PHI - DEVLOG 5

 A WIZARD IS NEVER LATE, FRODO BAGGINS. NOR IS HE EARLY.

Hope you did spend your Christmas and New Year holidays as productive as I did... if not, I hope you could at least rest and relax and leave that excruciating last year behind you. Need some motivational music to welcome 2015? - You might want to check out Corporate Lifestyle Simulator. ;)

Sorry that posts about Phi seem to get a bit out of hand. I am actually also working on a lot of other hot drafts, including reviews about Xbox One, Assassin's Creed Unity, Satellite Reign (to which I've had alpha access for quite some time) some mobile games, the final Reboot Infogamer post, with a ton of great indie games and more.

- Unfortunately you will have to wait a bit longer for that because currently all my energy is channeled on the Central European Games Conference Expo and getting the Phi prototype as ready as possible for it.

So yes, I have been working my ass off during the holidays and therefore I proudly announce the abundance of new features that I have added to the prototype:


1. HUD-System

• Life-Bar (display health minus damage)

• Item-Icons (found/active/inactive)

• Button-Layout/Interactive Help (f.e. X-Button will be showing "Use", "Push", "Throw" depending on the situation) - This was extremely important since without that a player would have no clue what to do in certain situations... naturally.

• GUI-PopUp Messages (for character comments and tutorial purposes / key items)

2. Essential Game/Prototype Systems

• Health/Damage System (player can now die! ... and heal) in conjunction with

• Damage Types (f.e. Fall-Damage, depending on the time falling, Instant Deaths, etc.)

• WallJumping (reworked, smoothed, tied to FallDamage and other components)

• RopeClimbing and Swinging (further improved to the point where most glitches should be avoided)

• CheckPoints and Respawning - Essential for the prototype to avoid frustrated players at this early stage. The final game will not work with Checkpoints however!!

• KillZones (in general, should something go wrong, and in specific places) for example for:

• Traps (spikes you might land on, or that drop from the ceiling, and so on

3. Sound Effects

• Character Movement (walk, run, jump,..) determined by

• FloorTypes (onConcrete, onDirt, onWater, onWood, onSand, etc.)

• Other Character Sounds (walljump, wallsliding, die, fall, get hurt,...)

• Environmental (3D sounds for atmosphere, f.e.: torches, sand, water,... GREAT STUFF!)

• More Sounds (Checkpoint reached, respawned, itemFound, and so on)

• All old sounds (door, switches,...) reworked and adjusted

4. Other Stuff

• Added several death animations and

• Added blood particle effects to the character

• Reworked the camera to show the animation plus:

• FadeToBlack and FadeFromBlack functions (also used for example with the respawning)

• Improved certain areas in the game where it was hard to know what to do or the physical options weren't there (mostly walljumping related)

• Added multiple assets to further increase the ambience and give a bit of eye-candy (yep, this I'll be still doing in the last night before the Expo, I am 100% sure!)

• Reworked all lights (textures for the torches, sound effects and light composition... needs more)

Ok,... I think that's all I can recall from the top of my head for now. Sounds like a lot? - It is... really! If I simply drop dead tomorrow, you know why. :D Believe it or not, the things that are still on my list (not including making posters, flyers, a ridiculous trailer, composing a stage theme and so on) is still one more time that long. One major point on that list is adding enemies... great, huh? And the clock is ticking.

HE ARRIVES PRECISELY WHEN HE MEANS TO.

C'mon, you get that one, right?

Ok, let's just enjoy some more of the new screenshots and - as always in the worst quality ever - a short video, this time demonstrating how you're not supposed to do walljumps.

It is really a shame you can't enjoy the great 3D environmental sounds... well, some time, I hope you will.

I honestly don't know if I can put out another devlog before the Expo - or any other post for that matter. But I will do my best! If you really miss me that much, I suggest you also follow me on twitter for the time being. Yes, and naturally I would also like to welcome you very much at the Phi booth at the CEGC15 Indie Expo!





I hope you enjoyed this devlog as much as I did. Have a good day/night everyone!

Play more! Work more!