Dec 9, 2021

Mini Motorways 1.6: Challenge City is here!

Mini Motorways - DPC Clelia

We’re so excited to introduce the newest update to Mini Motorways: Challenge City! This update features an all-new game mode, complete with handcrafted challenges for all twelve maps, each with its own unique features and geography in mind. If you’ve been searching for a new way to test your skills, now’s the time to go for a joyride and master each city’s set of challenges! This new game mode includes custom modifiers, achievements, and separate leaderboards.

In addition to the first new gameplay mode, this update to Mini Motorways also includes:

Updates to our leaderboards! Our current leaderboards have been revamped to now include histogram graphics which show where your score places among others who have played each map. While Challenges, Surrounding Scores, and Friends leaderboards remain unchanged, we have removed the Global Top Ten display for our normal maps but they will still be available on the Daily and Weekly Challenge.
Improvements to controller support. If you play with a controller, you’ll be prompted to replay the tutorial if you’d like to see the changes.
New and improved colourblind options, including a colour picker that allows you to select preferred colours.
The return of our Seasonal Holiday photo frames in Photo Mode!
Some tweaks to performance and input for Steam Deck.
New achievements for Challenge Mode.
Several bug fixes, including…
- Games freezing/locking at the End of Week screen. If you were seeing your screen grey out after selecting an upgrade, that should be resolved now.
- Issue where the game would sometimes render a black screen with loading icon.
- A handful of car stalling bugs.
- Improvements to various spawning issues such as boxed-in houses and notifications for disconnected buildings.

2021 has been a huge year for us, and we are so grateful to all of you for helping make it that way. We’ll be continuing to develop new maps, new features, and more updates for Mini Motorways all year long through 2022.

For now, we can’t wait to see how you tackle these new challenges and we’ll see you down the road!

Dec 9, 2021

Devblog #2 - Patients, part 1

Wantless : Solace at World’s End - contact

Hi honorable gamers!

Last (and incidentally first) devblog was just over 4 weeks ago, and we’ve been at it every day since then, as you’d expect. Let's go over these weeks' development highlights before we dive into today’s gameplay topic!

Remnants of War

We’ve designed and integrated the 1st few enemies from our new Remnants of War faction. They’re broken incarnations of a war long forgotten, or maybe of every conflict ever ignited..? Their theme is ranged damage-dealing & debuff. More on these guys in a dedicated “Enemy factions” devblog!

The tech side of things

We’ve implemented a save versioning system to handle data compatibility between our builds & saves. Helps us test internally and spot surprise bugs that emerge from playing a new build with an old save.

We’ve also optimized the most frequently used underperforming parts of the code (a grid operation to get all tiles in a certain range was made approximately 800x faster!).

Quality of life improvements

We’ve added an [alt] modifier that lets you display detailed information about effects attached to your enemies.

Enemies now break destructibles if they can’t reach their target, even when it’s not a great idea...you could brain your way to a friendly-fire fest if you’re that kind of mastermind!

We’ve also improved on enemy AI & skills so their turn isn’t as lengthy when they have a lot of Action Points at their disposal. Basically they'll favor using 1 costly skill rather than 3 cheap ones when that's possible.

Onto the bigger chunks that took the bulk of our time.

We’ve started adding VFX!

It’s just the beginning, but we now have VFX for a bunch of situations that really lacked feedback. Dealing damage, healing, looting, blowing things up, dying, it’s all much better with an appropriate level of juice. We still have dozens of these to implement & polish!

Patient traits, room and enemy modifiers

To really make every single patient a unique experience, we’ve added a modifier mechanic that alters gameplay at multiple levels.

Patients now spawn with a rarity parameter ranging from normal to legendary, and have a number of attached personality traits (rarer patients have more traits). For example, a Generous patient rewards you with more items, while a Toxic one has every enemy in their mind maze inflict Poison on hit.

Rooms inside your patient’s mind maze also range from normal to legendary, and their modifiers are a crucial decision-making parameter when you’re choosing which path to take.

All the way down to enemies themselves, they too will spawn with a rarity level and have a bunch of associated stats, modifiers and rewards!

[Visual feedback on these modifiers is still WIP]

We believe this will lead to a lot of decision-making fun, and a constantly renewed challenge. Your own unique build will probably find its preferred challenges too!

Now onto our deep-dive topic: Patients, part 1!

Some more context

There’s a reason why the bleak future is bleak, and that’s Transposition - a neurological procedure that lets a professional Transposer (that’s you, as Eiris) navigate a materialized version of a patient’s mind, and remove (destroy) something that’s unwelcome. That could be anything ranging from fears to consciousness itself, and it all materializes as very unfriendly creatures.

Transposition was designed to help people, and it did. So much so that most of humanity became addicted to it, unable to deal with the slightest frustration without assistance. And that’s just those who could still bear to remain conscious after realizing how dysfunctional they were.

Wantless’ gameplay loop starts with you greeting these suffering patients on your floating Transposition lab, the Alterthought.

Men and women of all ages and backgrounds, with all sorts of afflictions, coming to you to get something abcised.

Mind mazes

Patients are distinguished by a set of characteristics, but most importantly every patient has a unique Mind maze.

Mind mazes are where gameplay happens. They’re dungeons structured as a succession of floors, each with a number of rooms you can choose to go through. These rooms are often hostile encounters for you to overcome in turn-based tactical combat, but they can also hold rewards, or just be eventless passages for you to chill in for a second.

Each room connects to one or more rooms on the next floor, letting you carve your own path to the final floor, where the patient’s main affliction is. Beat this boss to succeed.

4 patient characteristics impact your experience in a mind maze:

Difficulty: each patient has a difficulty value, which determines the creatures you can find and how powerful they are. A Dreg in a Tier 1 mind maze won’t be as strong as a Dreg in Tier 2, and you won’t ever find a Horror anywhere below Tier 3.
Biome: that’s the maze’s environment. We won’t detail them here as we’re still focusing on the Dead slums biome at this point, but different biomes look and feel different, and are home to different enemy factions.
Size: mind mazes can be small, medium or large, and that impacts the number of floors therein.
Traits: as we’ve briefly mentioned above, patients have personality traits that alter gameplay in the maze. This is material for part 2 of this devblog, but here are some example traits for the sake of clarity:
- Bully: enemies push you 1 tile away on hit
- Harsh: you’re afflicted with Fracture. Fracture causes you to take a small extra amount of damage every time you take damage from other sources.
- Jealous: enemies inflict Slow on hit. Slow increases the Action Point cost of every movement.
- Pompous: the mind maze contains a higher amount of Elite rooms. Elite rooms are home to stronger enemies.
- Hoplophobic: the mind maze is haunted by Remnants of War.

Most patients in Wantless are procedurally generated. What kind of patient you’ll encounter depends on the area your ship is docked in, and your reputation in these lands. Reputation is increased through successful transposition.

We’ll refrain from throwing more detail here, lest this devblog becomes a book, but we’re bound to write a devblog about Areas & Reputation before long!

The UI

Now here’s a peek at the patient UI as it’s currently implemented (polish and visual iterations are obviously in order):

Waiting room: the number and rarity of patients you greet depends on the Alterthought’s current capacity and your reputation in the current area. Patients are listed here as toggles you can click.
Selected patient editorial information: portrait, designation and a short trivia description. They have no impact on gameplay.
Rarity: colors and shapes let you know if your patient is of normal, uncommon, rare, epic, legendary, or unique rarity (more on “unique” in a minute).
Traits: the gameplay-impacting personality traits. More part 2.
Mind maze difficulty: the indication here depends on your current progression vs the patient’s actual difficulty value.
Mind maze size: small, medium or large, with a matching number of floors.
Mind maze biome: the maze’s environment as briefly described in the “Mind mazes” section above.
Currency & experience rewards: how much currency & xp you’ll earn by succeeding. They’re proportional to difficulty, patient rarity and maze size.
Item rewards: you can usually choose a number of rewards out of a greater number of options. These numbers, along with item quality and rarity, depend on patient rarity, difficulty and maze size.
Transpose button: when you’re ready, brace yourself, and dive in.

Patients are also displayed on the Alterthought’s hub as silhouettes. These are currently placeholders and will be replaced soon.

Unique patients

We’ve covered procedurally generated patients, but there’s another, arguably more important kind of patient: unique patients.

These are patients with hand-made characteristics, often hand-made mind mazes, unique traits, and more importantly written stories that progress through multiple areas. You’ll encounter a unique patient multiple times before you reach the end of their story, and their difficulty evolves with your own capacity.

They may reward you with unique items, and some of them are fundamental to progress through the main storyline. They’re part of how we tell this world’s story.

We’ll cover unique patients in fine detail in part 2, alongside traits.

You did it!

That’s it for Patients part 1, hopefully it’s enough to get the big picture!

Thank you for making it all the way down here, we’ll see you in a few weeks, and in the meantime we’d be happy to have you on the Discord server!

Stay safe, hydrate, take care of yourself and your own ♥

Dec 9, 2021

RPG Maker MZ Touch the Stars Game Jam Winners Now Free on Steam!

RPG Maker MZ - Nick_Komodo

Want to see what can kind of games can be made only one month with RPG Maker MZ? We've released the 3 winners of our Touch the Stars Game Jam as free games on Steam!

1st Place: Berry

The itsy-bitsy spider may have gone up the waterspout, but Berry performs a marathon of fantastic gameplay and amazing fun. Join this adorable arachnid on their adventure to find the tastiest of flies. Along the way you’ll dodge fire bugs, leap across platforms, and follow the dubious advice of questionable cockroaches. Once you get the controls down, you can overcome obstacles and defeat bosses with a sense of pride and accomplishment. Just don’t forget to climb up that proverbial spout again and again until you reach the stars!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1823370/Berry/

2nd Place: Buffet Knight

Let loose your inner hunger as you follow the powerful Buffet Knight in his quest to rid the land of the nefarious Demon Chef. Along the way, gobble up just about anything and spit it back at your enemies, defeating them and growing in power. Don’t grow too much, though, or you may not be able to contain your insatiable appetite. With gameplay inspired by a game with a certain hungry pink hero, and two very different endings, this game is for anyone who’s a glutton for adventure.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1823360/Buffet_Knight/

3rd Place: Forest Star

Take on the role of a cute little monkey who witnesses a star falling from the sky and goes on a grand adventure to find it. Along the way, the adorable simian meets a cast of animals, each with their own motivations for joining our hero. The companion you take affects your ability to overcome certain obstacles, as each possesses their own unique power and personality. Make friends, help others, see the world, and enjoy a multitude of different fulfilling endings.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1823350/Forest_star/

Dec 9, 2021

Update #68: Another Giant Step For Noir Kind!

Pixel Noir - SWDTech Games

Hey Friends & Fans

We got another fully stocked update to get those gaming fingers salivating (fingers salivate right?). If you haven't already noticed, we've been more active on social media lately. That's because Pixel Noir will finish it's development cycle within the 2nd quarter of 2022 (if not earlier)!

#HYPETRAIN

Just to be clear, development will be complete, however there will be several other tasks that need to happen leading up to launch like porting, localization, compliance/QA testing, and just some general marketing planning. We also would like to remind everybody that we plan to address backer rewards closer to launch so that our team can stay focused on all the pre-launch work and bug crushing.

In the meantime, if you have still have any questions or would like to switch platforms, feel free to DM us here or on any social media platform that we're on ({LINK REMOVED}, Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram) and we'll get you squared away!

Since The Last Update...

All of the ally and enemy skills are now in the game! We had a blast creating these and of course, they will continue to get polish treatments as time permits prior to launch.

This skill was a total *shocker*

Screenshake FTW!

Flamethrower packs a punch!

We started implementation of party member combos a few weeks ago and we're looking to be finished with constructing these sometime this month!

Use combos to wreck your enemies in style!

Even a single change in your party lineup can change the attributes of the combo attack!

For atmosphere, we added 3D sound effects to scenes and moving objects. You can really hear the city come to life as cars drive by, neon signs buzz, trash blows around, waves crash against the beach, and more! Check out a little preview.

We've overhauled our run-from-battle mechanic. Previously, as demo'd in the Early Access, you'd select run and the enemy just, sort of went "poof" and disappeared. Now, when you select run, a mini game will determine if you can run from a battle.

Escape depends on the levels of your party members in comparison to the enemies' level....and some quick finger work.

We also added a battle arena that you can access later in the game! 14 rounds with one-time prizes for finishing each round, hosted by none other than Shovel Knight!

Thanks to our pals at Yacht Club Games! We're excited to see Shovel Knight make an appearance!

We finished implementing and distributing all learnable party member skills AND collectable CRDTech cards throughout the various story events and game world. Keep an eye out, you can find skills and cards almost anywhere!

Gotta collect 'em all!

You can find skills just about anywhere- story events, case rewards, shops and of course your humble treasure box.

Last but not least, we made a few UI updates. Skill level indicators and skill level descriptions are now in all the necessary menus.

Sometimes it's the little touches that matter most.

Alright, you're almost done, but what's left?

This & That - Miscellaneous stuff mostly covered in the section above: Ally combos. Enemy level implementation. 3D audio. Mini-map environment mapping (making sure that mini-map is accurate). We're pretty close to being finished with this bucket of work!
Bugs, bugs and more bugs - Yes, these still are popping up, but we are tracking less every week (We expect this to be a constant up until and after we release on steam.)
Battle Difficulty Balancing - We just finished our 3rd pass of this most tedious task in testing!
Polish - We are continuing to fine-tune audio, cinematics, dialogue, and flesh out extra features such as CRDTech encounters. This will be an ongoing task until we launch

Of course we'll be crunching through the holidays!

Closing Up The Update Bag

If you're excited about this project, join the {LINK REMOVED} or follow us on any number of social platforms! We're going to be putting out more and more content and teasers up until the release, so keep an eye out!

Be sure to check in on Leo's Pixel Noir development streams on Twitch Monday and Thursday nights to see the game's progression in real time! Also, don't forget to follow our official Roadmap / Twitter bot.

Our next update will be out some time in January to recap the progress we made in 2021. Then the next official update after that will be out on March 24th! Until then have a safe & happy holiday season!

//Team SWDTech