Nucleagacy - new puzzle / action game first alpha release

[rubberduck]

I finished a first alpha release of my godot game Nucleagacy
It is about cleaning the environment from radioactive waste, the core idea inspired by minilens, but also by games, and there are enemies you need to avoid.

In nucleagacy you have to use different tools to solve the level, these tools can be taken / attached to the player and used for pulling objects, pushing heavier objects, grinding stone piles to dust or clean radioactive puddles. For a better understanding just watch the first video.

The initial idea was to understand (and learn) godot 4, for example how far it is away to use it for a production and where the issues are. It was almost a year in a prototype state and I liked the Idea of the game so much, now I have already Ideas for the future, something like a story mode with a world map, and different environments later on, including more industrial areas or a place where everything is destroyed by a nuclear meltdown

Finally I really wont to thank Alexandr Zhelanov for the great music used in my videos and planned to use as soundtracks in the future too



gameplay video

level timelapse

downloads

repository

[PeterX]

Looks nice, I will try it, probably at the weekend.

You said you wanted to try out Godot4. Can you say something about how you well you got along with Godot and what was difficult or easy?

The link in your forum signature is broken. Should be to your Godot RPG not flare.

[rubberduck]

oh, the project in the link isn't up to date now, I sort of abondoned it because it was so complex for me as a single person.I have updated it now with my new project, that I also wanted to do, though I would have done it in a few days maybe.
And for godot 4 it was relativly easy, the first few days were a bit tough though, to figure out what is different.

There are still some bugs, I even got once my tscn files corrupted, when I moved files around, or renamed a folder. At least I was able to revert my files from the repository. Another one is that some gridmap shortcuts don't work, and sometimes undo doesn't work with the gridmap, a few crashes, mostly when I try to close a scene and when godot is open for a while.

But else it works fine and now it is easy for me. I even learnt how to create my own tool scripts within godot, something I have never done before. I wrote the gridmap randomisation tool, and godot doesn't have a random paint mode like with tiled. I can't even select multiple tiles.

[PeterX]

Sorry, I don't understand how I run this game. I have downloaded Godot4 and imported the project.godot file. But what now? I can't find a "compile" or "run" menu option.

I also clicked on "Script" and then on the "Play" button but then I get only three 3D items. What now?

[PeterX]

I now managed to run it. Sorry for being a bit stupid about it.

Now I have no mouse pointer. Is that intentional?

[rubberduck]

I tried it how it feels without the mouse pointer in game as you don't need it. I didn't think so much about it, when I saw it first in my recordings, (I was also a bit stupid about that, I could have made it record not the mouse pointer).
Did you run it from the editor now, or have you tried the compiled binaries too, if it works?

And what do you think about the gameplay mechanics yet, or the difficulty of various levels? Or other ideas how to improve, maybe bugs. I actually found one that the level 'cells' was not solvable in the latest repo, which I fixed now. It happened after I made the builds, where everything works fine too

[Technopeasant]

Congratulations on the release!

I have always loved charming little puzzlers.

[rubberduck]

Thanks.

If you try the latest version now, you can see the player animated, and some first sound effects, all self recorded, mostly freshly from the last week too.

[PeterX]

OK, I tested it running inside of the Godot editor. The graphics look nice. I especially like the robot.

Unfortunately I have problems with the control. The robot sometimes reacts to my key pressed, and sometimesn not at all. Might be due to my slow and old graphics card.

[Huitsi]

I've had rather the opposite issue of the robot moving more than I want. I suppose I'm holding the key too long, but it seems too easy to do for a game where a mistake means having to start the level over. Speaking of which, have you considered an undo function?

[rubberduck]

I think too, that the controls are a bit weird sometimes, especially when changing the direction to take a tool, where you "accidentally" push the tool first. That is something that I want to improve at least.
Have you encountered issues with pulling something, especially that you stop pulling the object ?
(For me it happens only if I start to push something while pulling, but in the past I had issues, where it stopped randomly pulling, which is a laptop running linux, a bit older than my windows desktop pc)

I have also thought about undo in the past. Generally I like the idea, but I need to think about, how it works when enemies are close, if their position should be reset where they were before and how to implement it.
Maybe I leave it without undo for now, trying to make levels not too unfair, for example adding a pull tool even if it is not needed, hints ("danger signs"), redundant tools, add multiple ways to solve a level or even checkpoints

[Huitsi]

It took me a while initially to figure out pulling, and I think there may have been cases where it stopped without reason. With some quick testing now, I can only confirming that pushing cancels pulling.

I suppose with continuously flowing time, undo would mean rewind. I think it is worth considering, since trying to make unfailable levels complicates the design process quite a bit, and good level design is what makes or breaks these kinds of games.

[rubberduck]

yeah, that pushing cancels pulling is really a bug that I discovered before, also that it sometimes stops pulling without reason, it could be still there, but occuring less often.
Rewind is actually a good idea too, maybe not for the next release but a bit later, not too far in the future.

maybe even with different difficulties / hard mode where you can't rewind, or only back a limited time, something similar to permadeath in flare, even if I had never played flare in permadeath mode, but it sounds clear what it means.

[PeterX]

Do you have implemented a key to quit the level?
And if so, could you write it a the top or bottom of the screen/window?
It is annoying to go to a different virtual screen and login and kill the game because there's no mouse pointer. (I'm using Linux.)

[rubberduck]

with esc you can pause the game, and from there restart, resume or go back to menu,
also I think I can say more about controls, where it doesn't work, it is when trying to take or put down tools. Currently it only works when you are grid aligned (a special condition) I just tried it without, but this would lead to erratic behaviour in some cases, cases where you can't move anymore and the screen sharts shaking. Or that you put down a tool into another and you lose one. With this condition at least something like this doesn't happen by default.

The game is still very rough right now, there are lots of areas where things could and should be improved, but I am working on it

[rubberduck]

After a long time doing sfx, models and animations, finishing the bomb feature and bug fixes I started working in a new level again, also improved the perspective to be more 3D