ah, ok thanks now I understand
Hey everyone! Thanks for your patience while I was working on the next status update.
Here’s the link to Devlog #4! This one is focusing on some major changes to the Knights. Let me know what you think!
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Customisation is cool! Will there be an option to keep the original helmet though? It’s not that I think the helmet-less options aren’t good but I actually kinda enjoyed the anonymity of the faceless knight. Reminded me of the knights from Jabberwocky.
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Love the quality of life improvement highlighted here, I’m really excited to how the knights are doing these days first hand. I’m pretty thankful for the changes to the changes to the cat and bird knight, honestly. Back in the day, it was sort of cool how your inputs matched the frenetic motion of a fat bird trying to fly or a cat clambering up something. Sadly, it just wasn’t as conducive to precision platforming as this new set up appears to be.I wonder what the mouses new move will be? Can we get a hint?
The new sprites look great, by the way! That super fat bird knight animation you’re showing off here is killer, I love all the subtle jiggles. More options for the player is always a boon, I think even a simple cosmetic change like this will go a long ways for some people.
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Agreed, I much prefer the helmeted knights so I hope it’s gonna be an option in the next release~
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@AlexKay @Kayakazan I originally was going to include the helmeted option alongside the new faces in case anyone preferred it, but ended up telling myself it probably wouldn’t be missed. It’s nice to hear people enjoyed the original as well–while they might not make it into the movement test level I’ll upload next, I’ll be sure to include them in the final release!
@Aurochs The Mouse Knight’s level design right now is focused on uncovering nooks and crannies and alternative routes. Their move will (hopefully) make getting to them and traversing through them more enjoyable.
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This is turning out to be so much more than I’d hoped for when you originally said you’d be building on the gain jam submission. I’d assumed we’d just get some more fat levels for the Queens, maybe a new queen and bug fixes, but this full on new game is looking superb!
The pig queen is so cute and might be able to dethrone the cat for my personal favorite, the amount of work gone into the knights is so exciting. I love the option to have them without helmets and the added details in their animations when they’re fat is going to add a lot. Feel free not to answer but the animation of the fat bird knight, is that the fattest the knights will get or is there more levels? But even stuff like the background and level assets are a huge step up. Can’t wait for more peaks at the game down the line and especially the movement test to see how the knights play now.
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A thought’s just struck me, will the knights be able to gain weight during a level, or will it be like the original, in which the knight only puts on weight back at home?
If they can’t gain weight during a level (which makes sense, the food being “requisitioned” is for the Queen after all- no dereliction of duty here, wot wot!) then that could pose an interesting level design challenge, lending an almost puzzle-like aspect to clearing a level in a certain order ie, obtaining the collectibles that require you to be fat (tanking damage through a gauntlet of arrows for example) before the ones that require you to be skinny.
If the levels will be designed in a way that the knight’s weight shouldn’t have specific bearing on level completion, if it’s more down to player choice and the whole risk/reward of high mobility vs low hitpoints, then it would be conceivable to complete a level both as maximum and at minimum weight. Should be fun to test - and also nifty if the queen acknowledged this small achievement from the player!
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@Unk0wn1 Thank you! It WAS supposed to just be a simple update initially, but for better or for worse (hopefully for better hahaha), it’s certainly turned into a full-blown project. This feels like a really exciting opportunity to make more of a “proper” game out of the concept, so I’m running with it!
As for the Queens, of course everyone will naturally have their favorite, but I’m working to try to make each one at least a competitor 
@AlexKay The Knight will be able to gain and lose during the level because you’ll need to make use of both your lighter physique and your girthier assets to complete different segments. I haven’t showcased it yet, but the player will be able to eat food at checkpoints to gain back weight as needed. (This food NOT going to your Queen will be justified by the story) The idea is for the player to work with the ebb and flow of your weight changing to overcome obstacles. I’ll include that in the movement test so people can let me know if they think the concept is working or not!
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Heh, I won’t mention this to the Cat Queen :3
But that’s pretty interesting that the knights will need to use their weight to traverse the place. Makes sense that floor buttons and switches of the palace were designed with the heavier pigs in mind! 
Man, I still can’t find a PS5 at normal price but this is harder to wait for.
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This might be a stupid questions, but will the queens have higher weight levels in this newer version?
Not a stupid question–they will! I probably need to make an FAQ document so people have convenient access to those types of questions, since it’s a popular one.
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I’d be expecting the dinner quips and dialogue to expand alongside the queens once they exceed their sizes from the original game.
Since you’re currently working on the dialogue (among other other things, natch), Roops, will the format of the queen conversing with the player stay largely the same as the original?
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Almost every line of dialogue from the original game has been removed or changed to make way for an improved and expanded story! Since the new game will be more linear in nature, you won’t be receiving repeated quips like in the game jam version. The goal is for the player to feel like there is a little story development each time they sit down to feed the Queens!
As for the conversation format… the base structure is remaining the same for now, but I’m definitely brainstorming ways to add some additional flavor when possible. Right now I’m trying to solidify all the platforming mechanics and such (which I’m making good headway on), and then I get to do all the fun, indulgent Queen stuff
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I don’t think i’ve ever been more excited for the release of a game than this, lmao.
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If I may, I’d like to suggest something for the Bird Knights: whenever they jump, have the arms in their sprites turn into wings or grow extendable feathers, just so they don’t look so silly flapping their arms like they currently do.
I dunno, just thought it would look a tad cooler and more immersive if we had this.
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Personally, I like the silly flapping of the arms.
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Viro is a great artist. If you like his style look at his series:
If hell had a taste
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I could go either way. On one hand I can see from the time constraints of the game jam the need to keeping the animations simple, so perhaps it could be embellished now. On the other hand, it is oddly endearing as onipuck says.
Having wings n’ feathers would make the sprite a bit more complicated to animate so that’s gonna be Roops’ call.
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