Brellom
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Game Dev - APR 2024 - #01
🕑 Added 2024-04-24 20:21:33 +0000 UTCEDIT [05/05/2024]:
This post was once exclusive to the [$1 Patron Tier], but is now available to All Members, even those of you who are Free Members. Patreon's recent updates allow me to share stuff with you guys now.
Patreon's rules are incredibly strict, so I can only share certain types of things - but hopefully this won't be a problem since there isn't any explicit nudity, just a sprite without any female-presenting nipples. If a member of staff wants to harass me over email, I will remove the objectionable content. I don't know what else to really share with Free Members, so don't expect too much on that front.
I figured you guys might appreciate seeing some of the game development progress recently shared with the [$1] Patrons. Also, should you be interested, you can help support me and even see ALL game development updates for just a single dollar.
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The latest major update comes with the addition of the Harpy enemy, which is a Flying "Dropper" type. Rather than attack the player directly, they fly overhead and drop the Jumping Corpse enemies - our version of the Flea Men / Imps / Hunchbacks. This arrangement is MUCH easier to deal with than in Castlevania or Bloodstained, but it's still possible to get overwhelmed. I would like to make them slightly harder so that they can actually pose a bigger threat, but I don't want to overcompensate and make the player less effective overall.
Stuff like this isn't always as simple as adding in the new asset - but having to test it under different conditions. Because the harpies can fly through solid objects, they were able to drop enemies INSIDE the solid objects too, and those enemies would get stuck - and I only realized by complete accident.
you can tell by the way that i use my walk, i'm a woman's man, no time to talk
whether you're a brother or whether you're a mother, you're stayin' alive
I've also started to experiment with a screen wrap feature (similar to what was used in games like Super Mario Bros. 2), but it still has a lot of issues. Because the entity is being teleported from one X position to another when they collide with the "Screen Wrap Zone", they can sometimes get stuck (infinitely teleporting back and forth). Other times, entities can continue flying beyond the teleport zone.
ah, ah, ah, aaaaaah
I've also spent a bit of time working on some smaller fixes:
Fixed a bug in which sub-weapons will appear behind staircases.
Fixed a bug in which Firebombs / Holy Water would prematurely explode when used on staircases under certain collision conditions.
Rope Climbing mechanics have been refined.
Enemy Spawn mechanics have been refined.
Damage taken by players is now more accurate and less prone to error.
It's a shame these beautifully crafted dev logs are hidden behind a paywall.
Don't forget to eat & seep.
Comments
Bob Dasyati
Have the dropping corpses inherit some horizontal velocity from the flyers maybe? It might make it more difficult to swat them out of the air if they fall closer to your head. Regarding the screen wrap getting stuck, you'd want to make it so only objects traveling to the right can wrap to the left and vice versa. There are more robust ways to do it that don't involve collisions, but I don't know how much math you're up for...
Ethan Moreno
Ooo, lots of good stuff I read for this dev blog today!
Shawn Heatherly
The balance of challenge and fairness is a struggle for professionals, I appreciate the logic here.
brellom
They're much easier here because you can just spam your whip attack without having to think - whereas the timing is a bit less safe in CV and BS:CotM... But I don't want to make the whip slower. Maybe sharing space with other obstacles may alleviate this, however.
DoubleAC
Looks very good. Enemies that drop enemies always are frustrating but add a good amount of challenge to stages, and the screen warp looks very well done.
