Hello again! It's been 3 months since the last update. Lots to talk about.
Wishlists
May and the Amazing Bouquet hit a new wishlist milestone! We've passed 250! Thank you all so much! I'm so glad to see this many people interested in the game!
It may seem low compared to other games. But the game is still very in-development. I haven't begun any kind of major marketing push, and there's no playable demo yet which streamers could use to spread the word. Seeing so many people is great, but at the same time, a high wishlist number right now isn't critical for "the algorithm" (yet!).
Trip
During June, I travelled to Poland. Partly to see the country that both of my parents immigrated from. And partly for inspiration. This meant no coding work for several weeks. But I also returned with several notebook pages filled with ideas and notes.
Poland is a beautiful country and I'm very glad I was able to visit it. One of the things I've wanted to do with this game is to incorporate aspects of Polish culture and folklore. The main character's outfit - with the vest and skirt - is based on traditional Polish clothing. All of the major flowers in the game are also ones that are indigenous to, or well-known, in Poland. And I want to continue to incorporate things like this.
Notes Refactoring
The biggest thing I've struggled with the last few months is how to decide on puzzle elements in the game that are:
not cliche or overdone
have depth (can be used to make many unique puzzles)
are easy for players to understand
I want the game's puzzles to have good synergy with the enemies and player abilities too. For everything to be interconnected rather than separate unrelated systems.
This means that struggling to decide on puzzle elements also makes it hard to make decisions on the abilities and enemies too.
But within the last month, after a lot of brainstorming and experimentation, I've finally settled on a core set of puzzle elements which I'm very happy with (some of which are in the video below). Because of this, a lot of things relating to enemy variety and player abilities have fallen into place too (more on that below).
Which means I was able to clean and organize up a lot of ideas and notes where such things were still undecided.
I've been using Miro, Word documents, Excel files, and markdown files to keep track of ideas. As expected of so much indecision, it was a mess. As part of the cleanup effort. I moved nearly everything into AFFiNE boards. Which are local and very convenient for organizing lots of text in one place.
Nearly everything is now structured into ~a dozen drawing boards. I'm very happy with it. Lots of things in each board are now set in stone. While others are still works in progress.
Development
This month, after implementing several new mechanics and working through four iterations of the area itself, I completed a fully-playable version of a tutorial cave. This cave teaches many of the game's most basic mechanics, like blocks, gears, and enemies, before letting players go loose in the overworld. :D Here is a full video. The mechanics are hopefully self-explanatory. But signs are provided to explain things literally, if needed.
This tutorial cave is a huge milestone for me. It has music, lots of sound effects, and lots of mechanics. It establishes the core gameplay elements, which other areas can then build upon.
There's room for lots of polish to happen. Especially in sound and animation, and adding decorations to each area. But right now the mechanics are my main focus.
On Zeldalikes
I'll happily admit that the Game Boy Zelda games (Link's Awakening, Oracle games) are the biggest influence on my game. Both in terms of graphical style, and gameplay.
And yet, I hesitate to call my game a "Zeldalike."
Yes, it encourages exploration. Has a top-down perspective. Overworld. Dungeons and puzzle rooms. Enemies to outmaneuver. Progression gated by new abilities.
But there's also things which people associate with Zeldalikes, which my game does not have. And I don't want players to mistakenly assume my game has them and end up disappointed:
HP Bar. There's no hit points. There's no way to increase health. If you touch an enemy, you will restart at the beginning of the room. This one-hit-death element is more like VVVVVV or Celeste. I can't think of any actual Zeldalikes that do this. Well, falling into lava or bottomless pits, yes, Zelda games will send you back. But for ALL hazards including enemies? Not so much.
Equippable Items. My game is focused on two abilities: whistling (an offensive ability) and jumping. Each has a variety of upgrades. And, imo, some of them are very neat and game-changing. But you won't actually get any new items or weapons which you can swap in. Part of this is to keep the game's scope small. On the one hand, yes, novel items can add to the excitement of a game. But also...having to constantly re-equip yourself in each new room based on its obstacles can get...kinda tedious.
Combat Depth. You can jump and whistle. And sometimes, use other enemies or things in the room. It's alright. But again, there's no hit points. No consumable resources, and no mana. It lacks the weapon variety and stat-altering items you'd see in games like Mina the Hollower.
Maybe these things aren't essential to what a Zeldalike is, compared to the first few things I mentioned. Even so, I don't want to say things in marketing which may give players false ideas.
I've spent some time thinking especially about the focus on just two abilities - jumping, and a secondary ability. Wondering if that can work in a Zeldalike.
And it's occurred to me that these elements almost make it more like a Mario or Metroid game. The focus on jumping, and a standard projectile with unlimited usage (fireballs, power beam attacks). And if that can work just fine in those games, then hopefully it will be fine for mine too. Even though it's not a platformer.
What's Next
My goal is to have some sort of playable demo done this year, probably consisting of the starting area, this tutorial cave, part of the overworld, and one of the main "dungeons."
I know the basic themes and plots of the dungeons. And which items/upgrades will be available, and many enemy and puzzle ideas.
The goal now is to take each of the game's areas and decide which things will fit their identities the best. With the core game mechanics in place, it's now much easier to take each area and decide how it will build on those elements in their own way.
Thank you for reading! Have a wonderful day! 🌼