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Hello everyone and welcome to another iteration of the Demon Debug blog, my name is Rahul and I’ll be the author of today’s blog post.
Due to some last minute changes in Fraser’s schedule towards the end of February we were unable to publish a blog post last month, and we were hoping to share plenty of progress in today’s blog post but unfortunately that is not the case due to it being a fairly busy month for us all here at Forgotten Pixel. We did make some cool progress on the game regardless, but just not as much as were hoping to achieve. Anyways, now that we’ve got that out of the way let’s talk about what we’ve been working on recently. As usual we’ll start off with progress on the artistic side of things before going on to other stuff. Both Brandon and Callum have been working on some new stuff to try and make World One, and the Demon Debug Alpha in general, more aesthetically pleasing. One of the things Callum has been working on recently is making minor improvements to the existing animations for The Programmer so they fit in better with the game itself (i.e. by making the walk animation a little bit ‘angrier’ to better show the anger he’s feeling). We won’t be sharing the walk animation on here so if you wanna see it make sure you sign up for the Alpha (more information on that below), but we will be showing off some of the other work Callum has done, and that is a main menu screen animation and a new enemy for World One called the Demon Doctor. 
A sketch of the main menu animation
The Demon Doctor's throw animation
Over the past two months Brandon has been working on improving the way the environment looks by working on new tiles and foreground elements to add to the game. Unfortunately these aren’t quite ready to be shown off yet as Brandon has been very busy with some personal work over the past two months so he hasn’t had the chance to complete them just yet, but they will be completed in the coming weeks and shared on our social media as soon as they’re done so stay tuned for that!
In terms of programming and level design over the past two months I have not made as much progress as I personally would have liked on Demon Debug, but I have made a little bit of progress regardless. In terms of programming the main things I’ve been working on is implementing the Demon Doctor AI and improving some of the in-game UI, in particular the level end UI to make it more aesthetically pleasing and to provide more information. In the level design department I have been working on sketching out some of the remaining levels in Demon Debug and working hard to make these levels be enjoyable, challenging and most importantly informative (i.e. to teach the controls and mechanics of the game to the player). 
The updated level end screen in Demon Debug
Both Fraser and Rupert haven’t had much to do as they have essentially done all their tasks already, Rupert has completed the OST for World One and is just waiting for some of the final animations to be added to the game so sound effects can be designed around those, and Fraser had basically completed the World One story but has decided to work on some final edits.
Fraser’s been making edits to the Demon Debug script and general storyline to make it more enjoyable and fitting with the game. These edits are certainly those which make the Demon Debug story much more enjoyable, and although we can’t share the document in this blog post, you can read the story in the Demon Debug Alpha in the form of the in-game dialogue and cutscenes.
Now that our recent progress is out of the way, let’s talk about our plans for this upcoming month. As most of you know our main goal currently is to release the Demon Debug Alpha (which is a free version of the game that contains all of World One that you can play to give us feedback of the game - sign up here) and unfortunately our progress towards this goal hasn’t been as quick as any of us would have liked. We have recently got around to making a fully detailed Trello board containing all the tasks we need to complete before being able to release the Alpha. Based on this Trello board and the deadlines set by it we are aiming for a mid-May release for the Alpha, but we will not be confirming any release date until we are certain we can accomplish it.
We hope you enjoyed reading this blog post, it’s a bit longer than our usual blogs but with our silence over the past two months we felt it was important to provide an honest update. Be sure to follow us on your preferred social media platform by clicking on one of the buttons below for more updates on Demon Debug and maybe even something else we’ve been working on ?
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Hello everyone and welcome to another iteration of the Demon Debug blog, I’m Rahul and I shall be the author of today’s blog post. For this blog post I’m gonna be trying out something a bit different, so be sure to let me know whether you liked this new style or not.
It’s been a busy start of the year for us as we keep trying our best to get the Demon Debug Alpha out as soon as possible, but unfortunately we still have no confirmation on when the Alpha will be launched. We are aiming to get the Demon Debug Alpha teaser trailer out later on this month, and the full Alpha released shortly after. Before we start off, one thing I should express is that Christopher (our level designer) has left the team recently in order to focus on other work, and all of us on the team wish him the best of luck for the future. Anyways, let’s talk about the progress we’ve been making recently. The first thing we did when the year started was implement the Meaty Mitch boss battle, and damn is it looking good now!
After that Callum began working on a new ‘stopping animation’ for Lil’ Biter which really helps him feel more lifelike.
Now Callum is working on a new walk animation for The Programmer to give him a bit more anger and to make it better fit in with the direction Demon Debug has taken recently. Unfortunately though, we have nothing to show for that just yet.
Brandon has been working on a lot of stuff lately too. One of the first things he designed recently was a new Floppy Disk design and animation, and it is definitely a huge step up. Now we don’t really know why The Programmer stores his data on these 1.44mb diskettes, but what we do know is that they look amazing so we don’t blame him.
Another thing we’ve been collectively working on recently are ways to make Demon Debug look even better, and in order to do that we’ve been working on a few things. Foreground art, particle effects, and lighting are all things we have been experimenting with to try and achieve a better look for Demon Debug, and although none of these are fully implemented we believe it’s looking pretty good so far.
I’ve been working on bug fixes and implementing some new features as usual, but as the new level designer of the team I’ve also been designing some new levels and updating existing levels for Demon Debug to make them more enjoyable yet challenging at the same time for players of all skill levels.
Other than that we’ve also been working on a bit of other stuff recently which we can’t quite share on Twitter but can do so here. Fraser has been working on some new character bios for the bosses of future Worlds of Demon Debug and also been working on the storyline of Demon Debug in general to make it more enjoyable. Rupert has been working on some new sound effects for the game, and once implemented we’re pretty excited to hear what Demon Debug will sound like (sound plays a very important role in video games and Rupert has done a really great job of making the Demon Debug World sound amazing).
That’s about it for today’s blog post. We hope you enjoyed reading it and also we hope you enjoyed this experimental blog style. If you’d like more frequent updates regarding Demon Debug be sure to follow us on Twitter as we update that much more frequently than the blog. If Twitter is not your thing we also have an Instagram and Facebook account you can follow instead, but be sure to follow at least one so you don’t miss out on updates. Hello everyone and welcome to another iteration of the Demon Debug blog, my name is Rahul and I will be the author of today’s blog post. There hasn’t been much progress over the past month of development if I’m honest, but there has been some really cool stuff going on behind the scenes lately. Since this is the first blog post of the year, however, I wanted to start off by doing a bit of recapping of 2017 and talk about our plans for this year regarding Demon Debug. 2017 was a really big year for Demon Debug and bought with it plenty of progress on the game; we hired two new artists to work on the game and really improve the quality of the in-game art, the levels were redesigned with a lot of thought and care to make the levels both more enjoyable and challenging, the story of the game was improved greatly and is now more immersive than before, the programming of the mechanics of the game have been vastly improved to create something more enjoyable and consistent, more music and sound effects have been designed and implemented into the game - my point is that over the past year there has been plenty of behind the scenes progress that really helps add to the immersion and quality of the game.  A look at how Demon Debug has developed over the past year So what are our plans for 2018, you may be asking? Our first goal is to release the Demon Debug Alpha, and we are absolutely certain that it will be coming out this year and not delayed any further. In terms of the Alpha we are aiming for a late January release date as all that remains at this point is the cutscenes, but stay tuned for the Alpha teaser trailer as that will feature the definitive release date. Our second goal is to carry on with development of the game with the same level of quality and get as much work as possible done to bring the game closer to launch. Unfortunately a full release this year seems highly unlikely due to the level of quality we are aiming for in the game and the time the team can spend towards the project (n.b. Everyone in the Forgotten Pixel team works on the project in their free time and it is not a day job by any means, this means that at times there is plenty of progress whereas sometimes there is little progress due to free time), however, we are aiming to get a significant portion of the game complete this year and work towards a launch in 2019. Now that I got our 2018 goals out of the way I can finally talk about our recent progress and, as usual, let’s start off with the art side of development. Both Callum and Brandon have made some good progress recently and have now essentially completed all of their tasks for World One. Callum has recently completed all of the Meaty Mitch animations and Brandon has completed all the backgrounds and tiles for World One. Now all that remains is for Brandon and Callum to complete the cutscenes of the game  A Demon Debug level with the new background and tiles  Meaty Mitch's Fist Slam animation As for me, I haven’t been working on the game as much as usual over the past month, but I did get some work done primarily in terms of implementing new sprites and also working on a few bug fixes. I have also been working on a few in-game tools to help ease the level design process for Christopher when it comes to making levels for World Two and beyond. Christopher, Fraser, and Rupert have not had much to do recently as they all have essentially completed their work for World One. Rupert has created all the audio needed for the Alpha and cannot go on to work on audio for World Two as he needs to know what the World will be like before he goes on to create audio for it. Christopher has designed all the levels for World One and wants to wait for a bit of feedback from people who play the game during the Alpha before starting to work on World Two to ensure he is heading in the right direction and major changes do not need to be made. Fraser has completed the World One story and dialogue and is now waiting for it to be implemented into the game to see if any further improvement can be made. That is all for today’s blog post, we hope you all enjoyed this blog post and we can’t wait to share more exciting progress over the course of the year! Greetings and welcome to the latest Demon Debug blog, I’m Fraser and I shall be your host for today’s edition. The whole team has been working extremely hard and because of this we’ve got a bunch of stuff to share with you all. So sit back, relax and enjoy today’s blog entry. Over the past couple of weeks I have been working on various Demon Bios, which are used to help our artists get basic background information to draw from when creating the various bosses that’ll appear throughout Demon Debug. Currently I won’t be able to share segments from the other Demon bosses as it’ll potentially spoil their appearance in a later edition. Additionally Rahul and I have been working on finalising the dialogue for World One, at this stage the main opening and boss stage dialogue is complete, we’re just working on finalising and fine tuning the dialogue that’ll appear throughout the various stages of World One. As of writing we won’t be able to share any of this dialogue, but for the best way to experience this dialogue make sure to sign up for the alpha. Lastly from me, I’ve also been working on rewriting a few details for the opening and ending of Act Two, as per the usual I can’t really share much of this information currently as it is not yet finalised, but rest assured this’ll be discussed more in a later blog entry. Well that’s enough from me, let’s see how the rest of the team have been doing Brandon has been working on improvements to the existing tiles of the game, this is being done so that not only do they look consistent and match the high quality of the new backgrounds, but so that they’re the best versions they can possibly be for the alpha release. Furthermore Brandon has also been working extremely hard on a new background for World One, which the whole team likes and we’re all sure you will too.  An early look at a new World One background Speaking of art Callum has also been making a staggering amount of progress, as of writing Callum has been making progress on animations for Meaty Mitch, which will be used in game during the boss battle at the end of World One. The whole team loves the direction of these various animations, making Meaty Mitch's movements feel organic whilst at the same time giving impact to each movement he makes, making it seem ever more daunting when the player fights him in the alpha.  Meaty Mitch sprite I’ve said this many times before, but just like a broken record I’ll say it again, the art of a game is just as important if not more so than the various other features and mechanics of the game, as it is one of the ways the player connects with the game and one which will impact their overall experience. By having great art we are ensuring the player's experience is a phenomenal one. Meanwhile Rahul has continued working on the various programming aspects of the game, this largely consists of implementing new features and UI which you’ll be able to experience in the alpha. Additionally Rahul has increased Demon Debug’s overall frame rate in certain levels by up to 50%, which’ll help ensure that the alpha and future full release run at a consistent frame rate making the players experience a far more enjoyable one. As of speaking Christopher has been starting working on potential level layouts for use in World Two, which will definitely help create a starting point for the whole team when we finish work on World One and switch to working on World Two. By having the designs laid out, both our artists will be able to instantly start work on World Two, not to mention how it’ll help in terms of programming, writing and music. Speaking of music, Rupert has finished his music work for World One and is currently working on a few pieces of music for something coming up real soon, I can’t say much without spoiling the surprise, but rest assured it’ll be amazing nonetheless. But that’s not all as when the whole team starts work on World Two, Rupert will be able to instantly start working on the score for this world. Thank you so much for reading this edition of the blog, since this’ll be the last Demon Debug blog of this year, from the whole DD team have a great 25th and a fantastic new year. Hello everyone and welcome to another iteration of the Demon Debug blog, my name is Rahul and I’ll be the author of today’s blog. The past two weeks have been a little bit slower than usual unfortunately, but we still do have some great progress to show off, as well as more news about the Alpha. Our original goal for the Demon Debug Alpha was to have it released before Halloween this year, but as you might have guessed (considering Halloween has now passed) we were unfortunately unable to meet our goal. Our new goal is to get the Alpha released before Christmas, and although I don’t want to confirm that we will be able to meet that release date yet, the team is 99% sure that it is plausible. Now let’s get back to talking about the progress made and, as usual, we’ll start off by talking about the art side of development. Both Callum and Brandon have made good progress over the past two weeks. Callum has mainly been focusing on the World One boss battle, working on new sketches for Meaty Mitch and one of his animations too.  The sketch animation for Meaty Mitch's fist slam attack Brandon has been focusing on the environment of the game, in particular the level endpoint and some new backgrounds for the game. Although he is still working on the backgrounds so we don’t have anything to share yet, he has now completed the level endpoint which you can see how amazing it is for yourself.  Level endpoint portal animation In terms of level design Christopher has started making a bit of progress on World Two already, starting out with some documentation and a sketch of Level 2.1, alongside some more obstacle/enemy ideas. Here’s a look at the sketch for Level 2.1 designed by Christopher, as well as a few words he wanted to add:
Fraser hasn’t really had much to do in terms of the World One story but that doesn’t mean he isn’t planning ahead. Over the past two weeks Fraser has been spending the free time he has been working on some rough outlines for character bios (which help the team get a better understanding of the characters in the game) and also planning out some stuff related to the story of the future Worlds.
Rupert hasn’t had much to do lately since he has most of the music and sound effects for the Alpha sorted out already, and he can not begin working on the soundtrack for the new World until he has some sort of reference to how it may look. That being said though, Rupert is preparing to make a short track that will be used for the teaser trailer of the Demon Debug Alpha, which we are hoping to release later this month! As for me I haven’t had as much of a chance to work on the game as I’d have liked lately, but I still have got some small pieces of work done here and there. My main focus lately has been in terms of polish for the game, looking through the game and fixing bugs in terms of code and the levels in general, and also making sure everything is working the way it is meant to. I have also started working on a new particle effect that will be used in the game, although it is still in early stages I’m hoping to have it complete and implemented by the end of the week. That is all for today’s blog, we hope you enjoyed reading it. There will be no Demon Debug blog post on the 15th of this month (or any month from now on), if you’re unsure why that is you can read more about it in the previous Demon Debug blog post. If you can’t wait one whole month for your next dose of Demon Debug news, be sure to follow us on our social media as we will be posting frequently there from now on. Welcome to the latest edition of the Demon Debug blog, I’m Fraser Rees and I shall be your host for today’s edition. Coming up, we have exciting art developments, further story progress, news on the soundtrack and so much more. Before I begin discussing these exciting details, I will quickly discuss an upcoming change in the blogs release schedule.As many of our regular readers know, we normally post Demon Debug blogs on the 1st and 15th of every month, whilst the Burglars Incorporated blog is released on the 8th and 22nd, which is quite a lot of blogs every month. Starting from next month, Demon Debug blogs will now be posted on the first of every month, whereas Burglars Incorporated blogs will now be posted the fifteenth. The main reason behind this change is that it allows for each blog post to have more detail, as it can become rather difficult to come up with new details for each blog post that haven't been mentioned previously. Now that that’s out of the way, let's talk about the progress the whole team has made. Callum has been working exceptionally hard on redesigns for both Meaty Mitch and Lil’ Biter in order to make sure that they fit in with the newly designed environments and character art that have been developed quite recently.
Brandon has been busy working on new environmental art for World One, all of us at Forgotten Pixel thinks it's amazing and you’re going to love it. Also, Brandon has been working on the level endpoint, which as it name suggests, signals to the player the end of each level. Brandon has been working on making the level endpoint resemble more of a portal in appearance, this adds to the mystical elements of the game, whilst also suiting the overall design and narrative of the Demon Debug world. I cannot stress the importance of good environmental art as just like the soundtrack, it is another way for the player to get captivated in the world you have created and by having a great background not only does it fulfil this, but it is also another way to tell a story and make players more interested in the overall history of the world. Furthermore along with working on new environmental art and the level end portal, Brandon has also been making the finishing touches on the floor tiles of the World, this is being done in order to ensure they are up to a high standard for the alpha and the later full release.  A sketch animation of the level endpoint portal in Demon Debug But that’s not all as both Callum and Brandon have also been getting ready in designing the cutscenes with a focus in making them enjoyable and visually appealing to the player. More information regarding these cutscenes will be made public closer to the release date of the alpha, but to get a more full experience unbiased (and unpaid) experts recommend playing the alpha. Rahul has currently been fixing various bugs that have recently been found in the game, whilst also improving and implementing new UI into the current build of the game. It is highly important to continuously test and fix bugs in the build of the game, to not only make the alpha a more streamlined and enjoyable experience, but to also make sure that the game runs flawlessly for the alpha and the full release. Additionally if we find and correct these various bugs as of now, it’ll save us time in the future. Christopher has been focusing on the planning for World Two, he has been creating various documentation outlining the various layouts and designs of the world, whilst also working on sketches for potential level layouts as well. These will prove vital for the whole Demon Debug team because when we shift development from World One to World Two, we will have a clear foundation to start developing from. However that is not the only progress Rahul and Chris have made, as they have also been busy working on a Meaty Mitch boss prototype, where they are finalising details for the overall design and mechanics of the boss fight, in order to not only offer the player a fun and invested experience, but to also make the boss fight challenge the various skills the player has learnt in the prior levels leading up to it. Rupert has been busy making progress on the main track for World One by experimenting with new exciting additions to the pre existing track, considering how amazing the previous track was the whole team cannot wait to listen to hear what he comes up with. The importance of a piece of music with regards to game design is highly important, as not only will is draw the people further into the game, but by creating an amazing auditory experience for the game, it’ll accommodate and accentuate other key features of the game as well making them more appealing to the player. And as for the progress I have been making, I’ve been busy working on the finishing touches for the story of World One which you’ll be able to experience in the alpha build. I have finished the main opening and ending, which will both be told through cutscenes, what I am finishing up on is the in game dialogue which will occur throughout the levels. Currently speaking ¾ of this is complete, so by the next edition of this blog I should be finished. However, we will not be able to share any examples of the dialogue that appears in the game currently, as we feel that it could spoil the overall experience of playing the game, so in order to experience the dialogue for yourself you’ll have to play the alpha build. From all of us at Forgotten Pixel, thank you so much for reading and we look forward to sharing more regarding Demon Debug very soon. |
Demon Debug BlogThis blog is dedicated to the development of Demon Debug, a 2D Platformer set in Hell Archives
April 2018
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