itch.io

Hi Jetpackman. Thanks for playing and for the feedback! Yes, making it a bit harder or adding a hard mode would be interesting. That might be something I'll add in the future. :)

I love the effects. Very impactful. :)

That's indeed a very curious hobby. :D

Well I probably won't get around to updating the game or making it more presentable anytime soon. I think games are made to be played and I would rather send out a playable demo of the game than something half finished.  Right now it's not very playable because a lot of things are completely rebuilt and not linked together by the script.  If I ever get around to patching it all back together so that you can at least test a small demo of it, I'll let you know. :)

Hi Blantas, you're right.

I started the project a few years ago and had to pause it over a year ago for personal reasons and right now I don't see the urge or opportunity to continue with it. In fact I had a lot of plans for the game but it was a bit too big.

Maybe in a couple of years I'll tackle it again when I've gained more experience and can do it properly. I took it off steam now because I didn't want to raise false hopes when I don't even know if I'm going to continue with it or not.

I'm sorry for that. ):

But it's still impressive what you were able to do in 48 hours! :)

Snake reversed! Nice! :)
The controls were a bit hard but cool idea. 

Hi Noapna, that's a very cool insight into how your localization works! Yeah, those keywords are tricky.
And I will save me up your contact mail. Thanks for that too. :)

Hi Noapna, thank you!!
Yes, in the devlog it may look like it's very far along in production, but there are still many things to do and to design.

Honestly, I would love to translate the game into other languages, but as you noted, I can't afford it right now.
But maybe next year.

There is also another reason why I don't want to translate the game too early. The whole game consists of the written puzzles that your customers give you. So each sentence is very difficult to write. The words must leave room for interpretation, but not confuse or imply too much. Even writing the puzzles in my own language (German) is difficult and in every playtest I notice little things where other words would be better.
So I will probably add more languages when I know for sure which are the correct words needed in the riddles.

I can inform you and your company when I have more information about possible additional language support. :)

Thanks! Makes me happy to hear that. :)

Exhibition of Townframe  (Caggtus 2023)

Hi everyone, this month I exhibited Townframe on the Caggtus in Leipzig (Germany). It was also the first time that it was played in public,
so that was very cool and I learned alot how people want to play the game and what I need to improve.
I made a little video about the whole experience. Have fun and enjoy my poor english. :)

Hi Tomasque! Glad to see  you here again. :)

And I think it's a good decision to leave behind a project that doesn't feel right. Because we all in the end invest our own life time and it's good to spend your life doing something that you believe is worth pursuing and that makes you happy.
So I am very excited about your next project.

Hi everyone, as you've noticed it's been a bit quiet around Townframe development the last few months.

I had some other stuff going on, so I didn't worked on it that much.  Fortunately, this little break helped me to see the game for what it is and where I can improve it.
And I also have more time now, which means today I'm officially continuing the work on it and putting all the ideas I've collected into it.

There will be more regular posts about it in the coming weeks.
Stay tuned! :)

This is one of the later Townframes you'll visit and it has windmills because .... they are cool! 

This is a very good game! I played many playthroughs. 372 points were my highest score.  At first I found it a bit annoying not knowing which items did what, but later on I really enjoyed the discovery of each new mechanic.
But I do wish there was an option to redraw.
Dissolving something and then having more space for new items also feelt a lot like in Tetris with it's limited grid. Very well done!

Limited time sounds interesting. It is then rather a kind of speedrun game. And I guess the bones will be your currency then.
Very cool, I'm looking forward to it.

As marigold mentioned, the movement were a bit difficult, leading to some very punishing moments. Also, the level design could benefit from some landmarks or small distinctive objects on the floor or wall so that it helps you orient yourself.
Besides of that it's cool. I liked the artstyle a lot and the atmosphere is pretty good.
What does time and bones do?
My time was -204 and I had 46 bones.

Thanks Szajna! I will give  my best. :)

Thank you Tomasque! :)

General Update

Hello.

As you can see, I haven't written an update in a month. The reason for that is that since then I've still been working on Townframe, but not as much as the month before, because I got the chance for an internship in a small game studio and at the moment I'm trying to find the balance between those two things.
I still want to finish Townframe soon, so right now I'm working on it on days off or weekends.

Now for the things I've done since the last time:

I still haven't finished the work on all the puzzles in the game, BUT gladly there's only one left and it's actually the last one.... THE BOSS PUZZLE!
So that's something I want to do very well in the next weeks.

One of the puzzles I've finished since then was Joy's flower scene. And yes, it's heavily inspired by the flower field scene in Howl's Moving Castle.

And last weekend I also made a little trailer because I sent Townframe to a local competition. You can watch the trailer on Townframe's steam page, but I have to say that this is not the final trailer. It's just a small gameplay trailer to show how the game works in the current development stage. In the next few weeks I will create a new and better trailer.

I also had a few more playtest sessions and I noticed a few things I want to change. For example, the layout of the interface, the interaction with the store, the way the soundscape tool works, the gameplay and other things. It's really interesting that every playtest brings new things to light that I never thought about before, and I'm very grateful for all these insights into how people play the game. 
And if you're a game developer reading this, let people play your game, even if it doesn't have all the features yet(!)

But with all these playtests and new findings, the production time of the game is getting longer and longer. In the beginning I wanted to finish the game in just a few months and now it's been over half a year and I think the total development time will be even longer. There are still a lot of things to polish.
So I guess I could finish the game by the end of the year and release it in the first half of 2023.

I also want to buy a microphone. Maybe in the next update you can hear me speaking in bad English, but with more visual stuff happening on screen.

That's it for now :)

Cool game. 
A kind of main goal would be nice like reaching heat 4.
Unfortunaly I died a lot when I increased the heat, but I played alone too. Maybe the difficulty is decreased when you play alone and increased when playing online.
But I also have no reason yet to increase the difficulty. Seems a bit unfair to invest the collected stuff into something that harms me. Like I said before, a goal that motivates me enough to increase the heat would be great.
You also collecting a lot of items like axes and so on that you don't really need. Maybe an option to sell your items to get more diamond would be nice.
But overhaul a very promesing game. I also liked that you have different tasks and different characters to choose from and every character has their own attack pattern. Very cool!

Update - Puzzles

A new week, a new thing.

I made a few more puzzles this week, like this one called "The Rainforest". It has a little frog that you can find with the inspector tool.

And I didn't reached my goal of completing all the levels by the end of the month, BUT that's not so bad, because now there are only 3 left that I want to complete in the next week(s)

Thanks!
Oh yes, I like the design of Joy too. She is indeed a very interesting character. I will write more about her in the coming weeks as well. :)

Update - Characters

This week I finished the last remaining characters for Townframe.
It feels very very good to reach a goal and to get a big step closer to finishing the development of the game.
And I'm pretty happy with them. I will definitely talk about them all in more detail at a later date, because some of the names and designs are influenced by some really cool stuff.
And yes, I always draw sketches on used, cut or torn pieces of paper. I just take what's next to me.

Here is a video of the ones I have finished this week..

Thanks! :D I'm glad you like it.

Update - Puzzles & Sound

Aside from the background themes (above), I've also made some progress on the puzzles this week. This one below is one of them.
There are now 9 completely finished frames and 3 more are visually finished, but mechanically not yet.

I might reach my goal of making all the puzzles by the end of the month, because my goal is to have at least 15 of them.
15, because that's been my favorite number for years, and also because that's a good number to reach AND have time to polish the game.

I want to release townframe this year, so I had to limit my scope from the start.
The puzzles are all interesting in their own way.
To give the player a good 1-hour game rather than a stretched 2-hour one is just better.

Aaaaand I made a video of one of this week's finished puzzles because I want to show the sounds too. I made them a few weeks ago.

This may seem a bit spammy now, but if you haven't added the game to your wishlist yet, you can do so here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1927150/Townframe/?utm_source=itchdevlog
Every wishlist helps. Thanks. :)

Update -  Background Themes

I tested today  some gentle background themes for Townframe.
The current blank background seems a bit boring to me. Maybe it's just because I've been looking at it for months ...

I also noticed from the gif that an animated background would also be something nice.
Maybe there should also be an option to turn it off.

But for now I'm saving these possible backgrounds for later, because I have to finish the remaining puzzles at first! :D

Thanks! There will be a new one at the end of next week. :)

Hey! Thanks for the interest, but unfortunately this game will be a commercial one and right now I don't have the financial resources to pay a musician, so I'm using only royalty free music for this game and just name the one in the credits for who made it..
But your music on soundcloud is very good! :)

General Update

Hey everyone. :)
I'm back to continue the development of Townframe.
I had taken a month off for traveling and other things.
So let me inform you how the progress of the game is so far.

The game is in a very advanced state so there are some things that are also finished now, like: 

- 60% of the puzzles
- the shopsystem - all tools (they were very time consuming ... uff)
- the worldmap - the most of the sounds - the feedback (juiciness)
- all puzzle ideas

Things wich are still in work are:

- 40% of the puzzles in coding and art
- some character designs
- the tutorial (I have a functional one that is still not perfect)
- the startscreen - the options menu
- the help/about menu
- some sounds
- and saving (very important)

In this month I want to get done with all the puzzles in the game, towndesigns and characters.
I think that's realistically achievable.

And here is the game's steam page
-> https://store.steampowered.com/app/1927150/Townframe/?utm_source=itchdevlog
(the game will be on itch later too)

The game felt good and hit the theme but unfortunatly I got stuck after the 5th wave. :P
Sometimes it's pretty hard.  A crosshair would be nice.
The uprades are cool but maybe making them random would be more interesting. I always have to buy something I don't really need at the moment just to get to the next upgrade that I may actually need.

The option to choose between stationary or movable robots and different weapon types are very interesting.
Sometimes I took the stationary ones and placed them near a work shop.
But I took often times just the movable robots because I wanted to collect all the money and had to move around.
I died sometimes because I got stuck between a horde of enemies or because I got stuck between my robots and the enemies. The second reason was indeed the most unforgiving death.
I also think it would be more enjoyable if the time slows a bit down or stops when you choose a weapon in the shop or if you want to change the behaivior of the robots. Because that's really the strategy part of the game and the rest is more reactive and giving the player enough time for their choice just feels more fair.
I played the game 4 times. But never beaten it. :P Maybe I will try it later again. 10 Minutes for one playthrough was a bit long for me. But that's just a players taste.
Anyway, very solid and polished entry! I would like to see a post jam version of this. :)

What a relaxing game and the art style combined with the sounds are super charming.
I also liked the interaction with the sea anemones.

My own set goal was to spawn a lot of fish until my PC can't not handle the amount any more.
As I reached my goal I had a lot of fish. They are just so cute.

What a weird game, but in a good way. Good use of the theme.
Sometimes I didn't really understand what the cryptic words were describing, but overall a very fun experience.

Very relaxing and cute artstyle.

In my first run I didn't fed any animal because I clicked a little bit too fast through the tutorial. So I endet up having my Burden Bot buying a lot of food that I didn't know how to use.
What a burden, but was a very funny situation too. xD
I changed his task to buying animals and this was indeed the only option of the 3 that I found very helpful. So I could focused very deeply to get all the animals to the right time.

Update - World Map (part 2)

I improved a bit the transition when you choosing the townframes.

I'm also thinking about adding walk lines on the map between the towns. Would be cool to see where you started and in which order you solved the puzzles.
But it could also be an unnecessary feature. So I add this idea to my "If I have time left I will do this"-list.

Thank you! I try my best to make the graphics looking good but also let them not to be too complex so that I can work faster on the game. :)

An explanation of what each dice stands for would be good. :) I started over several times and tried different combinations. Once I got to the end but then I got an error.

Cool game. I made it to round 18. :)

Update - World Map

I worked on the world map this week. The transition to the next city is still a bit unspectacular, but I can improve that next week.

Thinking - about World Map

I'm thinking of adding a map to the game. At the moment you can switch between townframes by using the arrows left and right near the frame. But It gives you not so much context about how do you get to the frames and why you can switch to them. So I think a map would gives you a much deeper connection to the way you get to the townframes.
"You are a townframer and you travel through the world and solve town riddles by people" <- sounds cool and gives also a touch of exploration because you unlock new lands to travel by solving puzzles.

Update - Inspector Tool

I have finished the work on the inspector tool.
It's basically a giant magnifying glass that allows you to discover hidden things in the towns if certain conditions are met.
These conditions depending on the puzzles the people will give you. Some hidden things are part of your puzzle solution and some will be completly optional.



I'm also started to update a little bit the steampage. There is still no gameplay trailer but I will maybe make some to the end of this month.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1927150/Townframe/?utm_source=itchdevlog