Art Implementation - Devlog #3

Things are happening! After brainstorming obstacles that are appropriate within a forest, asset creation began- and boy, was it a fun one this week! This game will be art-heavy, with less focus on systems.

In saying that, it doesn't mean that there won't be cool mechanics and elements for the player to enjoy and be challenged with, it's that the emphasis will mainly be on beautiful scenes with captivating lighting, creative puzzles, level design, post processing, character art & narrative through visual. 

For the mobile demo- although it will contain most of the systems and tech that will be present in the official game, the cave locations (the majority of what will be the official game) are omitted completely and this will leave Marsh to chase a hat-stealing creature indefinitely in the infinite runner demo. It will contain all art assets and lighting that the official game will contain. The mobile demo will, in essence, be the first, introductory scene of the game- just made to run infinitely. 

Getting back to art, in thinking about the player's abilities (jump, double jump & slide), it was important to create obstacles that utilize all three of these abilities. Three groups were made and several ideas were iterated upon that would lead to the best artistic outcome. Obviously all of these obstacles had to be forest-themed, so work was done in creating them to work with the woodland location- trees, mushrooms, branches etc. Unfortunately, after all of the obstacle art was done, I was reminded that rocks are also commonplace within forests. ROCKS. 

So rocks were added as a QTE element. 

A pop-up indicator would appear on-screen prompting the player to mash a button that would enable you to compact yourself and noodle through a gap in a rock mound that would otherwise be impossible to overcome.

Infinite generation is still an issue to overcome at a later date- we'll get there! Thank you as always for tuning in and getting up to speed on the development of this strange, marshmallow metroidvania, I can't wait to let you know about the story within The Underground, it'll be a while 'til then though!