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[CrayderStudios]

Update #9:


Hello everyone! Today is a big day for us and Wishmere. Character announcements and Greenlight announcements and no sleep (kidding... I think). Lots of exciting stuff these past few days!

First off, Wishmere has hit Steam Greenlight! This is the first step in being able to release the game, and we hope to release it to Steam, along with other platforms that we've been eyeing. First, we have to pass Greenlight; then there are a lot of exciting things in line after that. You can check out the page at: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=506763848. Do cast a vote and share it with you friends if you can!

Earle and Safford use their TeamUp Combination!​​

As for development, we've been working hard at adding all the Abilities and working on balance and the stage development. The game is now at a stage where it can be released as a beta! If all goes well, it should be very soon. We've also finalized our first TeamUp Combination! We hope it scores high on the wow-factor as its one of our favorite features. The quivering dynamic lighting on the beam was a lot of fun to get done, due to its 'shakiness'.

Spritz can control enemies from afar using his telekinesis.​

And finally, we've announced our fourth playable character: Spritz. Spritz is a lumbering giant who is turned into a robot and has the ability to cast forcefields and use telekinesis to defend himself (and his teammates) from enemy attacks; and also can be used to attack enemies. He's a little weak on the melee side of things, but has tons of tricks to get by and do some damage.


So, do check out our Steam Greenlight page for Wishmere and cast a vote. We're really excited to get the game out and hear everyone's feedback; but first: Greenlight! Thanks everyone.

[CrayderStudios]

Update #10:


What a great few days for Wishmere! Wishmere has been on Steam Greenlight for about 2 days now and it's been so exciting. We've all been working hard on the development of Wishmere for the past 4 months and we're thankful for everyone's feedback, good or bad. It's been a great feeling to get to share something we've been working on for this long, so thanks everyone for the support so far. If you haven't checked out Wishmere's Greenlight page, head over to http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=506763848 and cast a vote!

These few days we've been working on adding in the boss of the Space Station stage. He's a scientist that uses technology to become a robot. For his design, we've tried to incorporate some robots inspired by anime and Transformers. We couldn't quite decide on his stance, so here's a look as how we fared:

A few of sketches of the robot boss

Once we chose a stance, the details were filled out

The final product. Do you think we made the right selection?

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We also worked on getting the flow of the game set up, down to character interactions / conversations, hammering out everyone's meta (changing values for damage for instance, or an attack radius); just gearing up for our demo / Beta. Also, here's a quick bug that occurred during our playtesting that we found funny and a little reminiscent of Ranma.

Don't think she was supposed to turn into Earle there...​

Thanks again for the support and interest everyone!

[CrayderStudios]

Update #11:


Wishmere has been Greenlit! Thank you everyone for your support and interest in Wishmere over the course of our Greenlight campaign. It was an exciting and a stressful time, and we're happy that we made it through without much loss of sleep or sanity.


Now that we are through Greenlight, we aim to release a demo and an Ongoing Beta to the public very soon! Our demo will be free, with 1 or 2 characters playable over the course of 1 stage. The gameplay and features will be intact and will give players a good taste of what Wishemre is about. Our Ongoing Beta will be a progressive release with constant weekly updates, while we get feedback from players and try implementing a variety of things to see what works best for the game. We've got a lot of variances in mind, so we hope to involve the players with the process to see what is best!

We're very excited to move on to the Ongoing Beta phase of Wishmere.​​

For this week while monitoring the Greenlight campaign, we've worked on the UI and HUD end of things. We've upgraded the UI to a smoother and sleeker feel, and added in the menu screens as we head towards the release of our Ongoing Beta and demo combo.

The new UI is sleeker in design. ​​

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Also, we have continued to work on the character meta, Skills and Abilities. This is something we're taking a lot of pride in, because in Wishmere, the differences between the characters are intentional, and the Abilities they have are what rounds out their classes (Fighter, Sharpshooter, Support, and so on). For example, some characters excel from afar, while others protect their teammates while pushing enemies around towards the more melee centric characters. And while you fight, you'll build up your characters by upgrading different Skill sets to craft your own build. This is something we feel will bring an extra flavor to the game.

​Visual representations of a character's strengths and weaknesses.
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We'd like to do another dev log entry that will include the breakdown of the different terms and systems in Wishmere soon! Thanks!

[CrayderStudios]

Update #12:


Hello! How's everyone doing? Our apologies for being away for some time; as there was lots of Wishmere related dev work, admin and mountain climbing (literally). There have been tons of progress on the game, so let's begin.

After working on a Skill Upgrade matrix, so we can determine the potential builds characters can go into, we've implemented a Skill Upgrade system. By defeating bosses and exploring the stage, players collect Supercharged Hope Crystals (SHC for short). Players can upgrade their character's Skills into different builds. Some upgrades are more costly than others, but this is to achieve a nice balance between the characters and also keep things interesting for player's spending habits. Skill Upgrades can affect anything from walking speeds, character specific Abilities or even alter how an Ability works. We're hoping this will lead players to exploring the potential for each character and find the best builds.

Earle's upgraded Super Art 2 shoots two projectiles instead of 1

We've also worked hard on the second stage, the Space Station. This stage is quite different from a traditional beat 'em up, in that the main enemies and obstacles are projectile related, so it involves a lot of dodging and planning instead of running headlong into the fray. We're happy to say that we're planning to have our stages all have their own 'personality and design', both on an aesthetic level and from a gameplay level.

A need to navigate: a pure bullet storm!

And lastly, we're very close to releasing the Ongoing Beta version of Wishmere. Our Ongoing Beta is a combination of how Early Access functions, in that we'll be developing over time, and also draws inspiration from how fighting games balance their games (in their tests, they're called location tests / loketests), in that we plan to get player feedback as often as possible and try to shake things up with forms of A / B testing for some of the game's features. For those who would like to just try out the game first, we'll be releasing a free Alpha version of Wishmere too, where players can play through the Prologue stage, though without any Skill upgrades.

In our next post, we'd like to go through our earlier idea of a post that details the different terms and systems in Wishmere. Thanks for reading!

[CrayderStudios]

Update #13:

Get Wishmere on Steam here: http://store.steampowered.com/app/419020

We have fantastic news! Wishmere has officially launched as an Ongoing Beta on Early Access! You can get the game on our website, itch.io, Steam or Humble Store! If you get Wishmere on either our site or itch.io, you'll pick up the Hero Edition for the same price, which comes with a free Digital Artbook & Compendium when Wishmere fully launches)

For our Ongoing Beta program, we are looking to fine-tune and perfect the character balance and meta, while we tune the game to be as challenging as possible while we keep the game's difficulty realistic. To achieve this, we want to include the players as much as possible with discussions, possible A/B testing, implementing changes to the game, characters and meta, based on feedback from the community. As we're avid fighting game fans, we love the process of 'loke-tests' and beta tests, and getting feedback while incorporating changes based on feedback. We plan to update Wishmere every week / week-and-a-half, adding in new major and minor content, balance fixes and meta changes, making aesthetic updates along the way.

Dealing damage and avoiding enemy attacks are key

These past few weeks, aside from getting our Ongoing Beta / Early Access build ready, we've added in a Tutorial Mode based on focus testing feedback. This is a run-through of the game's core mechanics and is great for a new comer to the beat 'em up genre. We tried to keep it as intuitive as possible without making everything seem 'obvious'. We love the Training BGM done by our musician, Gas1312 too. What a legit-boss track! We also tuned the Training Mode for players to try out their combos on a training dummy (don't worry, he's used to taking a beating!)

It’s important to master what works for each class!

The exciting part of hammering out every characters' meta along with their Skill Upgrades took a lot of playthroughs to see what was exciting while keeping things fresh for every character. This part of the Ongoing Beta will be a continuous work-in-progress, as we try to make every Skill Upgrade matter, while balancing their costs and effectiveness; as well as the Skill Upgrade's impact on the shift of character meta. I know we've all played a game or two where one particular character upgrade was 'broken', and that's something we definitely want to avoid!

The Autoguard upgrade absorbs damage while you get to deal damage

We have a lot of exciting additions to come for Wishmere like: 3 more exciting characters, the full implementation of TeamUp Combinations (currently only Earle & Safford have theirs), crazy bosses and stages, more strategic parts of stages that require a little more thinking, and much more.

Thanks for reading everyone, and we're looking forward to the Ongoing Beta / Early Access ride along with you guys. Do check Wishmere out and let us know what you think!

[CrayderStudios]

Update #14:

Happy New Year to all! And to celebrate the new year, we've got our first update for Wishmere, packed with lots of changes. Once releasing Wishmere into Early Access, we got feedback from the community and are pleased to announce the Change Log for Update 1. Check out our new Wishmere Update 1 Video to see a quick rundown of what we've updated. It also features a combo video midway through, that should please fighting game fans!

Dove battles on the new stage, the Ice Wasteland.

We've added our next stage: Ice Wasteland. It features enemies from a legendary army that fight with more structure and strategy than other stages. There's snow, slippery ice floors, platforming and lots of tough enemies that pack their own surprises.

The game speed has been increased.

For Update 1, our goal was to make the game a little faster, give the player more defensive options and add more strategy and tension to combat. We sped up game in both in movement speed and in combat recovery, both to the playable characters and to the enemies. This gives the game a much faster pace; and this was a heavily requested change for the game!

Safford utilizes the Codex Barrier to ward off enemy attacks.

We also added two defensive tools in the forms of Codex Block and Codex Barrier. These can be performed at any time when grounded (besides taking damage) and will block enemy attacks. The Codex Block is more precise with its timing, while the Codex Barrier is an extended version of the Codex Block, and blocks everything thrown at the player. The downside is, this costs Super Meter to perform.


We also changed the HP system to to lifebars, so each enemy attack now does different damage and hitstun to the player. This makes the game less punishing for getting hit, but we also made it possible for the player to be comboed by enemy attacks-- so player will have to be careful when surrounded! It's a nice balance between having many opportunities to move around the battlefield instead of counting your health, but also makes a player weary to join crowds of enemies without thinking; which is something we wanted to place high importance on.  


On a side note, controller configuration / remapping was something that was very, very important to us; so we've taken these past few weeks to get the entire controller function to include remapping, multiple controllers, and even allowing a maximum of 2 players on a keyboard. Our solo dev (he's a crazy one) was extremely particular about these functions and sacrificed the lives of 2 gamepads for this function, so we hope the gamepad's lives are not in vain.


Thanks for reading everyone, do check out Wishmere in case you haven't already checked it out!

[ｂ∀ ｋｋｕｓａ]

isn't Earle a bit too overpowered? it seems like he is the only one to do infinite juggles. Isn't that gamebreaking?

[CrayderStudios]

isn't Earle a bit too overpowered? it seems like he is the only one to do infinite juggles. Isn't that gamebreaking?

One of Earle's advantages as the Fighter class is the ability to pull off long combos, though this is balanced against the fact that pulling off complex combos while being surrounded by enemies leaves him very vulnerable, and that his wall bounce punch can only loop 5 times. On the fifth loop, the opponent will slam into the ground, so it's actually not an infinite. While his combos are incredibly powerful, there aren't many opportunities to pull off a combo like that outside the occasional Sub-Boss.

Earle definitely shines in the video, but rest assured the other characters aren't slouches either! Thanks for watching man.

[CrayderStudios]

Update #15:



How is everyone? One month into the year already... who else thinks 2016 is moving a little fast? Wishmere has been out for about a month and so far we are moving the gameplay into a direction that we're very comfortable with. We'll be adding some core features / options into the game in the coming updates that will finish setting the foundation for Wishmere, so we're really looking forward to that.

Safford destroys a white barrel before facing Dr. Chaka.

Our second update (Update 2 – Variance) has gone live! For this past week, our main goals were to amend features by adding variance (hence the name!) and adding in features suggested by the community. By adding some variance in item drops and types of 'containers' that hold the item drops, it adds some randomization to the game. We've also implemented our different item drops such as Super Meter pickups and Supercharged Hope Crystals (used for Upgrades). Each 'container' has different drop percentages, so they are not just for aesthetic purposes!

Enemy lifebars give players the ability to target weakened foes.

As for suggestions by the community, we've added in visible HP bars for all enemies, so you know just how much punishment you're inflicting to the poor badguys. We feel that this is a great addition as it really adds some strategy and anxiety to get rid of the enemies that are near-death.

We've also made the defensive tools (both the Codex Block and the Codex Barrier) in the game more viable, by increasing the defensive active frames and decreasing the recovery time for both. We'd like the game to be a melding of both offense and defense, so it is important to get the defensive tools right, while keeping the transitions from defense and offense very easy.

Earle's new Super Art 3 is a devastating flurry of attacks.

And finally, we've added in all the Super Arts for the currently playable characters. As we launched the game with some super moves missing, we've now completed all the characters' movesets. We designed the Level 3 Super Arts to embody a character's meta, and added high amounts of flair to the moves. We hope they are visually pleasing. Our favorite right now is Earle's, due to it's explosiveness and characterization!

Thanks for reading, have a good weekend everyone!

To view the Change Log for Wishmere: Update 2 – Variance, check it out here.

To read up on the gameplay in-depth for Wishmere, check out the Official Wiki.

[CrayderStudios]

Update #16:

It’s another Wishmere update! Our third update (titled ‘The Feast) has gone live!

‘The Feast’ features our newest character, Pandy entering the mix. Pandy is a vampiric ninja (as in, a vampire who is also a ninja) with an attitude. She’s an aggressive and very mobile damage dealer that has the lowest HP in the game. She’s full of offensive Abilities and utility Super Arts, making her the ultimate killing machine! She has great range on her Abilities and a teleport that helps her get around the battlefield; all working towards her core strategy: don’t get hit—hurt people. Check out the video above of Pandy in action!

Pandy mauling a few unfortunate enemies.​

We also added in an exciting and challenging mode to the game, called Arcade Mode, which is currently in beta. In Arcade Mode, the player selects from a number of ‘Bases’ filled with enemies. Each base has their own rounds of enemies and bases varying from easy, medium or hard difficulties. When the player progresses from round to round in a base, they’re rewarded with random item drops and Skill Crystals to upgrade their character. We thought this mode of play would be best for players that want to jump right into the combat. We’ll be adding more bases and enemies as we develop!

Dove arrows an enemy and breezes through to the next round.
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For our next update, we’re looking to be adding more characters, enemies and more bases to Arcade Mode to fill out the game’s feel and meta. We’ll also look to add the Versus Mode, where players will get to fight their friends in battles with up to 4 players, into the build. Thanks for reading!

For view the Change Log for Wishmere: Update 3 – The Feast, check it out here.
To read up on the gameplay in-depth for Wishmere, check out the Official Wiki.

[CrayderStudios]

Update #17:

GDC is on the horizon! How has life been treating everyone? With GDC coming up, everyone must be excited. We've been on turbo for the last couple of weeks, trying to churn out lots of content for our update.

Update 4 – Fate has just launched and we're really excited for it! For this update, we added a core gameplay mechanic into the game called the Fate system. The Fate gauge fills up over time and when it is full, you'll be able to use the moves from the Fate system: the Fate Advance and the Fate Burst. Performing either move will deplete the Fate gauge and it will begin refilling once more.

The Fate Advance gives Safford time to unleash a flurry of offense.

The Fate Advance slows down time for enemies for a few seconds, moving two-times as slow as usual. During this period, the player can move around as normal, leading to vicious offensive potential or get them out of trouble when taking damage. Fate Advance can be performed at any state (aside from taking damage when playing Versus Mode, done for balance reasons). We really love the sound effect used for the Fate Advance and think it sounds unique but at the same time not too jarring during gameplay.

With Dove's Guard Meter running low, she utilizes the Fate Burst to buy her some space.

While the Fate Advance leads to limitless possibilities for both offense and defense, the Fate Burst is purely for defensive purposes. When in a defensive state (taking damage or blocking), the player can initiate an emergency burst of a forcefield, knocking away all enemies. The Fate Burst is fast to execute and very wide in its range, making it a great tool and a keep-out maneuver.

We're also been working hard on finishing all character attacks, from a variety of Normal Attacks to completing all their Super Arts. Every character's moveset is structured to fit their class and their meta, and done in a way that every character has their own advantage and disadvantage. We'll be working on balancing the characters as we progress but man, did it feel good to finish their movesets!

Lots of content was done from this update (from boss tweaks to more enemy variety) but the one of the biggest ones was the addition of Versus Mode. Now, players can take to battling their friends in local multiplayer combat with up to 4 players. This was a feature we were very anxious to get out, due to the character difference and the multiplayer nature; we felt that it was quite natural to have a multiplayer mode pitting the players against each other. Looking at the character roster, we'll be keeping a close eye on keeping everyone balanced but each with its own strategy and reward.

Thanks for reading, and do check out the Change Log for a full list of changes (it might be a little long, our apologies!)

To view the Change Log for Wishmere: Update 4 – Fate, check it out here.

To read up on the gameplay in-depth for Wishmere, check out the Official Wiki.

[CrayderStudios]

Earle and Dove battling in the updated Base of Darkness mode.

We're happy to make the announcement that Wishmere is back! We know it's been a while since our last content update, we spent some time to take a step back and have an honest look at Wishmere as a whole while thinking of features and design principles that would make Wishmere more enjoyable to all.  

We've made a whole bunch of new changes to Wishmere, including working on the highly requested Online Mode, which allows players to play each other all over the world. It's a big task, especially nailing down the synchronization of player actions to be as precise as possible but we're soldiering on.

In addition to the Online Mode, we've also added a plethora of new stuff (completely revamped gameplay, a new soundtrack and more) to Wishmere, more of which you can read about on our website or check out our Steam announcement.

[naezith]

I just watched character trailers, I really loved the combo feel in this game! I didn't know animations can be cool when pixel art size is that small.

You should get two top-notch fighting game players and record some insane footage. I am waiting here. 

[CrayderStudios]

Thanks a bunch for the kind words naezith!

It'd be a pleasure to have any of the fighting game community, what more a top level pro player to even try our game.

We're looking forward to getting a good chunk of the characters released too, so maybe that'll add some spice to character selection.

[CrayderStudios]

Sabson is the newest character in Wishmere!

Hey guys! We're working hard on getting the newest update to Wishmere out within a week or two. Coming with the update is our newest character Sabson! He's an all powerful magician whose mastery over magic gives him the ability to counter any attack thrown at him. We want to create new characters that each bring a new playstyle to the game so that players can make distinct character choices that really fit with their playstyle. You can watch the rest of the character trailers on our Youtube channel.

Sabson effortlessly counters Earle.

[Kanavall]

This looks great!! I really like the character fighting animations and specialties. I really think you guys did a phenomenal job with this. From the gifs and videos you've posted, it's making me exciting to play it! Great work guys, keep it up!

[CrayderStudios]

This looks great!! I really like the character fighting animations and specialties. I really think you guys did a phenomenal job with this. From the gifs and videos you've posted, it's making me exciting to play it! Great work guys, keep it up!

Thanks a lot Kanavall! We payed extra attention to character animations. We wanted to make sure the animations had personality as well as impact, so that the game would become both exciting to play and watch.

[Kanavall]

Thanks a lot Kanavall! We payed extra attention to character animations. We wanted to make sure the animations had personality as well as impact, so that the game would become both exciting to play and watch.
[/quote]

I saw that, nice unique touch! It's very pleasing to watch too, very smooth.

[CrayderStudios]

These schoolkids get really excited when a fight breaks out.

The huge Wishmere update looms around the corner, as we've just about finished up and we're testing the game rigorously to snuff out those irritating bugs. One of the many additions in the upcoming update is a new stage, the school. This is the location where our heroes, the teenagers of Hazelroad High, initially find themselves before ascending into the Wishmere.

The new stage, along with a plethora of other changes, will be documented and released once the update drops. We've got a lot more additions, such as new enemies, a completely redone combat system, a rehauled Base of Darkness mode and tons more.


The update will be dropping next week, so keep a look out for it!

[CrayderStudios]

The Update is out! After months and months of toiling, our newest update is finally out. We stepped back, took a look at our game and asked what we could honestly add to make it better. We spent a lot of time adding things that we thought would improve the game from an aesthetic point of view, gameplay point of view and for the game's balance.  Wishmere now plays much closer to a lovechild of the Smash series and the Blazblue series.

Giving them a little Thunder and Lightning

Some key things that were added: entire gameplay overhaul, HUD changes, presentation of game (portraits, lighting), a brand new OST from Zack Parrish, new character and enemies, quality of life improvements.

You can pick it up on Steam, Humble or itch.io. Do let us know what you think, even if you've not picked it up, all feedback is much appreciated!

The amount of things changed was kind of insane and we thought it'd be nice for us to share that insanity (because it's nice to share). For a list of all the changes (we tried to keep it condensed), check out this post.