Topics

1

Bigosaur / Block Buster Billy

« on: June 20, 2022, 11:08:33 AM »

I have been toying with an idea for a puzzle game for a while. I have released a bunch of puzzle games so far, with varied success. Rogue Bit has been the most polished product so far, but it's a game for a very niche audience of programmers and computer hardware enthusiasts. Seeders has been a hit and miss. It has awesome puzzles, but Box2D physics is somewhat inconsistent, so you often figure out a way to solve it and then spent of lot of time trying to execute. It removed and changed a lot of those in the Seeders Puzzle Reboot version, but it still isn't perfect. The Game is ON was a very fun game to make, but it doesn't seem so fun to play. The actual fun was coming up with a scene that fits the idiom, but trying to discover it while playing just doesn't feel that good.'

I took all these lessons from the past experience when making Billy. I wanted a game that has tight controls, so I picked the turn-based approach. The puzzles range from very easy, to very hard. Similar to Baba Is You, you can play with the blocks until something 'clicks' and you figure it out.

The game is powered by the same engine I used for Rogue Bit, so it scales the graphics nicely to 4K monitors and beyond. The fact that the mechanics are based on numbers and basic math, makes it translatable to every language. The only thing that really needs translation are the level names, but they aren't really that important to the gameplay as they rarely give a hint. Most of the time, the player has all the tools and is left to discover the solution on their own. I made a first level set which teaches you the ropes, so you aren't lost in a tough puzzle immediately.

Making this game was also fun for me. I had a very interesting approach for this one: I would get some basic idea, try to build a level from that and then try to solve it. When it was too easy, I would add stuff that make it harder - to the point where I felt like it was unsolvable. Then I would try to solve the level for 30-60 minutes, to see if I can come up with some original way. If I manage to do it, that's a perfect level. Of course, sometimes it really is impossible and I have to loosen some of the restrictions.

While developing the levels, I would often notice alternate solutions that require completely different approach. In such cases, I would split the level into two levels - and then edit each one to make sure either of the two approaches only work in one of the levels. I love that feeling when a player comes into the level thinking 'Oh, I know this' and then get stumped when they see that a single block is missing or something has moved by one tile and it requires a completely different way of solving.

I'm done with puzzles involving equations, inequations, adding and subtractions. I plan to add multiplication, and possibly variables and have about 120-150 levels for the final game. I plan to release on Steam and Nintendo Switch. Maybe mobile platforms as well? Not sure about that yet.

2

Bigosaur / Crypto Miner Tycoon Simulator

« on: April 19, 2022, 08:31:43 PM »

https://bigosaur.com/cmts/

Back in March 2021, I decided it was time to start making a new game. I was looking at my strengths and weaknesses, and making good quality art is definitely the most time consuming. On the other side, programming is my strong side and it feels fun even when I have some hard problems to crack.

Because of this, I picked a project that's heavy on programming, optimizing code, etc. and doesn't require a lot of graphics. Still, there was a decent amount of pixel art to draw.

It's a management/tycoon type of game focusing on crypto currency mining business: building rigs, placing racks, managing cooling, dust, noise in your data centers, hiring people to help you, etc. The idea is to go back in history and start from year 2010. and see what it felt like to be mining back then.

The idea isn't new and there's a graveyard of failed projects on Steam. It turned out that making a complete game with this theme has many challenges. Still, there are new competing projects popping up every now and then and I had to double down on development, esp. in the past 4 months, not really allowing much time to communicate what I was doing to the outside.

In this series of posts, I will try to go back through the past year, and extract many milestones and interesting points. At the time I only had the energy to store the screenshots, but now that the first release version is ready, I can finally write something as well.

3

Bigosaur / The Game is ON

« on: August 05, 2020, 03:24:45 PM »

I'm making a new game. It's features cool pixel graphics and wacky puzzles where you move stuff around until you discover a common phrase or idiom from English language.

Here's an example of a solved puzzle, so you can see how it works:



By solving the puzzles, you get jigsaw pieces. Collect enough pieces to unlock extra levels. You can also get jigsaw pieces by solving the puzzles in least possible moves and by finding pieces hidden in levels.



Some are hidden behind other objects or produced after you manipulate buttons or other things on the screen.



More details on the Steam page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1386280/

4

Bigosaur / Windmill Kings

« on: September 24, 2019, 01:40:09 PM »

Here's a project I have been working on for some time. It's a real time strategy game for 1 or 2 players focusing on quick battles.

The Story

Once upon a time, there was a king. After a glitched teleport spell created a clone, there were two kings. The evil black wizard betrayed the real king and the clone took over the throne. Help the real king rally the troops and get his castle back.




Single Player Campaign

The game has two modes. In campaign mode, you play as the real king who starts with a small amount of gold and an army of knights. You roam around the map and fight different enemies to convince them to join your forces: Archers, Healers, Ninjas, Champions, etc. You can also conquer windmills to get more gold to finance your army; and mage schools which provide you with useful spells like Meteor Shower, Freeze Enemies, Earthquake and Summon Giants. The campaign ends with an epic battle where you use all your forces and magic to defeat the clone king and recapture the castle.


2-player versus game

In versus mode, two players play a battle with all the units and magic unlocked. You can pick the size of the battle, starting with a small skirmish with just two towers and ending with a total war with two castles on each side. You can also play this mode single player versus computer.


Gameplay

The battles happen in real time. You pick which troops to create and send them to destroy the enemy fortress while defending your own.

The game offers variety of tactics: Send knights and champions to attack the enemies in close combat. Archers are weak, but attack from distance, so you put archers and marksmen behind the knights. Afterwards you can recruit healers and clerics who can fight, but also heal other units. And you can add spies and ninjas who sneak past enemy lines and demolish their buildings. And finally there are giants who are hard to stop, but you can use some magic to make it easier. All units have an upgraded variant, that requires that you construct a building during battle. You can also demolish enemy buildings to prevent them from recruiting upgraded armies.

The computer AI is completely transparent - you can see how much gold and magic points it has and what exactly is it doing. This makes every battle feel fair.

There are two difficulty settings: Easy mode for casual players and kids, and Normal mode for players who are experienced with real time strategy games.

The game is set to release on Nintendo Switch and possibly PC. I have a beta build for Windows, if anyone is interested in trying it out, please send me a message.

5

Bigosaur / RogueBit: a hacking puzzle game

« on: September 22, 2018, 08:38:10 AM »

Here's a small project of mine that I have been working on and off for months:

You play as a single bit of computer memory which became sentient and decided to escape from digital into the real world. Explore RAM, modify bytes and hack machine code and CPU registers to set it free.

More details and screenshots on the Steam store page:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/949790/Rogue_Bit/

I will soon have a beta build ready for testing. If anyone is interested in trying it out and giving some feedback, e-mail me at bit@bigosaur.com for a free Steam key.

6

Bigosaur / Son of a Witch - about page

« on: September 18, 2017, 07:23:14 PM »

Son of a Witch is an action adventure game for PC in a fantasy setting. 1-4 players can select one of 7 different character classes and play a challenging and fun beat 'em up game with cartoonish graphics. To make it more interesting and replayable, the game features roguelike elements like permadeath, random enemy encounters, random maze generation and many different items and weapons.

The official game's website is here:

http://sonofawitchgame.com/

You can get the game from Steam here:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/539400

Beside the media on Steam, you can find high quality screenshots and a little bit about the game history here:

http://bigosaur.com/presskit/sheet.php?p=son_of_a_witch

This is the latest official trailer:

For news, watch the Steam announcement section, my blog and the twitter account:

http://bigosaur.com/blog/

https://twitter.com/bigosaur

Discussion on current and future features is done here on Exilian and also on Steam discussion forums:

http://steamcommunity.com/app/539400/discussions/

7

Questions and Suggestions - The High Court / E-mail problems / hosting

« on: September 02, 2017, 09:05:05 AM »

I put SoaW in Updates again: http://exilian.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=5312

I completely missed that. I just checked, and for some reason google e-mail servers categorized the Exilian "News & June Elections" e-mail message as spam.

I checked the sending email server IP (31.170.120.50) against some spam databases and it is listed (for example in SORBS: http://www.sorbs.net/lookup.shtml). So, it's possible that e-mail doesn't go through to everyone or gets classified as spam. Did the recent webhost migration also include changing the e-mail sending servers?

Does Exilian have a dedicated server or it's using shared hosting? If it's the former, maybe something could be done to remove the IP listing.

8

Bigosaur / Son of a Witch: Devlog and general discussion

« on: March 16, 2016, 05:28:40 PM »

In the past 7 months I have been planning a new game to make. It will be a multiplayer action brawler like Castle Crashers with cartoony graphics. The main problem I have with CC is that once you complete it, there's no incentive to play more. So, I decided to combine the brawler mechanics with roguelike elements: permadeath, procedural generation of levels, items, enemies, etc. and non-modal gameplay (esp. imporant if you have 4 players playing).

I have most of the concepts on paper and spreadsheets and some 60% of the graphics is ready (still need to work on animations and special effects a lot). Current plan includes: 12 heroes, 44 monsters, 16 bosses and 6 different environments (forest, battlements, castle, dungeon, catacombs and a special ice level). Additionally, 50+ different weapons and items will be available to loot and use for the first version, and more planned later.

There will be 3 distinct play styles available, focusing on melee, ranged or magic combat. The player's starting class would determine the proficiency (i.e. base damage and effect modifiers) but the player can upgrade during the game and become multi-class if desired (and RNG does not get in the way). Melee combat is going to work similar to Castle Crashers with additional "rage" mechanics, which is a meter that fills up and you can use a special attack then.

The levels will be laid out like rooms in the Binding of Isaac with boss fight at the end of each level. The mana system and magic items will work like batteries in Isaac (i.e. you need to complete a couple of rooms before reusing the special magic) and the regular magic users can constantly shoot various weak projectiles similar to tears in Isaac.

I plan to post my progress every day, so stay tuned

Latest cool .gif: