Reindeer Games DevBlog

Before getting into the dump, I was busier than usual during the weekend, so I forgot to update Tiger Express like I said I would in the last post. It's updated now, so go check out the new animations! Icons wise, I threw together the last two very quickly since we're very close to the deadline: Deck Icon Coin Pick Up Icon I also did my best to source a handful of royalty-free, CC0 photos to use as battle backgrounds for the (almost) all of the levels: And found free sound packs we could use for music and SFX: Finally, my work here is done. Pat on the back, round of applause, and all that. If we had more time, I would have loved to hand draw the backgrounds, and maybe take a little more time with some of the icons, but that's that and this is this. Thank you for following the art-related development of Gilded Tower, and for those of you showing up in person, see you at the showcase! - Nao

 Yesterday, while I was off, I finished the Elite Goblo sprites! Idle Charging Attack Attacking "Dead" Today, since all of the enemies are done and dusted, I started pumping out polished card sprites and various UI icons: Cards - Icons - Still have the icons for the deck and coin pick up to do, I think that's all we need? We're almost (~70%) done!!!! Until Nao-xt time!

 Hello again! We're back from Spring break and ready to get back into the thick of things! ... almost. I rushed to catch the bus and ended up forgetting my tablet. So, I decided to work on Tiger Express today and finish the Elite Goblo sprites at home. I went through all of the animations I had implemented before, and duplicated the last frames in each of them so that the looping was less noticeable. The idling, running, and galloping are all a lot smoother now! I also started putting in the Climbing animation. As you can see below, it works! Though... not if Fflur is completely idle (aka speed = 0) before she starts climbing. I think it's just an issue with the transition conditions, so it shouldn't be too mind-numbing to fix. It'll have to wait until Thursday, though. Oh, I also made it so Fflur only starts galloping if you move while holding shift, but it's kind of hard to prove that in a gif. How would you know if I was holding shift or not? You'll just have...

 Finally!! I couldn't be more happy with these!  Y'know, there's a bit of an unspoken... rule? Understanding? Among experienced artists: if you're suddenly faced with a period of time where you can't seem to put your pencil to the page, or your pen to the tablet, and anything you do manage to draw you end up hating, maybe scrapping... it just means your on the verge of a breakthrough and your art is about to evolve! Or, you need to stop skipping therapy appointments and apologize to your therapist for abandoning them. Usually, it's the former, though. Definitely. Hopefully? So, don't give up and keep chipping away at that tiresome art block! You might find a masterpiece waiting inside! These last two are only slightly different from each other because they're (technically) frames for an unique animation! I imagined the former sprite would shake for a second or two, depending on how long it takes the player to read dialogue, and then switch to the latter...

 Today, I brought my tablet with me to class in the hopes that the setting would help me feel more motivated to work on art. Thankfully, it did! I wasn't able to finish all the sprites since I don't have a solid idea for how the defeat sprite will look yet, but I did get the sprite for the CEO commanding his minions done. After asking my teammates for ideas, I was able to draw up a rough sketch that I like, but I'm waiting for more input before finalizing it. All's left after the final boss is the elite Goblo, whose poses I have a pretty good idea of already, then I'll be moving on to background art. Thanks for following the development of Gilded Tower's art assets thus far and see you next time!

 Today in class, we held a second play test to show off the improvements made to our games since the last showcase. We had about 6-7 people try our game, and in my observations I was able to notice some new issues that have popped up, as well as an old problem we still have to work on... Lack of Player Agency This was a big problem players faced in our first play test. Since the combat is, true to lore, entirely RNG, the player doesn't have much control over the flow of battle, causing some players to feel frustrated and confused regarding how they lost. At the end of the last play test, we concluded that our solution would be to implement different coins the player can equip that have varying stats and conditions, eg. a coin that has a 70% chance to hit heads instead of the base 50%, a coin that does more damage to the enemies but also has a chance to do damage to the player, one that does consistent but weak damage, etc. Unfortunately, we weren't able to implement this in tim...

So, I completely forgot about writing a blog post last Thursday. Oops. Last class, I started on the sprites for Gilded Tower's protagonist. As our team brainstormed, we settled on an addicted gambler whose major traits consisted of over-the-top anime hair, an arrogant personality, and clothes/accessories sourced from a thrift store. He also needed a weapon to fight the Goblos with, so I went with the most arrogant weapon I could think of off the top of my head: a greatsword. Greatswords take up a lot of space on the battlefield, and practically demand attention from those around them, stealing the valor from others in the fray and making teamwork difficult. Perfect for someone who gambled the entire town's treasury away chasing his own riches. At least, that's what I think. No hatred towards greatsword mains in Monster Hunter or other games from me, I swear! Also of my own decision, I used the same color palette as the Goblos for... reasons I will reveal much, much later....