And here's Fred's renditions of both James and his two fans! We've decided to add yet another fan to his bunch of followers, but that one will probably appear a bit later:
[.....]
And second, that of the fanboy:
These characters will follow James along wherever he appears, cheering him on! Oh my.. [.....]
Two new characters we're gonna introduce in story mode are part of the fanclub surrounding James Fawkes! Starting off with the fangirl:
[.....]
So one of the main topics on our minds lately has been the Pin Collector. Who is he, how will the pins be unlocked and at what part of the game? We've decided that he will appear randomly in a room after the player has played a certain amount: not too long, but at least a few runs so that they're familiar with the way the game works without pins added.
He will appear through a dimension rift which will happen in the midst of a room. Here's our first prototype of the scene:
Obvious use of placeholders including Marino, of course... haha!
Next, we've been playing around with adding some effects to give [.....]
With the world around us slowly calming down a bit and more and more restrictions being lifted, we have been talking about whether or not to get back into some sort of office. The office hotel we previously used have closed down, but we do have a spare room where we live where we've previously housed guests so we're thinking about turning it into a proper office for the time being.
Today we decided that we'll start making that move within the upcoming week, so we've been making plans to move our desks and computers there as soon as it becomes available this weekend (Teddy's mom has been staying over for the last couple months due to [.....]
In Fred's department we're working on some cubes and other types of indicators for all of those pins that allows you to trigger an effect after x hits!
The cubes will grow in size the closer you are to unleashing the effect:
But he hasn't forgotten about Story Mode! Here's the shield to match the weapons seen last week:
[.....]
Next up, another portrait for the mansion! This is the goblet, Marino's dads trusted artefact! Finally some more sentient artefact for you guys to hang out with ;)
[.....]
Next step on the same topic is that we want there to be a place where you can see all of the pins that are available, as well as those you haven't seen yet. This will be viewed through the Pin Collector who will hang out in town after you've unlocked him!
Here's the progress:
Obviously each of the icons will be replaced with the corresponding Pin. The questionmark icons will signify a pin you haven't seen yet but that you could find any run, [.....]
First though, some more Pin stuff for Arcade Mode! There will be a part of the menu where you can see what Pins you currently have equipped, and so I made a little modified version of the Pin equip UI where you can see such things:
One suggestion on where to put this menu was to replace the crafting tab with it, seeing as crafting doesn't serve a purpose in Arcade Mode, the other was to keep it under equipment. The latter suggestion was mainly because [.....]
Going back to story mode for a bit, we've talked about the second quest for the Mansion and come up with a rather simple quest for the player to deal with the first time they're allowed into the Mansion (which will be by the time you defeat Marino after Flying Fortress). Basically one of the maids want some help solving a small infestation of slime in the basement. Oh but what an infestation it is - not quite what you'd expect I think... :)
We're also finally [.....]
Meanwhile, Fred has been working on those fashionable items that look good but are of low quality and don't do too much damage! Here's the preview of two of them:
I will be working on making the rest of the set, adding some headgear and face gear as well :)
Fred has also been working on the possibly cutest thing in the game yet, a baby cloud that will be an effect of one of the Pins you can find in Arcade Mode:
[.....]
Next up it's time to make the portrait for the famous James Fawke, the popular collector guy that so far hasn't existed but whom will appear here and there throughout the game (though not as part of the main story)!
[.....]
Now, time to dive back into that Mansion hallway!
Here's part two, featuring a Solem statue and a little area to sit and have tea in the lobby, while waiting to meet whoever you're here to see. Also, new and upgraded fountains (although we've talked about changing these around again and saving these particular ones for a different place - we'll see):
[.....]
So, the thing me and Fred will focus in next is the Mansion. I've already shown some sketches of the interior as well as some characters that will live inside its walls, but what's the actual point of the building? Why, to house quests of course! Over the last couple days our daily meetings have mainly revolved around the quest(s) that will happen around the building, and have gone through a ton of suggestions. In the end though, we've settled for a specific questline, featuring Marino's dad's business idea.
As some of you may know, while you're off in Mount Bloom and Tai Ming, Marino and his dad has been in the Merchant Isles for some kind [.....]
So, we've been focusing quite a bit on Pins and Arcade these couple weeks, and you might wonder what our next step is from here. Our idea is that Teddy will finish up and add a ton of pins and get them polished and ready for a Frontline Patch along with the floor shortening and all of that sometime in the beginning of June - that's about how long it'll take for us to iron out all potential bugs and make it all work in multiplayer as well.
The remaining work is pretty heavily focused on the programming bits, so me and Fred will star working on something else, or rather, get back to where we left [.....]
Meanwhile in Freds department he's been working on some effects that will spawn around the player for some specific pins where you collect charges as you battle, as well as doing some work on the Pin collector himself:
[.....]
After a few discussions as well as checking in with the community about the subject, we've decided that rather than have pins appear from the get-go, it will be another thing that will be introduced after you've played arcade mode for a little bit, complete with its own NPC who will tell you how it all works. As such, I was tasked with making his portrait:
Do you recognize from where we have gotten the inspiration for this guy? :)
[.....]
Now, some more stuff for the pins! Starting with a trash can icon for when you're about to throw away one of your pins:
And two more pin types, using a special colour scheme:
These pins are what we call "sticky" pins, meaning they'll permanently take up a slot and there's no way to get rid of them. Better think twice before you equip these!
There's also another shape for pins, as well as a specific icon for potion related pins:
[.....]
Speaking of variation in Arcade Mode, another thing we've been discussing a lot lately is the addition of more types of rooms, to make each run feel even more unique. Some of these ideas include:
Cursed Item Shop
A shop that sells items that are really good but you can't unequip them or swap them out (this room type would mainly appear on the early floors, so in later floors the equipment might fall off and not be as good anymore). Possibly other curses as well.
Zombie J
A ghastly version of the bow salesman who sells a cursed quiver that is smaller (so you'll have fewer arrows in total), but you can fire extra arrows [.....]
And here we have the progress of two more pins, as well as two more icons and a bunch of colour variations:
For some of you these aren't exactly new; the last couple of days we've uploaded what we have done with the pins right now as a hidden command for our most devoted testers to try out. So far, we're pretty happy with the feedback, and the feeling we have right now is that pins is definitely a positive thing [.....]
In Fred's department, he's been working on giving the pins proper representation as sprites! Like most other things, this involves a lot of iterating and trying out different ideas and designs:
With the final result looking something like this:
[.....]
