[Development] Thievery and what else I've been up to

[Bawbz]

Hello everyone,

Most of you may not remember me. I made Thievery Campaign back in '09.

I sometimes get questions asking what I've been up to, and I've been told by a couple people that I should post what I've been working on. After falling in love with developing Thievery Campaign, I decided to learn how to make standalone games. I taught myself programming and got intimate with Unity.

During college, I developed a short, standalone game called Thievery (similar only in name to the Warcraft III campaign), a stealth action 2D platformer that rewards patience and dexterity. It can be downloaded here for free if desired (Sorry about the external link, I can remove it if asked). Here's a couple screenshots:

Screenshots

Screenshot 1

Screenshot 2

Screenshot 3

Thievery was a great learning experience for me and it taught me a lot about game design and development. Feel free to send me any feedback as it always helps me improve and I love hearing what people think about it, but be aware that I am no longer planning on updating the game, because I have moved on to another project.


Currently, I am working on a brand-new, full-length untitled project. It is in early development and looks quite promising.

The game is a 2D dungeon-crawling platformer that features fast-paced turn-based combat. It follows the rogue-lite pattern of short, replayable sessions with meta-game progression. It also includes a special feature that I am excited about which I call "Party Drafting."

At the beginning of a run, you get to build a party of up to 3 characters. Rather than completely building the party from scratch, you are presented with a series of randomly-generated choices about your party. These choices include things like character stats, character classes, abilities, starting items, special traits, etc. Once the draft is complete, you begin your dungeon run.

Not too much I can show at this point, much of the game's assets are temporary stand-ins. I can, however, show a few sneak peaks at some of the enemies in the game:

Sneak Peak

Fallen Priest

Skeleton Warrior

I'm very excited about this new project! I'd like to thank those of you who have asked me about what I've been up to, it means a lot.

I'm also interesting in what everyone else here is working on. Feel free to reply and ask questions, give feedback, or show off what you're making!

 

[Rufus]

Just casually subscribing.
I made it to the first boss in Thievery. I'm not just trying to be charming when I say that I really hada lot of fun playing it. It is tricky, but rewarding, with a comedic touch and satifying mechanics.

Seeing that you started in WC3 and made into what it is today, is very inspiring. Keep up the good work!

 

[GhostWolf]

Cool!

 

[deepstrasz]

I'm looking forward to your new game. I really love combining game styles (eg: RPG, strategy and action).

 

[sluk]

The art is very nice

 

[Heinvers]

This looks pretty good. 'great to see people making their own games after spending so much on modding wc3 :]

 

[Bawbz]

I'm looking forward to your new game. I really love combining game styles (eg: RPG, strategy and action).

I'm glad you're interested in it! I'm a big fan of combining genres as well. You should try Crypt of the Necrodancer, a fantastic indie rythm-based dungeon crawler (yes, really)

The art is very nice

Thank you!

This looks pretty good. 'great to see people making their own games after spending so much on modding wc3 :]

Warcraft 3 modding inspired me to follow my passions. It holds a very special place in my heart.

 

[jojkov]

Really fun game, it brings back memories from your campaign!
Btw, anyone has an idea, how much hp the boss has, i just cant kill him no matter how many times i tried. I think the difficulty is too much, when you can be hit only 2 times.

 

[Bawbz]

Thanks for the interest everyone! Thought I'd drop in and just talk about what I worked on today.

My new game features randomly-generated dungeons, so I'm currently working on the terrain generation, something that is quite challenging.

The randomly generated dungeons are already working and playable, but I am adding a new feature to it. Previously, all of my dungeons looked something like this (Note: this is not what the game looks like, these images are just a representation):

Current dungeons

Example 1

Example 2

Remember, this game is a platformer.
First, an explanation:
- Black areas are outside of the dungeon. It represents inaccessible void
- Light grey lines are walls
- Dark grey lines are traversable connections from one room to another.
- Red lines are doors or breakable walls
- Dark blue areas are background

As you can see, at the moment, every room is the same height, because I need to be able to ensure that the player can reach any location via the tools given (running and jumping, in this case). This works well but it keeps the dungeons looking similar to each other.

I just begin working on adding rooms larger than one floor, so they can look like this, if I want them to:

New dungeons

Example 1

Example 2

Which will help the dungeons look a bit more different from each other. However, you may have already spotted the problem: Some areas are unreachable when the jump height is a single floor. So now I am in the process of setting up a system that generates one-way platforms to make these areas reachable. This will also solve the issue of having doors with no adjacent tiles to stand on.

Thanks again for the interest, and let me know if you're interested in more updates.

 

[Rufus]

Keep the updates coming! We subscribed for a reason.

 

[Bawbz]

Hey guys,

It's been a while since I posted, but I'm still working on this.

Today I'll talk a little about the combat in this game.

During dungeon exploration, the player controls one party member and the others follow directly behind. Parties of monsters are scattered around the dungeon. When the player party takes hostile action against an enemy or are spotted by an enemy, the game switches to a combat mode. Unlike some games, combat does not occur in a separate environment.

During combat, each character takes a turn in sequence like classical RPGs. However, rather than a turn being a simple menu option or a series of moves, a turn is composed of a short time period of action. During this time, a character may move freely and perform as many actions as they are able. Once the time expires, the next character takes their turn. The player is given as much time as they like to think before starting each turn. My goal is to create an interesting loop where the player first strategizes their turn and then must execute it with the allotted time.

Because the game is a 2D platformer, terrain plays an important role in the combat. Enemy archers may be perched up on a platform above, which requires melee characters to use up their turn time traversing the terrain. The player can also take advantage of this by positioning their characters strategically or using spells and abilities to cleverly alter the environment. One character may be able to create a magical barrier to trap enemies. Another might send an enemy flying off a cliff with a swift kick.

These are some of the basics of the combat mechanics. So far I am mostly pleased with how it has turned out. The challenge with this design is that new players often feel a bit panicked because of the time constraint on turns. Once the flow of the game is established, it feels pretty good, but I want to make sure that it isn't a turn-off for those just starting out. I will know more once I create a good introductory curve for the mechanics and observe playtesting.

 

[Rogue Kessler]

Turn based platforming sounds like a pretty unique space.

 

[Bawbz]

It is, which I think is both an advantage and a disadvantage.

Obviously, the uniqueness of it can help it stand out, which is an important thing in today's gaming market.

The disadvantage is that there may be problems that haven't been solved yet. Granted, there are games that tackle turn based side scrolling already. Examples that come to mind are games like Worms. There is also a game that I really should try called SteamWorld Heist.