^ agreed, this may become a background element.

From a study of cogs

A study of cogs

References for the Golemn boss



Huitzil from Darkstalkers:



I guess most people will be familiar with Blitzcrank:
http://cache.gawker.com/assets/images/kotaku/2009/09/Blitzcrank_-_Render.jpg




Other random artwork I found:
http://www.pelgranepress.com/site/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/GrrOwl.png
http://th08.deviantart.net/fs70/PRE/i/2010/324/c/7/golem_by_franja2190-d33972h.jpg
http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130316122152/naruto/images/e/e5/Jirōbō's_Earth_Golem.png

@JobLeonard
the game is real time but you will be able to pause and swap items.

@s-spooky g-g-ghosts
I like the B/W vibe too, and I agree with your thoughts on the torch (will revisit that). I had the same thought of making it colored but also scrapped it

I don't see the game becoming completely colored, it would only be used to indicate internal states on items / enemies, and something you won't see in the early stages of the game.

@Josiah Tobin
Gray shifting is a nice thought, I'll look into it.

This is still very much conceptual but I wanted to share my idea on using color in the game to gather early feedback on the concept.

Color would be used to indicate passive, temporary or 'ready' status of items that have some special ability or magic. This option allows the expression of a vocabulary of mechanics within the same space, and is also relatively cheap to do.



Likewise this could be used on enemies and environmental challenges. In this example the bat could be poisonous.

Adobe Flash team are assholes:
https://bugbase.adobe.com/index.cfm?event=bug&id=3714153

(I'd already forgot, but got the changed status email)
Status NeverFix
Reason NotWorthEffort

 

Boo. I gave up on Flash 2 years ago. Let me tell you, I can program in Lingo, so flash and I go way back.

Better tools make better art New tools, new kind of art

In the last few days I've been doing a lot of non-visual changes to the game. Screen transitions, bug fixes, menu icons and various improvements to the First Time User Experience. Its looking really good.

Tomorrow I start on a new boss design. It's supposed to be a robot/golemn of sorts with moveable parts etc. If I'm able to pull it off as I'm imagining its gonna be awesome!  Will post reference assets here.

This an old conceptual animation I realized I had not posted on the dev log.

Although mounts will most likely make it into the game, the snake will not be one of them due to the elongated shape in combination with the character staying towards the left side of the screen, the snake's tail would always be cropped out.

The weapon is the 2-handed Gun Axe. It was the first weapon used in early prototypes and I'll most likely bring it back when I scale the content.

[ray]

I can try a ray approach. If anyone knows a good reference it would help.

  Whew, this animation was a real challenge. I'll probably do another pass on it later.

I think we're going to see more and more ascii games in the near future!

Why is "Δεν Εισέρχονται" not good ?

[round]

The hero takes a little swim in Spooky Pooky ...

The water distortion is superb

When the dude is exiting the water the parallaxing background overlapping with the brown foreground is kinda weird, i think that could be improved.

Edit: Perhaps the issue is your parallax equation, I've had this problem before where the pixels jump back and forth... I was using a round equation, changed that to a floor and it improved dramatically.

I think the abstraction allows the viewer to identify and fill in the 'gaps' with something that makes sense for them. With realism you will appreciate the art but you will project less of your ego onto the character.

"Δεν Εισέρχοντε" Where are you from? Πεζει να είμαστε συμπατριώτες;

I'm not greek if that's what you mean I live in California now, part American part Brazilian.

I'd rather not say why there is greek written on the gate as I'm still working on the story and it may change.