[SPEE] 0.74 status update

Chapter 5 is going along smoothly, it should be a pretty good chapter; you'll battle Morty(gym 5), be getting a pickaxe, which act's as the RockSmash replacement. Stopping a team rocket takeover of silph co, where you'll encounter Giovanni for the first time, and a hypervisor battle to top it all off. 

In addition to that, various changes, bug fixes, and additional polish. A handful of new sidequests, more refining options, more corrupted pokemon, the "Soul Challenge" allowing you to get a second Starter Pokemon. And a limited version of the shiny form feature.

New game+ was origianlly intended for this update, but will likely have to be delayed for another update.

I'm hoping to have this done in a month or so (mid-late july)
So stay tuned

[Nax] Android playable alpha now avalaible!

So in additon to working on the next update to Super Pokemon Eevee Edition, i've been working on an android build of Nax, it's working far better than I was expecting.

You can download it here, and side-load it to your android smartphone. I've tried it on my android 4.2.2 Xperia Z1 and it works very smoothly, full 60fps. but I'd love some feedback on how it performs on other devices.

DOWNLOAD: Nax of the Universe - Android 0.12

This is an early version, and some features, such as the Tesla weapon, flux mode, and the tutorial have not been converted to mobile format.

CONTROLS (they're quite intuitive when you get used to it)

• On the left side of the screen there's a virtual joystick, that is used for moving.
  in addition to that, there's 3 circle buttons.
• Block (top button) Hold to block. blocking increases defence/reduces damage, and protects against knockback effects. If you time it right, you can parry enemey attacks.
• Switch Weapons (middle button). tap to switch between the Redband and xatana weapons.
• Snatch(bottom button). The snatcher is a special timespace device which. If you tap it, it'll warp nearby enemies straight to you. The range is screen-wide, so if you can see an enemy, and it isn't "heavy", you can teleport it to you.
  If you hold the snatcher button, you can teleport TO enemies instead.
  the snatcher can be used in mid-air for some cool combination attacks.
  
  
• The right side of the screen is where all the action happens. But there's no virtual buttons and such. Instead it uses a action swipe system.
• If you tap the right side of the screen you will perform a basic attack.
  If you tap it multiple times, you can perform a combo.
  For the "Redband" weapon, there are 3 combos.
  Tap-Tap-Tap = normal combo
  Tap-Wait-Tap-Tap = spin combo
  Tap-Tap-Wait-Tap Repeatedly = stab combo
  The "Xatana" weapon has 1 combo. Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap
• If you swipe forward (ie; the direction nax is facing) Nax will perform a forward thrusting attack.
• If you swipe backwards, Nax will perform a launcher attack that will launch enemies into the air.
  (with redband, you will launch into the air too, while with Xatana, you can combo the launcher by pressing tapping straight after into a downcut)
• If you swipe up, nax will jump. You can attack in midair too. Redband has a downslash, while Xatana has a double cut.
• If you swipe down, nax will do a back-dodge. If you swipe down, while walking, nax will dodge in the walking direction.
  

There's 2 levels. The forest level is the better one.

[Nax] Demo 0.12 avaliable now!

So, after long last, the second playable demo of Nax of the Universe is available.

There are two levels in the game, the Moon Facility, which is a new environment, filled with slime enemies. And it also serves as a tutorial, teaching you the basics of the game.

The second level is the Ember Forest, which was in the first alpha. Except now it's been massively expanded. Featuring 5 enemy types. It's a somewhat challenging level to the novice so buying health upgrades is recommended.


In addition to that, the store system is implemented, it allows you to upgrade Nax's abilities, which include upgrading health, weapons, snatcher, item slots and coin pulling ability.

There is a new Hub menu from which you can select a level to play, view Nax's stats, customize via shop, change options and more.

The Save/Load system has been revamped, so saving will save all your stats, but not your position in the level. you'll be kicked back to the Hub menu when you load game. This was done for balance reasons, to stop people from abusing the chests which gives random items.

Another new addition is the Options menu. Which includes a variety of options, from zoom settings, to the often requested, button remapping. The sound options in the menu don't work yet, because I've yet to actively work on the sound.

I've also added an option called "Unlock Movelist" which will instantly unlock Nax's entire moveset without having to upgrade, so people can get a feel of what a full powered Nax is like. You can reset it to normal by turning the option off, saving and quitting the game.

Anyway, the new demo is a lot longer than the first, and hopefully less buggy. It's still an alpha, as such a lot of the effects are placeholder until I have time to improve them (namely stuff like barriers)

DOWNLOAD

Have fun :)

[Nax] The Store

At long last, the coin store has been implemented. Well, not all of it, but the important part.

You can now spend your coins on upgrading Nax. There are a variety of things you can upgrade.
Health and Mana will increase Nax's max HP/MP, which is handy if you're having trouble. MP doesn't actually do anything yet, but a magic system will soon be implemented which will expand combat options at the cost of MP.

You can also upgrade weapons. Upgrading weapons grants new attacks. In the first demo, all the attacks were unlocked, but now you'll have to buy them. Each weapon will come with the main combo, air attack and the back attack (lock+back+attack) unlocked from the get go. While the rest of the attacks can be unlocked. This includes the forward attack (lock+forward+attack) and the super attack (block+attack). Each super attack will have three levels of upgrades. Here's the upgrade tiers of the Redband and Tesla Whip weapons.

REDBAND

Start: Combo(attack, attack, attack), Spin Combo(attack, wait, attack, attack), Splitter(air + attack), Launcher(lock+back+attack), 
Level 1: Unlock Stinger (lock+forward+attack)
Level 2: Unlock Crawler (block+attack[hold])
Level 3: Unlock Million-Stab Combo (attack, attack, wait, attack[mash])
Level 4: Crawler L2
Level 5: Unlock Roundtrip (attack[hold]
Level 6: Crawler L3

TESLA WHIPS

Start: Combo, Tesla Arc(lock+back+attack), Tesla Air(air+attack)
Level 1: Unlock Tesla Storm L1 (block+attack)
Level 2: Unlock Tesla Slam (lock+forward+attack)
Level 3: Tesla Storm L2
Level 4: Tesla Bombs (passive ability, adds an explosion to the end of the Arc, and Slam attacks)
Level 5: Tesla Storm L3
*all other sub-weapons will follow this pattern.


There are other things that can be upgraded, like item slots and wallet limit. The snatcher's range also increases as you upgrade it.

This store gives a nice sense of progression and also makes the game easier to get to grips with, as you aren't overloaded with potential attacks.

[Nax] Level Structure

So, I've been going back and forth on what kind of game structure I wanted for Nax. There were lost of different options, completely linear, linear + optional missions, level select, etc.
But ultimately, I decided I would base the game structure off of one of my favorite games this generation(last generation?) Demons Souls.


Nax would have a hubworld, from which he will have NPCs and sorts to interact with, buy attacks, items, upgrades, magic etc. And from there, he can enter one of the multiple stages avalaible.
Each level will be in a specific area of the world, and will have a boss monster at the end.

If you complete the level, another part of the level will open up, allowing you to deeper into that area. At the end of which, another boss lies.

Example- the Ember Forest stage I've been showing will have 5 levels in it.
1-1) Ember Forest (BOSS: Forest Troll)
1-2) Deep Forest (BOSS: Wood Guardian)
1-3) Mystic Hills (BOSS: Queen Wasp)
1-4) Ember Mines (BOSS: Last Miner)
1-5) Dark Abyss (MEGABOSS: Necromancer)

There will be multiple areas with a wide variety of environments. I have yet to decide on the number, as I haven't nailed down how big I want the game to be, nor have I decided the price, but 10-15 USD sounds like the right price range.


Here's an early screenshot of a new environment, the Research Facility.
I.imgur.com


I want to get my KickStarter launched soon, but before that I need to get a new Demo of the game out. It would contain a full level (including the boss). Their should be a handful of different monster types in the new demo and will be more feature complete than the current alpha
.
I'm aiming to get it finished by next week and it would essentially be a vertical slice of the game, which would show potential backers what to expect from the finished product.

[Nax] Level Design

Yay! got knockback effect working, and my new enemy is complete (unless I decide to add more attacks). I've been mainly working on small things throughout the week, so nice to get something relatively big done as well.

Im doing level design on nax. Deciding what to add to the game to mix it up, as currently I have a bunch of interconnected areas with monsters to kill, coins to collect, chests to find. I can see it getting stale pretty quickly. Need some variety.

I did a lot of brainstorming yesterday and here's some things I've come up with.
-Light platforming (eg: areas where spikes come out of the floors and you're to jump over them, or climbing up the side of a cliff by jumping from platform to platform)
-Special locked chests, which contain rarer items in them, but require a key to open.
-Destructible objects, so that there's some interactivity with the world, AND gives tactical options. (eg: cut the trees down to reach enemies easier, or leave the trees up, making it harder for the enemy to get to you)
-Some water traversal, where your options are limited to swimming or jumping, just to change the pace. And water sections might have monsters which you can't attack, but you can use the snatch ability to teleport them out of the water and kill them on land.
-mud/snow/shallow water - areas where your movement is slowed down, dashing is impossible. and monsters are sometimes hiding underneath.
-tall grass - areas where monsters can hide in, but you can also hide in to avoid detection from monsters. possibly leading to some pseudo stealth sections if the enemy is too powerful.
-Key puzzles/pushing object puzzles.
-implementing "sidequests" where mid-mission, there might be an NPC who asks you to do a task on that mission, being completely optional, but you get a cash/item/card reward. (eg: clear out monsters in a room, or retrieve x item, kill a miniboss, find lost NPC, etc)

Stuff like that should really make exploring levels more exciting and varied.

Thinking up these ideas is one thing... Implementing them is a whole different ball game.

[Nax] Little Things

I've been working on nax quite a bit. progressing has been going faster as I've been learning to optimize my time.

I'm still implementing the new enemy, the shielded one. It's been mostly smooth, except for having to rewrite a lot of AI code, but it's made the game better, so that's always good. I've also added additional hit reactions to Nax, so now, some attacks can actually knock nax back (much like how enemies get knocked back when you do a more advanced attack). This knockback adds a lot more impact to getting hit, and will punish guys who don't pay attention. I hope to show the new enemy in action soon.

In addition to that, I've mainly polishing up some stuff and adding little things. Like a neat dust kick-up when you jump/land. And changing the look of the snatcher, it's now an inversion color, looks pretty neat.
I've also finally implemented the Bomb item, now you'll be able to use it, and it'll deal big damage to nearby enemies (pretty much insta-kill)

I want to get the kickstarter started sooner rather than later, so am trying to get the word out about Nax. Luckily, the game shows itself off very nicely in gifs due to it being fast and action orientated. I've found reddit to be positively receptive of the game which is nice.