I do like it when developers maintain constant contact with their audience, but I also like seeing whatever is new in each new build. I think as long as you keep us updated with whatever’s going on then I don’t mind waiting a bit for the next update.
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Man was it a miracle that I’ve rediscovered spreadsheets, I’ve made a big to-do list and I’ve been a lot more productive since!
So far I’ve patched out a couple bugs, and straight up removed the wind mechanic as it was just way too jank.
I’ve reworked the capacity component to be able to increase and decrease in any amount set, and certain transformations can now have their movement speed reduced at higher weight stages. I’ve also just done a lot of improvements on the transformations themselves, might try making some improved mockup sprites for them soon. ;3
I have also finished the hush puppy and huph puffy sprites and animations, I’m pretty happy with them!
What I’m not as happy with is what I’ve done for the tiles sets so far. I’m going to put tilesets on the back burner for a little bit since they are not important to the games development so far, but I think either this games environmental art is gonna suck ass, or I’m gonna have to lock in and like make entire concept pieces for levels before trying to make art assets for them.
Aside from dragging my feet on background art stuff, I’ve been making good progress, and have renewed motivation for working on this. The only thing that stinks is that a lot of the stuff on my to-do list is a surprising amount of art, which seems to be the thing I’m currently struggling the most with so far.
So I’m wondering if I should power through and get the first level somewhat finished as a “demo” to show off, or if I should just move onto beginning work on the next levels. I guess it just depends on how quickly people want this game to get out of the prototype state and have something prettier to play and look at.
I’ve got a tiny list of things I need to tweak and add first, but after that it’s just art and polishing stuff on the list, so moving onto working on another level may be sooner than I expected.
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Kinda curious, are you mainly just using a spreadsheet or are you using other stuff as well? I mainly just use kanban boards, but I love planning things out and want to know if you like the system you’re using.
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I think you should move on to making the next levels. The tilesets and background art can just be placeholder stuff for now. The detailed art can wait until the levels for this area are done.
The only thing I’d add is to give the tiles basic color for reference purposes. Like, make dirt tiles light brown with a green streak on top or wooden tiles dark brown.
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The only other things I use really is google docs for a design doc and just pen and paper, although I don’t touch my design doc much and hasn’t been updated in a long while. It was only recently when I began using spreadsheets for a to-do list.
Kanban boards look really interesting, I think if I was better at maintaining docs and planning I could make good use of that. As for now though, throwing all my tasks into one detailed, categorized checklist seems to be helping a lot.
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Yeah that’s a good idea, no need to waste my time with the pretty stuff right now.
At least the few tilesets I made won’t be in vain then, I’ve got the grass/dirt tiles and then the weird scaffolding one-way tiles. I think they’ll work for now as nice placeholders.
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Got everything (that is relevent right now) on my to-do list done, and finally released build 0.1.3!
There’s quite a bit, so I’m simplifying and grouping some of these additions and changes to shorten the list.
(EDIT: I forgot to add that the transformation debugs have been moved to the 1,2,3 keys, and can cycle through the expansion stages using the -+ keys.)
So in no particular order…
Summary
- Tweaked the Bee enemy’s movement, as well as give it some new mockups
- Added a “JumpPad” in the well, and drew a mockup for it. (Originally planned to add ladders, but this was easier and more fun)
- Tweaked the Filliger enemy behavior, gave it some new mockups, and adjust many aspects of this enemy.
- Added a enemy spawn trigger for when the player enters an area.
- Tweaked, adjusted, and improved all transformations
- One top of the above, the Fat transformation was heavily reworked
- Add a couple tilesets and readjusted tilemaps
- Removed the “wind” mechanic, it was just too janky and did not work with the games current foundation
- Reworked the capacity component to be able to expand the player if it goes over 100, also can be increased or decreased in small amounts now.
- The transformed player’s speed now adjusts according to the current expansion stage the player is in
- Finished Hush Puppy and Huph Puffy sprites and animations
- Added larger variations of Hush and Huph, using higher resolution sprites
- Held enemies and objects now flip horizontally with the player
- Added crumbs to the hud
- Added big breakable blocks
- Made Villigers vulnerable to player attacks, while being immune to being KO’d
- Picking up larger enemies and objects will take longer, and won’t be thrown as far
- Many bug fixes and small additions that weren’t worth listing out
I was planning to do a tiny bit more, like make mockups for the chief and put a little more effort into the new entity mockups, but it was my birthday this weekend and Silksong just came out, so I was busy with that.
I’ve pretty much got everything done in level 1 that needed dealt with at the moment. I still don’t feel as motivated with art, even when it was just doing mockups. So as a friend suggested, I’m just gonna keep working on the game part I do enjoy doing more, and save the art work for later when, hopefully, I’m more motivated to draw.
Guess that means I can begin work on the next two levels then! Probably won’t do much big stuff in Level 1 for a while, it’d be best to get every level thrown together before finalizing things.
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oh my GOSH the hush puppies are adorable. enemy design in general is just great, enjoying every new update that’s been dropping.
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The hush puppies and villager mockups are adorable. I know it’s not a priority(and I get it, art block fuckin’ sucks), but I admit I’m very much looking forward to Goo Gal’s transformation sprites as well.
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Thanks!! I’m really happy with how the hush puppy designs came out too, I figured since the first, basic enemies were already set in stone nicely I might as well finish up their sprites.
Thank you, so yeah I was planning on making better mockups for all the transformations and chief, but I just didn’t feel motivated and wasn’t sure if they needed improved mockups as badly as other things. The current mockups get the bare minimum done, but yeah they really need a glowup soon. I was kinda just ready to move on to making new levels, so I picked a handful of things I felt like needed mockups more and got those done quick.
Maybe if I’m more confident in the current state of the transformations, and I get the urge to draw something kinky, I may make new mockups for them. I know the WaterBalloon and Fat transformations especially need them since I’m just using whatever scraps I had laying around for those mockups.
Right now I just wanna make some more levels to challenge the mechanics I have in place right now, since I feel like the first level so far doesn’t really test the transformations to their limits. I don’t want to waste my time drawing sprites for a transformation that sucks.
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So… what exactly are the heroes and villains like? I know you have the blob girl as the main protag and a bunch of furries as villains, but… it’s not gonna be a furries=bad/non-furries=good story, is it? Like I remember commenting on the mole boss and saying that it was “too adorable for me to want to fight.” I… kinda wasn’t kidding. The mole is just brimming with so much charm that it really does kinda make me not want to fight him/her, or at least not beat him/her. I don’t mind beating up charming enemies if the hero is charming, but I… kinda can’t get attached to this eyeless blob character, especially not if all the charming furry characters are gonna be villains while the hero isn’t a furry because that… kinda feels a bit… I dunno how to say it, tbh.
Maybe you can befriend the villains after you pound them into an immobile blob?
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How would the maker introduce that?
I feel like it’s a bit of a disservice to say the main character isn’t charming, and implying the game’s inferior in that regard by simply having “more charming” enemies. To the creator, and to quite a few, the main character is plenty adorable, even amongst all the other cozy critters! The villagers might also probably be full on furries too, from what I’ve gathered, not just the antagonists. Plus, Goo Gal’s gimmicks work a lot better with her as… well, goo! With the whole smushing into a little ball and also having a lot more unique shapes and forms.
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The simplest way would be a post battle cutscene, of course.
“Hey, so sorry I beat you.”
“Okay my bad for fighting you.”
“You wanna be friends?”
“Okay”
I dunno I don’t write dialogue sorry ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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Right now I just wanna make some more levels to challenge the mechanics I have in place right now, since I feel like the first level so far doesn’t really test the transformations to their limits. I don’t want to waste my time drawing sprites for a transformation that sucks.
Yeah, that makes sense! That’s probably a good idea to make sure the transformations work well and have a place in the game, where they make sense as a tool before actually committing to the artwork behind them.
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Your personal preference turned pro-furry crusade has biased you to the point where even a game without any humans at all is placed into your “I don’t like this game because it’s anti-furry/animal” box. You not liking any game with a non-furry protagonist is not a problem with the game, and treating it as an “issue” that needs fixing is unhelpful at best and insulting at worst. I personally think all the character designs are charming, including Googal. Very excited to see the continued development!
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Just because the player can beat up anyone does not make those entities “bad”, the villiger and hush puppy are non-hostile, and you have the chief that I haven’t made mockups for yet.
Honestly, I was worried that Mountill would be too generic for what I was going for, originally his boss fight was going to just be fighting a giant worm, that’s it. I wasn’t aiming to put furries specifically in my game, but rather fill my game up with odd and weird creatures, to fit in Googals world. That’s why the villigers do not have arms, and instead have arm-like ears as a substitute; that’s why the most basic enemy is just a fuzzball. I even tried to design Mountill in a way where he felt less like a generic furry and more like something that’d kinda fit into this games world.
The very first conception of this game many years ago was also the birth of Googal, I’m not going to throw this character in the trash because one person doesn’t vibe with her because she’s not a furry.
I am a furry, and just because most enemies in this game are furry-like and the protag is not, does not make me anti-furry. Fetish games are niche, made for very specific audiences, and it’s ridiculous when someone sees a fetish game with all male characters and tells the gay creator “I wish they were all female”, or in this case, “I don’t like this protagonist, I wish she was a furry”.
If a fetish game does not fit your very specific niche, if the protag does not fit your very specific preference of what you want a protagonist to be, then that game is probably not for you!
If you’d like to play a game of mine that fits your niche better, I’d suggest checking out Gain & Weigh or DoughMutts (Maybe even Kookie’s Kastle if you’re REALLY bored).
Sadly though I just don’t think my vision for BloatLand lines up with your vision of what you want BloatLand to be, sorry.
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To be honest, I feel bad for even making that post, but it’s kinda just been a feeling I was bottling up for a while. I shouldn’t have brought it up.
I might end up playing just to get beat up by Montill, tbh. I find myself doing that a lot in games: going easy on bosses I like just to lose to them.