Hello everyone, it's that time again! On the 25th of August, it was 2 years since I started working on the release version of the game! In this post, I will cover the last year of my development on the game. If you want to read about the first year of development, you can do so in this post.

This post contains a number of GIFs and they will take some time to load.
Some of the images may not display (showing the text "Picture" instead of the GIF). I apologise for this but sometimes it happens.

One year ago, I was getting ready to launch the game in Early Access. I had the tutorial and first region or the game at a playable point. I had just started working on the next region and the Kobold enemy. I had also experimented with a new flying enemy. I was starting to get excited but I was also hesitant. I didn't feel the game was ready to launch when I had initially planned to. This led to me delaying the launch until November so that I could work on a few more features.

After working on the Kobold's and the Kragon boss, I started to implement an ability system. At the end of each region of the game, you could unlock one of three abilities, called Mutagens. You could not unlock more than one, to make the decision more pivotal and add replay-ability. This worked well in the demo I took to EGX in October. Players enjoyed combining different Mutagens to come up with different combat strategies. I also added a secret piece of lore in the form of a holographic animation, which nobody ended up discovering. To be fair, it wasn't very obvious!

Since EGX Rezzed in April of 2019, I had improved the game based on the feedback I received there. Now, I was taking the game to EGX, once again thanks to the University for the Creative Arts. Needless to say I was nervous about it, would the public still like the game after the changes and improvements I had made? Well, they did and it was great! I thoroughly enjoyed the event. Many players were interested in the game and I received a bunch of feedback. My motivation to launch the game into Early Access got a massive boost from EGX and I put all my effort into finalising a version to release.

The time had come. At last I felt happy with the state of the game. On the 17th of November, I made the game available to the public on Steam in Early Access. I was extremely excited and in a great mood. I spoke to various players on the Discord server as they bought and played the game. Unfortunately, almost everyone that messaged me was having issues with the game. Be it a bug or performance issues, I began to panic. Of course, there were some positive responses from players who didn't find any issues, which was good to hear. The days after the launch were a mad rush to optimise the game and fix the bugs. I managed to fix most of the problems, but the performance was still bad.

Looking back at the launch, I handled it rather poorly. I barely marketed the game, didn't do enough testing with external players before launch, and basically rushed into everything. Needless to say, I made a lot of mistakes but learnt a lot.

A huge focus during the month after launch was optimisation. I had many players reporting poor performance and I made it a top priority to fix this. I managed to make some major improvements during this month, and still found time to add some seasonal features like the Santa hats. I felt much better about the game after getting an update out for the Steam Winter Sale. Despite getting some new players from the sale, I also saw an increase in refunds. This was when I started to realise something about the game that I would come to accept in February.

I'd quickly like to mention that I have no issues with players refunding the game. If you end up getting performance issues, or genuinely don't enjoy the game, please feel free to refund it! However, if you do, please give a reason and be detailed if you can. It is very helpful to know what issues you had and what needs improving!

After working so long on optimisations, I took some time to work on the visuals. This was a very fun month with lots of aesthetic upgrades for the game. I focused quite heavily on ambient and damage effects. To be honest, I felt the game had reached a new graphical milestone. I was much happier with how things looked and the atmosphere/mood of the game was clearer.

Oh boy, this month was an interesting one. It was at this time that I accepted the state of the game and realised I could no longer work on it as much as I had been. Then the game got its first negative review on Steam, which was an eye opener for me. I know you shouldn't take one piece of negative feedback as the majority opinion but this one really hit me, and it was a good thing. The review was fairly constructive and pointed out the aspects they found bad. In it, the phrase "fundamentally unfun" was used to describe the gameplay loop. To get a better idea of what this player meant, I played through the entire Early Access version of the game. I had not played the full game from start to finish in weeks. After doing this, I realised they were right. I had been so engrossed in my vision for the game that I had forgotten to look at it from a player's point of view. 

I spent the rest of the month rethinking the game and changing a few aspects. I didn't want to change the overall feel of the game, so I only partially altered the gameplay loop. I thought things were beginning to improve after these changes, and personally enjoyed playing the game. Unfortunately, everything in my life suddenly came to a head at this point.

I won't go into much detail about it, but I took a break from everything during this month. I took the time to think and sort myself out. I made some pretty big decisions and ended my break on a positive note. So, back to Squillamorph!

During my break, I had another realisation. The slight overhaul I had been working on before wasn't going to cut it. Squillamorph needed a total overhaul before it could be fundamentally fun. Core mechanics could stay, but the gameplay needed to change. Combat should become snappier and have more depth (I'll admit that this still isn't quite there yet but progress has been made!). Controls should be more responsive and various mechanics needed simplifying. I also decided to change and expand the world/level structure. To go with that change, I decided that the story would become more prominent. Most importantly of all, I ditched the whole 'kill enemies to get points to open doors' loop. With all of these ideas, I was excited to work on the game again!

After months of no game updates, I finally had one ready. All of the changes I had made had reached a playable point. A new world, new boss, new mechanics, it was all new and exciting! I put the update out and waited for the inevitable performance problems and bug reports, but none came. I was not surprised at the lack of response as I had accepted this back in February. Playing through the update myself, I thought of a few things that needed improving and got to it.

This month was about improving on the last update. I worked on a lot of different aspects, including level scenery and a new tutorial. On top of that, I began putting a new enemy into the game. Although I did not have a level for it to fit into, I did get it mostly functioning but not to the point of including it in the next update. Once all these improvements were completed, I put out another update.

I am currently working on the game exclusively at weekends. I'm fairly certain the game is not going to be completed by next year, which was my original goal. Updates may also become less frequent. Nonetheless, many important changes and improvements are being made. For instance, the mutagen upgrade system is beginning to make a return! However, this requires another thing to be implemented; non player characters are coming together at last. I've also been hard at work on enemies. New enemies are coming and an old enemy is returning! The old enemy is the Kobold creature, which hasn't been in the game since the rework update. I am currently updating it to work with the newer gameplay systems.

What does the future of Squillamorph look like? Well, I now have an updated development plan/road-map that I'm working to. This should make it easier for me to confirm dates of upcoming updates. As for content, the next update will add some 'experimental' levels that will allow players to test new features and enemies not in the main game yet. There may also be an NPC to discover. Needless to say, I am excited for what the future will bring!

I hope you enjoyed this look back at the​ second year of the development of Squillamorph! Onto the next year!

Please consider getting Squillamorph on Steam and giving it a go. It is still early in development but the more feedback I get now, the more enjoyable the final game will be!

Join the official Squillamorph Discord server here: 
- Discord Server
​
​Follow Squillamorph on:
- Twitter
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- Facebook

Hello everyone! I have updated the game with most of the changes I discussed in the last post. I have labelled this update with 'rework' because the game has been largely changed. I've worked hard to improve the game so I hope you enjoy it! As always, if you have any feedback about the update, I would love to hear it!

If you would like to see the changes, you can view them here: ​
​- Changes

Please consider getting Squillamorph on Steam and leaving a review. It is still early in development but the more feedback I get now, the more enjoyable the final game will be!

Join the official Squillamorph Discord server here: 
- Discord Server
​
​Follow Squillamorph on:
- Twitter
- Instagram
- Facebook

Hello everyone, I hope you are all coping well in the current global situation. It has been a while, and I apologise for the lack of communication and updates from me about the game.
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Since the last post, I have gone through some personal and professional changes. This lead to me having a good think about Squillamorph's future. So I have made some changes to the game at its core, to both improve it and so I can enjoy developing it more.

I feel I should reaffirm that the game is in Early Access, so big changes like this can happen as the game is improved. Nevertheless, it also means that you have a say in it; if you do not like the changes I am making, please let me know! Your feedback does affect how I develop the game.

I will be making a video soon to show the game in its new state. Stay tuned.

For some time, I have been aware that Squillamorph's gameplay is somewhat of a grind. The loop of fighting enemies to get points to open doors to fight more enemies has proved less enjoyable than I initially thought it would. I experimented with different solutions to remedy this. The solution I came to is quite drastic but should make the game much more enjoyable. It is also important to note that I recently decided I would like the game to tell more of a story than originally planned. If you've been following this blog for some time, you may remember me discussing how often I have had to reduce the game's scope. Well, for the first time in its development, I am increasing the scope of the game. This might seem like a bad idea, but I enjoy working on a larger project more and the game will be better for it.

I'd like to make it clear that despite the changes I am making, I am going to make a second game mode with wave-based survival gameplay similar to the current Early Access gameplay. However, it will not be exactly the same as it was due to some of the new changes.
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World Design
I have majorly increased the planned size of the game world. To give you an idea of how much this has increased, the number of levels in first area of the game has more than tripled. Admittedly, some of the levels are smaller than before but there will be more for players to do. Another big change is to level progression. The game no longer has a linear path, and levels will be interconnected. However, player respawn points will no longer feature in every level. Instead, they will be sparingly placed throughout the game world and might also function as a fast travel network.
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Player Character
I am making some big changes to the player character. I have decided to replace the 'one hit kill' mechanic. Partly because there will no longer be a re-spawn point in every level. I have replaced it with regenerate-able health, which will make the new gameplay a bit more interesting. Moving around is also changing. I have made movement, when not infesting an enemy, much more responsive. Not only does this allow for more precise movement, but it also makes the game's infamous wall jump ability a lot easier to use. The dash mechanic has changed too. It no longer has a cooldown but can only be used once after leaving a surface, similar to the way double jump mechanics work. To accommodate for a change to the camera, explained further in the post, the dash is slightly shorter now. The player character also now has a tongue. More on that in the next section.

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Essence (Dark Goop)
This is not a change as much as it is an addition to the player mechanics. It is a feature that is very early in development and is likely to change. In the first prototype of the game, the infest mechanic would only work if the player had enough energy, gained by eating failed versions of their character. I decided that a more refined version of this could perhaps be used to add an interesting dynamic. Enter the new 'essence' mechanic. The player must collect essence, which looks like a dark goop, to infest an enemy or heal themselves. The goop will be dispensed by essence storage tanks, which every enemy has. How do they dispense it I hear you ask? The player must use a tongue of sorts to trigger the dispensing. It sounds strange but this is essentially an attack, only it doesn't do any damage to enemies.

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Mutagens/Upgrades
I am planning to change the mutagen abilities system. I am still in an early phase of deciding what to do with the system, so no matter how it changes it will be disabled in the next update. However, certain mutagens have been repurposed as abilities that are permanently applied and cannot be unequipped. Abilities will be acquired in a different way to mutagens. At least one of these abilities will be in the next update.  I'd also like to note that the reward room after each boss, which previously gave the player a mutagen, will not exclusively feature mutagens from now on.

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Control Scheme
I am now making controllers the recommended input device to use for playing the game. This is mostly because I have been asked more often than not about controller support. With this in mind, I am simplifying the control scheme. The dash and enemy abilities are now eight directional. Both controller and keyboard default bindings have also changed. Part of this change is that the mouse is no longer required to play the game. I hope that these changes will make the game more accessible.

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Story
In its very early days, the story of Squillamorph was going to be prevalent throughout the game. Then, after the many re-scopes it had to go through, the story was going to be more vague and optional. I have now decided to make the story a much larger part of the game again. It may even become the motivator that I use to drive players to complete it. I am still working on ways to make the story more evident, but dialogue with NPCs may be a part of it.

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More Enemies
The heading pretty much explains itself. There will be more enemies in the game now and each region will feature more varied enemy types. I would also like them to have more behaviours than just 'attack the player', so I am going to experiment with giving them 'tasks' to perform before the player approaches them to enrich the game world. Enemies will also now damage the player on contact, but I might disable this on bosses due to their unavoidable size. New enemies will take time to add so don't expect too many in the next game update.

Art Style
After re-watching the Early Access trailer I made for the game, I realised how small everything was on the screen. This has been pointed out to me at events, but I had become blind to it after working on it so much. So, I have now remedied this with a big art style change. I have doubled the size of the pixel art assets making it a two to one scale. Personally, I find this scale works much better. Nevertheless, it is a drastic change and I might revert it if players do not like it.
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Leaderboard
I expect this change to disappoint some of you. I am removing the current score system from the game. It never really made sense, and it is not required in the new game design. That leaves 'time to completion' as the main quantifiable score. This means that there will no longer be an entry added to the local leaderboard every time you run out of lives. For Early Access, an entry will be added when you reach the end of the available game content. The game version number will be added to each entry so that I don't need to wipe the board with each update. This gears the leaderboard towards speed-running, which I encourage but it is not a core aspect of the game. As such, I now intend to create a separate screen in the main menu to view the leaderboard from. Lastly, if you want a record of your high scores in the current Early Access version, I would take a screenshot or two before the next update arrives because the leaderboard will be wiped.

It is also worth noting that I've improved the main menu and have got multiple save slots setup and working.

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Wave Based Gameplay Mode
While the best parts of the gameplay in the current Early Access version will still be used in the new game design, I understand that some of you might want the 'fight endless waves of enemies' style gameplay to remain. For that purpose, I am creating a seperate gamemode. It will not be as expansive as the game was previously, having perhaps only one level for each area. Each level will be unique and will not be seen in the main part of the game. In short, it will be a challenging horde mode where you attempt to survive for as long as you can with little to no focus on story.

The new mode will have a separate leaderboard but this might not be ready for the next game update.
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If you like the new changes, or if they disappoint you, please let me know! I will take all constructive criticism into account when developing the game.

I am aware that this drastic change in direction might seem unwise. However, I am much more excited about working on this new version of the game, which has already led to me getting more done in a shorter space of time. I believe that this change will be a big improvement in the long run.

Well, I hope you are excited about the new direction of the game. I know I am! There is no ETA for the next game update, which will bring these changes, but I will do my best to get it out as soon as I can. The first area of the game, the Iteration Labs, is almost updated gameplay wise. I will keep you all updated with more frequent posts.
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Thank you for reading!

Please consider getting Squillamorph on Steam and leaving a review. It is still early in development but the more feedback I get now, the more enjoyable the final game will be!

Join the official Squillamorph Discord server here: 
- Discord Server
​
​Follow Squillamorph on:
- Twitter
- Instagram
- Facebook
​