Anonymous asked:
If we did, we’d respawn in short order!
But, really we are just in a brief period of getting some dev work done and determining what to focus on for some of this year. Not always a ton to show that is easy to appreciate.
Some in-game shots of new things.
Seen the Chryssy battle? Well not only does Lyra shoot the burst, but also some bouncy, exploding acid orbs on her charge shot.
Raining hearts down upon Lyra. Still an early work-in-progress.
It’s been a while - it’s time for an update of progress, failures, but also potential.
Earlier this year at BABSCon, our boss-rush style demo was playable for the 3-days there only (although you can watch it). Chrysalis was the highlight of the demo, as she was really polished into an enjoyable, challenging fight. The rest of the bosses weren’t nearly as finished, but now we have 4 more bosses that are halfway there and are just waiting to take the spotlight. And what are those bosses without weapons to go with them? There happens to be 3 already in, with another just about ready.
So Lyra’s got some pew-pew and some meanies to fight - but, (oh, we know) those still don’t make a game. Behind the mechanical fun is the story tying it together. MegaMare X has a whole a light-hearted jaunt written-up that’s just missing one thing: actually being in the game.
The alpha mentioned in the previous Oct update has goals to achieve all the above. But also ensures that we have everything in place to glue it all together.
Looking back, we had a series of small failures in our earlier parts of development. Problems we didn’t even realize we had. There would be so much writing, conceptualizing, and not actually working in-game with things that they’d get lost in the shuffle or even just some of the simple things wouldn’t be done. We just now have the capability to properly place items, and fully scriptable cutscenes are soon to come.
It’s nice to say that we’ve finally turned that around and that we feel that we’re on the right track. Unfortunately, our past failures have meant backtracking that has taken time and effort away from the artistic pipeline we once had. But that’s a challenge for another day soon. And that’s a day when this alpha is ready to drive us the rest of the way through into shaping the game we’ve always envisioned.
As per providing more regular updates, here’s one for the end-state of September into the first part of October. This really goes hand-in-hand with progress since early August, but we’ll get to that shortly.
The team is working towards an internal alpha with specific goals. This alpha covers the major game features through its core mechanics and progression parts of the gameplay. Lately, we’ve gotten the initial stages for the intro and what we call the ‘primary’ stages (the ones you choose which in order to play).
These stages done are only in the initial phase of development, and the work to be done afterwards is nothing to laugh at. Iteration on the stages is needed to find ways to really make them fun, to flow well, and make art assets. There are also a few more pieces of the game already done, but not yet a part of the stages. Some examples are: integrating the bosses into the stages, placing upgrades, unlocking the weapons rather than just having them, and implementing a proper save/load mechanism to continue play.
Unfortunately the team has shrunk and we’re only slowly pushing forward on this front of game design and development. These stages have been in progress since early August and working towards similar goals set, but with multiple major personal events arising, it’s been tough to keep working to a regular cadence. But despite these factors, we’re still going to make the best game we can and are more on track than ever.
Sometimes, it just has to look epic.
Courtesy of our spriter Noia.
One more fanart for your weekend viewing. A vectored and shiny version of our Adagio boss. The design is originally by Underpable and this vector by Mit-Boy looks fantastic—she’s ready to blow out your eardrums!
Modern Adagio, by Mit-Boy (originally MegaMare X Adagio, by underpable)
One of our own artists wanted to make a little something special. If none of you have met our version of Chrysalis, you should know that she is one toughy to beat! But Lyra’s ready to take her on.
First up for some fanart, an absolutely amazing humanized version of Lyra with her MegaMare X armor. Pretty spot-on for the details. I can’t wait to reveal the final armour and see what might come of it!
To start things off nicely, here’s an internal shot of concept artwork for a stage! This is for the underwater stage we are working on. If any of you have seen Adagio, or played her in the alpha, she’ll be the boss there, and some of this will be her home.
This is concept artwork just prior to working on the actual in-game tilesets that will be based on them. Not everything needs it, as some references already work or went straight from general concepts to tiles. But when we can, we make these ‘platform’ concepts to get a good feel for what it’s going to actually end up looking like.
Platform concepts, by ChickenWhite
Anonymous asked:
Hi again, Enrique!
For developing MegaMare X, we use several programs. The game itself is written in our own C/C++ engine developed by SaltyJustice. Likewise, scripts use our own engine calls, and we even have an internally customized version of [Tiled](http://www.mapeditor.org/) for making the stages. Several other libraries are used, but the game itself is OpenGL rendered.
When it comes to artwork, it’s up to the individual artist, and we manage the project using a combination of Trello and Skype/Mumble chat.