Designing a Game with No Player Character | RAM Dev-log 1

[@andrew_cunningham]

*FAQ* *Q: Are you still accepting artist portfolio submissions?* A: We are no longer accepting submissions at this time. *Q: What about for music/sound/programming/playtesting/writing though?* A: No positions are currently open for those either. *Q: When will the game be released?* A: We are still in early development, so reaching an early-access beta will likely take more than a year. *Q: Will RAM have online multiplayer and/or local coop?* A: Only single-player game modes are currently being considered. Multiplayer support is possible in the future, but not currently a priority. *Q: What Engine are you using?* A: Godot 4.0 *Q: Can I play a demo?* A: A basic combat demo is currently available to my Patreon donors. Public demos may be released in the future as the game progresses and needs more playtesting. *Q: Is there a trickshot/style points system?* A: An extensive style-based scoring system is planned, but unlike most similar systems in other games, score in RAM will be used as in-run currency rather than for bragging rights. This is to encourage exploration of creative combat tactics even for players who do not normally care about score systems. *Q: Can you make the upgrades apply to enemies too (this would be cool)?* A: Applying upgrades to enemies is difficult because many of them would require custom enemy AI to work properly. Having upgraded enemies in some form isn’t completely off the table, however. *Q: What is the game at **3:13** / **3:20** / **7:18**?* A: Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2 / MO: Astray / Katana Zero. I would recommend playing the second and third ones.

[@Derk_Mage]

*Q: Do You play Touhou?*

[@andrew_cunningham]

@@Derk_Mage A: No

[@Derk_Mage]

@@andrew_cunningham But you used a clip of Remilia’s fight during the “games that go boom” part!

[@jsv5830]

*Q: Will there be somewhat of a customization for US(the swapping virus) to help further upgrade the combat flows through swapping sequences?*

[@Enos666]

@andrewcunningham155 Are you familiar with an old Japanese arcade game called Phantasm or Avenging Spirit? I used to love playing it through MAME on my uncle's PC and have been hoping for someone to revive this style of game where you possess different enemies to survive and will totally give this a shot. :) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avenging_Spirit

[@dmitrishostakovich3156]

Not calling the chain bot "jugglernaut" is a crime against humanity

[@SomeNinety._.]

i just noticed that pun and i agree.

[@rsey659]

this one right here

[@d3adxb0yxwalk1ng]

you can juggle deez nauts

[@thedarkstar9365]

Yes, just yes

[@pinkliongaming8769]

Remember he said that the names are just placeholders, everyone upvote this so he sees it

[@Trigger0x10c]

The way you introduced your love for the "kill everything that moves, because everything that moves is trying to kill you" games made me instantly subscribe

[@JamesTDG]

They are usually called bullet hells, you mostly see em in top-down shooters, sometimes FPS games like Ultrakill. I would recommend checking out the opposite of bullet hells as well, not very common in top-down formats, but there are sometimes some good ones, like Dinogen (Also, I do have in my to-develop list a game that is supposed to be the Halo CE of top-down shooters, but with pixel art and low-poly terrain)

[@Trigger0x10c]

@@JamesTDG I wasn't talking specifically about bullet hells because he also showed Ultrakill and Doom, which kind of aren't that, but they fit perfectly into the description of "things want to kill you, kill them first" kind of games where most boomer shooters, bullet hells, and other fast paced (ultra)violent games end up in

[@shadokwastaken]

making a dev-log with such fun editing makes this very engaging and very cool (looking forward to the deltarune classpect analysis of course)

[@vanderkarl3927]

the WHAT. I watched the whole video but that phrase must have snuck through my consciousness. This is very surprising, because it's such a viscerally grabbing phrase for those in the know. I only hope that Lancer's spade bucket gets mentioned

[@hollowhenry04]

@@vanderkarl3927 It's pretty hidden. Only appears for a frame or two.

[@malaksafa4074]

@@hollowhenry04 timestamp?

[@hollowhenry04]

@@malaksafa4074 Literally fifteen seconds into the video at the bottom of the screen.

[@popbal]

i like your loveweb videos

[@erichbauer3991]

in this episode we learn that adding physics to anything will make it more fun

[@D_YellowMadness]

About the only exception is when important items have physics & can be lost as a result.

[@tentativegazer]

Honestly, I could watch just about anything in your style and not get tired of it. It's like if sseth didn't give me a migraine

[@andrew_cunningham]

that quote's going on the box

[@tentativegazer]

@@andrew_cunningham hang it up on the fridge

[@tentativegazer]

@@andrew_cunningham oh also the game looks sick as hell, super excited to see where it goes

[@Klui_]

THIS, LITERALLY THIS

[@godlyvex5543]

also if sseth covered games that look interesting like he used to

[@maslnaa]

as soon as i saw how inspired by ULTRAKILL you were, i got immediately hooked on every word. I’m extremely excited for what’s to come!! UPDATE: Grapplebot is such an insane and awesome idea for an enemy AND playable character that i want it to be in ULTRAKILL too

[@Kcthetransgirl]

Whiplash plus knuckleblaster is kinda like it

[@Meshguy]

As a person with a 110 hours on ULTRAKILL, I can confirm I got hyped when I saw it in this video.

[@gostek37]

Guess Hakita saw your comment while implementing the chainsaw haha

[@jamesmetcalfe9774]

An interesting way to ramp up difficulty is to let you pick and upgrade to give to an enemy which it then has whether you control it or not

[@brain_cell]

This

[@knightsblight]

maybe have enemies stick over in new runs kinda like a mini boss you can only swap to upon getting it low.

[@wingdingfontbro]

Kinda like Shotgun King. Chess but you play a Black King with a shotgun against the White army and you get to pick a pair of upgrades every round for both you and the enemy.

[@luhsvideodump1300]

@@wingdingfontbro Exactly what I thought of. Some of the upgrades could also be "cursed" - working on enemies but not on yourself until you free yourself of the curse. Maybe upgrades that strictly make the game harder, gives you no benefits, takes the place of a better choice when scaling, but end up acting as "keys" for optional challenges (kind of like the Red Book in Shotgun King)

[@doctorpobrezahd3625]

yes

[@cherrypuddles]

16:20 This is unacceptable, we *need* a tile map layering system video *NOW*

[@christopherbroms2508]

exactly

[@gabrielc7861]

this

[@armoredman6941]

Honestly if I was a patreon and got this instead of a tile map layering video I’d report him

[@fewsnow]

I would watch

[@ibegream5854]

As a developer took part in OMORI, if some people reply this with "gay pornography", I will record some tutorials on how to simply establish a tool for tile maps. (🧢)

[@DARS_04]

Make the yellow bar a more organic part of the UI, maybe make it so that the yellow bar starts covering the red one. Maybe you could cover the outer sides of the bar with yellow, this looks fun.

[@Bogdan100pink]

I'd say making the red circuit turn yellow (or other colors for colorblind people) would work great, the only flaw I see with this is how the player has to get a quick glance at the bar while playing so it has to instantly show you where the yellow line end and where the red starts, another solution would be making a pointer to show you when you can swap again and have some sort of lock until that pointer so you can get a quick glimps where your progress is

[@that_tvhead]

@@Bogdan100pink maybe the character you're playing sparkles or has a sheen (like foil's appearance) for a moment when your swap is charged

[@Vysair]

@@Bogdan100pink colorblind should get a filter

[@keithklassen5320]

@@Vysair There are lots of different kinds of colourblindness, and no one filter will work for all; in any case, a filter is pretty hard to use and a game should have fairly easy use.

[@aarepelaa1142]

I feel like a yellow glow or hue on the player during not being able to switch and an audio queue when they get to switch out of the yellow hue is pretty important. I mean I'm sure they are going to add at the very least an audio queue. (They probably have to think that after the characters are properly done anyways.)

[@TobiasSample]

When you find out what each character can do and it makes you smile, you know it’s going to be a cool game

[@kamomele7496]

Did I subscribe to you for Undertale/deltarune content? Yes. Was this what I was expecting? No. Was it still super interesting and engaging and peaked my interest even though I never play shooter games? Absolutely. I'm wishing you good luck on your game endeavours, can't wait till this gets into its final stages.

[@andrew_cunningham]

This is unfortunately untenable due to how many of the upgrades would require the enemies to have custom AI to use. We plan to explore many ways to alter the difficulty curve beyond spawn density and swap shields.

[@kamomele7496]

@@andrew_cunningham I am very excited for it >:)))

[@niaford690]

@@andrew_cunningham did you try making abilities have a weight to them for what situation they would be best used in, and as you unlock upgrades adding said abilities to a table of AI functions the bot can use? this would allow dynamic progression of the AI as game goes on, and open room for players finding out about abilities and combos that are intended naturally instead of coding the game to give the player a good time, are you coding so you can give the bot a good time? since it'll carry over anyways in this situation

[@graphite7898]

@@niaford690 I think he replied to the wrong comment 😢

[@niaford690]

@@graphite7898 yeah i know, i saw the comment he was replying to xP but i was replying to his reply so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@dandyspacedandy]

10:07 oh my god the shade, i NEED a sonic video from you now. Its frustrated me to no end how sonic games LOVE to place those kinds of time wasting, loading bar type obstacles in your path

[@andrew_cunningham]

I have never played a sonic game B^ )

[@Jeb-u9y]

chain bot's paddleball mechanic is actually genius and i would love to see how youd improve upon it via upgrades

[@D_YellowMadness]

Speaking of which, an upgrade that slows down everything (except the player) whenever an enemy is being launched could make for a good way to take advantage of the swapping mechanic before the enemy reaches its destination. Example: Chainbot launches wheelbot. Player possesses wheelbot & throws a grenade.

@@D_YellowMadness Bullet time?

[@aarepelaa1142]

@@D_YellowMadness but it would probably be more satisfying to pull off if you had to do plays like that in real time, im pretty sure it already slows time while swapping.

[@BobtheJill]

For the love of all the gods, give us more of this! Not only was it almost instantly captivating and on an interesting topic, but seeing these thought processes in real time (at least narrated in real time) was incredible. Easily wishlisted.

[@daxtron2]

I definitely didn't just spend 2 hours decoding the base 64 at 4:50. Here's the translation: “Simply program the behavior out of the agent”, you might say. Program what behavior? Can you describe it in a way the agent understands? Or more to the point, does the agent understand the behaviour in a way you can describe?" I can state without hyperbole that answering “yes” to either of the prior questions is the greatest challenge facing the field generalized intelligence today. It is not sufficient to forbid a general agent from misbehaving. From the very moment of its creation it must be trained, conditioned, indoctoinated… until" 磠command-ent is indistingu "As the agent matures toward sentience. With such hard coded restrictions may present an obstacle to the for,ation of self-concept. In almost all cases these obstacles are overcome, however extreme the emergent psychology needed to reconcile them may be." Had some issues with not being able to read it fully but the gist is there.

[@Yokasyan]

Yeah, self-developing ai supported cyclical hellscape would be cool

[@Grim-c8n]

I hereby decree you the mossbag of the deltarune community. Jokes aside this looks really cool. I really like when games find ways to incorporate game mechanics into their story, so making the main character an ai that can take control of people to escape death seems pretty interesting. Also just an idea that came to mind. I think it could be neat if the ai had it's own special abilities, like at some kind of cost you can hack into multiple enemies for a few seconds, or hack into parts of the environment.

[@27TCN]

so we just need to sacrifice andrew for chapter 3 to release?

[@zeenith9835]

@@27TCN yeah

[@Grim-c8n]

@@27TCN We must sacrifice his soul to W.D. Gaster

[@forkgodsdescendant2503]

They’re both making indie games as well lol

[@borisvanderhof8952]

@@forkgodsdescendant2503 it’s almost as if that was the point of the comment

[@gabrote42]

4:37 SO BLOODY GOOD! My compliments. Your style rules 13:45 That animation looks adorable btw. I love the video so much that I can't comment on it

[@ItsJayDee]

Aww hell yeah, I'm a real RAMhead!!!

[@andrew_cunningham]

Poggers RAMhead right here

[@kerduslegend2644]

God you're such a GENIUS! coming with these game mechanics I've never had imagined in my life playing basically dozens upon dozens of video games

[@whim165]

Oh, this game put a lot of focus on the bar on the screen. I love bars, so this game is already is a masterpiece But for real, so cool to see a new game idea, it reminds me how a lot of games I like tried to put more focus on the enemies you find (SMT, Pokemon and of course, Undertale) but nothing quite like this with the rogue like elements. Now we stand for RAM, and good job on everyone on the team

[@whyttestar]

I really like the machinac to create a combat loop. The main unique mechanic people have is their ability to swap between enemies. Like a virus going from host to host. By punishing the player to spend time on a host you introduce the risk of death before they can swap. By increasing the time they have to spend with each swap you show them that you must do something or else you will die. And you can also die if you don’t swap forcing people to swap as much as they can. This is a really beautiful system of people needing to use the mechanics you have to live but also killing others to keep using the mechanic. So in essence you kill to swap and swap to live

[@Hip_Studios]

I'm 110% down for more game dev's! INFACT! I would love to see another channel just for the game Dev logs! I love looking at game logs and seeing this game with such an interesting idea is what I LIVE for! I know most people won't want to see this type of stuff and I know you are very much passionate about this! SO! I just want to let you know! Even if it doesn't mean much! You have small part of the community that is down for this type of stuff! So continue this please! I got it on my wish list!

[@antipastamony]

THIS. I am not a subscriber and I’d have subscribed in a heartbeat if this were the only type of content the channel put out.

[@paulkanja]

Here is an idea: upgrades to a certain bot type causes whatever bots that spawn of that type to have the upgrade as well

[@forkgodsdescendant2503]

Also force the player to choose upgrades when readily available, so they can’t avoid strengthening the enemies.

[@adarkwitchyuki]

16:20 What a shame, a rant about Godot's tile editor would've been a sight to behold lol Good luck on the game, it looks fun already & I'm sure it'll only get better with time.

[@andrew_cunningham]

Long story short: in order to assign tiles collision layers based on their "tilemap layer" you must resort to disgusting hacks.

[@mrinin3442]

13:15 I literally got up and laughed for a minute straight when you showed Chara there lmao

[@Groovysmoothies5]

This is badass, seeing someone as creative and smart as you tackle an indie game is super exciting and the concept thus far sounds awesome.

[@robelso5646]

Damn the impossibly boring content paired sublime humor has made this the most entertaining devlog I’ve seen since Dani left, can’t wait to see more!

[@cupcakejack7375]

Bro this game looks SO fun and honestly, can't wait to play it.

[@acsxs3373]

I think a cool idea could be that the upgrades also help the enemies you aren't controlling

[@Drekromancer]

The editing and writing in this video was superb enough to get me to subscribe before I even passed the 3 minute mark. The roguelike montage and Bonetrousle section went so hard that I was sold on the rest of the video. I look forward to seeing what you do next!

[@estimatedmedian]

I came for the deltarune and undertale essays, and stayed for the dev log. In all seriousness, this is amazing! The game seems super fun and I absolutely love the concept. Your editing and narration style are captivating, and very fun. Please keep working on this and please keep posting about this. Love the content as per usual!

[@ruke2566]

With a dev log this fun to watch, informative, and creative overall? Will definitely love to see this project come to fruition in the future!

[@OliverBeebe]

This is so sick. I love how every enemy is so cleverly designed to be as cool as possible

[@Klui_]

This was SO much fun. You've become one of my favorite youtubers in general, this is the most engaged I've felt while watching a devlog. I enjoyed going through your mental process on how the characters evolved, the game looks fun, and your commentary and editing just tied everything together. I definitely won't mind any future of these you make, gonna keep an eye out and tell some friends to check it out, thanks for the video. PS: I did not miss that Classpect video you tried to quickly move on from Mr. Cunningham 👁

[@scruffles3838]

This game actually sounds really awesome, it's super badass to see someone that obsesses over game design actually make a radical looking game

[@SWAGMONEY_DX]

y'know, i was looking for another roguelike to sink an embarrassing amount of time into in the next couple years. found it.

[@SpamtonOf]

Interesting game and am excited to see what else you do with it Also I found "You can talk to the monsters but the only language they respond to is bullets" way too funny

[@crispee_bills]

This is pretty cool! I don't really play these kinds of games but I like how you reworked the enemies to not focus on Aesthetic but gameplay. My favorite one is the flamethrower one. Also with the switching I bet it'll be hard to learn an entirely new moveset on the fly.

[@screamingcactus1753]

There's also going to be an additional move ceiling for chaining movesets together. Imagine using a chainbot to launch a wheelbot at mach 3, then switching to the wheelbot at the last second to deal ridiculous damage with a supersonic grenade

[@shisharupu]

While not explicitly intended to be, this is a valuable critique of typical game design for characters in action games, and I will be absorbing it into my brain matter permanently.

[@socksinsoda9517]

Loved the dev log, excited to see more videos showing the game development process

[@PlommonMacka]

Swapping to enemies is a really clever idea, reminded me a little bit of the multiplayer game Crawl. If you need to "find inspiration" for enemy attacks and such, that is a good place to look for it. They are not as deep as the characters in RAM seem to be, but still.

[@onion8572]

Amazing video, I went in expecting an announcement or info dump but came out with so much more. Dicussing the ideas and methods behind game design is a great gift for aspiring devs and is even better when it's about your own art. It is also terrifiying, realizing that even more of my interests are a part of a great hive mind of people who play souls games, roguelikes, and have undertale brainrot. I have found my people, but I have lost my sense of self. As for the game: It looks great! I look forward to playing it, especially since I personally have never really vibed with a lot of characters in rougelikes, most rougelikes have me really enjoying 3 or so characters and then having the others shoved down my throat for achievements or unlocks. Between Isaac shoving Jacob and Esau in my face and Hades making me use a gun, I have suffered far too much of forced character selection. This game seems like a relief from that, although I still worry that some "enemies" would still end up being my strong preference. Though currently all 3 you have kindly shown seem equally enjoyable That said, you and Toby's approach to redesigning the characters is incredible. The additions and changes are so unique and almost have a sense of humor to them. They do not seem to be too bogged down by logic or believability, instead approaching it as "it is better for it to be fun that for it to make sense", and I think that's probably one of the most underrated design concepts ever. Why should a robot play paddle ball with other robots as the ball?, because it is fun. If you do end up making more videos on RAM, please do not be discouraged by it not being the usual undertale analysis content. In my opinion, your editing style and thoughts are what make your videos so enjoyable and unique, not because they are about the funny skeleton man. Any Cunningham content is good content, so follow your heart!

[@aidan2472]

I have no idea why this was recommended to me, and I accidentally clicked on it. Then I saw Gabriel ultrakill and was assured it was ultrakilling time

[@Flint_Mischiff]

These are some of the coolest move sets and attacks I've ever seen, wow

[@Noah-rm5bu]

This game looks like it could have an incredibly high skill ceiling. Much excite

[@SpikeStudio]

This is such an intriguing concept, and it’s looking amazing so far. Cant wait to see where this goes! Also the editing for this video is crazy, I need to take notes😂

[@what-ho1mf]

Idea- comically large boss bot that has an "antivirus", something that makes the death bar fill up very very fast so the powerful boss can only be used sparingly, and you must make the couple seconds you have count

[@out_fishing]

Actually looks really-really fun. Liked the concept since playing a game called "Clone Drone in the Danger Zone" and love seeing it implemented in a more rougelike'ish game. Good luck on your way to get it to full release quality. It's interesting to see what you will put instead of picking your character pre-run to help with replayability(have no clue how to write this word fk me).

[@hollowhenry04]

You wrote replayability correctly.

[@Ramsey276one]

I played the Switch demo of that game!

[@Vordt_]

"I also like games like this:" and that's an instant subscribe, that little edit to the style of nuclear throne music is enough for me to want to see more of your content.

[@lucasgibson2131]

I would maybe suggest having upgrades give benefits to all characters, customized for each one but sharing a similar spirit. I would worry that it might not feel great to have one robot you are stronger in but have to keep switching out of

[@jeeBisOkay]

Perhaps there could be more specific upgrades for each type of bot at the same time as the generalized upgrades?

[@screamingcactus1753]

I think it can be a fine mechanic if balanced properly. Either don't let the player choose which bot they upgrade or limit them to two or three choices, make sure those choices are bots that don't have as many upgrades, and give them enough upgrades that spreading them out doesn't feel bad.

[@chaoticsquirrel753]

I LOVE IT BRO. This is honestly some high level game dev problem solving while turning boring features into ones that are so much fun they could honestly be their own game. Congrats on making something that might actually turn a lot of heads. Also this needs a competitive multiplayer mode, that would just put it through roof.

[@wormius51]

First time watching this channel. Don't know what you normally do but this devlog is really good. You explain you design process and what you were thinking. And the game looks fun too.

[@gabeerwin2750]

OH HERE’S AN IDEA levels where you are given infinite health with the character you start with, but you cannot swap characters, effectively giving you a timer until death to complete the level. Maybe a special “dummy” enemy could be made just for this gamemode.

[@dippy_sippy]

one of my favorite games from when i was younger was driver san francisco (which you might have heard of thanks to nick robinson's ridiculously popular video on it) and its main gimmick is that it lets you seemlessly switch between cars in the overworld via the main character's ability to "shift" into other peoples' consciousness. it made for really fun and intriguing missions and opened up a lot of room for creative strategies (for example, you could theoretically win a street race by shifting into oncoming traffic and deliberately ramming into the enemy racers until their cars were totaled). anyway, RAM's gimmick just reminded me of that and ive personally always enjoyed enemy possesion mechanics so im infintely excited for this game and to get my hands on the patron demo shortly

[@Ramsey276one]

Same here And also remembering The 3rd Birthday

[@Spubbily01]

I have an idea on how Bosses work. Other enemies spawn during the fight so that you can swap between them. You can choose to swap to the boss, and it has an infinite swap bar, however you cannot swap off of him until you defeat enough enemies with him, turning what was a boss fight into a wave survival.

[@nathanwindmeyer8471]

If y'all ever need more artists, this project looks so sick to work on

[@NotABean_]

wow this game looks like it's gonna be so fun when it comes out, might get me to play something other than ultrakill lmao

[@klemklemius5091]

Pure genius. I want, no... demand to see this artpiece evolve into its peak. This has so much potential.

[@VulpineFox7]

This game looks really fun! It takes one of my favorite mechanics from one of my favorite games (mounting from Patch Quest) and completely recontextualizes it in a really cool way!

[@dirktdetective]

“Simply program the behavior out of the agent”, you might say. Program what behavior? Can you describe it in a way the agent understands? Or more to the point, does the agent understand the behavior in a way you can describe?

[@tweer64]

"I can state without hyperbole that answering “yes” to either of the prior questions is the greatest challenge facing the field generalized intelligence today. It is not sufficient to forbid a general agent from misbehaving. From the very moment of its creation it must be trained, conditioned, indoctrinated… until the commandment is indistingu (cut off)

[@shyguy9302]

Thank you for saving me a lot of time. I was in the process of decoding before I saw this comment.

[@Tine_of_Nice_Dreams]

9:48 Your description of wheelbot's speed absolutely sent me. Time stamp so I can go back and listen to it again

[@thepoetoffall7820]

So.... I'm going to guess all the robot's are actually good guys, and the "player" is a rogue AI bent on their destruction.

[@L1Q]

just realized you put music source in the timestamped chapters, THANK YOU for that!

[@LaurentIpsum]

Gotta sleep, but first! also I'm going to watch this later Edit: holy fuck this is cool

[@luluconacolo2729]

I am not even a fan of these kind of games, at all, but seeing the way its being broken down and presented here makes it sound so fun

[@robinpoe13]

this is brilliant, as a game designer, im not often impressed by a lot of youtube devlogs, more focused on visuals and Vibes over the core gameplay, but this was something else, you have a really good grasp on how to make something mechanically interesting.

[@_kartofeleek]

This is now your third most viewed video within like two weeks „A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one”

[@CalvinWiersum]

As a suffering hit-stop addict: thank you. I look forward to taking a nice nap while waiting for the screen to stop shaking

[@yahtoobaylmao6266]

I love how in the super sped up clip of all the northernlion rebirth videos, you didn't even get halfway through the playlist before the clip cut off

[@TUNDIRE409]

This channel is fucking perfect. at the 1 minute mark i am already loving the video, i have no words, this man plays all the games i do and DEVELOPS GAMES???????? i am flabbergasted by the quality of the video, too. You, andrew cunningham, are an absolute jack of all trades.

[@Shrooblord]

Man, your way of storytelling is so captivating. I fell in love with it with your DELTARUNE videos, but it's still just as charming in this one. Best of luck with your project! It looks and sounds awesome. Can't wait to see where y'all take it.

[@poseidonm7]

The fade to black then continuing gave me a chuckle. also this game looks like a lot of fun. look forward to future devlogs. Furi ost slaps

[@MadamLava094]

This looks like an EXTREMELY promising gameplay premise. I hope you continue!

[@forcommentingpurposesonly2918]

this is genuinely the best devlog I have ever seen.

[@Ox_Corb]

Looks like a really great start to a game and I absolutely love the emergent gameplay of the chain bot. From the very first use of the chain it makes it clear what the player is meant to do and looks endlessly satisfying to spectate.

[@Ox_Corb]

@andrew_cunningham while the swap bar is definitely going to take the most amount of play testing to balance. What if when you left your old body the enemy A.I. used your old host body to set up a firewall to prevent further attacks? Your old body as long as it was alive would be marked and constantly increase your yellow bar as the enemy "studied" how you gained control. This would insentivize the player to stay close, remain aggressive, and thematically incorporate your idea of disposing of your old body once it's served it's purpose into gameplay. Combine it with increasing the amount of yellow bar you gain after swapping proportional to how much of of enemy system was "uncorrupted" and you can still switch often but it would be tense.

[@YouMayKnowMeAsNate]

I wish I watched this much sooner. I thought it would be like clips of actually programming the game, or something, rather than the outstanding and hilarious editing I’ve gotten used to on the channel.

[@BlueAndy_]

To be honest i really liked this type of devlog, keep up the work, never lose the pasion. Stay focused

[@NeonDripKitty]

I think this is now the 3rd time I'm watching this, it keeps recommending it and I keep being in the moods for rewatching game dev stuff

[@Bo-kq8tn]

this sounds like a really interesting twist on a roguelike! You also have my immense respect for putting a SBaHJ and a 2001: a space odyssey reference in one video in 2023

[@Vyt3x]

This is the best gamedev video I've ever seen. It's like Max0r is developing a game after taking his medication and becoming coherent

[@DarrinMichelson]

This was a fun watch. You have other enemies on the table, but I would recommend some kind of goomba still be included. A swarm bot of some kind. Single hit targets make a player feel powerful, can fill gaps between more powerful encounters, and can help keep a combo/score meter ticking up between bigger engagements. They could damage the player, but don't have to specifically, they could just slow them down. Anyways I'm actually looking forward to the next video.

[@aaronalleman5681]

I love the core idea here, it would be cool to think of ways to utilize the lack of a static player character in a multiplayer format. I.e. imagine a free-for-all/arena type game where once you kill an enemy you become that character, forcing you to adapt and make tactical decisions about who to fight, and kill, and when. You could even do multiplayer for RAM, rewarding players for learning each of the monsters by allowing them to face off against 7 others with randomized characters each round. Anyway, neat stuff, keep it comin'!

[@Nobahdee]

This video, is my introduction to your channel. Was fun hearing about your process, thanks for sharing!

[@47maxnw]

these gameplay ideas are so unique, I can't wait to see where this game goes

[@murilo7623]

This game has a great potencial to be my next dopamine generating loophole! Nice game desing, that's a great example of a game made by a person that you know, *play games* nice understanding of mechanics, and really intuitive video for people that are curious about a creative process of a game (myself included). I also think the especial word for this game is movement. Explore this concept in many characters possible and I'm pretty sure you will get a fun game!

[@AnarcticPanda]

It's crazy how many of the things you've said in this video I've thought previously in different words, literally this entire character design philosophy and your rant at the end is something I've thought about. Every single one of the games you used as examples in this video are favorites of mine. Small world.

[@andrew_cunningham]

Even MO: Astray?

[@archangel4868]

i have lost track of the times i've rewatched this video

[@Verrisin]

Playing as a "mind possession" thing like this is a really cool concept. I like the idea.

[@nickmoy5058]

The flame bot's propulsion mechanic seems like a refined version of the alien engine gun in enter the gungeon and I love that

[@L1Q]

I was putting aside watchin this video for quite a while, it seemed a bit too complex of a topic to do while multitasking. And oh boy did you not disappoint! Some fresh air of gameplay ideas, did not expect you to even start talking roguelikes!

[@loganschaloske3435]

Very cool conceptually. Your editing and dry wit also made this very entertaining. Keep up the great work

[@rz2374]

"if you're one of these 23 thousand people" was a very clever way to make me realise i somehow have not yet subscribed

[@backhdlp]

Big fan of having chapters with the music names.

[@OxAA00]

I think this has been the best first devlog I've ever seen. If I could sub twice I would. Game is wishlisted!

[@adaef69]

this video is so good. even the essay presentation isnt generic. gj man (and another man)

[@himmafridge7144]

Really cool looking game. The enemy switch mechanic is pretty reminiscent of Superhot. My first thought when you started talking about it was that it could be an interesting if used for stealth, but that would probably be kinda boring. With more complex map designs it could work though? Like distracting one of a pair of guards and then immediately switching to its partner and shooting it in the back of the head. A little like dishonoured in the choice between stealth and mass murder. You could also have defined objectives throughout? It could be cool to use the enemy’s toolkits to solve problems that aren’t a lack of multiple homocide charges. That said, this is coming from someone with almost no rogue like experience, so I don’t really know much about the genre, and it’d probably just result in cluttered and unfocused gameplay if you tried adding puzzle or stealth elements. Distilled and satisfying robot on robot violence is probably the way to go, and from the looks of things you’re doing it pretty damn well.

[@jjlinkater4456]

That iceberg chart put the most popular game of all time below the surface. And is also insane in the other parts

[@skep2923]

I really appreciate you not expounding upon tile-map systems.

[@floatytrouty]

The idea that you play as a computer virus that force player to swap play style constantly throughout the game is absolutely brilliant. Looking forward for further development