Got a little off track again this week, sort of. But this time there's a good logical reason behind it. Let's get down to business (no, no huns here).
THIS PAST WEEK
I decided to focus on updating the UI elements instead of making new maps this week. My reasoning behind this was that any screenshots of maps I made would be held back by the low quality UI elements, and wouldn't look as good as it could. That said, I was fortunate that I could reuse parts of some UI stuff I made for the previous version of Neo Edda, and they transferred over pretty well. Take a look below.
You may have noticed that there's a new portrait on the top left of the first screenshot. That'll be the new portrait for the player character, the warrior maiden Herfjötur.
This part of the game (and maybe the entire game) is set in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, so when I commissioned her I tried to make her look as period accurate as I could. That's why she's wearing mostly chainmail instead of plate armour as you might expect from a knight (full plate became more common place in the late 13th and 14th century). However, I'll take more liberties with historical accuracy when it comes to the Valkyrie armour since that's more fantastical.
Now that the character design is finished, I've also started the process of commissioning her sprite/animations. I already have an artist in mind and have started talks with them. They're in the middle of another job though, so it might not be finished for a while. If they allow it, I would like to show you guys any WIP stuff they make in the meantime though.
And finally, this week I've also changed up the "weapon" sprite for magic spells. Now there's a little "drone" that follows you around and does ranged attacks for you, like the Pods in Nier Automata (love that game). This way it makes sense how you can shoot behind you and shoot on the move. It also has the added bonus of saving me from needing a "casting magic" animation, so that'll be some much needed savings in the art budget. I'm also reworking one of the spells in order to have a bit more variety in attack options, and I'll show that along with the magic "drones" when it's done next week.
THE NEXT WEEK
As mentioned before I'll be programming a new magic spell. I already have an idea of how to do that, so I don't think it'll take more than a day. After that I'll be back on schedule with making new maps, which will be the main focus of the week. If I get worn out or tired of working on that, I'll look at monster sprites (yes I know I've been saying that for a while) and sound effects/music. Though before that I'll probably think about the plot some more. I've been thinking that the previous plot might be too complicated or too grand of a scale for me to do properly on my own. With that in mind I'll probably be making cuts in terms of story and length. Personally I think it's better to have a shorter tight knit game than a long but half-baked game. Special thanks to Extra Credits and their episode on sunk cost fallacy for reminding me that I'm falling for that trap with my previous plot.
Naturally at the same time I'll be continuing talks with the sprite artist and hopefully get the process started. If things work out, I should get something I can share within the next few weeks.
SUMMARY/TL;DR
Completed This Week:
- Reworked UI elements
- Created/programmed magic "drones"
- Got the character design
- Started commissioning character sprite/animations
To Do Next Week:
- Make more maps
- Continue negotiations for sprite commission
- Rework plot (again)
- Look at marketplace for assets
- Pick out new SFX
Honestly I was a bit frustrated that I didn't get all that much done this week, but now that I write it down it doesn't seem so bad. I still want to do better next week though. Thanks for reading!