Indie Sonucido: The Mage - A turn-based Dungeon Crawler

[Moaning_Clock]

Updated the demo again

Last Demo Update, for real lol

There was still one minor bug which needed to be fixed (relating to the elevator scene). Yeah, that's all.

Full Changelog

- Improved the elevator scene at the start of the second demo level. If you have your inventory open it closes now which looks better but reopens after you finished the elevator.
- You also unwield and rewield your weapon in the elevator scene. This fixes a minor bug: If you changed your weapon (over the numpad) this could lead to stopping the sound of the elevator scene. You can still change your weapon in that scene over numpad though (this is intended).

Grab it on Itch or Steam!

 

[Moaning_Clock]

It certainly is time for some screenshots - didn't post many lately!

Spoiler

For testing purposes I chained many of the existing levels together to test them. I only found one minor bug, which was definitely reassuring, but some balancing issues and areas which could use a little bit more polish.

Spoiler

Dziękuję.

The vitality skill (which determines your maximum health) is now much more useful since you get healed after leveling up and I improved the pacing of one of the first levels I created for the game. There is the advice to not start at the beginning of a game but somewhere in the middle (I think from John Romero?). It always felt a little bit weird but I understand now a lot better why that's great advice.

That's it for now!

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Vapourwave Alert

Game will be delayed again.

Why?

I started cutting some corners ... and didn't like that.

2nd of December is the new release date!

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Got new levels done, new puzzle is implemented!


Will the game be released as Early Access?

No. There might be a rough corner here and there but the game will be playable from start to finish and almost bug-free.

How will the performance be?

You most likely can run the game without any problems with "high settings" ie MSAA 8. According to the Steam hardware survey almost everybody can run the game. But there will be some performance improvements after release just because I like to tinker with the game. This will affect mostly people playing on the go since it helps with battery and the weakest machines obviously. If you are unsure how the game runs - try the demo.

Which OSes are supported?

Windows and Linux. No MacOS support.

Any other ports planned?

No. Windows is obvious and since I'm using Linux for most of development it's also an obvious choice. A good port is very time consuming and I would rather spend my time creating something new tbh.

Spoiler

I will reconsider if Sonucido turns out to be a money printer

I'm getting a Steam Deck, will it be playable there?

In regards to hardware 100% and I think it will be fun there. I won't get one so I can't test it but maybe a colleague will.

The demo had a fuckton of hotkeys I needed to remember

You can now play almost everything with the mouse. You only need to remember the movement keys (arrow/wasd) and interact/attack (e/space/return). The hotkeys are still present. Controller support is also enabled.

What's the state of development?

I still need to create a lot of levels but it's getting there. 75% of the graphics are done (and way more than I initially planned), most systems in regards to programming are implemented. Sounds are still missing in many areas but I add them one at the time. You can play the game for about an hour at the moment.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Created a new enemy which should complement the other enemies nicely. Since part of him is wooden, he is especially weak against the axe. Implemented a secret location and had an idea for a simple trap which I will work on very soon!

I would like to create a new devlog video but I don't have access to my microphone at the moment but I should be able to record something in a week or two.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

That's the new enemy btw.

Def. one of the weirder guys.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

I created another enemy - I call him 'Donut'. He's also a little bit weird and part of the later game. The set of enemies is fairly unique - which is to be expected if you stay away from the well-known material. I'm satisfied with the amount of different enemies which you encounter more than once (and since you can attack almost every dialogue partner, there are technically even more enemies). Doubling the amount wouldn't increase the fun so much I think and I mostly stay away from stronger armed versions of enemies etc. (oh the same bandits now all have fancy armor) but I use wounded versions of enemies a few times.



I'm still working on new levels most of the time!

 

[Moaning_Clock]

I completed another level today - one with a branching path. There are several places in Sonucido where the player can choose between one path or another (or is forced to choose a path if he doesn't have the required items in some cases).

Here is one of these useless perspective screenshots that are so common.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Initially the fights in Sonucido (if you used the right weapon) were extremely short. I liked the premise of turn-based fights which weren't a time-sink. But it got to a point where it didn't feel right: You could kill some moderately tough enemies with two hits if you had a balanced build. So I increased the health points of a couple of enemies and the newer enemies all have a bigger health pool.

I certainly didn't turn them into the typical bullet sponges but you might take a few hits more instead of two with a balanced build - with a strength focused build you might be able to still kill them with two hits.

Basically the fights are now very short instead of extremely short - there won't be many fights which take you over a minute, most are still under 15 seconds.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Time for a new puzzle! Even though it looked for me that the game might be a bit puzzle-heavier I stayed away from them for a while now and focused more on branching paths and a few secrets. At first I designed two lateral thinking puzzles (easy ones) and implemented two logic based puzzles later. This time it will be another logic based puzzle with levers and moving blocks (like the one in the screenshot below) and will be the hardest one yet (but it's still more like medium difficulty).

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Even though I'm still dissatisfied with the delay of the game from before Q4 to the 2nd of December, I'm still pleased to see what I can include because of it.
Some ideas simply need a bit more time.

The new puzzle is btw. completed It turned out a little bit easier than expected.

Because I'm moving to a new place I won't be working for a few days.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Due to the aforementioned moving, I didn't work for two weeks - quite a lot to do.

... and I decided to delay the game again. This time for a couple of months.



It's not an easy decision but I want to give the game more time and I need to focus on other projects and life stuff at the moment - and I simply don't want to rush it.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

At the moment, I'm playing different RPGs and DRPGs to steal ideas get inspired. I thought a lot about Sonucido and how I could improve the game further. The game - in many ways - is in a much better state than original envisioned but there's stuff that I want to address!

One technical thing - to streamline processes on my side - was the idea to switch back to version 3.2.3 of Godot (the game engine I'm using) instead of 3.3.2. Another game I made is dependent on the old version and Sonucido too since the few 3D models are better imported through the old version. Alas, I noticed that the game looks worse in the old version so I need to do the hybrid approach also in the future - import 3D stuff in the old version, switch back to the new one and work with that one. I also don't want the hassle to switch to an even newer version (3.3.3, 3.3.4 and 3.4.0 are out) since it could break the game in unforeseen ways.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Finally, a new devlog video!

 

[Moaning_Clock]

I'm a firm believer that the impact of quality of life features is severly underestimated in the Indie Game scene. After playing A Legionary's Life, I was in awe because of the show-the-hotkeys-key. I certainly will implement such a feature in Sonucido: The Mage, at least for keyboard controls.
I also think about implementing the option to toggle complete mouse-control. The only missing buttons are movement and interacting, so why not? I personally don't like it but if the player is used to only using his mouse (or only has one hand for example), he will be able to.

The break from development certainly helps to get a fresh perspective on Sonucido: The Mage!

 

[Moaning_Clock]

So, I took a break from development and played a whole lot of different games, mostly RPGs, to get a fresh perspective and some new ideas!
I played three Dungeon Crawlers (Das Geisterschiff (-), Der Geisterturm (+) and Legends of Amberland (+)) and also played A Legionary's Life (+) (as mentioned in a previous post), Beholder (-), Myth Bearer (+), Legie (+), Superhot (+) and replayed Dungeon Rats (+) and Age of Decadence (+). I certainly got a fresh perspective on Sonucido!

After I got back to work I reduced the walking speed. A good friend of mine mentioned that in Sonucido the movement always felt like running and after playing the Geister-Games and some tweaks I think I got the right speed for Sonucido. If you want to play with a faster walking speed, it's still possible to increase it (at least in the config/save file). I also fixed a bug related to the instant walking which is also supported.

Right now, I'm cutting a new trailer for the 1 year anniversary of development (which will be December 2) - the new trailer features a slightly improved UI, the dirt environment, new enemies, wounded versions of enemies, the incident screens (which I didn't talk about yet) and more!

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Sonucido: The Mage is now officially 1 year in development!

I cutted a new trailer.

 

[Moaning_Clock]

I wrote a small blog article on what I've learned while developing Sonucido: The Mage for a year!

https://smokesomefrogs.com/blog/1-year-of-development

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Just for all the soy-enjoyers on the codex, Sonucido is def the next trend

 

[Moaning_Clock]

The demo for Sonucido: The Mage has been downloaded over 5000 times on Steam now! (+ a few downloads on Itch)

The game is now standing at 899 wishlists, I'm getting closer to my goal of 1000!

I worked on a couple of issues today which I noted while doing a playthrough. Gladly, I could fix all of them quickly.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

I reread the thread and was pondering the comments about single player TB blobber. Then I finally recalled thd game I played 4 years ago called Undertown. It was damn too short but I enjoyed it. I haven't booted this demo up yet but I do enjoy the vids.

Undertown for reference: LINK

Spoiler

 

[Moaning_Clock]

I'll try it out, looks like a fun little game (only the font is really an eyesore)

 

[Moaning_Clock]

My good ol' ThinkPad died today! That's rather unfortunate but thankfully I'm not a dumbass and backup my game files on regular basis (and since it wasn't the SSD I just put it in my other old ThinkPad and can keep working).

At December 31 I wrote a small postmortem for the year, if anyone is interested: https://smokesomefrogs.com/blog/2021-postmortem

I want to do another update video in the next couple of weeks, rather sooner than later.

And happy new year everybody!

 

[PompiPompi]

Christ. use git

 

[Moaning_Clock]

Did you read my post? I'm backing up my files regularly - although I don't use git but it never mattered.