Hiya guys,

            I thought that I would post a small update on my project as it reaches its 5th month of development!

Firstly I have worked on the world generation aspect quite a bit, while it’s still not exactly how I would like it is slowly getting there! I call this 'Version 2' of the world generator -

 Its allot smoother, faster and more selective then my previous version. Also it makes smileys from time to time!

The game also has more exploration aspects too, for example I have begun work on implementing randomly generated dungeons. These are hard to find, dangerous to enter but ultimately rewarding.

This is what a dungeon entrance might look like -

I  am no-where near finished for the actual generation of the dungeons but here is an example of what one might look like - 

That’s all for now. Let me know any suggestions for improvement you may have and place any questions feel free to ask away!

- Zero.

Thankyou for the kind words bart, Im hoping to have a playable version out soon!

Today I added basic explosives to the game!

Thankyou, ive been spending alot of time trying to get the lighting looking how it currently is. I am using GameMaker studio as the engine, its my first game I have developed using GameMaker and im enjoying the process so far.

Thank-you very much man, I really appreciate it. If the opportunity arises where I need an extra pair of eyes Ill be sure to contact you.

Today I started to update the in-game GUI with the elements Buch posted, I think they are awesome!

Cowbell levels in ATOS are now reaching critical levels!

The game is very much still in development. I plan that I am going to start beta testing late january! There have been a huge amount of development in the last month or so, I will update this post with some images and more information in a few days.

 Hiya guys, sorry I have not got around to updating this thread yet! Here is a little spoiler image from my development I thought I would share with you. There is alot more to come.

Hit me with some feedback, ignore the lines, they are npc pathing and deugging!

Edit:  I just want to reiterate that the world is entirely randomly generated, it still needs a few tweaks!

Hiya guys,

               Here is another small update for my project as it is slowly getting there. I have taken an image of the overworld on a 'small' size completely random generated world. Please excuse the exsessive amount of lava!

Each block is infact a 64x64 size tile, so the world is actually quite large in scale. I am really very happy with the progress so far, let me know what you think!

Thanks Charlie, I really appreciate it.

I have worked allot the past few days to iron out allot of the bugs in the main world generator as-well as the dungeon generator. The main or 'over-world' as I call it is now pretty much exactly how I want it to be. I ever got a chance to add some 'depth' too, which means there are now small mountains to climb, all randomly generated off-course! The dungeons not so much but they are getting pretty damn close. I think if you compare this version of the dungeon to the one I previously posted there is a huge difference.

Other than that I have implemented an array of new enemy’s to fight and items to craft, I will go into detail in a later post. This game is really starting to eat up alot of my life!

Here are some examples of the new generators - 

Heya guys,

               Here is a couple new in-game screenshots. I am in the process of updating my website and I took these to post on there once it’s up.

I have literally spent this whole week optimising my existing code, changing and adapting just about every aspect of it to get the very best performance. Initially (on my machine) the game ran at a measly 200fps. Now with this week’s optimisations it’s peaking at around 900fps. That translates to an average fps on mobile devices of around 150-250fps! I am still doing my tests but it’s looking promising.

 If there is anything I have learnt from this project thus far however is that developing an open world game for mobile devices is no walk in the park!

Wow thank you William I really appreciate the kind words. I have been working to get some of the music for the game out there, we currently have 6 fully completed songs tracks!

Take a listen -

https://soundcloud.com/all-hands-bury-the-dead/sets/atos

Thanks for the complements William, I am quite proud of the music we have so far. As far as my plans for release the content once the game is out in some format I am going to pack all the art and music together for everyone to hopefully enjoy!

The past few days have been hectic as I am rushing to finish up the storyline for the game! In the meantime I have managed to finished some of the key features that the game was lacking including a dynamic dialog system, defensive structures and a whole lot more.

Defensive structures -

These are craft able items that can be dynamically placed just about anywhere on the ground. Used correctly they can protect you from many of the dangers at night as-well as guard specific items such as crafting objects and plants. Currently there are two defence-types implemented, wooden fences and stone blocks. Each have their own durability and defence ratings.

Oh and on a side note I have been working on getting my website up! It still needs alot of work but here it is - http://www.dynamiczero.com/

Unfortunately I am going to be pushing it back a few more weeks William! I have been extremely busy at work lately so regrettably the project time-frame got thrown out the window. However on the bright side the time away from the game really gave me a better perspective on the project as a whole and I feel even more inspired now than ever to get it finished.

Over the weekend I went back and completely re-wrote my paper dolling system so that it works with every LPC asset, meaning I could quickly implement all existing weapons and clothing/armor assets!

I also fixed up allot of the bugs with the tile generation and was able to increase the overall size of the generated worlds by 300%. Skills such as mining and fishing have been fleshed out and implemented as well a lot of essential things added such as a pause menu, anti-aliasing options and v-sync .

Despite my previous estimations with the game I have put a fixed date for the initial public release to be on, or before April 30th!

I will update this post later tonight some new screenshots of content! Thanks for the interest and please let me know if you have any ideas or criticism!

Ahh unfortunatly I went the other way around and let the player equip anything and everything! A nightmare when it came down to organising all the sprite sheets!

The engine I am using is game maker, only because the cross platform functionality it proved by default is exactly what I need! However the paper dolling system has the exact same functionality no matter what you are programming in.

The way I work my paperdolling is something like this -

• Determine the frame that the player (attacking/walking etc) is currently being drawn
• Find the corresponding frame for the item you want to paperdoll (in a loop of all currently equip items)
• Depth sort those items, so armor is drawn before a weapon is etc
• Draw the items over the player sprite
• win

I dont know if that was what you was asking? Maybe I read the question wrong. If I can be of anymore help please just ask or if you want me to explain better. Thanks!

Hiya guys,

              As I mentioned in a previous post the game had to go on the 'backburner' as such for a few weeks while I worked on other things. I’ve delayed the overall release of the game to late April, however this is a firm release date with no compromises!

Allot of the work I have been doing is more on the 'back-end' side of things. Understanding the constraints of the mobile platform and overcoming them has been a huge learning curve for me and I have learnt a lot of great new programming concepts along the way. In-turn I have learnt a few painful lessons about the scope of the game, limitations terms of time and resources and also how to and how not to manage a project!

All in all the game is now allot more stable than before. Performance has increased a noticeable amount across all my testing devices. With the new optimisations it has also allowed me to increase the world size to over 300% more without impeding on the games performance (although a little slower generation time). Also map items are now stored alongside the resource data which allows a near infinite amount of items to remain on the ground without slowing the game down significantly.

I have gone back and re-developed the character creation screen. There are now several new options including body type, hair, eyes and nose customisation. As-well as the original hair colours and world generation options.

The game now features over 100 unique items.DOT and HOT items with indicators. Fully randomised dungeons and dungeon entrances with unique items, enemies and loot.  Several armour sets. Several weapon types. Around 40 crafting recipes. 20 different enemy types. 

My core focus at the moment is the finish up allot of the survival elements. Hunger and thirst need tweaking so that they are more meaningful to the gameplay. I need to implement some kind of ai for night time which makes specific enemies much more deadly and aggressive once the sun sets.

Okay that is my ramblings done for now!

 *edit -

I just thought I would mention the character creation screen is still missing the text that indicates the specific sprite or hair type etc you are using (hence all the un-used space!)

I spent the weekend working on updating my site a little, it doesnt have too much content just yet but the structure is kinda there!

Watcha think? --     http://www.dynamiczero.com/

Ah thankyou very much. I was going for simplistic! Took alot more work than I orignally thought as the original them was not wordpress so I had to convert it over. A great learning experience though :)

Hiya guys,

              Sorry about all the dead image links, I changed my server around a little bit and forgot to update them. They should all be back now however. Ive been working hard and have a few more images to add!

Hiya guys,

Thank-you all very much for the kind words. It really nice to see you guys are excited for the release. Not too long now! I left my current full time job for a new role and had a whole week to myself, which means I got to spend alot of time on the project!

I finnaly got round to writing the generation script for the two new zone types that I had planned, the 'firelands' and 'snowlands'. These are two very different climates and the end goal is that they will require different equipment to effectively be able to explore them. Here are some images of the generated areas.

The snowlands (preview) -

The Firelands -

There are a few logical issues that I need to fix with the two generation scripts, for example tree's spawning where they shouldnt but I am pretty happy overall with the results.

These areas are directly connected to the previous areas that I have been showing off and all joni together to form the 'world' that you explore.

Besides these two zones I have been working on polishing up the game, fixing as many bugs as I can find and lots of balancing of item spawn rates, health modifications etc etc -

Thanks for the suggestion capbros! I agree there should be some small shadowing bellow the players feet. In my game engine I do have dynamic shadowing depending on the environment and time of day etc but I could never get it to look right. Because the player itself is a light source the positioning of the shadows was always wrong. Maybe I will try your suggestion of a static circle that increases in alpha when the lighting changes. Thanks!