Hi everyone!
It's that time of the week again, and as promised last week, we'll be looking deeper into the story elements, collectibles and Duds.
If there are any other things you want to know more about, let me know in the comments!
First...
Before we'll look into the three promised topics, I figured it's a good time to talk about the current state of the game.
The game, as mentioned last week, has three scenes ready to play. There are some finishing touches being implemented in terms of timing, collectibles and powerups.
These are required to make the gameplay as clean as possible, and as tight as possible. While Boll's Journey is mostly a casual top-down game, it doesn't mean that it can't have some action, strategy and timing in it.
The expectation is to be done with the finishing touches somewhere next week, meaning the game will be ready for Early Access somewhere in the coming weeks. I'll be posting a separate post with a one week mark when it's time, so wishlist now to keep updated.
Also, a quick note on energy: while there's no on screen gauge (like a number or a health bar of some kind) you still will be able to visually see where you are on your energy: the less energy you have available to you, the smaller Boll will be.
Duds
Duds are probably going to be the most annoying enemy the game has to offer, but they're also the most interesting to talk about. You won't know the difference between a Dud and a Shape just by looking at it. Any Shape you see could be a Dud - although most won't be.
What exactly is a Dud, though? A Dud is a Shape that when fired upon, won't die. Instead, it will start cycling through all of it's colors in an infinite loop. The fact that you won't be able to see the difference between a Dud and a Shape is what makes them an annoying enemy: you think you'll be able to move on, but you can't.
-- A Dud compared to a regular Shape
A Dud works in a similar way as a Shape when it comes to energy, in that when you hit it, you lose energy. The difference comes in the form of how much energy you lose. A Dud will take as much energy as the power it has. (Example: You encounter a Black Sphere, it turns out to be a Dud, you'll lose 9 energy)
Collectibles
Doing the finishing touches meant having to get ready some collectibles as well. They are scattered across all scenes, some more obvious than others. As you'll play, you'll be reminded to keep your eye out on the collectibles.
Below you can find a handful of prepared collectibles and in their natural habitat (obviously zoomed in so much that you won't really know where it is until you actually see it steamhappy)
-- A few Baybayin Symbols in their natural habitat
This batch of collectibles comes from the Baybayin script. A script that was widely used in the 16th and 17th centuries on the islands of Luzon - which is part of the Philippines. It was used to write Tagalog and Visayan languages.
For the purpose of the game, I've picked a special modernization of the script to base my symbols on, to be able to get a full alphabet.
What the symbols will be used for in the game, and how you'll use them, is a secret for now, the only thing I will tell you, is to keep your eye out for them, as you'll need to collect a certain amount of symbols.
Story
In a way, the story part of the game is also a collectible - you'll be able to find a whole story written out in the collectibles tab in the pause menu (after getting far enough). This story somewhat follows the story you're seeing on the screen as you go.
You'll find out, when you get to play the game, that there are currently three voices:
A guiding voice - the voice you're starting out with when the game starts.
An angry voice - the voice in the grayish dimension
A friendly voice - the voice in the transparent dimension
So far, without any sounds in the game, it may be a bit confusing to know what is what, but you'll notice that there's a subtle tint to the subtitles for each of the dimensions. Eventually, when sounds do get added, the intention is to make it more obvious to know which is which, as I intend to get some voice over work done in the future, to make the game a bit more lively.
For now, this is all I'm willing to say about the story, as I believe it is more fun to find it all out yourself.
What's next?
Next week, I'll be talking about a few other types of enemies, as well as a bit more about the scenes mentioned last week with the addition of the Forest. I'll also be talking about the Powerups and the system behind it.
Maybe somewhere during the week I'll be able to drop an update on the Early Access release for Boll's Journey, so: Wishlist the game if you want to be the first to know about it!
Stay tuned for more and if you haven't already, go over to the Steam page for Boll's Journey and hit that wishlist button to get all the latest!