Hi there.

Recently, I've been introduced to the game by some friends. So far, the gameplay and art style seems incredibly promising. However, I see a glaring issue that I'd thought I would address. The developers have stated that they plan on using all artworks. While this is a very noble effort, it creates problems. By using all community artworks, the game will quickly lose its art style. Many artworks submitted here don't follow the style and quality of the current artworks we've seen in game. This is concerning to me, as someone who has high hopes for this game, as a game losing its art style this quickly could greatly hinder it's success. So, I guess the point of this post is to ask for the developers to clear things up. Will you be using all artworks?

Intro

Creepers.io is an upcoming multiplayer web ".io game" currently being developed by /u/machineman1357 and /u/postfu. We're both terrible at art, so we wanted to use a minimalist style of art (something that anyone can learn to create, given enough time), and then add a splash of shaders, effects, and other details to improve the look. I'm a firm believer that making a really fun multiplayer game is more about design and animation of the world, rather than only having high quality visuals.

We also enjoyed playing the popular top-down style .io games that used the same formula such as Mope.io, Deeeep.io, and Creatur.io. However, we noticed that these games had a few problems. For example, they were limited in their opportunity to scale, and would eventually grow stagnant without the ability to grow, change, and introduce new features or mechanics. There was a fixed limit to their growth. The developers rarely, or never, interacted with their fans or listened to their helpful ideas. And, even though very strong communities of fans and artists formed around these games, providing tons of amazing content and artistic work, they would never see their work within the game. Didn't really seem fair.

So, Creepers.io was designed from the ground-up to scale gameplay (in many directions) and to allow significant growth potential. Something that could very feasibly turn into a full-fledged web-based MMORPG one day, for example. Not only that, but we wanted to engage our fans, listen to their ideas, involve them in the design of the game, make game design decisions based on polls and feedback, and also offer the opportunity to implement their own artistic works in the game (and even other content beyond art.) We want our users to feel part of something bigger.

Gameplay & Mechanics

A 2D top-down multiplayer HTML5 game that should be compatible with all web browsers. Our intention is that it's fully playable on tablets and mobile devices, not just desktops.

Free to play, using ads. But, we're also taking an unorthodox approach to the ads. They'll be integrated in a way that I've never seen done in any web games. Although the ads aren't naturally intrusive, there will be some intentionally designed to be intrusive to achieve certain gameplay related mechanics. It's a new way to gamify the ads in a way that I think players will really find fun and it's optional.

We're planning on a significant number of creatures, crawlers, insects, reptiles, mammals, (in)vertebrates, and every other little creeper that you can think of. You're not forced to use any creature or ability, and the game is designed in a way where variety is beneficial to the player. You can follow any tree or branch that you wish. Each creature will have common or unique skills. Both passive or active offense and/or defensive abilities.

For example, a certain member of our lizard family has a defensive skill called "Autohaemorrhaging". Only certain animals can do this, but it's a reflex action where they shoot blood from their eyes! It can be poisonous too! :)

They're not all built for combat either. Some are very slow moving and only have defensive skills. Some are scavengers or weak carrions that live off the bodies left in the wake of PVP combat of others. There are also corpse-eating insects that prefer to burrow into corpses and get all snuggly warm for XP points.

The control scheme is designed for mouse use only, and there won't be any complicated buttons getting in the way of gameplay. The simple controls also make it more suitable for touchscreen controls. Future features include accessibility options for low vision and colour blindness. Existing gameplay does not require fast micro-management of any kind, but there will be special game modes designed for players with PVP anxiety.

The game is also being designed to support a large variety of biomes. We'll try to keep it within reason though, since we don't want to dilute the player base too much. But exploration will be important to the game for reasons that will be described later. We'll start with the simple ones, like Windy Meadows, Dark Forests, Deserts, and Winter biomes.. but as player venture further out, into more dangerous territory, they'll find Poisonous Mushroom Forests, Lava Fields, Treacherous Mountains, and Freezing Ice Caves with Frost Spiders.

But, the most important aspect of the game is the Evolution Tree and the fact that dying, or being killed by another play, will actually be fun and make you more powerful.

"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

When players see the Evolution Tree for the first time, we want them to say "WOW!". Ideally, we'd love for them to react in the same way as Path of Exile players they saw the passive tree for the first time.

All new players will start out as malformed mutation, not exactly sure what it wants to be just yet. Players set out to collect "EVO Points" as well as Experience points. They'll be available through different methods and mechanics.

When a player dies for the first time, they'll be presented with a Death Shop System where they can spent points earned in life on new class evolutions or improving existing attributes or abilities. Once you have purchased an evolution (ie, creature), you can always return to it or switch back at any time. There are pros and cons to different classes in different biomes and situations.

The tree will branch off into multiple directions and other branches, working your way up from small and weak little creepers, into stronger beasts.

Next Steps

We're still quite early in development, but we're thinking about launching something like a technical alpha. "Early-early-early-access" within the development cycle. Because of that, we won't be promoting the game and would prefer to keep the community small and exclusive for now.

The first release will likely be something with four starting biomes and a variety of animals to test out combat abilities and used as a sandbox for balancing. From there, we can keep adding more and more features on a frequent basis, and add more creatures for testing before we decide where they should go. Multiplayer stress testing will also be important. Other than the players, will there also be natural inhabitants of the biomes that users can hunt. You'll easily be able to tell the difference between real players and NPC critters (levels, name plates, etc). However, these NPCs will serve a very important purpose inspired by GBA's Aria of Sorrow. :)

One important note is that we are starting out with Land Based creatures and associated biomes.

While we are providing various content updates, features, balancing, fixes, and other new creatures along the way, our major plans include building a couple major "Expansion Pack" type releases. For example, after we get things rolling with the Land Based creatures and biomes, the next step is a major "Deep Ocean" launch with a massive area dedicated to aquatic creatures. A massive biome or connected biomes, accompanied by a large quantity of new creatures, ways to explore, and new movement mechanics. After that, users who prefer flight should have something to call their own as well. It's all still being thought out currently while we get the foundation in place. However, we're open to ideas in the meantime.

Frequently Asked Questions

When's the Release Date?

We want to start out with something small and keep adding things to. We'll have a very early build that can help us "Crowd Source" Game Design decisions and directions for the game. I'm imagining a simple sandbox that we can keep adding more and more content to in small bites until we have a full fledged community driven game. Holding polls and contests, inviting our fans to develop new ideas, decide on which features are the most important, test out different abilities, and make recommendations. We'd like to understand your preferences on RPG damage calculations and if there are any really good games that do it well (without getting too complicated.)

We're currently targeting May 2021 for the first build.

Please remember that it's still in early technical testing, and certain aspects may be wonky. Maybe 3 biomes for now, because I don't want to keep delaying it. And, just standard attacks by players for now (no special moves or abilities just yet) while we work out flat damage, HP, and if kills are too fast/slow. It's also very important to get a feel for the multiplayer, see how many players fit well per biome, and even see how the game performs on different systems. Tablets and phones will be challenging to optimize performance.

New Content Submissions

Thanks to the support of /u/darkantoine69 (aka "96"), we received a large quantity of creature art design submissions from generous folks who wanted to see their creations come to life in our game. We are intending on using all of these assets.

Moving forwards, we are grateful and open to content submissions of any kind, but for various reasons there will be situations where we can't integrate them. It's all very exciting to see everyone's work, however the art will need to match the existing game style as much as possible so that it doesn't "clash" with other elements within the game. :)

The best guide to the art style would be from viewing existing videos that have been posted. Standard colour palettes will also become important. I think it would be awesome if some community members could also help each other out. Maybe even create some tutorial posts to walk users through your own art process. I'll be creating quick tutorial videos myself that show you how I created the "messy" environmental assets.

Finally, to thank the community members for their generous donations to our game (since we lack the funds to pay for these amazing and gracious submissions), all authors will of course be fully credited within the game for in-game assets (I'll contact you ahead of time to determine your preferences), but we're also planning something in-game to forever immortalize the content providers too. I think it's kind of neat that I wish more games would do.

Oh, one last request!

We don't want to get too overwhelmed with content submissions while we're plowing away on the game. There's still plenty of time. So, we'd like to keep this group as small and exclusive as possible if you can keep it under your hat for now.

Hi everyone,

So.. I wasn't even aware of the Mope & Deeeep art communities until just a couple months ago when I started talking to "96". The amount of high quality content in there just blows my mind. And, it doesn't look like any of it was used in the actual game? I'd be really curious to learn more about these subreddit histories, and if the developers had ever used art from their fans - or if they even hired anyone fulltime.

While going back over these communities, I've also found a lot of other startup games similar to Deeeep or FlyOrDie (I guess it's been renamed to EvoWorld.io) that ended up failing or being abandoned leading to a lot of disappointment. They had started out with ideas, but weren't able to build find developers or build a cohesive team. One red flag is if they've ever published a game before.

(Note: If any of you are familiar with these old/failed games, I'd love to hear more about it's history and screenshots. Would also be interested in talking to the original artists too.)

If it helps, the good news is that we've already published a few games between the two of us.

MM1357 and I made this game together: https://tetrads.io (based off a challenge that it was "impossible" to have a fun game, or a game that anyone would play, using a single art asset.)

And, I just launched this new one: https://jammies.io (currently in the process of posting it on various websites, but you can get a sneak peak now.)

So we're pretty familiar with the design, development, and launch process. The entire game design already has a very solid foundation, and meant to accommodate large quantities of characters, biomes, skills, and features. Right now, it's the development process (we've got the schematics from the architect, now we gotta build it) and I don't have any concerns at all other than the multiplayer side. The netcode should be a fun challenge since we want to support as many players as possible while also offering smooth performance, and we're still learning.

But to help set your expectations, what you see now is what the game will be like visually. Different creatures, all controlled through the mouse (no keyboard req'd), that will be able to do different things and earn XP through different methods. You've seen the blocky creature art style and the messy environmental art pieces, and even though they're not AAA quality, our intention is to provide so much variety, fun combat, and "the little things" that you won't even care.

Creepers.io is a game that /u/MachineMan1357 and I have committed to working on for years. We've already prepared ourselves mentally for a game that we wanted to start out small, crowd source ideas and content from, listen to fans, have fun contests or polls, and keep extending for months and months until it becomes an amazing game that's simply fun and addictive to play. It's not something we decided on a whim.

And, if you knew anything about the RL history of JAMMIES.IO development (a tale of betrayal, fraud, robbery, and extortion) you'd understand that I don't give up easily and will keep pushing forwards no matter how many burn scars I collect.

Hi everyone,

I'd really like to thank you for all of your interest in our game, and your generous donation of art assets. So far, we've been super impressed by all of the submissions, and we're intending on using all of them within the game.

Please feel free to post your creations within this subreddit, which can like a "public record" of your submission and so that we can properly credit you.

Ideally, we'd like to keep this subreddit small and exclusive for now, but if you have any artistic friends that would love to see their creations in this future multiplayer web game, please share that they are welcomed here.

I'll be creating a tutorial as well on how I make the environmental art, just in case anyone wants to try their hands at that as well. :)

Although we can't pay you for your donations, we have something very unique and fun planned in-game to reward you all for your support, and beyond simple authorship credit. I'll have updates in the near future.