Let's talk about one of the things Fred has been working on recently: Loods! In Arcadia, this is the name of a new feature, namely these cute little beings who appear randomly in rooms in Arcade Mode runs:
The Loods are mysterious creatures of unknown origins. Some say they are linked to the goddess Grindea in some way, but who can tell for sure? What we do know, though, is that there are several kinds of Loods in different colors, and that upon defeating a Lood, [.....]
Today has been another day of testing the new Arcadia rework! After several hours played we've far from unlocked everything, which is great. While I only get to the second floor of Evergrind and Fred gets to the later floors of the whole thing, we've unlocked things in approximately the same amount of time, which is as we intended.
The time it takes to get enough gold to unlock new buildings actually feels surprisingly well balanced in our opinion, but that might of course change once we [.....]
Today and the next few days will be all about bug testing this beat of an update. The Arcadia rework has been fully implemented (aside from some smaller polish things), and before it can be released on frontline we need to do some testing of our own.
...and it's a good thing we did! One of the first things we noticed was a hard to figure out bug that crashed the game every time we entered a specific type of event room. There's also been a [.....]
With the new event rooms decided upon and fully designed, it's time to get to making some new graphics. Or rather bringing in and adjusting some of our existing ones to fit the theme of these rooms.
First we have the Blessings of Grindea rooms, which will give permanent upgrades of various sorts (or just a simple heal). Our idea here is that the chest will open up and reveal the blessing as you receive it:
Next, Shadier merchant and his carpets. We might [.....]
With the the buildings and their corresponding mechanics fully implemented into the new, revamped Arcadia, it's now time for the final few things we want to add before it's time to get to testing! We've always planned to add more randomized event rooms, and with the rework we feel it's a good time to add in a few of them.
Here's the one we'll add this time around:
Buff Shrines
A shrine that, upon approaching it, gives you a random buff for a limited time. The buffs we've got planned are the usual basic ones: increased attack (both magic and physical), increased cast & attack speed and increased EP regeneration. But we've also come up with [.....]
With the Arcadia rework drawing closer to a finish, I better step up the portrait making speed to keep up with all the characters Fred is making! As such, here's another one.
I know I've mostly been doing GIFs for new portraits but this time my initial reflex was to start recording the whole process so I just went with it! This here is the portrait is of Jar Jar Potter, the resident potter of the desert town:
[.....]
Next stop on the des(s)ert menu (ha!) is finishing up a bunch of smaller places found in or around the town! There are two cave systems, for one, that we need to design, as well as that saloon.
The first cave system is found on the first map of the desert. The room in which you enter is filled with mining equipment - seems that Mt Bloom company has some business in other parts of the lands as well. The cacti in here will have a peculiar, [.....]
I'm still way behind on portrait creation, so here's another random guy form the saloon. Drinking the day away (but I'm sure it's lemonade, so that's ok, right?):
[.....]
Next step on going over the whole desert map to add details is that ship! Gonna add some more personality to it by adding some small things. And yes, the steering thingy is still not fixed by the end of this video, but it is on our fixlist:
[.....]
Back to the desert town! Now we'll move on to making smaller fixes around pretty much everywhere, closing a door to one of the houses we don't have any particular plans for yet, adding some decorations and making other things blend in better. Also a new version of palm tree!
And here's where we are right now (except for not having replaced some of the palm trees with version two yet):
[.....]
This week Fred has been battling a cold, but that didn't stop him from making three salespeople for the market area of the desert town!
Here we have a shield maker polishing a shield, a potion salesman tempting you with one of those health pots (possibly?) and a weapon smith applying some final polish on her latest sword:
With the roof and stand decorations covering a little of their appearance, here's a version showing what they look like without it (for science... or something):
[.....]
My turn to take a quick break from the Desert Town to fix somethings for Arcadia! First up there's a new NPC, who will appear as you develop the farm. Her character sprite was actually made a long time ago for story mode, where she'd play a mechanic part that was since scrapped:
Meanwhile, since Chika will be responsible for the eggs and hatching mechanics, we thought it was time to upgrade her from being permanently sad to actually enjoying her job a [.....]
With so many new characters appearing in and around the desert town, I can only keep making portraits hoping to one day catch up with the number of sprites Fred makes for the area! Today it'd time to introduce the bartender who cleans glasses (and serves drinks) in the Saloon.
First, a reminder of his sprite from a while ago:
And then the WIP and finished version version:
[.....]
We continue to work on the details of the desert town, this time zooming into the harbor area. Crates, ropes and carpets are on the menu as we give this place a little more personality:
And here's what the town looks like so far:
[.....]
Time to start tying things together in the desert town (maybe we should come up with a name for it soon)! To start off this week I'm gonna focus on getting the groundwork (haha, get it) done, putting in some sand details and paths around the town, as well as making a few pieces of greenery to decorate the area.
First though, let's deal with the walls surrounding the town! First I put in a quick something based on the piece of wall I made in [.....]
Cheers!
