Pixel Licker

Post #24: What’s been going on

Let me start off by saying “It has been way too long and I apologize for shelving the devblog.”

The last two years were full of prototyping, figuring out how to navigate the pandemic and deciding what to work on next.  Most of my progress has been chronicled through Twitter, but I wanted to show the devblog some love, so here we go.

My first game idea was a sort of puzzle/action game featuring a character my daughter came up with.  The game never quite came together as I had hoped, but the character will live on in some future project, I’m sure.  After that I tried a platformer with a female whip wielding adventurer.  It was fun and had a lot of potential, but the scope of the game was a bit too big for my usual 18 month dev cycle, so it was put in cryosleep until a time when I can do it right.  Then I decided to expand my horizons and switch over to Game Maker Studio 2.  It wasn’t too different from what I had been used to, but it took a good 8 months to get comfortable.  It was during this time that I ported over a simple enemy scripting system I had made for a Galaga style shooter.  This in turn developed into what I am now working on: Dead End City.  This was back in 2020 when I was also mainlining subs of Fist of the North Star, because I had always wanted to watch the whole series and see what the big deal was.  Only took me 35 years to be able to watch it, but afterwards an 80’s-post-apocalyptic-mohawk-punk-automotive-combat spark lit in my brain.  Oh, and I also played a bit of Mad Alien (a very old Data East game) and revisited Galaga ’88, which both gave me a starting point for my own game.

Fast forward to 2021. The pandemic raged outside, while I basically lived in a home office, rarely going outside anyway because, well, gamedev life.  Progress was being made on Dead End City.  I got a few people to play the game and give feedback.  It was a lot of positive info, so I felt like I was on the right track.  Yay!  I also did some freelance art which was fun.

Fast forward to 2022.  I got on Steam, made a demo and hope to get wishlists, which I have no idea how to do effectively.  The game is now at alpha and I need to go over the levels again to make them better.  Some people have said they want the game harder, so I am looking into that.  The shmup community sure likes a challenge.

 So that is about all.  Oh, I also got 900 followers on Twitter so… Yay again!  Stay tuned for more stuff about Dead End City.

Post #11: Status Effects

Another new system in Slayin 2 revolves around status effects.  Some enemies can stun, poison or slow the player.  The desert is filled with creatures that throw poison attacks, slowly draining your health.  Some player weapons reduce the damage, while some items actually nullify it all together.

The desert boss also likes to throw out poison and stun attacks.  But in true arcade fashion, wiggling the controller quickly can get you to wake up faster.

Post #10: BostonFIG

It is a little late, but we are happy to report BostonFIG was a great success.  Thank you so much to everyone who stopped by and tried out Slayin 2.  One of our main goals was to get as much feedback as possible and validate a lot of the new ideas in the game.  I think it is safe to say that EVERYONE likes multiplayer.  Most of the attendees wanted to play with a buddy or the random person standing nearby.  There was also a lot of interest in a Switch port, so we might look into crowdfunding as we get closer to a final build.

We would also like to thank all the Slayin fans who stopped by and talked or snapped photos with us.  It is humbling to learn that people enjoy our work so much. ^_^  Also thank you so much to the @BostonFIG staff who so graciously hosted the event.  It was our first showcase and we had a great time.

Come see Slayin 2 at BostonFIG

Pixel Licker is super excited to participate in the showcase at BostonFIG on September 29.  If you are in the Boston area, stop by and try Slayin 2.  We might even have some swag to give away.