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Episode 5 - January 2018 vs January 2020



It certainly seems fitting to round out 2019 and to start 2020 working on the exact same maps as the game started with back in January 2018. Thats right, the start of Shooty and the Catfish Episode 5 is actually the demo from the very first game demo released way back in February 2018. Of course it has gone through some pretty major overhauls since then. To celebrate these overhauls I will be sharing some comparison shots as opposed to the usual screenshot fair to really sell how much things have changed (and in my opinion) improved. But first, behold, the exterior map for the sewers, the starting area for Episode 5 in all its recolored glory. You can also enjoy the gif of the Nimbin crew from my old animated series having a good time up top if thats your thing. Lucky you!



Its admittedly sort of strange looking at this map, it was originally made up of 3 smaller individual exterior maps, those sections are still pretty damn obvious looking at the map as it is now. I went through this phase where I wanted all of my maps to line up correctly, as though the spaces each one took up were super important. My take away from this is that, yes, it is important, if your working in 3D. Nobody will see 80% of this map in game due to the 2D nature of the project and the fact that most of its cut off. Oh well, lessons for the next project.





Anyway, this weeks accomplishments were pretty standard, the first thing I got one was updating all of the tilesets for the sewers in Episode 5. These sewers lead into a place called Newfolk Castle which is where Episode 5 largely takes place, its made up of 3 back to back dungeons (or one VERY big dungeon if you want to look at it that way) so it will definitely be a change of pace from the rest of the game and it will hopefully make up for the 2 smaller dungeons proceeding it in Episodes 3 and 4.



https://c10.patreonusercontent.com/3/eyJwIjoxfQ%3D%3D/patreon-media/p/post/32788035/d79485762ec047cfbf013a5f1c41d4ba/1.png?token-time=1579046400&token-hash=WqeGTreGyD9GEMY4zHT3BTOKcCe7bZH715C0GKtelKs%3D

I also got the NPCs done for the Episode, which was a lot less time consuming than any previous part of the game seeing as there are only 4 thanks to the lack of a town in this episode. As mentioned and pictured above those NPCs are Blob, Ben, Amir and Max (and Gerkinman of course) from my mid 2000s animated series Nimbin, all hanging around a campfire, as they always tended to do. By this point in the game Gerkinman is all out of new weapons for you so he will just want to chat about pickled dicks... as he does.





I also updated all of the enemy sprites and battlers for the area, there wasnt too many thankfully as its a small zone, just 3 enemy types and 2 bosses but I was surprised at how complex those sprites were in terms of detail. i guess it was as a result of the original gameboy aesthetic? Or maybe just my lack of experience with pixel art at the time but they definitely didnt follow the less is more approach of later enemies in the game.





Other than that my time was mostly spent cleaning up some old bugs and changing the way some eventing worked since I have learnt a hell of a lot since this section of the game was done. I had a couple of occasions where I broke things that should have been simple to change but weren't because these early parts of the game were being held together with ducktape... So that was exciting. Its always fun when you break things without knowing how.





This week more than anything has been a week of reflection. While Shooty and the Catfish has been in a playable state for 2 years its been in development for a lot more than that, a development hell even, so to see so much of the game come together so quickly over the last few months, its really been pretty empowering in a lot of ways. In 2 short years its gone from being a 20 minute long demo made in 4:3 aspect ratio with a gameboy color scheme with only one playable party member to a widescreen 16:9 full color 2 party 5 hour adventure with even more left to go. Its all a bit surreal really.





So thank you for your support during this projects development, and I look forward to supplying you with more updates, animations and games not just this year, but well into the future!

Also, as an end of year gift to everybody, here is the download link for the December demo, which allows you to explore and interact with the fine folks of Flatwoods: https://www.dropbox.com/s/kvu3rcaoryjrw6n/SC_DECEMBER_DEMO.zip?dl=0

And because im going to be away this weekend (hence the day early Patreon update) here is the link to this weeks Shooty and the Catfish Devlog: https://youtu.be/HVL8t6EYotY

Happy holidays everyone and see you next week!

Posts

Pages: 1
author=Cap_H
Whoa, you're posting these huge weekly updates all of the sudden every two days! Exciting stuff. I think that graphics mostly changed to the better but I also find some of the old mapping and work with shames more inspired. But that might be because square might be better suited for your cute style than wide-screen.
But I really like the new tiles otherwise.


These updates have all been from my Patreon, I have been forgetting to post them all here! D:

The square screen has its ups and down sides, my main issue with it is that it created a lot of UI issues, you can only break MV so much to try to fix them sadly.

author=zDS
Awesome read! Look forward to playing this my friend.


Well thank you very much kind sir ~ <3
Awesome read! Look forward to playing this my friend.
Cap_H
DIGITAL IDENTITY CRISIS
6625
Whoa, you're posting these huge weekly updates all of the sudden every two days! Exciting stuff. I think that graphics mostly changed to the better but I also find some of the old mapping and work with shames more inspired. But that might be because square might be better suited for your cute style than wide-screen.
But I really like the new tiles otherwise.
Pages: 1