Hello everyone!
Welcome to our fourth Devblog here on Steam. It's been some time since the last time we made a DevBlog, so we have quite a lot to show you!
This DevBlog will showcase some parts of the game that have been overhauled and some others that are brand new, such as the Original Soundtrack & a new Enemy that hasn't been revealed yet...
Keep in mind, none of these changes are applied to the Demo, and probably won't be until closer to release.
Chapter Map Showcase
During this time, one of our developers has been working on improving some of the older levels of the game so they are at the same quality as the newer ones. At the same time, we wanted to show you an overall look at some of the most creepy and interesting areas of each chapters' map (Except Chapter 2, since that one didn't change much):
Prologue (The Portal):
Chapter 1 (The Mansion):
Chapter 3 (The Sewers):
Chapter 4 (The Tunnels):
Mechanic Overhaul
The team here at Carpincho Studio has been working on improving and changing some mechanics that were rather unpolished, unfinished or didn't work that well with players.
Flashlight:
Now, the Flashlight has energy that depletes over time. The flashlight has four states depending the amount of energy it has: High, Medium, Low, and Depleted. The player will know in which state their flashlight is currently on by looking at the UI that is on the down right corner. At the same time, the light source will change in intensity and range based on the state (Plus, the light will flicker a little bit when transitioning between states).
To replenish the flashlight's energy, the player will be able to find batteries around the map:
Hiding Places:
Because of how the code and assets for the old hiding places (like the box or the lockers) worked, to properly implement new ones and to be able to change parts of them if needed, we had to completely overhaul them. The system works pretty much the same, but it should be less buggy and it has better animations!
The most noticeable change is with Lockers, that now work exactly like boxes. Instead of having to open each door of the locker individually, for the sake of consistency, we changed it to a predefined animation that plays instantly when interacting with the locker.
This also means that The Priest has a new animation for opening lockers!
Items and Inventory:
We have slightly changed how interacting with some puzzles work.
Before, if you interacted with a puzzle and it needed an specific item, if you had that item on your inventory, it would be instantly used and removed from it.
Now, instead of instantly removing it, when interacting with a door, a puzzle, or any object that requires an item, the game will automatically open the inventory and the player will have to select the correct item. In this way, players will be able to have a bit more of choice and interaction with objects in the world.
AI Rework and... New Enemy?
In the last months, we have been working on finishing the AI for the main enemies for La Salamanca.
To be able to easily make new enemies and speed up the whole coding process, we have split parts of the code of our older AI Behaviours on "modules" that can me added to an "agent" (or entity) and be controlled by a Main "script" that runs the entire AI of that specific enemy. This severally speed up the whole process of making new enemies and, right now, we consider that they are pretty much finished.
The Priest
He has remained pretty much the same, but with some optimizations and simplifications on his code, to make sure it works properly. The main change with The Priest is that, now, once he spawns, he won't despawn of the map unless there's a scripted event that requires him to do so. This means that he will search for the player all around the map all the time, and will use the "Pentagrams" as a method of teleportation to get closer to the player. The Priest will try to always search for the player on the same "area" or section of the map as they are.
The Basilisk
It has been completely finished and fully functional. This enemy is similar to The Priest in the sense that it will always wander and search for the player on the same area as they are, but the main difference is that... well, The Basilisk is blind, so they use sound instead as a way find the player.
This means that players will have to be careful and try not to be noisy when close to it, or they may enrage and start chasing them at insane speeds...
(Also, checkout the ArtStation page for it!)
And lastly, the new and final enemy of La Salamanca:
The Ghouleh.
This enemy is a bit special, since it doesn't really share that many similarities on behaviour with the other two enemies from the game. Her gameplay and behaviour is quite unique, and the way of attacking the player too.
We would like to reveal more of her, however, we would like to save that surprise for the future. In the mean time, just for you to know... She really hates sunbathing.
Original Soundtrack Preview
During the last months, Carpincho Studio has been actively working with a group of young composers known as "Casa Hornero".
They have been working on making the OST for La Salamanca! Here's a little preview of what to expect for the final release:
When is this thing releasing?!
Sadly, we can't give you an exact release date for La Salamanca. However, do know that our plan is to release the game somewhat close to the end of April of this year. So it's not that far away!
That's all!
We hope you have enjoyed this Devblog, and that you stay tuned for the coming weeks for news on the game!
See you in the next DevBlog!