I consider this design to be a blend of all the previous designs and everything about it so far just feels right. Hopefully it works just as well when animated in 3D.

I’ve been adding a lot of things I originally didn’t plan for that have really pushed back my project time (3D, Shadow Mapping, etc..) but as I stated, I’m striving for quality. If I was willing to make the game longer, I would think a Xbox-Live Arcade release would definitely be plausible.

Samba of the Wolves is the first game I attempted to make boss battles unique. Blocking Ivy and throwing rocks at Violet was a nice try for a first time but it didn’t play out very well.  There was also, Archie who was vulnerable to being hit in the back which also felt like a cheap gimmick.

Dream Master ditched the idea of unique bosses and really you were just left fighting harder versions of regular opponents. I think bosses were too hard actually about halfway through. The 3 colored Felix’s at the end is unique are someways but hitting the Felix that matches the light color is still pretty cheap.

Tandem Tales was pretty well done given the nature of the game. Trickster and his 3 colored bands was my first attempt at a boss fight that didn’t have any fighting. There are some things I could definitely have done to improve it and I could have made it more obvious that the bands will hurt you when fully lit but all that aside it works just as I wanted it to. Super Ego still wasn’t much different from the regular guys but aside from not giving enough clues on how to beat him, I think that fight was also well crafted.  In truth however, his strategy would probably be more suitable for a special enemy in the game or mini-boss more so than a boss.

Tale of the Night only has one boss and because it’s the latest game I won’t get too into specifics but I think Haggard’s fight turned out very well. If the series was still as focused on fighting, I wouldn’t mind every boss fight being like this but with events and attacks being unique to each boss. What I did with haggard was FAR from the limit of the system. There’s a lot I stripped away from the fight because they required parts of the game engine that I hadn’t made yet. Those parts will resurface next game. In the original fight with Haggard there was much less hand to hand combat.

Lithodora of Despair will try and pick up where Tale of the Night left off in boss fights originally. Also, due to the adventurous aspect of the game, I’d like to try and reintroduce strategic elements for some boss fights. I don’t have much experience in boss fights so I won’t promise a spectacle but you’ll definitely see some more effort in the field.  If the player doesn’t have an adrenaline rush during big bosses I haven’t done my job.

It may be some time before I have any actual screens. I’m taking a more, professional route more by showing nothing until I think it’s final and no graphics in the game are final at this point. I’m pretty sure that blue sky won’t appear in the game.
On a side note, I sometimes go back and experiment with music a little bit. I’m pretty disappointed with my lack of variety and repetition. At the time I was just happy I made could make my own music. For practice I’ve been playing with orchestrated music, once I get a feel for that I’ll probably go back a bit and blend in some of the catchier instruments with it. I’m certainly no musician, but I think I can pull something off with a bit more attention applied.

The controls are relatively the same at the moment, with A for jumping and X for attacking. I can’t say more because nothing has been confirmed but it’s safe to expect that you’ll be using the Right Trigger a lot, and it won’t be for blocking as that’s likely to be removed.

Lastly if you enjoyed the classical restart the whole stage if you die approach, (cricket chirps), then you may be a bit disappointed here to. I plan to try and keep the game difficult but without punishing the player by redoing large portions of the stage. In short, assume checkpoints to be added.

One more big that I must reiterate. There will be NO MULTI-PLAYER MODES. This time single-player will be getting my utmost care.

There’s another reason for the lack of updates though. I think me going on and on about the features doesn’t really say much about how good the game will be and it’s likely leaving me a little flat. So I’m banning myself from posting little things like clouds and billions of Felix redesigns and the website will only post content, interesting features that I can show through pictures, and special posts about what’s going on.

One interesting thing to try perhaps would be one piece of art on a weekly or monthly basis via deviant art. (Which is outdated AGAIN!)

In short, it’s time I begin the promotion aspect of things. But for those interested in things that probably only interest me. Here’s one last bit. I’m working on hair that moves , OoOOOooo as if it’s never been done before!! : j

The sky isn’t finished but I have the key idea of what I want in place. It seems very generic from the picture but it’s actually how it moves that makes it interesting. When will I start posting video? Probably when the first level is in playable form. Starting this week I’m going to begin working towards that. I’ll lay out my base graphics and slowly improve on them as I go along as opposed to trying to perfect things as I do them. This move would’ve been unacceptable with characters because looking at the characters long enough would inevitably screw up my perspective, invoking a design change. It’s happened enough times for me to know.

Ah one more thing! My source for these neat little clouds is the following:

Source: Little Box Of Ideas

Now that I’m over the hump, I’m think I’m finally going to look into that grass shader. I really just wanna get all my graphics testing out the way now.

Everyone is probably still gawking over the E3 media right now, but still, I’d like to talk about 3 different Es which are a detriment to direction my game is going in. To do that, I’d really like to go into the source of my inspiration for these elements, Zelda.

I’m truly CERTAIN you could never tell it, but Zelda has been a hallmark in my design when making the series. The closest game to probably relay it the most would probably be Samba of the Wolves. I remember playing Four Swords Adventures a lot during that time and while, once again, none of those elements are likely to be visible in the end product, I think the spirit of it is there in the level design. Speaking of which, I’m still just begging to a game where the DS connects to a console, I don’t even really care what I’m making I just wanna do it!

Anyhoo, the three key works which I like to tag Zelda for, exploration/ environments, equipment, and epic are what I feel is missing from the project. To an extent, it’s been on purpose as I’ve always said to myself  “This is just a demo, I’ll do it in the main version.” Unfortunately, if I don’t take things up a level, there won’t be a main version. What you’ll find in this game, are the missing pieces from the others.

Environments

I never got to tackle the free roaming nature of the series. The large world, strange characters, and surrounding events in the environment all seem so new from what I’ve presented. I can’t go full bloom this but  there will be free roaming points spread throughout the game akin to Zelda in-between temples but on a small scale. The beginning of Tandem Tales is probably my best example of this, but that was at best a watered down version of the concept.

Equipment

I’ve always like the idea of equipping items with functionality and knowing when to use those  tools later on. Unlike Link however, the logic based nature of the Felix series prevents Felix from holding a bunch of items at once. Yes, I’m taking my fantasy world a bit seriously but that’s the magic of it and it really only helps me think of new ways of how equipment can work. In short a “magic bag of tricks” is out of the question. Felix adopts mostly a “Macguyver” like spirit using various items scattered around the world for a brief period. Any specialized equipment like a jet pack or something is likely to be used at set durations of the game. I like the idea of slowly collecting equipment and using what you’ve learned to proceed; while I can’t do that directly, I can do it on a low level.

Epic

I’ve seen the word tossed around a lot, but The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of the Time is the most epic game I’ve played to date. That sense of adventure is something missing from the many games today where you’re completely immersed in the experience. Being an Indie Game, it feels impossible to immerse a player in a game  2 hours or so in length. This won’t stop me from trying though. I’m not expecting some tale that will cause hoards of players flocking to the boards writing fan-fiction and trying to decrypt the world and the characters, but I want the core for something like that to be there. I want a story that makes you interested in what’s occurring. I want characters that are living and breathing not just pawns to help the story along. I want the deep dark despair of Lithodora to shower you in sorrow  in rain from a cold dead sky. Although gloomier than usual, I  just want a complete and immersing experience that finally shows off the story properly. At the heart of it all will still be the cheery helpful fox, and his glamorous yet scornful counterpart.

This isn’t some goal to repackage elements of a series I love, but rather to find those elements within my own series and present it in a unique way. In a way, my past plans are plans for the future.

I’m trying to achieve the look of a sprite I modified a month or so ago. It seems to be the perfect representation of the character, but of course that won’t seem to stop changing! But I’ll take wanting him to look more cartoonish this time around  as a sign that I’ve found a happy medium.

On a last note, I’ll try and start posting real news at some point. I have the habit of using the site as a journal.