Synthnostate: Crusaders of the Tinfoil Hat [DEMO]

Devlog

• New Developments
  November 07, 2024 by Synthnostate

  I’m making a new custom engine for both games now… Follow along on the Synthnostate: Sanguinity devlog: https://synthnostate.itch.io/sanguinity-demo/devlog/828687/devlog-18-weekly-roundup-11-05-... Continue reading
• Possible update in late 2023
  May 26, 2023 by Synthnostate

  I may do another development sprint on this game after one or two more Agenda42 demos (unless people start getting excited about that game, but I can’t see that happening for another year or so). Go... Continue reading
• Demo Release Checklists
  December 30, 2022 by Synthnostate

  Agenda 2042 Demo 1 ✔✔ Game object data structures ✔✔ Save/Load ✔✔ Third-person camera/controls ✔✔ Character animations (jogging, idle, attacks) ✔✔ Keymapping ✔✔ Character Custo... Continue reading
• A Difficult Decision
  December 07, 2022 by Synthnostate

  I think it’s time to switch to Godot. My #1 goal is to build a few good RPGs, I need collaborators to achieve that, and using Godot seems like the best way to find them. My top priority now is Agend... Continue reading
• Long-term TODO tracking in Synthnostate
  October 19, 2022 by Synthnostate

  This is a post for developers, project managers, and Synthnostate fans following my progress. Tracking and organizing tasks, sprints, and feature wishlists is a pain. In corporate gigs I’ve used clo... Continue reading

  
• v0.8.3 RELEASED
  October 13, 2022 by Synthnostate

  It’s been 2 months since I uploaded anything and I need another month to finish everything I wanted in this release, so here’s a snapshot for anyone who wants to test all the new/improved GUI stuf... Continue reading
• Hard Sci-fi Research Notes
  October 02, 2022 by Synthnostate#notes

  Notes on actual/speculated real-world technologies which may appear in Synthnostate and sequels. Gene editing & Synthnobiology Gene sequencing (reading)… [speed/cost progress TK] Gene writing… com... Continue reading
• Piling on more work for v0.8.3
  September 09, 2022 by Synthnostate

  It’s been a slow week. At least scrollbars are done, lol. I could fix the missing background glitch and release v0.8.3 immediately, but all it adds is UI “quality of life” and new bugs; nobody... Continue reading

  
• Still working on GUI overhaul for v0.8.3
  September 01, 2022 by Synthnostate

  I’m still bogged down in GUI work. The sizing+layout stuff is mostly sorted out, but I really need to bite the bullet and reorganize the whole GUI system to use the pattern I’m settling into, wher... Continue reading

  
• v0.8.2 "Risen" RELEASED
  August 16, 2022 by Synthnostate

  This release is titled “Risen” in honor of Terry A. Davis, 12/15/69 - 8/11/18. His tune of the same name is featured in the soundtrack. CHANGELOG Restored 3D engine features from v0.5: Pixel-perfe... Continue reading
• v0.8.1 RELEASED
  August 04, 2022 by Synthnostate

  Not much to see here, just finalizing the in-game editing systems, cleaning up the GUI system, a dev teleport UI, and various bug fixes. However, I may break some things in the next few weeks so I’m... Continue reading
• v0.8.0 RELEASED - Battleground Levels WIP
  July 21, 2022 by Synthnostate

  At long last, we’re back to level/encounter design and playtesting. Combat actually runs pretty smoothly now. I’ve played through all 4 encounters a few times without crashes or hangups. Dying, ye... Continue reading

  
• Halfway to 0.8.0
  June 11, 2022 by Synthnostate

  It’s good to be out of that last development phase. Now I’m diligently hitting all my bullet points for 0.8.0 - cleanup, debugging, better editing support, 3D modeling, a 3D format overhaul - ever... Continue reading

  
• ROADMAP: v0.8 Alpha Series
  May 19, 2022 by Synthnostate#roadmap

  Major Goals for v0.8 Alpha series Build out unfinished mid/endgame battleground levels for playtesting. Finish engine overhaul; fix all major glitches; focus on stability and core combat gameplay. Fin... Continue reading
• v0.7.5 released - Turnbased Combat
  May 15, 2022 by Synthnostate

  This is the final 0.7 release. It’s nothing great, just an “as-is” snapshot before I move on to the next phase of development. It has the essentials of turnbased combat but it’s very basic and... Continue reading
• My struggle to finish v0.7.5
  May 09, 2022 by Synthnostate

  I need a better dev strategy. I’m procrastinating because I’m bogged down in coding, when I should be grinding out content - 3D models, textures, music, dialogue, battle scenarios - and using my s... Continue reading
• Cultural Considerations
  April 27, 2022 by Synthnostate

  Next release should be out within a week, and it’s a big milestone with actual turnbased combat and some features from my wishlist. In the meantime, here’s a post about cultural influences and con... Continue reading
• v0.7.4 released - Dialogue, Class System, Scene Traversal
  April 10, 2022 by Synthnostate

  The important parts are all in. Now I need another month to follow up on turnbased combat, AI, the GUI system, equipment UI, and debugging. Changelog New UIs: Dialogue (click under an NPC to talk) Que... Continue reading

  
• Synthnostate v0.7.4 progress
  March 20, 2022 by Synthnostate

  Converted and cleaned up NPC/item data on day one. 100% smooth sailing, feels good man. Dialogue UI ported (and converted from big-box-of-text to ‘speech bubble’ over the NPC’s head). Script con... Continue reading

  
• v0.7.3 released
  March 15, 2022 by Synthnostate

  Ported and overhauled ~95% of combat code from V1. Changelog v0.7.3 2022.03.14 Combat details Combat rules, formulas, derived stats, rolls, damage, crits, etc Range attack trajectories Targeting UI Pa... Continue reading

  
• v0.7.2 released
  February 19, 2022 by Synthnostate

  v0.7.2 2022.02.19 Content editing & inventory A pretty boring release except for devs/modders (Next two releases will focus on gameplay!) Changelog Command line options (for a list, run “app.exe -he... Continue reading

  
• v0.7.1 released
  February 11, 2022 by Synthnostate

  What’s new: Combat basics (damage, death, animations, placeholder sounds) Health bars Weapon/attack selection UI Object picking POSTPONED Combat is far from complete - we need sounds, blood, explosi... Continue reading

  
• ROADMAP: v0.7.x series
  February 10, 2022 by Synthnostate#roadmap

  Major goals for 0.7 series Still experimenting; focus on in-game editing, scripting, and design changes. In-Game Editing: NPCs, items, dialogue Content Restore a few levels, NPCs, items, quests from v... Continue reading
• How it's going
  January 29, 2022 by Synthnostate

  So, I’ve spent 5 months rebuilding my game engine. Was it worth it? It had to be done. If I’d done it 2 years ago I could be making a sequel by now. Should I have used Godot, Unreal, Unity? Probab... Continue reading
• v0.7.0 Tech Demo released
  January 29, 2022 by Synthnostate

  What’s new? Nothing except JS scripting, internal cleanup, and fixes. Actually it’s a bit more than that. Graphics initialization and scene creation are almost fully script-driven now, and I’ve... Continue reading

  
• v0.6.1 released (tech demo #1)
  January 08, 2022 by Synthnostate

  This demo is just a first glimpse of the new engine, with nothing but basic tile grid movement, character appearance customization, a few non-functional UIs, music, sounds (footsteps only), and TONS O... Continue reading
• Wishlist (STICKY)
  December 01, 2021 by Synthnostate

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  This post is a dumping ground for gameplay/content ideas and long-range plans. Feel free to comment. These are all serious proposals for implementation after the essential v0.7.x features are complete... Continue reading

  
• Roadmap: Demo 1 dev sprint & beyond
  November 28, 2021 by Synthnostate

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  v0.6.0 Engine V2: complete overhaul ☒ C core ☒ select libraries for vector math, dynamic data structures, etc ☒ Lua scripting (prototype) ☒ GUI (prototype) ☒ 3D pipeline (improved) ☒ Save... Continue reading

  
• Update and plans - November 2021
  November 17, 2021 by Synthnostate

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  Synthnostate: Crusaders of the Tinfoil Hat Engine V2 is almost done. No art/style changes, just a rebuild in plain C with cleaner graphics+GUI systems, Lua scripting, and in-engine editing for smoothe... Continue reading

  
• Hard Scifi in SS:CTH
  September 24, 2021 by Synthnostate

  (This was written 2019-10-25) FTL spaceflight? That old killjoy Albert Einstein casts cold water on that idea with his Theory of Special Relativity. That’s the one that says light travels at an abso... Continue reading

  
• Big-picture update - March 2021
  March 19, 2021 by Synthnostate

  Big-picture update on Synthnostate: Crusaders of the Tinfoil Hat - basically the yearly “we’re not dead” post. I wanted this to be the WIP release announcement, but alas, I can only say we’re... Continue reading

  
• v0.4 dev sprint
  January 21, 2020 by Synthnostate

  v0.4 dev sprint underway - the long overdue combat demo! This is for engine testing and publicity. Social media isn’t enough, we need to let the game speak for itself. We’re also changing the titl... Continue reading
• Update 12/7/19
  December 07, 2019 by Synthnostate

  WIP: targeting UI & animations for more powerful weapons only on bitchute now! https://www.bitchute.com/video/YZs8olvqHn8Y/... Continue reading

  
• Combat preview
  November 13, 2019 by Synthnostate

  Started a big devlog post about “Fire(arms) Magic” in 𝘾𝙧𝙪𝙨𝙖𝙙𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙏𝙞𝙣𝙛𝙤𝙞𝙡 𝙃𝙖𝙩…. screw that, I’ll make videos and ju... Continue reading

  
• Itch vs GameJolt
  October 17, 2019 by Synthnostate

  Itch vs GameJolt: they each have some pros and cons. Let's try running a devlog on both for a while to get a better feel. Itch.io page GameJolt page GJ has polls!! wonder who'll win there, lol... Continue reading
• Glowing in the Dark
  October 15, 2019 by Synthnostate

  Just a quick we're-not-dead update. Where have we been for the last two weeks? Distracted by politics like everyone else. First the Trump impeachment probe, then China. What little work we've done was... Continue reading

  
• Stats, Archetypes, and Difficulty
  September 26, 2019 by Synthnostate

  We generally don't mess with CRPG tradition without a good reason. We're not SJWs. However, there is no place for the """problematic stereotypes""" of good old D&D in the modern, tolerant, pre-gamerga... Continue reading

  
• 9/20/19 - Back To Work
  September 20, 2019 by Synthnostate

  Not much new to report. Last week was vacation time here. I was about as far from the modern world as one can get. ^^ Just getting back into the swing of things this week. Working on soundtracks, art,... Continue reading

  
• Update 9/7/19
  September 07, 2019 by Synthnostate

  I made a Blender addon to speed up worldbuilding. It rotates the view to the same iso angles as the game for a quick preview. It scales texture maps to an absolute size to eliminate guesswork. It plac... Continue reading

  
• August 2019 Update
  August 30, 2019 by Synthnostate

  I'm going to start posting quick weekly updates here. This devlog is getting some attention now, and it's preferable to wasting time on social media. As I feared, that's becoming a problem. I have to... Continue reading

  
• Hype 101
  July 03, 2019 by Synthnostate

  Development is only half the battle. To carry out our mission of making quality RPGs, we have to sell them - a minimum of 10,000 copies - of our next game if not this one. One does not simply make a g... Continue reading

  
• Character Customization & Clothing
  May 02, 2019 by Synthnostate

  Here's a glimpse of the character stats & appearance screen in Crusaders of the Tinfoil Hat. The appearance customization feature is not bad for an indie RPG, but it's limited by our stingy 12-slot i... Continue reading

  
• The Line of Fire
  March 13, 2019 by Synthnostate

  This week's coding challenge: obstructions to range attacks. We're using traditional random-roll RPG mechanics driven by 3D simulation factors. It's one of the trickiest parts of the game design, but... Continue reading

  
• The Inventory System
  February 27, 2019 by Synthnostate

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  A February release was unsurprisingly optimistic. We're busy with worldbuilding and combat coding, so we can start playtesting the core gameplay in big infiltration & firefight scenarios. Today we hav... Continue reading

  
• Update: alpha RSN, and a tentative release date
  October 17, 2018 by Synthnostate

  Alpha testing realsoonnow Good progress on everything from last update's checklist. However, the quest system got a major overhaul last week; call it 99% done, but now it needs debugging. So maybe thi... Continue reading
• Update: so much for September
  October 02, 2018 by Synthnostate

  Arbitrary deadline BTFO Well, we made a big push to tackle all the unpleasant chores and get v0.2 out the door to alpha testers, and we pretty much did it, but gameplay needs a little more work. What'... Continue reading
• On track for September private alpha
  September 07, 2018 by Synthnostate

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  >put on tinfoil coder's hat I've been busy the last two weeks whipping the game engine into shape for private alpha testing in late September, checking off milestones on the roadmap: Silhouettes Blood... Continue reading

  
• Silhouette Rendering
  August 28, 2018 by Synthnostate

  Silhouettes, Outlines, Feature Edge Detection, whatever you call it. There are a dozen ways to do it and none of 'em are pretty, so I've been delaying the decision. We want to get early builds out to... Continue reading

  
• Intro & Roadmap
  August 23, 2018 by Synthnostate

  This game - working title "Tin Hat Crusade" - has been a couple years in the making. It started as a prototype with basic turnbased RPG mechanics in a post-collapse gritty fantasy setting. That was un... Continue reading