Progress Report on the Third Layer of the Labyrinth

I've been working on the Third Layer- the Cavern - for a little over a month at this rate. I decided it'd be a good idea to release a devlog detailing what all I've added, so here it is!

The video covers/shows off the following:

• A new boss being developed; a giant volcano-dwelling dragon
• New environment for the 3rd layer, with additions such as bonfires and stalactites
• New enemies, such as a cerberus, and a bat
• New items that greatly improve the players abilities and viability.
• New 4th tier weapons

I may be making another devlog if this version takes longer to release than originally anticipated so keep an eye out on this blog.

Hope you all enjoy it!

-Ryan

Version 0.8.5 - The Second Layer of the Labyrinth

Yo, hows it going? Been a little while since the last update, but I got around to publishing it!

This is most definitely the largest update the game has ever received, and the changelog is pretty massive, but here's a shortened version of it:

_____________________________________

-A new Layer of the Labyrinth; which includes new enemies, weapons, equipment, and music. 

-Thanks to the addition of the new Layer, the 20 minute timer will now be something to take into consideration when you're playing. 

-Several bug/exploit fixes as well as balancing changes regarding enemies and equipment alike. 

-Control Bindings and other Quality of Life improvements and additions.

_____________________________________

Also, a new video was published and I completely forgot to share it last week!

You can check out the new version at any of the following links:

https://zaffresheep.itch.io/oneiro/devlog/169050/oneiro-085-the-second-layer-of-the-labyrinth
https://gamejolt.com/games/oneiro/420370
https://www.indiedb.com/games/oneiro/downloads/oneiro-version-085

Hope ya enjoy it if you give it a shot.

-Ryan

April 12th, 2020, Week of Development

I'm currently going through a small "dev block", and I'm trying my best to fix it. Until then, this video talks a little bit more about it, as well as what I could finish in the week time span.

-Ryan

April 4th, 2020, Week of Development

Here's a short devlog; Main attraction here is the grappling hook.

In addition to this, I added a couple new items, and a new karambit.

-Ryan

March 28th, 2020, Week of Development

Alright, this is a shorter devlog, but I think it involves some cool stuff;

• Thundercloud (Siren Attack)
• Spikes now launch physics related objects; such as ceilings.
• Overall tweaking and manipulation of hitboxes. More forgiving to new players.

The spike launching is definitely a lot more fun than I thought it would be...

That's it for this post though; Tons of other bug issues fixed, but I'd have to list them days on end if I wanted to cover all of them.

-Ryan

March 21st, 2020, Week of Development

Heyo everyone, wanted to make a new blog post to share a new devlog!

This goes over the beginning process of adding a Siren boss to the 2nd Labyrinth. It was sorta scripted, but I just kinda talked about what came to mind and took whatever joke manifested in my head.

Overall, I'd say this is a pretty quality developer log, and I hope you all agree too!

-Ryan

March 14th, 2020, Week of Development

Alright, this week started off unmotivated, but I believe that hurdle is gone already, so that's awesome.

Last night, I had published a short devlog about week 2 development of the 2nd labyrinth. It talks about working on animation controllers for the Nature Giant, and a new plant enemy that spawns within bogs!

This one was not scripted at all, and it's pretty clear. Next week will be better, but at least there was still development through this week.

Hope ya enjoy.
-Ryan

March 07th, 2020, Week of Development

Heyo everyone, I'm gonna start doing weekly devlogs to try to get the name of the game out there more.

This first week shows the basics of what I went through to get the second labyrinth up and running.

This is a much more unprofessional format, but I had a ton of fun editing it.

The second week has been slow development, but I'm still trying to get a handful of work done, and I'll update the blog once I post the 2nd week devlog!

-Ryan

Oneiro Version 0.7.9 - Kickstarter,Trailer, and Polish

Heyo, welcome to the second version update on the ZSG blog! Let's get to the changelog:

• A Kickstarter campaign has been started, and the importance is arguable, but I tried to be as honest as I possibly could with any potential backers. The KS will help me pay for the programs I use for development, and make the whole workflow much, much smoother. In addition to this, I'll be able to commission for music and sound effects, because I'm aware that's where the game is lackluster.
• A new trailer has been created, and embedded above. I wrote an entire blog post on the creation of this here. It was a pretty fun experience, and I learned a good bit from it
• Much needed polish, and adjustments. The Real World has been overhauled, several bugs fixed, and even pitfalls in the Labyrinth

An entire changelog can be found here at itch.

Itch.io download

Gamejolt download

-Ryan

Creation of the Oneiro 0.7.9 Trailer

Hey everyone, how's it goin'?

I figured I should do a few more blog posts, and I thought of the idea to write about how I went through the process, and how it escalated into the trailer it is now.
Plus, I'm super tired now, and writing kinda gives me a burst of energy

So here goes nothing!

If you haven't seen the trailer, you can do here

For reference to what I'm talking about in this post, here's a link to the unlisted first draft.


Pre-Planning

Before doing any of this, I had recorded myself playing the game for about 45min-an hour. I'd split each video up into different labyrinth dreams, and play each one in a certain style. This would help me make sure I have as much good footage from the start as I could.

Planning

There was none. I'm not that kinda guy.

Actually- I take that back, there was very, very, very, little planning.
See, I designed the trailer with Steam in mind, and one of Steams bullet points when you upload a video, is to get to action as quickly as possible. I had to agree with this one, because I personally did not like the previous trailer I had made back when the game was titled Labyrinth.

Ignoring the odd resolution during the recording in the first trailer, it took way too long for any sort of actual gameplay to show; which is where the game flourishes.

So maybe, I didn't have a direction to go with the trailer, but I did have a direction as to where NOT to go with the trailer.

Creation

So the first thing I did was get some clip that I thought would show a few different mechanics of the game within a short time. The clip I got was of me breaking a pot, finding a power capsule, immediately using it, and killing a blue slime.

It was fine, and all, but no one really, commented anything good about that clip specifically. Same thing happened for the next clip afterwards.

So... I scraped 'em. I replaced the first clip with a clip showing that the player can knock torches off the wall, and burn/kill an enemy. This clip specifically, got me some reactions, people actually started to comment on that 4 second clip. I repeated this process for all clips.
If there was no positive comment towards a clip, I assumed it was not beneficial to the overall trailer.

That was pretty much the basis of the feedback, but... there was an issue... I had a small collection of people I was showing these trailer drafts to, all of which have seen and played the game before, so they know exactly what the game is about.

I needed more accurate feedback; feedback that would be more akin to those of new players in the shopping mood on Steam.


Retrieval of Feedback

Right, so, how did I go about this? I needed strangers feedback, but I needed it directly, and needed them to be genuine.
Well, I picked up a popular messaging app called Kik. You're probably heard of it. It was kind of odd for me to be using it for professional purposes, since I had only used it in the past with my close friends. But there was a reason why I chose this specific messaging app.

Kik lets each user have specific "interests". There's a handful of pre-set options, so I chose a single one; "gaming". Now, having selected that, I can click some button to pair up with a stranger, and it's guaranteed that I get paired up with another person who is into gaming; aka, someone who has (presumably) watched several video game trailers during their life, but not mine. And that's the exact kind of person who'll find it on Steam.

So I'd just ask them if they wanted to help me out real quick by giving me their opinion on the trailer, and it worked out wonderfully because, as I originally thought, people love when you ask them for their opinions. Many of them pointed out faults that I had fixed, and suggestions that I added.

What was even greater was that, it wasn't just the trailer they were commenting on, it was also their first impression, which helps me out a ton, because I now know what some people will think when they see the game for the very first time.


I essentially repeated this process, over and over, until I got the final trailer.

Conclusion

Well, by the time of writing this, I had ended up collapsing at my keyboard due to lack of sleep, so, maybe it didn't give me the presumed burst of energy I mentioned earlier.

But the main takeaway here is to pretty much use what you can to reach out to strangers, even if it is a messaging app with a arguably bad reputation; and another take away is that when you explicitly ask for someone's opinion, you'll never make them be upset, pretty sure.


I hope ya enjoyed this... tangent of semi-guided thoughts.

-Ryan

Kickstarter Help Post: Ryan's Handwriting

---Find Equipment--- 
Equipment encompasses both items and gear. They have a wide array of abilities and encourage certain playstyles over others.

---Acquire New Weapons--- 
 Weapons come in a multitude of forms for the player. They are the players main source of damage. The Kickstarter demo features 4 types: Swords, Sledgehammers, Spears, and Karambits.

 ---Tear down the Labyrinth--- 
 The Labyrinths are held together via the "Core" of the Labyrinth. Cores are extremely powerful items that will destroy the Labyrinth from the outside inwards, throwing the player into the boss arena.

 ---Defeat Labyrinth Boss--- 
 Bosses slumber below the labyrinths and they hold an item to let you advance further in the sleep cycle.

Oneiro Version 0.7.8 - Gear, Status Effect Mixtures, and Upcoming Plans

Welcome to the first version update on the ZSG blog, I plan to keep these relatively short, but informative, and I also plan to match each of these with a devlog video, in case you feel like not reading these posts.

Summarized Changelog:

• "Gear" exists within the Labyrinth, and can be found through enemy drops or breaking pots. Gear are equipment that the player can actively use and the effects of them vary greatly.
• For example; Gear can deal damage to enemies, heal the player, throw up a giant beacon towards the sky, or even imbue the player with certain elements.
• Status effects work differently, and can now mix and match with each other.
• If the player is in a neutral state, all status effects will work normally. 
• If the player is burning, and steps into another fire source, they will acquire the Hellfire status effect, which is much more life threatening.
• If the player is poisoned, and steps into an ice source, they'll be inflicted with "venomfrost", which is a combination between poison and freeze
• A few quality of life changes, along with bug fixes, and a new alternative music track for the labyrinth.

The full changelog and game download can be found here.

-Ryan, ZSG

Oneiro - a nightmarish roguelite

I want to take a post and introduce to any new readers to my pride and joy, Oneiro.

-About-

Oneiro revolves around the 4 natural stages in a sleep cycle, as shown in the picture below. These are 3 Non-Rapid Eye Movement stages, and then the final REM stage.

In this image above, there is no mention of dreaming occuring in the NREM stages, but I did some research, and scientists have been able to find some evidence that we can dream in these stages, and so I made a game out of this.

Oneiro tells the story of a town plagued with a curse that causes everybody in the town to dream up of similar nightmares every night. The player takes control in these nightmares, and must explore labyrinths to get to the cause of these nightmares, and defeat it once and for all.

ZSG Blog Rebirth

Alright, the decade is gone, and here comes another.

Something I've been wanting to do, and actually have steady progress with, is to manage a blog.

This will be one of my several goals for 2020.

I've noticed that if you Google "Zaffre Sheep Games", this blog comes up as one of the top results, so I need to actually make this look presentable. Hopefully I'll be writing a post once a month, maybe twice if I feel like showing off some cool stuff behind the development scenes. The next couple months will be busy, but more on that in the proceeding post.

Here's to reviving this blog!