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[io3 creations]

Thanks for the post-mortem.  It answered my questions.

As for going ahead, I've seen a few projects keeping regular monthly updates to let people know how the project is coming along (and after a length gap especially that it's not dead).  Of course, one month's just a general guide and if there's something that could benefit people (finished an exciting scene or attending a game conference) then certainly mention those.  Also, do post news on all social media.  I've seen some projects favor certain social media sites and rarerly post on others (even on Kickstarter) and have also seen that some people would've liked to receive updates on those and not wanting to create new social media accounts.

[UmutD]

Hey, Congrats! I was away from tig for a while and I couldn't help with the campaign unfortunately, but it's great to see your ks succeeded  

Also, that's a great post-mortem, thanks for sharing 

[nt]

Thanks for all the info, that was really interesting
Congrats again for getting funded!

[and]

Thanks for the post-mortem.  It answered my questions.

As for going ahead, I've seen a few projects keeping regular monthly updates to let people know how the project is coming along (and after a length gap especially that it's not dead).  Of course, one month's just a general guide and if there's something that could benefit people (finished an exciting scene or attending a game conference) then certainly mention those.  Also, do post news on all social media.  I've seen some projects favor certain social media sites and rarerly post on others (even on Kickstarter) and have also seen that some people would've liked to receive updates on those and not wanting to create new social media accounts.

Yeah I definitely think I'm going to try and get into using Facebook and Reddit - both seem pretty decent for game dev stuff. I'll be going to something like monthly updates. I'd originally suggested weekly updates, but that wasn't taken all that well by my backers!

It's all quite daunting now that I need to actually be organised and get things like surveys and that done. I wish that kind of thing came a little more naturally to me!

[and]

Well, I think I've just about recovered from the Kickstarter now. I've been focusing on fixing bugs and tidying things up over the last couple of weeks - there's still a way to go (as the examples below show):

I have actually managed to fix this one now

This one is not fixed, but I think I know what's going on

...aaaaand neither is this (I have no idea what's causing this either)

There are plenty more bugs still to fix, so that's my weekend planned. What are you folks up to?

[oldblood]

Glad to hear you're recovering! Thanks for sharing the post-mortem. You know I always love when devs open up about their projects and data...

[and]

No problem Jon

If you think of anything I've missed then let me know! I'm more than happy to share any stats that I can get hold of.

[io3 creations]

Is that Mable getting ready to fly?  It's definitely easier with wings than with hands.

If something like that happens, you can just say ...  she was cursed or unknowingly picked up a special power from a boss she'd just slain.  Or maybe she'd drained the world's energy too much and now the world is collapsing.  

At least those are not like:

https://forums.tigsource.com/index.php?topic=55752.msg1247033#msg1247033
(Note: as you can see at the bottom, that one's actually intentional )

[Silkworm]

You're keeping tiny Mable though, right? It truly is the ultimate form.

[MegaTiny]

Just leave this one in for speed runners to abuse.

[and]

@io3 - sadly I've now fixed all of the collision bugs! Love the spinny elevator thing, definitely going to see if there's any way I can get that into the game I've fixed that particular collision bug, but there may possibly be some ways you can go through scenery

@Silkworm_sweatshop - Tiny Mable has died as part of the bug cull. Perhaps she'll make a return as one of the alternative shapes (like a boss made up of lots of tiny versions of itself...)

@MegaTiny - there are quite a few speedrunning tricks in there already 

No real update this week I'm afraid. Just been busy getting in touch with the design tiers of the Kickstarter and doing exciting business related things...

[and]

You can now download the Mable & The Wood demo on Mac!

I'm still trying to work out how to sign it, and there are a number of bugs (not least that it starts with a black screen and you have to tab out of it for an image to appear - there are more). I clearly have no idea what I'm doing on Mac yet...

...or at all.

If you have a PC, there is still reason to download the demo: I've updated the Spider Form!

This is sped up FYI

The main point of negative feedback I got was that the Spider Form is hard to control and feels kind of pointless.

I'd initially intended for it to be a slower, more considered way to travel through the levels - so, now that's just what it is. Press fire to throw the sword into the scenery and then hold fire and press the directions to climb up and down the web and swing from left to right, letting go of fire to return to human form and jump off!

It still needs plenty of tweaking, but it'll get there. I think it took about 3 months to get the fairy form feeling about right, so I don't expect the other forms to be any quicker. I've scheduled for all forms to be in the game for October, so that'll give me time to tweak them all!

[and]

ooh I've not posted here in a while! Here's a work in progress of the world map tiles:

Making this kinda made me want to make an old Sim City style game...

Hope everything is going good with all of your projects!

[breakfastbat]

Looking good! There's a good mood starting to form there!

[KevinTillman]

looking good Andrew.

[and]

Thanks guys! Aiming for alpha this month :|

Whatever that means these days...

[and]

Ok, wow it's been a long time!

I ended up delaying the alpha, as there was no way I was going to get everything done in time. But I've been very busy with the game since I last posted here. These are some of the highlights!

Backer Designs

Here's a concept that I did for one of the backer designs and here: is the walk cycle.

This was a design provided by Kyron and Carolina, who backed at the enemy design level. It took me a while to translate this across to the style of the game, but I got there eventually:

I also did this backer design concept for a narwhal/piranha:

Bosses

Have got the spider queen fight fully working in the game. It's lacking polish, but that's not a priority pre-alpha (although I'll be adding it in, as and when I find the time). It plays similar to many early boss fights in platformers, in that the boss repeats a variety of patterns, which change depending on how much health is left.

The stone giant isn't quite there yet. It's still missing a couple of attack patterns, and there's one particular bug that I just can't get ironed out (although, granted, I've given it a rest for a week or so because it was just getting depressing).

This is the crappy bug:

This boss fight is a little different, because your sword bounces off stone so you have to let the poor guy destroy just enough of the level to fall off the bottom of the world. Currently it's a little bit easy, but there are some attack patterns missing.

I've just started working on the giant mole boss, which came from a backer design. It's going to play out quite differently from the other boss fights, due to it taking place deep underground. I'll give you an update on it once I've got it working in game.

New Forms

I've changed how and when you can change form:

You may also notice that there's now a mole form available for you:

I think that's plenty to be going on with! Sorry again for the long absence, hope everything is cool with all of you guys and I need to catch up on what's been going on here. Maybe once I've got the mole boss fight finished...

[Zorg]

I don't like the mole boss.

The spider queen and stone giant fit in the game world naturally, the mole's appearance (hat and goggles) is way too comical and ruins the atmosphere, sorry.

[KevinTillman]

I like the guy in blue, his concept is very cool.

[and]

I don't like the mole boss.

The spider queen and stone giant fit in the game world naturally, the mole's appearance (hat and goggles) is way too comical and ruins the atmosphere, sorry.

You're wrong. He is my 'light relief'

Actually, he looks like that because he's an homage to that mole dude from Little Nemo: The Dream Master on the NES:

But, you're not wrong. He's quite different in tone to a lot of the different characters in the game at the moment. It's not something that I'd really considered to be honest - I'd been getting down with my pixel art (I don't like the way the stone giant looks, I think he looks pretty shoddy), so I was just happy that I think the mole is good pixel work. But, maybe not right for this game? With the head, hat and goggles I can see where you're coming from.

I think I'll maybe keep the hat, because that's already been introduced in the cave levels with the slothmoles etc but it's been tough to get the right balance of character/tone. I think the rest of the head could be less cartoony maybe, but I don't want him to be overtly evil looking (it's not his fault you decided to try and kill him) - maybe more like a star nosed mole or a naked rat mole:

To be honest, I'll not spend too much time on changing him before the alpha - just because I need to get that done and out there! Might have another quick pass at the head.

I like the guy in blue, his concept is very cool.

Cheers Kevin! Was hard to get him working with so few pixels, but he's nearly there.