A few more models. Look! Proper cannons and spots to put them in. The train also has a boxcar, instead of just a plain white box that follows everything.
The ornithopters got a speed boost. Now they'll do stuff to you after the first time. Also fixed some stuff where ornithopters spawned past the original two wouldn't steer or aim properly.
I've put some neat post-processing effects, like color grading and stuff. Things should look nicer now.
There's also a 'boss' now for the army assault mode. It's a bigger zombie with a shield and a gun. They'll kill you. With their gun. Look how big he is:
It's a bit silly. He might need his own model. Or a tweaked one.
What's next?
I might give the airship a gun-zombie too.
Still gotta do most of the stuff I mentioned in the last post. LOS for certain spells, maybe a wind sound effect.
Gun-wielding ornithopters. That'll be fun.
Sounds like a good idea (New Patch)
Sounds also like a good amplifier. There are many things that sounds like.
What's new?
Fire spells work while dismounted! So does the Air spell. Use it to move around when you don't feel like using the hammer, I guess.
The hammer has visual and audio charge indicators now.
Sound effects for things burning, crash-landing, freezing, being blown away.
Fix the particles for frost breath (Fire/Frost spell) being off-center.
Made the 'spears' made by frost spells less weird and less likely to spin out of control for no reason.
The avoidance code for the ornithopter is now smoothed out. It shouldn't just jerk 30 degrees in the blink of an eye to avoid hitting you now.
What's next?
Weapons kinda feel bad when dismounted. The casting particle doesn't move with them, and you can't destroy them like you should. I'll fix that.
Gonna retune the Fire/Fire, Frost/Frost, and Air/Air spells to require line-of-sight, instead of damaging things that are behind walls and such. Make it less spammable and such.
Gonna make an enemy to fight in the Army Assault level. He'll be a bigger guy with a shield and a gun. Should be easy enough to do.
More sound effects! This stuff's too quiet sometimes. It'll also make it easier to tell when an enemy's coming up from below you.
More tweaks to the airship level. I don't think I want to let you (or the ornithopters) fly beneath the cloud line. I might give the ornithopters a bit faster base speed. Enough that they'll be able to catch up to you if you're just flying, but not if you're boosting away. Otherwise you can just avoid them the first time and ignore them.
I might give some of them guns instead of lances.
My Biggest Fan (New Patch)
[H1]What's new?[/H1]
New weapon. Iron + Air gives a big fan. It unfolds as you swing it, and lets out a gust of air that stuns and pushes back enemies.
Dismounted mode now should take damage if hit by an attack.
Touched up the ragdolls. They shouldn't just flip out when you die.
[H1]What's next?[/H1]
Gonna touch up the airship level enemies so there are more of them, and so they're more interesting. They also behave oddly when it comes to avoiding you and your shields. Gonna touch that up.
Touch-ups for dismounted combat! There should be an indication of just how charged up the hammer is for movement. There's gotta be some kind of in-game tutorial. The hurt-boxes are kinda big. The breath spells can probably get reworked so they still function while dismounted.
Superhero Landing! (New Patch)
[H1]What's New?[/H1]
Also a dismounted mode! Leave George the Wyvern to fend for himself as you get up close and personal (use a fourth spell that comes with the menu button). Swing around your hammer to charge up before catching it and flying. When you land hard enough, you make a small explosion around you.
Also: more audio touchups, a sound effect here and there.
Fixed a bug where things weren't setting on fire properly.
What's Next?
The hammers need proper models and texture, and some of the spells (most of the spells) don't actually do anything while unmounted. Need to fix that.
That model for the Gust Fan is pretty much done, but untextured and the movement effects aren't done yet. That'll be in next weekend's update, I think.
Unmounted combat leaves you semi-invincible at the moment in that you don't have any hurtboxes. However, George and the phylactery remain vulnerable during that time. I'll add in the 'ability' to take damage soon.
Flailing Around (New Patch)
What's New?
New weapon! The Frost Flail. New weapon that takes the spot of the Iron + Frost spell. When you swing it, the ball flings out ice that freezes enemies. Has more AOE potential than the previous sword and is pretty cool, I think. It also reminds me of a thurible.
Tweaking some of the new music to sound better.
I've also been laying groundwork for a new feature!
[H1]What's next?[/H1]
Finish out the weapon rework with a new model for the Iron + Air. The effect'll be the same, but I want the model to be like, a giant folding fan.
I want to have a dismounted mode. I've added a few parts of what it'll take to do it. If you want an idea of how it'll work to move around, click this link to see a version of what I'm planning. The take I'm planning is better thought out and not nearly as likely to get you to break your walls/TVs/Ceiling fan.
But yeah, that and sounds. Voice acting soon! More sound effects for stuff like freezing and hitting.
Songs, Sounds, Shields, Cells with a View (New Patch)
[H1]What's New?[/H1]
New music!Two new songs, one for the Airship level, another for the Army Assault level. Now the only levels sharing a song are the training levels and the Phylactery Defense level.
The level select got rearranged! You've been moved down into the cell with George. In the room you were in before, you see two mysterious figures. I wonder what they have to do with you being in that cage with a dangerous dragon...
And as you can see in the header image, you've got a new weapon spell. What used to be the fire sword (iron + fire) is now the magma shield! It's good at destroying enemy weaponry and blocking stuff.
[H1]What's next?[/H1]
More sound stuff! Those figures in the window are gonna talk. It'll be pretty neat, I think. More effects so things don't sneak up on you from your blind spot. Also because silence can be weird in a game.
One last piece of background music to differentiate between the Training Arena and the Phylactery Defense. I'm thinking maybe something like a harpsichord piece?
Going to round out the different weapons. The Iron + Air combo will have the same effect, but look different (think enormous paper fan). I'm thinking that Iron + Frost will turn into like, an ice flail. Or maybe an atlatl?
My Birthday Gift To You!
What's new?
Well, those steam trading cards are out. Get emotes and whatever!
New enemy! Ornithopter. Now you can engage in AERIAL COMBAT. They aren't all that difficult to outmaneouver, but they'll kill you dead if you try to ignore them.
And look at those clouds! Those are new, too. So fluffy. No more semi-transparent spheres that are invisible once you're inside them.
The lich has a new model and textures too. Reflection probes and stuff. The model's IK should now match your movements a lot better (leaning with you instead). You should start each level centered more properly in the saddle, too!
Fixed gesture recognition in a big way. The line resampling needed some work. You should now be able to be more sloppy with your drawing and still have it be recognized, and symbols should be mis-recognized far less often now.
Some various tweaks to textures to make them look less plastic-y.
What's Next?
Complete the graphical updates. The ship's textures are unfinished, so that needs touching up.
Sounds! More effects for things breaking, attacking. Unique music for each level.
Tweaking the spells! The Iron spells are lacking in uniqueness. So far we've got a lance and four different swords. Maybe get a shield in there for blocking attacks instead of damaging things, that kinda stuff.
Makeovers, not war (New Patch)
What's new?
The Phylactery Defense level got an upgrade. Replaced the blobby terrain asset with more rocks, made some background geometry. Gave some trees. They're destructible! There's also a second destructible bridge that you could potentially use to trap the golem. Here's the old stuff for comparison:
Your wyvern has got a little makeover, too! Some flexible cloth physics on the dragon's wings, and a proper texturing that's still readable.
The golem's also got some particle effects to make his barriers look good when attacking.
What's Next?
Sound effects! Maybe some voice acting.
Also those cool flying enemies I was talking about making should happen sometime soon.
I'm also working to get Steam badge/trading card going! Should be done in a week.
Updated Level Design (New Patch) (No Pun)
What's new?
First pass at making the castle level more than just a 'working prototype'! Pipes, yet another airship design, rocky shores. No more flat, lime-green plains.
Compare old'n'busted:
With the new hotness:
I made the 3rd person camera more dynamic. Should make it more interesting to watch someone else play, at least.
In an attempt to accomodate the additional detail from this new, higher-poly level and also the higher-poly enemies, the game's started using LODs, which is neat. If you notice things suddenly changing shape very slightly, it's probably because I haven't ironed those transitions out quite yet.
The golem's weakpoint has moved. Now it's the giant red eye, like it clearly should have been from the start.
What's next
I'm going to make similar improvements to the Phylactery defense level. Give it a more interesting look, stuff to interact with. If that wraps up quickly, it's time for the airship level. I need to figure out how to make good clouds. Get some volumetric clouds in there.
Similarly, the player character models, both the Lich and the Dragon need improvement. Also the Golem.
Once things are slightly nicer visually, back to gameplay stuff. The army assault map needs a more climactic enemy, as does the airship.
Texture? I hardly know'er! (New Patch)
What's New?
You can grab and move spells now! Instead of destroying the spell when you 'let go' of Clone magic, you just put it down where it currently is, with its old size back.
The Airship level has a full gameplay loop! If you can get to the ship and break its balloons, the ship will waver. When all its balloons are gone, then it plummets to its death. The warp home spawns right in front of where the ship was.
There are also new cannon balloon enemies! The Airship and the Balloons have nicer textures and a cloth effect on their flexible parts.
What's next?
Might tweak the new movable spells behaviour to make it more intuitive, since the rotation gets changed when you grab it. Also, working on this feature made me realize that the spell cloning doesn't respect the toggle vs hold grip (it acts like toggle), always. I dunno if anyone would want to hold for this though.
The Army Assault/Musou mode needs attention from a layout standpoint. It's flat, and the colors are gross.
More dynamic units for the airship assault would be nice, too, but I might focus on visual and sound design for a bit.
