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Hard to Grapple Whip It
🕑 Added 2020-10-27 22:04:34 +0000 UTCDear Insane Children,
Welcome to another session of "Let's finalize a weapon design!" brought to you by "American got up at 4:30 AM for a phone call that doesn't actually happen until tomorrow morning." A product of Doh! Co. (TM)
In our last episode, we saw how Alice will acquire two weapons from the Boss Encounter with Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. And we reviewed Alex's redesign work on the Jack Bomb.
Today we're taking a look at the second weapon Alice will acquire from that encounter: The Whipping Top
The main image (above) is from Joey and shows a ranged weapon / whip / grapple device featuring a red-eyed frog. The thought behind a redesign is to make the final version feel more like something that might come from The Tweedles and The Circus.
But there were a couple of other re-designs already suggested for this weapon which includes:
A Jabberwocky Grappler from Jennifer and...
A Spring Chick weapon from Joey.
These don't exactly align with the design goals we have for the weapon Alice acquires from The Circus Realm but they are in the same family so I thought it might be interested to share them for comparison.
So Alex spent a bit of time thinking about design and art and came up with the following:
American, when we spoke about this, I feel the focus was more on the "mechanic of environmental traversing and obstacle navigation" for Alice.
For the Tweedle fight, given their larger size and strength compared to Child Alice, the Tweedle Bros can use this more like a whip, in one hand.
I'm sure one of them could latch around to a limited extent, but I think the mechanism would REALLY propel a young, small girl using the same device.
See the scale comparison in the spec breakdown.
I've also designed this to be shaped like a Treble Clef, to tie in with the musical theme.
The Flamingo Motif is an early exploration for a grapple / whip head, given A) their tongues are *gnarly* (see reference) and B) I personally feel the Hobby Horse is a much more iconic clobbering melee weapon, and I'd be disappointed to not see it in Asylum. (Compared to the Flamingo Melee Weapon). Actual animal usage could be easily changed for skins or upgrades, (Lion, Frog, whatever) but the mechanic stays the same.
And this weapon could talk / have objections about constantly getting buried in walls and enemies.
I've explored stationary Aiming Down Sights (ADS First Person Option) as well as aiming, grappling, and swinging on the fly using lock ons.
I imagine it could be used for direct line of sight traversal, and also releasing the chain tension to "swing" Alice and use her momentum.
In-Game Examples are:
1. Link using a Hookshot like Ocarina of Time for direct line shots.
2. And Spiderman (PS4) Swinging from place to place using multiple shots and in-air momentum.
Mixing this up could allow for some crazy spacial navigation puzzles, as well as combat application, which I've not fully explored yet.
To which Omri replied:
@Alex Crowley I LOVE THIS @American McGee i think this is perfect.
And with which I 100% agree.
This is is a beautiful design with some excellent thinking behind it in terms of use and function.
But we're not here to listen to what I think! Let's hear what YOU think!
Let the team know in the comments below YOUR thoughts on this new design and most importantly...
What do you CALL THIS THING?
A Flamingo Flinger? Ha.
From Shanghai where Lucky is Awake Now,
-American
Comments
Def a neat idea! Looking forward to all of this !
Would it be a nice/ realistic idea if keychains of those weapons were made?
Karolina Belomestnova
Oooh, this is a cool name as well! Fling-mingo!
Karolina Belomestnova
I thing you missed a sentence. “This thing is on fire! Literally!” I couldn’t help adding it X)))
Karolina Belomestnova
Treble Beak sounds cool!
Sarah McKeegan
Love them all! But my favorite is the frog tongue!!
I think the Frog staff looks great! Only I think the frogs head may be better coming straight out of the staff. With the head at a 90 degree like that it just seems like 360 degree attack would feel weird knowing the tongue is flopping up over the top of the frog head to reach behind. Jabberwocky Grappler looks Metal AF, just thinking of it tear apart your enemies….ouch. Spring Chick, though fun looking and a neat idea seems like it would be a bit of an awkward weapon to try and carry around/use. The rapid-fire attack image looks good. Flamingo look great, I agree with everyone that it could use some more color. Maybe the dark gray vine work could be changed to the same pink as around the eye? Not sure if that would look good or not, but feel like it could use some more flamingo color in it. As far as name, how about Fling-mingo? As the idea is to grapple yourself around.
Death of Ink
A weapon based off a Flamingo?! I'm in!!
Lovely. A clef sounds like it could be a weapon, so Phoeniclef for this one (after Phoenicopterus roseus, because Flamiclef sounds more bad), Kermiclef for the frog and Shiclef or Shishiclef for the lion. A more generic name would be Trouble Clef
Grapplingo! 🧐
Therese
I love the flamingo ideas and people’s comments were awesome and bringing in the hedgehogs would also be a great idea!
I think the flamingo would be perfect!
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
That being said if that is the motif we want to stick with, it’s the best name so far. But perhaps there is a way to make that connection more clear?
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
I love the “sales pitch”. Very much in keeping with the weapon adverts in the previous games. My only concern is that I’m not sure the treble clef resemblance is obvious enough to name it as such. If that’s supposed to be the motif, it’s not super obvious. And I’m not sure the average player is even going to know what a treble clef is unfortunately. It might just end up confusing people.
I love the frog whip. It's very fun, and looks like a toy and a scepter (frog footman anyone?) I really love the flamingo grappler. I agree it needs better/more color. Love the firefly shrimp suggestion, and "Treble-maker" Now to share the weird brainstorming ideas that popped into my head. At least laugh with me the flaming shoots hedgehogs XD Or if instead of too flamingo, it were just "bird" and it's the Jubjub (nod to Jabberwocky)?
This was so perfect hahah
Alex Crowley
I actually really like this. I heard a shrill flamingo *squawk* sound as an exclamation point after reading that sales pitch haha
American McGee
Love it.
OMG THIS IS AMAZING!! YES!
Maybe name it "The Treble-maker"? Hatter Industries presents: The Treble-maker! Never hit a sour note again as you swing from cliff to clef with this new invention. Guaranteed manufactured with at least 23.7% real flamingo. Not liable for injuries (physical, mental, or hypothetical) sustained when combined with firefly shrimp.
True!
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
Okay this is punny too, but, but, BUT, what about the “Flame and Go”. Pun?Yes. But it would also describe the weapon at least as I see it. You can use it to flame. You can use it to “go”. In other words, traversal.
I thought so too!!!
Sarah Heist
Firstly: LOVE IT Next: Name ideas- Treble (Trouble?) Beak Sound Hook Treble Grapple Beak Grapple Beak Hook Treble Hook Sound Snatcher Snatched Grab
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
Flying fire shrimp! I love it. Very Wonderlandy
I was wondering how it could be used as a weapon a whip or a flamethrower work for me haha! You could collect fire ammo perhaps? Funny enough the thing that makes flamingos pink is the fact that they eat shrimp! So perhaps they have to collect fire shrimp? Much like fire flies they flutter about in the air and they glow an orange color but their shells are full of lava!
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
And I know what you’re thinking, that would make it an OP weapon. But not if you scaled the damage. Enemies that were recently stunned with the grapple take slightly less damage from the flamethrower, but not to the point where it would totally discourage players from doing it.
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
Also, imagine this, since as I suggest that the flamethrower button and grapple button would be different, it would be incredibly easy and satisfying to pull enemies close and blast in the face with fire using the same weapon.
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
Okay don’t call it the Flameingo :p. But I really do think a flamethrower secondary fire would be a good idea. Both modes could be Alice’s go to ranged attacks so it would make sense to map them to the same weapon. Plus, I’m seeing some people bring up the color and I agree with them, that it’s a tad dull. Pull a Tony Stark and “throw a little hotrod red in there”
Catheryn Alice North
yes, good , nuff said ^_^
YESSS UGH IM EXCITED
Karolina Belomestnova
Maybe, like, keep the patterns the same, but make it metallic black? Black flamingos do exist, as far as I know. Or maybe metallic pink? Pastel metallic pink? I dunno, I just want more color on that thing.
Stephanie Groth
I really like the flamingo idea as a callback to the croquet mallet. I and really interested in the treble cleff idea and would love to see a sketch of that concept.
Okay i love this! Its such a cool concept!! Im in love with this flamingo 💘 also i hope it makes flamingo sounds! Only thing I ask is that it have just a tad more color to it? Maybe take the color all around? I'm so excited to see more weapons! One of my favorite parts!
Karolina Belomestnova
It is excellent indeed! However, I feel that the color scheme is kinda dull, maybe something a bit more vivid? Anyway, I love the concept!
American McGee
Groan. You're Fired! (hehehe)
Lucky Dragon ‘She.They’
I love the design of this weapon. I have an idea for an secondary fire mode which turns it into a flamethrower. Call it the “Flameingo”
