Okay, so time for us to take a look at that loading screen I mentioned previously! First of all, here we have the splash art that will appear before anything else. This won't have the 'windowed' look, but will simply appear for a short while before the actual game window pops up:
Now, let's start work on some of the smaller menu improvements. In this post, I'll mainly be looking at adding some flavour to the box on the left, where you can read a description of the part of the menu you're currently in. With this new addition, you'll get a more proper headline than the one in use right now, which is just more of the same boring white text.
We're also adding a reward box to the trophies menu on the info box to the right, where you can easily see what you'll get for finishing up the achievement in question. While this wasn't totally needed, we felt it's nice for people to be able to know the reward, so they can decide if they wanna pursue a specific trophy over the rest.
In that same box, we're also adding another proper headline - although we're not entirely sure it'll look in this exact way yet, since it takes up a lot of space and we might need all we can get in order to fit the lengthier descriptions.
Today we've had a meeting talking about various improvements for the game as a whole. One such thing we've been meaning to add for a while is a proper loading screen before the game starts up: on some computers the game can take a little bit to start (we're working on making this quicker as well!) and so it's really nice to be able to get confirmation that you actually pressed the button in the first place.
As such, we've decided to add a little splash screen followed by the customary Pixel Ferrets logo (as well as our sound design teams logos) before a (hopefully) short load screen will appear until the game has properly loaded. Adding the splash picture and the logos should give the game most of the time it needs to start up everything it needs, so adding those will likely come with the added benefit of the game feeling like it's starting up a bit quicker than it actually does as well (haha..)
We've also made the decision to upgrade some more menus: you already saw our work on the Trophies menu redesign last week, and we'll continue to work on giving most of the in-game menus an upgraded look that fits better with the game's overall aesthetic as well as work better overall - some just haven't been streamlined enough, or have issues with the game's various translations. More on that later!
Another thing we've been discussing but won't be added until later on, if at all, is lobby systems, where you can host your game in a public listing, allowing strangers to join you from the game menu itself. While this is a neat feature for players who don't have friends playing the game and who do not want to join a community in finding players in a similar ping distance, we feel like people are managing just fine for now and that adding it would be better left to after release, if it's even needed then. We'll see!
For Fred's Friday, we're looking at a bunch of effects he's been working on for the card cave, shown here as videos!
The first video shows our very first iteration of how the cavities in the wall light up depending on how many cards you've collected. The second video show what happens once you've collected all of the cards, revealing a secret catalyst, and in the third video we have adjusted the colour of the flames and added some bonus effects to when the cards merge together into the catalyst:
Next, back to story mode, as we've been working on a redesign for the trophies menu! As mentioned before, we're gonna change the trophies themselves around a bit as well, and in doing so we'll upgrade the whole look of this part of the menu to better match the other newer menus, basically by adding more and better graphics:
And now, some mixed stuff, starting with some improvements on the readability of the shop title splash I just showed:
Next up, some additions and changes to the transmutation GUI! For starters, the mechanic needed a proper 'shop title' splash, and a button for activating the transmutation service to begin with, as seen below:
Now, as I mentioned last week we're doing a bit of an archery challenge in Arcade Mode, and as such I was tasked with making a mobile version of the archery challenge!
Meanwhile, Fred's been hard at work finishing up all of the animation sketches for Bishop and a couple new ones (including the one below where he brushes off some dust after you've successfully defeated him):
And finally, the other floating isles in the distance:
Now, back to Arcade Mode and its floating isle final room! In this next part I make a proper stand for the chest you'll get for reaching this far:
Now, back to story mode for a little bit, as I make a bunch of adjustments to the Card Room in Mount Bloom, moving things around a bit and making more subtle frames for each of the cards:
We've long been talking about revamping the challenges a bit, removing the long and slow paced ones and adding more quick and quirky challenges that you complete quickly, all with the intention of making them feel a bit more action packed. Now that we're nearing completion of the upcoming story mode patch, it's time to take a look at Arcade Mode, including these new challenge types!
To start off with, there will be two types of challenge rooms now - one where you'll just solve strange challenges without risking any damage, and one for all the more dangerous challenges where you might accidentally take a hit - such as the kill in order challenge already implemented. Other ideas for these types of challenges include mini boss battles, kill quickly challenges, or take no damage challenges. Of course, due to the more dangerous nature of these challenges, it'll be properly marked on the map so you know you're risking your health if you enter - and also the reward will obviously be greater than in the ordinary challenge rooms!
For the regular challenge rooms meanwhile, we're probably removing the bigger chicken challenges as well as fishing (but don't quote me on that just yet). Some new ideas we have include:
An archery challenge, where you'll spawn into a "fake"/prop version of Robin's archery challenge from story mode, and you'll have to hit enough targets or get a minimum amount of points.
A music challenge where you'll have to mimic the order in which the musical faes from story mode play a song on a set of bells of your own.
And an animal taming challenge, where you'll have to successfully tame a pet to get the reward!
...and we're currently in the process of designing more! Do you have any cool challenge ideas you'd like to see in Arcade Mode? Let us know in the comments :)
Finally, Fred makes some progress with cleaning up the Bishop's animations (have a little sneak peek), as well as adding some light effects to the cards in the card cave, which will illustrate how many cards you've collected thus far:
And speaking of the floating isle in question, I've started working on that as well! Here's as far as I've gotten as of yet, more work to come:
With us finally deciding the visuals for the floating isle that will be the final Arcade Mode room, it was high time to add that and Arcadia itself to the world map (proper layout of the isles yet to be decided):
We've also made some additions around the card room, adding frames for each card to the wall, as well a a proper entrance (bye bye dragon floor and puzzle stuff):
New week, new improvements! We wanted to make the Bishop boss portrait look a bit more creepy, so I did a bit of an paintover to adjust just that:
Fred, meanwhile, has continued work on Bishop, and so here we have him giving you a catalyst in a rather interesting new way:
Back to the new HQ room, we had some talks about it and decided to make it smaller and a bit more messy, adding a pile of books for Bokus to sit on as well:
Next, we swap him around and add a different weapon, after which we add the third Bishop, the scary guy with the scythe:
Next, it's time to start working on Bishop's boss portrait, here divided into two parts, starting off with the first Bishop:
A new week comes along with a new room in the HQ! This room is where the Silver Point to Talent Orb transmuter will hang out with his apprentice Bokus:
Cheers!
