Ringing the Clock Tower (progress update)

tl;dr: lots of level design work, dress ghost animation done, witch hat, recoloring old entities for the darkness

With how work is progressing I'm considering an earlier release without the boss, that way we might have a late October/early November test build for this. This means it's split into a part 1 and a part 2, where the first part will be the two new non-boss entities and all the castle rooms before the boss. I'll also be reviving a 1 year old entity I never used for anything in the part 2 work, which means this sub-region introduces 4 new entities in total

Spooky subregion progress

The estimates in each section are guesstimates, and the work may take less or more time. We're currently 4 weeks in.

🟦 Dress Ghost Lady entity (1 week)

Her animations is fully done! I might make some small touch-ups, but I'm now focusing on the movement behavior/fight logic, and sprites - I have 2 sprites to do for her move set

🟦 Shadow Man entity (1 week)

I've been working on his movement and fight logic, he already has two moves but I'm wondering if I should add a third - well see. He's close to done

🟦 Level design (1-2 weeks)

I've been doing a lot of work here, particularly the clock tower - it's a physics-based puzzle with moving pieces where you have to re-activate the clock as part of a quest. Because of all the moving pieces it's taking longer than usual, so I'm expanding the estimate to 1-2 weeks here, but the clock tower itself is maybe 50-75% done?

I've expanded the castle with a cellar, more big rooms, a library, increasing the altar hall size, and finishing the graveyard middle section which would lead to the boss arena and sewers. I need to fill these rooms with stuff, and that's what I'm working on right now, hopefully more fun physics-based objects, and certainly more environment art assets.

🟦 Spooky trade hub (2-3 days)

I've made the Warper NPC useable again - you can use her to warp to any fight arena or trade hub, speeding up getting back to later sections of sub-regions from a trade hub, or warping between major regions. The only thing I want to do is improve her sprite a little and it's done

I've added recoloring to the NPCs here so they have a region specific look - the Ogre Lady has more of a vampiric look, the nurse zombie-like green skin, and so on. Other than that, what's left here is the quest giving logic so that each region's quests are separated. Speaking of quests, they should have their own section, so...

🟦 NEW: Quests (2-3 days)

For part 1 you can expect at least two quests, including the clock tower one. In part 2, the boss one will take place, and hopefully another small quest alongside that.

🟦 NEW: Use old entities (1-2 days)

I've been working on recoloring entities to fit in with the dark regions so you won't suddenly stop seeing the old entities, the system is about halfway done and I'm testing how the visuals play in the dark. For example, the pink slime ladies might become more of an oil-like black color or a ghostly white, and their slime walls now also block lights.

🟦 DELAYED: Looker Eye entity (1-2 week)

I haven't had much time to work on this, but I did do some small touch-ups. I'll focus on this again once part 2 work starts.

🟦 DELAYED: New spell (3-5 days)

The new spell will be a magic beam shooting spell and I've started working on it. It's mainly sprite work right now - the base player and all the outfit pieces. Upgrades might make it into a stronger, more sniper-like beam. As usual, spells are a boss reward so this will come with part 2, hence the DELAYED tag above.

I've also been preparing to make upgrades swappable and with their own trade-offs, and experimenting with a fast instant side dash upgrade.

⬜ DELAYED: Wave arena (2-3 days)

I might move this to be part of the sub-region part 2 work (with the boss) if I don't skip it.

⬜ NEW/DELAYED: Ghost Man entity (1-2 weeks)

This is the new entity I'm thinking of reviving. The current idea I want to play around with is ghost hunting - he'll be invisible without a special equippable lamp, and he won't fully engage unless you have it either so he's mostly just a tiny nuisance until then. When he does engage he'll be a strong entity, similar to the Night Seeker in the jungle. Work hasn't been restarted yet, but it will once part 2's work is the focus - in the meantime I can brainstorm how he'll move and what his moveset looks like :)

⬜ Testing/bugfixing (1-2 weeks)

This work won't start until the others are done.

Otherwise

I'm working on a witch hat outfit piece, it's mostly done already and only the fight sprites remain. Next maybe I should make a matching one-piece witch dress or skinsuit? We'll see!

I've been doing some tweaks to the jungle start area based on feedback from the current testing - the boss quest will be available from the beginning, the flower picking quest will be easier to finish as some flowers are un-randomized, and I've added a bless mark that's accessible before the boss quest

I've been working on a new sub-animation type that combines two steps into one. I have to make it for every entity, but it's not a massive amount of work - so far 4/10 entities have it, but it's not a blocker for a release

And that's it for now! I should be back in about two weeks another progress update - see you then!