Long list of stuff coming to Sword 'N' Board!
Author: indiefoldcreator
Date:
Thu, 27 Jun 2024
Game: Sword 'N' Board
Genre:
Action, Adventure, Indie, RPG, Early Access
Developer: Stuffed Castle Studios
Release Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2016
Developer: Stuffed Castle Studios
Release Date: Fri, 29 Jan 2016
Hey everyone!
Just wanted to post an update since it's been a little quiet lately. I've been working on some more "behind the scenes" / quality of life stuff for the game to help those of you with lower end PCs and keyboards that aren't QWERTY still enjoy the game.
Key binding
Key binding is something I honestly didn't think about in the beginning but it's something that I'm working hard right now to add. It also mean refactoring old code to make sure it will still work properly regardless of input.
Steam Achievements
It's something that I wanted to add much earlier but given the random bugs we were able to find more easily once the game was made available on Steam, I had to re-prioritize fixing those instead. The next update for the game will include several Steam achievements, including ones you obviously won't be to complete until the game is finished - along with ones that I'm sure many of you have already completed
Trading cards
Honestly I've never really delved much into the world of Steam Trading cards so when I released the game on Early Access it wasn't something I had thought about too much. However I know many of you that absolutely love them and love collecting them and so that will also be added here very soon, more than likely along with the Steam Achievement update at the same time!
Frame rate issues
While very minimal, I did notice some time ago a few areas in the game that were prone to frame rate issues, especially in large wooded areas that you could set on fire. Luckily I was able to track down the issue - item instantiation. It wasn't being handled efficiently at all and so it would cause issues when a large amount of items were being created all at once. The code has since been fixed and should get rid of those issues even on lower end machines.
Controls
Controls have always been hugely important to me. I feel controls are something most game developers - especially indies - neglect. Games like this with combat need to have tight controls and because of this I've changed them many times over. I'm also currently fixing the control screens for the game as they're not entirely accurate given the amount of changes that have been made to the controls in such a small time. While I think the controls are in a great place when played with an Xbox controller, I feel they still need a lot of work when it comes to the mouse and keyboard controls. While some of this will be able to be fixed with adding key binding, I want the default keyboard controls to also play better.
New item combos
I'm adding an additional 10 item combinations to the game! It was decided by me that I wanted to make it so people WANTED to use their cardboard sword regularly. So now, your swords abilities will be able to be augmented depending on what item you have equipped with it. The goal for the item combos have always been to make them interesting and useful, that none of them ever become useless because something else is similar or better or too situational. The first you'll find in the game is the Sword + bomb combo for the bomb jump which can be found in the first dungeon.
This is also why the 2nd dungeon went through a massive overhaul, as I decided the item and item combos found in it were not interesting enough while also adding a whole new one! So the 2nd dungeon when it opens will feature a whole new item combo while the previous design for the 2nd dungeon will be reworked for the 3rd dungeon.
Flam Jam redesign
We showed the game at Pax and while no one had much to say about the Flam Jam fight I found most people had a hard time with it. While I've always wanted the game to be difficult it seems as though the Flam Jam fight was difficult for the wrong reasons. It was far too easy for Sidd to get hit by things that didn't really read well as "dangerous" when getting close enough to Flam Jam to do damage to him. Too often Sidd would take damage just by getting in range to attack. This is getting reworked right now.
Enemy AI and pathfinding
Enemy AI right now is okay from a basic stand point, however they don't really pathfind all that well currently. It's easy to get them hung up on obstacles and kill them - while this is great from a combat perspective - it makes them feel unintelligent which I think is a bad thing. While the AI is situational and will change depending on if a enemy is within range of you, if it's attacked etc - I want to give it more intelligence and make it feel more rewarding when you kill an enemy.
I just wanted to give everyone a heads up!
If you have any questions, concerns or things you'd like to see added/changes please let me know in the comments below!
Just wanted to post an update since it's been a little quiet lately. I've been working on some more "behind the scenes" / quality of life stuff for the game to help those of you with lower end PCs and keyboards that aren't QWERTY still enjoy the game.
Key binding
Key binding is something I honestly didn't think about in the beginning but it's something that I'm working hard right now to add. It also mean refactoring old code to make sure it will still work properly regardless of input.
Steam Achievements
It's something that I wanted to add much earlier but given the random bugs we were able to find more easily once the game was made available on Steam, I had to re-prioritize fixing those instead. The next update for the game will include several Steam achievements, including ones you obviously won't be to complete until the game is finished - along with ones that I'm sure many of you have already completed
Trading cards
Honestly I've never really delved much into the world of Steam Trading cards so when I released the game on Early Access it wasn't something I had thought about too much. However I know many of you that absolutely love them and love collecting them and so that will also be added here very soon, more than likely along with the Steam Achievement update at the same time!
Frame rate issues
While very minimal, I did notice some time ago a few areas in the game that were prone to frame rate issues, especially in large wooded areas that you could set on fire. Luckily I was able to track down the issue - item instantiation. It wasn't being handled efficiently at all and so it would cause issues when a large amount of items were being created all at once. The code has since been fixed and should get rid of those issues even on lower end machines.
Controls
Controls have always been hugely important to me. I feel controls are something most game developers - especially indies - neglect. Games like this with combat need to have tight controls and because of this I've changed them many times over. I'm also currently fixing the control screens for the game as they're not entirely accurate given the amount of changes that have been made to the controls in such a small time. While I think the controls are in a great place when played with an Xbox controller, I feel they still need a lot of work when it comes to the mouse and keyboard controls. While some of this will be able to be fixed with adding key binding, I want the default keyboard controls to also play better.
New item combos
I'm adding an additional 10 item combinations to the game! It was decided by me that I wanted to make it so people WANTED to use their cardboard sword regularly. So now, your swords abilities will be able to be augmented depending on what item you have equipped with it. The goal for the item combos have always been to make them interesting and useful, that none of them ever become useless because something else is similar or better or too situational. The first you'll find in the game is the Sword + bomb combo for the bomb jump which can be found in the first dungeon.
This is also why the 2nd dungeon went through a massive overhaul, as I decided the item and item combos found in it were not interesting enough while also adding a whole new one! So the 2nd dungeon when it opens will feature a whole new item combo while the previous design for the 2nd dungeon will be reworked for the 3rd dungeon.
Flam Jam redesign
We showed the game at Pax and while no one had much to say about the Flam Jam fight I found most people had a hard time with it. While I've always wanted the game to be difficult it seems as though the Flam Jam fight was difficult for the wrong reasons. It was far too easy for Sidd to get hit by things that didn't really read well as "dangerous" when getting close enough to Flam Jam to do damage to him. Too often Sidd would take damage just by getting in range to attack. This is getting reworked right now.
Enemy AI and pathfinding
Enemy AI right now is okay from a basic stand point, however they don't really pathfind all that well currently. It's easy to get them hung up on obstacles and kill them - while this is great from a combat perspective - it makes them feel unintelligent which I think is a bad thing. While the AI is situational and will change depending on if a enemy is within range of you, if it's attacked etc - I want to give it more intelligence and make it feel more rewarding when you kill an enemy.
I just wanted to give everyone a heads up!
If you have any questions, concerns or things you'd like to see added/changes please let me know in the comments below!
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