Back From the Holidays ~~ Happy 2016!

I'm back guys!! The holidays are over and things are now going back to normal :D

Did you have a nice Christmas- and New Years break? Mine were OK - unfortunately I caught the flu a couple of days in and I'm still feeling it a little (though it's much better now). This stopped me from working as much as I would have liked this holiday, plus I STILL HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO SEE THE NEW STAR WARS MOVIE!!! So frustrating, I'm absolutely in love with the Star Wars universe so it's such a bummer to still have to avoid spoilers everywhere. But one of these days I'll go watch it for sure...!! :D

Anyway, I took this down time to take care of some really easy tasks I keep lagging behind with, such as going through the bug report backlog:

I think there were like 5 pages of bugs I hadn't added to our official bug list yet, so it took a couple of days to add them all properly, hah!

We've also kept working on a bunch of prototypes for upcoming puzzles and features, such as a phase shift dodging-puzzle-thingy which you might come up against in the midst of the poison challenge we showed off a few weeks ago:

Obviously this is a SUPER early prototype using only placeholder art, so it's gonna be quite different in the end. Most likely we'll rework how the obstacles look completely - instead of having boulders swinging from ropes (the rainbow-colored thingies), we're gonna have flying/hovering blocks (think Flying Fortress technology), moving left and right instead. It creates the same type of obstacle, but we don't have to distort the sprites diagonally, plus there's no need for the ropes which I think would look kind of odd even with the correct graphics.

We'll keep working on these prototypes properly now that we're getting back to the office, and I've also got plenty of portraits and backgrounds coming up so that's gonna be a lot of fun! Let's make 2016 exciting~ :D
Next PostNewer Post Previous PostOlder Post Home


  1. Hey and welcome back. :)
    Oh no about the flu. That sucks, but I hope you feel better now.

    This puzzle looks absolutely amazing. I guess if you hit a boulder you'll take damage.
    I also hope for these to not only appear in the poison room challenge but later on in the town dungeon along with other new prototypes you were talking about. :)

    Anyways a happy new year to you and the team.

    1. Thanks! I feel a little better and actually went ahead and watched Star Wars today (finally), so I'm happy :D

      Hope you've had a nice couple of weeks too! :3

  2. Sure, were some relaxing weeks, but unofrtunately exams are going to come up pretty soon so it'll be a it more stressfull for me.

    The new Star Wars film was amazing. It carries the same spirit as the classic trilogy. I like the charecters, they're written interesting. And besides the female protagonist is beautiful. xD

    Btw seeing this phase shift puzzle I came up with an interesting idea. :) Maybe you guys like it.
    It would be a boss later in the game (for example for the desert area or dungeon) that is fought on a platform that is falling down.
    Compare it to this Terrangima fight:
    I'm talking about the section starting at 1:53. It could be a somewhat big beast tha attacks you on this platform while flying in the air with all kind of nasty attacks. There's also a phase shift Mirror on the platform. After a while a weak spot appears on the boss: it might be on its chest or forhead (I like the perspective of the boss in that video) like an eye or something like that. It periodically opens after a while but closes shortly after that again. Now either the Phase Shift shooter or even better the boss moves around at a certain pace while its weak spot is open. You need to time the Phase Shift shot in a way that you hit the weak spot of the boss. If you hit its weak spot it looses some of its health. 10 hits should be enough. After two hits each the boss becomes more aggressive shooting more projectiles, later on gaining new attacks and also moving even faster especially while its weak spot is exposed.

    Since you guys are always trying to make unique boss battles that are different from previous fights this might be a good idea as hitting a boss with the Phase Shift shot is pretty creative, at least in my oppinion. ;)
    What do you think of this idea?
    Don't tell me you already thought of this as well. :P

    1. That definitely sounds like a cool idea! Using the Phase shift in such a way would definitely be interesting. :) We already have a pretty decent idea of the remaining main-story bosses will do but we definitely like to throw in extra mini-bosses along the way, so who knows :D

  3. Yeah I was talking about a mini-boss of sorts (like Phaseman, the two fairies and the Season Hydra). I know that all of the main bosses are set in stone. :)

    Also ever since I played Secrets of Grindea I was heavily reminded of another, pretty old fangame: The Happy Fun game. A lot of the boss patterns and the overall feal reminds me a lot of this game.
    Here's a video of said game by the developer himself who is streaming it at the moment (despite being made over 10 years ago):