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Devlog 86: A Great Challenge Awaits...



So the devlog has been quiet for a while so you might be wondering (or not) what's going on. Well, loads actually. I don't think there has been so much effervescence about the project.

For one thing, the team is getting reading for the KickStarter. Tony is working on the trailer, Jeff is coding like a speeding cheetah and I'm drawing 6 hours a day. Actually, my schedule is to get up at 6:00 and draw until 12:00 (sometimes I'll go over though). Everything is carefully detailed and nothing is being left to chance so to speak. This is something I'm pretty anxious about, failing at the kickstarter is something I'm very wary of.

For those of you who have been following the game since the beginning, you know of my woes with the programming aspect of the game. I never really talked about it but this situation really got to me at times. I'd nervously check my emails to read an email announcing me that someone had quit or something.

Working with Jeff has been really great. He's really down-to-earth and reliable and I'd like to think that we've become closer to being friends. I'm so lucky I came across him. He's very involved in the project and reliable. I would really recommend him to anyone looking for a programmer (but I'd rather keep him for myself).

Anyhow, I thought I would run down the new art for one thing. So for the KS, we wanted a really polished demo. The current (and very outdated) demo had one attack, the current one will have three.

You've already the punch and the whip. Here are the new two:

Laser Cannon:


The laser cannon has a chance of shocking foes. A shocked foe has its attack randomized.

...and some interesting edits form other artists which I'd like to share:

Hapiel:


yaomon17


wzl


so this animation triggered a lot of inspiration I would say!

I also redid the flame thrower which was outdated and inferior to this new version:

The flame thrower has a chance of setting enemies on fire. Foes aflame take damage over time.

Defense wise, you've already seen the block and the radiation shield but I added the focus ability:

This ability reduces energy cost of abilities for a short amount of time.


This ability allows you to recover health pretty much.

Although level up won't be for a little while but I also finished the level up animation (a nod here at Dragon Ball). It's harder to see on a white background though so:




As I said, this isn't a priority at the moment. We'll see later.

We've also added a place to for typing so it doesn't just happen out of thin air:


As I've mentioned before, we reworked the combat system which lacked dynamism. Basically, we got rid of the turned based battles entirely.

When battle begins, both the energy meter of Pan and the foe start at the same time. Abilities have different energy costs. It's up to you to decide how to manage your energy for attack and defense and this is where strategy comes into play. This is the concept we're aiming for:


Of course, the icons we'll be different in-game but this is just to explain a concept.

You might be wondering how long you get to actually guess the cards once you've triggered an ability? Well, the clock is gone so instead the battery starts draining while you're in "guessing" mode. So you can basically take all the time you want as long as you have energy remaining in your battery. So it's better to be quicker about it.

This is sort of the "major" change. We've also added new sfx and an exploration music as well. We used the Workshop track that Tony had composed before.

KickStarter
So yes, future blogs will probably discuss the KickStarter. It's boring and it's not something people care about and I totally get it. The reason why this is something I want to discuss is because this matters a lot to me and I'm worried I'll mess up. I mean, I don't want to fail so I want to make sure everything is perfect. I don't expect people to get super involved with the kickstarter presentation but if you feel like participating, giving feedback about the KickStarter is one of the most helpful thing you could do.

Thanks for reading!