Development News
Multiplayer Integration
February 1st, 2024
Happy New Year!
Alright, I know I am a little late with that but hey, I'm still running at holiday speed over here.
Today's blog (the first of the year!) will be a short one but there are a couple things I am very excited for. Here are the highlights that I'll discuss today:
Global Game Jam 2024 (Stand Up for Humankind!)
Codebase development: multiplayer integration (demo'd by the tanks above)
Game design secrets
One Wicked Night FAQ For Newcomers
What's this game about?
Your pal Kevin has run into a spooky house on a dare. He hasn't come out. You need to go in and save him!
Okay but what's in it for me?
Well, friendship! Okay but also: A new house, new puzzles, and new monsters every time you play.
Can I play this with friends?
Eventually! I'm just a solo developer working at this part time, but once multiplayer is implemented I'll be launching an Early Access version of the game.
Can you save the world? Well no... but that's on me...
Stand Up for Humankind
This was my first Global Game Jam and I've gotta say, I dropped the ball on this one! My brain may or may not have ceased functioning after my third night of too little sleep, and I may or may not have abandoned my team on the final day. Do I feel good about that? Heck no! Did the team rock the finish anyways? Hell yeah!
Aliens have arrived at Earth, and they will eradicate any and all unfunny sentient species. It's up to you to discover what makes them laugh before you meet their leader... or else!
Due to time/brain/sleep constraints, the "final battle" is not implemented in the game. This means you can't actually win... nor can you lose! I guess humanity is stuck in a perpetual state of crisis. Whoops 😅
Multiplayer Integration and Game Design
I have been spending most of my free time on my "super codebase" for about three months now. The goal? To produce an entirely modular, multiplayer, and mess-free library in the Unity game engine that will let me maximize game performance and personal creativity, while greatly reducing the time I spend on code.
And you know what? It's going incredibly well.
For starters, multiplayer integration is coming along much more smoothly than I anticipated. And that's good, because I have put all serious game development aside until the multiplayer aspect is complete. 99% of the time that I spend playing games is spent playing multiplayer games, and I want my game dev time to be spent in roughly the same way. It's getting there.
But at the same time, I'm here to make games. Stories, gameplay, and multiplayer interaction ideas are never far from my mind. To satisfy this itch, I keep a game design journal and pour my thoughts into that so I can turn them into code later. If you ever thought to yourself "huh I dunno about this Trombo guy, what kind of games is he even making?" Let me spoil it for you: my production lineup is a stepladder that culminates at One Wicked Night. Starting from a basic framework of "multiplayer co-op action games," each subsequent game will be adding or expanding systems like AI, procedural generation, combat and interaction options, and more.
See you in March!
That's a lot of talk for today and as much "SHOW and tell" as I would like, so I'll leave you hanging here. My hope is that by March, my multiplayer integration will be finished and I will showing you my first new project of the year. Wish me luck till then!
Cheers,
- Trombo
How To Keep Up With Kevin
Visit the TromboSpace discord for a small news updates and community chat about all sorts of games.
I also keep a mailing list now! New blog posts and major news only (about 1 message a month). Interested?