Our narrator, Propp the Butler has been added to the build alongside the Crayonian Nobility. His vocal dialogue triggers to add lore to the game in triggered random increments as you're playing. That way the lore is more ambient. But his design went through a couple of iterations. As I was concerned that he would be something that could actually effect our rating if I didn't make it cartoony enough.
There are some core elements which transcend all design in a Stylized Game. Thankfully, there's a tolerance for variation which isn't in realistic game design which I really treasure as a developer. I'm able to yank items into Sketchup and make massive design changes, then manually retexture or repaint to blend Item sets from the Unity Asset Store and my own Creations. And Yes, I know it's WEIRD to use sketchup. But I never got the hang of blender for anything other than rigging. So over the years my build of Sketchup has 100+ addons which converted it into my own makeshift Design Tool for Low Poly characters and objects.
White took some initial work as I had to establish the baseline for what colliders, which color schemes, and which base items would be used across all of the areas. And each room has a mini-narrative which I had to scope out. So the project underwent some genuine psychological outlining during the first 6 rooms and main building.
But each room matches the character who owned it, and has been forced to watch over it for all these years. Each Vice they represent comes out in the design of their space. Blue therefore was all about Toys and being at play. His space is hugely consumed by giant games, and overblown whimsy.
Yellow belongs to our whimsical wizard. His tower is by far the largest area in the game, as it technically spans 8 full size rooms, 5 small rooms, and 4 hallways. That said, he will have less items spread over a much larger space. So any item which begins with a synonym for the color yellow (amber, gold, lemon, mustard, ochre, saffron, goldenrod, flaxen, straw, canary, citrine, daffodil, dandelion, maize, sunflower, etc.) you'll be racing against finding the right item in the matching room, based on its design, across a much LARGER space, instead of in huge piles.
One of the most challenging things in a game is the core controls. Getting the game to function smoothly not only on a high end machine but on a Handheld, or using any controller (including the new Microsoft Disability controllers) is a feat that doesn't come out of the box. Every game does it a bit differently.
I'm pleased to say that we have a user interface which includes basic Steamdeck and PC controls right out of the gate. I'll code a new version if and when we add other platforms. But for now that should do the trick.
And I'm very proud to say that as of now we have a UNIVERSAL speed alignment tools for the Controller you have plugged in and the mouse which auto-switches when you touch either. That way you can jump between devices at a whim. This will be excellent for moments where you're a Sword and Board on your Computer, but switching to your save on the Steam Deck when you head up to bed for the evening. (Like me)
I'm also incredibly proud to announce that I've coded the lighting to Zero. This Windwaker style art game uses no Realtime or Baked lighting. It's using artistic unlit only at this point. So it requires VERY LITTLE in the way of graphics hardware. Also, the UI centers itself, and the core resolution automatically syncs to the Steam Deck's ratio when requested. Combined with limiting the textures to 1k, and some decent compression, the game is going to be able to run on just about any modern device. Which is excellent, because I don't want someone's PC (or my lack of development skill on the tech side) to be the reason they can't join us on our adventure.
As you can see, I develop on an EXTREMELY wide panel monitor (to keep the frame-rate steady and ease up on my Epilepsy. Having 120ghz locked prevents a LOT of my struggle). But the UI centers itself, and the game stretches really well. As well as matching the same 'size' your brain expects when moving from the handheld. It's a true golden ratio.
Lastly, as a treat for this build announcement (and a thank you to our first Beta Testers), the players making sure I'm not creating ground with holes in it, mentioned to me that the Castle felt 'lonely'. Part of the plot is that Propp got the servants out before the curse took effect, but stayed behind to watch the castle (as was his duty). And as such, he departed the mortal coil but not the castle. So his lingering narrator spirit made friends with the local spirits, who hadn't been free to come out during the reign of the vices of the Nobles. As such, the grounds are now littered with animated little Kawaii friends, appropriate to each section of the castle. At launch they won't do much other than emote, and keep the place from feeling too lonely. But it wouldn't surprise me (meaning I've already begun coding) to catch sight of all of the Kodama throughout the castle in order to gain one of the more elusive achievements.
We'll do more on Achievements as the game evolves. But It's important to me that this game offer an achievement hunter's fondest collection. So I'll be coding Lore, Kodama Hunting, Parkour, Item Feeding, Time, Progression, Secret Passage Finding, etc. based achievements into the game en masse. My hope is to keep you coming back long enough to trigger all of the lore bits hidden throughout the castle. You have to retread your steps quite a bit to hit them all.
But that's it for this build! Decorating continues. I have three more sections of Yellow before I can move on to the rest of Teal. And then the checklist is ongoing. I'll have the Puzzle Timer and the Feeding mechanics coded soon. And then comes the Watchers. Once those are done, the rest is in the voice acting, and progression. Let me finish decorating, and get the Doors unlock-able and we should be ready for the next batch of testers.
Oh, and just a tease for you difficulty lovers, I decided that when I eventually add Hard Mode to the game, I'll be making it local, re-locking magic doors with random timers. So that on load SOME, not ALL of the entry ways are locked and blocked and keys spawn in the rooms at random to unlock your path. When you wake the Watchers, they'll randomly re-lock the doors in their section as well. Making it not only a maze but an additional treasure hunt to survive. I specifically conceived this for Arin from Game Grumps who INSISTS on hard mode in EVERY game... because... This way Dan will have MANY chances to tease him when he falls out of a window.
Thank you as always for reading friends. More to come!
♥ Brandon