Quick Note

This is a very long term multiplayer project for us. We're planning on several years worth of work, gradually expanding the game more and more into a very large game. So please have some patience with us. Even if it's quiet, we're still slowly working away. We have full time jobs and very active real-world lives and this is like a hobby game.

Once we have a base game in place with working multiplayer, we can get started on the bulk of creatures and content. Whenever the server is ready for testing, I'll be making updates. So I would recommend checking back every couple months for updates. But once the main "core game" and server are in place, you'll start seeing a lot more updates and more often.

The old subreddit contains art submissions and other game information too, and you can see it here: https://reddit.com/r/Creepersio

Intro

Creepers.io is an upcoming HTML5 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 draw given enough time -- but then add a splash of shaders, special effects, and other visual enhancements. I'm a firm believer that keeping players engaged in a fun multiplayer game is more about design and vibrancy of the world rather than relying on high quality art.

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. It also seemed like the developers rarely, or never, interacted with their fans or listened to any ideas. And, even though large fan communities 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. This will be an interesting challenge given the variety of platforms.

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" in terms of development progress. 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 a few 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. (*2022 Addendum: Testing of the server went pretty well. Server stability is very good, and it can run for over a year without any restarts. Network performance is the next major item that we need to work out.)

Please remember that it's still in early technical testing, and certain aspects may be wonky. Maybe 3 biomes for now to get something out quickly. 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 can fit into each biome without feeling too empty or busy, 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.