Incline Das Geisterschiff - turn-based cyberpunk dungeon crawler

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Arrite, constructed 2 levels out of ~6 planned for the training facility, wrote all the lines needed to give some insight on how stuff works in the game and where it's needed. Right now it's broken into several tiny and isolated scenarios which can be replayed as many times as necessary by accessing elevators in a hub. Terminals inside these levels contain information about the mechanics so you can consult them if something is bugging you.

Overall, there are separate levels for:

• Basics -- you get to explore a tiny level where you need to find the switch to open the exit out of the dungeon while removing a few landmines on your way (ofc you could always ignore my intentions and bypass it...);
• Escaping from battles -- this mechanic wasn't explained properly, but this level strips you of all of your weapons, provides a dungeon tailored to this lesson as well as 3 bots w/ machine guns to keep things interesting;
• Combat basics -- 'nuff said. Attacking from behind the corner, the role distance plays, etc;
• Ram response -- why some robots run away, some robots punch you and some robots shoot you in da face when you're trying to get a cheap melee attack without consulting their stats first and how you can do the same;
• Workshops -- what to do if you've fucked up and need to apply the armor upgrades ASAP to restore some of that precious DC;
• Practice level where you can fuck around a little bit until you're 100% sure you're ready to face the rest of the game.

Naturally, this won't cover everything because it would spoil the game, but it should clarify some of the stuff that may be confusing due to lack of information.

In other news, reached 18 completed tracks for the ingame soundtrack. 2 or 3 tracks left until I can safely call it a complete soundtrack and release it to scrap dis extra $$$. Speaking of music, would you be interested in unused tracks? I've got about a dozen of tracks that were dropped or went through lots of changes before they ended up in the game and throwing some of them into the trash would be a real shame.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

In other news, I completed the soundtrack. 22 tracks, roughly an hour of music -- and that's only the stuff that ended up in the game. Will release it in a matter of days -- I only need to put together an album cover which shouldn't take too long.

Here are a few samples from the full soundtrack:



Currently I'm implementing the remaining enemy types required for the tutorial and finishing the remaining maps. Practice level will be a remix of the Tutorial Demo level, except w/ some extra bells and whistles. If everything goes according to the plan, I'll be able to release the tutorial this weekend and continue finishing the rest of the game.

 

[CryptRat]

These tunes sure are great.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Aaand it's out.

Bandcamp: https://surt-r.bandcamp.com/album/das-geisterschiff-original-soundtrack
Itch: https://surt-r.itch.io/das-geisterschiff-original-soundtrack

I should send download keys to those who bought the game for the game price + soundtrack price so far as a big thank you.

EDIT: The itch version is 10% off and you can use the code 'geist' to get 10% discount on Bandcamp until July 1st.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Sent the keys to the soundtrack, made a few people happy, my work for today is... not complete yet.

Slowly reaching the final stages for the tutorial. Only 2 tutorial levels and a tiny hub left until it's done and out. I also had to postpone the patch until the tutorial is ready -- I'd rather release a slightly bigger update and spend a bit more time testing these fixes -- hopefully there are no other issues left to take care of.

Also added 2 new enemy types.

Spoiler

Spy Drones.

Won't attack the player -- instead they call others for help every turn, increasing the chance of encounters nearby. Take these bastards down quickly or GTFO before it's too late.

Spoiler

Carriers.

These fatties can't shoot you, but they're following you around and trying to smash your face. They can also sprint towards you, so just stepping back all the time won't work against them.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Finally BALANCED the ramming tutorial stage. Since all of the systems were designed around guns, a melee-only enemy would be a wimp for target practice.

Slowed the player down w/ a jammer on this level and made carriers faster by letting them sprint -- not ideal, but better than nuffin.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Alright, after a few lengthy delays the tutorial is done and will be released as soon as I'm done tweaking it. Aiming to release the patch tomorrow evening w/ a pretty lengthy changelog and lots of major and minor improvements.

TBH getting a fulltime job hampered my plans significantly, but at least I'm not giving up.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Update is out, available here: https://surt-r.itch.io/das-geisterschiff
Changelog is available here: https://surt-r.itch.io/das-geisters...silence-v07-is-out-together-with-the-tutorial

Demo will be updated soon.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Demo finally updated to the latest version. As usual, it's available here: https://surt-r.itch.io/das-geisterschiff

 

[vlzvl]

Hey, i tried the demo again and its quite smooth, slick controls and decently dark
The soundtrack and atmosphere reminded me of first UFOs.
Then i just threw myself off into the void, thinking the game would protect me. But not this game! Last time i died like that was in King's Quest 3.
Just a minor nitpick; slow down a bit the first introduction, it goes off really fast and did not really got whats going on.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Just a minor nitpick; slow down a bit the first introduction, it goes off really fast and did not really got whats going on.

Funny thing is that it's already slower than in the initial beta release, but good point, added to the todo list for the next patch.

Meanwhile I'm finishing the rest of the ghost ship and doing even more polishing.


This chapter is less linear than the Earth one, but it's still p tricky since the ship has only one workshop and there's no place to hide.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Arrite, here's a new progress report.

• Half of the ship is already done and it's getting closer to the finished state since the 'textures' and other shit for the remaining areas area practically done. Then there's only 3 levels left for the epilogue and the game is out. OUT. Period.
• Meanwhile it looks like a few bugs made their way into the tutorial, so I'll issue a new patch soon w/ some additional improvements.
• Preparing to try sending the game to more journos/streamers and enjoying the immense butthurt.

That said, spending a month focused on the day job w/ little time to do anything else gave me a fresh look at the game and I've found even more ways to improve it.

Here's the current changelog of the upcoming update:

Spoiler

• Trying to USE enemies or other things that aren't doors/switches/landmines/bare walls no longer ends turns;
  
• Fixed screen lines not turning on and off properly in certain cases;
  
• Fixed sunrays not affecting the entities during combat if they haven't changed their position;
  
• Fixed incorrect spawn point in the Ramming tutorial which could render the level unbeatable;
  
• Speedup to reticle animations to make combat flow faster;
  
• Reduced duration of status messages;
  
• Reduced the difficulty of the Combat, Ramming, Workshop and Practice tutorial stages;
  
• Ruma's evasion stat has been reduced;
  
• Minor change to the 'critical hit'. If the target evades the missed shot, the chance of both ending up in the 'same spot' has been reduced to 20% (from 25%) and damage spread has been changed to 50-200% from 80-200%.

And another sneak peek at the ghost ship.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Guess what.

Another update is out.
DOWNLOADING NOW



Changelog: https://surt-r.itch.io/das-geisterschiff/devlog/43331/another-day-another-patch

Spoiler

Demo will be updated shortly.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Good news:

• Only 6 small segments left until the game is ready;
• Almost ready to set September 19 as the potential release date (exactly 12 months since I started rebuilding the game from scratch this time);
• Sent the gayme to more journos, gonna have a few laughs.

Bad news: the game won't be released on GOG, so you'll have to go to Itch to get your DRM-free fix.

 

[ortucis]

Good news:

• Only 6 small segments left until the game is ready;
• Almost ready to set September 19 as the potential release date (exactly 12 months since I started rebuilding the game from scratch this time);
• Sent the gayme to more journos, gonna have a few laughs.

Bad news: the game won't be released on GOG, so you'll have to go to Itch to get your DRM-free fix.

Did GOG refuse?

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Good news:

• Only 6 small segments left until the game is ready;
• Almost ready to set September 19 as the potential release date (exactly 12 months since I started rebuilding the game from scratch this time);
• Sent the gayme to more journos, gonna have a few laughs.

Bad news: the game won't be released on GOG, so you'll have to go to Itch to get your DRM-free fix.

Did GOG refuse?

They felt the game was 'too niche' and 'too small in scale in terms of production value'. I'll probably have to submit it 20 years later as a legit old game.

 

[ortucis]

Good news:

• Only 6 small segments left until the game is ready;
• Almost ready to set September 19 as the potential release date (exactly 12 months since I started rebuilding the game from scratch this time);
• Sent the gayme to more journos, gonna have a few laughs.

Bad news: the game won't be released on GOG, so you'll have to go to Itch to get your DRM-free fix.

Did GOG refuse?

They felt the game was 'too niche' and 'too small in scale in terms of production value'. I'll probably have to submit it 20 years later as a legit old game.

Yeah not surprised, a lot of developers are rejected cause of such reasons.

Probably why Steam will remain at the top of the food chain.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

While GOG rejected the game, I think it's possible to convince them to change their mind.
A kind person from a dungeon crawling community created a wishlist page: https://www.gog.com/wishlist/games/das_geisterschiff
Of course, the game is too niche even within the dungeon crawling niche, but there's no hurt in trying.

Speaking of the game itself, I'm about 5 small maps away from 1.0. Still tweaking and improving what has been done to this point and may continue doing so after the initial release (and before the Steam release) to improve the gameplay, pacing and graphics.

Screenshot dump incoming.

 

[DosBuster]

that training facility track feels too blue for a place where you're expected to focus and learn while having some fun

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Introducing the worst enemy of all time.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

So, here's another update about the current status of the game.

• The ghost ship maps are complete, currently finalizing the events, balancing the enemy stats to keep the encounters short and deadly and testing the whole thing.
  
• Epilogue is being implemented right now. It only contains 3 short maps with 1 puzzle, so I guess it'll take about a week from now on.
• Did some cutting of ingame messages to make the combat and exploration a little bit faster.

Overall, this project is about to wrap up and get out there.

To summarize the whole shebang since I started the last iteration of the game in September 2017:

• 2 maps in the intro, 12 maps in Chapter 1, 9 maps in Chapter 2, 3 maps in the epilogue, which brings us to 26 maps (4 hubs) + 7 tutorial levels.
• 11 enemy types + 4 bosses.
• 200+ 'textures'.
• 21 music tracks, ~50 minutes of music.
• Possibly the first crawler where attacking from higher/lower ground matters in combat.

I'm satisfied about getting it to this point, even if it took forever to get to this point and I had to cut corners. While it's not a huge project, I've learned a lot along the way and hopefully I'll get to make a better and more complex game after wrapping this up.

Actually, I've been noting down the ideas and things that I'd like to add to or change in the formula to potentially make another crawler where you play as an Eberbach agent, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Sweet track. Closing credits music? Has that sort of feel.
Nice to see things are coming thru, you've got a customer here once it's finished.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Arrite, got a big announcement soon (tm).

Ok, a big one and a small one. Stay tuned.

2 micro-issues left, btw.

sooper sekkrit image

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Arrite, yuge news and small news.

Released the collection of unused tracks on Bandcamp and Itch, so if you liked the original soundtrack this might be up your alley.

Now, the yuge news.

Spoiler

Target release date: September 19th on Itch and December 13th on Steam.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Pasting the last changelog for v1.0 if you're a big fan of these. Thanks to Rhuantavan for testing the Mac version and megidolaon for testing the Linux build.

Spoiler

WARNING: Due to changes in the save system, pre-1.0 saves are incompatible with the 1.0 release.

Changelog:
* Ghost Ship and Epilogue chapters are in.
* Several transmissions removed from Gangland chapter as they proved to be not very informative, nor fun to read.
* Added resolution selection to the main menu. You can select between 1024x768, 1280x720, 1680x1050, 1920x1080 or just set it to the desktop resolution. Lower resolutions may come in handy if you're playing on a slower setup and experiencing framerate issues.
* Added the ability to set custom resolution by editing the 'res.bnd' file in the game data folder.
* Added some ambient music to the main menu.
* Added an option to switch between fullscreen and windowed modes.
* Added the ability to resize the window in windowed mode. It is advised to keep the size above 1024x720 to avoid any issues with the UI.
* Added 'T' key as an alternative binding for the 'END TURN' function.
* Fixed 'LOAD GAME' button not working properly in v0.7.1 and onwards.
* Fixed buggy results from the 'RETRY CURRENT MAP' function. Data transferred between maps now saves along with the main savegame.
* Fixed incorrect positioning of explosions from explosive weapons if the player was being attacked by an entity.
* Fixed a glitch that could cause the game to freeze after killing Carriers.
* Fixed an oversight in enemy AI that would cause human enemies to commit suicide if they're low on health and run out of ammo.
* Fixed some logic inconsistencies in human AI behavior (panic state).
* Fixed incorrect saving & loading of disabled jammers. Now they no longer turn back on upon revisiting the area or loading the save if they were disabled by pressing USE (instead of shooting/smashing them to pieces).
* Fixed rare cases of glitching text if a disabled jammer was caught in an explosion.
* Fixed incorrectly assigned messages in the Training Hub (Practice Area and Workshop terminals had their strings swapped).
* Fixed the dialogue in the parking lot @ Intro. The conversation no longer triggers if you're done raiding the warehouse.
* Evasion check implemented for entities affected by landmine explosions. Player character and enemies get reduced damage if they pass the evasion check.
* Jurgen's evasion stat has been reduced.
* Removed Carrier encounter from Fortress BF3.
* Removed the ability to shoot undetected landmines via menu.
* Music fade in/out is a bit softer now.
* Reduced weight bonus from armor plates.
* Changed DC of jammers to 32 (from 80).
* Removed 'Damage Received' prompts.
* 'Enemy is crippled' message now appears only once per encounter.
* Messages can be advanced/skipped by pressing any key now.
* Removed the option to switch between dataPath and persistentDataPath for saves & config.
* Additional minor balance & AI tweaks, bugfixes, etc.

Linux version has some issues I'd like to fix ASAP, mostly related to alt-tabbing (unlikely since it may be an issue with Unity itself, but hopefully there's a way to fix it) and z-fighting (not present in Windows build and already fixed in Mac build).