Today I worked on puzzle items for room 212, the AC unit and the candles. You might notice that the candles aren't numbered like they are in Killer 7, that's normal, the puzzles will be setup differently in Killer 2017! I think that tomorrow these elements will be done and I'll move over to other rooms in Angel.
Today I started working on the Air Conditioner in Room 212. That's not a lot, but oh well!
This weekend I worked on doors locked from the other side and added a few more rooms to the 2nd floor of the Celtic Building. I also added Yoon-Hyun and his hint system. I'll work on Room 212 tomorrow, but probably keep on adding rooms to the game. I'm almost at having 1 vial of thick blood, so I'll need to think about the upgrade system soon!
Today I worked on the second floor of the Celtic Building. I added a new enemy passive ability, Dodgy, to the Micro Smile, allowing them to dodge attacks. I also created a few more rooms and a new cutscene. I fixed the map layout issue and now I'm working on having locked doors!
Today I fixed a bug with using Mach Speed and changing floors. I also added a few rooms to the 2nd floor of the 'Celtic' building and created the Micro Smile, along with its blinding ability.
Tomorrow I'll add more rooms, but I also need to fix something with the map screen, the way it focuses on the start of the map instead of where you currently are isn't really good.
Today I worked on the Volatile Smile, fixed a few UI issues and created the first Harman's Room where you can't save - because Samantha can't be bothered to do it for you. I'm also thinking about nerfing Con's Burst Fire ability, because I use it all the time.
If you've played Killer 7, you know that you -can- beat the game with any character, but Dan's the best to use in most situations. I've rarely used the rest of the crew in my usual playthroughs, sticking with Dan. I don't want Killer2017 to be like that, I want all characters to be more or less balanced, but not identical. It's a weird balancing act.
Today I added a few more rooms to the 2nd floor of the building, I added the cutscene and started working on the Volatile Smile, a new kind of enemy that is just a variant of the regular Heaven Smile in the original game. Volatile Smiles explode instantly when you shoot them, if they're not killed outright.
Today I've added the indications to the map to show you where you go from one area to the next, I also added a few rooms and started working on the cutscene that comes after that. I'll keep on working on new rooms since there's no new mechanics to be added yet! At some points I'll have to code something related to upgrading stats, but I don't have thick blood vials yet. That also makes me wonder if you gain too little thick blood per fight?
oday I've worked on the map screen, I still have a bit of work to do, especially if I want to show where you can move from an area to another.
t's like I thought, after creating gameplay systems, all I'm left for is creating content. Okay, that's a lot of work, and not all gameplay systems are done, but right now I'm just making room after room after room. I don't have a perfect memory in regards to Killer 7, so I'm not sure how big Angel is, but I'm still working on it. I just got to the second floor, and now I need to work on my map screen so you can click on different areas to see the map there.
I also fixed a bug with Collateral Shot that made it stay on the character if you shot and missed. I also changed Dan's Cockiness so that it's a toggle on/off instead of being a one use ability that you need to re-cast over and over. It's free anyways, so it's not like having the player use it all the time would be counter to its design tenants.
Still working on soul shell and UI related stuff, didn't have much time today to work on the game, but this bit is almost done, I swear!
Still working on that first soul shell, going through some audio choices, animating UI, that kind of stuff.
Today I worked on the Soul Shell UI and thinking about how I would store this data, I also wondered how I'll make it so you need to do specific things in order to progress - talking to Travis so he unlocks the car's trunk, for instance.
Today I finished Mask's Shock Shell, an explosive attack that hits a whole row of enemies. Now that everything costing one vial of thin blood is done, I'm moving on to acquiring the first soul shell from the back of the car with Travis Bell in it. In opposition to the original game where you could only leave the elevator hall by the north exit when you've found the soul shell, I'm going to allow players to leave that way beforehand. I don't think I'll have much blocking that way. Spots where you need to solve a puzzle to progress will be cut off, of course, but I don't think I'll have this kind of arbitrary invisible wall.
Today I worked on Kevin's Acid Rain ability and Mask's Shock Shell ability. I also fixed a bug with the duplicator smile. I think that tomorrow I'll be done with Shock Shell - I still have to work on its row-clearing ability. Then I'll work on the rest of Angel, promise!
Today I worked on in-battle abilities, like healing and special powers for Garcian and Kevin. I'll still need to finish that one (and Mask's) and I'll be done with that bit of the game!
I took a small break for 'A Game By Its Cover 2017' but now I'm back on Killer 2017. Yesterday and today I've worked on the Mach Speed ability, which allows Con Smith to teleport to any previously visited Harman Room. I'm still wondering if that could break progression somewhere, but I'll deal with that issue when I get there. Tomorrow I'll add the few battle abilities that I'm missing right now, and then move on with the story!
Today I've worked on character initialization, collectible initialization and basic movement. You can now move the titular Layer Lady left and right and collect coins and Game Box Entertainment Systems in order to create more layers. The scoring system also works, so you can try to go for the high score! Now all that's left is for me to create a bunch of levels and interesting mechanics and this will be over! This is still the bulk of the work, so I'm not out of the woods yet!
Today I mainly worked on the core layering mechanics I'll be using in Layer Lady and I also more or less figured out what the main loop of the game will be. The main idea is that - as I had thought beforehand - you'll be moving multiple characters simultaneously in different environments, trying to collect as many coins as possible.
Here I am this year again participating to the A Game By Its Cover jam, hosted on itch.io at https://itch.io/jam/a-game-by-its-cover-2017. Last year, you might remember that I had made Gear Link, based on the Item Connect famicase cart. This year, my game will be named Layer Lady, and it's based on this cart right there.