Month: April 2020

Post #23: The Early Days Part 3

One big challenge for Slayin’ 2 was to make truly unique characters.  Slayin’ had a few “too similar” characters (I’m looking at you Knave) so the goal was to not repeat that with the sequel.  The first character to hit the page was Princess Rainbow Sparkles:

What started out as a character to appeal to my young daughter, Princess Rainbow was originally going to ride a unicorn steed (named Sparkles).  The unicorn would do all the actual fighting while the princess sat elegantly in her saddle.  But the logistics of such a large character proved to be a major headache early on (yay prototyping).  Ultimately, she became a princess riding a unicorn-head-on-a-stick toy.  It felt more unique and also more like something a kid would do.  She would imagine she was riding a unicorn, but since the horns on the toy were real, they would have actual magical powers to use in combat.  This opened up a lot of fun rainbow themed attack ideas.  Her play style relies on range in most cases.  But since many of her attacks move in arcs, you need to learn the spacing required to land them properly.

Finding and unlocking the princess takes a little work, but it is worth the effort.  Being a member of the royal family, you can imagine the general area of the map that she is found in.  But a certain item is required to gain access to her.

Post #22: The Early Days Part2

The moment you start a sequel, you have to ask yourself what elements from the original game should make a return.  The first thing to be examined were the enemies:

Some of the basic movement patterns still made sense, especially for the earlier areas of the game where players were getting used to things.  But for more challenging enemies, the patterns would need to be a bit more complex.  Difficulty balance is a tricky thing.  What might seem like a trivial addition to an enemy might actually play very differently than what you expect.  This is made more complex when you mix and match enemy types.  I tried to initially make small differences between enemy types so that while each area would have new monsters to slay, they would bring some familiar behavior from a previous area.

For example, movement patterns could start out as simple straight lines.  But then the straight lines could change to incorporate pauses and bounces.  Sure, a bouncing enemy on its own might seem like a similar threat to an enemy that moves in a straight line.  But pair it with an enemy that shoots a projectile and you suddenly have to worry about jumping a little more.

Many of these patterns developed as the game was created.  It is difficult to know what patterns will offer enough challenge without being too much.  And in many cases, an enemy that was designed for one area with a specific look would get redesigned for another area if they didn’t fit the difficulty curve they were planned for.  So many of the advanced enemy behaviors I had planned felt too difficult once I had them in the game, and they would get pushed into later and later areas.  Sadly, I should have worked with much simpler art in the beginning so I could rearrange these behaviors in a more modular way.  But when you design, for example, an undead enemy you had planned for a Graveyard, but then find their behavior would work better in a later swamp area, you have to rethink the enemy to fit the swamp theme.

On the whole, I think the world of Slayin has a distinct cast of monsters.  I worked very hard on giving them a place in their world.  Each location was built to offer a new challenge.  And with all the unused creatures, Slayin 3 will definitely have a pile of ideas to build on. 😉

Post #21: The Early Days

With Nintendo approval around the corner, it is amazing to see how far Slayin’ 2 has come in 3 years.  I thought it would be interesting to look back at the first sketches that were made of some of the basics in the game.  BEHOLD: PAGE 1 !!!!

The Knight was always going to make a return, but with a much larger range of abilities.  Sure, he can run into enemies, but the plan was to allow enemies that did more than float around the screen waiting to be popped like balloons.  It also felt like his shield should have more of a functional role.  Another early idea was to have a second Knight that focused on using a lance.   This would eventually become the Lancer character.

Both of these characters were meant for aggressive play styles.  Trying to find a way to differentiate them came a bit later, but at this stage, the idea of a lance felt like it had potential enough to justify a new character.