TheRedMaRK_dev

Meta progression?

Yes, Survivesmith being a rogue-lite game, meta-progression was bound to play a big part in the game. While all the previous playable builds of the game introduced some form of unlockables or upgrades for you to grind on, they were never the actual intended meta-progression in the game (most of them at least).

With the opening of the new Bio-Lab, Survivesmith is finally starting to get serious with meta-progression of the game.

Bio-Lab

The bio-lab is the main research hub of the base. You come here to do some research and unlock new stuff in the game. This is where you unlock 'most' of the new items, but not all of them (more on that later). You can unlock new terminals (machines in the base), weapons, buddies, modules, survival kit items, etc., here every time you reach a new research level.

But what is the currency used for new research?

Knowledge!!!

Nah just kidding... or am I?

Ever wondered what you actually did in your expeditions and what the bar that slowly filled up at the bottom meant? It was actually a form of gathering knowledge from the biomes by gathering resources, picking flowers and defeating creatures. You moved on to the next biome once you gathered enough samples from that biome. Now when you complete sample gathering, you gain a 'Data Point' for that biome, which is the main form of currency for research at the bio-lab!

Ever heard that knowledge is power? Just like actual knowledge, the data points you gather only go up and aren't actually used up like a resource when doing research. You just need to accumulate enough data points from the required biomes to reach the next research tier. Pretty neat huh?

The main idea behind the bio-lab is to provide a central hub for meta-progression in the game as well as to ease you in to new systems and terminals over playtime. It also rewards you for simply completing stages and also incentivizes on picking certain biomes to jump to. There might be some more aspects of the game tied to the bio-lab that were not specified above, but that is up for a later discussion.

Buddies grow with you!

Buddies played a side-role in the game up to this point. No more! They now have 2 different level up systems in and out of expeditions.

Buddy Training

During expeditions (runs), buddies slowly gain experience by doing tasks. Each buddy does something different, so they gain different amounts of experience by doing different things.

Toby, for example, gains experience every time it brings a resource to you. Orbi gains experience whenever its shots land. Healix gains experience at different rates when it hits an enemy or heals you.

Unlike the player character, buddies can reach up to a maximum level (currently 5) only. Each time they reach a new level, you get to train them on one of their core aspects. So you can already build the same buddy slightly differently each run with this system.

Buddy Growth

When you finish a run, XP accumulated by buddies during that run translates over to permanent XP as well. There is a separate permanent level up system for buddies that can be viewed at the pet dorm.

While these levels are harder to reach, each level grants you access to a new 'Growth Node' in that buddy's 'Growth Tree'. This is a short skill tree with 2 primary nodes and 2 pairs of optional nodes for you to choose from. The first 3 tiers of nodes permanently upgrades each aspect of a buddy's skillset while the 4th tier gives the buddy an entirely new passive skill. I won't spoil you on this since it'll be more exciting to discover them on your own ;)

Power Cores are now run based

The power core system is something that has bothered us for quite some time now (me specifically, MaRK here). Before weapon mods, power cores were supposed to be how you add new powers to your guns and other primary weapons. But mixing two cores felt lacking with the ideas we had in mind and we decided to create the Weapon mod system. So the power cores became sort of like 'artifacts' from other games.

But then with my newfound obsession with Risk of Rain 2 (still MaRK here), I HAD TO add blooms into the game. Blooms were the kind of stacking artifact-like buffs that more than well enough replaced the previous purpose of power cores. So the power cores were there for a long time as an optional system that didn't really make sense to spend too much time on. The cores were either super OP or not very useful at all. They were just weird.

Now, the power cores, while essentially giving the same kind of condition-based buffs, are obtained randomly at the start of each stage during a run. So while the weirdness never left, power cores now feel more fitting as 'a random powerful conditional buff to help you deviate towards a certain playstyle' rather than a loadout option with selective fusions and stuff.

Now you only have to complete a new robot kill-count task for each type of robot enemy in the game ONCE to obtain the respective power core. Once you get one, you will get that at the start of the first round, and one more each round if you have unlocked at least 3. This will make it so that once you start surviving further into the runs, you will unwillingly unlock new power cores that will add onto your power core pool and give more and more options on every consecutive play.

So, what does this mean?

All of this is to say that Survivesmith is still up and going and reaching further and further into a full-fledged roguelite experience. These definitely won't be all the meta-progression in the game by release. As previously promised, these are some other planned meta-progression systems that hasn't been started yet:

Character Progression: Each playable character will get their own permanent level up system as well as a larger skill tree (or multiple) than buddies.

Primary Weapon Overclocks: Chips that can be obtained by completing biome events and can be equipped to primary weapons to change their default behaviors or stats. These chips can be combined to increase their rarity and unlock even more potential.

Achievements and Challenges: Different easy to insane achievements and challenges that will test the limits of your builds and reward you with new permanent unlocks (can be pets, weapons, kit items, skins, base decorations or more!).

Biome Purification: This is an optional system that we're still on the fence about that would make biome exploration progress forward in a idle-like fashion. You will essentially only have access to a limited range from the teleporter to access the biome, limiting the resources you can find and the creatures you can encounter, and then can be later expanded through meta-progression. This system would open up a whole lot of new possibilities for biome exploration. But as I said, it's still in discussion, but a possibility nevertheless.

and even more...

If you read this far, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I can be quite descriptive about things and make things unnecessarily long (still MaRK lol). But I hope you got the gist! Please feel free to ask anything.

Also, here's a little teaser for you:

Note: all the screenshots shown in this post are in-progress work and does not show the final result.

Cheers!

-MaRK

Work on the Bio-Lab started!

With the playtest done and the demo build re-enabled, we started work on the next big feature of the game, the meta-progression hub, the brain of the whole operation, THE BIO-LAB!!!

** cough cough **

Anyway, the bio-lab is gonna be the main source of real meta-progression in SurviveSmith. We plan to tie all the base machines, their unlock states, character upgrades, new equipment, item and buddy unlocks, as well as new mod unlocks to this terminal. If you ever wondered what the hell life essence was for (the green plant-like resource you collected), it's mainly for the bio-lab upgrades.

There will be more ties to the existing gameplay elements with the bio-lab, but we'll discuss more in-detail once we get to them.

More focus on elements and new 'Elemental reactions'

We have already started implementing some of this in the game. Different enemies are going to have different forms of "Extra-HP" like shields, armor or barriers, and different elements will interact differently with them. Shields will be weak to electric damage, barriers to frost damage, and so on.

If you're a fan of Genshin Impact, you might immediately know what I meant by 'elemental reactions', and it's going to be very similar. When an enemy gets afflicted with 2 different types of elements at the same time, a reaction will occur. These will be a great source of power and will help clear out enemy waves much faster.

With the elemental changes, the base difficulty of all enemy waves will become significantly harder than what you've experienced so far. Mastering elements will become a vital part of survival moving forward.

… and more to come

There are some other cool stuff we're hoping to add before the early access release. But we will be focusing on the above first. We will post more updates in the future. Steam page link: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3540570/Survivesmith/ Demo trailer: https://youtu.be/E-MLMSd2kgQ?si=bO7q8h3lGy8y7UM-

This is a bit of a lazy post since I've already created a post on this on Steam. So if you want to go read it there (and give a wishlist :)), you can do so with this link: https://t.co/2M2pAmvFxS

Here's the full post:

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Dev Update (Alpha): The loop

Survivesmith is a bullet-heaven / reverse-bullet-hell game, and that genre comes with the "roguelite" tag attached to it. The core loop of the game revolves around you, the player, jumping into a level, exploring the biomes (there are 5 biomes per level), finding treasures, hunting / mining / foraging for resources (permanent & on-field), and completing achievements for unique unlocks all while surviving hordes of robotic enemies chasing you down across time. Skilled survive-smiths will face mighty bosses and reap extra rewards within a run.

While the core loop is very similar to other games of the genre, there are tiny dissimilarities which (hopefully) would make the game feel more fresh. Some of them include:

Different categories of enemies

The 'waves' of robotic minions, biological & mythical enemies of the biome, random enemy reinforcements, weather based enemy spawns, etc.

Select equipment from your own loadout

Preset your own custom loadout with a primary weapon, attachments, power cores, special weapons, armor modules, buddies & gadgets, character skills, a survival kit, etc.

Equipment upgrades and character upgrades are separate

While on the field (in the level), your equipment and character stats are upgraded separately. Maximize your power by upgrading according to your desired playstyle.

On-field crafting

Being an engineer and a blacksmith from the future comes with its perks. While you forge your weapons from your base, your unique 'Survival Kit' can come in clutch at the toughest situations. Be sure to stock up on resources before you get overwhelmed.

Every enemy is unique in their own way

Every single enemy in Survivesmith is unique not only on how they look, but how they attack you and what they drop. Enemies don't just get tougher over time, they throw and more and more different attacks at you. But the upside is, every (robotic) enemy drops unique components for you to craft awesome weapons at your base. Yes, EVERY SINGLE ONE.

These are some of the main features of the game which you will inevitably come across throughout the game.

Sub-biomes

In Survivesmith, a single level hosts various biomes. These biomes are visually and functionally unique. Later, with the introduction of a 'base' to the game, the player will have to find certain resources to keep the base running and also get upgrades. When that happens, these biomes will have a lot more significance.

As of now, each biome looks different, has different environments, spawns different enemies and has different loot to gather. Here are some screenshots of different biomes of the first level: The Thunder Forest (the visuals are subject to change in the future).

Fully Customizable Weapons

Since the start, Survivesmith had weapons with preset stats. Pistols, assault rifles, shotguns, etc. Moving forward, we want to make the weapon experience fully customizable. That's where the 'Forge' comes in.

In the Forge, you can select individual parts and create the weapon experience you want. This is how the prototype version looks (disclaimer: we do not own the image of the gun in this picture).

It looks a bit messy and unorganized, but the system is already in place. Each part 'category' affects a set of stats, and the player decides which part they want to equip for a certain slot. This gives tons of customization options even with just a few parts.

In the future, we will introduce a 'Weapon Core' which combines the current Switch, Bullet and Element together to create unique parts which affects what type of a projectile the weapon fires. These cores will be craftable at the base from a unique resource called 'Core Component'. The components are a rare drop from the robot minions, and they are unique per enemy. This would be one of the major updates which carves a path for the game's core loop.

Survival Kit

Survival kit is the on-field crafting system. The player can collect a resource called 'Gems'* (name will subject to change in the future) from within the natural biome to craft handy items which will help out escape a tricky situation, if the player ever gets in one. It's already successfully implemented into the game. There will be a few more items and different ways for items to be used in the game.

Here are some screenshots;

Survival Kit selection (in the Loadout menu)

Survival kit usage (on-field)

That's it for today's dev update. Hope you got some insight into the current stage of development of Survivesmith. We're hoping to share a play-test soon. We just to get a few more things done before doing that.

Keep your eyes peeled for new updates on our Twitter/X and Bluesky.

Hi there!

So in a recent update to my game Survivesmith, I added a secondary weapon in addition to the primary weapon which was given to the player by default. The first-ever "primary" weapon I had already given the player was a pistol. You might already be thinking, "That's not a primary weapon, that is the definition of a secondary weapon" and that is exactly what went through my head.

How are secondaries used in other games?

Having a pistol as a primary weapon is not bad or wrong by any means. It can be heavy and powerful. I may have seen many games where the player is rocking a pistol without ever having to think of any guns that go brrrrrrr. Pistols were pushed down more into the "secondary" hole due to multiplayer FPS games. In almost all games where the player has a super powerful gun, they also get a secondary weapon (in most cases, a pistol) to switch to mid-fight. There are several situations where a player may use a secondary weapon (a pistol to be exact).

The primary weapon may run out of ammo, forcing the player to switch.

The primary weapon may be under the reload state (empty magazine).

The primary weapon they hold may be more suited for long-ranged fights rather than short-ranged ones, meaning the pistol may be a better option in a close-range encounter.

These are only some of the situations I can imagine where the player will switch to their secondary weapon with or without being forced to do so.

How should secondaries be used in MY GAME?

In the case of a game like Survivesmith, an auto-shooter/bullet-heaven game, the laws of an FPS game don't apply. The main reason for this is the "auto-shooter" part. The gun is always firing at whatever it can find in whatever range it is given, and it will do it frantically. In an FPS game, there is more precision and meaning in every bullet fired by a player (unless jumped by an enemy of course!). This makes every bullet count, and the player is more conscious of using their ammo reserves.

I tried adding ammo boxes in the ground which spawn frequently enough, and was planning on adding a system where the player can CRAFT ammo packs by collecting resources. This sounded fine at first since my game was focused on being a rogue-lite bullet-heaven game with crafting mechanics. But as I kept on developing, I realized that running out of ammo and having to switch to a lower DPS weapon mid-game took some of the fun out of this game.

I wanted to player to feel the value of the primary weapon so that it becomes a constant struggle to go around the field, collect resources or ammo boxes, and switch back to their primaries to maw down enemies faster. But I soon realized that even I would give up on caring about the primary weapon altogether and just use the secondary weapon with unlimited ammo, while my other special weapons do the work. I saw the value of the primary weapon drop and the chore of having to collect ammo all the time becoming not-so-fun in the long run.

I could've simply introduced a higher ammo count, more frequent ammo boxes, or any way to make the primary weapon get more ammo quicker. But then again, this defeats the whole purpose of using two weapons. The game is not about managing ammo. It's about having fun without worry. So this is the idea that I came up with next.

How are secondaries used in my game now?

I got rid of the annoying ammo collection chore completely. Both weapons now function without any ammo usage. The player only has to worry about their timing with the reloads.

However, the primary and secondary weapons are now more or less having a similar DPS. The primary weapon (an assault rifle) deals less damage but has a high fire rate and a magazine capacity. The secondary weapon (pistol) deals more damage, has a low fire rate, low magazine capacity but reloads much faster. This works! It totally makes sense. There are now 2 weapons that suit different situations. This will work even better on weapons that deal damage in different ways. For example, a secondary weapon that deals area damage but has a low fire rate would complement well with a primary weapon such as an SMG.

So there you have it! This is my take on the use of secondaries in a bullet-heaven game. This was a long post and I kinda cut short towards the end.

Thanks for reading!

In my game Survivesmith, the original hook was to make a bullet-heaven with crafting elements. It felt pretty good in the beginning but when I kept testing out different ideas into this frame, the game started feeling boring and slow-paced for a bullet-heaven game.

Gameplay before

The initial features were good enough. There were 4 biomes with 4 very vibrant (and scorching on the eyes) colors. They were unlocked one after the other, after defeating each boss enemy. Each biome had a unique enemy which dropped a unique resource and the player had to collect different resources from different biomes to "craft" upgrades to their weapons and modules (stuff like shields, magnets, etc.). This was fine, but then the gameplay loop started becoming stale. I only understood this by playing the game for way too long myself.

Reasons for change

I wanted to make this game have some sort of crafting element built into its core. It was there, but it was starting to become a hassle for the player, an unwanted necessity to play the game.

I had thoughts of adding even more crafting resources to make things more interesting, but that made the game even more annoying to play.

I looked back and thought to myself, "Biomes are different enough, but they are not worth exploring". So I decided that as an additional element, I would incorporate a simple "exploration" aspect into the game. Crafting would still be there and would play a core role in the game, but collecting resources for crafting would be more fun if I didn't ask the player to do it for survival.

Gameplay after

So here's how it goes. You, the player, pick a biome (only 1 available at the start, no randomizing sh*t), drop into it, and are immediately given a reason for WHY.

Mission objective:

A single objective to WHY you're here in the first place. You're here to collect something that is extinct in your time and is essential for the survival of the human race. Collect it, get out. Simple.

Primary objective:

Also a single objective, which leads TO the mission objective. The thing you're looking for (a rare plant) is guarded by a boss enemy. You need to lure him out in order to collect the resource. Defeat enough enemies of the biome to lure him out. That's the primary objective.

Secondary objectives:

Note the 's'. The character you're playing as is here to defeat the boss and extract bla bla that doesn't really concern you does it? Well, this is what DOES. A random secondary objective will appear from the beginning of the run. Complete the simple task to get an "upgrade gem". This gem lets the player upgrade or unlock one of their equipment (weapon or module).

But here's the catch...

Secondary objectives don't need any attention at all. You just have to survive and usually, they present themselves to you rather than you having to find them. They are more involuntary.

Here are some examples:

Collect 10 flowers (They spawn all around you).

Defeat a tough enemy (It will find you, not the other way around).

Find hidden treasure (A scanner would ping faster based on your distance to it. You will eventually come across it if your hearing is good).

Objectives like this will randomly pop up and you, the player get to complete them if you want to upgrade your gear. It's all up to you. Besides, you level up and gain more power just by defeating all the bots coming at you. If you're confident enough, you could beat the level with zero upgrades to your equipment.

So there's that. There's a lot more thought and ideas behind the change of the biome system. But that will be covered in a separate post.

Thanks for the read!

The Lore

Survivesmith is a 2D, vampire-survivors-like game with some new mechanics. You, the player, are on a quest to collect a rare resource. This resource is lost in time and the main protagonist is a skilled engineer/scientist who travels back in time to collect an endangered resource. Having barely escaped from an oppressive government, the survivor has to collect different resources in order to craft better gear, find enough of the rare resource, and travel back to his timeline.

The Gameplay

You are playing as the lone survivor whose sole mission is to gather a rare resource. In this top-down 2D shooter, you are constantly getting raided by robot hunters sent by an evil government in the future, from your original timeline. These hunters are stuck in a time loop, making them spawn infinitely after you.

To fight these baddies, you are provided with a primary and a secondary weapon. But that is not all! With your expertise in engineering and scientific study, you are able to craft futuristic weaponry with the bare minimum resources found in the early ages where humans didn't even exist.

Collect resources, travel to different biomes, and survive your way through infinite hordes of robots (and other enemies) while making sure you get enough of the rare resource you came after, before making your way back to the future!

The Background

"Survivesmith" was initially developed with the intention of further improving my skills as a game developer and showcasing them to the public as a means of landing a permanent game development job. The game wasn't supposed to take too long to make but the plans have changed, and I'm hoping to make a living out of making games on my own (with the help of my girlfriend).

Because of the change of scope, this game is now aimed to be released on Steam and will have a longer gameplay time, more polished graphics, animations, sounds, etc. than previously intended. This is unexplored territory for me, and I will need all the help I can get to succeed.

Alpha Release

The game will be released on itch.io by the 15th of June, 2024 as an alpha release and I hope to get all the feedback possible from you to make a better and more enjoyable game.

My name is Malindu and I make games. I don't want to go into a long intro but I know my inner-writer wouldn't agree. So here's the gist:

Who am I?

I am Malindu Ruwantha Kumaradasa. Since that is a hard name for most of you, I go by the name Mark (MaRK, to be more specific) on the internet. I turn 25 this September (2024). I like games (obviously), music, writing, and dubbing (haven't tried in a professional setting but I definitely would, someday). I still live with my parents while working as a contractor for InforPanacea, UK. I don't always get work and that's where I get my free time to make games. On to the more "game dev" side 👇

What am I?

I'm a graduate of Software Engineering who made games even while doing my unrelated degree. I made a C game on the command prompt, a C# game with visuals, a Js multiplayer game on the browser, and my "Software Engineering" final project using Unity. All this and not finding a permanent job in the software field led me to start working on games. I have currently worked on 2 different game projects: A deck builder similar to Marvel SNAP (project dropped for... reasons) and a tower defense game ("Hyper Towers", a skillset demo, available on itch.io, 5-minute gameplay). Right now, I am working on a game called "Survivesmith", which is a larger game in terms of gameplay and effort. I will write more about this in a different post.

I'll give you one better, Why am I?

I am doing game dev because it had been my passion even before I realized it. At a very young age (probably around 8), I saw some amazing games on TV and on the internet but didn't get to play any of them. I dreamt about those games as a kid and didn't know a lot about how to even play them. I started making games in my head and played them on pen and paper. I made my own art, UI, balancing, stat sheets, and that kinda stuff and played them with the graphics and sound effects turned to the max inside my head.

In school, I made games to be played on our notebooks ("notebooks" here being small A6-sized books where we wrote down our homework for the day). They got really popular among kids in my grade and even in the grade above mine.

All and all, I've always wanted to make games, and I never knew how, until I started learning coding. Now, after 24 years, I'm finally working on something I've always wanted to do instead of what others have told me to. I'd like to invite you to join me on my journey. I might not become a great game developer, but at least I would try to make games that would make me happy, and provide enjoyment to the players at the same time.