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[torcado]

Progress from stream number 3:




More assets for the grass area! Like trees and bushes, and also clouds I didn't add in that gif:




!!!

[Pixel Noise]

Now THAT is lovely. The blocky, underground textures from earlier were interesting for how the lighting and graphic effects worked - but this is the first area that's really combined that with compelling art and environment to me.

[torcado]

Oh man thanks a lot! I'm glad you think so :D

I'm pretty happy with these assets. It's always been really hard to make art look good to my standards, but I think I'm getting better or something!

Also look at this cool shader I added (it's really big):



I probably won't keep this in the game, except as an option or something. (An unlockable perhaps?) but either way I really like adding these dumb effects

[flipswitchx]

ooOOOooo The pixelart has improved! 

[SolS]

Beautiful new tiles!

[Sustrato]

Yeah, those grass tiles are lovely! Looks very inviting.

I'm glad you're confident in the mechanics, any hints as to what they'll be?

[PirateFish]

Looking really great! I think you can safely say it's a unique style

[torcado]

Thanks a lot guys!
And honestly I'm glad it's a unique style! I reaally love fanart and I think the more unique the style, while still looking good, the better for that case. And also good just in general

As for mechancs, well I guess I'm not entirely sure at the moment. I've planned to make it a puzzle/metroidvania, so there will be per-puzzle mechanics like the light beams in the caves and switches in the tech area. I thought a bit last night about flower-based mechanics in the grass area, like big flowers that bounce you (or are just platforms) and water mechanics that grow the flowers. I've been trying to think of more puzzle mechanics for each area. Of course there will also be a plethera of light-based puzzle mechanics, like items that disappear in darkness, or ones that complete a puzzle when all of them are in light. also colored light based puzzles, maybe something that switches a light's color, or something that splits a light beam into 2 colors that would make it up.
And there will also be movement mechanics allowing you to access different areas, or maybe even solve puzzles faster or differently. Obvious upgrades like double jumps, dashing, etc. but also maybe things like wall phasing or light-based mechanics.
And also and idea I've thought about since the beginning is a sort of Ocarina of Time mechanic, where you can chirp/sing tunes and finish puzzles/find secrets using that. But maybe thats too big of a mechanic to just tack on to the game rather than build the game around.

At soommee point I'll sit down one day/week and just design out everything like the world, its areas, their rooms, their puzzles and mechanics. And also the story and secrets and characters if i decide to add those.

[PirateFish]

Just to be clear, I also think it's a very good thing your style is unique. It's look gorgeous.

Sounds like you have quite a lot of ideas. I like the ideas with light puzzles and splitting the light. I think it could really play well with the graphics style.

[torcado]

Thanks! :D



Also, I just looked back and apparently I've been working on this thing for more than 6 months
In some ways it doesn't feel like it's been that long at ALL
but in others, it feels way longer haha

[torcado]

progress from stream number 4

• New night theme for grass area. May still play around with colors and such
• Made a systems to get waterfalls working (shown below)

progress from stream number 5 boo hoo nobody joined to watch this stream.also it was the stream i made the most progress on anything...

• Waterfalls work completely.
• Sprite and animation for water source, a lion head
• New magic source, a crystal that turns on and off at intervals (or is always on)
• Waterfalls turn beam orbs when running atop them
• Player physics changed to account for spinning orb; player now moves with the rotation
• Beam orb physics changed; now they're a lot easier to point in the direction you want

Here's the animation by itself




Also I bought a new microphone so stream quality will go waay up once that arrives

[Sustrato]

Nice work! The waterfall spinning the rock is really cool. With all interactions you're building, I can see some pretty cool Rude Goldberg kinda levels popping up. I like the idea of a birdsong mechanic too, it would make the character really fit into the world instead of being just a bird, because why not.

It still sounds like you have a lot of design work to do on the mechanics but I'm confident you'll figure it out.

The night theme looks really good! It's slightly harder to place yourself but that shouldn't be a problem once you've played a few levels and/or if you're retreading old ground as special night levels.

[torcado]

Oh very good points all around!
Adding the singing mechanic really would tie the character to the world better. I think ill probably add that then!

i didn't really consider the closeness of the night grass colors to the bird. I do thing it wouldn't be too hard to keep track of the player, but ill keep that in mind.
And yeah I think the night areas will mainly be retraced from daytime. Still thinking of how I want to do tileset swapping.

Yeah I have a ton of mechanic based ideas just floating around in my head. But I am very confident all the ones that come out and into the game will be well designed!

Thanks for the comments!

[torcado]

Cool autumn grass theme woo:



Also I got a new mic and streams are better! I can't remember what I did last stream but I'll think harder and post about it later

[Retroopla]

Hey it's really a unique idea! And I can see the progress since your first post! Nice work!

[Narrowisms]

Wow, this game is really pretty... Question: Will mac/linux builds be a possibility in the future?

[torcado]

Thankyou Retroopla!! I'm glad it shows. Maybe i should edit the first post eventually to better reflect what it looks like now.

Narrowisms, yes Mac and Linux are definitely planned! I don't own a mac to test on but I do plan on releasing on it. I haven't tested on linux either actually, I haven't set up a linux boot. maybe I'll do that in the next few weeks

ALSO just a small progress update:
I've been busy with school and other projects and haven't set aside a lot of time for Ghost Bird in the past couple weeks. But when I have been working on it I've been really fleshing out the design! I've finally started writing down all my ideas into a big document and figuring out the world and story and such. I think I'm like mentally blocking myself from working on the game until i finish that so that's what's going on right now.
Otherwise I'm taking a small break until Ludum Dare (Which if you didn't know is how this game started! You can find a link to the original game in the first post). Then finals happen the following week, then I travel back home for the winter. I have no idea how much time I'll have for work during all that 

[Sustrato]

Autumn theme looks good! Changing the foliage on the trees would go a long way since that's one of the most obvious events in fall.

Are you entering this ludum dare?! If so, got an idea yet? I'm in the IRC chat as Kris-with-a-K for the next hour or so if you drop by!

[torcado]

Whoops I saw this way late. But thanks a lot!
I am doing Ludum Dare, and I do have an idea by now (thankfully). I felt good about it for a while but I'm starting to doubt whether or not ill be able to finish in time. We'll see, I guess!
I'm spending way too much time on cruddy art

[Mahn]

Love the look of this, very trippy Looking forward to more updates.