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[Thaumaturge]

I do like those animal-themed takes on familiar powers. A good idea, I think. ^_^

As to getting players to use the powers, despite knowing that those powers will be taken away, what I might suggest is constructing the early areas such that they pretty much have to use their powers. That might help to "train" players to use their powers.

Now, that might incur the problem of the player going back to those early areas once they've lost their powers, and thus becoming stuck. In that case, perhaps you might seal off the early areas once the player escapes them.

[torchinsky]

in the endgame you get dragon-themed versions of the same upgrades.

That one was (and still is) one of the options that I consider for the endgame. This reminds me approach of "Journey" -- you slowly learn how to jump, use your scarf, etc., then in the area with the snow you lose all the abilities and barely can walk, but after that you can fly! This creates great contrast and very empowering feeling. I'd like to achieve similar feeling...

[torchinsky]

Now, that might incur the problem of the player going back to those early areas once they've lost their powers, and thus becoming stuck.

Player should be able to pass through any area with any set of abilities (even with just one or none of them), but it should be significantly harder than with 2-3-4 abilities.

[Thaumaturge]

Player should be able to pass through any area with any set of abilities (even with just one or none of them), but it should be significantly harder than with 2-3-4 abilities.

Hmm... Fair enough. I do think that you may have players who decide to just never use their abilities, knowing that they'll just lose them eventually. However, it does occur to me that, since the abilities presumably make traversal easier, other players may yet employ them for the sake of convenience. So it may still work out!

[torchinsky]

I finally moved from 2D concepts to 3D models.
I made a humanoid character template. I'm going to use this template as a baseline for all the humanoid characters in the game.

[Reyn]

The fabled reverse Metroidvania! I made a design similar to yours like 5 years ago; you were a knight that got bitten by a cursed spider and got spider powers (I called it Spiderknight, dont judge me I was a teenager), you had to save the kingdom but also find a cure for your curse, at the end of each level you defeated a boss (usually a creature that got mutated by the evil wizard who also made the cursed spider, mind you this is a ripoff of Crash Bandicoot) and could choose to drink some of the cure and lose an ability or just go on with your quest. So in the easy ending you can go trough the entire game with all your abilities and save the kingdom but the curse kills you at the end, and in the hard ending you lose your powers one at a time, get cured, save the kingdom and live happy ever after. I got the multiple endings idea from Dishonored which had just come out at the time.


I ditched it because I wasnt skilled enough back then and I got bogged down by level design, but I'd say its definitely doable. Its also perfectly ok if players avoid using abilities theyre gonna lose, something similar happens in Dishonored where players avoid using abilities that can put people in danger (like Devouring Swarm), for the sake of a happy ending,

[torchinsky]

at the end of each level you defeated a boss (usually a creature that got mutated by the evil wizard who also made the cursed spider, mind you this is a ripoff of Crash Bandicoot) and could choose to drink some of the cure and lose an ability or just go on with your quest

Wow, this is quite similar to what I have in my head, except the fact that player is forced to lose ability after each boss

And you are absolutely right that level design is one of the main (if not THE MAIN) challenges of this project. But let’s wait for vertical slice. When I finish with main character visuals I have plan to make a 1 complete level and 1 boss fight to test the system that allows player to beat them with any combinations of abilities.

If this vertical slice will be successful and system works, it effectively will be a playable demo for the project 

[torchinsky]

Merry Xmas all! 
Its been a while since last update for obvious reasons (xmas, family stuff, etc.), but here we go again!

I've made a Corrupted Prince model based on humanoid template from previous update.

On a base mesh I modified face and head shape, added some details on shirt and pants and modeled forehands from scratch to add some anatomy and muscles details. Also added new meshes for straps, tabard, scarf and hairs. Polycount doubled but still acceptable.





Next step - unwrapping and texturing.

[Thaumaturge]

That looks pretty good thus far, I think. ^_^

And a belated "Merry Christmas" to you, too! ^_^

[torchinsky]

Finally got my character unwrapped, textured and shaded  



The cool thing about it that it has only 1 texture - 8x16 pixels, 384B  

All the details come from not-so-standard unwrap and custom toon shader that make use of vertex normals and vertex colors to create effect of ambient occlusion (more shadows in armpits, cloth folds, around muscles, etc.), add specular reflection and outline of different thickness on different parts. Also, outline is in clip space so it has constant width regardless of distance to the camera.

[Thaumaturge]

That's a pretty cool effect, I do think; I like what you've done there. ^_^

[torchinsky]

Finished model for the weapon of the main character - Talon Blade

[Thaumaturge]

That's a pretty cool-looking sword. ^_^

[torchinsky]

That's a pretty cool-looking sword. ^_^

Thanks!

Bat wings for double jump ability of the main character:

[Thaumaturge]

Also looking good thus far, I do think. ^_^

[torchinsky]

Spider legs model for wall crawling ability:

[torchinsky]

Tentacle model for the grappling hook ability of the main character:

[Jasmine]

I'm enjoying the character models. I'm really looking forward to the gameplay gifs!

[torchinsky]

I'm enjoying the character models. I'm really looking forward to the gameplay gifs!

Thanks! I'm finishing up with the models and then will start rigging and animating to see everything in action

Meanwhile, I have Snake model for the dash ability:

[torchinsky]

I wrote detailed blog-post about custom shader that I use for my project.

The main thing that it doesn't use Normal maps nor Specular maps, but specular reflections and shaded areas controlled by vertex colors. There are also some tips and tricks like screen space constant width outline, correct shading of 2-sided material, etc. Hope you will find something useful there.

Source code included