Skantish: April Devlog

Welcome to the second monthly devlog for Skantish!

I got a lot done this month, as is seen in the above video development log. The new weapons you guys voted on are now implemented, status ailments are (finally) in the game, and I made some changes that people have been asking for.

I've done some more behind-the-scenes writing and doodling, figuring out the overall direction of the game and envisioning what the final product should look like. There's a lot that I want to do, but I have to remember that I'm one person, and try my best to not let the scope get out of hand.

First off, I decided that ambush rooms and any sort of re-introduction of a topple system should be avoided. The sex animations in Skantish take far longer to produce than any previous game's animations, so it's best that I balance them properly. Instead, I think it'd be smarter and more natural to utilize the quest system for small sidequests and plotlines that result in scenes, similar to Erik's sidequest. (You did remember to free Erik, didn't you?) However, I think I'll stick to the idea of at least implementing unique loss animations for bosses, though they won't be as long as their normal canon scenes.

For the Sunken Chasm area, I've started doodling some rough concept ideas for how it'll look and the atmosphere that I'm going for. Featuring ancient crumbling ruins, overgrown plant roots piercing the crust of the earth, and bioluminescent plant life, the Sunken Chasm will be home to the most dangerous enemies in the game so far. This mysterious area will be a glimpse into the past of the Vexoi - a race of magick-imbued vixen with a history dating back many ages.

This next month may result in largely being pre-production-esque work, as I flesh out my ideas for the next area and begin designing some of the enemies players will face. I plan to implement some smaller changes, such as applying status ailments to pre-existing enemies, as well as adding some more versatility to the modifier system. (I want to have certain mods be unique to certain weapon types - such as an ammo saver modifier that can only work on Bows/Guns.)

New enemies, such as the ancient magicked armor Sentinels that watch over the ruins, will be a challenge to implement. As monsters and bosses get larger, I realized that it's somewhat unfeasible to do sprite animations for them by hand, hence I've been looking into using Spine animation in the game - or something similar. This should ideally allow in more lively, less stiff boss fights, at the cost of looking totally perfect. The downside, of course, is that I've never used these kind of tools before, so I'm not sure how difficult they may be to implement.

The game's soundtrack is still a concern for me, as I've now talked to multiple composers who haven't fit the project. (Not to mention, wasting hundreds of dollars so far on failed collaborations.) After going to a few different places and speaking to others, it seems that my best bet may be to learn music production on my own and compose an OST myself. While I don't want to downplay anyone or inflict a sort of Dunning-Kruger effect on myself, from what I've gathered, composing music is one of the easiest creative skills to develop in terms of what goes into making a game. (When compared to Art, Writing, Programming, Design, etc.) So, I intend to spend more of my free time messing around with FL and practicing composing some tunez of my own. I'll likely continue using placeholder royalty-free music as the project continues, then near the end of development (if I'm good enough) I'll go back through and compose a new OST myself from scratch. (Also, fwiw, I spent years of my childhood learning Violin, Piano, Trumpet, and still sometimes doodle around on Guitar. So, music isn't totally foreign to me or anything.)

That's about all I have to say for this month's post. If you'd like to keep up with development, be sure to join the Discord Server, and if you're on the $15+ tiers be sure to check out the new Monthly Build. Thank you for your support!