Grimstone
Collect souls from fallen heroes and use them to build an impenetrable organ fortress
WINNER OF SCORESPACE JAM #26
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Development log
- Minor patch90 days ago
- Performance PatchOct 16, 2023
- Minor patchJul 03, 2023
- Grimstone updateJul 01, 2023
Comments
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Is it normal that the game doesn't let me continue buying or upgrading at minute 32? I am playing using the download option.
It start removing the sound and in a couple of minutes after that, the game doesn't let me buy or upgrade anything. The only actions enabled are remove elements and move my PJ.
Had the same problem with the DL version yesterday. Didnt watch the minutes though.
Howdy! That's a bug that we're still trying to track down, unfortunately. It appears to occur most frequently when towers are placed down in quick succession and close together.
When is the new version out ? Can't wait :)
Weve recently planned out a lot of stuff for the game, including an eventual steam release, not sure exactly when were gonna finish the new update but atleast were working on it :)
Yay, I finally did it!
How? Mostly by learning when exactly The Bug occurs, and managing to avoid it until getting around 5000 points. This allowed me to build a "double spiral" fort, with an essential door in the middle, that you can use to fool all troops except wizards, to let them run endlessly back and forth. Also, placing some doors at key positions allows for "harvest runs", since colon collectors don't go fast enough to achieve crazy high scores.
In the end, when it dipped below 1 FPS, I decided to end it during a wizard wave, but I think I could have played forever with this strategy... This game is awesome, but the end game still needs to be fixed!
Since the new patch, the game crashes on my system about 10 min in.
For me too (Firefox), but not in the download version. Both versions still have the "shop close" bug though.
Wow, this is really nice :)
I love this, I can't stop playing! However many of my games end with suddenly not being able to place or upgrade anything anymore (only crowns can still be placed). That's an annoying game breaking bug... Is there any fix for that planned?
Howdy! A lot of the game is undergoing an intensive performance rewrite for the foreseeable future, but I'll try to backport the accompanying fixes I made sometime during the coming week. That should fix both the inability to place towers sometimes, as well as some eye towers just refusing to fire.
Awesome, that's great to hear! I managed to get into the leaderboards, but it's hard when you cannot build anymore, and when the framerate dips below 1 FPS... (I think one of the reasons the framerate tanks might be because you'll have 2000+ souls flying around you that you cannot spend anymore.) I'll be awaiting the update!
(By the way, are you rewriting it for DOTS / ECS? This seems the type of game for it.)
I also have some suggestions regarding game design (you can take it or leave it): around wave 50 (40-60), you'll be able to build an impenetrable end game fortress. Although wizards and queens are still a bit dangerous, the only real reason to lose at that point is if the game crashes (frame rate / no building possible). I think it would be great to introduce one or two more end game enemies at that point, to shake things up again. For instance one that can blow up your towers(!), or one that can fly over everything. Just to guarantee that the game will end at some point...
Also, with these very busy waves, it would be good to indicate what it was that killed you (which type of enemy).
Anyway, great to hear that you're still working on this game! I think it can become a real hit, especially if you add some ways to get more variety (different maps or waves?) or meta progression (ability unlocks?).
The new patch is live!
If you are ever unable to place towers again I'd appreciate it if you could send me the browser's console log, but hopefully it is fixed for good.
While DOTS/ECS has crossed my mind, it isn't supported on WebGL, which for now remains our target platform. Even if it was, the big performance improvements in DOTS come from its multi-threaded nature, but WebGL will support only a single thread for the foreseeable future.
Thank you for the endgame mechanic suggestions. We are aware that spending the late game in a static base with no threat around isn't fun and already have a few ideas for new (and reworked) towers and enemies ready for when we'll add new features.
As an example for the performance improvements I am currently working on, the following gif is path-finding for the enemies running on the GPU using custom shaders instead of the CPU. Each color indicates a direction for the enemy to walk in to reach the player (which I think is really nice to look at):
Thanks for the update! I noticed some changes, like the sound effects stopping in the later levels. That is probably a good idea indeed. Maybe keep the most important sounds, like wizards shooting and crowns dropping?
Unfortunately I still had some trouble: in the WebGL version, both times when I reached about Wave 25, it completely crashed now... I didn't see anything special in the browser console log (maybe I didn't look well enough? Also maybe it's my old laptop & browser - I use Firefox btw).
In the download version, the "shop close" bug happened again, each time when I got above Wave 50. The last time was in Wave 55, while quickly placing a whole battery of colons.
About the path finding: GPU path finding and the GIF are really cool, but is that really the bottleneck? If you have 1 player and 1000 enemies, you still need to run the path finding (or "flow map generation") algorithm only once, right?
Anyway, it's great to hear that you're still working on this! I'll be following for further updates.
Another crash. Almost got you, Master Killer :D
Any news about the game?
Dino is still busy with life stuff, probably gonna get back to work soon :)
Good job, Master Killer!
It crashed :(
With this set up, you can stop everything without dodging at all :
The queens shadows have a range of 6 max, I completely wall off the entire game area with teeth and just leave one tiny entrance with lots of skulls + crown upgrade. The queens shadows materialize out of my main area :
So basically I go on the right, do nothing and everything die. Then as usual the game crash at about 4K.
I love this game ! Keep at it :)
Dude youre actually cracked its so cool seeing stuff like this
Good idea. I tested some juking tactics but ultimately lagging is the biggest problem. I feel like it got a little bit better after the patch though. The downloaded version runs smoother but the highscores dont work there :(
Anyway a great game. I hope you keep it up!
The highscores in the download version don't work for you? I can't replicate that on my end... Do the scores not show up at all, or is just the upload of new scores not working for you? I am aware that the score won't apply if the game crashes: Maybe I should send it more often than just when the player dies.
I did one run with the performance patch but without the hotfix where i reached ~3000 and died. It didnt register in the highscore.
Sending more often sounds like a good idea ;)
Some of the upgrades don't work anymore (with the crown): the gate (for sure) and likely the skull upgrade.
Thanks for the report! The crown upgrades for both the skull and tooth should work again with the new hotfix 5.
Thank you!
Also: I don't know if it's intended or not, but now wizards are invulnerable to high spiked walls (they can't get through them, but they don't take damage anymore).
I have a suggestion for the "one FPS problem" that crash the game all the time for me in the late stages, or make it completely unplayable (kudos to the guy that can play with the 0,3 FPS :)). What about simply, instead of multiplying the number of ennemies to infinity, adding HP to them after the 30th wave? That way you can still get a nice challenge, without tanking your FPS.
Great game - great run, unfortunately the FPS where down to 0,3 and i couldn't dodge anymore.
The Tower-Pickers are arranged in a square use this as orientation
Close with teeth so that each side has two entries in the firing line of the skulls
Skulls and teeth to direct the enemies
prepare second wall
Close it after the queen and upgrade the outer wall with high teeth
Late Game build a zig-zag maze of skulls and an inner ring of eyes
GG
Holy shit
Thanks ;)
jo i saw you got a higher score than me, how did you do that? my game nearly crashed on 4000 points
The last rounds where really lagging. One frame every few seconds. I was standing in the middle and let my maze do the job. Eventually one of the 16 queens summoned a unit in the middle as their shadows ignore walls. I saw it in one frame and was dead on the next one.
I added some tweaks that i didn't mention in my strategy (too keep the highscore). If you want to go further than that you need some serious juking, which i am already thinking about ;)
new update? will there be more stuff in this game or what is going on?
Howdy! Sadly I (the lead programmer) am between jobs right now and can't spend the time I'd want on coding new updates :( Our interest in the game hasn't died down, but it'll be a while.
oh i understand that, take your time and do the important things first. if you have the time you maybe could add the downloadable version again so we could play the game without those fps bugs, i would appreciate that.
Uploaded version 1.0.4 with the performance improvements I made up until this point, hopefully without any new bugs. Have fun!
thank you man, now im able to get number 1 on the leaderboard again xD.
Good luck! Sometimes pressing restart caused the skulls to stop working, so I had to upload a hotfix already ':)
오 재밌네용.
1FPS again (at this point, I just destroy the towers so I can end the game, it looks more like a painting than a game)
Fun game ! I hope to see an improved version. I would be OK to part some cash for a proper end game :)
glad to hear that, were def considering making it a full game but were focusing on doing other game jams, also we dont have a dedicated coder yet
OMG this makes me rage I died at 614 this game is SO GOOD and so horrible at the same time WHY AM I A ONE SHOT KILL and why am I addicted
nice game but i got killed by 1 fps wtf
youre guys are just to good at the game haha <3
xd, i really like the game. will there be more updates or are you guys stop working on it?
i think we will update it later but rn our team started new projects or new work.
im glad you like the game <3
i would love to make this game a big finished game tbh.
lets see what we can do <3
100% there will be more stuff, just rn I kinda wanna have fun with some other jams lol, also were thinking about a standalone steam game
This is a very good game! Simple but hard to master.
Keep up the good work !
This is a good game, but this patch made me a bit confusing and it is fixed now.
it is nice to keep updating. thank you.
By the way, other updates including a larger map and different game pace makes me feel different and interesting compared with last one.
thanks for the feedback, I see the problem with pirates, therye gonna be less annoying in the next update
Pirates are only taken down by shots from a colon, and colons are guided by the mouse cursor, in case anyone else was confused
Crazy!!
Really cool game!
really fun! my only complaint is that you die in one hit. Really I'd be satisfied with just two hp so You don't die instantly.
also, minor glitch where when i turn the 'Sound' volume down, it just goes back to max.
Has some iffy points, especially shop being unusable at some point(bug?). But overall I enjoyed my time there and got to the endgame when the game started lagging :D. I like the unique artstyle and enemys, even though personally I hate the wizards and the queen bugging enemy spawns (no I don't mean that the units can travel through walls, sometimes you just see one pop up even though there was no shadow leading in there cause I double/triple walled the space so she can't do that xD). Overall the wizards are the hardest to deal with and the unit I died to cause I couldnt use shop anymore to buy eyes to protect base. Might come back to this and thank you for making this fun public access!
Had the same issue with the shop in the end
it's not bad, but I prefer more story oriented games. It was pretty cool though, love the artstyle and the music. Slightly annoyed about dying in 1 hit but that's what makes the leaderboard more special, I suppose.
thank you for playing the game <3
i just wanna point out that it was a highscore oriented gamejam.
there was not much space for a storyline but i also prefer story oriented game.
You're right. I was just expecting some undead king that brainwashed his people into believing something else for their safety or something and they eventually die and wanted to stay in their place or something and seeing the reaper doing things like that made them guard up and attack by default or something. But! I can still appreciate this game quite a lot, and even if it was somewhat difficult, it was fun for certain.
Great game ! Dying in one hit is very frustrating though, as obstacles hard-blocking movement + quick enemy with short attack animation make dodging a bit difficult
I love this game <3
One of the best I ever played on itch!
Hope you are ok with this?
Fantastic game! I fell in love with him! I mentioned it even in my video! I wish you much success! Hugs from Brazil
I really liked the game but why are we dying with one shot? Dying is making game less enjoyable and I think mobs can drop multiple blue things. I guess every mob drops only one blue thing.
This game is literally so cute! I love the graphics and the artwork in it! It took me a lil bit of time to figure out how to play so this video is kind of a tutorial
Honestly the best game I have ever played in my entire life
Honestly the best game I have ever seen in my entire life
Honestly the best game I have ever played in my entire life
Honestly the best game I have ever played in my entire life
Honestly the best game I have ever played in my entire life
Honestly the best game I have ever seen in my entire life