Devlog: Castle rooms

I'm still recovering from burnout, but that didn't stop me from modeling crazy levels and getting a bit of programming done. I really hope I can get back to drawing soon.

Jun 1

While the first half of the castle level is mostly just visual candy to show off how corrupted it has become, the second half consists entirely of ally-based puzzles. By that moment in the story, the player needs to have recruited every available ally (except for a secret one), so it will be time to figure out who can help best on each area.

All the main rooms of the first half of the level are finished and looking functional, but programming them will be insane, since in a lot of them the direction of gravity isn't fixed. My plan for these is to align the visual mesh to their collider, rather than the opposite, depending on where the player is standing. It'll need quite some complex code, we'll have to test it in action to see if it works.

First half of the castle level

Jun 2

The hub room of the second half of the castle level is finished and looking beautiful. It will contain a couple of interesting narrative moments, although they depend on the player's decisions along the game.

The area where the player has to control both Dame Ternera and her murani rogue ally was an absolute mess because I keep trying to fit every room in a single Blender object instead of keeping things simple. So I kept things simple: by separating the room itself, the platforms, the climbable walls and the props, now everything is tidy and much more functional. I'll even be able to use Godot primitives for pretty much everything.

Second half hub and cooperative area

Jun 3

I modeled an area that works in a similar fashion to the "fear test" of Dinosaur Planet, except I hate that test. Why cooking up a cutscene that I'm not allowed to look at? Instead, the player will be shown harmless illusions they're supposed to ignore, while the flying ally who is immune to magic guides them. The player can stop at any moment and admire the chaos around them, they just have to remember not to flinch.

I also modeled a reverse arachnophobia area. It's full of spiders and they are afraid of the player, but the player needs their help. Enter the beast-master bard ally: the puzzle will require the player to carefully guide him through the area so enough spiders can be persuaded to help fight the big monster holding the macguffin they need.

Spiders puzzle room

Jun 4

My puzzles keep growing out of proportion as I build them. The next area only expected the player to pay close attention to some moving objects, by using a sniper ally as an external observer, but then I thought it'd be cool to add distractions. In the shape of giant monsters randomly flying through the room.

Observation test room

I also completed the area for the librarian ally, but that's pretty unremarkable. Just a round room with barriers that need to be dispelled by killing enemies in a certain order, as specified by runes that the ally has to translate for the player, through a little minigame.

Jun 5

The final room is modeled. It's a large area with pipes carrying fluid chaos, which the engineer ally has to redirect to open a path and make the macguffin reachable. To add a bit of humor, Dame Ternera's absolute inability to operate machinery will be a mechanic of the puzzle: some machines can't be operated and need to be destroyed instead. And that's what she excels at.

Fluid chaos room

Jun 7

The base code of levels 8 and 8.5 is pretty much complete, everything breaks when it has to break, but I have finally encountered an issue that I knew I'd face sooner or later: my version of Godot is too old and can't do what I want. So it's time to upgrade to the latest version, which allows me to play specific slices of animations.

Also, the bridge level is currently a mess, since I also made it way too short and the player simply has no room to maneuver. But I can't test it properly until I upgrade. In the meantime, I'll start programming the castle rooms. I have no idea how many different files I'll need, since pretty much all of them will need their own specific code, so I'll take it easy and go one by one.