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Devlog No.014
🕑 Added 2024-04-04 02:49:05 +0000 UTCSo these past couple of weeks I have spent primarily working on tiles and furthering the next rooms. All of the rooms are properly laid out on a basic level and are currently being prettied up and given their basic collectibles. I'll further adjust these as I go, but I usually just start off spreading the candy out to start with, then adding/removing as I go. In these current levels I'll be balancing around the new poison mechanic that I mentioned before. This devlog will be a bit shorter as most of what I am working on is just levels. Building them out and preparing them for the enemies I'll add.
With that said, I'll attach a few images of the tiles I have been working on in action. These tiles are what I'd consider one of the alternative tilesets mixed with the beach tileset. A crystalline stone set of tiles.
I also added in mossy stone tiles to help the cave areas front and back. It should add more color to the otherwise grey and a bit bland mountain tiles from before. While the most important part of level design is that it's fun, I always like making sure a level has a nice atmosphere to it to pull you into the world and make each screen memorable in some way. At least I try to do that. Having every screen be completely distinct would take a LOT more time. Like if I make a big sprite that appears only on that screen, it would definitely be memorable, but would that really be the best use of time?
On the flip side, I think that many of you will actually enjoy if I spend a bit of extra time making some shapely statues. I'm hoping to get to designing the boob statue I talked about before in the next couple weeks.
In terms of other things I managed, I also added a small waterlight sprite which is a simple floating entity that produces a light source. Said waterlight sprite can move about a certain distance from it's origin point and I programmed it so I can easily adjust that distance on the fly. As well I can lock it's Y axis so it only floats left and right. Or it can just be motionless. The waterlight sprite should just be another nice way for the environment to be lit.
And in terms of lightning, some of the crystals will be big enough to generate light as a source which will replace some of the torches that get spread about in these particular areas.
Something else which I decided to do was to followup on Verdite's blimp tf by going ahead and giving Aria her own blimp form tf. So if you'd like to see it, then I'll go ahead and add it for patrons to see and add it to the pixelart collection. I plan to add a little 'sway' to it while you're floating. I want to actually implement it this time around before I do any other parts of the animation so I know for sure that the animation doesn't interfere with gameplay. I may have to speed this animation up, or possibly remove the bulging at the end to make sure it's still fun to 'get blimped'.
In regards to this, I hadn't really talked a ton about it, but this will be a 'bad' form. And what I mean by that is that when you get blimped up in game it will be a negative thing. I plan on making it similar to the boob inflation powerup, however you will not be able to go down. Instead you will float upward slowly no matter what with only the ability to slow your ascent. You'll still be able to move left and right, albeit probably a bit slower.
And I will combine this with it being applied to you in areas where there are hazards you can hit and take damage then deflate similar to the boob powerup. And I have considered allowing Aria to 'pop' when hitting a hazard just to distinguish it from the boob inflation powerup and just have her return to normal immediately. Possibly taking extra damage or being stunned and dizzy, though I would say it's fairly unlikely that I will do that. I'd prefer the slower descent of deflation and also I don't really want to animate her popping.
I could ask everyone how they feel about it and if there was overwhelming support for it, then I might do a very simple pop that isn't detailed and very benign. That or just a pop sound and a puff of smoke. I just don't want to get anyone's hopes up for that though.
As far as the 'how' you will get blimped up, I plan on adding in an enemy spellcaster who can inflate you and a world object that, when you touch it, you blimp. Though don't expect those until after we hit the dark spooky forest levels. (There is the beach, one new level type, and another city before the spooky forest at minimum) I would like to introduce Aria's blimp form somewhere in the spooky forest levels >:D.
Comments
Brandon Cater
I am thinking that will likely be the case of how it ends up where forcing a slow ascent is better. Plus I had been thinking to add spikes/hazards in whatever area the blimping could occur at so a slower ascent could build some suspense as you try to avoid touching them with your horizontal movement. I can also see how there might be an issue if you can just float up and off screen. When I'm programming it, I'll try to start at a low upward speed first and prevent the player from going down to see how well it works.
Boxi Bloon
The blimp form should definitely be vertically slower. If she has too much lift it might be able to cheese certain areas of the game simply by flying over. Boob milk can already do this in some areas as if you reach top of the screen nothing really stops you from just holding up and right but since boob milk is limited to a specific place it’s less difficult to control. If a potentially mobile enemy can apply a debuff that makes you float above any threats it could become helpful than an obstacle… and also get into areas you’re probably not supposed to.
AlextricBunyip
Perfectly fair, and don't worry you didn't say anything derogatory about the subject. Just been around the expansion community for along while and some people get very... let's just say "concerned" in some ways. Nothing too bad (so long as they aren't hyper aggressive about it) but a lot of the time upon seeing characters pop you'll also see a number of "Are they ok?" crop up in it's wake.
Brandon Cater
When I'm programming it I will see how well increasing the ascension speed works out. Especially considering the hitbox for this form will be significantly larger than the boob form. And for the popping subject, I really hope I didn't come off as saying anything derogatory about the subject matter of it. I'd certainly be willing since it is just Illaria self inserting herself as Aria and she can write whatever she likes. (And her writing herself non-lethally popping is definitely something she would do) If it seems that it's in high enough demand and there isn't a lot of pushback on it, then I'll see about adding it in then.
AlextricBunyip
Oooo some good stuff to look forward too~ Now for the blimp form stuff, can agree with it as a "bad" form for Aria as you said with it being similar to the boob inflation one. One thing I could say is that Aria could also be made to ascend faster than the boob one, since she's bigger and more full of air everywhere which could be fun. Now the big thing, popping for Aria's blimp form. Personally I am in favor of popping, especially in having it be a simple and benign pop as well if implemented with some sort of extra negative for when it happens like what you mentioned, and further more something specific because if any hit causes it that could potentially be too punishing imo. But I can completely understand if you don't want to put it in since popping does tend to have a stigma around it for some.
