I've been developing SpaceDeck X since December last year. It started as me playing with a random framework I found fun, and it grew so much that I'm now working towards releasing it on Steam. I kept a devlog on Itch, but I feel like it is time to bring it to my own website. Especially considering that these updates are exclusive to the Steam version.
I have a pretty clear vision for the release, and lately I've made amazing progress. Here are the major things I've made, in no particular order.
Upgrades system #
The new upgrades system was brewing in my head for a long time. Honestly, I thought it would take me longer to implement it, but once I started, I got in the zone and built a completely new system.
This is the new upgrades selection screen:
Compare it to the old one:
Upgrades library #
In two days I managed to draw 44 upgrade icons. Some of them I just winged and now I'm retrofitting them to the actual game upgrades.
Redesigned UI panels #
After making new upgrade cards, I got an urge to redesign some of the game's UI. I'm trying to avoid scope creep, but I had to create a way for the player to see their upgrades, so I decided to give a facelift to the deck panel as well.
You can open both panels by holding Tab in the boss fight:
And they show automatically in the pause menu:
Ships #
Ships are not brand new, but in the last few weeks I tweaked their specific weapons and characteristics. It is still a work in progress, but all ships are functional and have their own quirks.
Backgrounds and shadows #
These are purely decorative, but I think they elevate the experience a lot. These background objects add more visual depth. They also change every few levels, giving the player a better sense of progression.
For now I created two sets of backgrounds (the gray tech-industrial one and an Aztec/Protoss-inspired one). The plan is to have four or five for the full game. These are quite time consuming, but I enjoy doing pixel art.
For the gray background set, I drew a tileset and I'm using Tiled to assemble them, while the Aztec ones are all drawn by hand.
Other #
Run history is still in progress, but I have the base for the stats screen:
I postponed it for months, and finally I created controller button customization:
See you soon #
Ever since I started working on this game, I've been obsessed with game dev. You can probably tell from the fact that I haven't published almost any blog posts this year.
That's why I'll keep these devlogs casual and try to post them more often.