Wow. I made some quick progress on my game compared to my other devlogs, huh?
Welcome back to another one of these devlogs about a savior vs destructor game. I’ve made two big things in the game in the past week, and I’m pretty excited to showcase them here.
About the game
This will be a round based game where players can go to a warp zone (similar to the elevators in TDS, I explain warp zones in this devlog) and teleport to a random map, which is where the round will take place. Before each round begins, you can choose between one of two teams, Guardians and Nightmares. Each team has different weapons and the goal of every round is to restore or destroy more structures. If you’re a Guardian, you have to restore structures, and as a Nightmare, you have to destroy them, and you do this with the weapons you have. You can also shatter, or kill, enemy players too.
Structures have a certain amount of health, like 10, 20, or 30, and the goal of every round is to restore the most structures as a guardian, or destroy the most structures as a nightmare. In terms of lore, guardians are the protector of all worlds, and they have to defend them from the nightmares, which are the bad guys of everything. Cool, huh? In terms of gameplay, the only difference between the two teams is the weapons they can bring into battle. Guardians have a standard sword and cool throwing orb (currently in the testing place of the game, this is replaced with a spear) and a special shield that can reduce the amount of damage they take from enemies, but can only be used for ~10 seconds. Nightmares also have a sword and orb they can throw, but they have a big boy hammer instead of a shield. The big hammer can pound a lot of damage towards everything, but it’s super heavy, so it makes you much slower.
The way I’m planning on players obtaining weapons is by opening lootboxes. I’m not really sure if this is the best choice for weapon shopping, but I think it’s worth at least experimenting. The player can also bring three weapons with them in battle. A primary weapon, like swords and spears and all that stuff you’ll be using a lot, support weapons, which are for extra support like throwing orbs for a bigger range to attack, and a special weapon like shields and big boy hammers. I think this will benefit the player, as they can explore all different kinds of weapon combos.
There will be a bunch of different maps to battle it out on, and this concept can be updated with many more mechanics in the future.
In the last devlog, I said that I would be doing something for the hub, but I wouldn’t actually start building the hub. Well I lied! I made the area where players will spawn, and I call it the “Spawn Plaza”. Creative name, I know.
Spawn Plaza
Players will spawn in the center of the plaza, where there’s a fountain. I’m hoping this would be the perfect place for players to group up and do some rounds together and all that. I’m trying to go for not just a dimensional feel for the hub, but also a natural feel, like a wacky world with trees and flowers. I tried my best to make it not look like Earth, but I have an obligation to add some resemblance to Earth, so players have a familiarity for the area, otherwise players might not know what the place is supposed to be.
This plaza will be at the center of the entire hub with a bunch of main areas surrounding it. I’ll explain more about this after I talk about…
Warp Zones
The other thing I’ve made along with the spawn plaza is warp zones. They’re like the elevators in TDS, except you have to jump to enter and exit it, and when you’re in it, you’re taken to a void space thing called the Warp Zone. You float in the air with some stars or something. It’s pretty cool. Here’s a picture of what it looks like:
I promise it looks better when you’re playing. There’s just something about this that satisfies me.
Anyway, back to talking about the hub.
Plans for the Hub
Anyways, I’m going to have four paths leading to major areas surrounding the plaza. Here’s what I’m thinking:
- Warp Area - Not the official name yet. North of the plaza the place where players can go to warp zones and play.
- Guardian HQ - West of the plaza, this is where players will be able to snag some guardian weapons and anything else that has to do with guardians.
- Nightmare HQ - East of the plaza, this is where players would get some new nightmare weapons and all that, just like the Guardian HQ
- Extra Event Area - South of the plaza will just be a small little area that I might use for events ort something, who knows…
I also later want to give the hub a name, instead of just “hub”. It’s going to be a little dimension where Guardians and Nightmares don’t fight, but instead just group up and prepare for battles somewhere else, so I might name it something about combining or grouping up. Let me know if you have any suggestions for a name!
About the development
The spawn plaza was actually pretty fun to build. The only tedious part of making it was the terrain editor. Terrain is set up in 4x4 studs voxels, which is pretty good for big terrain, but it never goes the way you want it to if you’re trying to be precise. It was hard making grass between cobblestone and pavement in a circular fashion, because the grass would be super wonky. It was worth it though.
I really thought about lore and how it ties with dimensions not relating to Earth. I went for a natural feel because I didn’t want a whole lot of resemblance with human establishments like buildings and roads, and nature is so soothing. During development, I simply opened up a nearby window, and I got a surge of motivation!
The warp zones were a bit more fun to make, though. I loved scripting the effect where you go into the void space thing. Something about it just made it satisfying to implement. I want to follow this feeling as I script more effects for stuff in the hub.
Here’s the game if you want to try it. Please reply with bugs and suggestions, that’ll help out a lot!
Next, I’m going to probably make the warp zone area for the hub. I have an idea for how players will get to the area, and I want to build more of the hub before anything else relating to rounds.