ACT Patreon Active [Anon42] Crisis Point: Extinction

[Anon42]

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Hey everyone, time for another CPE weekly development update! Before I get started, I want to apologize again for not doing any streams this week. Work on the update has been going extremely well, better than most updates to be honest, but I just haven't really been up for streaming due to a bit of a mental funk I've been in. Luckily I'm learning how to deal with it enough so it's not affecting my work much anymore, but yeah, cards on the table, that's why. I'll try to stream this week if I'm feeling more up to it, but no promises. Enough about that though, let's get to the update!


First off, we have the gif up above, showing off the new special effect that plays when you capture an enemy. That animation only plays for each enemy the first time you defeat them, and only after your blaster has been upgraded to allow capturing enemies. The same special effect will be used when Alicia warps between save points as well, though that hasn't been implemented just yet. The gif's quality is a bit lacking, so you can't really see the particles that come off at the end, so if you want to see it in better quality, you can check that out here:

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Next up we have tutorials! There are a few places in Crisis Point where new players have gotten rather confused - namely, how to activate H-scenes, and how to proceed through tight corridors by sliding. Many players were unaware that sliding even existed, and so were unable to proceed past the very early parts of the game. I thought long and hard about how to fix this - I've tried to make tutorials in Crisis Point as organic as possible, mostly by trapping the player in a room with their new upgrade with the only way out being to actually USE that upgrade - but in the end I decided to implement a few tutorials like the one you see up above, and this one as well.

As much as I'm not a fan of blatant, inorganic tutorials like these, I decided implementing just a few of them would be the least intrusive way to arm players with the full knowledge of their moveset. There will be a menu toggle to turn these off if you don't want to see them, but performing the listed actions will make them disappear right away, hopefully giving players enough info to be able to figure the rest out on their own. (In some cases the prompts will be accompanied by text, when it's not as obvious what they're for.) High quality versions of those gifs can be found here:

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Next up is the death animations for the Tentacles and Edovex enemies! As anyone who's played the game knows, the vast majority of enemies don't have death animations in Crisis Point yet. This update will be adding several, mostly focused around the early-game enemies to prepare for the public update. These were two of the simplest ones, and I do still want to add a bit more to the Edovex's animation, but I hope you'll agree it makes defeating enemies a lot more satisfying. High quality versions of the animations can be seen here:

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Last of all, a quick screenshot to show the new setup for the CG viewer. In previous versions, there were some ??? entries in the CG viewer that couldn't be unlocked in any way, which lead to a lot of confusion. My apologies for that, first of all - it's easy to forget that players don't have access to the same knowledge of the game that I do as the developer, so I failed to realize it would be confusing. In an effort to fix it, I removed the unobtainable question mark entries and made it so you can now access the boss fight H-scenes through the CG viewer. At the moment, the boss fights are not CGs, just sprite animations, as I've been having difficulty deciding exactly how I want to incorporate CGs into their scenes, but now you can access these scenes as many times as you want, and losing to bosses no longer shows the H-scene, keeping in line with the rest of the H-scene changes in Crisis Point.

Alrighty, that's all of the major things this week! There were a small handful of bugs fixed as usual, and some more work done on the fonts used in the game (we have a new "small" font now that looks a lot cleaner). Orex has been working on more cutscene animations for the game, after which he'll be working on death animations for the humanoid enemies. He's been streaming without me occasionally, so if you want to follow him on Picarto to catch his streams, you can check him out here:

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That's all for me this week, everybody. Thanks so much to both our old supporters, and all of the new ones coming in recently! You guys are the reason this game is happening, and I sincerely cannot thank you enough. See you next update!
-A42

 

[Anon42]

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Hey everyone, time for another Crisis Point: Extinction weekly development update! I don't have nearly as much to share visually this week, I'm afraid to say - in general the visual side of things is going to be slower for the rest of this update now, since we ended up getting a lot of that done earlier in the update cycle, leaving mostly behind-the-scenes work for the rest of it. That said, there's still definitely some visuals to show off, so let's get started!



First off is the human encampment in the Caves, seen up above! (I included a gif so you could see some of the background animations and a still image so you could see it all in higher quality - the gif did some exceptionally strange things to colors this time around..) All of the assets there are still subject to change, but we felt like it was about time for the camp to actually feel like a camp, not just some random room everyone happens to hang out in. And now Rod's line about there being air filtration at the camp makes a bit more sense, huh? Particularly keen-eyed viewers might even see some improvements in the Caves tileset. You can see the camp scene gif in higher quality here:

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Next up is a save point animation. I'm still considering doing something fancier with this animation, but one thing I want to avoid is locking the player in a lengthy animation every time they want to save - some games do that sort of thing and I've always found it to be rather annoying, so for now I'm just sticking with some special effects that don't lock Alicia in place, you can save and then keep moving immediately, but at least now there's some more feedback when you save your game so it doesn't look so plain. You can see this animation in higher quality here:

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Lastly on the visual side, we have the first shot of a new minor NPC that will be coming to Crisis Point.. eventually! She's still a tad on the unfinished side (she's still using Alicia's standing pose for one, but she'll be getting her own eventually), but I love her design too much to wait before showing her off. Before you get too excited, she WILL NOT be in this update - I have plans for NPCs that will unfortunately take longer to pull off than what we have time for right now, so her full inclusion in the game will have to wait, but hopefully a quick tease will get you excited to meet her good 'n proper later on.

That's all we have to show off visually for this update, sorry it's not quite as exciting as last week's. Aside from that, I spent most of this week working on retiling rooms in the Summit (we WILL be rid of the old Summit tiles by the end of this update, I swear it), fixing up various bugs, polishing the game all over, and writing dialogue. Orexius finished up some work on a few cutscene animations, and has since moved on to working on death animations for the Sentry and Soldier enemies to try and polish up the enemies that will be available in the public demo.

Development of this update is going absolutely fabulously, and I can't wait to get it in everyone's hands! As always, thank you all so, so much for supporting CP:E's development - we wouldn't be here doing this if it wasn't for all of you. If ya stuck through the entire post, thank you so much for reading - we'll see you in the next update!
-A42

 

[Anon42]

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Hey everyone, time for another weekly Crisis Point: Extinction development update! Like I mentioned last week, we won't have much to show off in the way of visuals for the rest of this month - a lot of the visuals were worked on in the first half of the update cycle, or just aren't interesting enough to warrant showing off in a post. That being said, we still got plenty done this week, and there is one nice visual treat to show off, so let's get started!

https://soundcloud.com/anon-42-498945869%2Fcrisis-point-extinction-summit-indoors
First off, as you can see up above, we have some new music coming to CP:E! There are only 5 major areas in Crisis Point, 4 of which have been implemented in the game already - however, within each of those 5 areas, there might be some areas that are visually distinct from each other. In the Summit, for example, we have a mix of indoor and outdoor areas - in instances such as these, we plan to have the music in Crisis Point smoothly fade between variations of itself, much like you might've seen in other games. The song up above is the Indoors variation of the Summit theme; while the outdoors theme has lots of reverb and echoing sounds, the indoors theme pulls things in a bit closer with a more personal touch, introducing acoustic guitars and an overall more home-y vibe. I want to capitalize on that by making the interior areas of the Summit feel more lived-in at some point - after all, Rodriguez did say that something used to live there, it's just a matter of when we'll get time to update the art. In the meantime though, hope you enjoy the new music!


Next up is a shot of the starting area in Crisis Point - things look a little different though, as you can probably tell! The starting area in Crisis Point has had temporary artwork for as long as I can remember, and considering it's the first thing that players see when they start playing, it was in desperate need of an overhaul. To go along with the fancy new visuals, I also have an exciting announcement - some of you may know that Crisis Point wouldn't exist without the input of my girlfriend, who encouraged me to pick up work on adult projects again years back when I was struggling to make ends meet with other work. Suffice it to say, without her urging me on, this game wouldn't exist - and now, to make things even better, she's joined the team as a background artist! She'd never worked with pixel art until a week or two ago, when she decided to try learning it to see if she could help out with CP:E's development, and being a talented artist already, she picked it up in no time at all. The new background art for the starting area, and some of the art seen in last week's camp update, was made by her, and she'll be working with us from now on under the alias of Puffernutter. CP:E's future is looking brighter than ever with her on board, and I can't wait to see how the game looks when we finally reach the finish line!

That's about all of the super exciting stuff to show off this week, but rest assured we got more than that done. I spent the week finishing dialogue for this update and preparing for a new intro cutscene that gives better context for the start of Alicia's journey, as well as fixing bugs, and doing a MAJOR overhaul of one particularly unoptimized piece of my code. If anyone had lag issues in previous versions of Crisis Point, with any luck they'll be gone completely now - my unlocked framerate in the Summit (which was probably the most intensive area) more than doubled after these optimizations, so it should hopefully make a big difference on weaker machines.

One last thing I want to talk about before I go - as you may know, my plan at the moment is for this to be the last major update before Crisis Point finally gets a new public demo. Like I said a few weeks ago, the sheer size of this update may end up pushing it back into January, but I think the more likely thing is that I release an update this month and then a SMALL update in January, with minor updates and polish that couldn't quite make it for December. After I have everything I want for that public demo, I'm going to push to get it out as soon as possible, and then work on an HTML5 port of said public demo. This is going to be a HUGE undertaking, as HTML5 has completely different limitations and requirements compared to Windows and I've never worked with it before, so I want to warn you all ahead of time, it's possible that after this next update there might be an extended waiting period between updates. I don't want to push it back more than a month (3 months total between updates), so if I end up having more trouble than anticipated with the HTML5 port I'll just continue work on the main branch of CP:E and tinker with the port in the meantime rather than pushing the next major update further and further back, but I just wanted to warn you all of this ahead of time. None of this will be happening until January at the earliest though, and naturally I'll keep you all up-to-date on progress as I work on it.

Alrighty, that's about enough outta me for this update! Thank you all so much for reading and for giving us so much support. It never ceases to amaze me how many of you are invested in this game and the work we do, and it's humbling that you've stuck by us even after all the troubles we've had. We're stronger now than we've ever been and it's all thanks to you, the people following and supporting Crisis Point. I'll see all of you beautiful people in the next update <3
-A42

 

[ThatWeirdGuyWithaWeirdHat]

Dayum that's AM2R levels of background detail. Will it Parallax scroll?

 

[Anon42]

Dayum that's AM2R levels of background detail. Will it Parallax scroll?

Thanks man, that's a hell of a compliment! And yes, it most definitely does have parallax scrolling!

 

[rugirusa]

Who can share the game save file with the latest update?

 

[super_slicer]

Are you asking for a save file or a download of the latest update?

Perhaps both?

 

[Soljer13]

Are you asking for a save file or a download of the latest update?

Perhaps both?

Looks like a save file.

 

[rugirusa]

Are you asking for a save file or a download of the latest update?

Perhaps both?

Save file.

 

[super_slicer]

I haven't played a version since the dark area was added but I don't think a save file is of much use. Given that there are (were?) teleports that will take you to various stages of the game with the appropriate items acquired.

That's why I was unsure of what you were asking for.

 

[ThatWeirdGuyWithaWeirdHat]

The only thing I don't like about the newest area is the fact that, since the hell hound enemy got removed (thanks Patreon...), there are no new enemies to enhance the atmosphere of the area. It's not that I'm clamoring for more h-animations, I'm taking from a game-play standpoint (Not a popular opinion, I know). Right now the dark area feels more like just the second area with lighting effects. I know new ANYTHING is the last thing on your mind right now, but I feel it's something you may want to consider after you finish the Great Rework.

 

[Anon42]

I haven't played a version since the dark area was added but I don't think a save file is of much use. Given that there are (were?) teleports that will take you to various stages of the game with the appropriate items acquired.

That's why I was unsure of what you were asking for.

Makes sense. The game's had a real save system for a while now though, and because of it the teleporters were removed (it was too easy for a new player to not realize the teleporters would skip huge chunks of the game and lead to lots of confusion), so I can understand asking for a save now

The only thing I don't like about the newest area is the fact that, since the hell hound enemy got removed (thanks Patreon...), there are no new enemies to enhance the atmosphere of the area. It's not that I'm clamoring for more h-animations, I'm taking from a game-play standpoint (Not a popular opinion, I know). Right now the dark area feels more like just the second area with lighting effects. I know new ANYTHING is the last thing on your mind right now, but I feel it's something you may want to consider after you finish the Great Rework.

Nah man, you're absolutely right. The lack of a replacement for the Hellhound is a major issue the Catacombs, makes it feel horribly empty, and it's basically my #1 priority once The Great Rework™ is finished. This is supposed to be the final update in the rework, so we should be able to get the replacement enemy added pretty soon, thankfully. (Things will continue to be reworked of course, that's just the nature of game development, but we should have a much more even focus between reworking and making new content after this)

 

[Deathwing9000]

Makes sense. The game's had a real save system for a while now though, and because of it the teleporters were removed (it was too easy for a new player to not realize the teleporters would skip huge chunks of the game and lead to lots of confusion), so I can understand asking for a save now


Nah man, you're absolutely right. The lack of a replacement for the Hellhound is a major issue the Catacombs, makes it feel horribly empty, and it's basically my #1 priority once The Great Rework™ is finished. This is supposed to be the final update in the rework, so we should be able to get the replacement enemy added pretty soon, thankfully. (Things will continue to be reworked of course, that's just the nature of game development, but we should have a much more even focus between reworking and making new content after this)

May i make a recommendation for your hellhound replacement then, since you don't want the beast scene as you mentioned before... you could go with Fungus controlling Skeletons so to speak. You actually delved into this with your backstory about the planet and it could be a neat little addition to the spook factor.


Already have Tentacles, fungus or spores of some sort that over time do an effect as well (not like the masturbation spores from the Dryads or whatever they are called) but something that will result in either an end game or something if they do not reach some cleansing spots? (this will give you some additional things to populate the place and add to the idea you originally had of destroying the darkness that warped you to different rooms too).

 

[Slam Sector]

Fungus monsters are really versatile in size and shape. You could use them to fit all kinds of chassis.

 

[Anon42]

May i make a recommendation for your hellhound replacement then, since you don't want the beast scene as you mentioned before... you could go with Fungus controlling Skeletons so to speak. You actually delved into this with your backstory about the planet and it could be a neat little addition to the spook factor.


Already have Tentacles, fungus or spores of some sort that over time do an effect as well (not like the masturbation spores from the Dryads or whatever they are called) but something that will result in either an end game or something if they do not reach some cleansing spots? (this will give you some additional things to populate the place and add to the idea you originally had of destroying the darkness that warped you to different rooms too).

I appreciate the suggestion man. We already have a plan for replacing the Hellhound, I figured out what I wanted to do there shortly after the announcement of the Hellhound being removed, but I'll certainly keep your idea in mind.

 

[Soljer13]

Are some enemies more susceptible to different shot elements?

 

[Anon42]

Are some enemies more susceptible to different shot elements?

Nope; certain enemies are more weak to the Flare Shot you get at the end of the current version, but the blaster chips themselves don't have elements, just different functionalities. I don't want players to feel like they can't use certain shot types against certain enemies, or that they have to go into the menu to change their chips around constantly. The mechanic is more about allowing each player to find a combat style that suits them, not so much encouraging them to swap often.


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Hey everybody, time for another weekly Crisis Point: Extinction development update! Before I start, let me just get your hopes down by saying this was kind of a slow week overall. The sheer size of this update has had me working a lot harder than usual, and I just didn't end up getting as much done this week, and most of the work I have left for this update isn't particularly exciting. Apologies for that, but we still made progress, so let's get to it!

First off, as you can see above, we have a gif showcasing the parallax effect for the starting area - it looks a lot nicer with the parallax if you ask me - but in addition to that, there's one more piece in the background, the ship Alicia and her crew used to reach the planet, art courtesy of Puffernutter! In previous updates, Alicia mentioned her ship crashing, which was never really shown before. In addition to the ship in the background there, this next update will have a short cutscene at the beginning of the game detailing the ship's crash and the moments leading up to it; I plan on using CG art for this one, but this update is most likely just going to have sketches of the art, as the full pieces won't be done in time. You can see the gif above in better quality here:

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and here's a static screenshot of it as well.


Sorry to say that's all of the visuals we have to show off this week; Orexius did get another enemy death animation done, and I've been working on some minor visual updates (like the caves tileset and some screen shake on certain actions), but I feel those are better saved for the game itself. Aside from that though, we were still making progress elsewhere - I spent the week on a few things, like changing level design and replacing the tilesets of more rooms in the Summit (I'm so close to finishing them all now), as well as doing bugfixes. One of the things that I implemented this week that I've been wanting to do for a long time was a function to dim the volume of Alicia's blaster when the player fires rapidly - before, the blaster sound effects could be pretty loud and sometimes drowned out the other sounds in the game. I've lowered the base volume of bullets slightly, but also made it so that when the player shoots repeatedly (whether manually or by using the Rapid Trigger), after a few shots, the volume of the sound effect will dim considerably to a little less than half of its original volume - it will stay that way until the player stops shooting for a few moments, at which point it'll return to normal. I tried to make the process quick, so that if the player is delaying their shots rather than shooting as fast as possible it shouldn't take effect and they'll be full volume every time; this is mostly to make the audio of the blaster less annoying if the player is shooting a lot, while still maintaining the satisfying punch of every shot.

Anyway, sorry for rambling for way too long about a minor background volume mechanic that nobody will care about half as much as I do If you haven't noticed by now this week's update is a bit light on content. A lot of my work on this update is finished already, especially the bigger stuff, I'm just waiting on work from other people while picking at the rather large handful of minor things I have left, so I can't promise next week will be any more interesting. I'll probably be focusing a lot on bug fixes and that doesn't make for a terribly exciting update, but hey, now you know not to get your hopes up. I think that's about enough outta me for this week though; sorry again for the sorta lame update, but as always, thank you all so much for your continued support! I'll see you all in the next update!
-A42

 

[Jesus]

Those backgrounds are really awesome. It'd be cool to have some more variance in the height of the terrain in that starting area so we can really see the parallax, and it could be used as a soft tutorial section for players to get the feel of movement

 

[Anon42]

Those backgrounds are really awesome. It'd be cool to have some more variance in the height of the terrain in that starting area so we can really see the parallax, and it could be used as a soft tutorial section for players to get the feel of movement

Thanks man, I'll pass the compliments along! I don't think I'm going to change up the starting area too much, but I DO want to add lots more places to explore above ground (I think there are only 3 rooms right now that have that background), so you'll definitely see more of it later on.

 

[Anon42]

Hey everybody, this is a followup to a Patreon post I made a few days ago detailing that the CG reworks for the Tentacle and Scientist scenes will not be finished in time for this update. At the time I was still figuring things out, so I didn't go into details, but in the interest of not keeping you all in the dark, here we go. LustFire, our CG artist, is no longer a member of the Crisis Point team. I don't want to go into details on why out of respect for him, but suffice it to say that he's been unable to keep up with the pace of work we need from him due to personal issues, and with The Great Rework™ coming to a close soon, the pace of Crisis Point's development is about to pick up more than ever. This was a decision I've thought about for a very long time, and while I am saddened it had to come to this, it was a choice that unfortunately had to be made. Moving forward, LustFire will no longer be handling Crisis Point's CGs - in his place, we've hired a new artist named Kuso Otoko (you can find his stuff here:

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), who will be handling all future CGs and remaking all of the old CGs in his own style. Here's a sketch of the Tentacle CG rework he's working on now, so you can get a feel for his style and what he'll bring to the table:

I'm sorry to anyone this news disappoints, but I'm confident Kuso will do a fantastic job with Crisis Point.

Well, I guess that's about it for this post. I mentioned it on Patreon but there won't be a standard weekly update this week; not a lot has been done because I've been dealing with wrist pain that's kept me from working most of the week, unfortunately. We've still made some progress this week, but it slowed down a lot due to me being unable to work. Thank you all for reading; I'll see you in the next update.
-A42