long sword, a big hammer.

Shifter also has long range weapons like shotguns, pistols and ak47s. I will be adding different kind of bows too in the near future. It won't take long as enemies already can use them.

I have also been designing weapons that are going to be in the game, such as a weapon, that is actually an arm which is holding a weapon. It's not ready yet but will be soon. I will make another post about it when it's ready.

ENEMIES

I have tried to make unique and special enemies. I don't like enemies that are too boring and too similiar. I have tried to create memorable enemies and memorable fights. Here's some pictures of some of them.

This is a giant arm. You can see it in the trailer, but here it also has a weapon that it's holding.

Here's an enemy called "elv kiviryhkle". It's a difficult boss that has many moves and attacks, and also uses the gravity shifting mechanic in an interesting way.

Here's another enemy that uses huge fire attacks and lot's of flames. It's a very difficult boss! Recently I've been focusing on getting bugs fixed and making everything work for a demo. I haven't implemented much new stuff for a while because of it, I've just focused on getting the already existing stuff work. I'm not entirely sure when the demo is ready, but shouldn't take too long! [previewyoutube=INU5n-yajrY;leftthumb][/previewyoutube]

[ 2022-10-15 12:57:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

About the gameplay!

Hello! In this post I decided to explain how the gravity-shifting in this game actually works and about other game mechanics too!

Gravity Shifting

Gravity-shifting is the main game-mechanic of this game. It's the reason why this game is called "Shifter". The way gravity-shifting works is that when a player walks towards a wall, and is about to collide, the game automatically rotates the player so that the player now stands on that wall. This also switches the gravity of the world towards that wall so that the player can now jump on that wall and can for example jump to another wall under the current one.

Some enemies are bound to the world-gravity, so they will respond to the shifting by falling down. One boss is entirely designed on this idea. Enemies will always have some ways in which they are connected to the gravity-shifting mechanic so that it never feels like an useless game mechanic.

Grappling hook

Grappling hook is a very important thing in this game, as it allows for you to swich the gravity from a far away without having to walk to a wall. It also transports you to the wall you're aiming to. It doesn't work on ceilings (that is the opposite wall from which you're standing on), only on the floor and the walls around you. Grappling hook can be used to avoid deadly long range attacks[/b ]some bosses and enemies might have.

Player classes and attribute leveling!

In this game you can choose your class from the beginning of the game, some classes are more fast and quick while others are heavy but slow, but deal more damage and can take more damage... The class of your character can impact your playstyle atleast in the beginning when you haven't yet established your build. You can level up your attributes which can allow you to swich from a fast katana-wielding character to a slower bigger guy, who wields an hammer!

Other stuff!

New look on the player

The old look on the player was boring and it didn't make sense. The new one is very similiar except it doesn't look boring and it makes more sense (isn't that great?). In the new look the player looks different based on your attributes, and as you can choose your class at the beginning of the game, it even varies on the class of your character.

For example character which has alot of strength, will look bigger than a character, which is faster (hitboxes are the same). Join to my newsletter from https://iltagames.com/ for updates about the project!

[ 2022-08-14 22:51:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

What is Shifter?

Shifter. What is it?

Shifter is a roguelite game, that I have been developing alone for a little over 1,5 years. It didn't start out as a roguelite game though. This is how the project started out: I was randomly just sitting on my bed one day in 2020, and I got an idea. The idea was that it would be cool if there was a game, where you could shift the direction of gravity. I thought about how incredible this kind of mechanic would be in combat. My first idea was to implement it into a 3D first person shooter game, so I hopped out of the bed and opened up my computer, and started a new empty Unity-project. It didn't take me long to make a small prototype with a working mutliplayer (The multiplayer was very very bad). I played with my friends and we had a lot of fun, but there were alot of problems. First of all the first person perspective didn't work very well with the gravity shifting mechanic, because it was very confusing when the player actually used the shifting mechanic. Second of all I had never made any kind of multiplayer project, so later I decided, that the game isn't going to be mutliplayer, and I'm going to focus on the singleplayer. I had made a small roguelike game just a few moths before, so I decided to make it into a roguelite.

In the picture above you can see my progress in this game. Nowadays Shifter is a roguelite game where you can shift the direction of gravity and walk on walls. This has been the idea for a very long time and it isn't going to change from that. It's interesting to see how a game can end up as a completely different, than what it was originally meant to be. I think the picture above sums that up pretty well.

[ 2022-05-18 17:14:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

Shifter- Giant enemy hand

Hello guys! I decided to share some of my progress here.

This is what I have been working on lately:

A giant enemy hand!

It's a mini boss that comes out of a hole and starts beating the player. In the gif above, you can see that it comes out of the wall, which is very thin. You can see that the bottom part of the hand is hidden by a cube, that covers it and makes it invisible. I'm not sure if this is the best way to do this, but it works so this is how it will work for now. I will also make other mini bosses like a giant enemy leg for example. Some of these mini bosses will wield huge weapons. When you've killed all of the so called limb bosses, you get an achievement.

Controls

Recently I've been also making the controls work easily on controllers and I've made control remapping available.

Join Shifter's Discord server!

Join the discord server by pressing the image above!

[ 2022-01-13 08:33:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

Shifter Shopping area.

Hello. I made a shopping place for Shifter. It's inspired by M. C. Eschers "relativity", which depicts a world where the laws of gravity are completely fu***. My game has the same idea, so I decided to make a shopping area, where you can buy things from tall, red, people, who have a red pyramid on their heads.
These tall red pyramid people will have another role in the game as well, but I don't wanna spoil the whole game for you. The shopping area will be randomly generated, so it propably won't look exactly like this when you play the game.
Also. Remember to join my discord server! You can find a link from this games steam page. I made a new trailer for this game. This trailer should be less s***. [previewyoutube=K8yu9JUByEw;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2021-11-24 07:17:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

Shifter - Not so boring anymore

I made Shifter a little better looking. I've heard a lot of people say that the environment blends to the background and it's sometimes hard to see and too dark. I've fixed that now by improving the colors:
Also the environment was extremely boring, so I added some floating rocks and street lamps. The environment still needs a lot of work but even these very small changes can make a pretty big difference.
Shifter takes place in a dream so I think it feels a lot more like a dream now. I think.
Here is the trailer for this game: [previewyoutube=37ePShpTcfQ;full][/previewyoutube] Remember to Wishlist this game! Redder Games Website

[ 2021-09-20 11:41:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Shifter - Multiplayer

Hi. I decided, that I need to add multiplayer mode to this game. I actually started this project in the very beginning by making a small multiplayer prototype. In the multiplayer mode you can play this game through with a friend. Unfortunately this means, that it's going to take longer for me to finish this project. I already changed the date from 2022 to 2022-2023. I'm very bad at making predictions of how long things take to finish so I'm not at all sure about the release date. If you want to be a part of this games developement, you can join my discord server, there you can help me with playtesting and in the future there are going to be giveaways and other events! Join there now! Remember to wishlist this game too! When you wishlist, you get a notification when this game gets published and also get notifications when this game is on sale. So make sure to do that if you're at all interested in this game! Discord link: https://discord.gg/bUT5ZcknRy

[ 2021-08-31 21:02:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

A grappling hook! Devlog

Hello! I decided to start putting devlogs here too, because why not. It's a great way of showing the games progress for anyone interested. Today I want to show a grappling hook, that I have been making recently. It did exist in this game before, but honestly, it sucked and it wasn't very fun. You can still see the old version of the grappling hook in the trailer of this game. This is what the grappling hook looks like now:

[ 2021-08-19 17:36:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

Discord server is now live!

Hello! I made a discord server for this game! It's still not amazing, but it's ok and I will make it better soon. Link to the server: https://discord.gg/bUT5ZcknRy

[ 2021-07-25 13:05:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Shifter store page is now here!

Hello. I'm Niilo Hanni and this is my game, Shifter. I'm a 17-year-old game developer from Finland, and I've been making this game for almost a year now and I finally have a Steam page. The game is going to come out sometime in 2022. I would really appreciate it if you would add this game to your wishlist. Also, I'm going to make a Discord server for this, so there's going to be new updates soon!steamhappy

[ 2021-07-13 12:25:49 CET ] [ Original post ]