12/24/17 Development Update

Hello and welcome back to another development update. With the holidays, I am sad to say that I didn't get too much done due to travel and events. But, this time really allowed me to do some thinking about where and what I want to do with this game moving forward into 2018. So let's start with some art updates. First the cover picture is going well, here's a photo of the progress:

I also had some sprite work done, which lead me to my next point: How many more sprite bases I want done per main character. This was a question that I was unsure of for quite some time, but after some thought I think I have a better grasp on what I want. Currently, when the player attacks or cast spells there really isn't an sprite animation for it, I have decided that I want to animate the sprite in order to give the attacks more of an 'impact'. On that note that means that the player's weapon will probably no longer change sprites based on weapons. This decision will make the game cost more to make but I think it will definitely make it look better!

Moving on from sprites, I want to talk about the last systems that still need to be implemented. They are the game menu, which includes changing settings and all that jazz, as well as the 'Hero Soul' system which will act as the character progression mechanism in conjunction with the deck building and items. I'll talk more about these final systems as I work on the more!

I don't want to sound too winded, so I'll stop here for now. I'll divulge more information as I work on these systems. I am excited to keep working on this game, Let's get a lot done this new year!

12/17/17 Development Update

Hello and welcome back to another development update. Let's start this week with a sketch of some game art I am having done for me by an artist called Eadgear (Check out his work!). It shows all the main characters all in one nice cover scene!

The main focus of this week was asset creation. Mainly it was a continuation from a past week's work where I made the parallax map for the town's inn. This week I created 3 more parallaxes, the town weapon store, the town magic shop and the town alchemy shop, which are the steps towards my goal of allowing players to actually walk into buildings. I am still kind of new to parallaxing, but I am happy how these 3 turned out. 

This is the weapon and armor shop. Currently, this shop is mainly meant to sell the player weapon and armor.

Above is the magic shop, this shop will allow the player to purchase Arcana, which is the resource used to craft Arcana Cards, the spell-casting feature of my game. This shop will also allow players to craft and disenchant cards as well as edit their Arcana Decks!

 The Alchemy shop sells crafting materials used to upgrade potions. Below is an example of the alchemy stand interface, which allows players to craft, unlock and equip potions. Potions are another thing players will be able to customize, as each potion has a unique effect.

Moving forward, I'd like to test the new tutorial level, as well as implement smaller tutorials to teach player how to use the systems offered by the shops.

12/10/17 Development Update

Welcome back to another weekly update! This week, I had some playtesting done on the tutorial level and spent much of this week fixing and editing the tutorial level.

The biggest thing so far changed is the idea of less text and more play/visuals. I noticed people were not reading the tutorial messages leading them to mostly be confused on what to do. So to fix that I added more visuals to lead the player, such as chat bubbles and arrow indicators. On that note, the tutorial level is now done, though it will still need some more testing.

Additionally I finally added diagonal movement to the character, which involved an overhaul of the old system of movement. It definitely feels much smoother to play now, and hopefully will give players more options to maneuver their character.

Finally the last thing major thing I implemented was the projectile deflection mechanic. Some projectiles can now be deflected back to sender, which will hopefully reward players for their good timing. With projectile deflection, I'm also establishing a general mechanic where dull red projectiles cannot be interacted with, red projectiles can be, and blue projectiles being interacted with.

12/3/17 Development Update

Hello all! Welcome back to another development update!

I've done a lot of player testing for the new deck building system and the game as a whole so far and I realized something. As of right now, the game has a ton of existing game mechanics which is hard for the new player to grasp. So to fix this, I spent most of this week working on a tutorial that will explain some of the basic controls and mechanics. This was really exciting to do since, as it is right now, the tutorial will be integrated with the game's story. Here are some pictures of how it's going so far:

There is still more work to do on this, but I think it is progressing nicely. Hopefully this will be done and ready to test by next week!