We Have Sound! The Dungeon Has Officially Stopped Miming.

We have sound!

Lots of sound. Visual effects too. After the last update's elaborate mime fight, Swordoku: Grid & Glory has finally decided to make some noise.

Combat is coming alive, getting more intense, and looking considerably more like the dungeon adventure I've had in my head.

Now that's properly dungeony

The placeholder dungeon stage we've been using has had some upgrades, particularly to the lighting. It's darker, moodier, and much more convincingly dungeony.

Yes, dungeony. A perfectly respectable technical term.

Each dungeon has its own theme, with variations on that theme across its stages. The idea is to keep the journey from looking like the same room has been following you around for an entire game.

It should be worth looking up from the puzzle board to see what's happening in combat.

I've also adjusted how larger monsters fit into the scene. I want the big creatures to keep their size and menace without standing nose to nose with the player.

Dragons, for example.

I mean zombies. No dragons here. In a dungeon? Absolutely not.

A few camera tricks and some position offsets have made a real difference. The big monsters can stay big, while leaving enough breathing room for the encounter to look right.

The spirit has revised his pricing strategy

Our wandering spirit has had some upgrades and fixes too. He'll now only offer healing when you're below 90% of your maximum health.

Offering to restore one health point for 12 Gold was a little extreme. Being dead apparently hadn't stopped him from exploring some very enthusiastic pricing.

He's also got new audio effects, which make the encounter much moodier. A ghost should bring some atmosphere with him, not just a questionable invoice.

I'd quite like my turn back

There's now a combat speed button, with normal, 1.5×, and 2× options.

This is a puzzle game, and when two or three monsters all need to take their turns, it can be a while before you're back to placing pieces. Not everyone wants to sit through the full performance every time.

Hint: me.

The multiplier speeds up combat only. You can keep things at their normal pace or move the action along a bit faster when you're ready to get back to the board.

Still more things to audioize

There is more audio work ahead. The big board-changing moves have their visual effects, but still have little or no sound to go with them. That needs fixing.

I also need to go back and audioize the menus and buttons across the other screens.

Is that a word? It is now. Put it next to dungeony in the development dictionary.

New dungeon themes and ability icons are on the list too, along with a proper pass through achievements. The achievement system is in place, but there are currently very few you can actually obtain.

A functioning achievement system is lovely. Giving it some achievements would probably improve the experience.

About a month in

Overall, things are looking really good.

The first Swordoku post went up around October 17, and development started before that. That puts us roughly a month into the project, which has made me stop and appreciate just how much has come together.

I could have written all of this code by hand. Some of it, I have. But if I'd been doing all of it that way, I reckon we'd be at about a quarter of the progress we've made so far.

That's my estimate of my own workflow, and it's a pretty compelling reason for me to keep using the tools that help me get things built.

The decisions, testing, fixes, and occasional argument with a camera still need doing. AI hasn't removed the work. It's helped me get through a lot more of it.

Let the haters hate. I've got a noisy dungeon to finish.