Aura of Worlds – Dev-Blog

For Screenshot Saturday we recently added some additional background art assets to our rogue-lite platformer.

P.s. Credit to both Jessica Turner and Lachlan Cartland for all their hard work thus far.

It’s been a long road, with much further to travel still…
Changes from 0.40.7.4 to 0.40.8:
– Fixed glitch with entrances sometimes being sealed off from normal templates to horizontal maze templates.
– Horizontal maze templates no longer have floating and unattached pieces of platform (sealing off each side with a solid block)
– Division of rooms can have upto 4 different dimension sets (as heights are assigned individually per width segment).
– Fixed glitch which prevented dynamic templates from being recreateable from a seed (tested on Spikefloorandnet and HorizontalMaze).

Change from 0.40.7.2 to 0.40.7.4
– Fixed border case with exit sometimes not spawning and accidental seed fixing issue.

Changes from 0.40.5 to 0.40.7.2:
– With the ability to split large rooms into smaller ones, and apply a template to each, level generation is hopefully much less predictable now.
– Rewrote grid maze template.
– Numerous smaller changes
– Feel free to check out the experimental Giant Worm boss (by dragging it into the editor)

Hey guys, just letting you know the project is very much alive; though the main changes have been on the backend, which has been slow but necessary. For example we’ve rewritten half of the level generator from the ground up, and player physics based on feedback:

To be more specific:

Changes from 0.40.3 to 0.40.5:

• Spears have a faster use time but will do additional damage if charged up.
• Re-designed grid maze dynamic template (See template editor->New Template->Generate)
• Level generation is alot more traceable when viewed in the Editor.

Changes from 0.40.0 to 0.40.3:

• Picking up mana stars now buffs the player with mana charge (complete with purple and blue particles/
  better fog of war clearing and min lighting radius).
• Flooded levels should no longer have a chance to crash the game and follow the newer level gen algorithm.
• Editor mode properly shows the newer network grid cells/details.
• The exit door is placed further away now as the average of the top and bottom coordinates are used to determine its spawn.
• Duck and roll no longer requires the player to run (Experimental change)
• Shorter fuse and detection range on exploding torch traps.

Changes from 0.39.11 to 0.40.0,:

•  The new level generation algorithm has gone from being a just a grid prototype to being applied to the actual in game content 🙂

Changes from 0.39.9 to 0.39.11:

• Still working on rewriting level gen. Prototype of the new template organizer is working much better now with connector rooms.

Changes from 0.39.8 to 0.39.9:
– Made change velocity in midair more consistent.
– Slow down on colliding with a wall.
– Enemy projectiles are slower.
– Planning for alternative level gen connector rooms.
Changes from 0.39.7 to 0.39.8:
– Mostly fixes to all known bugs of previous system (E.g. a room being assigned to a cell and not placed, blocking edges if the template is not placed at the border etc.)
– You can mouse over a rectangle in MapGenTest to see which templates are assigned in the log.
Note: There’s still the border case where the entrances match the containers, but rooms would not be able to connect to each other without breaching boundaries outside the rooms being connected.
Will look into fixing this later with a flood fill or path algorithm. Also note that their still need to be passage ways/intermediate rooms placed between the rooms.
Changes from 0.39.5 to 0.39.7:
– Mostly extensions to the experimental level gen algorithm. Does not directly affect gameplay at present (See Editor Stuff->Map Gen Tests).

Changes from 0.39.2 to 0.39.5
– Tutorial levels simplified.
– Much more compact and organized HUD
– Better Item slot graphics (temporary).

** New Inventory system.**
– (press <R> to toggle between quick slots)
– Now only 3 slots, to remove the need for number pad.
– Picked up items are assigned a hot slot based on their function (or they get moved to the extended inventory).
– Tweaked midair movement for more manoeuvrability.
**Bug Fixes**:
– You will no longer be stuck holding live grenades if the item is executed from the mobility slot.
– Numerous issues with the new inventory system have been addressed.

Nope, we’re not dead, just that other commitments have been filling up our time., more so then usual the last week. Here are some of things we’ve been working on.

Changes from 0.39.1 to 0.39.2:

• Rewrote tutorial levels to be easier, and hit the player with less information.
• Greater control when chanign direction in midair.

Changes from 0.39.0 to 0.39.1:

• Fixed all know issues with jump through platforms:
• Added file info to exe.

Changes from 0.38.13 to 0.39.0:

• Reduced player gravity to 0.65 pixels per frame squared or (1.22 tiles per second squared)
• Adjusted player jump height to match.
• Fixed issue with duck and roll animations almost always showing the wrong frame.

Changes from 0.38.11 to 0.38.13:

• ** Rewrote physics**
• World gravity reduced.
• Player run, walk and climbing speed have been cut by between 15-30%
• Player can hold jump to stay in the air for longer.
• After releasing controls, player’s horizontal momentum is only halved as they descend.
• Duck and roll speed reduced to run speed, but timer increased.

Changes from 0.38.7 to 0.38.11:

Mostly tutorial, GUI and editor changes
E.g. you can now change thje contents of chests by middle clicking.

We finally have an in game tutorial for our roguelite (which is immeasurably better then hitting testers with a readme document/verbally yelling instructions XD.

Attached are the layouts for the both tutorial levels.

 

We’ve been busy reworking level generation algorithm for the game to use space much more efficiently.

Newer Version:

 

Older Version:

Some of the other changes we’ve been working on:

• Templates are 20% shorter
• All 75 or so hand made templates have been rewritten so that they can still be traversed, with the more limited player jumping height and reach (about 4.5 tiles instead of 6.5 tiles)
• Horizontal maze template rewritten to adjust for edge cases.
• Lighting factor applied to background is squared.
• Many others, which we’ll get around to elaborating on soon.

We’re working to reconstruct Aura of Worlds visually; part of that is the environment art. Looking for your advice on some midground tile variants.

Which tileset do you prefer so far (disregarding which one matches the background) ?
We’re not just looking at this from an aethestic prospective, but we’re also concerned with visual noise (i.e. too much detail drawing detail away from gameplay).

Aura of Worlds Update (Alpha 0.34.4):

Development has slowly gotten back on track multiple changes have taken place based on the Feedback from testers at the fete and from friends over the last 2.5 weeks. Focus has been on presentation tweaks, easing the player into the more complicated situations, balance changes, simplification, and improving level generation.
NOTE: These haven’t been released to testers yet, as their are still multiple other improvements that need to be added first.

Here’s a wall of text outlining them:

Changes from 0.34.2 to 0.34.4:

• 7 new room hand made room templates.
• Implemented a system of manually assigning difficulty weightings to
• templates to prevent the most challenging and brutal from spawning early on.

Changes from 0.34.1 to 0.34.2:

• New Skeletal snake animations (Thanks again to Jessica Turner)
• Fixed offsets for head/body images.
• Slither animation is implemented and the head bobs back and forth accordingly.
• Jaw opening animation implemented (mainly used for lunge attacks now).
• Randomized bone projectile images (same artist)
• Will post that later.

Changes from 0.34.0 to 0.34.1:
Jessica Turner has drawn some really great additional sprites for the skeletal snake.
They’ve been imported into the game, though the intermediate jaw frame is missing and the offset between open/closed is a bit off. Will fix that soon.

Changes from 0.33.11 to 0.34.0:

• Moving platforms slow down when nearing their rail limits in the y direction.
• Implemented handshield bashing. Even if the enemy is not attacking you they will be stunned if touching the shield the moment it’s activated.
• Duration of shield-bashing/shield-counter windows can be increased by rotating the shield.

Changes from 0.33.9 to 0.33.11

• Implemented Jessica’s Giant Slime spitting animations in game
  (for telegraph spit and spit phases both left and right).
• Adjusted firing positions slime projectiles based on which image is showing.
• Fixed issue with slime projectile collider being disproportionately large.
• Slime melee attacks will not affect you if you’re performing a dodge roll (unless they’re landing on you).

Changes from 0.33.7 to 0.33.9

• Implemented Loading screens for both app initialization and upon generating worlds.
• Loading screens gives the user a visual indication of what phase is being executed.
• Fixed issues with vases colliding with ground torches.

Changes from 0.33.1 to 0.33.7

• Initial levels are much smaller, expanding to much larger labyrinths of rooms as the player progresses.
• The confusing flooded section beneath the player’s spawn point has been removed (not to be confused with the tidal corridor level theme).
• The dark level theme can no longer occur in the first 2 levels.
• Vases containing trap-grenades can no longer be found in stage 5 and onwards.
• Possessed incendiary vases and possessed explosive vases can only be found beyond stage 4.
• Poisonous giant bats can only spawn on stage 3 and onwards.
• Ranged mimics and toothy mimics will not spawn on the first level.
• Run only triggers with double tap (not walk+release+tap), which should make controls less twitchy.
• Increased telegraphing with slime jumps.
• Exploding torches no longer spawn in the first level.

0.33.1
This was the build demoed to the public for the first time on the 18th of April
At the Freeplay Fete 2015