Games [Released] Brink of Extinction TD

Endless mode at about 18 minutes in, in 27 minute game.
Timers and scores are being implemented tomorrow!

 

http://gamejolt.com/games/brink-of-extinction/176423

I'm happy to announce that the current build features the endless mode. If you log in using the GJ-prompt shown when entering the game, your scores in the endless mode will be sent automatically to this game page and featured in the high score and best time lists.
There are quite a few changes made in this version, some serious optimization has been done for this version:
The amount of draw calls per frame has been lowered to about 1/6-1/5.
Menus are managed more using Unity's built in functions rather than features I've added, saving a bit of processing time.
Fewer coroutines called when opening and closing menus.

Gameplay wise, the most notable changes are:
Bull Turret increased base and upgrade damage.
Builder module kills nearby enemies.
Tesla in endless mode discharges when you click and hold mouse once fully charged killing enemies within range.
Option menu is in, allowing for some graphical settings to increase graphical fidelity or increase FPS depending on your rig.

Graphically you will notice:
A complete overhaul of lighting, from baked to realtime.
Enemies casting shadows.

The endless mode:
The level featured has two Teslas that need protecting, if one is destroyed, half the buildable hexes shut off putting more stress on the remaining one.
If you are logged into GJ your scores will be saved once the match is over, if you are not logged in the score is still saved as a personal best, displayed in the UI, but you won't be able to bask in the publicly displayed high score light. So make sure you log in!

Get playing!

 

Loving the endless levels, look forwards to more

 

Since the build with the endless mode is finally up I've started designing the remaining levels. Here's another one of the strategic endless levels.

 

Hello everyone!
Just figured I'd post an update on how development is going.
I've managed to finish up another three levels for the endless mode, which means that only two remain before I've managed to finish up all the levels for the full release of the game.
Most of the progress recently has, however, been under the hood things like optimization and bug fixes. Mostly I've focused on:
texture compression,
merging textures,
streamlining use of textures to avoid textures only used a small amount of times,
merging objects to get only one shadow caster,
minimized drawcalls further by merging objects.
These fixes combined should mean that the game will run better on lower end computers.
Next week I will be finishing up the remaining two levels to be able to focus more energy to fixing sounds and music finally. There should also be a green light campaign on the way towards the end of the year/early 2017 hopefully.
There will be an update to correct some issues present in the current build around Nov 30th.

Here's the latest endless mode level:

 

Looking good, looking forward to greenlight

 

Builds updated to v 0.2.0 http://gamejolt.com/games/brink-of-extinction/176423

This build update features:
Tweaked lighting.
Fixed bug with options button in game.
Fixed bug in endless mode where enemies would not spawn at high levels.
Tweaked max level in endless mode level 1.
Added level selector when new game is clicked and more levels have been unlocked.
Added level selector for endless mode (only one level is available in beta).
Tweaked tesla, laser and electric shock graphics.
Added low spec, medium spec and high spec settings on the launcher to allow the game to run better on low spec machines.
Tweaks to sounds.
Mines animated.
Fixed bug that would appear in low FPS (20 FPS and lower), where enemies would not target turrets properly.
Fixed bug that would appear in low FPS (20 FPS and lower), where turrets would not target enemies properly.
Texture compression implemented.

Outside the beta build:
All levels are finished!
Sound work will begin next week!

 

Reuploaded the builds to fix a few issues:
Restarting a stage didn't properly reset the number of bases (continuous mode only).
Placing mines while base is being destroyed would sometimes lock the area selector.
Text in level selector menu brightened.

 

Started working on gathering video material for the upcoming greenlight campaign video. Perhaps this will be a good "note" to end things on?

 

Yeah I like it, maybe have some fire or destruction somewhere?

 

It's been a while since I updated, but game is still being developed!
I've been implementing all the sounds, currently some are still placeholders, but I believe I have found the remaining ones and will get to adding them into the game soon. Pitch, volume, sound file lengths etc has been fixed for most of the non-placeholder sounds.
Also started work on the music, the intro theme is almost finished. I'm planning for another 4-5 tracks that will be looped in game.
As usual, I've been doing some more optimization and fixed some scripts from running via the update method and made them non looping or just looping at lower framerates.
Done some graphical improvements as well, cutting half the verts on the previously quite high poly spider model. Merged enemy models to prevent them from counting as several shadow casters.

I've finished gathering the video recording and the video is on the way. That means the green light campaign will probably be started in january. The gamejolt builds will be updated mid/late january as well, to allow for a playable version of the game alongside the campaign.

I will make sure to update things more often from now on.

 

Awesome, can't wait to play the endless level with some music

 

Sounds are now implemented and been reworking some more of them. So that leaves the sound work for until after I have some in game music in to see how it all works together.
I've planned most of the achievements:

Give ’em hell – more than 134,340 points (one for each endless level)
Prime example – Survive 37 minutes (one for each endless level)
No damage – Clear level taking no damage (one for each campaign level)
Fully loaded – Max all turret upgrades for a turret
Collector – Construct one of each turret on a level
Close call – Clear level with less than 50HP left
Crush ’em – Let the builder module do the killing
Mine field – Place 2,500 mines
Electrical discharge insect control system – Kill 5,000 enemies with bug zapper
Death from above – Kill 2,000 enemies with air strikes
Invested – Spend 250,000 on upgrades
Salesman – Sell 500 turrets
GG – Blow yourself up
Playing the waiting game – Idle for 10 minutes
I see you – Kill 150 Alpha spiders
Until the end – Finished the campaign
Sizzlin’ – Kill 2,500 enemies with acid
Feel the burn - Kill 2,500 enemies with plasma
Double trouble – Kill 2,500 enemies with the double turret
Say hello to my little friend – Kill 4,000 enemies with the machine gun turret
… Or joule die tryin’… – Kill 2,500 enemies with rail turret
Rocket n’ roll – Kill 4,000 enemies with the missile turret
I spy with my little eye – Kill 1,000 enemies with drones
It’s out of control! - Kill 1,000 enemies with the drone controller
Super sonic! – Kill 2,500 enemies with sonic
Gored! - Kill 2,500 enemies with the Bull turret
Elecrocutioner – Kill 2,500 enemies with the Tesla
Entomologist - Finished collecting all beastiary entries
Engineer - Finished collecting all blue prints

As the last two achievements suggest, I'll be implementing a sort of "show room" for the turrets and enemies, so they can be seen up close and there will also be some basic info about them.

Redid the intro theme I had going. THINK I might go with this new one. Comments are welcome. It's still a work in progress, but the basic ideas are there.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67696178/concept_maintheme_2.wav

But is it better than the old one?
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67696178/concept_maintheme_1.wav

Opinions on music and achievements (and anything else!) are welcome.

 

I love the achievements!

It's hard to tell for the music tbh. I like the ending section for 2 more, but im gravitating more to the intro of 1

 

Could try to add some more "punchy" things to the intro of the second, make it more direct. Have some other ideas also so we'll see where those end up

 

I also feel like the middle bit of song 2 (0:20) doesn't fit as well as the rest

 

^^ That's my favorite part! =D Will try another concept in the upcoming days.

In the meantime, early concept for beastiary:

 

Here's a (very) rough draft of some (primarily) endless mode music:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67696178/inlevel_v1.wav

 

Just a brief update.
The enemy showroom is almost complete, there are some details missing (frame around text etc) and I will have a level iterator so that players can see how much damage enemies do at a specific level. Here's a blitz roach on display


I've done some compressing of files, mergers into atlases etc which means I've been able to cut 70mb off of the build size (yay!). Also fixed a couple of bugs and optimized another pair of scripts.

Most of my work however has gone into sound tweaking and music. Two tracks are finished for levels now. I'm most likely going to have a set of songs (8-10 or so) that will be added to playlists that shuffle. Different playlists for different types of levels.

I've done some early testing with music in the game, which can be seen here (gameplay of me testing if missile turret is functional or needs tweaking).

The trailer video is in the works, so hopefully I will be able to have the campaign running around the end of the month.

 

Looks awesome! I'm excited

 

Just a brief update!
Greenlight campaign video is coming along, will be getting a draft in the weekend and will be able to start working on music for it. So the campaign will go live a bit later than expected but no worries.
The showroom for enemies is pretty much finished and I've started working on the one for turrets. During the weekend I will be adding the buttons to the main menu so that the show rooms can be reached.
Sounds are more or less finished. only one sound needs editing, otherwise everything seems pretty good now.
Been continuing work on the music and pretty much have the "theme" I want for the songs (the links above are hints to what it will sound like). Lots of cold synths.
Hopefully I will be able to update the builds around February alongside the campaign and an itch.io build.

More show room pictures to come in the weekend also

 

Awesome! Which sound is left to finalise?

 

Hard to describe, but a sort of "throw" sound for enemies that have a type of "dust/rock" projectile. I have not been able to figure out what would work (ideas welcome).

 

Hmm i see, will give it some thought

 

The actual sound of throwing (like a woosh sound) or the dust rock impact sound?

Wiffle ball bats make some pretty good 'thick' wooshing sounds - variable depending upon the speed of the swing and thickness of the bat.
Rugs when shook out - make an interesting wooshing sound also.
Foley is fun!

 

Beastiary / Showroom in action:

The only missing feature is a level iterator to show how strong enemies get when levelled up in the continuous mode.
Also managed to fix the missing sound, will need some editing, but will hopefully turn out good.

 

And the turret showroom:


Only missing feature there is turret descriptions. Otherwise it's all complete. Will be getting around to incorporating the descriptions and the entry point from the main menu tomorrow then afterwards its back to music and tweaking the throw/hit sound I've added. Hopefully around Saturday/Sunday I will have an early version of the green light video so I can start working on the music and start working seriously on the campaign.

 

Looking sweet!

 

Very brief update! Game is progressing, albeit slowly.
As I mentioned in my Duostack thread, my HDD with sound libraries is not working at the moment, so the one thing I have left to make for the game before next update, namely music, I currently can't work on.
So in the meantime I've implemented some new post-proc effects and rebalanced the look a bit:

 

Oooh fancy really pops

 

^^ Thanks

So the sound libraries are all downloaded now. So music production is back on again!
In the mean time I managed to; fix the lighting and postproc effects for more than half the levels, polish the spawnpoints for 8 of the levels and also fix a few bugs.

 

Had a pretty hectic week with university stuff, but have managed to finish all the post proc stuff for all levels.
Started tweaking enemy paths and timing, only one continuous level left and 4 of the campaign levels, hopefully all of this will be done before the weekend is over.

 

Nice! when do you think the next GameJolt demo will be?

 

Not sure, I was going for February, but now I'm not sure, I still have some loose ends to tie up. Atm I'm trying to do some testing for the full game, so next gamejolt build would require I step back on a few of those things and do testing again. Hopefully I can get an update up around early march though, but it's not certain due to being busy on and off.

 

ah well, looking forward to it

 

Looks very Static the scene. can u move the Camera a bit. slow Moving a bit to the right and a bit to the left. so it looks more Dynamic.
Good Work.

 

00Fant: Thanks! I am in the process of implementing your idea now.

 

And updated video (with rocket launchers also!)

 

Playing around with music: (WIP / concept, ie no finished structure)
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67696178/TD_InGame_4_v1.wav

Also been tidying up the other tracks and will be reworking some of the bass and drums on them, and hopefully finalize them this week. Also have two other tracks I will be trying to finish up this week, so that means 5 in game tracks and main theme should be done this week.

 

I'm really impressed and really enjoying the graphical quality of the game, and the HD details,
The videos are also pretty impressive.

One tiny thing is that from the more recent videos I don't seeany graphical or audio feedback that the bugs are attacking the towers, it looks like the ant things reach the tower and then stand there until they're shot. I'm sure this is something you're aware of.

I feel some zerg like insectoid noises of chewing metal when they're attacking the towers would come across well here.

Good luck with it, it looks awesome.

 

Thanks. That means a lot
I have lowered some of the targeting speeds when the enemies reach a turret, might be I need to raise it a bit again. In the newer videos, of later levels, the camera is generally a bit further away, so it could be that the attacks are not as apparent, at least not for the roaches and the red ants. Also might have lowered sounds a bit too much since adding/tweaking sounds. I will look into it all again so that it's more apparent when they are attacking.

 

I agree that some of the attacks are hard to notice like the red ants, but others like the scorpion are crystal clear

 

Hahaa, yeah, can't miss the scorpions even if you wanted to
I will add some more particles to the fire ant for instance. The blitz projectile will be getting a sort of charge particle before it fires. And also looking into raising the volume on some sounds.
Roaches and mosquitos will get an overhaul to their attack, also some screech noises I think

 

Awesome, glad to see the little things will get sorted

 

Brief update:
Did some revisions to the path-system today (been busy for a few days so not much progress overall).
So I want to keep enemies moving without stop, generally, so that each game-round is similar. This means that enemies have, at times, overlapped, which is a bit of an eyesore. So I made a simple system of raytracing enemies that are a certain distance forward, and then shifting the path to the side so that the enemy in question will attempt to avoid the one in front. It seems to work quite well, and fixes the worst overlaps. Will test a bit more tomorrow.
Also on the enemy side of things, I have cleaned the main enemy script and pathing script, removing some things that were redundant.
Because all levels in the game are fairly flat I have not bothered with enemies adapting to height, but I decided to add a simple raytrace for this also, meaning that when enemies walk over curbs or turret foundations they will adapt their height position accordingly.
So some fairly minor things in terms of function, but should look nicer at least.
Other than that I'm in the process of tying up loose ends so I can, hopefully around week after next, release the next build.

 

Today I started implementing the achievements for the game. Got the controller script fixed, now I just need to fix the tracking of everything that is happening in-game.
Fixed the SFX and music volume options. Tweaked some particles, primarily the fire for the ant. Fixed some z-fighting in decals that has popped up since making the camera move in game. All enemy paths and timings except for the last level have been fixed and tested.
Lastly, done some more music work today.
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/67696178/BoE_Dirge.wav

Tomorrow I will be polishing up and finishing the previous tracks and continuing work on yet another song for the game.

And some screens

 

Hello all!
Although updates are a bit more rare now than before, there is steady progress. I have polished the existing music tracks, they are now more or less finished (the old ones removed from the dropbox, so you won't be able to access old links). New tracks are underway also. Been tweaking volumes for sounds, but more remains to be done. Fire particle has been tweaked and is more visible now. Fixed some minor bugs and issues related to the levels themselves (misplaced colliders etc.). Music now stops when pausing the game, and fades out when transitioning to new level.
Tweaked the main menu a bit so that it has better color matching to the rest of the game's menus.

Also tidied up some more messy code and am now quite content with the remaining code. Shouldn't have any hugely inefficient code left.

Things are, in my opinion, shaping up quite nicely. I'll be putting a Gamejolt build up next week, no new levels will be featured, but the game will be playable on less powerful rigs, since I've been optimizing a lot and also added more options to adapt the game to whatever rig it is being played on. Obviously, since last build a lot of bugs have also been fixed.
I had hoped to put the game up for greenlight in feb, but seeing as greenlight is on its way out, I decided to put those plans on hold and instead await Steam Direct. I don't think this affects the estimated time of launch, since the game, once up on Steam Direct, will be more or less completely finished. Obviously there will be the processing of the game and whatever else is required in Steam's new service.

 

It took a bit longer than expected, but the new build is now up on GameJolt
http://gamejolt.com/games/brink-of-extinction/176423

In terms of features the biggest new thing is the showroom where one can now enjoy seeing the bugs or turrets in detail and just chill to some music.
Also, MUSIC! Music is implemented, although some tracks are missing. Sound has been tweaked and fully implemented.
All levels have been tweaked and optimized. Enemy paths and timings changed.
There are some more options introduced, allowed the game to be played on lower end rigs at an acceptable FPS.
This update does however reset progress, so you will need to unlock the endless mode by playing the first two levels of the campaign.

If anyone comes across bugs, don't hesitate to write here or on GameJolt

 

Been focusing on fixing some stuff according with feedback from @QFSW :
Showroom next button is hidden when only one item is available.
Showroom next and exit buttons are bigger now.
WASD implemented in showroom.
Implemented another damage indicator for turrets when they have less than 25% health.
Look into some AA issues and made some improvements.
Added link from enemy showroom to turret showroom and vice versa.
Enlarged text in the showrooms.
(nearly done) implemented health bar for turrets under the current turret menu, hp bar for enemies and enemy icon for enemy menu.

Other than this I've added 3 more blood splats so there's more variation. Added so they enlarge slightly upon being added. I've merged objects in the editor to shorten load times at start, and because levels are near finished now. Also changed the acid splat so that it looks more like a trail at first then is spread out more (thanks QFSW for code help).


These changes should make it in to an updated version on Gamejolt within a few weeks, but currently won't touch the game as I've made a submission to GoG.com. Here's hoping for a positive answer or at least some helpful criticism.

 

Looking good! Glad to see development is going well, it's looking like a solid game

Let us know how GoG goes, hope all goes well ,