Game : fTYPE Defender
Developer : aBinary.Life
Game genera : Arcade / Shootem'up
Itch.io page - https://abinarylife.itch.io/ftype-defender

A huge update completed today.  I have added win/lose conditions as well as AI companion KIM. I'll get into those shortly,  but first I wanted to go over the new and improved shader work.

With the current build there has been approximately 9 new post and geometry shaders added. Covering weather effects to player death screen and everything in between. I've really only started my journey into Shader-land as I was always a bit put off by learning how to create them.  These new shaders are hardly groundbreaking or highly advanced but they are filling a void where I needed an effect on screen.

Thanks to havenphillip ( at UltraEngine ) for creating a very in-depth blog on shader creation - I was able to pull of these basic effects. 

Back to the game, -

AI Kim - A simple AIbot that does 'not so simple things' behind the scenes.  Kim is a companion to  the player, she'll tell jokes during slow times, she'll alert you to situations ongoing, she'll hack the source code and provide the player with a short time boost to skills such as speed, firing and even extra lives!. Thus far she reacts to 12 different game events with more in the making. Stay tuned.

Win:Lose Scenarios: A major part of the games win/lose scenarios  has been completed and installed, I have created more than 24 different scenarios that can be mixed and matched with each map to produce a win scenario for that stage.   As I get deeper into map making and the skill  tree I'm certain more will follow.

Other than some polish to sound and tons of behind the scenes work, that's about it for  this update.  I'm already well ahead on the next update, scheduled for next week. 

Here's a short spoiler as to what is heading our way next: 

-- Ship upgrades -- Mech - ground combat. 

Short update today, but one that took all day to complete. The light system from shadow to reflection has been re-worked from ground up.
The new system is less demanding on the GPU and it yields far superior looks over the old system.

All in all I'm very pleased with the system and finally look forward to getting back to game code and less engine code. :)

Introducing Mech-Mode: ( read below )  https://abinarylife.itch.io/ftype-defender

Aside from ship combat, which was displayed in last weeks video - fTYPE Defender gains  a new play-mode, Mech.

As you play the normal stages in aerial combat there will come times your flight path takes you over the top of a MECH. When this happens you have arrived at an 'Assignment Area'.

Assignment Area's are special maps which require you to control a MECH to complete.  The assignment will be one of many different scenarios. Anywhere from tower defense stages to covert operations to helping a town of citizens restore a bridge etc..  As time goes on more and more content will be added to the Assignment Modes. 

Completing an Assignment Mode will grant you a wealth of rewards, from upgrades to shop tokens to unlocking hidden maps and challenge stages.

I've really only just begun with MECH content but as more and more maps/regions and stages are being developed - more and more MECh content will be created to fit those areas.

Stay Tuned!  More next week !

https://abinarylife.itch.io/ftype-defender

Mechs Gone Wild !

I finished some major parts to my game this week, thought I go over a few points.  Created an entirely new vegetation system using gird pivots, AABB's and vicinity sensors. As you will see in the video it is very fast, it uses NO physics and the shadowing is done in one pass. 

Also on display in the video is my new Mech-bot character controller.  It pretty much can and does react with everything on the map at one point or another. I don't have water on this map but he also can handle water in a very natural way.

Also finished is my external scripting system, more or less a mod system but takes instructions via a soft-check interrupter which I was lucky enough to make work with Lua code.  Scripting stuff like npc's, paths, conversations etc.. is a snap now that this is in place.

I'm going to spend the next few weeks scripting quests, and ground missions for the game.  This is all part of fTYPE from the earlier videos, it's just the ground portion of the game. 

This looks very promising. Keep up a good work!

Just a small update this week.  I've started the scripting platform for boss fights.  Purely scriptable inside game via editor or out with lua code. 

These twin badasses are the first to go in. :)