Patreon Weekly #45 - Apr 13th, 2020

Hey Patrons!

Since last week ripper demons now have finished spritework, a new blog post is now up on ShatteredPixel.com, and I’ve hammered out several remaining bugs. Unfortunately, due to a mixture of real-world obligations and this work taking a bit longer than expected, I wasn’t able to get 0.8.0 finished last week.

This week I’m aiming to tidy up the final bits of remaining spritework and get 0.8.0 finished; ideally before Wednesday. While I will give the final 0.8.0 build a little time in beta before full release, I’m going to skip the usual release-candidate build as the beta is already very stable and I only intend to change spritework between now and full release.

Read on if you'd like more details... 

More Spritework

As always, all of these changes are WIP and subject to change, especially as we go further down.

Firstly, DM-100s are getting some improved shading. I’ve decided that they should be the shiniest of the DM models, as it helps make their shape clearer against the prison floor. This also fits lore-wise as they were the most recently activated of all the DM models.

I’m also experimenting with enlarging the sprite for Golems to better justify their status as a large enemy. The WIP image above adjusts the height of their fists slightly and gives them a head. Feedback on this one was mixed on the Patreon Discord though, so I may look for ways to enlarge golems without making them so humanoid.

For DM-200s, I’m going all-in on them being a smaller version of the existing DM-300 sprite, but hopefully in a nicer form than just shrinking DM-300's sprite. For their current WIP sprite I’ve shrunk everything down versus DM-300, but still need to work on some finer points of the shape and details. They need to have a hydraulic fist instead of a drill, just to start. I am pleased with how the doubled up treads look though, but they need to be oriented more forward and less toward the camera.

Lastly, I want to keep the shape similar for DM-300, but I plan to add new details to help distinguish it from DM-200s, and to better show a progression of dwarven tech. One thing to note is that I do have the design space to make DM-300 truly massive, and I want to take advantage of that. The picture above only includes treads and a rectangle outline, but you can get a pretty good idea of how large I might make DM-300 versus its old sprite.

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I've now got all other real-life and Shattered obligations out of the way, so I intend to focus exclusively on the spritework until 0.8.0 is done. Just as with last week, I'll likely be asking folks for their opinions on some of these sprites as I develop them on the Patreon Discord, so jump over there if you'd like to help me with your feedback! Of course, if you'd like to share your thoughts on what I've posted above you're welcome to comment as well.