Reflector: Laser Defense

Devlog

• Alpha 3.0.1 Patch Released
  January 29, 2022 by MichaelMakesGames

  This patch contains a few fixes and UI tweaks. Let me know if you find any more issues. NEW: Click to move setting NEW: Warn player that there are no saves or undo in private browsing MOD: F10 is used... Continue reading
• Alpha 3 Released: More of Everything!
  January 20, 2022 by MichaelMakesGames

  Alpha 3 is released and it's a big one! Almost everything has been expanded or reworked. Here's some highlights: Enemy Variety : three new enemies each with new mechanics and challenges Map Variety :... Continue reading

  
• Alpha 3 Content Complete!
  November 04, 2021 by MichaelMakesGames

  Lots of progress the past 2 months! All the new content for Alpha 3 is done, and now I’m working on the long tail of balance and polish. Here’s a quick summary of whats new: Absorbers : A new buil... Continue reading

  
• Map Variety
  September 03, 2021 by MichaelMakesGames

  This month mostly got derailed by a home search (spoiler alert: next month will be derailed by moving), but I still got a decent amount done: Map Variety : there are now 6 types of maps: standard, mar... Continue reading

  
• Roads, Farms, and Meltdowns
  August 05, 2021 by MichaelMakesGames

  This month I worked on new content for the player! There’s more of that to come, but here’s what’s coming to Alpha 3 so far: Roads : colonists move twice as fast! Less time going to work, more t... Continue reading

  
• New Enemies and Better AI
  July 03, 2021 by MichaelMakesGames

  Lots of progress towards Alpha 3 this month. I implemented all of the new enemies, bringing the total from 1 to 5: Soldier: basic enemy that is already in the game Beetle: armored enemy that blocks 1... Continue reading
• Sound Effects and 7DLR
  June 03, 2021 by MichaelMakesGames

  Where I’ve Been It’s been a while since I posted here. As planned, I did not work on Reflector much in March. Most of the month was spent preparing for the 7 Day Roguelike game jam, making the gam... Continue reading
• Reflector February 2021: Graphical Improvements
  March 03, 2021 by MichaelMakesGames

  Behind the scenes refactoring continues, but I also made some improvements to the graphics. Here’s a gif demonstrating many of the improvements: The player, enemies, and colonists now slide smoothly... Continue reading

  
• Reflector January 2021: Tutorial and Release
  February 02, 2021 by MichaelMakesGames

  I spent the first part of this month planning, building, and testing the new interactive tutorial. That has been released along with all the other changes from the past 3 months, so rather than talkin... Continue reading

  
• Alpha 2.1: Tutorial Released!
  January 22, 2021 by MichaelMakesGames

  Four months in the making, Alpha 2.1 is finally here! Here's what it all includes: - An interactive tutorial to teach the basics - Full keyboard support. Play with only keyboard, only mouse, or somewh... Continue reading

  
• Reflector December 2020: Tutorial Incoming
  January 01, 2021 by MichaelMakesGames

  This month, I finished everything I want for the Alpha 2.1 release, except I’ve decided to add one more thing: an interactive tutorial. I’m not currently collecting any metrics, but from the feedb... Continue reading

  
• Reflector Novemeber 2020: Hotkeys Everywhere
  December 08, 2020 by MichaelMakesGames

  For alpha 2, the game was mostly playable with only keyboard, but there were a few menus and miscellaneous controls that were mouse only. Much of this month was spent addressing those last few mouse-o... Continue reading
• Reflector October 2020: Working Towards 2.1
  November 07, 2020 by MichaelMakesGames

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  Short update this time around. As planned, I’ve slowed down the pace of development a bit after the release of Alpha 2. I’m working on incorporating feedback, refactoring some messy code, improvin... Continue reading
• Reflector September 2020: Beyond Alpha 2
  October 05, 2020 by MichaelMakesGames

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  Alpha 2 is out! September was jam packed with playtesting and lots of usability tweaks. But you can check those out for yourself. What’s next? First will be at least one, potentially multiple, minor... Continue reading
• Alpha 2 Released!
  October 01, 2020 by MichaelMakesGames

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  11 months in the making, Alpha 2 is finally ready! The focus for this update has been expanding the base-building gameplay. It features, among many other things: 3 new resources - food, power, and mac... Continue reading

  
• Reflector August 2020: The Road to Alpha 2
  September 01, 2020 by MichaelMakesGames

  This was my most productive month in a while! Alpha 2 really feels like it’s shaping up. The most exciting changes this month: Windmills now spin when they’re working. The map background color now... Continue reading

  
• Reflector July 2020: The First of Many Tweaks
  August 02, 2020 by MichaelMakesGames

  In July I made many tweaks for balance and UI polish. There will be many more to come for August. Changed the victory condition from reach population X to survive X days and added a game over dialog w... Continue reading
• Reflector June 2020: More UI and More UI
  July 03, 2020 by MichaelMakesGames

  June was devoted to the four main remaining parts of the new UI: The build menu The resources UI The jobs UI with drag and drop for changing priority And the status UI For July, I’ll start alternati... Continue reading
• Reflector May 2020: The Great UI Redesign
  June 02, 2020 by MichaelMakesGames

  May was focused on the big UI redesign for Alpha 2. The main goals of redesign are: Everything should be fully usable with only the mouse or only the keybaord All important information should be visib... Continue reading

  
• Changes to Devlogs
  May 06, 2020 by MichaelMakesGames

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  In the last devlog, which was the first in 2.5 months, I mentioned that I wasn't sure if I'd be returning to a weekly schedule. Good news: I have recovered momentum on this project, and will be develo... Continue reading
• Devlog 18: Smoke and New Sprites
  May 02, 2020 by MichaelMakesGames

  It’s been a while since I posted anything. In the past couple months, Reflector has been on the back burner for me, but not completely forgotten. I’m not sure if I’ll be going back to weekly upd... Continue reading
• Devlog 17: Job Priorities
  February 15, 2020 by MichaelMakesGames

  This week I finished up the new mechanics and content for alpha 2! The biggest change was implementing job priorities with the ability to disable jobs for specific buildings. In the gif below, you can... Continue reading
• Devlog 16: Job Priority UI
  February 08, 2020 by MichaelMakesGames

  My main task this week was the interface for setting job priorities. Since I’m going to be overhauling the entire UI, I decided to start introducing some of the technologies I’m planning on using... Continue reading

  
• Devlog 15: Windmills, Solar Panels, and Misc Changes
  February 01, 2020 by MichaelMakesGames

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  I’m continuing to work on new content and mechanics for Alpha 2 .Here’s a summary of the changes: Added solar panels, which produce power during the day Added windmills, which produce power if the... Continue reading
• Devlog 14: Power, Refined Metal, and Infinite Lasers
  January 25, 2020 by MichaelMakesGames

  This week I added the last of new resources for alpha 2: power and refined metal. Power is created by colonists working in power plants Refined metal is created by colonists working at furnaces, but c... Continue reading
• Devlog 13: Farms, food, and hunger
  January 18, 2020 by MichaelMakesGames

  This week I added the first of the new resources: food! Here’s how it works: Fertile land has been added as a new terrain. It is placed near water during map generation. A farm building has been add... Continue reading

  
• Devlog 12: Get your miners back in the mine
  January 11, 2020 by MichaelMakesGames

  The holidays were full of cooking, family, and driving across the country. This last week, I got back to working on Reflector. Colonists will now pitch tents if there aren’t enough residences. Durin... Continue reading

  
• Devlog 11: Going back home
  December 21, 2019 by MichaelMakesGames

  This week I got started adding colonists to the map (instead of just hiding in their houses and teleporting when they find a better house). For now, they just wander during the day, and return home at... Continue reading
• Devlog 10: Blog redesign
  December 14, 2019 by MichaelMakesGames

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  This week was devoted to some non-game tasks, such as improving the page here on itch.io and the blog at https://mscottmoore.dev . With that done, I'm excited to start working on the new mechanics fo... Continue reading
• Devlog 9: More Refactoring
  December 07, 2019 by MichaelMakesGames

  This week I finished up the post-release refactoring I wanted to do. There’s always more that could be done, but I’m going to call it there for now. I’ve decided that before I start working on t... Continue reading
• Devlog 8: Cleaning Up
  November 30, 2019 by MichaelMakesGames

  I’ve taken this first week after the alpha 1 release to reward myself with some code refactoring. I’ve cleaned up a lot of things that were bothering, and I have few more things that I should fini... Continue reading
• Alpha 1: They Come at Night Released!
  November 22, 2019 by MichaelMakesGames

  Alpha 1: They Come at Night You can now play the first alpha release over on itch.io ! Here’s what it all includes: Defend your colony from the waves of drones that attack at night Make the most of... Continue reading

  
• Devlog 7: Balance, UX, and Release
  November 22, 2019 by MichaelMakesGames

  I’ll keep this one nice and short. This week I made a lot of small balance and UX changes. The first alpha is now out and available on itch.io!... Continue reading
• Devlog 6: Small UX Improvements
  November 16, 2019 by MichaelMakesGames

  This was a pretty light week, with just a few small UX improvements. Here's what's new: Remember the last direction you were aiming when activated laser By default, no longer jump over invalid locatio... Continue reading
• Devlog 5: Balancing and playtesting continues
  November 09, 2019 by MichaelMakesGames

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  Balancing and playtesting continues. There is now a night and day cycle. Currently that only means that enemies spawn at night. In the future other systems will integrate with night and day, but it ma... Continue reading
• Devlog 4: More UX and starting balancing
  November 02, 2019 by MichaelMakesGames

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  This was a bit of a light week. I finished up all the UX changes I want for the initial release and got started with some balancing. It’s all playtesting from here on out until release. Here’s wha... Continue reading
• Devlog 3: Saves, inspection, and UX improvements
  October 26, 2019 by MichaelMakesGames

  This week was focused on UX changes. There’s a couple more UX changes I want to make, and then I’ll shift focus to playtesting and balancing for an initial release. I’ll likely find some bugs an... Continue reading

  
• Devlog 2: Terrain and better laser rendering
  October 19, 2019 by MichaelMakesGames

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  This week I finished up all the mechanics and game systems I want for the initial version. I’ll probably spend most of next week on some UX improvements before transitioning into balance changes. He... Continue reading
• Devlog 1: Building, migration, and projectors
  October 19, 2019 by MichaelMakesGames

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  Progress has been steady this week. For the first time since I purged most of the 7DRL content, things are starting to feel like a game again. Here’s the changelog for the week: Implemented basic en... Continue reading
• Announcing Reflector: Laser Defense
  October 19, 2019 by MichaelMakesGames

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  In Reflector: Laser Defense you’ll be in charge of developing and defending a colony on a hostile planet. You’ll have no army though; just yourself and your laser gun. Planned Features: Classic ro... Continue reading
• Reflecting on Reflector: A Retrospective
  March 17, 2019 by MichaelMakesGames

  This year I completed my first 7DRL, Reflector RL (source). The idea was a game where your only weapon is a laser that can be fired in the four cardinal directions, but your enemies are able to move a... Continue reading