We've finally started prototyping the enemies of Mt. Bloom!! Yaaaay! Before I say anything about how they work, here are three GIFs showing their current iterations in progress:
So basically, the crystal bugs (called Spinsects), spin around the room & bounce of walls and other colliders. If you hit them they take some damage and go faster, also causing them to bounce more often around you!
The green larva leaves a trail of acid (current placeholder graphics = honey, will change to a better color later on), which will cause you to take damage over time when stepping in it. If you hit the larva it will start moving faster, before getting tired and taking a break from moving altogether!
The mushrooms basically work like Jumpkins, only when they die they explode and leave a bunch of blinding mushrooms (also placeholder, they will have different colors as well).
This composition forces you to mind where you stand and how you position yourself throughout the fight, or you'll accidentally end up taking damage from acid or Spinsects.
From the beginning there was a fourth enemy, the cave troll, which Fred has been working on occassionally on his streams:
However, it's extremely animation heavy (takes a long time to make), so our current goal is to test how the area feels with just these three enemies, and either add the troll at a later date as an additional enemy or save it as a mini-boss for a side quest somewhere in the cave instead (and add something easier to animate as the fourth enemy, if we still feel one is needed).
Awesome enemies. Looking forward to this.
ReplyDeleteThinking of it it would be awesome if one of the challenge rooms would need to be opened up by making a Crystal Bug spin into a wall with cracks or something like that making it collapse and opening an entrance to the challenge room.
It would be awesome if all three challenge rooms would be unlocked by solving small puzzles on these three main maps. :D
The plant enemies will only appear in the challenge room(s) not in the normal maps I assume?
Yep that Cave Troll should be included into thegame either as a very strong standard enemy (think Yetis HP wise) or a mini boss though seeing them included as a standard enemy would be more awesome in my oppinion let alone for the fact that they would appear as a regular enemy in the Arcade Mode rooms for Mount Bloom. ;)
Finally one more suggestion for future enemies in the Asian time travel town:
1.) I'd love to see female Asian undead as they're often depicted in horror films. Women with long black hair that cover their faces. That would be pretty cool especially since they never appeared in any top view RPG to date, so this would be a first time. :) Maybe they could work similiar to mummies in 3D Zelda games. If you face them and look into their face at a certain distance you'll get paralyzed and they have one or several free hits on you. You would have to move around them carrefully and attack them from behind. Luckily they wouldn't be super fast, rather slow like the Peckos.
2.) Ninjas or Samurais. Though Ninjas would be super cool. They would be able to throw shurikens from a distance, they could make themselves mostly invisible (well there could be a distortion where they move or they're barely viewable) OR create clones of themselves with only one being the real Ninja (one of these two abilities, though I personally prefer the cloning ability as it could make for some interesting enemy encounters). If you're thriving for an undead theme in this time travel town, they could be undead Ninjas of course. :)
3.) Monkeys as you have mentioned before in a post. But they should be really, really mean and steal your nerves by toying around with you. Sometimes they just sit there/ jump on one place waiting for you to come closer and then either jump away from you or jump at you. If they decide to flee they would either throw a coconut towards you or turn around suddenly and try to jump unto you... when they grab you they can steal money or arrows or stuff liek that and from there on they will try to gain way more distance from you and behave more defensive trying to gain a lot of distance from the player and shoot coconuts. :P Like really, really mean enemies.
So yeah again these are only suggestions as in my previous comments on your blog. But hey, maybe you like them. :)
Anyways, great work as always and looking forward to the challenge rooms, the plant enemies there and of course the pre dungeon boss.
Thanks man! You've got some really cool ideas, and I'll make sure to forward them to the rest of the team :D
DeleteThe plant enemies will only appear in the challenge rooms, at least that's what we've decided for now. However we might throw them in here and there if it seems like they would make a nice additional challenge.. Just don't want it to be too crowded and crazy so it's a fine line XD
Your enemy ideas are really fun! We haven't decided on any specific enemies there yet, although we have one or two ideas, so suggestions are great. Would definitely be fun to get some undead action in there :3
Thanks again :D
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ReplyDeleteYeah this anonymous guy has some awesome suggestions there. I also have to agree with him on the quality of the new enemies: I like them a lot. I guess the slime behind the larva will be drawn green... hmm maybe Fred could add some bubbles on the slime or "steam" to show that it's acid. I guess the Mushrooms left by the dead Mushroom enemies will made purple.
ReplyDeleteI read in a previous comment by some other guy that you plan to include a pre-dungeon boss. Has it already been decided what it's going to be?
Thanks! Yeah those are the color changes we have in mind! Adding bubbles and/or steam sounds like a nice way of showing it's acid and not slime :D
DeleteThe pre-dungeon boss has been decided already. Not all of its exact attacks and such, but it's going to be connected to the story in the time travel temple/area :3
Ah okay. Thanks for the answer. :)
ReplyDeleteI guess the dungeon itself will have 2 normal/ smaller boss fights again as well aside from its main boss just like it happened with the Flying Fortress and the Temple of Seasons? So it would be 4 obligatory boss fights in Mt Bloom just like in Saesonne. :)
Let me guess: The pre dungeon boss or one of the (hopefully) 2 minor 3rd dungeon bosses is going to be that undead you drew a portrait of quite a while ago.
Also just out of interest: Did you already decide on the third major dungeon boss (the one faced at the end having the artifact)?
My prediction is that it's either an undead (in this case I'd love to see a transformation as I love big baddy transformations) or an Asian dragon (the ones that look like snakes... though this one could look really similiar to the Season Hydra hmm...). Well, whatever it is, I hope for two things:
It's even harder than Winter (as each main dungeon boss should increase in difficulty)
and maybe as mentioned above a bit bigger in size again. :)
Are you allowed to say anything about it in terms of ingame size (like a really big one again after the human sized Winter... or will the desert temple boss be a really huge one again like GUN D4M was) and difficulty (compared to GunD4M and Winter) in case it's already been decided on?
Finally let me say: I think it's super awesome that we have a female developer in you. You're making such beautiful art and I assume game design as well. Awesome. We need more females in the video game industry. :D
It's safe to assume that there will be at least one mini-boss before the main boss of the Time dungeon! We have plans for at least one more, but it's gonna be a bit of a.. different experience, so not sure how much of a fight/boss it'll actually be.... (how very vague) XD
DeleteAnd yes, one of those will definitely be the undead ;)
The final boss of the time dungeon has also been decided, and it's something we've wanted for a long time, so we're definitely excited about it! :D I'm not sure exactly how big it's gonna be in the end (Fred hasn't made it in proper pixel art yet), BUT one of its important aspects is that it actually changes in size multiple times during the fight...! :O
We want the dungeon bosses to be quite the challenge so I think it's safe to say that we aim to make it at least as hard as Winter! :3
Thank you so much, and I agree that we need more females in this industry! It's such a fun and creative business that we shouldn't let the boys keep it all to themselves ;)
Oh a boss that changes his size/ form several times... It's a multi phase boss which is awesome. :D And if every form has its own attacks it would be even more awesome.
ReplyDeleteHmm, a boss, that isn't like a traditional boss fight. Hmm, I guess it's going to be a puzzle boss. I love puzzle bosses. Bosses that attack you but you cannot hurt them and need to solve puzzles or interact with the environment in order to hurt it. If it's something along these lines props to you. I hope that despite working different this mini boss would still receive a title card popping up once the fight starts.
May I ask you one more question about bosses. I'm sorry, if I'm acting a bit hyper, i'm just someone who loves boss fights in video games, something that became somewhat rare in modern video game industry (yay for Dark Souls!). And seeing these traditional boss fights in a top view action RPG that carries the spirit of 2D Zelda games and Secret of... games is just wonderful.
Anyways what I wanted to ask you is if you already decided what the desert dungeon main boss is going to be or if that one has not been planned yet. I hope for something truely challenging and awesome once again there. :D
I really hope your game receives the attention it deserves after final release. I watch a lot of LPers out there on youtube, so I might as well suggest these games to those people. Do you know raocow? If not you should check him out whenever you've got some free minutes to spare. He's playing all kind of games with a retro flair (Mario World hacks formost but also other 2d games) and he's very fun to listen to.
And since you guys are Swedish which makes it all the more epic I really hope pewdiepie will give this game a shot. I mean, he's Swedish after all. It's his duty to play a game of fellow comrades. xD
Have a nice day!
We know what the main boss of the dungeon you reach through the desert will be, though we haven't decided on all its attacks and such yet. That one will probably end up being one of my favorites and I can't wait to get there, but I think I shouldn't spoil more than that just yet! ;) As for the mini-bosses, we have some ideas, but nothing set in stone yet :3
DeleteI haven't watched a lot of LPers myself, but we'll definitely try to send the game out to anyone that seems like they would enjoy playing it :3 Pewdiepie would be amazing of course, one can dream at least XD Thank you for your kind comments :33