Devlog #7 | Prototype Launch

LAUNCH TIME, BABY!

Today is the day that the game is launched and tested by the world! Well, it was yesterday, but I am writing this the day before the video comes out. But who cares, I may have finished the project but there are still some mistakes. For example the Windows executable says "CNED_BetaPreview.exe" a remnant of when I called this the "Open Beta Preview " rather than "Prototype." Linux users will also be confused on why they downloaded the Prototype but the file is called "ED_ALPHA_V4," there wasn't much I could do with that one since it seems to have derived from the project name in GMS2... By the way, this Prototype is still Alpha 4.5, meaning this is the first Alpha build to not be internal, it is public.

It's been a wild 1.5 years of working on a passion project and it has had it's ups and downs, while this devlog doesn't really build off of the previous 6 that were combined, it does document what led up to this release. Let's first start by introducing myself. I am Micah Thompson, I like to go by MicahTheManiac online, I have been programming since I was 11 and this has sparked my interest in computers and technology. Getting my start with Javascript and Minecraft PE Modding, I started programming on a tablet. This tablet was my first Android tablet and has led me to become a big fan of the Android operating system as it's more freeing environment sparked my interest in computers. I am entering my senior year of High school and while I don't know where I want to go to college, I know I want to go into Computer Science or Game Design. But enough about me,  what about the game?

The Game

The game has seen many updates, things added, things removed, a period of time when I started to focus development entirely on dogs... You name it. Maybe I'll talk about dogs one day, but just so you know, they are not coming into the game... Okay, maybe some Doggo DLC? Doubt it... The core systems have been established in the previous development videos on YouTube, but in the last one (Episode 6) I implemented AI and briefly went over an item system. Not much has changed with the Items since I showed them off, I have added loottables to chests but most likely the implementation of these loottables and items as a whole will change when I implement a proper inventory system.

I have added three new weapons into the game. The Sword, Axe, and the Mace. Before I got to implementing the inventory system, I got sidetracked by wanting to revamp the game's awful demo levels. This started in June and eventually led to me wanting to release a prototype in July, the new demo includes a better lighting demo, a combat tutorial and demo, a campaign demo, a stress test, and to wrap it all up into a complete package, there is a hub.

This version of the game also saw the re-implementation of the fancy cursor (which had been removed for some slight delay), a pause menu, and support for Linux. In the video I go over my process of Level Design (I am not an expert at it) and I reveal 10 seconds of the trailer, which can be seen on the main page or here. I also go over my future plans of having variants of the Zombie and Skeleton enemies, a nerf to the Mage, two new enemies (The Cultist and Bomb Knight), and some other ideas I have. Check out the video above for more detail...