I'm back with possibly the last dev diary before launch... Christian here, and you can't imagine how long I waited to say this.

Development Status

Since the last post, there have been some changes that made the process of finishing the game slower. The reality of being an indie game can be complicated at times, but we've reached the stage where we're starting to add final translations to the game while doing the necessary revisions to make sure everything is running smoothly. We're fine-tuning mechanics, fixing bugs, and making some changes to the game art. This allows us to move on to the next stage, which is inviting you to fill out the form HERE for a closed test (we will select about 20 or 30 people only). We hope it will be one of the last tests before launch. I have to warn you that people who support us or supported us at some point on Patreon have a separate reservation for the test and will receive a key via DM on Patreon. So there is no need to fill out any forms for them. But that's not all. When we launch this closed test in the coming weeks, we'll also be updating the demo, which remains free for everyone. As I mentioned in the previous post, this will be the final update to the demo, but it will include all the changes and adjustments we've made so far. We hope that the feedback we receive during testing will be enough to make the final adjustments and announce a concrete release date. It's been a long road, and we're finally reaching the end.

And after the launch... what?

So, what are our plans after launch? Several ideas and content have been left out due to a lack of funding. Our plan is to continue adding content through continuous updates, for example, by adding more gameplay options and modes. Also, possible story DLCs, with mechanics or content not included in the initial launch version. So there will be more content after the launch. We're also already thinking about what future project to pursue next. We have several options: finishing projects we've started and prototypes that exist, or starting a completely new project. We're not sure yet, so I invite you to follow us on our social media to stay up-to-date. And that's all for this dev diary. Remember to join our patreon or buy our minigames if you want to help us with the development.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Follow us in our Discord community for more news and development progress.

[ 2025-03-17 02:09:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

As we announced earlier this week here is the new Demo update.

Gameplay: - Improved upgrade menu, UI changes for better understanding when an item is purchased. - added improvement to the recycling menu, now it can be opened at any time and automatically takes the building that needs to be recycled. - Improved player and drone repair time. - Adjusted +4% chance of scrap drop from enemies. - Added immediate objective notifications for better player guidance. - Added loading screen tips in multiple languages. Minor visual updates: - Minor general adjustments. - Innocent robots have the on-hit effect now. - Improved fusion core explosion. - General animation timing adjustments. - More subtle creation and destruction transitions. Experimental: - Added Italian and Turkish as selectable languages. Sounds: - General sound balancing. Bugs: - Fixed possible crash when using the roof cannon. - Fixed drones not positioning correctly. - Fixed power line connection glitch. - Fixed phantom grab of an object. - Minor performance bugs. And that's all for this demo update.

[ 2024-12-06 16:32:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

After a couple of months, I'm back with a new development diary. My name is Christian, and I'm here to share the latest updates and a special announcement at the end.

Last Months of Development

That's right, were finally in the last stage of development. This means we are focused on balancing the game, testing the different levels and mechanics. We're also fine-tuning various art assets and working on a small introductory animation for the game. This was reflected in our participation in LevelUY and CONAVI, an event in Uruguay where we reached the finals in several categories.
The Demo As we mentioned in the previous development diary, the demo is not a priority since all our efforts are directed at finishing the main game. The demo will receive two more updates: the first one will happen this week to integrate some visual and translation adjustments already present in the main game. The second update will include the game's introductory animation, making the demo complete. Outside of these two scheduled updates, the demo will not receive further support, at least until the games release.

Introductory Animation

What are we showing in this intro? The beginning of all the problems, the passage of time, and the call to save humanity. Yes, quite a lot, but we can sum it up with focused art, smooth transitions, and a voice-over. The game's lore is important to us, but we want players to discover it on their own if they're truly interested and willing to explore. If they simply want to play without worrying about the story, we want them to have that option. For this reason, we believe a light intro is the best solution. Below, you can see a couple of screenshots of what youll be able to see once its finished.

Key Giveaways and Contests

The year is almost over, and you can feel it. Months of continuous work, lots of stress, good and bad things have happened, but were now in the final stretch of development. Two final announcements: First, dont forget to follow us on social media, especially on our Discord server. During Christmas, well be giving away some keys for our mini-games and Beacon of Neyda. Thats right, winners will have their keys reserved for delivery on launch day. Second, were participating in the IndieDB Top 100 Indie Games of the Year event, and your support would mean a lot! If you visit this link, you can vote for Beacon of Neyda to be part of the list. You can vote until Tuesday, December 10.

And that's all for this dev diary. Remember to join our patreon or buy our minigames if you want to help us with the development.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Follow us in our Discord community for more news and development progress.

[ 2024-12-03 00:24:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's been a while since the last dev diary, Christian here I am to clear up some doubts and announce a few things.
Let's deal with the elephant in the room first. So yeah, we did a Kickstarter and the game didn't meet its goal. Does that mean the game isn't going to be made? Of course not, the production and development of the game continues as we had planned. But some extra things we would have liked to have in the game at launch aren't going to be present. Maybe we can add them later via updates. Not meeting the goal means there is no audience for the game? Again, no, the failure of the Kickstarter is due to several factors, the main one being the poor publicity it had, since not having a marketing budget for the game and not being able to reach more people was very likely to end with that result. Another important factor is that we couldn't give all the time necessary to be behind the campaign, since we had to continue with the development of the game. But what will be the future of the game? Development continues, the feedback we had on the demo from the wonderful people who joined our community, helped us to fine-tune and improve many things. So the game will be released in the coming months, the date will be announced after securing certain development milestones,

Announcement: Steam Deck and Linux support

This is something we had in mind for quite a while now. We hope to be able to come out on day 1 with full support for Steam Deck and Linux (SteamOS is based on Linux so support for one extends to the other). The biggest challenge at the moment is that we don't have the necessary hardware to test all its functions so we depend on other equipment that uses Linux systems to emulate how it works. Currently our demo has support for Linux and is working correctly on Steam Deck according to users who were able to test it on this console. [previewyoutube=nzWxTFJTM_k;full][/previewyoutube]

Development Status

In terms of development we are moving forward at a good pace, despite having some delays in terms of art, but at the programming and design level we are doing well, we are going to start testing the new levels to see if the mechanics of each new level work correctly. The demo will be updated the day after this dev diary is published, which brings with it some reported bug fixes, visual corrections and balance adjustments.
And that's all for this dev diary. Remember to join our patreon or buy our minigames if you want to help us with the development.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Follow us in our Discord community for more news and development progress.

[ 2024-09-05 02:13:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

"When the Artificial Intelligences tasked with terraforming the desert world rebelled against their creators, the worlds settlers were forced into war with the machines. With all communications lost with Earth, the people of Neyda fought alone to reclaim their world."

Who are the rusty ones?

For decades, various models of robots played crucial roles in the terraforming and construction of Neyda's first city, and youll find them in the game.
The most widespread and numerous model before the great disaster was the humanoid robot, designed primarily for service tasks. These robots were integrated into every aspect of life in Neyda with different variants of which we can find some in the game, because not all of them worked connected to the main network, thus avoiding infection of their systems, allowing them to continue their original duties even decades later.
Another prevalent model is the heavy-duty robot, built for construction, mining, and other hazardous tasks that demanded durability and strength.
For tasks requiring greater precision and agility, light work models were employed, effectively completing the basic workforce lineup.
These robots were produced in large numbers and serve as basic enemies in the game, often attacking the player or their base. However, underestimating them as the only threats would be a grave mistake.
Among the most dangerous models is the security robot. During the early stages of Neydas terraforming, there was a very hostile fauna on the planet, so different specific robots were created to deal with them. While most of these models were discontinued after the threats were neutralized, some persisted through the great disaster. The security robot, with its speed, saw-equipped arms, and powerful attacks, was once plentiful and remains a formidable foe.
Another significant threat comes from advanced repair robots. These maintenance units, although heavily corrupted, pose serious challenges to players. They have the ability to reactivate fallen comrades and repurpose them as suicide drones, making them a critical threat to base defenses.
Lastly, excavation robots, similar to the heavy-duty models, are incredibly resilient, heavy, and extremely dangerous, making them a top-priority target for players.
From a gameplay perspective, these last three robots are designed to create scenarios that require active player intervention. The security robot is a direct threat to the player's character, the advanced repair robot endangers the bases defenses and resources by using dropped enemy resources to create more threats, and the excavation robot is a constant menace to the entire base, ignoring the player to focus on attacking structures. I hope this blend of lore and gameplay insights has sparked your interest.

[ 2024-08-15 02:08:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

After our recent exclusive update for Backers in our kickstarter campaign, many of you expressed a keen interest in learning more about the gameplay possibilities of our game. Today, I am excited to share some additional news and insights.

The Player

Firstly, there are several ways to alter the gameplay, with the most basic being through changes to the player's abilities. For example, we are introducing a new special weapon that functions almost like a portable cannon. This weapon, like all others in the game, adapts to the type of ammunition used, offering different effects depending on the ammunition type.

Progression Trees and Resource Management

Another significant aspect is the progression trees for each structure. In the demo, resource management is designed to be straightforward, but in the final version, resources will be more limited. Therefore, you will need to strategically decide where to allocate these resources for upgrades and improvements.

Enemy Variety

The variety of enemies will also have a profound impact on gameplay. In the demo, there are three basic enemy types with similar roles. A well-planned defense can handle large waves without much player intervention. However, in the final game, there will be more specific enemies designed to harass the player or the defenses, requiring different strategies to deal with these threats. I will discuss these new enemies in a future update.

Unique Level Challenges

Lastly, the levels themselves will present unique threats and peculiarities that affect gameplay. For instance, one level might be influenced by terraforming machines, causing periodic sandstorms that reduce visibility, limit the use of allied drones, and even damage structures or the player if they are unprotected. This is just one example, with more to be elaborated on in future updates.
Thats all for this update. We have much more to share, but we wanted to give you a general idea of what the game will be like. We hope to have your continued support to make this game a reality. Dont forget to join our Discord community!

[ 2024-08-06 19:59:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi everyone! Christian here! One of the big days has arrived, our Kickstarter campaign is now live!. [previewyoutube=sSR1AcbXgLg;full][/previewyoutube]

The campaign

First of all, from the following link you will be able to go to the Kickstarter campaign. Remember that if you share and spread the word, it also helps us a lot.

What about rewards?

Rewards range from Early Bird discounts! to access to our previous versions of the game or the current versions with exclusive access. You can also leave your mark or messages within the game among other rewards.

Why Kickstarter?

If our Kickstarter is successful, we will be able to carry out the base vision we have for Beacon of Neyda, without major worries. But once our base funding goal is reached, any additional funds will be used to expand upon the base game through stretch goals. These come in the form of additional features that will enrich the gameplay, giving players more to experience, expanded lore, enhanced art and sound design, and additional modes that we wouldn't have the means to create otherwise. If the kickstarter fails, the game will still be made but with less content, reducing the players' experience to a certain extent and we cannot guarantee its presence on consoles other than Xbox.

Kickstarter campaign

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Follow us in our Discord community for more news and development progress.

[ 2024-07-30 12:59:41 CET ] [ Original post ]

We love pixel art games, and we know you do too. So, lets celebrate together Were super excited to share that Beacon of Neyda joins PixElated Festival next week! This festival is featuring some of the best pixel art games on Steam. From retro-style classics to contemporary indie gems all in one place! There will be discounts live streams art contest demos developer chats all centered around your favorite games. Check out the official line-up and more information about the event here: http://pixelatedfest.com/ Don't forget to follow us on our Kickstarter, which will be launched in a few days.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Follow us in our Discord community for more news and development progress.

[ 2024-07-25 19:06:52 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! my name is Christian and I am going to tell you about the Beacon of Neyda demo... After a few hectic weeks, I will answering some questions that you have asked me these days.

Why now?

Although the demo was published after our game participated in LAGS 2024 (a couple of weeks ago), it honestly did not come out in its best state and we had to make several adjustments to polish the experience, it is still somewhat rough but I think it has improved enough to be an acceptable demo, that's why we announced it now... also preparing a Kickstarter campaign alongside the demo affected us a lot, the good news is that the demo will be available until August and maybe longer if the campaign Kickstarter has good results.

What now?

As for the demo, you will receive some more updates, to continue improving your experience (something that thanks to the feedback and opinions about the game that you, the players, give us, we are achieving). The next production phases of the game are still underway, such as new levels, enemies, missions, etc. (things that we will begin to share in the following development diaries). Although there are many factors, I can timidly anticipate that the game will be ready by 2025 and remember that it will be for PC and Xbox. [previewyoutube=-wd9BAKpJTc;full][/previewyoutube]

Can I help?

Yes, of course, your opinion and feedback on the demo is valuable, try the demo and share your experience with us, follow us on social networks and help us spread our content. But if you're really feeling generous you can give us a hand when we publish the game on kickstarter or help us with our Patreon. That's all for now, stay tuned, we will be participating in several events this month, and we may have some big announcements to make about the game.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Follow us in our Discord community for more news and development progress.

[ 2024-07-02 17:25:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

As part of the Summer Game Fest 2024 we were selected by The Latin American Games Showcase! A platform that strives to increase the visibility of the video games being developed in the LATAM Region and Latin Americans in the World. [previewyoutube=_p_i3LZnMFM;full][/previewyoutube] What can you see at the showcase? Over 70 Games, world Premieres and exclusive trailers that you can see in the following link starting JUNE 8TH, 10AM P.T. TIME [previewyoutube=-wd9BAKpJTc;full][/previewyoutube] Don't forget to follow us on our Kickstarter, which will be launched in a few days along with a demo.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Follow us in our Discord community for more news and development progress.

[ 2024-06-06 23:29:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

We want to make the official announcement that we are going to start a Kickstarter campaign soon. Yes, the time has come, what we mentioned would be a possibility in previous dev diaries is now a reality
Why Kickstarter? Kickstarter makes it possible for small, niche video games like ours to thrive. The project was born with an idea in 2022 and after creating the first prototype and showing it at events, we felt confident in expanding the project, winning several awards along the way. At the end of 2023 we got what we needed to be able to work full time on the project and we also managed to have the help of ID@Xbox so that our game is on their console. It is difficult to continue with the pace of development so we realized that we were going to need extra help.
Our Plan That being said, the game is going to be made one way or another, it may take longer and depending on how it goes in the future we will be able to add more content once it is released with updates. Kickstarter is very important to us, but we do not want to put pressure on our future players. Any collaboration you are willing to make is appreciated, but if you cannot contribute financially, we appreciate you sharing or spreading it, that would also help us a lot. What happens if we fail? Having said that, the game is going to be made in one way or another, it may take more time and depending on how it goes in the future we will be able to add more content once it is released with updates. The Kickstarter is very important to us but we don't want to put that pressure on our future players. If you can't collaborate, we appreciate it if you can share or spread it, that would also help us a lot. And that's all for this announcement. Don't forget to also follow us on Kickstarter to find out when it will be released and thank you for all your support so far.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Follow us in our Discord community for more news and development progress.

[ 2024-05-06 16:32:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Welcome back to another development diary, I'm Christian and I'm here to tell you the news about the development of Beacon of Neyda.

Future Demo

Every day that passes brings us closer to the planned launch of our demo along with other news (coff cough Kickstarter). The Demo announcement it is completely official and will be available in a maximum of a couple of months. What will this demo cover? The introductory level of the campaign, where all the basic mechanics will be taught and a little of the internal Lore of this universe will be explored, leaving enough crumbs of history so that there is interest in seeing the following chapters. We want it to be a playable experience of about 30 to 45 minutes but that depends on how much time each player takes to explore and want to search for all the secrets.

Development Status

As we mentioned in the previous Dev diary, we continue working on the enemy Spawn system, not only refining the formulas to use but also moving on to the more practical part of animation for the enemies. The interfaces and internal menus are being updated, again if you saw our social networks we have shown new sections such as a codex, a space for the information that the player finds to be saved and can review it more calmly later. New scaffolding systems were created for each of the buildings and their upgrades, as well as rework of the main tower of the tower stations (Main base). Currently, restoring the main tower will not only be the main goal to achieve but will also provide a practical improvement to the player for each level restored. Finally, the specific upgrade system for each building offering one more layer of strategy is already created, these annexes will offer temporary or specific improvements. The simplest example to explain this concept is that of the defensive wall, it can be improved with an extra barricade that will accept the integration of the different cores, giving two effects, first it will give some extra life points to the defensive wall and secondly by combining it with a core, when destroyed, it will generate an explosion that will affect the enemies with the effects of the core it had inside.

Future plans?

What does the future hold? At the moment we just want to finish our games in development, and in our short-term future we want to be more active on social media again. We do not rule out the idea of possibly adding vlogs on YouTube and other platforms to spread more about our experience and the development of the game, although this aspect is less oriented towards our audience of players and more towards other developers or people interested in that type of thing. We also plan to participate in digital events, although for reasons of budget and focus on finishing our game we believe that this year we will not participate as actively in in-person events. It is true that they can be very interesting but they generally have a high cost in terms of finances and in terms of time.
And that's all for this dev diary. Remember to join our patreon or buy our minigames if you want to help us with the development.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Follow us in our Discord community for more news and development progress.

[ 2024-03-22 19:39:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

First devblog of 2024, sorry for the delays like every beginning of the year and how our last few months have been... we could say that it has been busy, new things to tell about the development and news from the studio. I almost forgot to introduce myself, I'm Christian and I'm going to tell you about all the news!

Technology from Neyda world

"Upon arriving on the new planet all the AI's automation protocols came into progress and the construction of the big city began:" With a better defined story and a deeper lore, many artistic and design decisions have been adjusted, mainly in terms of the functioning of certain things, for example the energy cores, their use throughout each map or level is going to be a lot more important since there will be a greater variety of machines that use it without neglecting its importance for the construction or improvement of new buildings. Defining the technological level of a science fiction story can be difficult, our greatest inspiration comes from sources such as alien, cowboy bebop, Trigun among others. We hope that the final result will be interesting for players looking for a more complex lore in their games, but for casual players, don't worry, it still has the same game bases of base construction, defending waves of enemies and exploration.
(early concept)

Development Status

Progress in development is constant but having to rearrange many of the previous systems to make them more modular has taken us longer than expected. We are currently working on the new enemy spawn system, this new system will allow us greater control, choosing which points on the map can make enemies appear, with what frequency, what type and quantity, taking into account different global variables that will adjust the difficulty of the waves according to the player's skill. This also enables other game modes apart from the campaign, for example survival, how long the player can survive with infinite waves and limited resources? You'll have to find out when the game is released. Finally we confirm that most of the changes that we mentioned in the last couple of devblogs will be able to be tested in the future demo to be released, we are still defining how much it will cover and what the experience will be, but our goal is to have a free demo so that everyone can try it and give us feedback on the game.
(Yeah prototype of one of the enemies in 3D printing)

The Ghost Creative team

Many players see the development of a video game as something linear, which is why I have been very careful not to mention possible release dates, since being an indie studio our life is not so linear or stable (if you have read the previous devblogs or follow us from the beginning you will know it). That's why I wanted to share a little about the team. We are currently 6 people working on the game, mostly from Argentina, although our studio also has roots in the neighboring country of Uruguay. We hope to slowly build the team as we finish this game. Currently looking for pixel art animators to complement the work of our wonderful artist Franco. We are also very happy because our musician and audio specialist Leandro has taken a few weeks off due to the birth of his second daughter. We are a small team with great ambitions, remember if you want to help you can join our community or follow us on social networks.
Remember to join our patreon or buy our minigames at launch if you want to help us with the development and thanks in advance.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Follow us in our Discord community for news and development progress.

[ 2024-02-01 16:18:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Okay it's been almost 2 months but Christian is here! Hi! Today I bring you a summary of how development is coming and what has happened in these almost couple of months since our last dev diary.

Why the delay?

Let's get to the point, because we are working on the game... yes I know you would think it is a stupid answer, but if you have seen the previous dev diaries, you will remember that we have had a lot of problems working on the game in the year... To be able to maintain the studio we accepted other jobs and made small progress on Beacon of Neyda, slowly but steadily, but we did not get the funds to finish it and after many rejections even our motivation waned a little. Luckily several things changed and finally for almost 2 months we have been working full time on Beacon of Neyda. History, mechanics and designs in general have already been defined and we are working on creating the best possible game, we still have limitations, we have not ruled out the idea of a kickstarter and we have opened a patreon, we do not know if it will work or if there are interested parties but we would appreciate all the help possible. Finally we have plans to continue working for the next 6 months without interruption to finish the game. Don't forget to join our Discord to find out the latest about our projects.

Development Status

In the previous dev diary we mentioned that we were going to change the construction system, but to achieve that we had to rewrite a lot of code, and it is something that we are almost finishing. After definitively modifying and fixing our drones, we have worked on the new construction/upgrade system and how the player interacts with everything. In art, the work has been exhaustive, the amount of environmental assets for the new levels are on a very good track and the new elements with their animations are also on the right track. As for audio, new music tracks are being worked on and we are playing with the idea that narrative elements of the game are not only through the visual of the environment, but also have the possibility of adding specific narrative audios. which brings us to the point of the translations and languages that the game will have, at least in text we hope to start with the game translated into at least 5 languages at launch. English - Spanish - Portuguese - Italian - French As far as audio is concerned, English and Spanish, if possible... but the latter is not yet defined.

New award won

To close this new dev diary I would like to share with you that we won a award, we have been relatively quiet about the game without taking it or sending it to events since we are working on it. But we did a test by sending our game to ExpoVit, a small-scale video game event where we won an award for "Best Story and Narrative." That makes the entire Ghost Creative team very happy as it shows that we are on the right path with what we are working on for Beacon of Neyda. That's all, maybe we'll have some more updates next month, but we'll probably take a couple of weeks during the holidays and the new year.
Remember to join our patreon or buy our minigames at launch if you want to help us with the development and thank you very much for your patience, we are finally moving forward in the way we wanted in the development of the game.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Follow us in our Discord community for news and development progress.

[ 2023-11-23 17:31:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's me Mari... I say Christian and as I anticipated in the previous dev diary we have returned to work more energetically in the game and I come to tell you a little about this.

Neyda world

"When the Artificial Intelligences tasked with terraforming the desert world of Neyda rebelled against their creators, the worlds settlers were forced into war with the machines. With all communications destroyed, the people of Neyda fought alone to reclaim their world. Decades later, the survivors of the war continue the fight against the last robots, still infected by the AIs orders of destruction. Meanwhile, something new may be awakening in the sands of Neyda" With this basic premise we advance in the creation of the world and its places, what scenarios the player can visit and what secrets to discover... from the outer zone of the capital city, its industrial zone, its commercial districts in the interior to the mega beacon structure. As you can see, the sketches are already underway and we have many plans of what we want to achieve with each new scenario.

Development Status

First of all, if you follow us in our Discord community, you have found out that our game is to be added to wishlist on new distribution platforms and if you had not found out, what are you waiting for to join our Discord community? Secondly we have started to work on solving certain issues that we found in the gameplay, some things that simply did not work in the tests we carried out, for example the interface to build, something that many of the players found confusing in its initial use. We add more details to reach an alpha with a playable demo but we still need to improve the flow of the game. [previewyoutube=OmXRuPLWRzk;full][/previewyoutube]

Possible kickstarter???

Despite working on the game again, our financing situation is still insecure and we are seriously considering the possibility of a kickstarter to solve the lack of resources and once again restore attention to our game. It is something that we will surely discuss during the next dev diary. We also plan to start a small closed test of the demo during the next month, from Steam we have lists of keys to give out... so stay tuned for news in our Discord community And that's all for this month.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Follow us in our Discord community for news and development progress.

[ 2023-09-01 01:57:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Christian here! Hi! Today I bring you a summary of how development is coming and what has happened in these couple of months since our last dev diary which was a while ago... so let's get down to business.

What happened?

Getting to the point, lack of financing, that's what happened, since we couldn't secure any stable source, we had to carry out other types of work and actions to maintain the study. This left us with little time for the game. In addition, our studio has a particularity, despite being a small studio (5 people), we generally take care of actions that larger studios would do. An example of this is participating in different events both in our country and in other countries, helping to generate a local community with different actions, such as talks or events. Which also absorbs a lot of our time and sometimes even part of our budget. Does this mean that the game died?... No, quite the opposite, although it is true that we still do not have a fixed budget to be able to work on it full time, we have been making small advances in development, but again they are "boring" advances since they are difficult to show. [previewyoutube=OmXRuPLWRzk;full][/previewyoutube]

Development Status

Firstly, new trailer, I think it shows the idea of the game better, secondly we have a new logo. The old one was fine, but to generate promotional material and take it to events it did not look good. Thus the new logo was born, no longer in a pixel art style but I think it works just as well together with the main art image. The third action that we were carrying out was the update of the engine where the game is created, this is a task that can take a while and always generates errors that developers have to deal with. So why did we do that if it brings so much trouble? The answer is simple, we need to keep the version of the engine we use updated so we can port to consoles without much difficulty. A request that we had from several fans is that the game be on multiple platforms at the time of its release and it is something that we are fulfilling as well. Other things we did was update the general lighting system for interiors and some advances in the creation of art assets.

How is the development going from now?

Again I want to close this blog entry on an optimistic note, we hope to have very good news soon. That means finally having the time to work on the game as it deserves, but in the worst case scenario we're still going to move on and one way or another we will finish the game. If you follow us on our social networks you will also see that when we are working on other jobs we always create a mini game and launch it. If you play our other games, share them and leave us your opinions it also helps us a lot to continue. ...And that's all for this month. Hopefully the next blog post won't take so long.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Follow us in our Discord community for news and development progress.

[ 2023-08-01 01:53:58 CET ] [ Original post ]

Christian here! Hi! Today I bring you a summary of how development is coming and what has happened in these couple of months since our last dev diary.

Development Status

Our last dev diary was in December where we announced that we were going to stop development during the holidays and that we would return in 2023. But what has happened since then? the answer is a bit complicated, we have returned to the development of the game but very slowly, we are still dealing with some funding issues but the biggest problem has been the bureaucracy. I'm not going to bore you, but in the last month and a half we've had to deal with a ton of paperwork, taxes, and other things to get our studio to accept funding for game development. We're optimistic about how the game will progress from now on but putting that aside, where have we progressed in the game? Well, we have made progress in the creation of more underground sections, while we have improved our lighting system (the day and night cycle) that we had to deactivate for a while. Among other minor design tweaks and tweaks to the pre alpha build we have on sample. And speaking of pre-alpha... [previewyoutube=WyaiTf9l5Wo;full][/previewyoutube]

Thank you so much!

Thanks to a fellow indie developer we had a great validation moment for our game. We know the concept is good, but other than a few closed tests or small event shows up to now the game hadn't been shown to the general public, and that changed with the Splatter Cat video. Despite having several bugs and being Such an early version of the game, he played our pre alpha version and we had very good feedback both from him and from his community, something that has helped us a lot. But since then he has not been the only youtuber interested in trying our game and we also thank Dan Field and Only Indies among others for showing interest. So thank you very much everyone!

Public demo?

After getting some extra attention and many questions, we still can't secure a public demo, yes we are going to work towards that goal but we can't announce a date yet, thanks also to the support of the new followers, the people who joined to the community and that he has added the game to his wishlist. It honestly means a lot to us... And that's all for this month.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Follow us in our Discord community for news and development progress.

[ 2023-02-24 18:24:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's almost the end of the year and maybe this new dev diary is a bit late but it's going to have to count for two. Christian here again with news about Beacon of Neyda.

"Best Art"

For a few months we have a pre alpha build of the game that we use to participate in events and thanks to the wonderful work of our artist Franco alias "Pelado" and the small team that we have in general we have won two awards so far. Something that makes us very happy because if we achieved that with a job in pre alpha, can you imagine what we could achieve with a final version? Having said all this, we currently have a new pre alpha version which will be receiving adjustments and maybe you can see it in an event in which we participate or in a closed test that we organize (Follow us on our Discord community to find out about it). For now we do not have any candidate versions for a public demo and it is something that we will only think about during 2023.

Development status

As I mentioned before, we have a new playable pre alpha version. With a simplified exploration underground, the integration of general and individual upgrades. For example one of the problems that we detected is that games with this "2D defense style" is that you have the main character that moves from one corner of the map to the other several times and the movement is slow and tedious when expanding your domains a lot. Therefore, one of the first upgrades that you have access to is about movement, allowing you to move much faster through your domains and it is not the only one, future upgrades will focus on the movement of exploration outside your domains, making it a more dynamic game. Being in such an early stage of development of the game we have been integrating support for multiple languages, because yes, we have already integrated a simple dialogue system in the game since we want that when expanding the game it is an element with which we already have as base and not have to integrate it at the last minute. The "Beacon of Neyda universe" is growing every day and we want to give interesting lore to whoever is looking for it and great gameplay to whoever just wants to play.

What will happen during Christmas and New Year?

We have been working on this project and others throughout the year and the team deserve a break for the great work they have done, we still haven't gotten full funding for Beacon of Neyda so we have only been working part time on the project "best case scenario". Therefore we will take a few weeks off, that doesn't mean that our social networks will not be active but at least until next year there will be no big news (which could be... I can't say anything else) We hope 2023 will be a great year for Beacon of Neyda and our team. We hope you have a happy holiday and see you next year!

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Follow us in our Discord community for news and development progress.

[ 2022-12-10 16:45:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi again! Christian here and I have a few things for you today. First a state of how the development of the game comes along and second our new enemy.

Development Status

We are still working on a demo that will showcase all the gameplay and early game elements. Being a game with a focus on strategy it is difficult to reduce all aspects of the design to create a reduced experience for the demo when in reality we are looking to create a game with an extended duration. But we have made it. We are currently making final adjustments before doing some closed testing (You may have a chance to participate if you are in our Discord community), if the feedback is good, we will adapt the demo for a possible Steam release of the demo... but I can't share any date for the moment.

A new threat arises

We have defined several enemy roles and so far we only had two enemies implemented in the demo that did not differ much, just one had a little more life and attack power. We needed to give a little more variety in the demo by generating new hazards. So a new enemy was born. Known internally as "el patas" or "the legs" in English. A distinctive enemy that has a mid-range attack with a lot of damage power but doesn't have as much health. Which makes him an enemy to prioritize if he can be found alone. As you will see in the first image we had many sketches and proposals from our artist and we reached a point where we are all happy with the new enemy.
and here is the new enemy for the demo.

and that's all for this month

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Follow us in our Discord community for news and development progress.

[ 2022-10-26 21:59:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey all! My name is Christian Molina and I run the Ghost Creative team. This is our first dev diary for Beacon of Neyda where we want to share a bit more about the history of the game its beginning and future plans we have for its development.

A brief history of inspiration

In the search for our next project our artist presented us with some concepts in pixel art, a hooded character and some half-destroyed robots, that was enough to start exploring ideas... a distant world, destroyed, devastated, deserts in the style of Dune or an environment like Mad Max. Maybe the robots won? something like the original Terminator and the technology, modern or futuristic? a rare mix between modern futurism?. Beacon of Neyda has inspiration from multiple sources trying to achieve its own and differentiated style in a post-apocalyptic context. Which is not something so easy to achieve but we are very happy with the style we managed to achieve and the future plans we have for this game in development.

Development Status

We are currently moving to a demo version where we want to show part of the narrative of the game's story leading to a small tutorial to understand the basics of the gameplay and show some underground places that can be explored. We already have a small pre alpha build which shows the core gameplay with which we have done closed tests and we have received very good feedback but we want to have a complete demo ready to be able to show the totality of what we seek to create. If you have played games from the Kingdom saga you will understand part of the core gameplay but you will begin to notice the differences in our construction system and in our exploration, which at times partially changes the security of our base for loneliness and the insecurity of underground exploration.

Future plans

Our future plans are simple, finish our demo, look for funding again (yeah currently the game doesn't have stable funding, we are developing it slowly for that reason) and when the time comes to release the demo on Steam to get feedback from a wider public and if possible to be able to work full time on this game that has captivated us in a very short time.

JOIN THE COMMUNITY

Follow us in our Discord community for news and development progress.

[ 2022-09-25 20:50:44 CET ] [ Original post ]