Howdy boys and girls, and those who do not abide by such rigid structures,
It’s time for another week of Angel’s Gear!
This week I focused mainly on tightening up what I already had. Basic mechanics, the first enemy, yadda yadda. BUT! I’m finally getting into some more aesthetically interesting stuff. Soon, very soon, perhaps even next week, I can actually start building out levels and makin’ the more fun parts of the game. Very excited!
Let’s just go in chronological order here. I started with making it so you can switch weapons on the fly. I already knew how to do this from my Lycanthorn project, so this was just all in a day’s work for me. You can see that demonstrated here:
Next, the player actually has some sound effects now. A decent chunk are recycled from Vomitoreum, but there are a fair bit of new ones. Some especially cool ones were made by my buddy Ben Reichstein. Dude’s insane.
And now, for probably the coolest thing I did this week, make the first enemy. And holy smokes, this was probably one of the most intensive things I’ve ever drawn and programmed. (And by programmed, I mean just a ton of drag and drop shit, but you know what I mean). This dude has to have multiple speeds, multiple attacks, multiple reactions to attacks, multiple ways to die, it’s really intense. But the payoff was really great. I want all of my monsters to have this much personality and reactivity. I’m trying to make each enemy as memorable as possible. AG(Angel’s Gear)’s roster is going to be on the smaller side, so I want to get as much as I can out of each enemy encounter. The creatures are supposed to be the real stars of the show, and I hope they end up being as scary and cool as I want them to be. So here he is, the “Trench Haunt”. A horse’s torso, smothered in a burlap sack, wrapped in barbed wire. I’m so damn excited to do the sound design for these goobers.
And of course, I can't neglect putting my dear friend Slashgoat's amazing drawing of this dude into this post. Witness!
Last week I said I had ideas for elemental attacks, and this week I implemented just that. A couple weapons have unique upgrades that give them elemental bonuses; affecting the monster in special ways. Fire... lights them on fire. Electricity stuns them, and Ice chills them, allowing you to shatter their now frozen body. Pretty cool stuff. This is more for testing at the moment. Stunning will be much easier to perform than freezing. And fire will be really unique. My plan for fire is that the enemy has to spend a set amount of time inside a napalm bullet actor’s hitbox to trigger the fire status effect and become a smoldering mass.
I was a little bored of gameplay stuff, so I took a break to do something a bit more high-concept. I made a map of the game that I don’t think I’ll follow 100%, but is generally about right for the game’s structure. This isn’t a platformer game, so I tried to make sure the map was a lot more horizontal than vertical. The game will have six zones, and I want each zone, and more specifically, each screen to be packed to the brim with detail. Like, each room having its own tileset level of detail. Rareware level detail. For once, I plan on indulging some perfectionism. So god damn excited.
Now this. THIS! God I’m so proud of this. The save point! A metal sarcophagus of bone, gears, and strange energies. It encompasses AG’s planned aesthetic perfectly. So proud of it.
Speaking of general gameplay stuff, there is a metroidvania style map system that is fully implemented and working in the game at this very moment, thank god for plug-ins. So fret not, adventurers! That was a huge complaint with Darxanadon, and while personally I am a big fan of drawing my own maps or memorizing landscapes I can 100% understand the need for one. So batta bing batta boom. We have a map now. I’ll show it off once I start getting some actual levels done.
Last but not least, the official seal of “yeah I’m actually doing this now”, the Title Screen! I am a big fan of it, but I want to add more detail in the future. It works for what it is, and it’s my most stylish title screen yet, but it’s still just a little empty feeling.
That’s all folks! I’ll see you next Saturday (checks watch) ah shit, it’s Sunday. Next weekend!
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