Hey guys! This might come as a bit of a surprise, since I'm sure a bunch of you were expecting a regular blog post around this time. However, I've decided to take a little break from this blog.
My reasoning for this is that as we draw ever closer to completing the game, I am getting more and more tasks that won't produce any good blog posts - there's a lot of smaller editing of things I've already made, big backgrounds that take several days to make but only make one post, a lot of administrative work and work on the (pdf) book on our development process, all things that wouldn't be very interesting to post about here. Also, [.....]
In Fred's department, there's more final dungeon stuff, including a spring version of the hydra and the summoning animation for that platinum level Frosty Friend:
[.....]
Today it's time for something a little bit different, namely a post written entirely by Teddy on our design decisions behind the final dungeon! Here goes:
So a while back we shared an intention of overhauling the final tower quite substantially, shifting from a large surrealistic "travel through the game again but weird"-type dungeon, to having it be a boss rush of sorts.
Nearly all feedback we received on this has been negative! We actually were expecting some feedback like that, but not of this magnitude. The main worries were:
* Shorter dungeon = less content* Without a proper dungeon there won't be storytelling* It violates the game-design philosophy of a final dungeon being an exam on the rest of the [.....]
Now, as I mentioned before we're gonna add a little statue shop with housing items, so I better start making a bunch of statues right? Let's have a look at some of the ones that will be available:
[.....]
The portal leading up to the Grindea battle will look a little different and more abstract, illustrating the fact that something rather strange is about to happen. Playing around with a couple of colour options here:
[.....]
Today we've been playing around with a bunch of different options for what the gate will look like when you reach the final Arcade Mode floor and it's time to either go back to Arcadia or proceed on to the Bishop or Grindea battles. Starting off with the portal back to Arcadia:
The portal to Bishop meanwhile has a more sinister tint of purple and shows a dark sky:
[.....]
Meanwhile, Fred has been working on a cool platinum level Frosty Friend that will be summoned by someone really powerful in the upcoming final boss fight! First up we have a bunch of sketches, and at the bottom, the final version we picked:
[.....]
The second batch has trophies from Flying Fortress, Tai Ming and the Temple of Seasons:
And here's all the trophies, one for each floor:
[.....]
After we asked about whether you preferrd statues or trophies as reward for getting the 'complete all challenges on a floor' achievement, we thought a bit about it and found that we'd like to have the stonecutter have a little shop in town instead, where you can purchase whatever statues you'd like. As such, I'm going ahead to not only make more trophies, but more statues as well! Starting now with another batch of trophies:
[.....]
When it came to the boss preview effect of Astrid's room, we had a couple different ideas. Our very first one was that she'd have a well of sorts, that would show which boss would appear:
Our other idea was to use a goblet and smoke effects to show it:
Fred then made a prototype for a cleaner effect than just the smoke:And here we have the current version, some iterations later! In the video below, you can see what it looks like when you change boss as well: [.....]
This week we'll start by adding the background of another Arcade Mode room, the one where Astrid tells you which boss you're about the face and helps you change that fate, should you wish to:
[.....]
Meanwhile, Fred's been starting work on the first boss in the boss rush we were talking about: the shadow slime! Here's some tests and an animation of one of its attacks:
[.....]
And here's the Tai Ming, Desert and Ghost Ship suggestions:
Finally, here's all of them side by side:
Which ones do you like the most? Would you prefer that every reward was of the same type, so that all of them were some kind of statue or golden cup? We haven't really decided if we prefer this version where it's more mixed or if one specific type would be better. Let us know what you guys think!
[.....]
For the Temple of Seasons, here's a suggestion featuring the Hydra, with three different skins:
[.....]
Next up we have the flying Fortress, Seasonne and Mount Bloom floors:
[.....]
