Progeny: Buried Alive Progress

Development of Progeny: Buried Alive is coming along great. More than any game idea I've had, I'm really excited about the story that is being told through this game. And probably unlike some of my previous games, I am taking my sweet time with this one in order to very thoroughly test it and polish it as I go. 

I've had a few "eureka" moments where some interesting game mechanic just manifested itself and begged to be implemented. The most recent one is shown below.

As you may recall from my preview video, Dan's energy pistol has two firing modes. The primary fire shoots a green projectile that deals a pretty good chunk of damage to enemies. The secondary fire is not actually an attack but is more of a utility option. It's called "Propulsion" and allows you to throw yourself in the opposite direction of where your pistol is pointing, sort of like a rocket engine.

As I began playing around with the game and testing the first level, I kept instinctively attempting to use my propulsion in order to throw projectiles back at enemies. It just felt like that's how it should work. After all, if it throws out enough thrust to make me fly through the air, why can't I also use that force to send enemy projectiles back at them? So I worked it in, and I'm happy with the results. Check out the video of the current alpha state of the game below to see it in action!

Progeny: Buried Alive (Video)

Progeny: Buried Alive (Preview)

This week's game tells the story of Dan Palladian from the Progeny.

Before the crash, Dan was the ship's entertainment mogul, eventually owning and operating almost every single cinematic establishment on the ship. He wrote, directed, edited, and acted in all of his own films. He had recently married Paige Ellsworth, the lead actress of one of his latest films. But when the Progeny went down, the two of them were funneled into separate escape pods.

His pod crashed into a mountain and embedded itself deep in an underground cave. He survived for a week underground, defending himself with the low-tech energy pistol that comes standard in every escape pod and eating the cave-dwelling fungus and creatures he could find. Captain Moore found him after seven days.

---

Unlike a traditional platformer that is "on rails", this one will take place in a huge, expansive cave system with no designated "end" and no levels. You simply have to survive for 7 days; to that end, there is a big emphasis on open-ended exploration. Your "hunger" is constantly going up, but you can satisfy your hunger by eating mushrooms and eating the critters that you kill. If your hunger hits the max, you starve to death. So there is no way to simply wait around for rescue; you have to keep moving so you can forage and avoid starvation. Each in-game "minute" is one second of play time, so that means you have to survive for 2 hours and 8 minutes before rescue arrives. Most of the creatures in the cave will kill you if you get too close to them, so you have to be very careful and try to blast them from afar.

But there is a catch: your only light source is your weapon. The weapon has a battery that charges over time, but each shot you fire takes up battery power. So the more you shoot, the darker it gets, and you are in the dark until your gun recharges (somewhat quickly, however). Most enemies and food items glow in the dark (bioluminescence), so you can still see where things are, but you won't be able to see the terrain or non-glowing objects when it gets too dark.

In addition, enemies behave differently the darker it is. For example, the worm thing you see in the screenshot moves faster as it becomes darker.

I'm also working on implementing creatures that only exist in darkness. So when it gets very dark, their glowing eyes will pop up, but when the light comes back, there's nothing there. Stay tuned for more updates!

Progeny Chess

FREE DOWNLOAD
(Windows. Multiplayer only -- LAN & Same-Screen)

Progeny Chess is a new version of chess with modified rules. The main gameplay mechanics have stayed mostly the same, but some new features have been added. All of the original pieces are there (pawn, king, queen, rook, etc) and move in the same way as they do in standard chess. Like normal chess, the goal is to take out the enemy king. Unlike normal chess, Progeny Chess does not have a "check" or "check mate" system. Instead, you must simply kill the enemy king. This adds some additional concentration requirements from both players; if they don't realize their king is in trouble, there is nothing shouting at them to get the king to safety.

However, each chess piece has additional abilities beyond its ordinary movement/attack abilities. Using one of these abilities uses up your turn.

• Trooper / Pwn-Bot (Pawn): Can self-destruct to destroy both itself and the piece immediately in front of it.
• Captain / Commander (King): Can deploy a pawn to the space immediately in front of it. This ability  has a 10-turn cooldown.
• Guard / Blocker (Knight): Can drop a Barrier onto any open space within one square of itself. A barrier blocks that space and lasts for 8 turns. Only knights can jump over barriers (just as they can jump over other pieces in traditional chess). Neither friendly nor hostile pieces can pass through a Barrier.
• Engineer / Scout (Bishop): Can drop a Smoke Bomb onto any open space or onto any enemy within one square of itself. Any enemy under the smoke cannot be selected by their commander, effectively disabling that enemy while the smoke lasts. Smoke bombs last for 6 turns, and do not negatively affect friendly targets.
• Sweeper /Dozer (Queen): Can destroy all Smoke Bombs and Barriers within one space of itself.
• Beardman / Grinder (Rook): Can trade places with any one of your pawns anywhere on the board. This ability cannot be used on your opponent's back row.

As you can imagine, these additions provide for some very interesting strategic opportunities and a lot more depth than traditional chess. Progeny Chess is multiplayer only and has a LAN & Same-Screen option. There is no online play currently. Windows only.

Progeny Chess Preview

Two days of development left for PROGENY CHESS! Here's a breakdown of the rules. The main gameplay mechanics have stayed mostly the same:

• All of the original pieces are there (pawn, king, queen, rook, etc) and move in the same way as they do in standard chess.
• Like normal chess, the goal is to take out the enemy king. Unlike normal chess, Progeny Chess does not have a "check" or "check mate" system. Instead, you must simply kill the enemy king. This adds some additional focus requirements from both players; if they don't realize their king is in trouble, there is nothing shouting at them to get the king to safety.

However, each chess piece has additional abilities beyond its ordinary movement/attack abilities. Using one of these abilities uses up your turn.

• Trooper / Pwn-Bot (Pawn): Can self-destruct to destroy both itself and the piece immediately in front of it.
• Captain / Commander (King): Can deploy a pawn to the space immediately in front of it. This ability has a 10-turn cooldown.
• Guard / Blocker (Knight): Can drop a Barrier onto any open space within one square of itself. A barrier blocks that space and lasts for 8 turns. Only knights can jump over barriers (just as they can jump over other pieces in traditional chess). Neither friendly nor hostile pieces can pass through a Barrier.
• Engineer / Scout (Bishop): Can drop a Smoke Bomb onto any open space or onto any enemy within one square of itself. Any enemy under the smoke cannot be selected by their commander, effectively disabling that enemy while the smoke lasts. Smoke bombs last for 6 turns, and do not negatively affect friendly targets.
• Sweeper /Dozer (Queen): Can destroy all Smoke Bombs and Barriers within one space of itself.
• Beardman / Grinder (Rook): Can trade places with any one of your pawns anywhere on the board. This ability cannot be used on your opponent's back row.

As you can imagine, these additions provide for some very interesting strategic opportunities and a lot more depth than traditional chess.

I'm able to successfully set up a LAN connection for the game, but am still working on getting online play to work. Hopefully I can get that all hammered out within the next two days. Check back Friday night for the final version!

(PC Only for now; though I plan on getting it out for iPhone and iPad early next year.)

Games

	Bacterium - [Info] [Demo] [Buy ($0.99)] Influence a population of realistically-behaving bacteria to complete objectives! Bacterium blurs the line between education and gaming as it simulates the mechanisms of evolution. (Single Player, PC)
	Goat Milk - [Info] [Free Download] Don't get milked! Run from Farmer Jerry as he looks for new sources of dairy revenue after the DJIA plunged and he lost 6% of his retirement savings. (Single Player, PC)
	Progeny Chess - [Info] [Free Download] A modified version of standard chess in which all the pieces have additional special abilities, adding a new layer of depth and strategy. (Multiplayer LAN/Same Screen only, PC)
	Project 87 - [Info] [Demo] [Buy ($2.99)] A mind-bending puzzle game in which you must manipulate gravity in order to escape increasingly complicated logic problems. (Single Player, PC)
	Towelfight of the Gods - [Info] [Free Download] You've been warped from your shower into the arena of the gods. Your arms are bananas. Fight for the favor of Pete or Quetzal and tip the scales of fate in your favor. (Single Player, PC)

GAME-A-WEEK