Son of a Witch: Devlog and general discussion

[bigosaur]

In the past 7 months I have been planning a new game to make. It will be a multiplayer action brawler like Castle Crashers with cartoony graphics. The main problem I have with CC is that once you complete it, there's no incentive to play more. So, I decided to combine the brawler mechanics with roguelike elements: permadeath, procedural generation of levels, items, enemies, etc. and non-modal gameplay (esp. imporant if you have 4 players playing).

I have most of the concepts on paper and spreadsheets and some 60% of the graphics is ready (still need to work on animations and special effects a lot). Current plan includes: 12 heroes, 44 monsters, 16 bosses and 6 different environments (forest, battlements, castle, dungeon, catacombs and a special ice level). Additionally, 50+ different weapons and items will be available to loot and use for the first version, and more planned later.

There will be 3 distinct play styles available, focusing on melee, ranged or magic combat. The player's starting class would determine the proficiency (i.e. base damage and effect modifiers) but the player can upgrade during the game and become multi-class if desired (and RNG does not get in the way). Melee combat is going to work similar to Castle Crashers with additional "rage" mechanics, which is a meter that fills up and you can use a special attack then.

The levels will be laid out like rooms in the Binding of Isaac with boss fight at the end of each level. The mana system and magic items will work like batteries in Isaac (i.e. you need to complete a couple of rooms before reusing the special magic) and the regular magic users can constantly shoot various weak projectiles similar to tears in Isaac.

I plan to post my progress every day, so stay tuned

Latest cool .gif:

[bigosaur]

The Story



You mom is a witch. Together with your brother, the three of you live in a forest. One day, the king's soldiers show up at your home and take her away without any explanation. As a player, you can choose one (or both in co-op) of her sons to go on a rescue mission. One of the sons is a young sorcerer and the other one is a warrior.

In the meantime, someone has stolen a powerful ancient artifact from the goblins who live in the nearby forest. Angry goblin patrols are searching the forest for the thief.

You need to avoid or fight the goblins to reach the castle, and then find a way to get inside. On your adventure, you can rescue or recruit other heroes to help you on your quest. (up to 4 players will be able to play in co-op mode, with 12 different playable characters).

Once inside the castle, you try to reach the dungeon hoping that the mom is locked up and alive. Meanwhile, the goblins track the thief to the king's castle gate, and they demand their artifact back. The king soldiers cannot find the thief and aren't able to produce the artifact. The goblins demand to come inside and find it themselves, but the king refuses. The goblin siege begins and soon they manage to break down the defenses and come inside... now you need to fight both the goblins and the guards. They fight against each other too.

But the real reason why your mother was taken away remains a mystery until you find her...

[bigosaur]

Add a bunch of goblins and the action becomes intense. I have improved the AI, so now they don't walk over each other anymore. They are trying to surround the player from all sides.



Using melee weapons really feels like playing a true brawler game like Castle Crashers.

[bigosaur]

Special Magic Powers

One of the characters available at the start of the game is a mage who has a Snake Staff as the primary weapon. The Snake Staff fires basic blue magic orbs and has a special ability to imbue poison to weapons. It can imbue poison to itself as well, so you get to fire poisoned orbs.



The amount of poison damage depends on the player's magic proficiency. At 100% it's going to be 3 poison damage every 1.5 seconds (it only shows 2 in the screenshot, because I messed around with player stats and it wasn't at 100%). If a player is not very good with magic (say, a knight has only 30%), it will only do one poison damage in the same interval.

The poison does not kill, but it can completely drain the health points, and then it only takes one hit to finish off the enemy. The same goes for player characters.

It can be also used to make swords poisonous, or even some more deadly combinations: for example, if you find a fireball staff, you can make it poisonous as well, and it will shoot fireballs that set enemy on fire and poison him at the same time.

[bigosaur]

You can find various potions in the world. Some are dropped from fallen enemies, some are found in chests, some are stored in barrels and boxes, some even hidden under the rocks which you will be able to destroy with bombs. And you will be able to buy some in shops as well.

Here's a small health potion. At the top, you can see what it looks like in player's inventory, and underneath is how you pick it up.



It heals 20 hit points, which is equal to one red bar. You can stack multiple potions of the same kind, so they only take one inventory slot.



I made a spearate magic particle effect animation for smaller items like this one.

[Cuddly Khan]

This game looks so good! I love both CC and Isaac and if this game is like a mix of the two than I can't wait!!

[bigosaur]

While toying with a nice pose to drink potions...



...I figured I need to remove the cork (plug) from the vial. Looks pretty good now:



Added a small emotional touch to it

[Jubal]

Minor quibble, but surely once the drink leaves the character's lips the vial should then be empty?

Looks nice though - the staff thingy is pretty

[bigosaur]

Minor quibble, but surely once the drink leaves the character's lips the vial should then be empty?

Yes, that one bothers me as well. It's still work in progress, I plan to fix it soon. Thanks 

[bigosaur]

Poison buff animation is complete:



Hope you like the bubbles.

[Jubal]

It's nice.

...and I'm now actually wondering where the idea that poison is bubbly and light green comes from. It's so common in games that it's what our brains expect now, but where did that start? I'm pretty sure most actual poisons aren't bubbly, and aren't a sickly green colour either. I guess potions being bubbly might come from Shakespeare (Hubble, Bubble), but I've no idea about the colouration.

[Glaurung]

I think that the idea of poison being green has quite a long history, though I'm not sure I can pin it down at the moment. In modern fantasy it goes back at least as far as C. S. Lewis' The Silver Chair: as the Witch transforms into a serpent, she is described as "green as poison". Some trawling with Google suggests that phrase is well-established, presumably with a older history than 1953.

[Cuddly Khan]

I don't like how the staff changes hands at the start of the animation... but that's just a small problem.

[bigosaur]

I don't like how the staff changes hands at the start of the animation... but that's just a small problem.

You will be able to hold sword in one hand and the staff in the other and then use the staff to buff the sword with poison... let's just say it got really complicated in my code and it was easier to always lift the staff with the left hand

[bigosaur]

Here's an improved potion drinking animation:



and a nice particle effect for healing.