Good morning from sunny San Francisco! It's actually really hot this weekend and we're all trying to escape the heat. So the game work continues!
A big advancement in gameplay in the last two weeks was the addition of 'pickup' mechanics. Basically, items scattered throughout the various levels will be able to be picked up, thrown, and used, all which will have different effects! Imagine an umbrella that lets you fall slower, or slime shoes will lets you bounce and retain height. We're hoping that this small addition will make the gameplay that much more interesting!
The main vector this week is to prep for an Alpha release of the first two levels! This means we have to go back and finish all the cutscene animations that we were putting off.
On the engine side, we've reworked a ton of the physics layers, allowing the game to run at a smooth 100+ fps!
Shopping district continues its construction work. Particularly, we are trying to capture the feel of a old, rustic bookstore filled with warm lights and plant life. From the first meeting with an eccentric book lover, will a gate to fantasy apppear?
Finally, I'll leave you with a little teaser for some of the optional content in the game. The city's not always such a safe place, especially when the gate to fantasy has been opened -- keep your eyes out for what lurks in the dark!
Weekly Updates: Summertime!
Hello everyone! It's the start of summer and the god of seasons is finally showing her face around.
This week continued work on the backgrounds for slums, animations for various Mariya cutscenes, and the final touches of Shoko's boss fight in the forest.
When we first outlined the map for the City, we started off with some kind of enourmous abstract mess of shapes. Gradually, we polished things up, and were left with a Tiled map of the entire area. The slums in particular was designed to be intentionally unstructured. Rather than having a deliberate plan, we imagined what it would be like if a city grew naturally, starting from sources of water and sunlight, and growing outward in an endless sprawl.
The artwork for the slums aims to portray this. As we're filling in the map in actual sprites, we're making use of hand-drawn sprite work. We're intentionally avoiding hard edges and cubicle-style architecture in favor of stray pipes, windows, and platforms. This week was a first venture into this style of art, and we will continue trying to find this feeling!
On the cutscene side, we're working from the beginning, starting from the player's fated encounter with Mariya! Mariya's a true god of adventure, and to capture her personality, we're aiming for light and energetic animations. Daniel and Jessica recently got the the walkthrough for how to build cutscenes, so I'm excited to see what can get created!
On the forest level, the miniboss Shoko has been finished! Shoko is a forest spirit, who grew up under the wing of the god of fertility, Cadence. Shoko is simple minded and attacks you right away, only to get reprimanded by the overlooking Cadence when defeated. But both seem to hold some kind of hard feelings against the incoming humans...
Storyline wise, Rona and Jessica had some great inspirations about a giant chocolate fountain appearing sometime during the shopping arcs.. we'll see how that turns out. On music, Joey's gone above and beyond and got us a version of the office fantasy theme played by a live violin.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RQBpPnvEiQEWDomTIZygxtOAc42OgqEx/view?usp=sharing
Finally, life-wise, summer is here! A bunch of us are finally free from classes and tests, and it's a great feeling to finally have the time to make Alight come to life!
Weekly Updates: The Era Begins!
Hello hello hello!!!
For those of you new here, welcome! And for those who have been following us, we're glad to have you back.
It's been (almost) a year since Alight first began its creation. We've gone through ups and downs, from rebuilding massive parts of the engine, recruiting bright new faces to the team, and hammering out the ever changing plotline. And now, the day is here -- we're on Steam! Well, the page is on Steam. The game is not yet on steam.
Anyway, it's time to get in a habit of weekly updates. Every week, I will try my best to give you guys an update as to what's been going on, what's new things got built, and what we're aiming to do next. There's no quality guarantees here -- I'm just going to show off what the team has done, and that's that. But they're an amazing group, and I've put my dreams in their hands -- so I hope you will stay tuned and we will do our best!
(Also, look at this gorgeous splash art by Jessica)
This past week, a bulk of work has been on the Steam trailer -- gathering the various screenshots and videos, and of course composing thee music! Joey has created a super hype track, featured on the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRxIu_clM6Y
On the content end, the Forest level miniboss is underway. The feel here should be "deep nature", almost as far away from civilization as you can get. As you progress further up the forest, however, a certain company might play a role in changing this....
Assets for shopping and slums districts are getting designed! This is a pretty large task and Jessica and Daniel are working their butts off for it. We've discussed a bunch about the overall feel, especially for slums -- a cramped, but lively group of familiar faces. Now we will try and capture this in the pixels.
KevinFang works more on NPC routines, allowing them to open doors, walk around, and even get on the train to go home for the night. Rona continues brainstorming for stories in the shopping area.
