Lamia redesign + Devlog #107 + Monstergirl poll #34 is on! (Patreon)
Content
EDIT: The ranks have been uploaded! You'll find them below ^^
Lamia! With her updated design! She now has a full sprite to match her chibi sprites ^^
Doesn't she look amazing?! She's so much more fun and dynamiclooking! She was drawn by The Helmet Guy, and he did an excellent job with her ^^
I was pretty dissatisfied with her old sprite, there were a lot of elements that bothered me... This new one is a massive upgrade in comparison!
Do you notice something different? Her box has been removed! In the final game, only Fig, the Lamia who joins your party, will have the box. Random encounter Lamias will not! Of course, you'll be able to give Fig the boxless version as an alt costume, if you so wish.
Here are links to Helm's Twitter. Please follow him if you'd like ^^
https://twitter.com/thehelmet_guy (+18)
Helm is also on Patreon! If you enjoy his work, please consider supporting him!
https://www.patreon.com/thehelmet_guy (+18)
Here are all the monstergirl ranks:
I've been working on fixing many, many small issues for the newest build! In particular, I fixed a bug that caused some paths to close back up after being opened. That was one of the biggest bugs left in the game, and fixing it led to some very nice improvements of the exploration system ^^
On top of that, a lot of the Almanach has been overhauled! And so did the Spellcard. And so did the Alchemy UI! And more ^^
Another great change is that you can now pause the game during special sequences.
The changes and fixes are way too numerous for me to go over every single one in details, so here is a big old list of what's changed in the latest build:
Untraversable path in Auria > fixed
Multistates don't update correctly, causing one way paths in certain rooms (leaving and re-entering the area/floor fixes this) > fixed
Open rock doors in Sablee have small artifacts near the sand > fixed
Emotion objects are now destroyed post cutscene
Emotion objects are now destroyed at the start of the teleportation transition
area picture now updates post cutscene instantly (though I doubt anyone noticed the delay)
Synced Eveii and Vestia's fall animation timing
Swapped Vestia and Eveii's positions in the party
Vestia has a new falling sprite when Eveii is out of the party
Map icon disappears if a fight appear in the same room > fixed
Kururin puzzles laser speed slightly increased
One kururin puzzle has been remade
improved area array saved variables to keep cutscene floor numbered at 1000+ but not need a 1000+ long array. Not gonna get into this, but basically optimization!
way for to hide and unlock map and treasure percentage. They'll unlockable somehow in the final game, but I left them as visible by default for the demo.
fixed a crash that would occur when missing party members the first time you see a night sphere blockades (Which can only happen through debug mode I believe, but would have caused similar issues down the line)
Show text on mouse position when clicking on the night sphere blockades
When going back up after seeing the first night sphere blockades, the party now walks in the middle of the room instead of on the night sphere. Once the sphere is destroyed, the party will then walk to the default placement instead of in the middle of the room! Wow! Believe it or not, some of the core exploration system had to be updated for that. Good stuff though, as it lead to a bunch of stuff I'll be able to reuse easily later. Prevented a bunch of future issues basically!
cutscene 8 > Klehss speech bubble teleports to the top left when she dies > fixed
cutscene 10 > Map menu background will be incorrect after this cutscene (bug won't trigger through debug mode, the cutscene must trigger through Vuu's amplification) > fixed
Info sign harvestable added
Info sign special blocks added
Fixed part of the wall appearing in front of the light in Biscotti's storage room
added a move & zoom function for character portraits in inventory & character select & rank up. Right click to grab the portrait, mouse wheel to zoom/unzoom while grabbed. You'll finally be able to see the full art in game!
Updated the cursor animation in various menus so it animates the same way it does in the overworld
Fixed Almanach's recorded monster drops
Fixed Almanach's Shape names
Fixed Almanach's Shape sprites
As far as I can tell, the Almanach is now fixed!
The map icon in Biscotti's windmill now updates when relevant
Made myself a cool little tool to easily write in Trefei (the BEW runes), and export these sentences as sprites that I can easily apply to anything. Like Alma's pages!
Improved Almanach bestiary page
Added a number defeated count for each monster in the Almanach
Improved Almanach item page
Improved Almanach recipe page
Implemented Almanach changes on various page objects, such as the page that pops up through bookmarks
pre fight monster info is now only available only if Alma is unlocked
Improved Alchemy UI
Replaced the wall graphic in Shop & Storage & Map menus by neat slick fashionable triangles
Improved inventory / shop / storage item description systems
Reworked and improved some very old code that didn't really make sense. No visible effect from the player side, but now it's not stupid anymore.
Made the "Are sure sure you want to close the game" menu have an unlocked mouse
The tutorial can now be skipped at any time by pressing Enter
The Fei symbol in fei shards in the ocean are now a lighter color and easier to see
You can now pause the game during special gameplay sequences!
Angel related particle speed has been lowered (leftover from the 45 FPS cap)
Night sphere blockade graphical improvements
Reworked the Spellcard and added Fei symbols (might come back to this one last time eventually)
Random NPC custom spawn coordinates in some rooms have been implemented
Updated a few rooms' ability to spawn random fights
Random NPC now have a water surface near their feet in submerged parts of the Biscotti tunnels
Multiple directional buttons cannot be readied at the same time by using the keyboard in double click movement mode anymore
The game now automatically positions chibis correctly in the party post cutscene/party update (so the characters stand in a line)
The game now automatically positions the party correctly after all transitions (the party needs to be offset in some rooms, such as inside Biscotti houses, but only the normal walking transitions would take that into account before)
Small improvement to the save system. There were some issues with a few objects not being saved correctly in the past which were then fixed, and it should now be technically impossible for such issues to arise again in the future.
Fixed an issue with the fall (post gameover) transition where objects from the previous room would stay loaded
Flower hairpin sprite has been updated
Night cloth sprite has been updated
Night armband sprite has been updated
Added a sound on random NPC spawn
Random NPCs are now called "Travelers"
A Traveler info sign has been added
Rank 6 is now mentioned in the dev talk sign
Added a small build version watermark in the bottom right
So yeah, a bunch of stuff! I'm getting really close to being done fixing bugs, meaning I'll switch to adding content somewhat soon. My next step will be to improve the save system and the BGM system as they both present some issues currently. The saves will finally be transferrable from one pc to another once I'm done with this!
All of this was done in the first 15 days of the month. The rest of it was spent designing 4 new monstergirls, writing ref docs for each and guidelines for artists. I learned a lot this month when it comes to properly directing artworks, and that whole process is only getting cleaner and cleaner! I'm very excited to share the results once either I or others draw these newly designed characters! Designing can be painful at times, but it's incredibly satisfying when it all comes together ^^
I don't know at what rate yet, but the character reveal speed will slowly and surely increase from now on. I'm still planning on contacting more artists, and I want to design at least 2 new characters per month going forward! I'll finally be able to catch up with the monstergirl polls, but I did want to take care of the redesigns first. The next reveal will be Cerelea's new design, and then something new!
So yeah, a whole lot is happening, and I've been busy to say the least. I'll also need to start asking kulor, Thiel and AM4N for new tracks and SFX soon... Lots to think about ^^
Finally, the Monstergirl poll stuff!
The next monstergirl poll has begun! You can now vote for the monstergirl you want to be included in BE Witches in the Discord server if you are a 2$+ patron!
The poll will be active until the 12th of this month. After this, you will be able to change your submitted modifier until the 15th. Finally, the two rounds of the modifier poll will take one week each afterwards.
Also, now is a good time to submit a monstergirl and/or modifiers if you haven't already as a patron! If you can't think of anything to submit, here is a list of ideas you can choose from. You'll need to join the server to submit anything!
And that's all I got for now!
Thank you very much for your support ^^