[WIP] Rymdresa by Morgondag

[Morgondag]

Hello!!

 

From the beginning we had a different thought with RymdResa (we're talking early, early in the progress). 

We just wanted to make an experience where the player was flying around and reading short poems, floating 

in space. But RymdResa has become much more than that, and isn't just a text-based game anymore. And we also 

skipped our very first feature: floating poems. Instead the diary pods were written. But we have always wanted 

to add some floating poems as well, and have now done so, and they're really adding to the atmosphere! As a 

tribute to our very first RymdResa design thoughts. 

 

 

 

 

 

More things we've implemented 

★ 20 New diary pods to investigate. 

★ New exploration quests.

★ Treasure boxes, where the player can find items. 

★ Some rare new zones.

★ New dangerous laserbots.

★ A pause function. Pause the game when playing!

★ A comparison system between items in inventory. It's now more easy to compare your items!

★ More player feedback: the inventory - button is blinking when the player has collect a new item. 

As do the skills - button when the player has new skills to upgrade! Player feedback is important!

 

New laserbots:

 

Treasure box:

 

Lastly we're calling out for beta-testers, we need some people who can test the game with a 

grammar and spelling perspective, helping us to locate those mistakes in game! Are you interested? 

Send a mail to [email protected]

[5minutes2start]

love the graphic style!

I have sent you beta-tester request

[Morgondag]

The work with RymdResa continues!

 

This week we've fixed a lot of small bugs and overall balancing issues, it is something we will 

continue to work with. 

 

We have had a DDoS attack on our in-game message system, measured up to 4.5 GB/s of data 

traffic flooding one of our servers. Because of the servers being down we have been able to track 

a couple of game crashing bugs. It is always good when this kind of things happen, so that one 

better can secure the game from future crashes! 

 

 

More things we've done this week:

★ Gotten more awesome beta-testers on-board, testing RymdResa on Steam!

★ Implemented new diary logs, short floating texts and exploration quests.  

★ We have fixed a bug with the pause-button, there is still a small issue here we 

need to sort out.

★ Increased space zones size by 100%.

★ Fixed the back-button trigger, click-offset was wrong. 

★ Treasure box improvements and rewards.

★ Display what item is new in inventory.

★ Added a chance for exploration to succeed, without a quest.

★ Increased the resources losses and findings, on explorations without quests.

★ Fixed a bug in chapter 3, where junk was invisible.

★ Now the ship is always on top of entities in space, instead of sometimes going 

behind them.

★ Increased fussy spawn positions for new objects in space, we are trying to reduce 

the clustering of objects, we still need more work on this.

★ Revamped our item generation system, most of the bugs fixed and performance 

increased.

★ Better item finding the longer you travel.

★ Added support for better items in dangerous zones.

★ Better memory management when loading game, this will ironically increase load time 

slightly.

 

And we have also made some super secret progress on bosses and missions in chapter 3! 

We hope that we soon can share that with you!

 

Morgondag

Vendela & Kim

[jefframos]

Hi,

Very good project. What do you use for play on all devices?

 

Thanks

[Phempt]

Wow. nice! Lovely sounds/music and great artworks.

[Morgondag]

Hi,

Very good project. What do you use for play on all devices?

 

Thanks

We use a number of different tools, like: node-webkit, ejecta, cocoonJS, nwf, impactJS and a lot of custom code  

 

Wow. nice! Lovely sounds/music and great artworks.

<3

[Morgondag]

Hello!

Here is the first pics of the three text-based and very challenging RymdResa bosses!!

Hope you like them!

 

 

 

 

 

[Morgondag]

The main focus of week 49 has been the bosses in chapter 3, ofc. In order to battle a boss the player

must first find and enter a bossgate. Each boss has a linear story played out in stages, where the stake

is the player's life. On every step a boss will ask the player a question. If the players chooses the wrong

answer, they can lose their precious shields, and are then forced to take direct damage. The challenge

lies in answering the questions correctly in order to have enough life left to reach the final step and win

a key to the monoliths.

We control the bosses from our design tool, where we design the different steps and outcomes. In our

design tool we can easily rearrange, write, add sound, determinate outcome and effects. 

Regarding the diary pods; they're now in the hands of our voice actor Eric Reed, awaiting to be

recorded. 

 

Chapter 3 - Bossgate!

 

Chapter 3 - Mothership!

 

Chapter 3 - Choose your destination!

 

Btw, if you wanna help RymdResa win the Indie of the Year 2014: vote here!

[Morgondag]

A milestone has been reached! The RymdResa gameflow is still rough, but finished!

This week we've created a lot. Just about a week left to christmas, and we wanted to fix

as much as possible before that. The bosses are finished (Laser Entity, Gravity Entity and

Electricity Entity.) Chapter 3 is finished. Much stuff remains; like bug-fixing, balancing,

some more exploration-quests need to be written, proofreading, end-movies för Chapter 2

and 3, some wonders-implementations. BUT we have a roughly working gameflow. And

you can actually play Chapter 3! And we're getting soo close to a release!

AND THAT'S AWESOME! 

 

What we've done:

★ Finished a rough version of chapter 3, with a functional gameplay:

     -----> Added 3 bosses.

     -----> Reworked zones and spawn-rates.

     -----> Added Evil shooting travelers.

     -----> Added and animated the monolith gate.

     -----> Completed mission-checkpoints.

 

★ Fixed some crashing bugs for options, skills, news and message system.

★ Added a hint on how to use small heal-station with energy key.

★ Added support for notifying ui-buttons.

★ Designed an encyclopedia-app for RymdResa. 

★ Updated game icon for PC and Mac. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

/Morgondag

[Morgondag]

As we told you the last week, we've the core game-play flow in place, but there's still much to be done.

Below you can read about what we'll be doing the coming weeks after our Christmas break!

 

Ironing out the UI even more

The UI have been under iteration since start and we've gotten some great feedback on what areas that

need clarification or improvement, that includes nasty bugs like inverted coordinates and un-clickable

buttons.

 

Core Balancing

What spawns when and where have been a big question to answer for us, and that is where the zone

system comes in. Every zone you travel to has a procedurally generated pattern and a pool of things

that can spawn and it will be an ongoing work to tweak these. We'll also tweak rewards and risks for

quests, items and the new endgame bosses.

 

Bugs in general

We still have some bugs we need to get rid of before a release; small things like spawning, for example;

right now a mine can pop into existence right next to your ship without warning, and we don't want that

to happen when you play!

 

Save-state for Mac sometimes removes the cache for the save-slot resulting in progress being lost.

So we are moving to another type of game-saving  and when this is done we should have export-

and import-save-files available.

 

Features

Features that still needs to be finalized are the big ending cinematic, Chapter 2 ending cinematic, a few

missing sound effects, the space-shop, space wonders and some of the consumable items.

 

We're also making an encyclopedia application available for iOS and the web, listing all the different things

you encounter in space, along with deeper statistical information (cause we are nerds).

 

Happy Holiday!

Morgondag

Vendela & Kim

[Morgondag]

Long time, no see! We've been busy, working with RymdResa ofc, but also moved to another apartment.

Still going strong!

 

Right now we're almost finished with the new desktop UI. Before the holiday we told you that we were

about to iron out the UI even more, do to the feedback we gotten from our QA-testers. But we decided

to give the UI a total makeover, making it even better for desktop-players. The mission hub has changed

the most, giving you as a player more input and feedback whilst playing. 

 

The main problem with our earlier UI was that it was designed for touch screen (iPad). The new UI is

more desktop friendly.

 

The new and more desktop adapted UI.

 

The new enhanced mission hub with side quests, achievements and main quests. 

 

You can toggle the UI, for a more minimalistic mode.

 

BIG NEWS! We're releasing to Xbox One as well!! As we told you before, we'll not release on all

platforms at the same time. Right now we have this release-order: 

 

1. PC/Mac. 

2. Xbox One

3. WiiU

4. iPad 

5. Linux

6. Possible a mobile port

[lillden]

I love this art style, looks very nice and atmospheric! Good job!

[Morgondag]

I love this art style, looks very nice and atmospheric! Good job!

Glad to hear you like it!!  

[Morgondag]

We have been working with the zones and balancing. We've, for example, created more contrast

between the zones.We scraped the old ones and simply built new better ones. These zones have

more unique features than the previous zones had. Dangerous zone means better item-finding.

The  further you travel into space, the more unique zones you find. If you go up in level and focus

in exploring you will also be able to discover more zones. 

 

Some zone-examples: 

Gemini Depth

 

Open Space

 

Eden

 

Sagittarian Space

 

Promised Utopia

 

Lagoon Nebula

 

Kursiv stil Galileons Threat 

 

Star Ocean

 

Pink Bliss

[Morgondag]

World generation and procedural patterns in RymdResa's universe is obviously an important part

of the game. We're switching to a more stable randomization formula for the core part of the game.

Welcome Mersenne Twister!

 

There is a lot of math in space and we have a great foundation with a combination of different

techniques that boils down to:

 

Fisher–Yates Shuffle

We use this to shuffle quests, items properties, spawn rates, loot tables and it also takes care of

populating in zones.

 

Mersenne Twister

This is the core randomization formula used everywhere in RymdResa to create variation in space.

 

Simplex Noise

We use noise to calculate and distribute our zones in space. The zones take care of selecting what

properties a part of space can have and spawn. This is combined with 2d Haversine Formula that

we use to track positions in space and to calculate zone sizes and positions.

 

We also have  a lot of Gradient Generators , mostly used to generate colors and backgrounds.

And of course we have a lot of logarithms for things like items finding, bonus calculations and

pilot statistical points. Tweaking all this math is an ongoing process, making the game feel more alive,

random and deadly.

 

On the UI-front we have built a new ship selection screen, which you can see on the pictures below!

We have  also made the ships more different from each other and more specialised. For example we

have Gylfi Command - a tank ship that can take a lot of damage and contain  a lot of resources, but

have a slower speed. We have Lokasenna, a really fast ship, but with bad acceleration. We'll tweak

these ships a bit more, but they're soon finished. 

 

 

 

[Morgondag]

We’ve polished the death screen and added support for score, rank and legacy bonus. The score is

calculated based on your actions in space.  This score is then converted to experience points.  The

experience points goes into your overall player rank and towards legacy bonus.

 

When you reach a legacy bonus level you gain a random buff, you can either choose to activate the buff

when you play the next time, or save it for later. If you choose to save the legacy bonus you can continue

to increase your rank to gain a higher bonus.

 

 

 

 

 

Moreover we’ve made a new cooler Refuel Station.  

[Neoprofessor]

Looks really good and unique art! Good Luck with it.

[Morgondag]

RymdResa's Chapter 3 Outro is in the making!  The three chapters of RymdResa each end with a

small outro with some space-pixels-hd-animated art, twisting the loosely coupled story together. 

 

We're getting closer and closer to some kind of release state everyday. This week we've mainly

worked on videos, bugs and finishing the entire legacy system and its bonuses. There will be a

small icon in-game, displaying whenever you have an active legacy bonus.  

 

Feast your eyes on these teasers from the final outro. 

 

 

[Morgondag]

Looks really good and unique art! Good Luck with it.

thank you!!!! 

[Morgondag]

RymdResa is in closed beta on Steam right now. The release is

getting closer and closer! Do you wanna help out and bug-test

RymdResa on Steam? Send a mail to [email protected]!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Morgondag]

Do you want to join the closed beta? Send a mail to [email protected] 

 

Have a look at our new alien ships below. You can now find them in chapter 3.

 

[RT_RT13]

Looks good

[Morgondag]

Looks good

Thanks

[Morgondag]

RymdResa - Features

 

The key elements of RymdResa. 

 

[marcgfx]

so much to read, I didn't manage everything yet ... very interesting to see the exploration approach on a space themed game. most exploration games seem to chose dungeons or mining currently. nice to hear about the various techniques you are using to create your procedural world. is this world consistent, or does it get recreated on the fly/for every playthrough? I was also wondering how long an average game of Rymd Resa is, do you have save-games?

 

something else that caught my eye was the platforms you are targeting. how hard is it to translate your current game to work for WiiU/Xbox/iPad? Is it just about adding gamepad/touch support, or is additional work required?