Devlog: Drill Commander, New Music, Demo Progress, World Hub Concept!

YO! Howdy again and we are back following the EVO showing in early August, which went well. To top things off, wanted to show off the brand new banging track, Desert Standoff by StriderTempxa and a preview of the latest miniboss, Drill Commander in the new dusk stage we created for minibosses. You can see some of Drill Commander's abilities during the video- And his whole gimmick will be: Don't try and block this guy as he'll chip you down to nothing.

So what have we been cooking on or thinking about? Primarily- We are heavily focused atm on getting the demo ready for you guys for internal testing- As well as preproduction for a Kickstarter that will target future content and get some awareness for the game.

Next steps are:

A) Finishing and deploying internal Patreon demo

B) Steam page launch

C) Kickstarter+Demo in fall or next spring

Stage Art Pass:

We just went through recently and did a final art pass on all the stages present in Act 1, and added a preview of EDEN as well in a more completed and lit state. Mainly it was relighting all the stages, adding some final geometry and getting all the character shaders up and running. The Dusk stage will now serve as the miniboss stage, and all stages after that during runs will take place at night- Culminating with an act boss encounter.

Bombjack:

Our latest enemy we've been putting finishing touches on, Bombjack is a dick. A brainless member of the badlands function, his entire MO is to stay away from you and pelt you with bombs. However, wittle him down too much and he'll turn the tables on you- Chasing you down and blowing himself the fuck up in a spectacular explosion.

Still pending some VFX/audio work but this guy will be a nuisance and one of the later enemies you face in the first act.

Treasure Chest And Map Icon Tests:

We are currently in progress on getting all the final pieces ready for the demo- As of now we have a few map tiles we are finishing up, including our treasure chest tile (Concept above) which will give you goodies after you defeat minibosses.

We're hoping to do a really cool animation for this to make it satisfying, and have built it out in 3D and are going to work on integration soon. We worked with ALargeWoodenBadger on the rigging. This is obviously for free items, no microtransaction bullshit here.

Our map is currently using proxy icons so we've been building these out atm- Encounter tiles, mystery tiles, campsites, kyumart and more.

Also doing tests on limited frame animation for these map icons to give them some movement. Just missing enemy sprites and we'll be good on our final map for Act1.

Hub World Concepts:

This one is preproduction for something that will tie into a hub world we want to create for single player where the story will progress as you get farther and farther in your runs and unravel the mystery of the Void. This will take place on a repurposed Godbuster that Volley and Co. will inhabit (Kiera, etc.) as you rescue them and they become playable.

We went through a few passes of this, but seem to be honing in on a direction we like atm. Initially it might have been isometric but we ended up favoring something a bit more intimate. Verticality was one of the first things to go once we realized which direction we wanted.

We eventually settled for a flatter design and refined off this with a different camera angle. The main idea was repurposed military architecture turned into a livable space. A usually uninviting space made a bit more comfy.

Featuring stuff like a bar, large screens, coffee machines (A must for Volley and Kiera) and more- This will be a hangout spot for multiple characters. Maybe Quanta will pop her head in here from time to time too.

The moodier night variant will probably be the default you see most of the time. We still have some other chambers to concept, mainly a vending area (Where you'll be able to unlock abilities and more) and a living quarter space for naps and cooling off.

What's Left:

In general, the systems and art for all the encounters are now all built and we are now just focused on wrapping up the content. This mainly means AI work, VFX, sound. With Drill Commander's animation set done that just leaves our act boss to work on, Godbuster.

Along that we just need to do a lot of UI work, generate card art and do some final internal testing before we're ready to deploy to patrons. It seems like late September will be when we will be ready to roll out the demo. Limited testing at EVO went really well, and people were excited about the idea.

Over and out!

NEXT TIME ON PATREON: What's Bothering Vlad?