In Fred's deparment, meanwhile, we take a look at some more Bishop animations, as well as Bokus, the apprentice of the Silver Point to Talent Orb transmuter!
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Once all of that was completed, I had a bunch of new stuff added on my to do-list, including a mockup for the interface of the silver point to talent orb mechanic, a basic sketch of Bishop's boss portrait, a scared expression for the Mandarine character, and the ghost house of Pumpkin Woods with an open door:
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....and later being now, as it happens! The continuation of the Bishop battle background, this time focusing on a bunch of spikes to make the area a bit more menacing:
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Next up, it's time for me to start working on the background for the Bishop's battle, seeing as we're about to finish it up! In this first part, I'm working on the basics of the map, saving the spikes for later:
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For the eight floor, we wanted to pull back a bit from too much intense fighting, and instead focusing on some other aspects of Dragonbone Dunes!
So far, we've come up with two rooms here: first, you'll begin in a desert area with an exit to the north, blocked by a locked door. Next to it you'll find an archaeologist who will give you a map to find the key: only it turns out there are a ton of similar looking scenes around the area! Your goal is to find the small detail pointing you to the right bush (or whatever) by which the key has been hidden.
Second, we wanted to make use of the math puzzle mechanic where [.....]
Meanwhile, Fred's been working on a bunch of Bishop animations, but what we're going to show today is something a bit more exciting(?), the sprite for Maracas, the guy who will transform your silver point into talent orbs, or the other way around! Behold:
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We've also been discussing the final tower interior and what it should look like, and as such I've been playing around with a bunch more sketches, where the amount of mirror material varies from barely any to full on "everything's-a-mirror" mode.
Right now we're kind of leaning more towards the 'emptier' version, meaning little to no mirror decorations. What do you guys think? One of the reasons we prefer that is because we won't be able to use a proper reflection for the character on mirrors that aren't on [.....]
Next up, we've continued to work on sketches for what we'd like that final Arcade Mode room to look like. We've moved away from the idea of the church like structure, as that would imply you'll be able to go inside it - which you won't - but settled for having the final room set among the heavens, since you've, after all, climbed the way up there :)
Here's a bunch of new designs for the portal that will take you back to Arcadia or on to more adventures, [.....]
Remember the skill point to talent orb transmuter from last week? Here's his apprentice, a young boy called Bokus! He'll hand around with his master in the HQ once they've been added to the game properly:
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The next floor we've been tackling has been the Tai Ming floor, which is all about returning to the past (unsurprisingly...) :)
You'll enter into a large open space area, looking much like the ruined present version of Tai Ming, but smaller. A statue of ancient priestess Tessen in her boss form blocks the path leading to the next floor, although this version is edited to have slots for three emblems (oh dear).
You'll travel back in time using a time rift, to a version of the map where any buildings are whole and it's a nice village-y feel. There are NPCs from Tai Ming walking around this area, and talking to three of them will trigger you to travel [.....]
Meanwhile, Fred's been continuing on with refining the Bishop animations, making sure the battle against him looks as good as possible! Here's some more of his animations:
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Next up we have a new NPC we've been talking about adding for a long time! This guy will be 'unlocked' by finishing a quest in the Collector's HQ, and will grant you the ability to turn your silver skillpoints into talent orbs (and the other way around!)
Of course, as such he needed a portrait:
[.....]
Meanwhile, the Bishop battle is turning more and more from a prototype into an actual badass battle!
We've added a bunch of attacks and cleaned up the graphics on some. After some initial testing of this version of the battle, I'd like to be bold enough to say it's one of my favourite boss battles in the game this far:
Hopefully you guys will like it as well! It's pretty intense, let me tell you that much! :D [.....]
So, another thing we've been working on recently has been a bunch of new gauntlets for the arena! Now there's a total of four of them, each a bit more difficult than the last.
First we have the good old classic one featuring Pillar Mountains, Evergrind City and Pumpkin Wood enemies. The second one has enemies from Flying Fortress and Seasonne, as well as a guest appearanec from Phase Man and a couple puzzle block enemies. The third has enemies from the Temple of Seasons and Mount Bloom, and [.....]
For the sixth final dungeon floor, we're doing a mashup of the festival and Mount Bloom, which means you'll be going to a festival in the mountains! And who better to host such an event than a score of Cavelings.... :)
Our idea is that you'll be in a rather open cave system where you'll trick phase between various stations, each having a little mini game challenge of its own. We haven't yet decided whether you'll need to do them in a specific order or if you can trick phase your way around the area freely.
Either way, our current idea is that it'll be the same mini games as you had in the Evergrind festival after you finished the [.....]
Meanwhile, Fred has been working on not only Bishop but Grindea herself as well:
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One of the many things Teddy has been working on recently has been adding a bunch of smaller cutscenes and fixes for the various new quests. One such thing is having Bishop appear during the Ghost Ship quest for a short while, and to make his appearance look as good as possible we went through a bunch of iterations. Here you can see our progress, going from pretty crude, to working our way to a more polished version:
Most things we implement go through a bunch of iterations like these, which goes to show implementing the first idea you have just the way you imagine it isn't always the best bet :) [.....]
While I was sketching the final room design for Arcade Mode, I also went ahead and made some suggestions for the average room design in case we'd end up making regular rooms in that final floor you'll only get to with the right power level, looking something like this:
We've also been talking a lot about what the final tower dungeon would look like for those that aren't under the mirror's influence, so I've been playing around with ideas for that as well. Here's one such suggestion, featuring a [.....]
In Arcade Mode, we need a room you'll get to once you finish the Ghost Ship, where you'll get some sort of reward - and, if you're powerful enough, you'll get the chance to transcend into one final floor where an epic final boss battle awaits!
So, I've been making a couple of suggestions for what this room could look like, and this first one is inspired by what I'd like the final floor to look like - otherworldly, up in the sky, on floating isles with other floating [.....]
This week we've been talking about the fifth floor on your journey to the top of the tower! This floor will be all about the Temple of Seasons, and will begin in a wintery area in the woods, where you'll walk through a corridor of trees that part and walk off to the sides to reveal a path before you, all while fae dart back and forth (just to set the tone a bit). This path will eventually lead you to the Temple of Seasons entrance, where the actual floor will begin.
You'll enter a Temple of Seasons room that's currently winter, but thankfully, Naniva appears and helps you by turning the room into spring, allowing you to enter [.....]
