Vilya's Workblog

Finally, the second zone's on Frontline! It only took about 4 months guys!! ;) However, if my playthrough of the area is any indication (1 hour 20 minutes), it's a decent amount of playtime for that amount of work, at least compared to our previous areas.

I know it's hard to believe, but our workspeed per playtime has actually increased with this dungeon, though it's pretty huge and ends up taking a long time to finish anyway ;P

Anyway! We'd love to hear how long it takes you to play the area, if you got stuck anywhere, what you liked/disliked and, of course, any bugs you found! Please spam away, we'd love to hear everything (and feel free to link us any cool Let's Plays of the area, as seeing how people think and try to interact is extra important in this area).

Here's a few of additions to the area that were made after last week's Mixed Bags were already posted:

Since out goal is to bring the second Tai Ming zone to Frontline this weekend (not sure we'll make it yet, but here's to hoping), I decided to post this third and final (!!!!) Zone02 Mixed Bag today instead of Sunday!

Today, I've been working on what will likely be the last portrait in Zone02! This is Nolea, a character that's a homage to the main character of CrossCode~

Second part of the final bunch of Tai Ming Zone02 Mixed Bags!

Okay, we're moving ever closer to releasing the second part of Tai Ming, and so I've been busting out a ton of tiny additions and fixes to bring it all together!

Second part of this scene is all about the backdrop! And what else would it contain, but your old home, the Pillar Mountains?

Today I've gone back outside, in a way, making the final area of Puzzle World! As you can see from the preview picture, it has very little to do with Puzzle World itself, though...

So, today we had another design meeting (as mentioned yesterday), where we talked about what we wanted to add or change with the second Tai Ming zone.

Today we got to do something awesome: we actually play tested Tai Ming's second zone!! It's true, after many months of working on this place, Teddy put enough together that it was possible for us to run through almost the entire zone, with the exception of Puzzle World.

Finally (for now), the fourth and final batch of expressions features an accessory saleswoman, Faita from zone one, who you could say has fallen on hard times - at least if you go by her expressions, a male priest, the greedy owner of Puzzle World, the visitors from Flying Fortress and the gardener from zone one, who is still tending to the gardens, only this time in zone two!

The third batch of expressions features a varied crew of characters! There's the father of the guards, three collectors and a somewhat familiar face: that of Montbel, the famous chef and bartender of Tai Ming:

The second batch of expressions features four different characters:

First, the dam manager, who has quite a bunch of expressions, as you can see! He has both a serious(ly annoyed) and goofy side, and quite a peculiar quest to bring these expressions out!

The ancient Quest Master, Quinton's ancestor(?), has a few more expressions than his present day counterpart. He has added both surprise and happiness to his range of emotions!

Mana, the lady with the dog in the first zone, has become older and grayer, but is still quite the happy person, while young mister Go, still is quite miserable in his adult form. He was the kid who lost the key in the first zone, remember? Poor Verment, he has had quite the tough life!

And now, for something completely different: expression! Tai Ming's second zone is quite cutscene and character heavy, so there's a loooot of expressions that need to be made. This is actually just the first of four parts, so be ready for a bunch!

First up is Tessen, the little girl from the first zone who has grown up to become a young priestess of Grindea:

She's both happy to see you, and has some serious worries on her mind. Wonder what those are about..

Next up, Zhamla:

Since his adoptive father's speech about being strong, Zhamlas life has taken quite a serious turn, and unfortunately there's not a lot of room for positive emotions in his life nowadays.

Speaking of adoptive fathers, Zisou's life has actually become a bit more lax these days, so he can afford a smile or two - but there's still room for some quite serious expressions in there as well:

Since the progression from standing to fallen statues happen as you time travel, there's no need for animations. As such, I've been able to make both the past, standing versions, as well as the present, crumbled ones:

To make it easier seeing where any given statue needs to go, we decided to keep their boxes on the floor (who also got slightly different dimensions since the last post) in the present, in various states of decay. The alternative would have been to have the statues fall with base and all, but we believe this makes it easier to read which statue is where on the puzzle floor.

There's still two things I need to make for this room. First we need standing, decayed version of the statues for present times, as the statues won't fall if they're standing next to a statue that would block the direction it would have fallen in. This is mostly to make it easier for us - instead of having to figure out how to stack the statues on top of one another, they just won't break as severely if it means they would have fallen on top of another statue.

I also need to make a broken version of the glass box in the lower left corner, so it's possible to let out the ~~statu~~-- whatever's in there. But, that's for another post! :)

Last time I finished the "Path Puzzle" room, where you'll push a set of statues into places which allows you to open the door and progress to the next room. I didn't actually make the statues however, so that's what today's post is for!

In this first part I'll be making the past version of the statues, the ones you'll be able to push around:

There's one long statue that will fall to the right in present times (the cat). There's also a short statue that will fall to the right in present times (the puzzle), a hammer that falls to the left, and a "slime totem" which falls upwards!

Can you figure out how to solve the puzzle? :)

Now, time to transform the final Puzzle World room into its present version!

And now, another quick & dirty Mixed bag, with the last bunch of improvements!

One Puzzle World room to go! This one is the Path Puzzle room, where you have to move a set of statues around in the past so that they are at the right place in present day...

As the third zone of Tai Ming - and the final challenge(s) of the dungeon - draws near, we decided it was time to have a meeting to flesh out the final boss of the dungeon: an ancient Mimic!

The next room in Puzzle World is the monkey challenge room, which has been previewed in a previous post. Here, the player will try to steal back a key from a gang of annoying monkeys, intent on keeping the key to themselves!

And now, a battle room! As you might guess from the name, this is where a bunch of battles will take place, likely an encounter with several waves (though we haven't decided on any specifics yet).

Since Puzzle World's Phase Shift room involves phasing through time, it's time to make a present version!

About

Label Cloud

Blog Archive