Son of a Witch: Devlog and general discussion

[Jubal]

Nice work

Also, minor friendly admin note: if you can try to avoid double-posting that would be good - if you post something then find you need to add extra content to the post, there's an "edit button available for the purpose.

[bigosaur]

I just made this nice swoosh in Gimp for the sword swing attack.




It can also be used partially (on the first strike frame):




If you press attack button during the up-swing, the hero also does the return-swing to get back to initial position:



Animation coming soon...

[bigosaur]

Also, minor friendly admin note: if you can try to avoid double-posting that would be good - if you post something then find you need to add extra content to the post, there's an "edit button available for the purpose.

Do you mean those cases when I replied to other people, or when I add more images?

If it's the latter - how does the pagination work? I plan to start posting some .gifs soon, and most of those will be about 5MB each, so having them all in a single post could make a really heavy page. Thanks.

[Cuddly Khan]

He means when you post and then post again right after without someone else posting in between, like what you did just then.

[Jubal]

^What he said.

Essentially there's no difference for loading splitting GIFs between posts or keeping them in a single post (unless you happen to split them across pages that way, but it's not worth bothering with that). I'm not sure if spoiler tags do anything with image load... I'd be surprised if we have terribly big issues though, I've never had serious page load problems with Exilian, the site software itself is pretty lightweight. If your animated GIFs are really long, though, why do them as GIFs rather than YT videos out of interest?

Anyway, onto more interesting stuff; yes, that is a very lovely sword swoosh and is appropriately swooshy

[bigosaur]

I've never had serious page load problems with Exilian, the site software itself is pretty lightweight.

I was just thinking about visitors with lower bandwidth, 20 gifs 5MB each is 100MB for a single page.

If your animated GIFs are really long, though, why do them as GIFs rather than YT videos out of interest?

The gifs are short, however my game runs at 60fps. A simple 2-second 480x270 .gif takes about 5MB. It makes no sense to upload 2 second videos to YouTube. But nevermind, I'll avoid doing back to back posting and use the edit button. Hopefully, the content will be good and replies from other forum members will space it out

Anyway, onto more interesting stuff; yes, that is a very lovely sword swoosh and is appropriately swooshy

Thanks.

And now, it's hack&slash time:



Goblins with shields cannot be attacked when they raise the shield, so you have to go around and attack from back:



When you defeat them, you can pick up their sword and use it:



When enemies are knocked down, you can stomp them or smash your weapon to the ground to hit them real hard. Of course, when an enemy is on the ground, the hitbox is different, so I'm fine tuning that now.



You will be able to run and jump from a short distance. Unlike the knight, the mage jumps because he's too light to do ground smashing attack.



This looks so cool, I might add a long-jump competition to the game.

Most swords will have dashing as special rage attack:

[Jubal]

I like the idea of a long jump competition - having add-ons and things outside the main hack and slash sections like that are always good

Can the shields be destroyed if you smash them enough?

[bigosaur]

Can the shields be destroyed if you smash them enough?

Yes. Well, actually, you'd have to smash them many times. It's much faster to go around him and smack him from the the back as he doesn't turn while the shield is up. Anyway, here are some new updates:

Mega Rage Attack

Every melee weapon in the game has a special rage attack. Swords mostly have some kind of dashing, axes can be thrown, hammers will be able to call on help from the gods and clubs become 3 times bigger than usual and smash down the enemies:



Here's the animation:



Telepathy potion

On your adventure, you will find different magic potions. These potions are colored differently on each playthrough. For example, blue potion can mean stronger magic in one game, and faster speed in the next game. You can discover their effect with an Identify scroll, or you can take a chance, drink and see what happens.



This one allows you to see the enemies in adjacent areas. (1B) means that the effect will wear of after one battle.

[Jubal]

The rage attack looks fun

Do any potions have negative effects, and can they be thrown or only drunk?

[bigosaur]

Do any potions have negative effects, and can they be thrown or only drunk?

No throwing. About 35% potions have negative or mixed effects. Most negative effects are balanced out with a different positive in the same potion. For example, you can get Iron Flesh Potion that reduces your speed but makes you more resistant to hits. Or you can get Overdose Potion that fully heals you, but you get reversed controls for one battle. One of the potions I also plan is Barbarian Potion that increases Melee but reduces Magic. So, that one is great if you are a fighter, but if you play as a mage then it's negative.

Here are some other mysterious-potion effects.



Magic skill determines the damage and size of magic projectiles, and effectiveness of magic caused effects like using magic to buff weapons with poison. The game will also feature magic scrolls and the player would need to have a certain magic skill threshold to be able to understand what the scroll does before using it. Of course, if you are a warrior, you could still read the scroll and activate its magic, but some of the scrolls have really bad effects.

Potions can also increase your base skills, even to the point where it would make sense to switch class. For example, if you buffed up archery skill and range a lot, it would be a good strategy to start using bows and arrows.





Every game has some elements that are boring and unexcited to make but still important for player experience. Here are the boxes and barrels.



You can break barrels and boxes and find some items inside. Usually it's food and coins, but sometimes you may find keys, bombs, arrows, potions and other consumable items.



This was the first time I made animation of stuff breaking like this, so it was an interesting experience.

[SaidaiSloth]

This seemed really ambitious for a one person team so I was doubtful and I was expecting a 100% science based dragon mmo style situation, but this actually looks really cool.

Any words on a price? If the gameplay feels as good as these animations look, I'll make sure to check it out once it's released.

[bigosaur]

This seemed really ambitious for a one person team so I was doubtful and I was expecting a 100% science based dragon mmo style situation, but this actually looks really cool.

Thanks. That means a lot.

Any words on a price? If the gameplay feels as good as these animations look, I'll make sure to check it out once it's released.

I really don't know yet. All I know at this point is that I want to get this on Steam, possibly in Early Access because there's so many variables (esp. after the forest level which is planned in detail) and player input could be very valuable. I was thinking something like $5 for Early Access to allow people who support the game to get it for cheap, and then the price would rise as more content gets added, probably ending somewhere in the $15-$20 territory.

Or, if I see that the hype is not catching up, I might seek a publisher to help with the marketing and then it all depends on the deal I make with them...

[Jubal]

Ah, OK, "trade off" potions sounds a good system - the barrel breaking anim is good too

[bigosaur]

Each level in the game will have one or more locked rooms with treasures.



You can unlock the rooms with keys or blast the doors open with bombs. Or you can use magic scrolls that open doors magically.



Unlocked doors are not controlled by monsters, so you can use them to escape from tight battles.

[Jubal]

Will the locked rooms just be treasure piles? Or will there be other sorts of special room like in, say, pixel dungeon if you've played that?