Environment Concept Progress | Patreon Weekly #217

Hey Patrons, in this weekly I’m going over my current plans for the three environments you might encounter during the blacksmith’s quest.

This weekly also includes an audio Q&A! Go and give it a listen if you’d like. You can find audio timestamps at the end of this weekly.

Environment Concepts

You might remember that I was a little disappointed with the results from Poll #42 a bit over a month ago. At the time I was mainly concerned about how the lower voted environments were re-using assets, and so would be quicker to make. After some more thought though, I’ve changed my mind on this somewhat. The higher voted options, regardless of whether the assets are new or not, have more potential for interesting gameplay that plays off the mining mechanic.

So, even though it means things might take a bit longer, I’m currently moving forward with designs that are largely based on the results of that poll, here’s what we’re working with so far:

The Crystal Cave is littered with crystal obstacles that can be seen through and easily mined. Be careful where you dig to though, as there are slumbering enemies here that will be disturbed if you open a path to them. These enemies are quite tough, so avoiding a fight where possible might be the best idea.

The boss of this region is a gigantic crystal with a rare gemstone heart that the blacksmith wants! Traditional attacks won’t do a thing, so you’ll need to steadily mine through the crystal one pick at a time. Of course, the locals won’t like you doing this too much, so you’ll need to balance mining the crystal with self-defence.

The Mushroom Forest is filled with hostile plant-life that has to be avoided via mining. There are powerful stationary defenders that will pelt you with ranged attacks after noticing you. The tall vegetation can help a bit, but you’ll need to tunnel around some open spaces to navigate through and not get skewered.

The boss of the region is the source of this vegetation, a gigantic mother plant. It’s invulnerable initially, but thick roots coming from it lead to vitals nodes that are hidden in the walls. Breaking these nodes will make it vulnerable to regular attacks.

The Unstable Encampment is a little bit of a combination of the gnoll enchantment and abandoned mine concepts. The gnolls have taken an interest in mining out the area, but don’t have the patience to do it properly. Instead, a powerful gnoll shaman has learned earth manipulation magic, and is using it to aggressively mine for gold. This makes the whole area unstable, so be prepared to dodge debris and mine through recently collapsed tunnels.

The boss of this region is the Gnoll geomancer itself. Mining plays an important role in this boss as it’s the only way you’ll be able to push through the mess of earth that gets dropped onto you by the geomancer’s magic. There will be other gnolls nearby too, but they’re just as vulnerable to the falling rocks as you are, and they’ve not got a pickaxe!

I'm going to be working on fleshing these designs out and pinning down details this week, so please let me know if you have any feedback to give on these ideas!

Audio Timestamps

This month there were 12 questions from 6 different patrons.

• 0:07 "Do you have any plans for Rat King like involving him in lore or changing his room?" - Hubertouz
• 0:54 "he should get his own sub-floor lol" - depresbian
• 2:07 "what are some of your favorite/best/worst puns or jokes you've heard regarding your name/your game's name?" - radiantchaos
• 3:42 "You often say you don’t like the current state of throwing weapons, do you have any ideas you’d be willing to share on how you would improve them?" - Veek
• 6:30 "how have you, a human by the name of evan debenham, with the online persona of 'shattered pixel', been doing in this most recent time period lasting 24 hours, often called a 'day'?" - radiantchaos
• 8:38 "Why Thymor Zahir didint warn the world above about Yog Dzewa and decided to completely give up?" - Hubertouz
• 10:19 "why can't the hero hold their breath in gas?" - radiantchaos
• 11:13 "Tea or Coffee? And how do you like it?" - Arclightning
• 13:19 "who's your favorite fictional character (outside of pixel dungeon)" - depresbian
• 16:33 "Have you ever beaten your own game with 9 chals on? If yes which character did you choose?" - Hubertouz
• 18:16 "Is Canada actually real? There is some debate here in Texas as to whether it actually exists,.or is in fact just a northern suburb of Detroit. Whose existence is also debatable." - greenapathy630
• 18:43 "when you eat plates of food with multiple things on them, do you eat them one thing at a time or eat them all together?" - radiantchaos