- Back working on the game! - 19 January 2025
Hi friends, fans & family! I just want to let you know that I’ve slowly started working on the game again. No details yet but I’m making small but consistent progress. More news soon! // Luis
- Temporary break for ADHD group therapy - 10 October 2024
Hi friends, fans & family! I have recently started attending group therapy. It is great opportunity for me since it’s a very thorough course that treats emotional dysregulation for adults with ADHD. There are limited spots available and it’s free(!) so being selected is a rare thing. The course is however very intense with lots of homework and this coupled with increased workload at work has led me to take a temporary break from the game for the rest of the year until the course is completed. I might work sporadically on it and if I do I’ll post it here but don’t expect any news until January. Don’t worry though, I’m not dropping the game just prioritising my mental health for a while.
- Progress updated Aug 19 - Sep 22 - 22 September 2024
Hi friends, fans & family! Life has been quite hectic lately and unfortunately progress has been very slow and inconsistent. I'm probably gonna be getting up to speed again soon but some curve balls in other areas have been thrown my way and I've had to give other stuff more attention. This update is therefore not that interesting. I've fixed quite a few bugs and done some changes to the Hero Selection screen but that will probably not be in the first demo anyway. The biggest thing I'm working on right now is the tutorial which is tedious but absolutely crucial. I hope I can give you something a bit juicer soon :) // Luis
- Progress report 6-18 August 2024 - 18 August 2024
Hey friends, fans & family! I was away last sunday so couldn't post an update and decided to wait a week instead! Here's what I've been up to the last two weeks: Bug fixing: - Fixed so "killed" heroes are counted properly for side objectives that depend on that variable - Fixed bugs relating to "AllHeroesShouldTakeDamage" side objective - Fixed bug where the "EscortVIP" mission type could not be finished because code that was supposed to fire when reaching a tile was not being executed anymore - Fixed so chest reward content is not revealed when the side objective has been failed - Fixed knock back bug when units are on the edge of the map - Fixed so the tiledetails panel doesn't look like crap before a mission starts - Fixed so energy is displayed correctly in the loadout panel Gameplay adjustments/improvements: - Changed the XP necessary to level up from 10 to 6. Each mission rewards…
- Progress report 22 July - 5 August (vacation) - 5 August 2024
Hi friends, fans & family! I had a little vacation where I slacked off for a bit so didn't get all that much done in this period but I did manage to do the following: - Fixed zooming so that it zooms in to the middle of the action instead of the attack point. This allows the player to see the attacker better with ranged attacks - Made sure that every mission type currently on the map is unique. - Fixed so the victory panel looks decent - Reworked the mission objectives panel and the mission preview panel so I can reuse the logic in both places and make sure that the graphics are the same (avoids duplication of code and assets) - Fixed some side objective bugs - Removed the "defeat" panel. Losing a mission OR losing all your heroes in one mission will end the current run and lead straight to game over screen - uploaded a new build to test out on the Steam Deck - tested the game on the De…
- Progress report 15-21 July - 21 July 2024
Hi friends, fans & family! This week has mostly been about adding side objectives to the game. Here's everything that's been done: Side Objectives: - Missions now have one main objective and one side objective. Each of the objectives gives one reward with no reward appearing twice. - The treasure reward has now been fully implemented - Side objectives can be in one of three states: failed, cleared or in progress - The current objectives in place are: Clear main objective in x turns Defended unit/structure etc takes 0 damage Move x tiles in total around the map No hero is knocked out All heroes take damage There are plenty of more objectives in the pipe so there will be a bunch of them. Some combinations of main objectives - side objectives will not appear. For example: defend a unit for x turns makes no sense together with the "clear main objective in x turns". - Started redesigning obj…
- Progress Report 8-14 July - 14 July 2024
Hi friends, fans & family! Here's the progress report for 8-14 July Level up screen: - undo functionality has been fully implemented so you can change your mind about which skills to pick while on this screen. Skills: - riposte has been fixed so it doesn't appear among active skills and it now has a corresponding icon and not a placeholder - stick & move has gotten a brand new icon and an issue with the indicator behaving oddly when you attack before moving has been fixed - all known bugs related to the flying skill have been fixed Map: - changed the code so the max nodes on the map at once is 3 and not 5. This is definitely not set in stone - updated mission briefs Rewards: - added bandage/first aid reward. Heroes won't die when they fall in battle but they will get wounds that are "permanent" and give all kinds of penalties. One of the few (or only) ways of getting rid of them will be…
- Progress 1-7 July - 7 July 2024
1-7 July Hi friends, fans & family! This week I’ve been doing all sorts of small fixes and tweaks: Gameplay: - XP for kills has been removed. Individual XP is still at thing bug all heroes will get the same amount of XP per mission except if they have certain skills or items that give bonuses. There are other ways of getting XP too… - Defense and armor has been merged into one. Wearing an armor gives you defense points as do certain skills and standing on forest tiles etc. The difference is that the armor points get depleted when you take damage while the tile bonuses are valid for every hit you take. Example: Def +1 from the forest tile means every attack will be reduced by 1 point while armor 6 means you can take 6 damage before your HP is affected. I removed the armor icon to reduce confusion. Armor might “regenerate” every turn but that depends on how it’s received… - Cooldowns have…
- Progress update 24-30 June 2024 - 30 June 2024
Progress updated 24-30 June 2024 Hi friends, fans & family! This week I’ve been focusing on the settings screen and I’ve added the following options: - Turn speed: determines how quickly the enemy acts. - Auto end turn: If this option is turned off you have to actually press the end turn button before the turn shifts to the enemy. - Screenshake: toggle on/off screenshake for hit impacts. - Zoom to attack: toggle on/off the zoom animation that moves closer to the action when performing certain attacks. - Swingmeter: toggle on/off the timing mini game when performing certain attacks. Damage is randomly determined when turned off. - Swingmeter speed: determines how quickly the swingmeter moves. - Enemy spawns: determines the number of enemy reinforcements. More enemies makes the game harder (duh!). - Hero health: determines how much of a beating your team can take. Less health makes the ga…
- The game is not scrapped or anything! - 19 June 2024
UI Updates and upcoming changes... Hi friends, fans & family! Long time no see. Life keeps getting in the way so the pace of my updates is a bit slow (to say the least) but rest assured I'm still working on the game! I don't have a substantial amount of stuff to show actually but I've updated the store page with some new screenshot so make sure to take a look and tell me what you think! The skill trees, inventory screens and load out screens have all gotten a face lift and I've added icons to show the effects of items as well as short biography "blurbs" for the heroes. Bugs, Secondary objectives and mission design Most of my work recently has been about killing bugs and making things look better. I've fixed most of the problems with the missions. There are now five types of missions: - Defend a character - Escort a character - Rescue several characters - Defeat all enemies - Kill a spec…
- Progress Report August-October - 9 October 2023
Hi friends, fans & family! Will try to post more often about progress in the game and will try to do that with as little "fluff" as possible (that's the price to pay for the increase in frequency :P) so let's hop right in! August-October progress: Features: -added world map with selectable missions. Missions give varying rewards, are of different type, have different biomes and difficulties and it's up to you to play to your teams current strengths. - added varying difficulty for missions - added villager/civilian happiness/morale meter - added morale and legend/story points as mission reward types. One of the ways of losing the game is by the people losing faith in the heroes (happens when mission objectives are failed) and therefor not hiring them anymore and morale can now be restored. Legend/story points are used to unlock new stuff for future runs. - added help chapters so players…
- Back from hiatus - 7 August 2023
Hi friends, fans & family! Sorry for the looong radio silence. I have been… busy. Without going into too much details I made a lot of big realisations last summer which caused me to take a long break from the development of the game. I’m in the middle of an ADHD investigation that started because there’s always been some suspicious symptoms but lately with two small kids, a full-time and committing to my hobbies everything simply became too much. All is good and I’ve gone through most of it now and I’ve been working on the game for quite some time so… Let’s get to it! Upping the resolution of the title screen I started working on the new title screen and it’s still not done but I’m almost there, just have to clean up the background a bit. This new one will look much better in all resolutions. Houses can now be visited I loved the feature in Fire Emblem where you can visit the houses on…
- MAJOR Gameplay changes in the works... - 1 July 2022
Hi friends, fans & family! I have some exciting news to share but before I get to it I’m going to tell you what my vision for “Guardian of Gridvale” is/was and where it is now… The vision When I first began working on “Guardians of Gridvale” I had a couple of goals: 1. Show the enemies upcoming actions so that the player doesn't have to guess/figure out what the AI will do 2. Make sure that skills manipulate positioning of heroes and enemies and alter the environment itself 3. Have a timing mini-game to give an extra “oumph” when attacking Goals 2 and 3 were fairly “easy” to achieve from a design perspective and I kind of knew how to approach them but showing the enemies upcoming moves proved to be tricky. Why? Because I didn’t want to straight up copy “Into the Breach” and so I thought of different ways of achieving this. The design lead me to make a system where the player makes moves…
- Turning “Guardians of Gridvale” into a roguelike/roguelite - 6 May 2022
Hi friends, fans & family! I have a bunch of text coming your way today so I’ll waste no time and get right to it! Genre change A major change perhaps… or not? I am going to make “Guardians of Gridvale” a roguelike/roguelite. I know it sounds like a big change but I promise that most of the things will remain as they are: you will still manage a group of heroes with the same tactical, turn based gameplay! There’s just gonna be a greater focus on randomisation and less focus on a “main story”. The banter between heroes etc will still remain. Why am I doing this? Well here’s my reasoning but first a picture of the new hero selection screen… It was my intial idea This game was born because I wanted to try to make something somewhat similar to ”Into the Breach” but with another setting and some different mechanics. I loved the idea of having banter between heroes and flesh that out in compa…
- How to play defense - 23 February 2022
I’ve told you before how the Swingmeter affects attack damage and this time I wanted to talk a bit about how to defend in Guardians of Gridvale. There are no timing mechanics and no random damage when it comes to your enemies attacks. Defense is mostly a matter of positioning even though there are some defensive skills and some equipment that’ll boost your chances of not getting your ass kicked. Enemies telegraph their attacks One of the main features of Guardians of Gridvale is that the enemies show who they will attack on their turn. This gives you a clear indication of what the threat level is for each of your heroes. Moving your heroes might however change your enemies plans so keep that in mind. If a hero that was previously unreachable get’s in closer an enemy within distance will update his intention to attack that hero. Checking how much damage your hero will receive is crucial…
- Hero selection and the core loop - 2 December 2021
Hi friends, fans and family! Core loop The last couple of weeks I have been focused on tying the core loop together. The various game parts are still in an unfinished state and need more love. Right now I need to tie all the different screens together to get a proper flow going. The core loop will go something like this: - Select a story mission or “random” mission - Select which heroes go on the mission and equip them, select new skills, level up etc - Play mission - Get loot, rewards and XP - Go to camp to rest, get to know the heroes etc - Rinse and repeat Hero selection The part I’m focusing on right now is the “Select Heroes Screen” which means I’m adding new heroes among other things. There will be a total of 8 unique heroes to choose from and which heroes you pick will depend on a lot of factors like for example: * What are the conditions for the mission? * How many heroes can yo…
- Devlog 1. Introducing myself and Swingmeter mechanics - 10 November 2021
Hi all! The page for ”Guardians of Gridvale” has been up for two weeks now and I think this is the perfect time to introduce myself! My name is Luis and I'm the sole developer of this game. I am 40 years old (yeah I know 😂), have a wife, two small kids & two small cats plus a day job where I program iOS apps. What little spare time I have is mostly poured into the development of this game. A game I hope you guys are as excited about as I am! “Guardians of Gridvale” is pretty far from done so don’t be afraid to give me your opinions about things since your feedback will help shape the end product and is of great help to me! I’m gonna try to post regular updates here going into details about what I'm working on but first I want to talk about a feature that I knew would be divisive: the swingmeter. The feature The swingmeter appears when the heroes perform some types of attacks. It’s a mo…
