Progress Log #1

Whaddup

         I'm a couple days late to posting this, but I think Fridays are going to be a lot better for uploading these. Sticking to the Wednesday schedule is going to cause a lot of conflict with school work, so I'll be changing it to a Friday schedule from now on. Anyways, here is the first shorter-form devlog since the format was changed. In case you missed the last announcement, all future devlogs will be following this format until further notice. Hopefully the reduced length is more suitable to your attention span.

Characters

         To add even more playstyle variety to the game, there will be a handful of different characters to pick from in Enchanterland. Thanks to the power of generic programming, I barely have to write any new code to design another character with a unique moveset. The most time-consuming part of doing this is making animations, but I'm getting pretty good at doing that efficiently.

         The first character is one you may already gotten a little bit familiar with from the first demo and my devlogs. Clef is a battlemage newly recruited by his Kingdom's military. His shield and armor provide him astounding defense, and his helmet is topped with a unicorn horn. To (barely) make up for the crushing weight of all his other gear, he wields his Short(er)sword to smite all foes that stand directly in front of him. Otherwise, he'll make use of the enchantments he finds throughout the land to attack with more range. 

I'll make more art of him at some point, but for now I'm just taking a screenshot of the idle animation to put here.

Directional Attacks

         Ever played Super Smash Bros? Of course you have. Since Enchanterland is both a beat-em'-up and a 2D platformer, I thought it would be best to use a similar style of combat to the one found in most Platform Fighters, such as Super Smash Bros. Or, if you're really in the know with the platform fighter genre, the Enchanterland combat will feel more similar to the original Rivals of Aether (probably due to similar-ish engines and pixel art aesthetics). It's simple: the attack you perform when you hit the button will be vastly different depending on which direction you are holding. For Enchanterland, the attack moveset is significantly more limited than most platform fighter movesets to account for the fact that it's a completely different type of game. Here's a look at a couple of the directional attacks I got done in the last week(s):

Down + Attack: Clef performs a rapid low jab with the Shortersword. The attack comes out very fast and has a low recovery time, but it doesn't do a lot of damage or start combos very well.

Up + Attack: Clef swings the Shortersword over his head, launching light enemies into the air. This move is great for getting combos started, since enemies remain in hitstun until they touch the ground.

         Directional attacks only apply when on the ground. Every character is only going to have one standard weapon attack that can be used in the air. However, there is one more type of weapon attack that I got implemented over the last week...

Charge Attacks

         After performing any standard attack on the ground, you can continue holding the attack button to fill a meter that appears above your head. After the bar is full, hold a direction and release the attack button to perform a charge attack. These are typically more powerful attacks that are balanced by.. well... the need to charge them. The charged version of 'Down + Attack'  isn't finished yet, but here are the other two. Animations are a work in progress. Note that 'Neutral' just means "while not holding up or down".

Neutral + Charge Attack: Clef dashes forward and hits enemies with his shield. Hitting light enemies at the start of the dash allows you to start combos. While the hitbox is active, Clef cannot take damage from any source.

Up + Charge Attack: Clef leaps into the air and makes a questionably long swing over his head with the Shortersword. This is a very big and powerful attack that will send light enemies flying.

That's All Folks

         I'll be back here next Friday to post whatever progress I've made from now until then. This coming week, my priority is to actually add the enchantments and showcase a few of those here. If I have time, I'll further improve the enemy AI / make the scripts more generic and suitable for all enemy types. Until then, see you later alligator.

(that expression doesn't seem to work as well in writing)