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[Juan Raigada]

Weekly progress update (3 of 3):

Well, I did some paperwork (Heart&Slash is in the process of being a registered trademark, we'll see if that becomes useful at all...) and finished one more weapon (the electric shield, a somewhat more aggressive shield) and did some legwork on another (the BaseBat, medium damage but high crowd control).

I don't have time for images now, but this brings the total of weapons left down to 4.5. One more week, one more week...  (I'm really looking forward to work on new enemies, which the game is sorely lacking now).

[Juan Raigada]

Weekly Progress Update (1 of 1):

This week I have been focused on finishing the weapons (that's why there was no devlogging). The task is complete, so now I can head off to work for the last week before I make Heart&Slash my full-time project (which is going to mean a lot of devlogging here!).

I'm off to update the first post to show the current project of the game.

As for a new playable, well, it keeps being pushed back. There are many col things in the works, mostly sound and music, and I want to wait until that's done before releasing anything, since the new version is going to be much closer to playable, and I want the feedback I get to be as useful as possible...

[Christian]

Weekly Progress Update (1 of 1):

This week I have been focused on finishing the weapons (that's why there was no devlogging). The task is complete, so now I can head off to work for the last week before I make Heart&Slash my full-time project (which is going to mean a lot of devlogging here!).

I'm off to update the first post to show the current project of the game.

As for a new playable, well, it keeps being pushed back. There are many col things in the works, mostly sound and music, and I want to wait until that's done before releasing anything, since the new version is going to be much closer to playable, and I want the feedback I get to be as useful as possible...

I found the mouse/keyboard controls kind of difficult, especially using the mouse. The camera was very loose and made maneuvering anywhere a chore. Besides that rest of the keyboard controls were fine, but I felt the camera needed to be tightened

Every other aspect was great fun

[Juan Raigada]

I found the mouse/keyboard controls kind of difficult, especially using the mouse. The camera was very loose and made maneuvering anywhere a chore. Besides that rest of the keyboard controls were fine, but I felt the camera needed to be tightened

Every other aspect was great fun

Thanks for the feedback! I agree that the camera sensibility with the mouse is a little too much. I will try to tighten it for the alpha.

[Juan Raigada]

Weekly Progress Update:

So this was the first week that I'm back full-time into Heart&Slash. I was hoping to update this devlog every day, but I was busy getting a ton of things in place.

However, the week was productive. Very productive.

After finishing implementing all the player related content for alpha, the next milestone  is to implement the enemies and the scenarios. I started with the enemies, since I need them to design and start to balance the levels.

Previously, I had three enemies implemented with three parts each. The plan is to have 5 enemies with 5 parts each.

This week I have fully implemented one enemy, with 6 different parts (4 very different and 2 that are variations of 2 of those). Not only that, but I also made 4 versions of the enemies, so I could color code the resistances/weaknesses of the enemies.

This, for example, is the basic enemy with a taser-lance and a shield:

And this is the Rubber enemy (slower, bigger and weak to fire), with a pair of swords:

And the crash test Dummy version. Weak to electricity but very strong against physical:

The weapons, sword, lance and pair of swords are self explanatory (the dual swords make the enmy attack in a three-strike combo).

The shield, however, can use some animations to visualize. Notice the shield also confers the enemy and evade (this enemy is the ceramic variant, weak to physical attacks -which are most- but faster. Brittle and dangerous):

And this is the shoulder-RocketPad. There are one rocket and two rockets versions -for now-:

It's amazing how productivity has improved now that I'm full time in this.

Next week It's holidays, but starting January 1st I will start on the last enemy as well as bring the first three enemies into parity with the new ones (they need polish, more parts and color coded variants).

[Fervir]

BLAM!

[absenter]

Wow, this game looks amazing! Good work.

[Juan Raigada]

First of all, thanks for the encouragement, guys!!!!

And now for our schedulled programming:

Weekly Progress Upload (1 of ?):

I have been three full days working on this already. This is what I have to show for those: the Heavy Lifter...

As you can see, this guy is a little bigger than our other enemies, and that required a lot of specific functionality to be developed. It's all cool now, and this paves the way for boss implementation later on...

Another cool thing of this guy is that you can ride it (currently if doesn't attack you if you are on top)...

But of course, this could also happen:

The plan for the next couple of days is to finish off the variants on this guy. Then I will finish all other three enemies (they need a fast AI pass and some more variants each) and I will release a playable with a full Alpha parts+weapons+enemies set.

After that it's gonna be level design/bugfixing and polish for a month to bring the game to a somewhat fun shape!

And a Kickstarter in February, I think...

[Christian]

Awesome, love the enemy designs

Too many damn Kickstarters though. H&S, Rain World, Path of Shadows...I have to buy textbooks, you know! Eager awaiting this campaign

[Juan Raigada]

Weekly Progress Update (2 of ?):

The Heavy Lifter marches on, with armored and flying versions already in-game. Tomorrow, when the enemy is fully developed, I will show some more images.

Also, Heart&Slash now has music! I am working with the awesome Michael Chait to make the soundtrack for the game.

Have a listen to the first track here!: https://soundcloud.com/michael-chait-music/hearts-love

[Juan Raigada]

Weekly Progress Update (3 of ?):

A sneak peek at where the Heavy Lifter stands now:

That's a lifter with armor (the black and yellow stripes) and a tank turret. Currently the possible variants are:

-Standard
-Flyer
-Armor
-Turret
-Armor+Turret
-Flying+Turret

I'm going to implement a new part this afternoon (hopefully, I'm tight on time) and the Heavy Lifter will be done. I have decided against resistance for this guy since it's base health is so big resistances will make it tiresome to defeat.

[BomberTREE]

This looks so fun to play 

[Juan Raigada]

Weekly Progress Update (4 of?):

Well, here you can see a flying variant of the Heavy Lifter with MissilePads...

Notice the pads, unlike the Turret, allow for the Lifter to spawn with extra enemies on top.

So the final variant count for this first pass of the lifter is:
-Standard
-Flyer
-Armor
-Turret
-Missiles
-Armor+Turret
-Armor+Turret+Missiles
-Armor+Missiles
-Flying+Turret
-Flying+Turret+Missiles
-Flying+Missiles

Which is a little bit less than I wanted, but enough for now. Most likely I will  make new variants of this guy for levels 2 and 3 (remember everything you have seen is this Devlog is for the fisrt level only).

On other news, I have listened to a preliminary sample of the second track (the combat music) and I can't wait to have a final version to show you guys...

[Christian]

(remember everything you have seen is this Devlog is for the fisrt level only).

Uh...what? That's awesome. Can't wait to see what other additions and new areas will come later

[Juan Raigada]

(remember everything you have seen is this Devlog is for the first level only).

Uh...what? That's awesome. Can't wait to see what other additions and new areas will come later

Remember, though, that the game will be only 3 levels long unless I get quite a lot of extra funding (I want less levels with more stuff per levels. I'm against padding...).

[Juan Raigada]

Weekly Progress Update (5 of ?):

Ok, so I finished work on the FlyBots. This means 4 variants (with different resistances) and 5 different parts. Because the FlyBots are so small, they don't have as many part combinations as other enemies.

This is what I have:

Top Left: Ceramic Flybot (faster and smaller, but very vulnerable to physical attacks) with a Saw (similar to the drill you have already seen in this devlog, but it does hit you even if the bot is not attacking (the drill needs to be attacking to cause damage).

Top Right: Two Dummy FlyBots (*very* resistant to physical attacks but weak to electricity. somewhat resistant to fire -but not as much as to physical-). The Top FlyBot carries an Enhancer. It makes the bot try to hover above another enemy, creating that particle effect and making that enemy invulnerable as long as the FlyBot remains on top.

Bottom Left: Rubber Flybot (weak to fire) without a (barely visible) Cannon. The cannon is the weapon that causes those blue explosions all over the early videos.

Bottom Right: Regular FlyBot (no weaknesses or resistances) with a Face Shield and a Drill. The face shield breaks at the fourth hit, so it offer limited protection. The drill is used by the FlyBot by launching towards the player.

Up to now, FlyBots were kind of annoying, since they would attack out of nowhere and frustrate the player. Now, enemies not on camera don't attack (this is done by attack, so I can override it for some special attacks). This makes the FlyBots much more fun to play against...

This leaves two enemies to complete before I delve into level generation/design for the Alpha...

[Juan Raigada]

Weekly Progress Update (1 of ?):

Ok, so I have been hammering at the last enemies to be built. I have the color variants for the BigGrunts Done. All that's left is the two bodyparts and enemies will be finished. Expect a new playable soon after that.

No images today (I will introduce the BigGrunts tomorrow once they are done) but I wanted to share the new piece of music Michael finished.

https://soundcloud.com/michael-chait-music/battle-with-heart

It's the combat music and I think it sounds really cool!

[Indie4Fun]

I love the flybots!! I think you are making a quite good job here!

[Juan Raigada]

Weekly Progress Update (2 of ?):

This is mildly upsetting, since I was supposed to finish enemies today but it seems now it won't be happening until tomorrow. I still have a bodypart left to do for the BigGrunt, but I have an appointment today and I can't finish it (it should take 2-3 hours).

However, part of why I'm taking so long is because I'm trying to bugfix and polish as much as possible and add functionality to the enemies.

Tomorrow, after I finish the new bodyPart for the enemy (it's going to be a couple of Power Globes) in the morning, I will take some time to polish the combat/balance the enemies. They are way too hard right now. Part of it is because battling more than 2-3 different enemies makes the pacing very chaotic and hard to predict. If the enemies are the same, things work themselves out (they tend to attack at about the same time, and evading them is similar, so there's more control.

I'm looking forward to releasing a playable (which will be very hard and unpolished, since there's LOADS of new content, but I'm torn on whether to start the level generation/design to add the much needed variety to the scenery, or spend 3-4 days tweaking combat and enemies so the game is more playable.

Probably I'll do the later, though.

Oh, but in case you though you had clicked just to read some text, here's a cool GIF of what I've been working on today. The Test Dummy BigGrunt with a Chainsaw:

[Juan Raigada]

Weekly Progress Update (3 of ?):

So finally enemies are done (minus some tweaking/balancing).

I'm going to do two post to introduce the enemies we have left. First, the BigGrunts:

Top Left is the Ceramic one. This one is somewhat smaller and faster, and makes it not such a heavy enemy as other variants of the BigGrunt.

Bottom Left you see the ChainSaw and a Dummy BigGrunt. It's the same one you can see in motion in the post above .

Top Right is a boring old regular BigGrunt with two HammerHands. These guys do two attacks in a row. And fast attacks at that, if somehow short reaching.

And Bottom Right the Rubber BigGrunt. I have set the scale to 1.25, so it's quite bigger, slower and has more hitpoints. Better attack him with a fire weapon...