I was originally planning to have the entire barebones of the game done by the end of January, but looks like it's going to be mid-February instead. I'm going to start looking for a composer around then as well. I also just realized that I can use html to edit these blogs, so expect slightly more fancy formatting.

The post mid-feb updates are probably going to be what I originally had in mind about 'here's one cool thing I've got' because they're when I really start to polish and refine stuff. That's what I meant to do quite a bit sooner, but getting the barebones done has kinda gotten away from me (not too dramatically, though).

Fifth Boss

I actually had some concept doodles for this, especially the weapon design, but I have no idea where they went (probably lost them when I was moving hard drives a while back).

The model is super rough- basically only there so I can get a sense of scale. Attack animations are just detailed enough that the collisions work properly, so those are pretty barebones too.

This fight is meant to have a lot of very telegraphed attacks where a trail first shows on the ground, then an actual projectile spawns and follows the given path. That's not implemented yet, though it will be by the end of this weekend.

Sixth Boss

The fundamental theme of this fight is that the thing is actually terrified of you, and tries just as hard to get away as it does to actually kill you. Trying to convey fear and desperation in the animations of what amounts to a blob with humanoid arms is an interesting art challenge.

Got a few basic animations done for the sixth boss.

Player

I've added a parry mechanic, which I felt was kinda the 'missing link' in how to make combat flow together. 

Parrying gives you energy, which you can spend to throw your spear. Energy is also going to let you heal, which makes it basically Hollow Knight's soul. Except you also get 'overcharge' that drains away, which encourages you to not hoard energy because you lose half of what you gain if you don't spend it shortly after gaining it- something vaguely inspired by how Bloodborne's rally system promotes aggression by rewarding you more for acting quickly (though sort of in reverse to what Bloodborne does).

How the spear works exactly is a bit up in the air at the moment, and I'm definitely going to another few passes on what its main purpose should be- it stuns and does damage, sure, but the balance between these is pretty important in deciding its purpose. If it always stuns and does very little damage, then it's a sort of panic button to relieve pressure. If it only stuns if you time it correctly (i.e. Bloodborne's guns), then it's more of a way for skilled players to do extra damage.

At the same time, I probably it to do a significant amount of damage, because the game is meant to draw from bullet hells, so I want the player to have more to do than just avoid damage when they're not in melee range. Then again, the old system of teleporting to things your spear is stuck in works to avoid this issue too... Overall, it's something I need to think more about.

Other than that, I've also messed around with how the player works a bit- tying behaviors to animations, rather than coded states, means that there aren't (or at least, are fewer) situations where animations get a bit out of sync. For example, dashing now play the effects etc. according to the player starting the dashing animation, so there's never a weird state where you do the dash and then the animation plays.

Sure, this means that things technically got less responsive, but they became a lot more acceptable to the player: if you can't dash immediately after landing from a jump, that's something to learn and take into account. If you can dash immediately after landing, but your animations go all wonky, then that just looks like a broken game. Same deal for attack animations.