I have decided that I’m taking December off this year so I can catch up on various games and other things. But you’ll find out about that in the year-end gaming roundup post that I’m still in the process of writing.
I’ve not had a proper break in a while. Even if I wasn’t streaming, I was still working on something, be it videos or other things. That said, I have left Tur and Cybersurfer in a good place for me to pick up again next year.
Tur
I’ve made a few front-facing changes and many backend alterations. In addition, the last cornerstone of the game’s design is finally implemented.
The skill menu has been changed. Previously, you would go into the menu and be presented with “Skill 1, Skill 2 & Skill 3”. You would then have to click through in order to find out what was in those skill slots. After a complete rewrite, every skill that is available to that character’s class is now presented alongside an additional icon to represent whether that skill is usable or not.
It is not the ideal solution, but it is the best I can do considering the limitations of GB Studio. Either way, it saves the user a few button clicks.
The improvement of the skill menu is mostly in part to a complete and utter overhaul of the scripts and a massive refactoring effort. A lot of scripts have been broken up into parts that can be reused more efficiently. It also means I only have to change one script instead of many scripts. There’s still some stuff that needs improvement, but it’s certainly more manageable now.
However, I have managed to introduce a kernel-level crash bug that occurs when using skills. In particular the mage’s skills cause audio errors as well. I removed the animation that happens when an enemy gets damaged, which stopped the kernel-level crash, but the audio bug still remains. I’m still currently investigating why.
The major cornerstone of the game that was missing in the previous build was character recruitment; this has now been fully implemented. It generates a name and a class and randomly assigns skills for NPCs you meet. Then if you want to recruit them, they ask for money or an item (although it might just be money at the moment) and then join your party if those demands are met.
With this addition to the game, the major aspects of dungeon crawling, turn-based battles, camping, shops, and recruiting new characters are all in place. So, what state is the game in then? I would place it in the pre-alpha stage. The art isn’t finished, but the major gameplay features are there and function.
There’s still a lot to do, of course, especially in terms of art. But the next few changes I’m going to focus on are moving the status UI on the map screen to a dedicated status screen and making the maps significantly larger, as they will no longer be bound to the tiny window like before. And there are more features to follow after that. I’m planning on having a new demo ready by the beginning of March; we’ll see how that pans out.
Cybersurfer
Cybersurfer is still very behind where I’d like it to be at this point, but recent developments have at least improved things a bit.
Starting with minor changes, the landing prediction now has some colour-coding on it so you can tell where you can and can’t land. Jumping between rails has been somewhat improved to make the jumping animation less messy and better preserve the speed. There’s a general improvement to the conservation of speed. I’ve changed how it functions, so instead of running at a constant speed, there’s a minimum and maximum speed, and it will fluctuate based on what the player is doing. However, the level design was not built with this change in mind, but I was planning on scrapping the levels anyway.
As for the more major changes, the player can now jump off rails. It’s still a little funky, but it has been a much-requested feature. The second biggest change has been the alteration to the movement animations. The player now turns more left and right when moving, even in the air. This has generally improved the game feel overall.
To top it off, a new feature has been added: Powersliding.
Adding this feature has made me realise the shortcomings of my entire movement system, as implementing it took a lot of trial and error, and even when I got it to somewhat work, I didn’t see the point of it over the regular turning system that was already there. After some feedback from friends of mine, I tightened it up and found something that works well. It’s based on the drifting from Crash Team Racing, which gives you a small boost if you time it properly. I didn’t copy it wholesale, but you do get a boost if you hold the drift. The longer you hold it, the bigger the boost.
I’m still aiming towards getting an early access release. With at least 10 levels, including a boss. But now that the game handling has finally hit a reasonable point, I can focus on improving the art and making proper levels for once. The first steps of that involve remaking the character model and redoing all the animations again. But hopefully for the last time.
I don’t have a date in mind for the next demo, but it won’t be alongside Tur’s next demo.
Next Year’s Plans
Might as well lay out my plans, but I guarantee I won’t keep them.
January 2026
- Year-end Gaming Roundup post
- Global Game Jam 2026: Jan 26th – Feb 1st
February 2026
- Global Game Jam video
- New stream layout art
March 2026
- New Tur demo
Later in 2026
- Tur demo feedback video
- PID with Quaternion rotations video
- Video about the Project Fighting Styles
I can’t really commit to much else at this time. Seeing as the videos will most certainly take up more time than they’re worth, I cannot say for certain when or if things will be ready. This year hasn’t been great for either progress or my finances. Even the minor growth I saw last year died down. Hopefully I can regain those numbers by changing up my format.
See you next year.
-Adam