Vilya's Workblog

Alright: back to the ghost ship, and more specifically it's exterior! I know it's not really part 502, but it's certainly starting to feel like it. It's quite the long project with a lot of details needed, so here's yet another part (of several remaining), this time focusing on getting some floor texture and details in on the masts:

New weeks and new beginnings! Since I expect to finish the ghost ship before Teddy and Fred are done with it, I've started looking at some old places that will need some improvements before we release the finished version of the game (we're not all too far off now compared to when we started, anyway!).

This entails going back to the early areas and taking a look around, figuring out what things can be added to give each place a bit more character. The idea is to add more unique items and fancy stuff to make these places look cooler and more special. I know some of you might think this is a waste of time at this point, but it's really good for me to have a detailed to-do list so that I know what to do next. After the ghost ship there's only one dungeon remaining after all, so I will have quite some time to do improvements like this while Teddy and Fred finish up their things!

So anyway, Startington and Pillar Mountains. Pretty empty areas, and they probably shouldn't feel too overcrowded given their kind of solitary location, but there are definitely some things that could be added to give it some more personality:

As always, if you have any cool ideas for improvements across the maps, feel free to share them! We love to hear your suggestions :)

Finally, using our editor, it's time to start adding the props. As with the desert rooms, each room size will have three different decoration types for each corner, and the corners can be mixed and matched so that there will be different combinations each time you enter a room, all to ensure no two rooms are exactly the same during your run:

And of course, each of these rooms need the corresponding decorations in their ghost world version as well:

And the first step to decorating these rooms is the add the basic stuff; moss, vines and background decorations that don't need colliders. Each room size will get three different versions of these decorations, and each time you enter a room it'll be randomized which one you get:

We're back! ...and it's time for the Ghost Ship Arcade backgrounds, made in pretty much the same way as the other rooms; I've been using some of the rooms as a base and then simply edited them to fit our Arcade Mode needs:

Quite simple for now, but some decorations will fix that right up!

Back in Arcade Mode it's time to make a set of decorations for the different rooms that can be mixed and matched to create a lot of different room graphics. Our strategy for this is that I'll make 3 different sets of decorations for each corner of every room size, which can then be mixed and match with the other corners, creating a ton of different combinations for each room.

As always, I use the editor to do these things, so that Teddy can easily add each of them into the engine:

Now, because it's Easter time, the blog will take a short break while we celebrate Easter and eat tons of eggs! Next post will be up on Tuesday, so stay tuned for that :)

Now, for that new boss prototype I mentioned earlier! Teddy has put together something quickly with the help of some very basic placeholder art from Fred:

So one of the things with this eye boss is that it automatically forces you into the ghost world, where you'll have to deal with all sorts of obstacles. After a while you'll be able to swap back into the regular world - but only for a short while, so you better time it well!

The next thing it does is that it will spawn other eyes with different eye colors, which you have to eliminate in a certain order. Fail to do so (or do it too slowly) and you'll get punished and take some damage:

Right now the eye simply tells you the order, but in the finished version you'll get a different sort of hint, probably through the eye changing color or something like that:

Continuing with the Arcade Mode intermission, it's time to make some more of those rooms! To spice things up a bit in the desert floor(s), we'll be having some cave rooms as well as those outdoor ones. They will not be as frequent as the others though, so I'm only making two different sizes for these!

For the foundation of the rooms, I'll be using one of the math caves as a base:

And then, since these rooms will almost always lead back outside, I made a special exit that show the outside rather than darkness:

And here we have the two room sizes:

Today has been a very interesting day in terms of game design discussions. Our original idea for the ghost ship was for you to battle the Captain two times, where the second encounter would be harder and more bullet hell-y as he'd be using some high tech equipment found on the ship. However, after a lot of discussions back and forth we've decided to try out new ideas for the second boss battle. The reason behind this is that we simply didn't feel too excited about the attacks and patterns we'd come up with for the boss, and we kind of felt like something completely different might fit better gameplay wise.

So, because of this, we'll start looking into a different type of boss, something that has more of a pattern since there will be enough bullet hell-y elements as is in this dungeon. Our most recent idea is to go with the theme of eyes that has been quite prominent in the ghost world so far, and use some sort of giant eye as a boss - more on that later after we got some prototypes up and running!

Because Teddy has been having some bonus time while he's waiting for graphics, he's been starting work on some Arcade Mode stuff; specifically a new type of challenge (or mode if you will) where everything is more randomized!

Specifically, this means when doing this challenge thing, you won't level up normally, but you'll get your skills and upgrades through chests and as drops from enemies:

Upon completing a floor you'll get to choose from three upgrades as well, giving you some options on how to proceed with your build (keep in mind the graphics are still placeholder, we'll come up with some fancier way of illustrating this):

We're not yet sure when this mode/challenge will unlock, or when we'll get to finish it, but the foundation is there now anyway! How do you guys feel about it? Excited for some more randomized factor in Arcadia, or do you think you'll stick to the regular mode?

About

Label Cloud

Blog Archive