Minor Bug Fixes:
Upgrades:
This update includes a lot of new art, an upgraded auto-tile system and improved random-map-generator.
Ground Tiles
The previous tile system used a simple Auto-Tile approach, but was limited and didn't allow to cover single tiles. This new set of tiles uses an 8-bit approach to check neighboring tiles for overlapping material. Currently, tiles overlap based on the Hierarchy: Grass over Dirt over Rock over Water. There is also a bigger selection of tiles to choose from, making it more diverse and expandable for future tile combinations. Here are a couple of screenshots:
UI Art
The UI also received a refresh. Every window/frame now has a border. The window can be dragged with the mouse by dragging the border and allows the player to place windows strategically to better control the dungeon and other game controls at the same time. Additionally the inventory cell background sprites have been improved: The following screenshot shows these improvements:
This update brings some bug-fixes to load and save functionality; thanks to 'Garthy' at tigsource.com for discovering these bugs.
log:
This weekend update brings a few new additions as well as some more bug fixes.
1.)
First, there are 2 new resource types - Sand and Steel:
Raw iron can be mined and processed into iron rods by melting it in a furnace. The resulting iron rod can be further processed into Steel. Steel replaces a few different blueprint requirements. Since cast iron can produce 5 steel bars, a treasure chest, for example, now uses 4 steel instead of 4 iron - making it far easier to build.
2.)
Next is the new Fire Bowl. A fire bowl can be made from Steel plates as follows:
It provides an additional light source to your dungeon and is more durable and more difficult to destroy by enemies.
Sand, on the other hand, does not yet have any uses; but that will change in the near future. Soon, Steel and Sand will both be processed in the furnace.
3.)
Additionally, due to the new recipes which overfilled the recipe book, new scroll functionality is now available next to the close button:
You can click on these two buttons to scroll up and down the list of craft-able objects. In addition, you can use the mouse-wheel or the shortcut keys 'Up' and 'W' for up and 'Down' and 'S' for down.
Finally, some small bugs with worker-behavior are now fixed, which caused the game to crash when executed.
If you haven't already, visit DungeonColony.com and download the free alpha.
This update includes bug fixes and new animations.
Go to DungeonColony.com to download Dungeon Colony - Alpha free!
Whenever the worker performs an action which requires to carry resources or objects from one place to another, the following animation now shows the worker's bag lifted over the shoulder:
Bug fixes include:
- Fixed bug when selecting Entities at special locations as well as when cycling through multiple entities overlapping each other.
- Fixed bug with enemy walking speed.
Happy Weekend!
New tiles are in. The Grass tile has been re-visited and transitions are now made between tile types: Grass grows over dirt. New tile types coming soon, so stay tuned for more updates.
Visit DungeonColony.com to download the latest Dungeon Colony - Alpha free.
Dungeon Masters!
This weekend update brings big improvements to the game engine, especially in terms of the inventory UI and how objects are handled on the game map. Along the way, I cleaned up a lot of code that needed cleaning and fixed some nasty bugs at the same time. Its a gloomy day which calls for more coding with nyan cat so stay tuned for some new announcements.
Got a new clay Pot added to the list of craft-able items:
It requires 4 clay to produce 4 pots. For now you can craft them anywhere, but soon you will have to burn them in the furnace. For a list of all items check out the wiki:
In this version, I finally fixed the last known issue in the new light-engine and also added a new object - the barrel. At the moment it's just another container, but soon it will hold liquids too.
Other updates include:
Yea, this update has the same version number as the last update, little mistake.
This fixes another bug with the new light engine. But I also discovered one more bug, which I will tackle another time. Also continued design work on the main quest =)
I started counting the posts, mainly because I love counting and numbering stuff! This update includes some important bug fixes for the new light engine and some others:
This release adds significant performance increases to the new light engine by caching light mask textures which can be reused, rather than recalculating and blending each light source on every update.
Hi Everyone,
The new light engine is out!
Dungeon Colony is a game about Dark Dungeons: one main game element is to create a dark atmosphere that the player can light up using different light sources he/she can craft. If no light is present the Dungeon is pitch black.
This version completes the upgrade to the new Light Engine v1.0. It completely replaces the previous engine which was a prototype in terms of how the environment should feel. The new light engine uses 2D hard edge shadow blending techniques that distribute light more naturally than the previous engine. Currently, wall corners emit shadows which are generated dynamically.
This first release of the Light Engine will remain as is for a short while to debug any issues with the shadows and to test performance on large maps with many light sources. Since the player can add as many lights as desired, this could bring down the performance. But if it's stable and performance is acceptable, I will upgrade the engine to include other elements (i.e. soft shadow edges, better blending of multiple lights, colors, sizes, moving lights etc.).
Below is a screenshot of a new light scene:
If you haven't tried out Dungeon Colony yet, download the free alpha at DungeonColony.com. Follow me on twitter for the latest development updates.
In this version you can now find an additional way for picking up objects that are laying on the floor. Before you had to select the resource and point to where your workers would carry them. Now, with this new functionality you can select the box in which to store an item and then use the Store Button:
This changes the cursor into a hand and every item you click on the map will be picked up by a worker and transported to that container. Well, that is only if there is enough room in the box and if your workers aren't already busy doing other stuff.
Additionally, there is a new background image for the GUI !!
Check it out and download the free alpha at DungeonColony.com.
This version adds an improved object-placement preview. For example, before placing a torch on a wall to light up your dungeon, you can now preview where the torch can be placed by moving the cursor over the sides of the wall tiles:
If you haven't tried out Dungeon Colony yet, download the free alpha at DungeonColony.com. Follow me on twitter for the latest development updates.
Added Fullscreen button in Settings menu to toggle Fullscreen On/Off.
Since the introduction of the new Archer enemy, foes in the game have had the upper hand. To give your workers a chance to defend against ranged attacks you can now craft a new weapon and ammo type, the Sling and Stone Balls: 
To equip the new weapon, select the worker and click the Equip button. The worker will then search and grab the weapon and ammo wherever you stored it in your dungeon: 
Together, the worker can launch deadly ranged attacks against any enemy in sight.
This is especially good when your workers are outside in the wilderness gathering resources such as food, meat, fur or wood. Inside the dungeon, corridors make ranged attacks more difficult, but that also applies to enemies.
This version also fixes a big list of bugs, adds a bit more balancing, and simplified the UI once again.
If you haven't tried the game yet, download the Alpha free at DungeonColony.com
Since the public alpha release of Dungeon Colony, the feedback has been very positive. Thank you for such great feedback and please keep testing and sending me your comments ;-).
Now you can download the game without registration by visiting the public alpha Download page. To unlock the game save functionality you need to register a username to get the in game passcode. That is still free during alpha, so go and visit the home page, play the game, and if you like it, register free.
Also, a new version (0.1.6.18) is out with a few bug fixes and new graphics.
The new version of Dungeon Colony is out: Version 0.1.6.17.
It's been a while since my last post, in part because a couple of friends and I entered the recent Ludum Dare group competition. Check out our game here. The contest went for 72 hours and the theme was Evolution.
The new version of Dungeon Colony includes a range of bug fixes as well as three new upgrades:
Dungeoneers!
If you haven't noticed by now, when you started a game, you always played the same map and dungeon layout. This layout was drawn by hand and each pixel in the image was then replaced by the actual map tile when loading a new game. This is all nice and dandy, but gets boring really fast.
Since the last release I have worked on a map generator which replaces the hand drawn map. Using procedural map generation, the algorithm tries to reproduce the same elements used in the drawn version, but attempts to make it more natural or diverse. The first screenshot is the actual drawn image that was used until release 0.1.6.11. Grass is green, and white is mountain. Here any white pixel is replaced by either dirt or stone. The black shapes are empty caves.
Old Hand Made Map:
The New Map Generator produced the following set of random samples.
The first image looks like a drooling face... but more importantly, maps have many shapes and sizes. The road on the map shows the path enemies will take to find your dungeon. The brown and gray colors within the mountain indicate what type of material it is. The black shapes within the mountain are small undiscovered caves (which may hold treasure).
Try it out, help me find bugs, & give me your feedback.
This version includes the recently mentioned character Skills and XP Upgrade. To find out more read the quick intro at tigforum.
This weekend I started extending the game with new logic: Experience and Leveling.
Your creatures will gain experience points based on what they are doing. Certain activities, such as lumbering, mining or fighting, all produce XP points when performed and are collected separately (XP for mining goes in one bucket and so on...). When one type of activity is performed enough, it will level up; This way each type can be configured to level faster or slower than other's depending on how valuable the activity is. To do that, the next level is determined by an exponent. Leveling gives the player skill point(s) which can be exchanged for some common but also rare awesome skills (not yet included - skills will become available over time)
This will be the basic architecture and will be released soon. Some advanced elements I want to try out may be:
Posted a new version (0.1.6.3) that fixes some issues when loading games. This fix repaired several reference issues and should hopefully make all the saved games work which everyone has already created. If you are still heaving problems, send me a mail to SendMeBugs@dungeoncolony.com. I also fixed issues with game pause and how shortcuts behave when typing text.
I fixed one major bug that was really annoying that when you type text into a textbox, some shortcut keys would then trigger the shortcut like f for fullscreen. Another bug which was also mentioned in the forums, didn't allow any input on pause. Some input is now possible, mainly the option menu controls
Today marks the launch of version 0.1.6.0. This version completes the public alpha launch (Website, game updater and cloud storage). With cloud storage, users can request a passcode which allows them to store up to 4 games on the Dungeon Colony server. You must register to unlock a passcode. Register or Login to unlock the passcode now.
Finally I am going to turn my attention back to the game itself. The next release will be an item from the short term goals listed in the goals section here
Here is another release for today: I just replaced the game files in the user profile with a game starter that works on Windows, Mac and Linux. This is a small Java program which uses Getdown to check for new game files and then downloads the ones that have been updated. That way, players can get new releases instantly and won't have to replace their outdated game files manually.
Go register and download the game. It's a free download!
The next release will probably be the Cloud game save functionality. That will allow players to store their game online and let them play the from any computer using their account username and a passcode. This will also allow for easier debugging of individual issues since I can access player-game-files from a developer perspective. Of course, users will have the choice to opt out.
I just published the DungeonColony.com website. You can create an account, download the game and find more info about the game itself and what the goals are to get it completed. If you enjoy what you see, please help spread the word. Thank you!
After a few months of private alpha testing the prototype of Dungeon Colony was ready for the next milestone and, yesterday, I posted a new public alpha version on tigforums. This log will serve to keep track of development progress and to post announcements:
I am also going to launch the DungeonColony.com website by Friday, July 20th where more information about the game, background and goals can be found.
Also coming soon:
- A game launcher with automatic game updates of new builts for Win, Mac & Linux
- Cloud game save functionality for the dungeons you create
