vividhelix









Level 0 Semispheres [Out Now On Nintendo Switch!] « on: June 10, 2015, 09:18:56 AM »











(Keeping the original post for historical purposes)



Hi all,



I finally decided to start a devlog for my current game - Semispheres. I'm a dev based out of Calgary (Canada) and I'm working on it mostly by myself.



Semispheres a single-player co-op game - you get to control two different characters at the same time and have them cooperate to solve puzzles. Here's how it looks:





Guards patrolling:









Some shadows:









Ping/noise mechanic:









Ping inside portal mechanic:











And some stills:















The art syle is fairly minimalistic as you can see. The gameplay is a mix of puzzles and motor coordination challenges (in the parts where you have to act on both sides at the same time).





The Past



Semispheres started off as a ludum dare entry for LD30 - Connected Worlds (I'll post some images later). One of the original influences was Brothers - Tale of Two Sons (only from a mechanics perspective).



I put it aside for a while, then came back to it in December last year and have been working on it mostly full time since then. I've gone from a pixel-art top-down angled perspective to the current neon straight top-down a while back and have settled into it.



Initially I was aiming for this to be a completely puzzle-ish experience, with no focus on mechanical skills. However, after trying it out and talking to people who have tried it, having some mechanically challenging levels is a great workout for the brain and feels great.





The Present



Here's where the game is at right now. I have some of the mechanics implemented - guard patrols, ping and portal powerups. I have 16 levels currently presented in a linear fashion. The game has been playtested a bit locally and at a game festival in Edmonton (GDX) and feedback was great.



Currently the game is probably best played with a controller, though I took great care to ensure it can be played with a keyboard as well (which is secretly my preference). Play time is currently around 10-15 minutes, but projecting a final play time of a few hours.



There are no sounds or music yet.



I'm going through a rename as the initial working title of the game was Replicas (which I still like, but is really really bad for SEO). Semispheres feels a lot better, and seems to evoke more of the brainy vibes I'm going for.





The Future



As already mentioned, there was a recent change in theme/story/name. Going from a two little guys in parallel realities towards a brain-themed approach (hence the name Semispheres). Don't want to give too much away from it yet. This will involve some changes on visuals as well.



The linear level progression needs to be changed as it's not the greatest idea for a puzzle game. I'm aiming for having a hub-world and "spokes" to enter levels with different themes. Also need to add a few more mechanics and a whole lot more levels.



There are also a few more mechanics I need to introduce. And of course, many more levels.



In terms of events, there's a couple more local (Calgary and area) events I will showcase the game at in the next couple of months.





Conclusion



Thanks for reading this, more to come soon, including a gameplay video and more insights into the design process.



Cheers,

Radu Here's a glimpse at the new art style:(Keeping the original post for historical purposes)Hi all,I finally decided to start a devlog for my current game - Semispheres. I'm a dev based out of Calgary (Canada) and I'm working on it mostly by myself.Semispheres a single-player co-op game - you get to control two different characters at the same time and have them cooperate to solve puzzles. Here's how it looks:Guards patrolling:Some shadows:Ping/noise mechanic:Ping inside portal mechanic:And some stills:The art syle is fairly minimalistic as you can see. The gameplay is a mix of puzzles and motor coordination challenges (in the parts where you have to act on both sides at the same time).Semispheres started off as a ludum dare entry for LD30 - Connected Worlds (I'll post some images later). One of the original influences was Brothers - Tale of Two Sons (only from a mechanics perspective).I put it aside for a while, then came back to it in December last year and have been working on it mostly full time since then. I've gone from a pixel-art top-down angled perspective to the current neon straight top-down a while back and have settled into it.Initially I was aiming for this to be a completely puzzle-ish experience, with no focus on mechanical skills. However, after trying it out and talking to people who have tried it, having some mechanically challenging levels is a great workout for the brain and feels great.Here's where the game is at right now. I have some of the mechanics implemented - guard patrols, ping and portal powerups. I have 16 levels currently presented in a linear fashion. The game has been playtested a bit locally and at a game festival in Edmonton (GDX) and feedback was great.Currently the game is probably best played with a controller, though I took great care to ensure it can be played with a keyboard as well (which is secretly my preference). Play time is currently around 10-15 minutes, but projecting a final play time of a few hours.There are no sounds or music yet.I'm going through a rename as the initial working title of the game was Replicas (which I still like, but is really really bad for SEO). Semispheres feels a lot better, and seems to evoke more of the brainy vibes I'm going for.As already mentioned, there was a recent change in theme/story/name. Going from a two little guys in parallel realities towards a brain-themed approach (hence the name Semispheres). Don't want to give too much away from it yet. This will involve some changes on visuals as well.The linear level progression needs to be changed as it's not the greatest idea for a puzzle game. I'm aiming for having a hub-world and "spokes" to enter levels with different themes. Also need to add a few more mechanics and a whole lot more levels.There are also a few more mechanics I need to introduce. And of course, many more levels.In terms of events, there's a couple more local (Calgary and area) events I will showcase the game at in the next couple of months.Thanks for reading this, more to come soon, including a gameplay video and more insights into the design process.Cheers,Radu « Last Edit: September 14, 2017, 06:42:18 AM by vividhelix » Logged Semispheres - single-player puzzler







Greenlight | @VividHelix | http://semispher.es

vividhelix









Level 0 Re: Semispheres - single-player co-op stealth puzzler « Reply #11 on: June 29, 2015, 07:14:41 AM »



Death effect:







Also changed how the guards look:







However, this was at odds with the background being so precise/straight so had to change that a bit as well, rounded corners and added the "walls on fire" effect:









Still trying to figure out exact sizing for the guards, I do like the larger ones as they feel heavier/slower which is a nice contrast to the fast and nimble heroes. Here are some new animations.Death effect:Also changed how the guards look:However, this was at odds with the background being so precise/straight so had to change that a bit as well, rounded corners and added the "walls on fire" effect:Still trying to figure out exact sizing for the guards, I do like the larger ones as they feel heavier/slower which is a nice contrast to the fast and nimble heroes. Logged Semispheres - single-player puzzler







Greenlight | @VividHelix | http://semispher.es

vividhelix









Level 0 Re: Semispheres - single-player co-op stealth puzzler « Reply #14 on: July 21, 2015, 09:46:45 AM » K-Days Tech Life post-mortem



What is K-Days?



K-Days is an annual 10-day exhibition taking place in Edmonton. It's a fair with lots of outdoors attractions, some indoors space and everything that comes with it - mini-donut popsicle yum!



One of the indoors things happening is





Lessons Learned



This is the second time I show my game to a larger audience. And oh what an audience. My first showing was at GDX (also in Edmonton) which was specifically aimed at people interested in games. In contrast, K-Days is for everyone and people passing by have different interests and experience in playing games.



The organization was once again great - the same people behind the GDX event helped organize this. The hardware was a bit underpowered, but the screen resolution was small so performance was not really an issue. We were issued Rock Candy XBOX 360 controllers and some of us ran into some problems with those, but I was fortunate enough not to have to use the trigger buttons.



I learned a lot of interesting stuff during the 3 days I was there exhibiting.



One of the things I'm aiming for is very little text in the game. My most important playtesting principle is to not have to talk to the playtester at all - rather, creeping from a distance. To be able to do that, I've incorporated images of a controller in my game to help players out.





Dual thumbstick usage tutorial



Take the starting screen for example:



.



I'm trying to teach the player that they have to use both thumb sticks (hence the flashing). When they move one of the thumbsticks, one of the controllers goes away and the game only starts when both controllers are off screen. Normally, people pick on that right away. The big surprise from showing the game at K-Days was that some couldn't figure this out at all - either they didn't figure out they had to move the thumbsticks or they moved both but from what I can tell interpreted it as just a way to get those pesky flashing things off the screen (and not an indication that you're supposed to move the thumbsticks to play the game).



A while back I shortly considering having an angry-birds style short tutorial animation (or in-game video) showing what happens when you move the thumbsticks and later when you use the bumper buttons. I'm seriously reconsidering this now, but I'm torn. Some of the puzzles are kinda difficult later on in the game so I doubt they'd be able to figure them if they can't figure out the first screen. Fail fast?





Ping mechanic tutorial



Another example is the first level where I introduce the ping mechanic:



.



I tried to gate it in such a way that the player has to go through this narrow area where the ping starts to be effective. Once again, most of the people had no issues grasping this before, however at K-Days I've seen several times where people pressed the button to dismiss the controller only to move around the level for one more minute before trying to actually use the ping.





Level progression and demo build level composition



Other than that, I've had some people manage to go through all the level I had set up for the demo build. It was very encouraging that most of the people that got through the first few levels and made it to the portal-ping mechanic stuck around and played for as long as they could. For a multiple day showing, my biggest lesson learned is to make the content shorter (right now a full playthrough is probably around 30 minutes) and to playtest different levels. About two thirds of the levels had been playtested before so I haven't really learned much about them this time around. It's a tricky proposition though since it may affect the progression, but for future showings I plan to do a split and combine. For example, say I have 30 levels, I would split them in two groups of 20 levels (some of the introductory levels will have to be repeated) and in the subsequent days I would reorganize them to include levels where I fixed issues discovered during playtesting.



I also need to start trying to figure out how a demo build would look like. It sounds like it would be wise not to include too difficult levels though I feel that's what makes the game interesting. It's even harder since I have levels that are difficult puzzles and levels that are more obvious, but difficult to pull off mechanically.



Most people didn't get to hear the awesome audio (that deserves its own post later).





Conclusion



All in all, it was a great experience. For next year, I'd consider doing just the weekend as Monday was way slower in terms of foot traffic. The game is still there running unmanned (there are some awesome GDX folks attending to all of them as usual) - I wish I had some sort of analytics to see where people are dropping off, though I think I learned most of the problems at the current stage the game is at.



Now on to the next event - K-Days is an annual 10-day exhibition taking place in Edmonton. It's a fair with lots of outdoors attractions, some indoors space and everything that comes with it - mini-donut popsicle yum!One of the indoors things happening is Tech Life which includes a bunch of technical demos and some extra life competitions on a huge screen.This is the second time I show my game to a larger audience. And oh what an audience. My first showing was at GDX (also in Edmonton) which was specifically aimed at people interested in games. In contrast, K-Days is for everyone and people passing by have different interests and experience in playing games.The organization was once again great - the same people behind the GDX event helped organize this. The hardware was a bit underpowered, but the screen resolution was small so performance was not really an issue. We were issued Rock Candy XBOX 360 controllers and some of us ran into some problems with those, but I was fortunate enough not to have to use the trigger buttons.I learned a lot of interesting stuff during the 3 days I was there exhibiting.One of the things I'm aiming for is very little text in the game. My most important playtesting principle is to not have to talk to the playtester at all - rather, creeping from a distance. To be able to do that, I've incorporated images of a controller in my game to help players out.Take the starting screen for example:I'm trying to teach the player that they have to use both thumb sticks (hence the flashing). When they move one of the thumbsticks, one of the controllers goes away and the game only starts when both controllers are off screen. Normally, people pick on that right away. The big surprise from showing the game at K-Days was that some couldn't figure this out at all - either they didn't figure out they had to move the thumbsticks or they moved both but from what I can tell interpreted it as just a way to get those pesky flashing things off the screen (and not an indication that you're supposed to move the thumbsticks to play the game).A while back I shortly considering having an angry-birds style short tutorial animation (or in-game video) showing what happens when you move the thumbsticks and later when you use the bumper buttons. I'm seriously reconsidering this now, but I'm torn. Some of the puzzles are kinda difficult later on in the game so I doubt they'd be able to figure them if they can't figure out the first screen. Fail fast?Another example is the first level where I introduce the ping mechanic:I tried to gate it in such a way that the player has to go through this narrow area where the ping starts to be effective. Once again, most of the people had no issues grasping this before, however at K-Days I've seen several times where people pressed the button to dismiss the controller only to move around the level for one more minute before trying to actually use the ping.Other than that, I've had some people manage to go through all the level I had set up for the demo build. It was very encouraging that most of the people that got through the first few levels and made it to the portal-ping mechanic stuck around and played for as long as they could. For a multiple day showing, my biggest lesson learned is to make the content shorter (right now a full playthrough is probably around 30 minutes) and to playtest different levels. About two thirds of the levels had been playtested before so I haven't really learned much about them this time around. It's a tricky proposition though since it may affect the progression, but for future showings I plan to do a split and combine. For example, say I have 30 levels, I would split them in two groups of 20 levels (some of the introductory levels will have to be repeated) and in the subsequent days I would reorganize them to include levels where I fixed issues discovered during playtesting.I also need to start trying to figure out how a demo build would look like. It sounds like it would be wise not to include too difficult levels though I feel that's what makes the game interesting. It's even harder since I have levels that are difficult puzzles and levels that are more obvious, but difficult to pull off mechanically.Most people didn't get to hear the awesome audio (that deserves its own post later).All in all, it was a great experience. For next year, I'd consider doing just the weekend as Monday was way slower in terms of foot traffic. The game is still there running unmanned (there are some awesome GDX folks attending to all of them as usual) - I wish I had some sort of analytics to see where people are dropping off, though I think I learned most of the problems at the current stage the game is at.Now on to the next event - Calgary Mini Maker Faire , taking place on September 12th and 13th. Logged Semispheres - single-player puzzler







Greenlight | @VividHelix | http://semispher.es

Eniimal









Level 0 Re: Semispheres - single-player co-op stealth puzzler « Reply #15 on: July 21, 2015, 10:56:25 AM » Semispheres looks really cool,

I'm a fan of stealth game and I always wanted to make a top down stealth game, so I'm forced to love it



Shows and Expo are awesome, I had the chance to show some of my games in a game expo and I had a lot of awesome feedback and info.

Having real people playing your game make you learn a lot of things about what is wrong and what is right in your game. looks really cool,I'm a fan of stealth game and I always wanted to make a top down stealth game, so I'm forced to love itandare, I had the chance to show some of my games in a game expo and I had a lot of awesome feedback and info.Having real people playing your game make you learn a lot of things about what is wrong and what is right in your game. Logged @Ducky_Games | DevLog