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Hey everyone!

It's been a really long time since I posted here...it hasn't been due to inactivity but because we've been so busy working on the game that we just haven't had the time to really sit down and collect everything to put in a news post. So what has been going on exactly? Well a lot.

I've been working on hard on getting everything in for the main quest line (so we can actually complete the game). That's all the large unique areas, NPCs and their animations, items and of course...dialogue.

In total the NPC dialogue for the main quest line is over 40 pages (or so Google Docs tells me) and that's pretty whopping. As only one of us can work in the actual project at once I set out writing the dialogue in such a way that it can just be copied and pasted in. So that is a massive load off our shoulders now - and I know how the game ends!! That's good news for everyone.

I kept promising our dialogue system was going to change and it has dramatically (I think I mentioned it in another post but here I go again). We have animated character sprites, unique portraits for every NPC in the game and it just looks so much cooler, with your chat options positioned in a nice place and not covering the centre of the screen.

Shops are also a new feature, with a Medical, Weaponry and general supply stores where you can vender off junk items and keep stocked up.

We're hoping to get the game into a testing phase in March and a big push from us both in getting in the last side quests and random houses to loot. But there is still a lot to do, more random events, enemies and items.

Again, I'd like to plug our twitter page that we update regularly with art, our rather neglected facebook page...and of course our Greenlight page, your support here really does make a difference.

Cheers, and I hope everyone is doing very well!
M

yeah it is 320x200, the map has taken bloody ages! haha

Thanks for your support!

Hell folks, I hope everyone had a really fun Christmas and New Year and have fully recovered!

It's been a very long time since our last update but what with the aftermath of Christmas and the New Year I needed to give my eyeballs a rest from Dustbowl, just for a wee while.

I've been working really hard on concepting a couple of new ideas for Dustbowl and finalizing the world map, which I may add, is incredibly large! Over the past 8 days I've been working solidly on this element as it's such an important/fun part of the game and I don't think anyone will be dissatisfied with it's scale and the number of areas to enter and loot. The map itself weighs in at 4248x4960 which might not sound like a lot but in regards to pixel art...it's a large area to cover.

All the key areas are now in with a swath of random locations to explore and loot but I'll probably be going back to add in more farms and factories. So by no means an I done with the map but it's looking good

Another thing I've been exploring is character portraits. We all love character portraits and for Dustbowl I think it would make a huge difference to the experience. Dustbowl characters are VERY low res and the detail in them is quite simple, BUT with character portraits suddenly this blob of pixels now has a detailed face, a smile, an expression...a real character. So I'll be looking at getting them into the game

So now I'm happy with the map what else? Well before Christmas I just finished a new area "The Junction" which is another section of subway that the player must deal with (and a boss fight!). But I'll be looking at making the new areas and getting them into the game (now that they finally exist in the world!).

But that's a lot of reading so it's time to show off some art I guess

Well there we have it for now, progress admittedly has slowed a little but we're back on it and we hope to get more updates to you soon! We appreciate like what you all your support on the project and if you see please head over to our Steam Greenlight Page and give us a thumbs up STEAM GREENLIGHT

Hi ChestPecRespect

I'm so glad you enjoyed what you played so far. It is very much a work in progress, repair kits are planned for the game to fix up damaged armour, we'll definitely look into the issues you've brought up, some puzzling ones haha. But great job getting through the demo, despite it's warts!

The map is something we're working on so we hope to flood it with lots of places to loot and explore. Combat is something we're also still developing and enemies with armour is something we need to add a lot more of but the moment we add HE grenades and flashbangs and ballistic knives (think spells) then I think combat will be a lot more interesting of an activity.

[embed=640,360]http://youtu.be/zIJ0LDOL7Aw[/embed]

For more info we had a little interview which discusses a few systems.

I'm really over the moon you've enjoyed your brief run around Dustbowl though
Cheers!
Mark

There's about 5 (none story houses to enter (one house has one of my favourite NPCs in the game haha) and then there's the Subway and HUB itself, you should find the game a little easier once you get your first armour and rifle
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NOTE:
MKennedy has discovered that you can leave combat by clicking on a room exit ( I dont suggest that as it will break the game but thanks again! We'll fix that asap: we should have found that. Cheers!
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Cheers again, you're a star.
PI

oh no! really I understand haha You're right in that the combat is lacking just that little extra, the hit location was supposed to be that thing. The we don't explain it at all though....our fault.

Damage that is in white text is armour damage - your not actually hurting the creature and you can't one-shot an armoured area  - think of armour like Halo's over shield, you get rid of that before damaging the beast. So when you see that you have to select a different part of the body to target (and hopefully one-shot).

Red damage is...well damage and you'll notice if they crit you or you crit them.

I think the real fun to be had is on the surface, at the moment that's sorely lacking but we knw what to do. I have the most fun in the game going in and out of the houses and looting them (of course we'll also throw in some random elements into the houses to keep it fresh for the next time you go in). We need more enemies too, bigger more scary things that take up of the size of the room, so when you collect things like HE grenades then you'll want to save them for the big beasties.

No... we really appreciate you playing the demo, it means a great deal to us - so many sleepless nights! haha

Cheers!
PI

Yeah health is something that needs to be dropped in a few places I think haha, you can wait until you're tired and sleep that will recover health (from my understanding, it's not a lot and this will be greatly increased.

The combat is still really a basic element, we plan on adding combat items that can be used, like grenades and flashbangs for skipping enemy turns and damage dealers. The idea was to give it a kind of Final Fantasy/turn based thing to it but we understand there's more work to be done in that area. We did have a run button with a chance of escape but I removed it for the demo. Not displaying enemy health bars was a design choice, we could eventually add something that tells the player when an enemy is below 50% health (a bit like Dungeons & Dragons with their 'bloodies')

We really appreciate you playing though it means a lot, there's so much more work to do but I hope it gives you a good idea of it's direction, even if it's a taster.
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Update!
There is a new demo zip, you can loot the med box in the armory and also sleeping now recovers 50hp.

Cheers!
PI

That's a great idea portableTaco We'll look into that for sure.

Well here it is...the demo in all it's lovely brokeness haha. If you head over to the site: Dustbowl website and look down for the big , fat download button you can get the demo! I hope people wont be too disappointed, once you get out the HUB (start area) the world should really open up and it's an area that will be expanded upon - it's a taster

Hope you all enjoy our little game so far!
PI

Hey Everyone!

It's been a very long time since I've posted but that's because I've been so busy working on the game that these things get a little neglected; but we have real progress and lots of news.

We've been working incredibly in packaging up what we have into a nice polished demo for everyone to play, I'd say for a new player going into it with no idea of where to go and one who plans to try and do everything...I estimate there might be about 2 hours of gameplay in the demo? It would be interesting to know how long it takes you guys to play it. If we can (and things are going very well) we'll try and get the demo out tonight but at the very latest, tomorrow! The demo includes the HUB, the Cave System and the Subway and the Surface Map along with all the side quests that go with each area.

Currently the last real jobs on my list is adding in rooms for none-important areas on the map (farm houses, huts, etc to flesh the world out) and more loot, but it's looking rather good.
There have been some big visual updates too, the map looks different now with pockets of radiation - you hear your geiger counter...head the other way! (currently it wont hurt you haha, but please pretend!).

We also have a website: Dustbowl Website which at the moment is a little bare but it's a work in progress. We've also added ourselves to Steam Greenlight which has a small features trailer Dustbowl Greenlight, so we'd appreciate some support there, and by all means, vote Yes or No, it's all good

[embed=425,349]http://youtu.be/fHhgYzl8a5g[/embed]

Again, thanks for your support and I'll be posting details on where you can download the demo

Cheers guys, hope you all have a splendid day.
PI

With everything falling into place we're now working on random generation and encounters that can be found in the game, either entering smaller areas on the map or while travelling around on the map (Fallout style). There will be a lot of different encounters that you'll come across in the game, some positive while others will be negative. Others will just make the world seem eerie and interesting and tell little hidden stories. Of Course! There will also be plenty of easter eggs that can be found while wandering the dustbowl wastes .

Expect further details at the weekend, as we plan on producing a new developer video and I'll be demonstrating the map and these systems. Hope everyone is doing well and being very productive!

Thanks guys
PI.

I'm quite overwhelmed with your comments and support, your a great community.

We're working really hard in getting the game done, I've been adding sounds here and there but spending most of my time making new art for the future locations and the surface map which the player will traverse to reach various locations. I've been working on more environment art and getting the world map revamped, I've heard alot of people talking about Fallout which is a game thats dear to me and the original idea of the world map would resemble how the fallout map would work but this has dramatically changed.

The map is now much larger and open, you now have direct control of the player and can roam the world and enter various buildings and special locations - alot of the smaller areas you can enter like farm houses, barns roadside motels etc, are randomly generated and have their objects and loot randomly placed. I guess for those that can remember 'It Came From The Desert' the map is very much like that now. There will still be random 'Fallout' style encounters as you travel and hidden radioactive areas, a geiger counter SFX will warn the player about such areas but this is something we need to work out

I've also been working on new environment art (so much to do); the subway is the first main environment that the player will be tasked in exploring and I'm very happy with how that's going, there were one or two concerns with the room art (always being square rooms like Spy Vs Spy) but there is real scope for mixing things up and keeping the world fresh for the player.

It's getting there and we hope to get a rough alpha demo for the end of next month - but of course, it wont really reflect the final thing.   Raez, If I can achieve the mood of Organ Trail I'd be a happy person.

Thanks everyone!
PI.

Hi Folks!

Big things happening deep in the dustbowl, we've been really working hard in turning AGS into quite the powerful RPG system and it really hasn't been hard. Environments are coming on nicely and your underground home is now flooded with NPCs. We're starting to design some of the mission environments, specifically the subway as this is the first area you must explore from leaving your home.

The player can now wear armour which changes the look of your character - all armour will update the player's sprite, this will be alot of work but the effect is worth it and every player likes seeing new armour on their characters.

We have a really nice quest system now that lists tasks you must complete and of course rewards for doing it all! So expect lots of side quests that will have you wandering the wasteland.

Day and Night cycles now work and we have a nifty timetrack that displays where you are in the day or night, this just means we can have more dynamic elements to the world like shops that only open at night (Black market) or NPCs that the player may need to speak to that only appear at night.

Combat has also had some work, if the player has no weapon equipped then they'll go fisticuffs and have to punch their way out of danger. You can also try and escape combat, the run feature now works but the more dangerous the creature the harder it is to escape and trying to run will use your vital turn.

Enemies in combat also now have idle animations so they bob about as they wait to get punched in the face.

The Loot system is now complete too, every enemy type in the game has it's very own loot table and upto 3 items can drop after combat, these can be quite common trash objects you can sell to extremely rare artefacts.

We have a nifty "The Sims" style Status effect bar where icons will display how the player is feeling, from: Hungry, thirsty, tired, bleeding and poisoned.

I'm sure I've missed out more things but I should shut up and just post the darn screenshots, as you can see we're keeping that C64 colour range, just love that retro look and I cant wait to show you some of the subway areas and they'll be quite unique looking in comparison to the rooms of the Hub. So enjoy.

(The Waypoint bar in the HUB)

(The hydroponics bay of the hub - a boy's gotta eat.)

(Feral mutant placeholder - one of the new enemies in the game)

Why don't you also see our second Dev blog video which really is just all the above but moving...in a video

To Dustbowl Videos

We appreciate you taking the time to look at this thread, and we hope to have more to show you asap.
Cheers guys and gals.
PI

Stunning art, love the character designs and the colour palette is beautiful - good job man! I cant wait to see more and give it a bash.

PI

Alot has happened in the space of a week, more features are getting added every day and progress has been amazing; the game just keeps getting bigger and better. One of the big visual updates is the player creation screen where you can enter a custom character name and choose from a selection of starting items. We've also been working really hard in getting more of the functions in from finalizing the tiredness system and cleaning up the hunger/thirst systems (which are fully complete ).

More custom character animations have also been added to the intro scene, more sound effects have been added and the HUB (player base) has been reworked a little, with an elevator that the player can use to access a number of different floors. It really gives the base more verticality and space, feeling larger than it actually is.

Weapons, armour and a helmet slots are now functional, items can now be picked up and slotted into the correct gear slots which feels excellent and instantly gives it that cool RPG feel! For more information please watch the development video that shows off some of the spoken features and the combat system.

To view our latest developer video that shows off some of the spoken features and combat head over to our IndieDB page, and if you want to give us an extra pat on the back why not follow the game there too

To Dustbowl Video!

Thanks again for the support and we appreciate the time you take in reading the post.
PI

That looks gorgeous, really takes me back to my childhood. Really loving the main menu screen too, reeks with nostalgia

PI

Thanks for the positive reaction

It's all very pre-alpha, lots of missing character animations here and there but its getting better every day.

(unpopulated canteen area)

[/i]

We plan to post weekly updates (if it isn't too annoying ) and expect some regular development videos too. To answer a question the game environment will be displayed in the upper portion of the screen but room shapes will change to mix things up a little.

Cheers guys!
Pixel Incognito.

[Welcome to the Dustbowl]

Welcome to the Dustbowl

The world is a desolate place, humanity is in a transition from life to extinction as those that lived through the events cling onto the threads of survival. The world is a dead, dusty landscape filled with ghosts and spectres, of smashed cities and dried oceans. The surface is a symbol of what has been lost.

What is the Dustbowl?

The dustbowl is an 6-mile crater surrounded by earth the size of mountains, legend has circulated around this strange place that a great treasure is in it's centre or an abandoned alien weapon. Many have tried to reach the dustbowl but none have succeeded. It is not just the impassable terrain that makes it impossible to reach but a strange radiation that boils anything it touches.

Features

• A unique turn based combat system - Get ready for fast paced retro combat like you've never seen before. Use special items to change the odds and equip powerful weapons to get the upper-hand. %90 Complete
• Full inventory management - stackable items and a full .Kg weight system. %100 complete
• Hunger and Thirst system - Keep your stomach full with food and drink adding depth to your wasteland survival. %100 Complete
• Armour up! - Armour updates your look in game!
• Poin'n'Click! - It wouldn't be an AGS experience without the solid point & Click system with dialogue trees and solve puzzles out in the field and also in the underbelly of your home.


• Status Effects - Get sick! Bleed out! Get Poisoned! Suffer fatigue! Combat and the environment are both deadly things: from radioactive dust to brutal combat damage; make sure you have the gear to survive! %30 Complete
• Rogue Trader - Find items, and buy, sell and search the wastes for fortune and glory! Or die trying %50 Complete
• Assignments, Sidequests & puzzles - deal with characters that live in the shadows as a mercenary and complete assignments for the Hub as a militia member.
• Hardcore enough? - Play the game with a permadeath option.

(A panel from the intro sequence)

We appreciate the time you've taken in looking at this thread and we hope to be posting many more in the near future! You can also find us on IndieDB.

Thank you!