Devlog No.020

Well, I certainly didn't get as much done as I would've liked, but I also did kind of get more done than I thought I would at the same time. I have a bigger comm I need to finish, but even then I will likely just have to take more so things will be slow unless I can get more reliable income.

I think I'll start off by outlining what I got done:

Almost completely finished the current levels. (They're like 95% complete, just need enemies, a couple trinkets, and a once over)
Completely finished the Filimuri Caster
Completely finished the shrine and boob power levels system as well as the statue visuals (Statues just need to be placed and tagged which will occur over the course of development)

So while I had been working on the filimuri, I did get sidetracked into completing something else that I also had to do. So now we completely have the power level and shrine system done for boob power levels. I also added in a pause menu UI so you can see how much power level you have currently.

The statue system will also now record any statues you unlock from this point forward. (No save wipe as I have said in the past)

The unlock system I put in I made a nice big buffer on them so I really can't imagine it ever being a problem. Unless the game gets really really popular and I make enough to completely fund the game monthly I seriously doubt there will be anything to worry about.

And even if after the game releases we keep adding content, not only is there plenty of space in the base game, but I could always add a second mode with parallel progression/saves for example.

But back to the more juicy stuff and that's the statue system! Like I said I got it all done! And that means a nice little video showing it off! I'll upload that for members to view.


Though how about the filimuri?

Unfortunately I only finished the caster. I had an issue where I basically spent almost an entire day just studying code to get her lightning to work. It was one of those issues where I am sometimes just kind of dumb and the answer is sitting in front of my face. I'm happy with how she came out though for sure! But what's more important is how the people playing the game feels about it.

How about a view of her functionality? I'll upload a public video showing her off after this.

I did pretty much exactly how I said I would with her. She tries to stay at mid range with you and won't pursue you endlessly. In fact, if you leave her alone and stay away long enough, she'll go back to idling. As well, I even gave her a short little idle animation too. (Which up until this point, none of the enemies in the game had.)

After some time, she'll attempt to strike you with lightning. I used a very audible sound cue of crackling lightning. As well the lightning path is very animated and there is also a small ground effect just in case all of that isn't enough to show you that you need to move.

If you stand still, you'll get hit HARD and bounced up and away from the point of impact. If you stand in the 'line' of lightning, it will also hit you. So she's surprisingly dangerous from mid to short range if you let her fire off her attacks.

Of course, she's not a real threat on her own due to being able to just fire off attacks at her from mid range. But if you close with her and remain 'on level' with her, she'll squirt water at you and knock you far back. Right now the interval for doing this lets her keep doing it while retreating, but you should be able to close in for a blade attack once she reaches her leash point. But I made sure that you can also just JUMP and hit her in the face. She won't squirt water at you if you are above head level. So even though she can keep you back from being really close to her pretty easily, you should still be able to take care of her without too much trouble so long as you jump (and aren't being bullied by the grappler).

If you get out of range of her (or line of sight her), she will cast the same ball of lightning from the golem encounter which will chase you down. (It DOES have a max range, but it's quite long) You can of course just keep out of her line of sight, or very far away, and she'll go back to her idle after some time.

Finally, as I had said, when you try and inflate her, she'll try and counter the magic, resisting it and eventually becoming exhausted and falling to her knees. If you just let her go, she'll get back up and resume attacking you. If you hit her while she's on her knees, she'll get knocked out immediately. If you hit her while she's resisting the inflation spell, then she'll inflate like normal and you can jump on her booba as usual.

And that's pretty much it for what I've gotten finished the past couple weeks. I'm going to try be focused heavily on getting the last two filimuri done. I feel like the spear filimuri will be much more simple to program than the caster. Though the grappler filimuri I am still debating on that since I am unsure of whether I want to go to the lengths of making them able to ACTUALLY grab Aria and throw her or if they will just shove her in the direction they want her to go and just kind of try and get in her way. Unless it's really hard or time consuming, I'll probably do grabbing.


I do want to talk for a moment about the games versions though. I've written down nearly everything I want to be in the game, but I'm just not sure what will be a good/bad idea and where exactly I'll be putting it in. To give an example, I had the idea of doing cards that cycle as you throw them, but decided against it since it would feel too similar to the grahstery lantern. Instead I made charge cards which are more distinct. So I don't want to promise something that might get removed.

With that said, I will at least talk a bit more about the version numbers and what will determine them.

Technically we're in v0.5 right now. The next release will be v0.5 for the purposes of not being confusing. It'll stay that like until I finish the next boss and that will be when the game goes to v0.6. Similarly, when I finish the boss after that, the game will go into v0.7. When we hit v0.8 that's when I will do some organization to the game and we can consider that the story version as I'll make sure all the story stuff is up to date at that point. Then v0.9 is when I will implement the final boss into the game and from that point I'll start polishing and adding in any missing features. I'd say that v0.9 is likely when I will add the monthly NPCs we have been making into the game, but I could add that sooner if there is a strong demand for it to be available sooner. If you have a strong feeling of wanting to have the monthly NPC system in and a way to interact with them in game sooner then please comment or message me letting me know. The NPC system will take a bit of time to properly implement since I'd like a bit of flexibility to it and I need to make a separate shop keeper who will sell the tf items for example.

v0.9 will probably be the longest version of the game.

And v1.0 will be when the game is considered 'done' at that point.

Now I haven't gotten all the things that I'll add fully laid out for which patch and such, but right now they are planned to come as... well as they come really. Just to talk about what is in the near future, there will be a candy themed zone that's coming up next (or shortly after), but it will not be in the next release. It'll be in the release after that. The candy themed zone will be fairly short and only contain 1 new enemy, but it will also contain a new mechanic which is 'black licorice', a candy that stuns you (but restores some energy).

Now something like that might be seen as kind of annoying to deal with, just getting forcibly stunned and slowed down, so I'll try my best to make it more like land mines. It'll be up to my ability to design levels to make it so it's less annoying and more an obstacle to overcome. (I'll also specifically give it a different glow from other candy too, but I'm not sure what color would be ideal since red is the danger color and pink is the candy color and yellow is the danger color on projectiles. Probably green since green is typically poison)

I also will say that I don't think I'll do something like poison candy for example. That kind of defeats the point of candy being a cure for poison. Never say never though.

I think that's all I have to say for now. I'll get back to work now. (After I upload the vids and sleep)