Zordak
Devlog - 63 [NEW DEMO]
The new Zordak demo is out!
There's been too many changes since the previous demo so I'll just be listing the changes since the previous devlog.
Changes:
ANY OS:
- Added "gml_pragma("forceinline")" to a bunch of scripts, this should increase general performance when using the YYC version according to GMS.
Didn't really notice much when testing on laptop though.. maybe 1-2 fps increase on O.R.B test.
- Save file format has changed, old save files will not be compatible and loading one will likely cause crashes and/or loss of progress.
This is a necessary change I forgot to do earlier.
- Improved HUD rendering performance.
- Improved Fluid interaction CPU performance, similar to Foliage system, should not cause any new issues but you never know.
- The menu now remembers which button you were on in the previous menu instead of always putting you at the top of the menu.
- Items funneled by charge beam will now move towards the player until the item is collected.
- Fixed 4 bugs/issues.
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Here it is!
So many things have changed since the last demo so you'll just have to try it out and see for yourself.
Looking forward to hearing your feedback and/or watching playthroughs of this new demo!
If you like the game and/or want to help/support me:
Feel free to spread the word about the game and/or take a look at my Patreon, any help is appreciated!
If you use Discord and want to be more involved with the game or just be notified about updates, feel free to join my discord server listed below.
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Comments
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It has been a good while since I played one of the demos but there has been a lot of improvement. The upgrades are a lot more gradual and feel a little better. There is a definite bread crumbs feeling to the level design where you can sort of tell there will be more to do once you have the right tools.
The main menu does have a lot of options on it for them all to be so similar visually. It looked like you had dividers it still felt hard to tell if I was looping through the same options or if they were new ones. Maybe color coding or switching some to sub menus would help.
Your controller support seems to be much smoother since the last time I played a demo. I had zero issues this time and didn't have to fiddle with the controls any.
All in all a lot of improvement and it looks like you are making a lot of progress.
Hey, thanks for trying the new demo.
Yeah, I'm definitely going for the bread crumb feel and there will be more to do of course, especially since almost all locked doors in the demo is open in the full game for example.
I assume you mean ledges being too high, small passages and things like that though but just thought I'd mention the doors anyway.
I'm sure the main menu will be improved more over time, maybe by adding more categorization and color coding as you mentioned.
I changed it to have more options on the main menu just to reduce sub menu "crawling" though so more sub menus will probably not be added.
Good to hear the controller worked better, there are still a bunch of issues though which I've highlighted in my newer devlog.
I'm currently working on a small update to fix a bunch of issues including controller ones.
Anyway, thanks for the feedback! :)
Wow man, you've put a freaking Metroid inside a vat.
You're really looking to rile up all the people who call your game a Metroid clone. 😏
BTW, great improvements for the readability of the bosses moves.
And nice touch with locking the room that holds the suit. Though I'd rather have had a more rewarding experience from how I found the code.
That Metroid has been there as a homage since one of the first demos I put out so it's nothing new really, most people probably miss it though. ;)
Glad to hear that the readability has been improved, I can probably improve it further but that will be something for the future.
What would you consider be more rewarding in this case?
I'm not sure what you expected but as always, this is not the final version, things are likely to change once again in the future.
Thanks for the feedback. :)
Yhea it makes sense I missed the Metroid on the previous audit.
Well as for the password, there could be a lot of way to implement it better. But it's really a small complaint and not worth devoting energy to.
Since the Demo is in a really solid place, why don't you open a crowdfunding campaign for it?
Okay, well, I'm sure the password section will change over time anyway so we'll see what happens.
I mean, of course, I've been thinking about doing like a Kickstarter or something, I just don't know if I can handle all the extra work pressure and dealing with stretch goals and such.
The worst part is the stretch goals (which I assume is needed for a Kickstarter), I don't want to promise a bunch of stuff and then have it turn out that I can't handle doing them.
But I also understand that now is pretty much the perfect time to do something like this when so many more people are at home.
I just don't know.
Hey man I feel you, these are all stressful things.
You know best about your situation and about how much energy and time you have to devote to the project. So I'm sure you'll make the best decision that's suitable to you.
But I'll just point out the following things:
1) This is the perfect time for you to start a crowdfunding campaign. Not only because of the pandemic, but because there's a great hunger for Metroidvanias these days. People are biting their nails off waiting for Silksong and Axiom Verge 2 to come out. So they will gladly throw their money at any promise for another good game.
If you look at currently/recently running campaigns, you can see they raise funds of between 30K(Haiku, the Robot) and 210K (The Last Faith).
Hell, even a kinda uninspired HK clone like Chiaroscuro raised 12.5 K.
Once the above mentioned SS and AV 2 will come out, people's thirst will be quenched for the next 1-2 years. And who knows if afterwards it will come back, or if Metroidvania genre will still has the focus it has now. So this might be your last chance to make this work.
2) Doing everything alone IS stressful. But if you have money you can afford to hire someone to help you with the game. You can outsource some/all of the music/art/code/marketing/stretch goals.
3) Not many people know as much as you do, how much work goes into creating a game. And that's exactly why it's impossible to make a game hesitantly. To overcome the massive workload and goals that needs to be achieved, you need to go all in! And to do that you need funding.
4) Zordak have been blessed with more attention than most indie game demos get these days. Almost everyone in the scene knows about it. But attention is fleeting, so you need to make the best out of it.
Anyway, those are my 4 cents.
Good luck no matter what you choose to do!
I understand what you're saying and your points are all valid, but I just don't know.
I've been sitting here for like 30+ minutes trying to come up with what to say but I just can't find the words.
All I can really say is that my living situation is not exactly great and I'm already completely stressed out about everything..
And as mentioned before, I have no desire to make any promises of any kind because everything could change at any moment.
And without being able to make promises the entire Kickstarter reward system is pretty much out of the question, and I'm pretty sure a Kickstarter without rewards (except very basic ones like you get the game and maybe a feature addition to the game or so) would not work very well if it's even allowed at all..
So.. I just don't know.
There's more to it than this but this is all I'll say this publicly.
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