Dev Diary #45: Prototypes and everything else

Hey guys, it's Zanzo!

Yes, I'm alive and well. Yes, I'm still working on Sexy Exile. Nearly full time, I only take very few commissions to keep my bank account slightly in the black.

Maybe you noticed that Cucu is really productive lately, that's because we and our partners are very determined to finish Sexy Exile this year. The downside is that there is no time to polish side-releases and such, but there is so much going on and taking shape behind the scenes, it's even a bit overwhelming at times.

That's one of the reasons why we mostly post art updates at the moment, it's hard to find the time to write an understandable post with a reasonable length. On the other hand, I know have a whole lot of news of varying priority and scope, so I think a news flash might work best:

• about 3/4 of all artwork for 1.0 is done now, including some unannounced stuff. Exciting, right? Also, we're recently working with an additional background artist to get everything done.
• About 4/5 of all writing for 1.0 should be done.
• I've spent a lot of time with mind maps and diagrams to visualize and optimize all the meta game loops that will take place in between Date Mode and X-Mode. Our partners' game designer lent me a helping hand whenever I would become stuck and I'd say we're about 90% done there, so the final coding is set to start very soon. I'm happy that it will be done by someone with plenty years more experience and knowledge than myself and it should therefore be waaaay faster and more stable than whatever I can come up with.
• I've worked a lot on UI layouts and design for all screens in the game, which I had to learn is significantly more than you would imagine. More than 90% of the layouting is done but the final design will still be quite some work. We'll be tackling that step by step parallel to the final coding.
• I'm working closely with Mushroom People again as they are creating 5-6 additional soundtrack pieces for the game, of which two are close to completion. You'll love them!

My main focus has been Date Mode and X Mode though. I did show a video of the new Date Mode a few weeks ago and we have since done some optimizations and a layout mockup (so it's only roughly what it will look like) you can see on top of this post.

Regarding X Mode, I think I mentioned before that we wanted to make some adjustments here and there and with a few tries behind us now, we have succeeded in reaching our goals of making it a little bit more dynamic and changing the win and lose conditions in a way that makes it feel more rewarding and less punishing for beginners while preserving the „hard to master“-aspect of it. In the process, the goals have changed a bit – instead of needing to collect a certain number of hearts, the level now carry way more of them and the player tries to collect as many of them as possible. Doing so in quick succession increases a point multiplier, while it will slowly decrease if you don't collect any in a while or if you collect negative items. The points you achieve this way will count towards 3 staggered target scores for one, two or three stars.

Meanwhile, the „pressure bar“ is not as scary as before, as it will not fill up on collecting bad items. Instead, it acts more like a timer now, with the exception being certain collectibles that set it back a bit for bonus time.

As a result of these changes, the layout for X-Mode has changed a bit. Here's a screenshot of the prototype right now, but be aware that it's mostly about the layout and that most the individual elements are not much more than placeholders right now:

[X-Mode Prototype 2 (WIP)]

On top of that, we are toying around with physics a bit right now, so that obstacles can now slow you down or bounce you back. We're not yet 100% decided to which degree we want to use it, but it gives more variety to the gameplay as getting pushed back is not as punishing as collecting something bad, but will nevertheless change your path and make the player lose a little time and momentum. On top, we can think of a lot of cool things we could do with that... We'll see.

Alright, I hope you guys feel more in the loop again, now. As always, please feel free to ask any questions!

x

Zanzo