Hello to all, my friends, and happy Easter! The second week of documenting my work on Trauma Pets has been all over the place, both in real life and within the programming side of things, but i'm happy to say that overall things turned out for the better.

Mortal Kombat X has been taking over more of my free time than i anticipated; such a good game this is, belonging to a well respected brand that didn't irreversibly taint its reputation after 2 terrible sequels and a half baked overpriced collection... but hey, that doesn't mean i slacked on the job!

I'm currently split between 2 very different tasks. The one i'm prioritizing the least (for now, of course) is polishing up as much as i humanly can every aspect of the game that is already fully functional, both aesthetically and gameplay-wise; meanwhile, the top priority is brainstorming and implementing a fairly complex minigame that behaves unlike anything i've programmed so far, meaning that i'll have to do a lot of things from scratch, not being quite sure yet of its most minute intricacies. I wish i could give out more details on what that'll be, but revealing anything would spoil some of the story, something that i want you to experience for yourself.

Both of those things have been worked on a satisfactory amount, but i really do hope that my third week of reporting yields more concrete results.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4236490/Trauma_Pets/

Hello to all, my friends! The third devlog on this thrilling weekly series should finally bring in some sizzle to the steak. I'm not sure if this turn of phrase is appropriate here or even worded correctly but i've always wanted to say it... anyway....

The minigame i've talked to you about last week has been finished up and made fully functional. Like it's the case for all other minigames it'll be inevitably bound to receive new features or be rebalanced by the time of release, and i may already have a couple ideas on what to do.

Speaking of, the biggest bulk of programming this week was dedicated in doing just that, reworking the other minigames. I don't get the same level of dopamine rush in my brain when i fix stuff instead of creating it, but many instrumental changes were made to the structure for many of them and i'm very happy with the result.

To close off, a decent amount of writing was also involved, for the first time in a while. After the mastodontic amount of text i've writtern for Trauma Football i got a bit of a writer's block, spacing out all of the lore and flavour text in my gamedevving schedule rather than doing things in bulk, which made it harder to keep track of everything. Having all of the story beats of a given section laid out all in a single text file for once was rather satisfying and will overall result in a better reading experience.

Oh, and i've updated screenshots again lol... nothing major yet but i had to better show some of the aesthetic changes i've worked on the last 2 weeks.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4236490/Trauma_Pets/

Hello to all, my friends! Today marks the first full month i've been writing weekly devlogs for Trauma Pets, do i have something flashy and fun to show off in celebration? No LOL

That's not to say i didn't get quite a lot of shit done, though. I implemented an important QoL feature to keep track of all your progress more efficiently as you do stuff on Batticuore Island,  with the rest of my programming prowess being spent on lots of superfluous nothingness that will make the game feel a bit more alive than it was the previous week.

Writing was also a priority. I corrected and re-edited some of the dialogue and flavour text to be consistent with the new direction i'm going with, on top of adding new stuff that was long overdue. 

Preparatives for a couple new minigames have been prepared. I won't feel fully satisfied with Trauma Pets until players will have at least two more means of aimless distractions at their disposal, and while i'm not quite sure yet of how those minigames play be like, there's plenty of time still to figure it out.

My distractions of the week were Brutal Legend and Sanctum 2, didn't spend as much time on them as i did on MKX, which i suppose is good for productivity, but i did enjoy both nevertheless.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4236490/Trauma_Pets/

Hello to all, my friends! 

This fifth week of reporting to you all what's been going down with Trauma Pets has been uh, quite an eventful one, both within the confines of the Unity inspector and my personal life, but we'll just talk about the stuff that's relevant.

Remember the two mini-games i talked about implementing on my last devlog? Well, they're both now fully operational! Once i finally figured out what i want to do, they didn't take too much out of my free time, admittedly, to put together as i've created such an extensive groundwork for this kinda stuff already. 

Now the game feels a lot more like something worth charging money over, and given i have only 3 weeks before being able to submit a testable build to Steam, i'm feeling like a big weight has been taken off of my wide and chiseled chest.

As for all the other stuff that kept me busy, most of my energies were spent fixing up as many bugs as i could find, many of which were encountered by accident as i was implementing new things.

There's still plenty of improvements that need to be made in the graphics, in the interface, in the lore, in the mini-game balancing and i'll come up with a few more features along the way that will require a fair amount of attention on top of everything else, but i'm determined to put out the best game i can make with my own two hands. See you in june!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4236490/Trauma_Pets/

Hello to all, my friends!

Week number six of this fun little adventure of mine is now in the books, and i'm here to tell you all about it. Trauma Pets is reaching the end of its development cycle, but as anyone who's worked on a videogame will tell you: the last stretch is the one that gives you the most headaches.

I went through a testing session that was more meticolous than any other i've been doing over the course of the last 6 months, and the stuff i had to replace, tweak, fix or downright remove kept piling on and on. That might sound daunting... and in a way it was, but 90% of the work ahead of me consisted in simple modifications that required at worst a few minutes each, as i knew from the start what to do and how to do it.

As for the stuff that's been added, my priority for this week was to add variance whenever possible in all forms of gameplay. If i want players to go through all the minigames i've added more than once i'll have to make sure that their dedication is rewarded with morsels of new content to spice things up.

I've updated all screenshots on the Steam/Jolt/Itch page once again. This time the changes are very minor but i'm trying to keep everyone up to date as soon as possible.

See you next week!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4236490/Trauma_Pets/

Hello to all, my friends! It's week 7 of my gamedevving adventure, my birthday came and went just like it came and went all other years prior, and i'm eager to tell you about what i've been up to!

For the first time since the earlier days of development, i've been focused on the game's writing above all else. After a brief testing session i said to myself "this island feels so empty" so i wrote and implemented randomly spawning NPCs using sprites from Trauma Football that will talk about what's going on inside Batticuore to make it clearer that you're not the only goober lurking around. Corrections of various kinds have been made to other parts as to make the narrative more consistent. Writing is fun.

Nothing too big to report in other areas: minor bug fixes, rebalancings, aesthetic improvements... all bases have been touched, even if just barely. I think i wanna add one last activity, something that you can do with your Trauma Pet without having to think about how it's connected to all other parts of the island. We'll get there when we get there, i guess.

As for the more "meta" stuff that's been happening: the game has been slightly postponed once again, this time to the 15th of June. More and more bugs have been popping up that i'm not 100% sure if i'll be able to fix by June 1st so i'm giving myself a bit of extra leeway and making sure that Trauma Pets doesn't launch in a state similar to those of my other Trauma games I.E. broken as FUCK. Pls understand.

Next week i'll be finally posting a trailer for the game that i can put on my Steam page and elsewhere, i have a couple ideas on how i want that whole ordeal to go but you'll have to wait and see until it's properly put together!

Wishlist Trauma Pets: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4236490/Trauma_Pets/

Love 'em, hate 'em, raise 'em! The Trauma Pets are coming on Steam June 15th! https://store.steampowered.com/app/4236490/Trauma_Pets/

Hello to all, my friends! Next monday (depending on the timezone) is the big day! Trauma Pets will become purcheasable on Steam and i'll be able to finally move on with my life... sort of, LOL.

I haven't published an update for the game in a while so i guess you fine people are owed an explanation for how the development has been going since. Happy to say, things ran smoothly up to the very end, even if i've had a lot less free time over the last month... All of the major bugs have been fixed, the balancing of the economy and other various gameplay aspects is something i'm happy with, there's enough features to keep you occupied for a while and everything looks shiny and bright, cool! There's just one problem that's bothering me: i haven't been able to complete the one new minigame i brought up a while back. I have a general idea of what i want it to look like, but the programming and design itself have proven to be more challenging than anticipated. Oh well...

Trauma Golf (that's the name of the minigame) will receive its own separate update in the future!

I don't want to delay Trauma Pets any longer, heck this dumb game was supposed to come out in february before i realized how unrealistic of a deadline that is, no more!

I'm confident that i already have in my hands something that people could truly enjoy and i'm so excited to show it to you all on monday. See you there!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4236490/Trauma_Pets/

Hello to all, my friends! After around 9 months of hard work, i can proudly announce that Trauma Pets is finally out in the open, ready to be enjoyed by the masses!

Batticuore. What was once nothing more than one of many european islands turned touristic attractions after their practical use faded over time, with plenty of history and untouched natural scenery... now has been rid of any life form by a mysterious curse. The only survivor? An eccentric fisherwoman that goes by the name of Martha Mahkklen.

Not only that! The waters surrounding Batticuore have been repopulated by a new race of creatures, the Trauma Pets! Bloodthirsty animals that have seemingly no other desire than to cause chaos and destruction, which is hardly worth concern for us humans since they're tiny acquatic creatures.

While scientists continue to research their bizarre biological makeup and behaviour, the common people have began to use them for sports in all sorts of competitions, both peaceful and violent. Now that's where you step in, not to stop this senseless abuse, but to be the very best at it.

-TAKE PART IN 20+ MINIGAMES, some involving your Trauma Pets, others testing your own skills!

-HAVE COMPLETE CONTROL OVER THE TRAUMA PETS, raise them to perfection through selective breeding and genetic engineering!

-UNCOVER THE MISTERY OF BATTICUORE, earn Martha Mahkklen's trust, find out what happened to the inhabitants of the island!

BUY IT NOW! https://store.steampowered.com/app/4236490/Trauma_Pets/

My dearest friends, hello! A big phat update for Trauma Pets is on the way! Read all about it!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4236490/Trauma_Pets/

NEW CONTENT

-Added a special breed of Trauma Pets that can exclusively be caught at the Port.

-Added a Training Area where you can test your Trauma Pet's skills without hurting its health.

-Added an extra minigame in the Stadium.

-Added an extra minigame in the Factory.

GAMEPLAY CHANGES

-Resurrected Trauma Pets will now re-appear in your inventory with full Stamina.

-Reward multipliers have been slightly decreased.

-Repurposed the way stats are assigned for Trauma Pets.

-Fixed a bug where Trauma Pets would get more tired playing specific minigames.

-Fixed a bug where the Ominous Temple would just... be a complete mess really.

-Adjusted the prices for several items. 

-Adjusted the rules of several minigames.

-Adjusted the physics of the Alternate Dimension minigames.

-Addressed the very vaguely explained alleged security issue from the previous build by updating Unity.

-And more!

AESTHETIC CHANGES

-Tinkered a bit with post processing, particles and light effects.

-Changed the camera angle for minigames and other scenes.

-Fixed a few awkward typos and text-related oversights.

-Fixed a bug where particles wouldn't display the appropriate color.

-Fixed a bug where the Trauma Pets in the Ominous Temple and Alternate Dimension wouldn't display appropriately.

-Visual and audio feedback for a few UI elements has been made clearer to understand. 

-Re-modeled and re-animated many components of the Trauma Pet anatomy.

-Re-modeled many components of the environment. 

-Added a soundtrack, courtesy of Livio Brescia (again...), that can be toggled on and off.

-And more!

Is this the end of Trauma Pet's life cycle? Well... i haven't implemented the golf minigame yet. Plus i'm sure there'll be plenty more bugs i missed because i'm the only guy doing the playtesting. So yeah, see you soon whether it's for something different or just another update for Trauma Pets!

My dearest friends, hello!

What started off as a quick update patch, to be put out there with the intent of fixing a few bugs and little more, ballooned into something so much bigger, pretty much as big as my first update. An unexpected development i'm very happy with.

The Trauma Golf minigame still hasn't left the conceptual state, alas, and i don't think it ever will at this point. Martha now has new dialogue to imply that you can access the minigame if you satisfy a cryptic set of conditions, but that's just me taking for a ride people who don't read devlogs, LMFAO.

I can't promise there'll be a third update, nor i can promise that if there will indeed be a third update, it'll include Trauma Golf, but if you've been following me for any amount of time you know my word isn't to be trusted... So i guess we'll see.

PURCHASE TRAUMA PETS: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4236490/Trauma_Pets/

GAMEPLAY

-Introduced a Bonus Round for when you beat a Stadium minigame 3 times in a row.

-Made the Dry Wet Paint minigame more forgiving.

-Introduced another Trauma Pet variant with its own unique properties.

-Changed the way Trauma Pets stats are distributed according to physical traits.

-Made weather and environmental elements affect Trauma Pets statistics more.

-You can freely spawn a different randomized opponent when Training.

-Increased environmental variety for Stadium and Game Room minigames.

-An extra obstacle will randomly spawn in, like it did in the Game Room.

-Factory minigames #7 and #9 now have loss conditions.

-Factory minigame 2#, #8 and #10 have been made more elaborate.

-Added Stamina as a success requirement in the Hideout.

-Introduced a new Hideout minigame variant that becomes playable after your first attempt.

-Slightly changed the layout of Alternate Dimension minigame #2 and introduced a loss condition to it.

-Reworked some of the Alternate Dimension physics behaviours.

-Reworked the reward system for when you beat a minigame.

-Lowered the required record for the Luna Park minigame.

-You aren't able to enter the Hideout without a Trauma Pet anymore.

-Eunuch Trauma Pets aren't able to breed anymore.

-Minor nonsense.

THE OTHER STUFF

-Modified the looks of the Cutie Pets.

-Changed some Trauma Pets animations.

-Added an edited version of Livio Brescia's aptly named "Long Theme" to the playlist.

-Minor audiovisual feedback adjustments.

-Fixed a bug where one of the music tracks wouldn't play.

-Fixed a bug where a dialogue would trigger on the wrong occasion.

-Reworked some of the UI to be more helpful and intuitive.

-Written new NPC dialogues that will randomly spawn in the Hub.

-Written new Martha dialogue options in the Lighthouse.

-Minor graphical improvements in various scenes.

-Minor bugs fixed related to graphics.

-Added 4 new trophies.

-Bollocks.