In the last two weeks, I have made some substantial changes to RKR - Rush Kill Repeat, and I'd love to share them with you! (by the way, the game is only a dollar right now, and I'd love to let you guys try out the new changes! I'll share the beta code to anyone who owns the game and asks me for one 😊🥺🙏)

(OH and if you also think you're good enough to knock me off the leaderboards in endless mode 😈)

Last week, I outlined a couple of things that I wanted to get done. However, the week after posting the last devlog, I happened to show my build to a friend of mine that absolutely changed the way I thought about the game.

So, I made a new list of things I wanted to get done these past couple weeks! And while I don't want to show you the new list in its entirety YET, I want to show off what I've done in the game (note that all of these are playable if you get the game and ask me for a beta code!!)

NEW STUFF

Last time, I mentioned how I wanted to change the way dying and Milo works to balance risk and reward. My thoughts were that there should be a limit to how many kills you can store in Milo per round, and that you could only keep 1/3 of the kills you acquire in a round, OR every enemy you DON'T kill in a level is summed and subtracted from the kills you keep outside of the round.

However, after watching a couple people play the game (and after getting a lecture about game design principles) I was compelled to step away from this idea completely. Now, instead of trading kills in-game for meta kills to unlock items to use, I've completely separated them into two currencies. I've introduced new enemy variants (glow-y green and glow-y red) that award you with 5 and 15 meta-kills respectively, as well as one soul to be used in-game.

They each have extra OOMPH for extra punch when you kill them! Check it out:

I figure I should also show you the exclusive TANKMEN enemy variants (for the Newgrounds-exclusive level in the demo that I have yet to release!) I really liked the hue-shifted goggles on the red variants, so I kept them.

It's also worth mentioning that I added little soul particles to enemies when you kill them! It's a small detail that adds a lot to the experience. I spent a lot of time prototyping this.

Enemy variants help incentivize players to keep playing, even when they are given the option to move on. Sure, there may only be four enemies left in the level, but what if one of them is red? That's basically 15 kills right there! You should search them out.

One last big, non-boring change I made to the game is gun crates! I thought it would be cool if you could stumble upon a crate in-game that grants you free access to a gun for the rest of your run (if you wish to take it). There are three types of crates, common (grey), rare (green), and legendary (gold).

If you find a gold crate (0.5% chance) you're pretty much set for the rest of the game.

With this addition came the change of the existing couch menu. Now, as long as you have the gun unlocked, you will have a chance to find it in between rounds, for a price. Before, you'd have to have cleared a certain number of rooms before encountering any specific weapon. This lets the player play the game how THEY want to play the game.

Anyways, take a look at how the gun crate menu looks!

For this whole menu to work, I had to implement a pausing system into the game. (No, before this point you were not able to pause the game. Matter of fact- you STILL can't pause the game. But it's one of the next things on my list!)

That's all of the cool stuff I've been working on as of late!

SQUASHING BUGS / SMALLER PATCHES

Oh boy were there bugs.

• Steam wouldn't open the new project files because I didn't have an old, outdated SDK. I do now.
• Lowercase Letter R would just cease to work at some points, crashing the game
• Sniper and Bazooka wouldn't work in one of the environments, with the Bazooka straight-up crashing the game
• Achievements for beating the game didn't work before. They work now.
• Camera shake is now smoother and more modular
• Increased contrast of enemy sprites
• Made levels slightly smaller

UP NEXT

Here are some things that I'm looking into doing next:

• Adding an on-screen indicator to show the locations of enemies so players aren't left wandering (and eventually dying)
• I still haven't added environment details to places like the cardboard fort
• A "Try Again" button to the game over screen so you don't have to go through the main menu to start a new round, which breaks up gameplay
• Add an actual pause menu to the game

THANK YOU FOR READING!

If you want to find me anywhere else, I have a Discord server, and you can find the Steam game here!

And seriously, it would mean a lot if you wanted to give the game a try. It's on sale for a little over a day, so get it while it's cheap- A DOLLAR!

Thank you for your support. I might not be able to write a new post until after Christmas (finals and work), but I'll see what I can do if there's enough demand for it :)

Hey everyone! It's been a while since the last devlog (more than six months ago, I'm so sorry) but I'm back with some big updates and some stories to tell!

Stick around until the end, because I’d love your feedback on a few things. I want to hear what you, as a potential player, think about some mechanics I’m working on.

WHERE I'VE BEEN

(Feel free to skip this part if you're just here for the devlog!)

Trying to balance school, work, schoolwork, work-school, and personal projects has been a massive challenge. One course, in particular, completely consumed my attention when I wasn’t at work trying to feed myself (or, more importantly, pay for school/the course that demanded my attention). As much as I wanted to dedicate more time to RKR - Rush Kill Repeat- or any of my other projects, really- it just wasn’t possible.

Thankfully, I passed the course, and was excited to dive back into my projects.

Then came the Great CPU Melt of 2024.

One day, I got home from work, eager to boot up my laptop and get back to work. BUUUT... I couldn’t. My laptop refused to start. The keyboard lit up, but the screen was stuck in a weird limbo. After some digging (and a lot of denial), I discovered the problem: the solder on my CPU had melted. Yes, melted. I didn't even know this was possible.

Here’s my best guess at how it happened: my Asus ROG STRIX G17 had a habit of randomly turning itself on. I think it must’ve done just that while sitting in my knapsack (the one day I decided to bring it to work). Left unchecked, the computer likely overheated past the point of its own safeguards, causing the solder to meeeelltt.

Luckily, all of the data on the SSD is still in-tact, there's just a lot, and it's bitlocker encrypted. I can't load the folders with File Explorer, so anything I need has been hand-picked via the command-line using robocopy. This was a very long process.

Regardless, I finally managed to get back my project files, and I learned a very valuable lesson: GitHub is now my best friend :)

TL;DR - My laptop died in a dramatic, fiery (not literally fiery) fashion, and I had to go through a lengthy process to get myself a new laptop, and retrieve the project files by hand.

BUT I AM BACK AND MORE MOTIVATED THAN EVER.

LET'S CATCH YOU NEW PEEPS UP TO SPEED:

(and the returning readers, too- since it's been so long!)

In the last devlog, I gave a few specifics as to what I wanted to work on next:

• Polish the Visuals of the Gun Wall
• Add the Option to Continue with your Current Weapon
• Maybe Start a Patreon

I can happily announce that I completed all but one of these tasks! (I didn't make a Patreon) Let's take a look at the new stuff!

THE NEW STUFF

POLISH THE WEAPON WALL

The first thing I did when I got my hands back onto my project files was polish the visuals of the weapon wall. I found that having them scattered about was messy and simply looked... Bad.

To jog your memory, take a look at the old weapon wall:

Ew.

The new and improved weapon wall features:

• A scrollable panel containing all of the unlockable weapons.
• New sprites
• Animations for better visual feedback

Take a look!

I really tried to focus on visual feedback to provide a better user experience. Locked weapons (weapons that you can't access when you're playing the game) are represented by a padlock to the right of the weapon name. To indicate to the user that they CAN unlock a weapon, the panel flashes slowly and the padlock shakes.

I had to make my own Dictionary-like data structure for the weapon wall. I wanted to be able to pass expressions (or rather, the return of those expressions) into each item in the list. Unfortunately, GameMaker: Studio 1.4 doesn't have any data structure that would allow me to do such a thing. So, I opted to write my own. I essentially abuse objects to store their values, and add each instance of the object to an iterable list so that I can reference their values in the list as keys.

Here's an example:

The scroll amount scales to the length of the shop_items array. This setup will help make adding new guns in the future much easier due to how modular I've designed the system to be.

And I'm not done with the weapon wall yet! In the future, I'm hoping to:

• Add the lighting system back in, and perhaps a CRT-like filter over the panels to make them look all glow-y and such.
• Have souls leave Milo the Money Pig when you unlock a weapon
• Have the padlock fall down to better indicate a successful purchase
• I've really got to remake that back button. That's a sprite I've had since 2020, I think.

ADDING THE OPTION TO CONTINUE WITH YOUR CURRENT WEAPON

Before this addition, the player was forced to choose a new weapon from the couch. This was fine until I put prices (kills from that game) on the weapons. What if you don't have enough kills? You're soft-locked. SO- I added the option to continue with the weapon you have. This will come in handy for when I implement upgrades for the weapons.

When I'm done with the Couch, you'll be able to:

• Send game kills directly to Milo (guaranteeing you exactly that many kills for when you game over),
• Use game kills (NOT from the Kill Bank, but just kills accumulated in this run of the game) to switch to a different weapon,
• OR use game kills to apply an upgrade to your current weapon,
• OR just continue with your current weapon, without upgrading.

This is how it looks so far:

A couple of things still need to be added/changed/fixed on this screen. Most notably:

• I need to add the upgrades
• I should prevent your current base weapon from being available on the couch
• Improving the visual language to promote a smoother user experience

OTHER SMALLER BUT NOTABLE ACTIVITIES:

• Fixed procedural generation on a Pizzeria level
• Got some art commissioned for the Steam page
• Optimized level setup code

NEXT STEPS:

In the coming weeks, I'm going to focus on the following:

• Changing the way dying and Milo works to balance risk and reward
• Improving visual language for the Couch and the Weapon Wall
• Adding environment decorations (e.g. loose boxes in the Cardboard Fort, tables in the Pizzeria, etc.)
• Implementing weapon upgrades
• Various bug fixes, for example certain guns not working in certain levels

QUESTIONS FOR YOU, DEAR READER:

1. When you die in the game, how many game kills do you think should be automatically transferred to Milo for use in the Weapon Unlocking Shop? I think 1/3 kills would be fair, and promote strategically transferring game kills to Milo from the Couch.
2. Speaking of transferring kills to Milo from the Couch, should there be a limit to how many you can transfer in-between rounds? Keep in mind, kills acquired in one game directly impact your progress in that game. (i.e. accumulating 500 kills in one game beats the game, and sending those kills to Milo to "bank" them, removes them from the game and guarantees them for use later, when otherwise, if you were to die, you'd only get to keep 1/3 of the accumulated kills from that round.)
3. Do you have any other suggestions or feedback? What would you like to see in the game?

I’d love to hear your thoughts—feel free to comment, DM me, or join the Discord to chat!

AND HEY- THANK YOU!

If you made it this far, thank you so much! It means the world to me that you’re reading this. Sometimes I wonder if anyone actually reads these posts, and knowing you’re here keeps me motivated.

If you want to find me anywhere else, I have a Discord server, and you can find the Steam game here!

Thanks again for all of your support! Until next time, whenever that may be! (I'll aim for another two weeks 😉)

Hey all! It's been a little over a week since the first devlog (too long) and I've got plenty of new stuff to share with you!

This time, I'm sending you on a little mission. Any time I'm looking for specific feedback, I'll put a number into some square brackets like this: [*] At the end of the devlog, I'll elaborate more on the questions in particular that I'd like answered. I appreciate any feedback I'm given, whether it's in the comments, or DMs!

LET'S CATCH YOU NEW PEEPS UP TO SPEED:

Last week, I gave a few specifics that I said I would be focusing on:

• Remove the Weapon-Rotation Mechanic - I said this wouldn't take long at all... And I was right! It took me four minutes to delete that old code, to prepare the game for the big changes that are right around the corner.
• Updating the Visuals of the Game - I'm actually not entirely sure what I meant by this, but things have certainly changed a bit since we last checked in.
• Develop Meta-Progression Elements - This is the big one that will change how the game is played forever. There is still much to polish, and I wouldn't mind some feedback for it when the time comes. Essentially, the goal is to make each weapon unlockable, and once you unlock it, it'll be added to your roster of items equipable in between rounds.

With that out of the way, let's show what I've done!

THE NEW STUFF:

The first thing I'd like to show off is the updated existing content that I made! In between rounds, you're taken to a safe place to rest; the couch/"Take a Breather" screen. This screen has been changed to prepare for the new weapon-sacrificing meta progression. Feast your eyes:

The original:

The new and improved [1]:

As you can see, you can flip the cushions upwards to select a new weapon between rounds. Soon, you'll be given the option to upgrade your current weapon instead of being forced to give it up. There are also different tiers of weapons that exist, depending on what level the player is on. The tier increases once every time a level is divisible by 4. (So levels 0-3 would be the first tier, 4-7 would be the second tier, 8-11 would be the third, etc, etc.) This prevents players from being granted the Watergun or the Pulse Gun (the two most powerful weapons) at the beginning of the game[2].

Behold, the new Weapon Wall:

This is where you can exchange kills for weapons, if you meet specific requirements. These requirements could range from owned-gun prerequisites to needing kills from specific weapons (i.e. 30 Sniper Kills, 200 Pistol Kills, etc.) Once you unlock a weapon here, you unlock it permanently and it is added to the roster of weapons accessible in a run.

This screen/room still has a bit of work to be done on it. Particularly with the background being a different pixel size.

MY NEXT STEPS:

Life's gotten pretty busy for me recently with school and work, but I'll still try to mess around with RKR a bit more this week and get some small details polished for you all. In the meantime, why not drop a follow and wishlist the game on Steam?

Here's a list of stuff I'd like to do before the next devlog:

1. Polish the Visuals of the Gun Wall - Add some sort of gun rack (AKA a gray box 😂), scale up the background, and make an updated "Back" button.
2. Add the Option to Continue with your Current Weapon - A small addition, but it's reasonable considering my workload right now.
3. Maybe Start a Patreon - Something needs to keep me going.

GOALS FOR FURTHER IN THE FUTURE:

1. Rework the Boss Fight - I've been told that the boss is boring. I agree! I'll be going off of the "I'm you, but better" riff with this fight, having the boss use different guns instead of running towards you like a commonplace enemy.
2. Adding those Upgrades - Gotta let the players upgrade their weapons, otherwise there'd be no real sacrifice to letting your current weapon go! It's all about those MIND GAMES.
3. Adding Better Environment Decorations - There should be more environment-related obstacles and destructables. These are decently easy to implement, it's just a matter of how much time I have.

QUESTIONS FOR YOU, DEAR READER [*]:

1. Do you think the shining cushions are enough visual context to push the player to hover their mouse over them?
2. Do you think this tier system is fair, or do you think it would make more sense for players to have access to any weapons from the start of a round? To better communicate your feedback to me, please list a couple of games that implement a similar system to your suggestion, if you think it should work differently from my own.
3. Anything that you would like to add? What would you like to see in the game?

As always, you can reach me here on Newgrounds through DMs, or on my Discord server!

Thank you for reading, and I hope that you have a wonderful week! Until next time 🥰

INTRO STUFF BEFORE THE DEVLOG BECAUSE THIS IS THE FIRST ONE

I am excited to announce that I've decided to start a devlog here on Newgrounds for my game project RKR - Rush Kill Repeat. This is my first time documenting the game development journey, and I'm looking forward to building a community around it. If you're interested in the game development process, you're in the right place! Feel free to ask me questions, send in your suggestions, etc.

WHAT IS RKR - RUSH KILL REPEAT:

I don't want to try to sell the game to you (yet) but as this is the first real post, I figure I should first talk about what RKR is... RKR - Rush Kill Repeat is the ultimate maze game where every step could be your last, and every kill brings new power to your arsenal. You're put into a procedurally generated maze, that could be generated in one of almost 20 different environments, each introducing its own unique gimmick. Sorry if I just got you hooked on the game with this introduction.

Discord (the best place to contact me): discord.com/invite/2zch5Dv

Steam (in case you wanna wishlist the game): store.steampowered.com/app/2137680/RKR__Rush_Kill_Repeat

Twitter (for more frequent posts about the game) : twitter.com/MMT_Filip

OKAY ACTUAL DEVLOG

So- I've shown some people RKR - Rush Kill Repeat in its current state and I've thought of some big improvements.

HERE ARE THE MAIN CRITICISMS AND MY THOUGHTS ON HOW TO ADDRESS THEM:

• Engagement Over Time: Many people find RKR entertaining for short play sessions, but lacks elements that motivate long-term play. To address this, I plan on adding a couple of layers of meta-progression. In between rounds, players will have the option to select between upgrading their current weapon, (which will not change with kills, a little more information on this later), or sacrificing their current weapon for a potentially better one (think basic pistol -> n16 -> watergun -> etc). In between games, you can spend the kills you've gathered up in your kill bank to unlock new stuff to be added to the rotation between rounds.
• Weapons and Change-y Stuff: As briefly mentioned before, the current mechanic of changing weapons with each kill disrupts gameplay. Imagine you're blocked into a corner with a powerful weapon, about to face a swarm of enemies... Your next shot might downgrade your arsenal. You must pray to RNGesus that you get a better or equivalent weapon, or else you succumb to your gruesome and inevitable fate (death). To resolve this, I'm working on a system (as mentioned in the previous point) to allow for more strategic weapon choices, reducing the reliance on luck, and putting more control in the player's hands.
• Visual Consistency: The game suffers from inconsistent-visual-language-itis. I need to make sure that I am effectively communicating what is happening to the player. I've got some improvements up my sleeve already, but it's boring stuff and not as exciting as the other points, haha.

MY NEXT STEPS:

I'm taking the first step forward with RKR by overhauling a core mechanic that's been apart of the game since it's early days: The weapon rotation with every kill, a feature I implemented when I was first learning GML, is being canned immediately after I click the "Submit Post" button.

Following this, I'll shift my focus to developing the meta-progression elements that will take place between rounds. This will include weapon upgrades, and the introduction of new gameplay features to keep the experience engaging and unique for every round.

Once I'm done with the gameplay, I'll dive into updating the visuals of the game.

QUICK OUTRO BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY:

I'm eager to hop on and make these improvements, and I'd love to hear your thoughts! If you have any questions, concerns, or queries, (or suggestions, ideas, whatever!) please share them in the comments, PM me, or join the Discord server! Your input is invaluable as I refine and enhance RKR. Hopefully, we can make this game as thrilling and engaging as possible, together!

As the title suggests, I have released a new game onto Steam. Originally, RKR was a small game-jam project of mine that was started in 2020. It was made in four days. It featured procedurally generated levels and a monochrome tileset.

After two years of sitting dormant on an old hard drive of mine, I picked up the project sometime in late August of this year. I figured it deserved some love.

The gameplay is similar to that of Enter the Gungeon where the player must navigate through and shoot things using various weapons. Every time you kill an enemy, you get equipped with a new random weapon. If you have power-ups enabled, you may also find yourself equipped with a random power-up.

I am SUPER proud of this project, and O hope that you all enjoy giving the game a shot! Sooner or later, I plan on releasing a free, exclusive Newgrounds version for anyone to try.

Playing the game anytime within the month of October will unlock a special Halloween mode!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2137680/RKR__Rush_Kill_Repeat/

Thank you for reading!

-Filip

Hello Yello!

In celebration of Pico Day, I have released what I have dubbed the "Flash Update" to my game project, Too Much Water.

This update was created to honor the life and death of Adobe Flash, and features the voice of Stamper as he guides you through the Flash Theater. This huge side-quest in Too Much Water has been in the works for a year and a half and was actually supposed to be released last Pico Day. (That would have been impossible, given I finalized the last changes a WEEK ago...)

Inside the Flash Theater, you will find six arcade machines. Each of these features a unique challenge for the player to face, rewarding them with a relic. (I'm not going into spoiler territory... play the game if you'd like to know what the relics are, heh)

I'd like to take a moment to credit everyone who has helped to move the project forward, even a little.

Evan Sarkozi - Doesn't have a NG account, but he's the voice of the main character (as well as the inspiration for the game) so he has to be mentioned here :P

@Stamper - Obviously did the voice of himself... Took a while, but he did!

@shilohmc33 - Not sure if he uses Newgrounds, but he's the voice of Tankman in the game!

@Thriftman - Did the voice of Tankman before I made him into his own little thing and replaced his Tankman voice with Shiloh'. (Sorry, Teddy...)

@Goo-Fed - Composed the majority of the Flash Update's Soundtrack.

@TomatoSoup111 - Did a lot of concept art for the game's update... Maybe I should convince her to upload some of it?

@Outsideboxproduction - He and I are collaborating on a fully-animated trailer for the game.

I've worked really hard to make this Too Much Water a treat for players to enjoy, but none of this update could have been completed without any of you. Thank you.

Before I submit this post, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to read it this far. Have a fantastic rest of y'all's evening!