Bytebeasts: April 2022 DevBlog

Introduction

Hello everyone! My name is Kendell Taylor. Some may also know me by AirDashClubKen, or ADCKen from the fighting game community. I'm an aspiring solo indie game developer that's making a RPG I hope to release as a full game and turn this passion into a full-time career. To keep me on track with goals, I decided to start a DevBlog. I look forward to all of you keeping up with the development!

What is Bytebeasts?

Bytebeasts is a monster-taming RPG where the player uses a team of monsters to take advantage of different positions or ranges on the battlefield against their enemy. In addition, your team can use "Tag Strategies" to switch after attacking or assist the lead bytebeast with dealing extra damage. The combat mechanics are inspired by Monster Rancher, specifically Monster Rancher 4, and team fighting games such as Marvel vs Capcom or Dragon Ball Fighterz.

Work Completed So Far...

I started my prototype back in October 2021, but momentum didn't really begin until January of this year. My biggest hurdle was creating art for the game since I didn't have any experience with pixel art, but I am really glad to find a simple and charming style I can continue to work on throughout this journey. After finding an art style, my focus was to get the combat system up and running with all the required mechanics to ensure the game feels good and looked cool during battles. 

Notice how the player's background shifts as their bytebeast moves to a different range.

As I continued to develop the combat system, I would run into questions on how to display certain effects, such a projectile traveling across the screen, or giving the "illusion" that the monsters are at two different ranges in battle. It seems like a minor thing, but when you figure out how games with similar gameplay handles these features and see your own implementation in action, it creates a magical look you can't wait to show off.

When I watched close friends and family playtest the prototype, I would get more excited behind the mechanics in the game and potential depth it will allow players to explore. Instead of the traditional status ailments, monsters are given a temporary buff or debuff that will alter gameplay. Depending on the attack the player or enemy used, it will use up the effect immediately. But if you choose to switch your monster, the buff or debuff stays active! Compared to Pokemon - you could buff your monster's attack stat, then switch - but your buffs are lost. With Bytebeasts, you can make plays to hold your monster's buff to deal SERIOUS damage to an enemy bytebeast that could be a problem to your team. This is just one example of what you can do with team strategy!

First Prototype Impressions

This first prototype I decided to send to friends and family rather than allow access to the open public simply because the game is not in a state for public feedback yet. I am expecting it won't be playable for public audience until later this year or early 2023. If you are interested in trying the game, please try to be patient until then!

Regarding gameplay, a lot of the testers felt the game was fun! A few of the big factors here was gameplay fast speed despite the game being turn-based, and experimentation with ranges & team setup to enforce player engagement. Although it's an early prototype, there was plenty of replay options due to varied monster choices and attacks.

I do have some UI menus in combat that needs to be changed. Right now, if a player is at one particular range, such as MID range, the player will only see MID range skills. But if the range suddenly changed to CLOSE or FAR, the skills change and could confuse the player. I'll need to consider how to better translate this information or give the option for the player to see the skills all at once.

 

Original attack menu UI...

Compared to the attack menu UI I'm working on now

Like any prototype, there was several bugs that testers discovered. A lot of them I have been able to find and fix pretty quickly, but I do have a few that I'm still researching. It's likely the few that I'm seeing that are likely a performance/optimization issue that will improve in the future.

Goals for April-May

The first thing I want to work on is updating some of the combat UI. Especially the attack menu since it doesn't communicate information very well. There also isn't a pause menu UI for players to look at their bytebeasts and understand how they may work. Since combat is at a good point gameplay-wise, I can lean more into art and design with animating monster sprites and designing puzzle features for dungeons the player can explore.

Still a WIP, but I'm excited to give lively animations to bytebeasts during combat!

There's so much more I could share, but I'll provide more information during the next blog. Thank you all for reading this month's blog post. Until next time!