I finally decided to spend time on what is now my 5th track named “Journey”. You can listen to it on my Soundcloud profile or on my track page. This track came from an idea I had when doing the puzzle lock soundtrack, with slow and smooth instruments. As I also really love Monotron Delay, I reuse some of the sunvox emulation I made earlier in Space Delay. I also learn a bit of FM with distorsion with a sound design from The Handle, I use a kind of big crash sound you can earn two times on transitions.
I’m happy to publish this track, because it was fun to make and because now I can now start for real the next part of Electric Mind Pulse game, the light puzzle !
I’m happy to announce that my first puzzle is finished ! Since the last article, I spent my time on music and music script. I added some events for sound effects. I also made a system which change the music when the signal is low. I made 4 music loops and a little transition. At last, I fixed a few bugs and try to improve the gameplay.
It is the first time I work on all parts of a game, even a little one. The graphics are procedurally generated, as the game is based on a UI, it fits well. Music and effects are made with sunvox and Bfxr. And of course, programming is made on Unity. You can listen the puzzle lock music on youtube and soundcloud.
I hope you like it. Let me know what you think about it ! In my last test I reached level 28.
From now, I will work on a second puzzle, light or energy, I don’t know which one for the moment. While I was composing music and sound effects, I put on stash several ideas. I may compose a new track before starting working on the next puzzle.
The last two week, I finish the transmission system, I introduce Electric Mind Pulse on Indiedb and a french forum canardpc. I spend more time on this two parts that I though I would.
For the indiedb part, I accumulated multiple mistakes. First of all, I didn’t really understand the rules for posting news ! Now I master them, 6 media (image, sound, gifs…) or a 1 minute video about the game. Then I realize a video would be better than 6 images that show almost the same thing. So I start making a video… I put way too much quality and the time to upload it on youtube was way too long !! Once the video uploaded, youtube has to process it and I decided to cut some parts. Again, it took a load of time that I didn’t expect ! At the end of the week-end, I had a video on youtube and my article validated on indiedb, but I did nothing else… Next time a shorter video and a lower bitrate will help me get this task done faster ! I really thank feillyne from indiedb for his patience !
Then, I start the last gameplay element. The first obstacle was how to draw some straight lines representing my data. I didn’t know if it was possible. As unity doesn’t provide some easy API to draw complex shapes on a image, the puzzle disk is drawn with mesh. But for the transmission system, as there are only straight lines, I wanted to handle it with an image. I though it would be easier to scroll it. So after some search and a little fight with the code, I finally found the way. Then, I gather a short “Bresenham line algorithm” and reuse the randomness system that prepare the disks to draw the transmission texture, and I get my “transmission” drawn.
Disk mesh
The second obstacle was about how to make the infinite vertical scrolling. I use a simple trick, two image moving behind a mask. When the first image is totally out of the mask, I reset it and put it on the bottom of the other.
After that, I had to make the “transmission weakness” appear in red, when fully detected the system allow the player had 4 seconds to activate it. I coded a trigger mecanism and terminated by coding the bonus.
There are 5 random bonuses :
Signal boost, add +5 on signal
Signal consuption reduction, half signal consuption
Improved grid, that accentuate the projection grid contrasts
Overload reduction, that increase overload recover speed
and a rare bonus that auto-resolve current disk
At first, I was thinking of a more complex system where the player has to click/tap on the red part of the transmission, but what happen if we are playing with keyboard ? So I switch to a more simple approach, the player has to left click, double tap or press space to activate the bonus once recognize by the system.
“Et voila !”
Since, I start to work on sound effects and a dedicated music for the puzzle part. I hope I’ll have something to share next time !
As expected, I added some difficulty. Every 8 level, the puzzle uses the 3 skins randomly to generate the 3 disks. And it is quite … difficult ! I didn’t insert misleading notch for the moment. I think now the player need a bit help ! So as not expected, I added a transmission part. Just now, it does … nothing ! But the goal is to deliver bonus to the player. I’ll let you know more next time.
I also began the polishing phase:
I change the way the disks are displayed. Thanks to that, the colors are more obvious when the player is interacting with the disks.
I added a projection grid, which can be strange at first. But it help a lot when trying to align the notchs.
I also added some animations to introduce the puzzle and reward the player when the puzzle is resolved.
If I knew how to use shaders, I would add some glitch effects. I will try to learn more on this side later…
I didn’t have time to change the sound effects, it is my next step ! The incoming changes are music and sound effects.
From the last todo-list remains the sound effects and the misleading notch. I don’t know if misleading notch will be implemented yet, but in this todo-list I add the “transmission bonus” system. I’m almost there !
Hello there ! Here are some news !
Since I published the early prototype, I take some time fixing bugs. Now the keyboard is correctly playable, the overload system is not jerking anymore. After that, I was on holiday for a week ! Taking some rest and enjoying family is an important step !
Hi there, I’m happy to share with you the first prototype which is the Lock puzzle. In the final game, you will find this puzzle on the bonus chest. For the moment, I implement a loop in which the puzzle will spawn with an increasing difficulty as you resolve it.
The puzzle goal is to get the 3 lock disks aligned with the border notch. You can turn them with the mouse. You have one main ennemy, the signal timer. As the difficulty increase a second ennemy will appear, the system overload. If you turn the disks too much without finding the correct position, the system overload will increase. A too high overload value will make the signal decrease two time faster. At last, the disk are procedurally generated and take into account a level parameter so as it become more difficult to identify the right position.
I put some sounds to give feedback but all of this is quite raw. I quickly make the sounds with random white noise on bfxr. I have to fix a few bugs but you can already have an idea of where I am just now. I have to polish sound, music, graphics animation and keyboard controls !
You can test the WEBGL version here. Tell me how you find the puzzle, your thoughts are important to me !
The kind of music I like the most is alternative metal ! Which doesn’t sound exactly like the tracks I do on Sunvox. I promise to myself that the 3rd track would be “industrial”. I’m happy to share my 3rd track, Space Delay, you can find right here and that doesn’t sound metal at all :
I didn’t plan to make a new track now, but I was tweaking my monotrons and got the main idea of the track, a simple melody with an LFO varying while playing with a space delay. I try to make it sounds in Sunvox, here is what I get :
I added drums, it was a bit difficult to found a rythm that follow the varying LFO… After that first step, I wanted to dig the idea. I fixed and improved the main idea. I added another instrument to introduce the effect with the monotron’s like “delay square pitch LFO”. Kind of hard in Sunvox, because it is not natively possible, but this kind of feature is first on the TODO-LIST. I also fix the end of the main theme which sound better now.
The next step consisted of adding a 3rd part, with the main theme but with a different kind of drums and a bass line. That allowed me to introduce the end of the title and try to make a drop. But the drop sounded more like the end of a track rather than … a drop !
So, I try something else and find another drop which sounds better. I share the tracks with some friend, listen to their advices. I fixed some little things I could and here is the track !
I’m not really happy with Space Delay’s drums which doesn’t really fits without having an idea of how to solve that ! I’m not really confident with the progression, it sounds like there was two tracks sticking to each other, but anyway I think this is interesting enough I’m proud to share it with you.
Thanks for your attention. Next time, I’ll show you the first prototype of Puzzle 3 chests e-locks.
I am currently working on the third puzzle, the lock. There is not much to show at the moment, the game consist of finding the right combinaison between 3 disks, over and over again ! Later, this kind of puzzle will be placed on the chests. That will allow the player to open it and get a cool item which will be helpful to get through the level.
It take some times since the last time I write some code in Unity, I’m feeling like a newbie, wondering how to do simple things. But that’s the way I start this game !
I plan to finish this puzzle, with all features at the mid april. For the moment, it seems OK ! The prototype run on PC, Android Emulator and my own smartphone. But I need some more work to show you something interesting. The next time !
I’ve just set up a page to help you track the demo progress. I’ve created several parts corresponding to what we will find in the very first demo. Each part has 6 lights, which corresponds to :
I’ve got a clear idea of what to make
The idea is analysed on a paper sketch
The main structure is implemented
All functionnalities are added
Testing and polishing phase
Finished
I plan to deliver the demo near August, if everything goes well !
The demo will contain 3 types of puzzle, one map not randomly generated, sounds and graphics.
I listen a lot of music, but I never played nether try to make some. However, it is an import part in a video game, it must not be forsaken.
I wanted to know if I could handle this part of the job, so I began to learn. I started from the ground, with sound synthesis. Then, I slowly made my way to composition. It was a tortuous path. I take a break with the Viznut experimental approach, how to make music (or sound structure) from very short programs. Even if the results could be amazing, it is really… experimental ! Though I love this kind of experience, it can be difficult to listen to. After some evenings trying to make my own formula, I had to be obvious ; It was not magic and I would’nt make it without a little serious learning.
After some times looking for a software that fits my needs, I found Sunvox made by Alexander Zolotov (nightradio). This tool can look strange at first, but it is a real crossplatform tool. I installed it on differents computers, and mostly on my smartphone. Even if it is not free on mobile device, it is worth it ! I could try what I learned everywhere when I got some times. I listened to a lot of electronic music, chiptune and study some technics. I made some trash but now, I have my first two shareable tracks. I’m still learning, but now I am more confident with my ability to produce some tracks for a video game.
