Shattered Haven -- Another Upcoming Project

[x4000]

So is this going to be a rougelike (ish) game?

I don't really think that's an appropriate way to describe this game, but it depends on what exactly you mean by that I guess.

Facts not in favor of this being a roguelike:
- It's not procedural in any way.
- There's no permadeath in any way, and in fact the save system is automatic and really forgiving.
- It's realtime rather than turn-based, although I know that some rougelikes are that way also (100 Rogues was fun).

Facts that do make it seem kind of like a roguelike:
- Visually it looks kind of like a roguelike.
- You do have to use your brain to overcome tricky obstacles like in a roguelike... but these are hand-designed rather than procedural.  Think Lode Runner: The Legend Returns more than roguelike.
- It is possible to get killed pretty fast if you make a few mistakes, although there is not insta-death.  But since this has difficulty settings that varies by difficulty.

Other random tidbits sort of related:
- Each level is a self-contained thing with its own inventory that you have to collect and play with directly.
- There's an "overworld" that visually looks much the same as the levels, but connects them all together.  You get no weapons/traps/etc out here, and instead have to flee and avoid various powerful monsters.
- Each level has a set of bonus conditions that you can complete in order to get a "gold" on that level.  This is much harder than just beating the level, and often requires extra thinking.
- If I had to describe this as briefly as possible to someone who knows retro games, I'd describe it most succinctly as "like the love-child of Zelda 1 and Lode Runner:TLR, with a little bit of Secret of Mana thrown in there."  Mechanically speaking, anyhow.  Thematically speaking, it's like none of those.

[tigersfan]

So is this the reason why nothing has appeared on the change list for AI War today?

I think the main reason for this is that the work done on AI:War today was directly related to the expansion, and the change list is only for stuff that is changed in the released version of the game. I can assure you work was done on AI: War today. I can do this because I did some of said work.

Shattered Haven is something we've been working on a bit internally for a couple weeks now, today is just the first day we're really talking about it publicly.

[x4000]

So is this the reason why nothing has appeared on the change list for AI War today?

Nope!  Keith isn't working on this project at all until the new AI War expansion is complete.  It's been all quiet on the AI War front today because Keith has been working on the AI War expansion and those don't get release notes yet.

I've been working on all manner of things lately, trying to clear my decks so that I can focus more fully on Shattered Haven.  I'm finally done with all my art work for the new AI War expansion, so that's down to just my AVWW work for this week (which I'm nearly done with), and then various stuff with the AVWW Art Rework project, and then Shattered Haven.

Josh and Erik, meanwhile, have been all over the place, too.  Josh is doing the far zoom icons for the new AI War expansion at the moment, and he also did his first Shattered Haven level today, as well as all his usual duties.  It's going to be a busy time around here for a few months!

EDIT: Ninja'd!

[KingIsaacLinksr]

@Chris, Ok, that clears it up for me. Obviously I didn't mean Rougelikes in all its mechanics because you mentioned it was hand-crafted, but whether it would have some of them and that clears it up. Thanks! Those sound like interesting concepts to mix together, so I'll probably be watching this one closely too .

Sounds like a fun game, but for me you've always made fun games so dunno why you would stop now. 

[x4000]

Glad I could help, and thanks.

Now I'm off for some sleep!

[madcow]

This sounds very cool, its going to be an overhead view game - like the first Zelda? Also is the combat system going to be actiony?

[x4000]

Yep, overhead like Zelda 1 -- the old rps article has old screenshots in the old graphics.

The combat is mostly indirect -- traps and such. The few times you get something to attack directly with, it is actiony like in Zelda 1. But more often you flee and use your wits to set traps.

[madcow]

Oh cool, sounds like sort of a bomberman-esque vibe, but without being exactly that.

[Misery]

Hmm, interesting.   Not what I expected.


Dunno what to think of this one, really.   On one hand, the mechanics sound interesting.  Very interesting, actually.  On the other hand, it sounds like much lower replay value than AVWW (I tend to stick to procedural stuff half the time due to very high replay value), and things like story and cutscenes lose my attention almost instantly.

Granted, level editor for replay value, but..... that only seems to really work that way if there's a large enough output of player-made stuffs, and even then, it's usually a monstrous pain to sift through badly made ones in search of the decent ones.   Kinda makes me think of Knytt Stories in that respect;  I love the game, but nearly never play it, as the levels that came with it were short as heck (and there's zero point in doing them more than once), and the vast majority of user-made levels are utterly horrible (or they're those "extreme platformer" types that I never liked).  I'm not one for patience, with searching for good content.   Well, I'm not one for patience period, really.  I do like making stuff like that though, so that's something for me to consider.


For the time being, I probably wont pay too much attention to this one.  I'll stick with AVWW, and jump on AI War if I can ever think up a good way to control it (and if I happen to be not too lazy to DO it at the time, hah). 

Still, I'll have a closer look at this one when it's possible to do so.   Are you guys gonna be doing some sort of beta or something with this?


EDIT:  Actually, I might end up following this a bit closer after all, after pondering it a bit further.  Those game mechanics sound absolutely fascinating, and I usually enjoy doing level design of my own, and if the mechanics shape up the way I'm thinking they might based on your description, that aspect could get..... interesting.

Well.  Despite my usual negativity, I guess I end up convinced after all.   Bloody amazing, really.

[LaughingThesaurus]

Ooh boy. Sounds like another tactical/strategic combat sort of game that I'll be terrible at. I hope there's a pause button so I have time to think like in AI War...then I'll have some fun! I'm pretty excited about it, and thank God you haven't gone and remade traditional zombies for the thousandth time in the industry.

[Armanant]

So.. where do we enter our credit card number?

[tigersfan]

Dunno what to think of this one, really.   On one hand, the mechanics sound interesting.  Very interesting, actually.  On the other hand, it sounds like much lower replay value than AVWW (I tend to stick to procedural stuff half the time due to very high replay value), and things like story and cutscenes lose my attention almost instantly.

Granted, level editor for replay value, but..... that only seems to really work that way if there's a large enough output of player-made stuffs, and even then, it's usually a monstrous pain to sift through badly made ones in search of the decent ones.   Kinda makes me think of Knytt Stories in that respect;  I love the game, but nearly never play it, as the levels that came with it were short as heck (and there's zero point in doing them more than once), and the vast majority of user-made levels are utterly horrible (or they're those "extreme platformer" types that I never liked).  I'm not one for patience, with searching for good content.   Well, I'm not one for patience period, really.  I do like making stuff like that though, so that's something for me to consider.

I understand your concerns here. Our plan is to have a bunch (by that I mean not 1000s, but a lot) of levels on launch. Additionally, it's pretty likely that we'll be hand-picking the better levels and adding them to the game ourselves, so that folks won't have to do quite so much searching for them.

[zebramatt]

Also, if I understand the intended dynamics of the game, it sounds like there's plenty of scope for multiple possible ways of completing tasks within levels. (And if it so happens that you can combine the use of your traps and items in the world in interesting emergent ways then it might even be fun just to muck about [see Gunpoint].) And if there are interesting achievements, unlockables and/or a high score to be had, replayability goes through the roof for me!

I'm expecting good things, to say the least.

[tigersfan]

Also, if I understand the intended dynamics of the game, it sounds like there's plenty of scope for multiple possible ways of completing tasks within levels. (And if it so happens that you can combine the use of your traps and items in the world in interesting emergent ways then it might even be fun just to muck about [see Gunpoint].) And if there are interesting achievements, unlockables and/or a high score to be had, replayability goes through the roof for me!

I'm expecting good things, to say the least.

I'm not sure that Gunpoint is the best example. I don't think it will be quite that emergent. That said, there are certainly many levels that are already in the game that have more than one solution, and some levels that have different tasks that you can complete in the level that are optional, and give you a higher score if you complete them.

[zebramatt]

Oh, I only really included that sentence in brackets as an aside from my main point, which was about flexibility of play within a pre-designed structure adding replayability.

The aside was, of course, about when you transcend flexibility and delve into the realms of (structured) sandboxing, when things go from having decent replayability to being absolute time-sinks. (And Gunpoint just happens to be the most recent example to which I've been exposed.)