Sep 6, 2023

The KRAKEN Arrives, a PAX 2023 Report, and Demo Playable

Instruments of Destruction - Radiangames

The recent focus for Instruments of Destruction development has been on the new singleplayer campaign and the PAX West demo in particular. When I started to work on the missions for the demo, I started to write voice lines for the intros and endings to each mission, and I was not happy. The writing was fine, but it felt like it wasn't a particularly interesting theme (testing experimental vehicles) nor was there a strong purpose to you destroying everything on these small islands.

I went back to brainstorming ideas for the overall theme/story of the campaign. There were a couple ideas about having the buildings being "infected" with some sort of mutated plants or locust-like pest that you were trying to eradicate, or the buildings being powered by some over-ambitious and out-of-control geothermal technology that would trigger earthquakes/volcanos/etc if the buildings weren't destroyed ASAP. But none of those ideas seemed as simple or visually obvious as the Blast Corps plot: In that game, there's a nuclear weapons disposal truck that's automated, malfunctioning, and heading straight towards its destination, regardless of what's in the way. [Blast Corps is a classic Nintendo 64 game created by Rare in the late 90s.]

That plot is a bit to explain, but once you're in game, it's simple: Don't let the big red truck hit buildings or it all goes boom. Given that Instruments of Destruction takes place on islands, a slow-moving exploding truck wouldn't work, but a giant monster from the sea might work. The problem was I didn't think I could make a Godzilla-like beast that looked good, animated nicely, and could traverse a variety of terrain well. But after I realized a giant octopus might work, I tried prototyping it over the next couple days as a big sphere with lots of ropes attached. Everything went pretty smoothly, and within a week I had the Kraken in the game.

The exact mechanics of how the Kraken might change a little, but it currently works like this: The Kraken wants to destroy all the large structures on the islands. As it does so, it takes damage. That damage makes it Rage meter go up, and if the meter fills to the top, it'll do a big smash attack that destroys everything, and will make the island sink. The islands don't *actually* sink at the moment, but I'll be working on that this afternoon.

So you're basically trying to clear the way for the Kraken so it doesn't take damage. You can't kill the Kraken, you can only make it mad, so attacking it is a good way to end a mission quickly. On the bright side, the blast wave looks really nice. There's a lot of work still to do with the Kraken and the UI/story/etc around it, but it was working well enough for the PAX Demo.

A Report On PAX West 2023

So I got the Kraken working less than a week before PAX, and was furiously putting together some missions and refining stuff as much as possible up until PAX started. PAX runs for 4 days, and I spent a lot of time each night refining the UI/game/missions/etc based on how things went. We had 3 stations playing the game, and there were frequently small crowds of people waiting to play, especially on Saturday and the busier parts of Friday and Sunday.

Not everything went smoothly, and there was a bug with destruction getting harder over time that meant I had to restart the game every 30 minutes or so. I thought fixed the bug Friday evening, but it was actually one of 2 bugs that were having a similar effect. The bigger part I couldn't figure out at PAX, though I fixed it earlier today. I ended up treating PAX as a super-intense playtest, as well as a deadline that I could use for gaining some momentum on the singleplayer campaign. In those regards it was a very successful event.

In terms of value, I'd say spending $5,000+ (got the booth for free, but plane tickets, rooms, equipment, and other stuff add up) is not the most cost-efficient way to get playtesting, but it was quite time-efficient. The game got over 2,000 wishlists from PAX, and sales were also up last week, though that definitely had more to do with the game being on sale than PAX. The wishlists alone mean the cost was probably worth it, and the game is definitely heading in a better direction because of PAX.

PAX Demo Playable Now (in a separate branch)

Since Monday's PAX demo build (0.350e), I fixed the annoying destruction bug (I think), replaced the 3rd missions' vehicle with a more-fun variation, and tweaked various vehicle controls. I also made it play better with keyboard, though it's still a gamepad-focused demo. The build is now available in a separate branch on Steam (the one labeled 'pax demo'). It uses a separate save file.

The PAX Demo build doesn't show everything that will be in the main campaign, but it's an indication of the direction the campaign will take. It's also definitely not final. The closest to "final" you'll see in the demo are the first 2 missions (the first mission is likely to have the island/vehicle refined slightly). Every other mission will be revised and likely changed where it appears in the campaign.

Some stuff NOT in the demo: Each island will have a STORY or TRAINING mission with a 3-STAR scoring system, and a BONUS mission with a score/time/place-based system (no bonus missions in the demo). For all mission types, you are given a pre-built vehicle designed for that mission, and that vehicle is unlocked by beating the mission (every Story/Training mission vehicle is unique, but may also appear in a bonus mission). Getting 3-stars lets you use any vehicle on that mission.

Vehicle building (and Sandbox mode) will always be in the game, but the campaign will not focus on it, and it's not in the demo. There will be *something* that teaches the player how to use the vehicle building system, though I'm not yet sure if that'll be its own smaller campaign or a bunch of optional missions in the main campaign. As mentioned previously the vehicle building UI will be undergoing a complete revision (with gamepad support added). I'll definitely be playtesting the vehicle building system at some point to help refine it, but it'll be a few months at least.

So that's about it for now. The campaign will remain the focus for a while, and after I get the PAX demo integrated in to the main branch (and the camera system redone), the number of missions will be expanded pretty quickly. There will likely be an update to the PAX Demo soon to add the "island sinking" part of the Kraken game over sequence, but beyond that it will probably be a couple weeks 'til the integration update.

Sep 6, 2023

Patch Note 4.5.3: Clubs, New Fishing Mechanic, and Animation

Fishing Planet - kate.misnichenko

Hey, fellow anglers!

We want to say thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. We've listened to your feedback and made some improvements, so here is the second patch on Clubs, the New Fishfight and Animation. We really appreciate your ideas and suggestions, and we're going to work on gradually incorporating them into the game after thorough testing. Your input has been crucial in making Fishing Planet better for everyone!

Clubs:

Fixed incorrect appearance of some flags when creating Clubs or choosing the location of club origin;
Added additional information into the Club description about the minimal level required for Club creation or joining an existing one;
Fixed the incorrect display of the Club name with the maximum symbols;
Displaying of the club logo in the Player Info tab fixed.

New Fishing Mechanic and Animation improvements:

Fixed the issue with the twitchy animation while using the pulling-up mechanic;
Twitching animation improvements: polishing the forearm and wrist animation and making rod behavior more flexible. Increasing the range of rod movements when reeling in objects or fish of varying weights. (spinning rod animations. Stay tuned for casting rod animations).
Improved sleeve and arm animation for widescreens;
Improved spinning animation after the fish comes off the leash;
Minor twitching animation polishing;
Added visual effects for horizontal tackle load indicator;
Increased Landing net movement speed.

Miscellaneous:

Grammatical and translation improvements;
Rod stand improvements: fixed incorrect alarm behavior.

We hope these improvements will enhance your in-game experience. We know we are not perfect, but we are always here to listen to your thoughts and take action. Don't forget that our Support and Feedback channel on Discord are available for your input, just as before.
Tight lines and happy fishing!

Sep 6, 2023

Ara: History Untold's Improvements - Mines

Ara: History Untold - Ara: History Untold

Get your pickaxes ready because we’re digging into the Mines of Ara: History Untold this week!

Mines play a key role in the development of your cities. As one of the five main harvesting Improvements at your disposal, establishing a Mine early on will help you stockpile Stone and other vital resources. A Mine's output is directly tied to the region it's situated in, yielding between 1 and 6 Stone each turn. As with other improvements, the output of a Mine can be significantly increased through upgrades or the addition of diligent workers.

An image showing the possible regions a mine can be placed in.

An image showing the mine being constructed.

Stone is one of the most crucial resources in Ara and is vital for constructing and upgrading your Improvements and Triumphs. Stone is also versatile and can be used to craft Goods and Equipment or establish roads between your Cities.

However, Mines are more than just stone quarries. These Improvements can harvest additional resources that will greatly advance your Nation. Gold and Gemstone are two examples of natural resources that, once unearthed by your Mines, can immediately boost your City's Prosperity or be skillfully transformed into refined Goods, introducing new layers of strategic complexity.

Humans have been digging resources out of the ground for millennia, but the Ngwenya Mine of Eswatini is the oldest quarry ever discovered and dates back over 40,000 years! This haematite ore deposit was initially used in the Middle Stone Age to extract red ochre and later used for iron smelting and iron ore export.

An image of a gemstone resource harvestable by mines.

We look forward to bringing you more features in the upcoming weeks, so stay tuned!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2021880/Ara_History_Untold/