Deen Games Newsletter
By Night Blade
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Gem Worlds: Demo Updates
Hey all,I've been pretty burned out the last week, so I didn't get much done on the Gem Worlds front. For the week before that, a couple of good changes:Gem Worlds now runs on Mac! If you have a Mac-based OS, please give it a try, and let me know how the expe…
Gem Worlds Demo: Now Available
I am super excited to announce that the demo of Gem Worlds is now available for Windows and Linux! You can grab it on Steam from the main game page: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1858760?utm_source=revueIf you have around 30-60 minutes, give it a try! Mo…
Gem Worlds: What's Ahead
Early Access No MoreHey all, thought I'd drop you a quick note. After lots of thinking, discussion, and consultation, I decided to drop Early Access for Gem Worlds.Gem Worlds wasn't a good fit to EA to begin with; and I primarily intended to get player feedba…
Quick Gem Worlds update + less updates for a bit
Hello! My family and I got COVID-19, and are currently recovering (worst is over), which put a damper on my plans. Around that, a steady steam of progress.Since most of the game content is done, I won't be working on anything too visible for a while. Some pol…
Gem Worlds: Early Access! Plus, Items
First things first - I decided to ship Gem Worlds as an Early Access game on Steam. Despite planning to finish the game, I feel unsure about the overall experience. Too few levels? Too different? What skills are great, and what skills aren't? Which items make…
Gem Worlds: Now with Ajwa Dates
This week, I laid the foundation for the inventory and item system. Unlike skills - some of which have a cooldown between repeated use, and some of which have a limited number of uses per level - you can only use items you have.You can find items, randomly cr…
Gem Worlds: Looking Toward a Beta Release
As a roguelike, the core player experience for Gem Worlds revolves around skills: play through a couple of worlds, die, buy new skills (or upgrade existing ones) with all the gems you earned, and try again. Rinse, repeat.To make this fun and interesting, the …
Gem Worlds: Are we done yet?
It's no secret that I'm burned out. At this point, my habit of working on the game for at least 30 minutes a day is the only thing carrying it forward.That said, the fifth and maybe final world is complete. You can see a preview of it above: monsters that spa…
Gem Worlds: World Five Update
Hello! This week, I completed the tiles for the fifth world. Unlike other worlds, it only uses two auto-tiles; albeit with the background, it looks quite spectacular. See for yourself:
Gem Worlds: Giant Tree World done
Seems like Gem Worlds reached the interesting point where I can leverage existing systems, and quickly hammer out new stuff. Pixel art aside (since that's unique and very, very hard), I completed lots of stuff this week alhamdulillah:Redid all the tiles, it l…
Gem Worlds: Water world? Tree world!
If you haven't heard yet, Gem Worlds is - with Steam's blessing - open-source. If you're interested, you can check out the GitHub repository here. There's a pretty steady march of progress.World four - the inspired underwater world - isn't working out. I can'…
Gem Worlds: Scope Cut
To start on the bright side, I finished the third world! Following the pattern of the previous two, it has something new and unique artistically (ice walls that meld into each other) and mechanically (monsters that spawn ice, and monsters that - once alerted …
Gem Worlds: Icicles and Acceleration
Greetings! This week, I completed most of the third (ice) world: all of the tiles needed, and the background. I simplified the tile requirements a lot (which saves a lot of time per world), and it still looks good - check it out:
Gem World: An Exciting Announcement!
Hello! First, apologies for the delay; I tried really hard to hit a milestone, which is why I didn't post anything last week. And without further ado: Gem World is now available on Steam! Wishlist it here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1858760?utm_source…
Gem Worlds: World 2 Monsters
Hello! I'm still working on Gem Worlds, albeit working through what feels like a burn-out phase. It happens; and pixel art is really hard. Hopefully this is a temporary thing and I can work through it.Meanwhile, I finalized the three monsters for the second w…
Gem Worlds: Full Skills + World #2
Hello! Apologies for the delay in posts, I thought I posted something last week (but apparently forgot). Without further delay, here's last week's update: a look at 21 skills in the game (actual screenshot of the skill selection screen):
Gem Worlds: Skills!
And we're back! Thanks for being patient for the last month while I deal with personal / real-life things. I present to you, the brand new skill selection screen!
Gem Roguelike - Week 11
This week's updates includes the culmination of all the art changes from the last couple of weeks. The full list includes:Updated dirt tilesA better, proper parallax backgroundImproved gem tilesBrand-new monster spritesDoubling the game screen size to 2xA new…
Gem Roguelike, Week 8
Hello! I've been hard at work unblocking myself on the Gem Roguelike project this week. Without a solid message, story, and characters, I can't progress on world-building, themes, and arts. Alhamdulillah (thanks and praise to God), I finally got all that out …
Gem Roguelike: Beyond the Alpha
First, thank you all for trying out the alpha demo and giving your feedback - and especially your videos and stream! I really appreciate and benefited from the insight I got out of them.For those of you who haven't tried the alpha yet, you can grab it from my…