Glitch - First-Person impossible game

Zilk

Hey!

I'm the developer behind Pull My Tongue and Fluffy Jump. Lately I've been working on a new project that is very different from what I've done before. I'm still quite early in the development but I thought I would start posting progress from now on.

It's going to have a quite abstract/sci-fi art style so I'll start with showing off that and post some more cool stuff as I go

Michael Knubben

That looks intriguing! Given that you're a solo (?) dev, will you be posting devlog stuff as well as just images? I always love seeing into the kitchen, so to speak.

Zilk

Michael: Thanks! Yepp, I was planning on keeping a devlog going. Gonna try to at least get weekly updates up, I'm a solo dev with wife and two kids as well as just having moved into a new house so dev time is fairly limited atm.

Zilk

Tonight I've been working on getting some rough gameplay going as well as fixing up some code to allow for different backgrounds and levels.

(sorry about the heavy banding, gifs can be a pain )

Zilk

So I got some time tonight, started fiddling with another background and added some control to the tiles to handle how they tween in.

Michael Knubben

The gameplay isn't really for me (I've burned out on this style a while back), but the visuals are really nice. The postprocessing really adds a lot.
I think the latest one has less of a strong colour palette though, have you considered making the background more of a yellow to lime green gradient, take out the orange?

Zilk

Yeah, the latest one is still very WIP. Gotta get it a bit more interesting. I like the basic blocky layout of it but it is still missing something and needs better palette. Will try some variations

Zilk

I've been cleaning up some code and working on getting a first draft of a designed level in. I've also added so you can fall and die if you miss a tile etc. Hope you guys like it!

Zilk

Got tired of watching the horrible mockup UI I've had for the last few weeks so started working on a UI style. And I kinda thought a good start for that would be a logo.

Zilk

Huh, noticed that both AppAdvice and TouchArcade has written a little article about Glitch. If any of the writers see this, thanks a lot!

This really puts the pressure on doesn't it, damn. Well time to get shit done I guess

Zilk

I've had a lot of stuff going on this last week with moving. Wife kids and I moved into our new house out in the middle of the woods :P

I did however get some time to work on the main menu and transitions when switching between levels. Might need a few more tweaks but here it is!

Zilk

I've done some UI tweaks these last few days, cleaned up some menus, started working on the popup styles etc. So nothing cool to show at all :P

I did however make a little swipe to start animation at the start of every level that ended up being cool-isch.

Zilk

It was a while since I posted last. I have been all wrapped up in work and house painting (zzzZZzz). I have however managed to cram in some dev time, not doing anything fancy though. I've been working on UI, added some animations, made popups look nicer etc. All updates can't be fun I guess

Zilk

Finished up the shield function today, added an effect when it's turned on and one when it breaks. The shield basically blocks one mistake when you hit some obstacle.

Zilk

Ok so I'm no sound guy but I bought some dub step loop packs and bashed together something. Just so I can start trying to fix everything up and match gameplay to music. If anyone wants to take a listen to the first draft here it is:

Zilk

So I "finished" the music draft I was working on and started designing a level for it. The goal is to have the level move and feel connected to the music. I'm not even half way there yet but it kinda has promise.

Let me know what you guys think 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS2sFVArVrw&feature=youtu.be&hd

Zilk

I've been polishing up some stuff and also added collectibles, diamonds and crowns that are gonna be placed in harder to reach places on the levels. 

Also made a lot of tweaks to the controls. I realized that I had to make them a bit nicer, especially when jumping since the fps view makes it hard to time jumps.

Zilk

Wanted to do something fun so I spent some time building a portal effect for the gate you pass through to complete the levels. What do you think, portally enough?

Zilk

I implemented the portal and added animations to it. And now when the player passes through it the level ends. Sweet!

Zilk

Started adding some more interesting obstacles, hammers!

They can be rotated however and this perticular one smacked me right in the face first time I tried the new level

Zilk

So I continued working on the levels, hammers and some more basic obstacles today. Basically I want the levels to be "confusing", but in a good way. Meaning I want things to distract the player, so even though moving straight ahead in the same lane is the right choice, I want it to feel like it might not be.

I think I'm getting there

Zilk

I'm working on a new background for one of the earlier levels. What do you think still gotta add some more props etc but this is the general direction I'm going for.

Zilk

Improved the new background with some more shapes and polish. Also tried adding lighting to the whole scene to get some subtle shadows etc.

Zilk

I've been working on another background for the game, I'm calling it Dunes.

Zilk

I finished up another background, a bit more alien like. Only two more to go and then I gotta create music for all of them and then the level design!

Protokoll_Studio

@Zilk
I am colorblind but I see that the colors are just pleasant to see 

Keep it up 

Zilk

@Protokoll_Studio haha, well that's sweet Thanks!

Zilk

Background number 5, only one left to do and then it's onto music creation

Zilk

So I finished the last background last night so now all 6 backgrounds are done. Next step is to create music for all of them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYyi0dILsdA&feature=youtu.be&vq=hd1080

Zilk

I've continued working on new levels this week. This is a grab from one of them

Zilk

Kept working on more level and level design this week, added laser cannons that block an entire lane. Still gonna tweak these a bit more, maybe add some functionality to have them shooting to the beat and stuff like that.

What do you think, cool?

Zilk

I did some tweaks to gameplay (tiles and obstacle) shader to fake a bit of light bounce from the background, also added a slight rim light to things.

I added camera shakes when hammers hit the ground as well, it's based on the distance from the player to the hammer so bigger shake the closer you are. Really helped getting the hammers to feel heavy and powerful.

Cordero

the game looks fun, and it has a nice style to it I would suggest updating your signature, adding links to the game you already developed so people will find it more easily, and they don't have to google it  
keep up the great work! it seems like you are having fun with this!

Zilk

Thanks! Good idea, I've forgotten about that for a while

Cordero

ace! inspiring to see that you develop the games all by yourself. I'm guessing artwork and everything is made by you? do you make games you would want to play, or you focus on more what would be profitable?

Zilk

Yeah, in Pull My Tongue everything except music and sound is made by me. And then in Fluffy Jump my wife jumped in and helped with some art, characters and backgrounds mostly and another guy made music/audio. In this one I'm doing everything myself again, including music and sound this time

The first two games were just fun ideas I had, none of them is really my type of game. This one is more my speed. I always try to put some thought into getting them somewhat profitable, I'm just doing it in my free time but it's always nice to get something back from all the time put into games like this.

Zilk

So I made a cheap-isch bloom effect today for my game. I wanted the lasers to have more of a glowy feel to get them looking more powerful, I also didn't want it made with particles or planes in front of the lasers since I don't want the problem of overdraw or clipping.

So I made a script that detects lasers and when they are firing, and when they are a shader with three additive sprites are rendered on a plane infront of the camera and offsetted to the correct position. And whenever there are no lasers active it turns off.

It's an extra pass but a lot cheaper than full screen bloom and with less fuzz than with multiple particles clipping meshes all over the place.

A little technical there but I wanted to brag on how awesomely smart (I think) it is

Zilk

Busy week, started working on a new level, added pendulum axes, color switchers (that flash and then switch the background color) and also a intro/outro for each level with an indication to what killed you. Really works great since sometimes it can be quite confusing as to what actually killed you.

What do you think, starting to look like a game?

Michael Knubben

That's starting to look pretty well put together!

Zilk

Thanks I still got a lot left to do but yeah, it's starting to look like a game now!

RustySpannerz

This looks really cool, your animations look really fluid! 

Zilk

Finished level 2 for the game yesterday and also realized that I basically never posted a video with music. So here goes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCM4r-7-91I&feature=youtu.be

Zilk

I've been working on boring stuff these last weeks, getting the UI up to par. Made a new design that was more fitting to the gameplay art, cleaned up a few areas and just went through everything one more time to check that it was looking sweet

Now back to making the last two levels and sorting out the last plugin implementations!

Zilk

I got checkpoints working last night, basically there will be one or two per level that you can start from by using earned checkpoints or for free by watching some kind of ad. Haven't really worked out that part yet but I at least know there are gonna be checkpoints for those who want to use those.

Zilk

So I've started adding some plugins, ads, push, rate game, inapps etc but I also polished up the Mega Man tiles I did for level design.

The level isn't finished so this is just a test though

Zilk

So, it's time for Beta test! I'll be gathering in whoever wants to join for about a week then I'll be sending out the test.

So if you are interest follow the link and sign up

Zilk

Ok, so Android beta is out for anyone who subscribed! Working on the iOS beta right now as well.

If anyone want in a bit late just let me know and I'll make it happen.

Zilk

So beta is up and running, I've been hammering bugs and polishing things I've gotten back as feedback from players.

Also noticed quite quick that the level 2 I had was faaaaaaar too difficult to be level 2. So I whipped together a new background and a new level 2 and pushed the old level 2 to level 3 instead. (Yes, that is a lot of levels in one scentence)

Zilk

So I've been quiet for a while but that's because I've been finishing up the game. Just got some final tweaks to get done then it's ready to go. Therefor I've gotten started on screenshots, icon, trailer and all that stuff!

Thought I'd share the 30s preview trailer. What do you say, good enough?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O69w2Ul9MH8&feature=youtu.be

Zilk

Found a 6 month old gif and made a little split view compared to one captured recently. Nice to see that even though it has changed a lot the core is still there.

(new on the right)

Zilk

I setup a discord server for all my games if anyone wants to join in and discuss development, past/new games or generally whatever! https://discord.gg/aur5Myk