Devlog: Bridges, destruction and chaos

Less progress than I wanted, but more than I hoped for. I finished most of level 8 and the tiny midway sub-level between levels 8 and 9, which is a literal bridge between both zones.

May 28

The bridge sub-level contains a big battle that destroys most of the structure as the player tries to cross it. While the destruction of level 8 is mostly for show and happens in cutscenes, the bridge debris is animated by hand and is supposed to interfere with the player's actions.

Destruction of the bridge level

This area also contains the first moment in the game where the player will have to make an important plot decision. However, gameplay-wise, a wrong choice just means that the player is set back and then is allowed to try again, kind of like agreeing to join Mr. X in Streets of Rage. Yes, I'm very old.

I don't know if I should pack the bridge sub-level along with level 8, which is pretty short but would be thematically incoherent, or with level 9, which fits better but is already massive. I suppose it doesn't matter much, as long as it's fun to play and checkpoints work properly.

May 29

Level 8 is working well and, for the first time in the development, I actually got the size right. It doesn't feel claustrophobic to play. Then again, once I change the way the camera works, gameplay shouldn't feel as restrictive.

I fixed a small bug that made any request to shake the camera overwrite previous ones. I will also have to create a new type of breakable block for a specific timing section. And I still have to figure out how to design the boss area so it isn't a mess.

May 30

I found a new title for the game. I'll keep it under wraps for now, but I think it has a nice ring to it. It's a single Spanish word that is thematically appropriate for a game about a warrior cow. I spent the day designing two of the bosses of the game, which are also chaos gods of my lore - soon to be explained in my comic.

Meet the god of Suffering (met in level 5), and the goddess of Deceit (probably met in level 7). Almost every detail in their bodies is symbolic. There are other two gods of chaos, who I've drawn before and will appear in one or both of the last two levels.

Ágonos and Mendax.

Unfortunately, I went way too hard on their designs and now the other two feel a little lacking, which is a problem because one of them has already appeared in my comic and I wouldn't want to ruin the continuity. But I'll figure something out. I also spent literal hours trying to write Mendax's name as an ambigram and simply couldn't find a legible way to combine M and X.

May 31

I didn't have the mental energy to program, so instead I started modeling level 9, which is a castle corrupted by chaos. That means that most rooms make no sense and twist and deform in impossible ways. And you know what that means: non-euclidean geometry. Watch me go completely insane (and happy) as I try to build things specifically designed to confuse the player.