Hello everyone, and thank you so much for tuning into another dev update for Mole Maiden. Wow, I can’t believe it’s the end of August already. It’s been a whole month, and what a month it has been for Mole Maiden. There is lots of very exciting news to share, so let's not waste any time and jump right into it.
Another Huge Milestone has been Reached:
This month marked the completion of all boss fights in Mole Maiden! With this huge goal finally checked off I can safely share that Mole Maiden will feature thirteen unique boss battles, which I consider to be a very big accomplishment.
Long time readers will know that before Mole Maiden, I had never made a game with such a heavy focus on combat, so to go from making what many would consider cozy co-op games like JTTS and Tour of Aki Island to a bombastic boss-rush action platformer like Mole Maiden has been a very big learning experience for me.
Everything I have learned about programming Boss AI has come from careful analysis of the games that I play and experimentation. For example, one of Mole Maiden’s biggest influences, Punch-Out, taught me how bosses with personality and distinct characteristics can make them very memorably in the eyes of a player, and Games like Elden Ring showed me that the flow of a good boss fight relies not on the boss being aggressive all the time but rather picking the windows on when to make the boss aggressive and when to make the boss step away to give the player some breathing room.
Over the course of development, designing boss battles has got to the point where I could create and iterate on ideas very quickly. I am really looking forward to seeing everyone’s reaction to all of Mole Maiden’s bosses when the game comes out next year!
Finally, Some Much Needed Support:
As some of you might already know, Mole Maiden was accepted to be part of the new Level Up Accelerator Program at Shawnee State University!!!
✨ Wow, amazing!!! ✨ But what does that mean?
Well, it means a couple of things. It means I will be spending the next two months getting a proper entrepreneurial education. How do I make a business plan for launching Mole Maiden? What's coming after Mole Maiden, and how do I get ready for that? Business stuff.
Next, I can get some awesome mentors. I didn't have many entrepreneurial mentors who have also worked in the game space at college. This program will fix that.
Finally, and best of all, a plethora of different campus and game dev-related resources will be available to me. Discounts to different game dev and legal services, entry to four major Midwest trade shows over the course of the rest of the year. But best of all, I can finally pitch to a board of directors and get a small amount of $$$ to put toward marketing my game in the last 5 months and giving it the best chance for success I can.
So yeah, this is a pretty huge win, and I feel really, really blessed to have been accepted! Thank you all so much for your love and support with this project.
Intern Spotlight:
During this intern spotlight I would like to highlight some of the excellent sound work done by Mr. Noah Girdler. Noah is Mole Maiden’s sound design intern and a recent graduate of Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
Take a look at some of the awesome sound work done by him for the area Eden.
What’s Next:
By the end of next month, Mole Maiden’s story will be done. And then when October will be over, the game will be done, but not finished. This is called Beta, and it's the last step before the game finally gets released.
My interns and I are working very hard to make sure we meet this deadline, so wish us luck. Also keep your eyes on our the socials to find out what different trade shows we will be going to during the remainder of this year. Thank you all for your support, see you in the next update.