A New Adventure!

Howdyyyyyy,

Hello Hello. So, It’s been sometime since the last blog post. A lot has happened both personally and externally (private matters, covid and other world events). As the dust has somewhat settled, we feel now is a good time to talk about what we’re doing next!

If you’ve seen some of our posts on our socials, we’ve been slowly putting together a new project, Junklands. An action adventure game that follows Rahr, a cardboard misfit whose search for belonging becomes hinged on a quest to heal Junklands from its polluting overlords. With a mighty shield and the Earth orb, players embark on an otherworldly journey to save the environment from the brink of collapse. Your effort and choices will effect the Junklands!

Rahr and the Junklands world was created 11 years ago as a 2D platformer but never really got far at the time. As we were developing our next adventure, we kept returning to a few very old concepts of Rahr just hanging there on the wall and knew it would be something really awesome to jump back into. So here we are, It’s been exciting to fully flesh out the theme, world and game mechanics so far!

 

Our game will be 3D, adventuring between different areas in control of toxic tyrants and its up to you to stop their impact on the area. We want to create a bleak world to find beauty in. You’ll dive into beautifully dark polluted environments as the spark of hope and force of change. The guardians are trapped throughout, waiting to give Rahr the tools to explore and withstand the Junklands.

 

Rahr’s main tool for puzzles and combat will be the shield. Think trash-lid Captain America. You can throw the shield at switches, enemies and more! Ability upgrades will allow you to do more with the shield to aide your progression.

 

On top of that we’re very proud to say, we’ve grown from solo developer to small team that’s striving to create something really awesome! We’ll also be starting devlogs very soon, so keep an eye out for that!

Last year, we were chosen in VicScreen’s huge funding round, and were also one of the winners of the Business Mentorship program which we used to plan our trajectory for Junklands! Our local government’s support has helped us immensely and we’re deeply grateful!
https://www.gameshub.com/news/news/film-victoria-funds-16-games-as-part-of-4-3-million-investment-3787/
https://igea.net/2021/07/the-winners-of-11-business-mentorship-with-jason-della-rocca/

Junklands is a work in progress, so we’d love for you to join us!
We really want this to be an awesome game! So jump onto our socials and follow our journey of creating Junklands!

– Josh

Nom Nom Apocalypse is out!

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Hi all,

Nom Nom Apocalypse is out now on Steam! Excited to have released my first game! It’s been a lot of hard work and have learned a lot as a solo developer. I’m glad it’s out there and people are having fun!

Here’s what some people have been saying:

“With its relentless pace, endearing and colourful graphics, and simple but challenging gameplay, Nom Nom Apocalypse is reminiscent of old-school arcade games. It immediately hooks you in by giving you just enough of a challenge to sink your teeth into without it feeling tedious or frustrating.” – Checkpoint Gaming

“This food-based twin-stick shooter has plenty of excitement and challenge, as well as some unusual enemies and weapons.” – Nindie Spotlight

“There is a lot of replayability, and the different abilities from the different characters are really nice for keeping you coming back for another serving.” – Chalgyr

“Nom Nom Apocalypse is a fast paced and personality filled twin stick shooter.” – Handsome Phantom

β€œNom Nom Apocalypse makes the end of the world look delicious. The presentation is great and the gameplay is tight and smooth. The delectable food trying to eat you doesn’t stand a chance against all the creative perk combinations and weaponized kitchen items.”  – Save or Quit

 

Play it here on Steam!

Just wanted to thank these people who helped push this to release:

Jacob Leaney for music, Travers Dunkinson and Matt Schenkel for Trailers, Ryan Hoath for playtesting, Stride PR and FilmVictoria!

Also thanks to everyone for the support I truly appreciate it!

There’s still plenty to go as I’m still giving Nom Nom Apocalypse love and working towards console release!

-Josh

The End is Nigh!

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Hi all,

Time for a quick update!

We’re happy to share that Nom Nom Apocalypse is on its way and currently in beta. While it has taken longer than expected, we’ve been taking the time to ensure it’s polished and jam-packed with fun! And from launch it will be supporting Spanish (Spain), German, Russian, Simplified Chinese and Korean languages.

We’re also very excited to announce that we’re proud recipients of Film Victoria’s Game Release Funding program and we are grateful for their support.

We’re getting very close, so prepare for some big announcements early in the new year!

Don’t forget to Wishlist on Steam if you haven’t already!

– Josh

Nom Nom New Year

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Hi all, Time for a blog update for the New Year! Last year we were full steam ahead on Nom Nom Apocalypse, which is still very much the case for this year. Development has slowly crept past the original release window for 2018 and we’ll be hopefully releasing some point this year (2019). It’s unfortunate about the delay but I’m happy to say we’re not far off from the finish line.

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Last year Deadleaf Games was able to showcase Nom Nom Apocalypse at Pax AUS 2018. It was an awesome three days and thanks to everyone who stopped by to play the game, gave their support and feedback. We went through the majority of badges and cards by the second day. I also wanted to say thanks to Creative Victoria for the Pax Funding Grant and support, it was big help and we’re grateful for all the benefits we received.

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So from Pax, after getting feedback/requests and watching the public play, we’ve made quite a few tweaks and updates. I loved hearing some of the ideas for monsters and guns, some of the feasible ones will make it into the game.

The most common request we had was for console/Switch and 4 player co-op. This is what I can say for now with what is planned:

  • Nom Nom Apocalypse will hopefully release this year(2019) on PC and Mac
  • It will be available on Steam and other marketplace stores
  • It will have 2 player co-op
  • Planning for a console release in the future, after launch
  • If we can make it work well, we’ll add 4 player co-op

I would also like to mention, Jacob Leaney has been working on the music for Nom Nom. You can hear some of that awesomeness in the reveal trailer. The music really brings forth and adds another layer to the atmosphere and energy of the game. The boss battle sequence really paints a delicious end of days. I look forward to everyone hearing it while a giant monster noodle-box chops them apart.

Check out our links below and keep in the loop if you want to see gameplay/art snippets or just show some support!

-Josh

New Game! Nom Nom Apocalypse

Hi all. I’ve been very quiet over the last year and for a good reason. I’ve been working away on a secret project which I can finally announce will be coming out this year!

Nom Nom Apocalypse is set to release late 2018 on PC and Mac

Nom Nom Apocalypse is a fast food, top down shooter roguelite where a band of trigger-happy cooks set out to reclaim their city.
Shoot! dodge OUTLAST the plague of greasy beasts and candy creatures that lurk around every unknown corner.
Use powers, equip perks and unleash your guns to turn the tide and save humanity. You can check out more here: www.nomnomapocalypse.com

If you sign up to the mailing list you’ll get saucy updates and receive a special bonus character for the game.

What about Defend Yer Booty! you say? It has been a part-time project of mine over the last few years and is fairly dense in terms of development, which is why I have put it aside to finish Nom Nom Apocalypse.

But never fear me hearties, I expect to return to Defend Yer Booty! in 2019.

Deadleaf Games is geared up to take full flight this year, so you can expect a lot more noise in the coming months ahead.

-Josh

 

 

Creating Swashbuckling Enemies

Ahoy! Today I’ll be talking about what I’m doing with the enemies of Defend Yer Booty! and trying to build an enemy vs. tower system that reduces restriction and encourages new strategies with player choice.

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Towers VS. The Horde

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One of my main goals of Defend Yer Booty! is to create a Tower-Defense experience with a variety of enemies. Along with this, allow the player not to be bogged down by having to choose towers/tools that can only destroy specific enemies, e.g. Air based enemies can only be taken down by anti-air based towers. So the towers/contraptions do their job, but depending on the enemy and placement would not work as efficient as others. This allows the player to strategize and to never be truly penalized by their choice.


Enemy Roles and The Counter Attack

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To encourage the use of different techniques against enemies I’ve created different enemy roles. Like a traditional Tower Defense, enemies have an end goal to get to, but because enemies can effect towers and the player and vice-versa, this means that the gameplay needed to support counterattack situations. There’s three basic types of enemy roles the player will constantly encounter. The Target Seeker, whose goal is to go straight for the main target, will attack the player, towers or contraptions if they need to but will always generally not derail from their goal. Then there’s the Defense Breaker, who will try to take out as much as the player’s defense on the way. The last basic type is the Stalker, who will hunt down the player. These roles allow for small varying occurrences where the player is adapting and adjusting their defense to counter and survive.


Other Ways To Take Down The Horde

Deadleaf Games

I’ve also added the ability for additional damage bonuses through using certain towers and contraptions. Enemies have a chance to be set on fire, poisoned or stunned, which makes for a satisfying opportunity. Enemies will also have slight strengths and weaknesses which adds another layer of awesome and hopefully encourages the player to be creative with their arsenal.


Versatility and Opportunity

Creating non specific counter strategies will hopefully allow players to make choices that aren’t binding and fatally consequential and more importantly interchangeable. Giving players more freedom with building their defense against the enemy also allows me to create a less rigid and predictable experience with spawning enemies and enemy types. On the other side of that, I feel like I’ve also created enemies with more depth as a result. I can’t wait to see how players build their defense. πŸ™‚

-Josh

Into the Belly of the Beast

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Hey all, It’s Halloween time which is a perfect time to do an update!

So what’s been happening the since the last update you ask? *Crickets noise* That’s okay I’ll tell you anyway. πŸ˜‰Β  I’ve got our protagonists Dorian and Grub finalised and in the game, took longer than expected to explore them as characters but I’m happy with the result.
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I’ve also been tightening the screws on a lot of Defend Yer Booty! tower-defense gameplay, locking down more arsenal weapons and as always slowly creating more levels. In particular, the enemy spawner has been getting the majority of attention and heavy tuning. I’m proud to say I’ve finally got something streamline and versatile. It grabs attributes from a level, attributes from prearranged enemy clusters chosen and then spits out a wave of enemies on timed intervals suitably challenging for the player who has has survived ‘x’ many waves. The result removes the need to manually craft too much of a level, allows a unique outcome per wave and a great potential for refreshing replay-ability and I haven’t even got to special wave occurrences yet!

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Unlike a lot of tower-defense games, when you place “units” or “towers” you’re making a long standing strategical choice, where as Defend Yer Booty! will push the focus on short term placements and strategies. This is because enemies don’t spawn down a singular path and at some points will simultaneously come from different directions. This means everything the player will place is somewhat temporarily but also not crucial which allows for turn over and new strategy every wave. More importantly it means the player is still involved in defending against enemies and not just a character placing towers.


Besides balancing, working out how to splice an adventure experience with a tower-defense experience has been the other challenge. Rather than grabbing the best mechanics or features from each, I’ve had to find that sweet spot that plays and transitions as a fun journey that compliments one another as well. The adventure component becomes a series of minor tasks that adds flow to the story and transition between areas. The tower-defense component acts as the battle or a test throughout that journey arc/level.

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Strategy/Adventure games like Pokemon and Brutal Legend have split gameplay functionality but do it in different ways. In Pokemon, all the playable conflict takes place in battle and battling is a completely different mode to the exploring and traversing of the world. Even though you carry out story events, it still acts as a service to the turn-based battle gameplay. In brutal legend their real-time strategy element acts as a boss fight between arcs. So through the story you carry out all these missions recruiting people/units for your arming whilst learning how to use them. Then when the time comes for the boss fight, you know how to use the units and it’s a matter of deciding how you want to play. Brutal Legend does have a multiplayer/game mode dedicated to the real-time strategy element of their game but uses it sparsely in comparison to their adventure side. It does a very good job of immersing the player and distracting the player from the distinction and switching between game modes by giving context and not removing them from the player’s current setting.

One of my goals is to have something immersive that could transition into the tower defense game mode on a moderate basis. This includes creating an adventure side that still contributes to strategy elements even outside of the tower-defense gameplay.

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Next on my list, I’ll be jumping onto creating some more enemies. Now that I’ve got some basic enemy types, I can explore some uniquer enemies that should hopefully cause some disruption to the flow. These should hopefully pop up in the next post. πŸ˜€

That’s all for now mateysss.

Autumn, Adventure and Booty

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Update Tidal Wave!

Ahoy! It’s now Autumn, Deadleaf Critter’s favorite month! It’s been a while since I last updated, so for those who don’t know, my current w.i.p title has a name: Defend Yer Booty! If you’ve stumbled upon this website, the game is a 3rd Person Tower Defense. If you do know about it, you should know it’s going well. I’ve been jumping back and forth between creating new levels and tuning gameplay. DYB! will have two juicy modes: Adventure and Plunderama. Adventure is a story mode and Plunderama is an endless wave survival. Each will have different challenges and unlocks. The scope for this game has grown from what I initially set out to do, but I think it’s a favorable outcome. I’ve learned a lot in the process and last thing I want to do is fall short of it’s possible potential, especially when its within grasp.

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Above is an early concept of the main protagonist and sidekick. Dorian is essentially a castaway who, after years of searching finds the fabled ghostly seas. His sidekick, Grub is a stubborn Hauntling. In game, combat should involve a blend of both characters. I started making this game with Johnny Fishfists as a defender, so you’ll probably won’t find Dorian and Grub in any screenshots yet. It’s one of the first ideas I’ve come up with where I’ve held back from designing the main character. I had an idea and some iterations of where I wanted to go with it but felt I needed the world and game fleshed out to find out what character I wanted.

I’ve added a ‘Ghostly Power’ ability, which means each character/defender will have some sort of temporary power up move on top of their normal combat. It can be activated once the power has recharged and should make for some tide-turning and fun moments.

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The DYB! takes place in a pirate limbo, so there’s different type of undead all about. Not all are bad, not all are good. Ghouls, Hauntlings and Spectres are usually okay. The vast majority of them oppose joining Grimbeard’s fleet.There’s also other otherworldly inhabitants that the player will face against. Zombarnacles, for example are starfish-controlled corpses that will destroy all in their path for rum.

11986446_1507914422858417_6210234914391304792_n(Above) Zombarnacles are annoying rum-thirsty jerks.

DYB!_Newscreenie18(Above) Trying to take on a horde of enemies without setting up defense is nearly impossible.

DYB!_Newscreenie17(Above) Coconut Blasters and Urchin Infantry defend the booty. No you don’t, you boney scalliwags!

There will be a range of different defense items the player can mix and match in their arsenal. Most can be unlocked by spending loot earned from either mode. Players will be able to earn loot easily but a more substantial amount of loot is rewarded in different ways. One way for example is flawlessly defending for a whole wave.

From the get go I decided to avoid snapping defense items to a grid. I thought it would be cool to organically place units, and although this opens up a realm of slightly problematic scenarios, I think it allows for a lot more creativity, fun and endless possibility. Yeah, players will most likely try to find exploits but I think it’s somewhat part of the fun.

However there is one exception. When I first started, I wanted players to be able to build barricades anywhere. For a number of reasons it just didn’t seem to work effectively, things became increasingly more complex than they needed to be and there were too many problems to justify putting it in at all at that point. While testing barricade placement, I found myself wanting to use barricades to block small gaps or bottlenecks in the level. Although I still spent a great deal of time setting up the barricade in the right angle. Building a well placed object against a timer or a wave of incoming enemies is just something you’re not going to have time to do or waste time doing. It was a cool idea being able to plug up a narrow path, so I made a condition where barricades can only be setup in places marked. On top of this the barricade will snap into place, removing all the hard work out of aligning it flush with the gap.

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Still have a lot of work to go, as currently most of my time is spent making levels and content but I’m hoping to push a lot more out in the next 6 months. Stay tuned fish fillets.

Land Ahoy!

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New Update Time!

Things are going pretty well for the pirate game, it’s coming along swiftly with minimal obstacles. With that said, I haven’t really talked about DeathSpuds for a while and here’s why. Basically around the start of 2014, we decided that DeathSpuds, is a pretty big game and while it was going along fine, it demanded too much from early on. Three of us working on it in our spare time wasn’t making the strides I hoped for. This would mean Deadleaf’s first game would take a long time. At that point Alex took a short break to focus more on his own stuff at Redefinition Games. This being ‘The Very Organized Thief’ (TVO). I continued working on the game for a few more months before coming to the conclusion, that I would need to explore creating a smaller game on my own. I thought about going back to Gamemaker, but Unity was too damn juicy!

So here we are, a year later with this little Nautical-themed, 3rd Person base defense game. Mind you, in small doses of rare spare time, I’m still planning/drawing/designing/writing for DeathSpuds, it’s just not at the front of the queue in terms of completing a product. DeathSpuds isn’t close to being finished, but it has actually worked out more beneficial in the long run, because when DeathSpuds does go back into full swing, we’ll be attacking it having more knowledge, having better processes down and producing content at a faster rate, all without feeling the need to rush it. So more experience will give the end result a lot better shimmer. πŸ˜€

 

As I’ve dived into a little before, the pirate game is 3rd person action with resourcing and light strategic placement of ‘towers’. You’ll play through levels, defending the point of interest in different ways. Earning booty along the way, you’ll be able to buy new defense items which include: Attackers, Walls, Traps and Buffs. You will be also able to unlock a range of characters with diverse attacks and abilities. Each character has a primary means of attack as well as being able to perform a special ability which can be a passive ability or a secondary attack. Accompanied by a unique perk, characters will also have different attribute ranges in health, speed, attack, attack speed and revival.Β  So players should have fun combining characters with defense items to create the best line of defense that suits them!!!

For now, feast your eyes on some new development screenies on my NAUTICAL THEMED 3RD PERSON BASE DEFENSE GAME!!!!!!! N3PBD for short, I also sometimes call it my pirate game, which is much quicker to say. πŸ˜€

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(Above) Profile Selection screen. You choose a barrel, you save the barrel, you live by the barrel.

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(Above) Plunderama is a mode where you play endless waves of enemies until your little fingers can’t take no more.

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(Above) Character selection screen. Johnny’s leading the way. Way to go Johnny.

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(Above) Arsenal docking bay. This is where you swap, buy and setup your Arsenal. You’ll be doing a lot of plundering for the good stuff matey.

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(Above) The Perch is a seagull nesting ground.

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(Above) Ah, the soothing ambient screeching of a thousand hungry seagulls.

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(Above) It’s a shipwreck. That is all.

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(Above) The undead pirates of the Crimson Seas don’t want you to have the booty.

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(Above) By attacking and destroying the treasure chest, they’re making it really, really, realllllly hard for you to transport the treasure. Thus impossible to collect the booty. Go on, try…you won’t be able to. I don’t plan on making that feature anyway.Β 

Hope you enjoyed my w.i.p screenies and lame captions. πŸ˜€

Come back for more updates soooooooooonnn…

Tharr She Blows!

Start of the new year guys! Expecting a few surprises this year! I’ve been slugging away trying to get this smaller game done, but like all things – it takes time. I can however share some of my progress. πŸ˜€

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So my smaller project (code name: Pirate Game) is a 3rd Person Base Defense.

Johnny Fishfists, The first working Hero/Defender is a sea creature savvy attacker. Most of his defense is based around enhancing his combat.

 

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Here’s a seagull concept, experimenting with different eyes. πŸ˜€

 

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So the first few Undead Pirate enemies are all melee based (As shown in previous post). In which there are 3 classes of the Melee Pirate: Stalker – Stalks the player, Treasure Seeker – Which goes directly for the treasure and the Defense Breaker- Which destroys defense. The Bomber Pirate (Above Left) is a ranged Defense Breaker, which as you can guess throws explosives. The Rotting Captain (Above Right) is a Ranged Stalker, delivering a devastating shot. These pirates have different speeds and health, etc which makes the dynamics of the game a lot more fun once they jump in. Looking forward to showing off some more enemies soon.

A while ago to make enemy traversing more unpredictable and diverse, I created a way-point system which when activated in particular areas will make the enemy pick a possible different path to traverse. So instead of getting a clump of enemies all at once (agent finding the shortest path), I have enemies spreading out making levels more interesting to defend. πŸ˜€

 

 

 

Josh