UPDATE.

The second Tutorial stage is done.

The first one was the interior of APC where the player learns basic controls + story lore and some character development.

This second one puts player in danger and teaches him about interactions + some lore.

The old tutorial was to standard, it was in a building and we remade it because we want players to always experience new environments and situations, we do not want players to get bored. ALso, all mechanics will be gradually unlocked not all of a suddent, and as much as possible we try to mix them with game lore and story plot.

Small update

So we decided to add a reset skill button, the twist is in order to have this option you need to first research it in the R&D screen. Mostly of R&D upgrades open actual features, not stats bonuses, another example would be the minimap, you first need to research it in R&D, and after you can build it in Car workshop as a permanent upgrade and one of the most critical features is the active command mode aka (tbs), in order to have this feature you must also first research it and after building it in Car workshop

Since we started the Beta we realized that we have a ton of mechanics that are not explained. so we now work on bug fixes and on making the learning curve more clear & user friendly.

Here is a mockup of the AP system explained.

Variant A

Variant B

We are also going to lock many features from the game and make them unlock gradually to give the overall feel of a reward rather than an actual tutorial.

 We decided to split the game into 3 parts

part 1(all this will also be in the demo version)
- tutorial/learning curve
- 20% random generated content
- fixed path
- plot/story/lore introduction
- 8 unique scenarios
- 5 days of travel map

part 2 (this will be the core of the game)
- more flexibility, allow the player to explore
- 60% random generated content
- multiple paths
- 15 unique scenarios
- 30 travel map days

part 3
- multiple game endings
- 40% random generated content
- 6 unique scenarios
- 15 travel map days

Edit:

Uploaded schematic

Minor update.

Convoy:

To add a bit more of plot logic and mix it better with the tutorial I decided to unlock:

- Car upgrade screen unlocks after the player finds, repairs, and adds to his convoy the mobile repair truck.

- Research & Development screen unlocks after the player finds, repairs, and adds to his convoy the mobile Lab vehicle.

UPDATE

All assets for scenario 06 are done.

I aimed for simple gameplay here, also by this point the player will be familiar with all basic mechanics.

Mainly you must fix the vehicle(doing so you will unlock the workshop menu) by looting components from the map(or if you already have components from the previous exploration even better)and during this time you must also protect the perimeter against the undead. After the vehicle is fixed and you have the key, the exit grid will appear

And a small twist at the end, the player will have a choice. increase Action points permanent + 1 during travel map but get permanent x2 prices in the workshop or do not get the bonus AP and have normal prices in the workshop.

Minor news

We finished all art, design, and maps(in editor) content for part 1 of the game plan, out of a total of 3.

This part 1 represents the introduction to lore, mechanics, and feels of the game and we also consider this to be the demo/vertical slice.

So until 20 July, the programmer works hard on implementing them in the game, so far he managed to implement around 70%. After that, we will have 10 days to do testing and final fixes because in August the programmer will take a vacation for 1 month while I will deal with marketing for the demo(mostly a private Youtuber strategy)

I hope we will have the version done by end of the month otherwise we will have one dead month of development in August

Have a great day

deadlines,deadlines....deadlines

I finally manage to make a coming soon page for this game on Itch.io.

https://16bitnights.itch.io/chromosome-evil

Posting to unlock this topic.

UPDATE

Development map of where are we now and what is left.

UPDATE

GAME STATUS

The demo is finished, we only got around one week of small adjustments left for it, and after we are going to send it to some YouTubers with exclusivity. And overall part 1 out of 3 is done(you can see the full scope of the game with the 3 parts in my previous post). According to the Demo results we decided upon 2 actions: 1. if the demo gets positive received by the YouTubers we are going to invest even more into the project and maybe we are going to do a Kickstarter for voice acting and custom music 2. if the Demo gets a negative reception or no reception at all, we will make some more adjustments and consider making the Demo public and going on the standard path.

TEAM STATUS 

We are both tired af. I feel like I am down on my last battery, My personal life is hard and all my hopes are in this project, 4 years I invested into this, whenever I had a hard time the thought of making this game would motivate me to go on and kept me on the floating line. Now I am approaching the end of this journey and I struggle to milk the last strength from my veins. I am both excited and scared about the upcoming results, And with this said I also want to thank you all for the support, all your feedback was good additional fuel for my motivation.

WHAT IS LEFT

In addition to the previous list, we also made a tasks list based on time requirements. 

15 story scenarios - 500 hours of work

4 endings - 40 hours of work

Achievements - 10 hours of work

Heavy marketing - 1 month before release

That is around 3 months of full-time work, impossible for us since we both have a day job, I can only allocate between 10-20 hours per week and our main deadline is 15 February, and worst-case scenario 15 March.

This being said I hope you had a good read from this small sneak peek behind the curtain.

UPDATE TIME:

Development map status. Done: means the scenario and content is already implemented. WIP: art + design + text + editor map done just requires implementation on scenario path.  Part 1 represents the demo, learning curve, and lore introduction. Part 2 is the core gameplay and part 3 is the endings and final scenarios for the 3 paths.

I want each scenario to have its own atmospheric mood and mechanics and for one of them, I was thinking to make this small experiment for one of the final scenarios and mix top-down with side view to be more dramatic. I hope you enjoy it

While my partner Sergey is busy with last-minute bug fixing and polish before we release the demo, I took a few days off from the main development process to create promotional material for the Twitter marketing campaign which I plan to constantly do 1 month before the release and 2 weeks after the release(the release itself will be in 2022).

I will make a plan for each day what tags to use when to post, where to post, and so on, and by that time I want to already have all promo material so I can concentrate more on real-time engagement.

I used 600x600 for best res for Twitter, nothing spectacular, I will also do some in-game gifs and more.

Preview:

I used both zoom and real size footage so each one got 2 versions.

And here are some mixed ones(I do plan to have a total of around 30 of these pics and around 10 solid gifs)

oh and we also work on adding the second big boss with unique mechanics, still trying to mix RTS with horror.

Forgot about this one

So much work to do

On the last mile of development, I am adding a few shock scenarios with unique twists. 

For example, here the intro will say that just after you deployed the strike team you fall asleep, a weird nightmare where you encounter the "ancient one", the mechanics here are a bit twisted, as in you can ask questions, curious players will surely ask a lot of questions from the question pool but the twist is that the strike team soldiers will constantly lose HP during this state, will the answers be more important than your strike team health?

UPDATE

Working on the game endings.

I must warn you by now that I used minimal style for all artwork in cutscenes, to have more time to work on other features + I like it this way (windows paint ftw)

The game got 3 paths, basically, 3 entire different scenarios based on player choices(+ a lot of random content), so each path will have its own ending but also secondary ending screens based on some actions player took trough out his journey.

And this is the example of the vaccine part(fail state and win state) of the ending(I hope I do not spoil to much just in case some of you actually want to play it when it is done)

That's it for today

The first exclusive first impression video of Chromosome Evil Beta Gameplay