Devlog 001 - Boll's Journey

Hi everyone! Here's a first update on the development of Boll's Journey.

Since this is a new game, i felt it important to give out as much information on how to play the game, as well as screenshots of the various scenes. This should give new players a solid view of the look and feel of the game.

Gameplay

The gameplay can be pretty much mentioned in one sentence: It is a point-and-click game. However, it doesn't mean that the game is that easy. There's a lot of different features when it comes to Boll's Journey, which we'll be looking at in this and coming devlogs.

Shapes

The main enemy in the game are the Shapes. They come in all sorts of colors and shapes. The combination of colors and shape show their strength. There are currently 9 colors, and 9 shapes.

-- The 9 colors: Green, Orange, Red, Yellow, Purple, Pink, Blue, Cyan and Black.

Each of the Shapes have been divided into 3 groups:

• Easy

• Medium

• Hard

What this means is, the first three shapes to appear are 'easy' to kill - in that they only use 1 energy. The 'medium' Shapes use 2 energy, while the 'hard' Shapes use 3 energy.

The difficulty doesn't come from the colors, but from the Shape, As the image below shows, the first three (Sphere, Triangle, Square) are the 'easy' ones. The next three (Pentagon, Hexagon, Heptagon) are the 'medium' ones, and lastly the Octagon, Nonagon and Cylinder are the 'hard' ones.

Every shape can have on of the 9 colors, and will cycle through them from where the current color starts.

For example: the Black Cylinder will become Cyan upon Boll's hit (and use 3 energy), then Blue, Pink, Purple, Yellow, Red, Orange and lastly Green, at which point the Shape will become a Black Nonagon, at which point it will cycle through the colors again until Green, to become the next Shape after, and so forth, until the Green Sphere. After the Green Sphere, the Shape will die.

The Shapes are obstacles in the world. Boll will have to clear the Shapes in order to continue on his long Journey.

Energy

Now, before I continue talking about the energy in the game, I'll put one thing to rest right away: It is not meant to be the same kind of energy as you see in mobile games, where you'd have to wait x amount of time before you're able to continue playing the game.

There also won't be any microtransactions whatsoever to have the player buy energy to continue in the game.

In general, yes, the energy will work similar like it does in mobile games, however, you ARE able to get through scenes and play continuously if you use a bit of strategy, the less energy you use, the further you're able to get in the game.

First and foremost, it will be used as a gauge, to see how far the player is able to get with a certain amount of energy. This means that everyone will start out with the same amount of energy, and that energy will recharge over time. (you get 1 energy per minute back)

On my own playthroughs, I can manage to get through each and every scene without ending up on the game over screen, so once you're able to play it, know that it IS possible.

Top-down

While most of the game is top-down, there are some parts that are deliberately different, this is done to deliver a better vibe while playing. Some scenes, in the future, are likely even going to be first-person, to really deliver on the vibe the game requires.

Scenes

Lastly, here's some screenshots of the game's current scenes. They are not always during gameplay.

As it currently stands, there's a good 3 hours of gameplay, over 3 scenes. The last of which is probably the most hectic one.

The current three scenes are:

• Serene Garden

  • A calm garden scene, with a road and some pathways splitting it in 4. Steam post imageSteam post image

• Desolate Exurbs

  • A suburban scene with similar houses where Boll will have to move through, going in and out of houses with an increasing amount of Shapes.

    Steam post imageSteam post image

• Abandoned Highway

  • The Shapes and Bushes are in full war with each other, with Boll being able to get through the firing of both sides. The Shapes are probably going to end up being more of a problem than the Bushes, however.Steam post imageSteam post image

Next time

On the next Devlog, we'll be looking at some other features, like the story elements, another type of shape called the Dud and different types of collectibles.

Stay tuned!

And be sure to wishlist Boll's Journey if you haven't yet.