Swelladia [Alpha Demo Build 2 Available Now!]

[Verblimp]

Howdy all! I’m back with the first part of a devlog! This devlog will actually be split into two parts, with the second releasing a few weeks from now.

The topic of this Dev Log is the newly reworked main village for the first region! I haven’t implemented the NPCs yet, as it will take a lot of writing to make unique NPCs with varying reactions to being inflated!

As such Dev Log #6 part b will be going over these NPCs and what all you can do to them, as well as showing a few characters important to the regional story!

Below is an overhead view of the town, and each building:

Those who have read the previous logs will probably note that this village is much bigger than the previous iteration, as I had not fully accounted for what all buildings it would need yet! This was primarily due to my vision for the game not being as well developed as it is now.

And now for a runthrough of what each of these buildings do! * First up is the juicery! This is where you will go to get your blueberry status treated if you happen to get afflicted with the contagious debuff! And don’t worry if you can’t afford it, they will put it on your tab! (To a limit, you might want to pay it off unless you want to paint their walls blue!) You can find it by the blueberry sign above the door!

• Next is the general store! This is where you’ll buy more basic equipment to kickstart your journey into each region, as well as items to help you on your adventures for those too lazy to craft their own supplies! If you’d rather burst hordes of enemies for coin instead of gathering materials this is the place for you!

• Following that is the town hall! If you decide to do the regional (main) questline for the first region you’ll be visiting here quite often for quests! They also generously have a table out for you to practice your enchanting! If you break the law and get caught by the town’s guards you’ll end up in the dungeon below the town hall!

• Next up is the smithy! Here’s where you’ll forge most of your gear, or buy it for a steep price! Crafted and looted gear will often be superior to the gear you find for sale here. You can practice both your accessory crafting and alchemy here! They also sell vital ingredients for crafting such as bottles for potions in bulk!

• To the east of that is the inn! This has been shown off in a previous log, but it’s worth covering again since a lot more people seem to have discovered the game since then. Here you can order drinks with various effects (both for combat buffs and different methods of inflation!), and find side quests available in bulk! It’s also a good place to pick up on rumors… or so I’ve heard.

• Below the inn are the market stalls! Here you’ll find vendors selling all sorts of things, with rotating inventories! Stop by often, as you never know what they might be selling! They will also sell items tied to seasonal events related to both real holidays and holidays tied to the in game calendar! You can find things such as new trinkets related to inflation (duh!), furniture for your home, holiday themed pets, and more!

• And finally past that is the pet store! Here you’ll be able to buy pets, as well as lootboxes that can contain random pets! If you’re sitting on a lot of money and not sure what to spend it on, this might be the place for you! Most pets are just for aesthetical appeal, but plenty of them will also have interactions with the player as well! Do watch out if youre feeling particularly bloated and your pet is staring down your tummy…

And that covers all the significant buildings in the first village! Each region will have at least one major town with all of these structures within, and many of the smaller settlements throughout the world will have varying mixes of them. There are also plenty of secrets and hidden areas scattered around the town, so keep your eyes peeled!

That’s all for now! As mentioned previously, the next Dev Log will feature the NPCs around town, and likely some other features coming in the first beta release as well! Thank you for reading!

Additionally, I am planning on releasing an update with lots of bug fixes and some extra additions for the original demo very soon! I stopped working on it for a bit to avoid burn out, and decided to work on new content instead for a while.

[Theunknown1776]

Am super excited for the demo patch and the upcoming beta

[Verblimp]

Want to vote on an enemy to be added to the game Swelladia?
VOTE ENDS 12/11 @ 10 PM CST

Join the discord and come vote here:
discord.gg/uABexJaShD

Option #1 is the Dangola! [ This is a balloon-like creature that floats around in the sky above the player! These creatures float above the screen, meaning you’ll have to identify them by the dark shadows they cast on the ground below. These creatures are diurnal, meaning you’ll only see them during the day when they are easy to spot! They attack by puffkissing players and transferring their own air into you, so be careful! If you manage to burst one they’ll drop unique scraps you can use to make gear that’ll boost the power of your puffkiss & burping abilities, scaling with your level! ]

Option #2 is the Sochiro! [ These cave dwelling pests have heavily adapted to their dark environment, relying on their hearing to spot threats rather than their eyesight. These creatures can fly over terrain, and can only sense you while you’re moving! Otherwise, they’ll just float about aimlessly in the area you encounter them in. Defeating these creatures will give you access to fluffy scraps, which will let you make extra cozy furniture. I’ve heard from the locals around the forest that gifts made from these beasts’ fur makes it much easier to woo someone… ]

Option #3 is the Aquascella! [ These dangerous predators lurk on the edges of bodies of water, waiting for unsuspecting players to jump out so they can ambush them and fill them with water until they blow! These creatures can be inflated and popped like normal creatures, or captured if you have a means of storing them! Caught Aquascella can be kept as pets, pawned off to shopkeeps for a hearty amount of gold, or used as household decorations! ]

[betatoybox]

this game super cool

[irenicusmw]

awh hell naw bro didn’t bring minecraft mob vote to funny fat community
but if we can’t get all three the dangola seems interesting

[pornucopia]

Unlike with the Minecraft mob vote, there’s a high chance that the others will get added later down the line. This just decides what’ll get added first.

[SRP]

In terms of the roadmap, what release will include a female PC? None of the three seem to specify, other than maybe “base game leveling and classes”.

A “probably a no” question:
Any plans for a gender toggle, limiting the game to only male or only female enemies for any players who aren’t bi?

[Verblimp]

Alpha 0.2 is now live on itch! This patch includes some new QoL stuff, a new enemy type, and a ton of bugfixes!

PATCH 2
Additions/Changes

• Added autosave feature.
• Added new enemy type to cavern section of demo.
• Removed ||Cyclops|| & Caulen’s stuns (Was overwritten by fixed attacks).
• Added minimum value to Mana Overflow (skill).
• Improved UI.
• Added ambient inflation SFX when player is fully inflated.
• Retextured ||???|| miniboss.
• Added additional pure arcana pools to prevent player from getting stuck.
• Reduced volume upon initial game launch.
• Updated Quest Log to continue throughout the whole demo.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed some area barrier sprites glitching upon contact.
• Fixed issue with build mode turning on if disabled in some cutscenes.
• Current mana can no longer exceed maximum mana stat.
• Fixed various progression skips/sequence breaking.
• Prevented bursting in overworld from causing the game to crash.
• Fixed Game Over animation not playing in combat.
• Added missing icons from Caulen’s list of ingredients needed for a potion.
• Added missing SFX to basic pump ability.
• Fixed entries in credits page not appearing.

Known Issues

• Certain text in combat log is cut off.
• Combat music does not loop.
• Some objects/characters change position upon reentering a room.
• Caulen & Ranha size bars have delayed updates in final tutorial encounter.
• Enemies lose aggro after being frozen for cutscenes.
• ||???|| texture in overworld not updated.
• Fixed sprites temporarily appearing inflated at combat start.
• When player is above 60% of maximum size the character will clip through certain object sprites.
• Various cutscene sequence breaks.

[Verblimp]

There’ll be female PCs in the first beta release! And as for a gender toggle, this isn’t something I plan on including since it would double the amount of sprites & some changes I’d need for every character.

[piecemaker493]

Hey, I couldn’t find an externel link on itch.io or discord. Is there something that I’m missing?

[2-36]

looks like it’s there now, i just downloaded it

[Verblimp]

I had to take it down since I uploaded the wrong version of the game, it’s available on itch.io again!

[Verblimp]

Howdy all! I’m back again with another progress update for Swelladia! It’s been a while since the last update, so this log will be quite a bit longer than usual as there is a lot to cover! I originally planned to have a second part to dev log #6 showcasing village & settlement NPCs, however due to my work flow I ended up working on other more important aspects of the game instead!

This will likely be the final devlog released before the first beta update comes out to the game. I anticipate it being ready for closed testing sometime in mid to late March! Most of the first release’s batch of main storyline quests are done, so most of whats left will be polishing the game, and finishing up a lot of sprite work!

First and most importantly are sprite improvements! Over the course of working on the game, I’ve gotten a lot better at creating sprites so I’ve gone back and updated the game’s general sprites a lot more!

The POV sprites that show the player’s fullness in combat have been updated! I decided to make them pixelated to fit the game’s style more accurately! These sprites are toggleable in game if you don’t like an immersive tummy blocking your view in fights. As you can see below our poor heroine is fit to pop! I don’t think she’ll be getting out of this one…

Additionally, the biggest stages of inflation have been redesigned as well!

Many new obvious and not so obvious side areas have been added to the game! Not all of these will be tied to quests, so be sure to explore while you’re out pumping and popping your foes! Generally speaking, the better hidden an area is, the better the loot found inside will be! If you notice something looking “off”, be sure to investigate!

And next up is a showcase of a few enemies you can fight in the game! The first is one of the malevolent spectres you can find in dark and sinister places! Booooooo(bs)! I’m making an effort to include more types of inflation in the game than just full body inflation, even though that is what I personally enjoy the most. These enemies will try and possess you and inflate you from within your belly, so watch out! Physical attacks won’t do much to a ghost…

Next up are cultists! These troublemakers lurk around, especially at night, and cause mischief in the name of various malevolent gods! As you adventure you’ll probably encounter them fairly often. Beware their ability to lock down their foes and blow them up!

As you can see below, the game’s HUD outside of combat has been implemented. I am still working on improving it visually, but most of the core elements are here! In the top left corner you can see the player’s icon, size bar, and resource gauge (think mana, stamina, etc.) below it! On the right are the more calendar related parts of the hud, and the slot for the active item available for use on the right. These elements of the HUD will be toggleable for those that would like to hide them!

To use items on NPCs, and puzzles, the player can select the item from their inventory to make it their active item! This system allows for more seamless gameplay when the player is interacting with a person or object with multiple different interactions available at once. Why listen to a villager yap yap yap when you just want to blow them up anyways!?

In a similar vein, the text box artwork has also been improved! While not perfect, I think this is certainly a step in the right direction for the artistic style of the game that I hope to capture. UI design in general is something I find very important, and will be updating often as development continues.

And now, here is some more info about a few of the classes that will be available in the game upon the launch of beta release #1!

First up is the Sentinel! This class is far more elastic than other classes, and is able to meditate to increase their body’s capacity for inflation! Sentinels also excel in physical combat, being able to both use palm strikes to inflate foes, and special breathing techniques to deflate themselves and inflate enemies!

Next is the sorcerer! For those of you that have played the demo, this is the class Lumin uses! Sorcerers in the full game are able to attune to specific elements related to inflation to change up their movesets! In combat, sorcerers posess extremely potent inflative spells to blow up their foes, though they are heavily limited by their reliance on mana! Sorcerers possess a mix of both direct attacks and inflation-over-time effects (IoTs!) to fight foes, so get creative!

The third and final class being introduced in this devlog is the (blow)gunslinger! Gunslingers find themselves among the classes whose skills cost items rather than any kind of resource bar! Gunslingers use crafted blowdarts & pellets to inflict statuses on their foes, and have a slew of options available to them depending on what resources they can find around them to craft with! If you decide to be a gunslinger, make sure you are always prepared! Unless of course, you want to be gunslinger confetti stuck in someone’s hair. Yikes.

As was decided by the lovely folks over on the Swelladia Discord server, the winner of the monster poll was the Aquascella! Be sure to watch out when you’re walking near bodies of water. I hope you’re thirsty! >:D

If you do manage to catch one instead of popping it (or being popped!), you can keep it as a pet, decorate your house with it, or sell it to shopkeepers for a hearty amount of gold.

[Prism7]

This is looking so GOOD! Also, I love the idea of keeping the Aquascella as a companion. x3

[Verblimp]

Here’s a preview of the ability to inflate NPCs! This is still relatively rough, but the core idea is done! NPCs in each settlement will have a range of personality presets, and a wide pool of dialogue for each personality type depending on how inflated they are, so you can expect a lot of variety in their reactions!

This also shows off the finished item select menu! You’ll be able to pull up the item tab directly using “Q”, and select an item to use on an object in the overworld by hitting “C”!

(I have no idea why my premiere exports are so low quality but I’ll fix it before I send another vid in )

Swelladia [Beta] NPC Inflation/Popping Showcase

[Verblimp]

Here’s a clip of a battle against a centaur enemy! I’ll likely be posting a few more enemy showcases throughout the next few weeks as well!

Swelladia [Beta] Centaur Fight