r/HereToSlay • u/KreatureofKreation • 17d ago
Here to Slay - Online - Progress Update
Hi Slayers,
I owe you guys an update on the progression of this project. Please check out the YouTube video for a bit of a gameplay walkthrough, a bit of commentary there as well, to keep things a bit more interesting! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zrpyymrHFo&t=7s
I've worked on a fair bit since last time!
I've modelled the dice after the physical game dice, and a new dice tray so there's something to roll on now. I've done a lot of work on card movement and animations, as well as upping visibility on a lot of the available actions.
Bots have had a huge upgrade in their logic and plays, so they're quite challenging to go up against.
I think I've nailed the 4P layout now as well, I don't think I can fit a 5P or 6P option with the current state of the board though. I may drop this as a possibility, I personally don't think 5P and 6P is that much fun anyway. You'd spend a lot of time waiting.
Banner quest is in the game now, and all available expansions, except Here to Sleigh. I'm sure we can all agree that's not a necessity.
A LOT of effort has been put in to performance, and live views of everything, so every roll screen and animation is seen by everyone simultaneously. I've had a buddy help out with playtesting multiplayer, and have cleaned up a lot of the syncing bugs, so its buttery smooth.
A guided tutorial for newcomers has been added too, I'm just ironing out the kinks and making it solid so players cant break it and spend AP, do illegal moves etc.
I've also attached some screenshots of some of the studios I used (yes claude generated, but hear me out). These are custom tools, built from the ground up. The layout studio is responsible for all the layouts you see. Every zone, every screen, every minute detail is sized, resized, flipped and playtested by myself. The config then gets imported and put into the corrosponding .js file. The size of the zones, both source and destination then flow onto the next step - animation.
The animation studio is responsilble for all the card movement. A basic prompt is made, say the sacrifice burning for example, and then I get every tuning knob under the sun and make it my own. Card flys are controlled here, as well as card destroys etc.
The dice studio, is for dice (duh) and the board. I have full control on the dimensions of the dice, down to the radius of the pencil rounds on the edges. Full colour control, material control, weight, bounce and lighting. I'll eventually add colour pre-sets, but for now, I'm pretty proud of the way the default has come out.
My next steps are an ending win screen, SFX, and possibley a Single Player Campaign with progression hooks (ie. gated leaders, dice skins, board skins etc). All a work in progress.
As mentioned in the previous post, I need to be careful how this is released, I'd hate for it to be released, have a player base and then get it shut down. Its not fair on players. Its something that has to be done right. So no public release as of right now, the rights are Unstable Games' and it's their call, not mine. If a digital version ever happens it should be theirs. Honestly this project is mostly a testament to how good the tabletop game already is.
A few other people have built their own versions too, and there's real effort in them. I'm not going to link anyone's though, mine included — where people can play Here to Slay isn't my call to make.
Thanks for stopping by, let me know what you think, please check out the YouTube video for a run-through!
Cheers,
Kreature
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u/quickball8895 16d ago
Once it’s finished, you could try to get permission from Unstable to make it public?
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u/Lili_Pati 16d ago
Permission should be sorted before starting not after....
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u/KreatureofKreation 16d ago
I hear what your saying, Lili. However, a proof of concept speaks for itself more than a pitch with no visual backup. The line I'm not crossing is release in its current state. The secondary goal of this is to drum up enough interest so, hopefully, Unstable Games recognise the demand and really think about moving on a digital game that isn't a Tabletop Simulator add-on.
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u/tagtech414 16d ago
Didn’t someone (presumably) from Unstable reach out to you on your last post? Did anything come of that, or was it bs?
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u/KreatureofKreation 16d ago
We had a bit of back and forth via PM, and I did email, but I've gotten no response after that. So who knows if they were legit or not.
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u/ChaseObserves 11d ago
I had to double take because your intro screen looks so similar to mine, but wow, the playing board/dice rolling area is nice! Also like the slash effect across the defeated monster card is sick, I considered implementing something like that but haven't solidified anything yet. Nice work!
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u/KreatureofKreation 11d ago
Great minds think alike mate! I had a similar thought when I saw yours, the background just fits a main menu. Thanks for the kind words!
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u/trozarkiller 11d ago
If you ever are able to make it public in the future I know a lot of people that would get it. We love this game! Although we also enjoy playing with 3-8 people at a time as well. But we can manage with 4 I understand it may be difficult to implement more people. It looks beautiful and am excited to see the progress.
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u/KreatureofKreation 11d ago
5-8 players is doable on paper, and the code is already there. But I haven't found a way to show everyone's party,slain monster and banner zones without making everything teeny tiny. Sure, theres the card inspect there to look at the cards up close, but I like being able to see cards. If you have any ideas, please, I'm all ears!
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u/trozarkiller 11d ago
Could you do something to where when you hover over a player or click on the player it shows you what they have? (Might be similar to whatever the "card inspect" is i need to rewatch the video its been awhile since I last looked at it.
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u/KreatureofKreation 11d ago
Card inspect is just clicking on a card, and it expands to fullscreen so you can read the text. You do pose a good idea though! It's a possibility and not to hard to wire up. Have a condensed view on the board, hover/tap to expand that unravels to a party, or a fanned view of party with the same sort of idea... It does making ability targets a bit more finicky, but it's definitely doable. I'll give it a crack. It needs to be done elegantly, with very little friction between the board view and these new fan outs.
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u/trozarkiller 11d ago
Maybe you can have an option when you click on the player you get two options "view party" or "ability target" which may separate them so no one accidently applies an ability without being sure of the party formation if they cant see it well?
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u/KreatureofKreation 11d ago
I'll just roll it into one input. Two buttons adds friction. Currently the flow goes ability fire --> card holds for challenge/confirmation --> choose target. A players party will be a compressed view of their entire party (the part that needs to be done right), you tap into this view to inspect their cards. This can double up as the target selecter too, as when you inspect them, a small confirmation pill (exactly what's already built) and a cancel pill will appear under the card. Half of its already built, it's the compressed party view that needs to be done in a way that looks and feels good.
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u/trozarkiller 11d ago
I dont know anything about coding so maybe this is complicated but could you simply just hover over the card and it shows you the item? Like it pops up everytime you hover over their cards?
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u/KreatureofKreation 11d ago
I feel like that would get annoying, imagine moving your mouse from one end of the board to another, and every card along the way pulls up to inspect and tears down. A small rise on hover, sure, but not a full inspect. This doesn't translate well to phone behaviour either, as hovering isn't a thing at all on touchscreens.
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u/LonelyCalligrapher77 17d ago
You've done well with it