Slime Salad

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This weekend I worked on a new enemy for Vorpal Florist, the Mace Dryad. Here is a timelapse of the sprite work, followed by some gameplay video of the end showing the enemy in action.

I think I am averaging just slightly better than 2 new enemies a week, so hopefully I can keep up this pace and end up with a respectably sized bestiary. I will say my big milestone would be 50 enemies, and I hope to reach that goal by July 1st.

(There is a good chance I will release a playable demo well before then, but not until I have completed at least one Boss battle.)

Very nice!

If you're looking to improve the enemy AI a bit, I'd recommend having them start their attack early if you're running up to them. This would lend a little variety, since at a glance, it appears many of the enemies are dealt with by "run in, swipe, run out" tactics. You'd still run in, swipe, and run out, but the running in would be trickier.

Mogri wrote:Very nice!

If you're looking to improve the enemy AI a bit, I'd recommend having them start their attack early if you're running up to them. This would lend a little variety, since at a glance, it appears many of the enemies are dealt with by "run in, swipe, run out" tactics. You'd still run in, swipe, and run out, but the running in would be trickier. :)

Oh, that is a good idea!

It wouldn't even be difficult. The enemy decides when to attack using a function that checks the distance between itself and the player, and I can just make a version of that that takes player velocity into account. (or maybe even player velocity times a multiplier)

Mace Dryad? The sequel Mace Windu?

Your enemies are all so interesting, and fluid in design. I absolutely love it! So, your game appears to be plant based, huh?

What kinds of enemies do you intend on having at this point?

Looks great, James. The animations are flawless, and I love the little leaf jibs that break when the trees come crashing down.

Strangely, what impresses me most is the way you update the frames for animations. Maybe it should be intuitive, but using pink lines to draw new movements before filling them in is a great way to draw new frames, and I wish I had thought to do it that way a long time ago. Thanks for the inspiration.

Master K wrote:Your enemies are all so interesting, and fluid in design. I absolutely love it! So, your game appears to be plant based, huh?

What kinds of enemies do you intend on having at this point?

Pepsi Ranger wrote:Looks great, James. The animations are flawless, and I love the little leaf jibs that break when the trees come crashing down.

Strangely, what impresses me most is the way you update the frames for animations. Maybe it should be intuitive, but using pink lines to draw new movements before filling them in is a great way to draw new frames, and I wish I had thought to do it that way a long time ago. Thanks for the inspiration.

Thanks!

The theme is plants, and especially flowers, although I have to work hard to think of ways to include flowers. They are a lot harder to work into monsters designs than trees, vines, and roots.

The pink outline when doing animation frames is something I only recently discovered myself. I feel like I saw somebody else doing it in their pixel art, and picked it up, but now I can't remember where I first saw it.

That is AWESOME!!!!!

It also gave me some tips on how to better sprite stuffs! Thanks! <33

<img src="http://i.imgur.com/Wa0XH14.png">
The monster in this screenshot is the Leaping Amaranth. My goal with this monster is to make a enemy which is fun and challenging but that has absolutely no awareness of where your character is or what she is doing.

Still needs some work :)

Who else has some sprites and/or screenshots to show off?

well, since you asked
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuY6rXL0f9U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLJsYRt ... e=youtu.be

<img src="">

Drawin' flowers.

Bob the Hamster wrote:<img src="">

Drawin' flowers.

May I suggest my favorite flower?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brugmansia

It's a pretty insanely dangerous psychedelic, so perhaps that would already give it some sort of abilities or storyline foundation.

EDIT: Also, I'm not sure if you've seen the movie "Adaptation" but if you have, it would be really cool if you made some sort of reference to the fictional Ghost Orchid in some way.

Thanks, sheamkennedy those are awesome! I have added Brugmansia and Ghost Orchid to my list.

Been practicing my pixel-ing again.




This dude still needs a lot of work before I consider him done. Particularly the face. The left arm needs a bit more definition and clearing up as well. And some parts are way too sharp.