Devlog: FRIDGES!? Bosses? EVO!? More?

Hi everyone! Time for the latest devlog- We've been working on a lot of new stuff. Between refreshed talks with publishers, we are continuing to move towards building out a full Zone 1 enemy list. Fridges are the latest and they are now up and running in game.

Here's one of the latest moves, fridge barrage. Alongside using missiles and combos to keep you on your toes, there will be other variants that have unique mechanics. Shield fridges, beam cannon fridges and more. Including a miniboss variant like the 'Mother Fridge' we were just chatting about on our Discord.

From a design perspective- This enemy represents the start of us showing off how interesting our enemy variety will be in single player. They do not move like any regular fighting game humanoid, they don't act like them either- And players will be kept on their toes by their unpredictable characteristics. But they will have patterns and behaviors that you can learn and adapt to with each run.

The best game I like to reference to explain what we'll be cooking with our enemies is Metal Slug. Which in our opinion has some truly unique enemy types (And humor) we want to channel. It hasn't quite been done this way before but I think we're onto something.

Here's a new render of the crew, including the V2 Kyu as well who is now fully rigged up and running. This is an image being sent to publishers as we're pitching. The economy does suck atm and the game industry is going through it, but we are still sending the game out for assessment and feedback.

A new miniboss has been completed in 3D as well, so aside from our Juggernaut we will now have Drill Commander as an elite miniboss you might encounter. We are hoping to start rigging and animating this guy soon. From a design perspective he'll be the KING of chip damage. Don't try blocking this elite gruntbot, you'll have to use mobility to keep yourself alive.

Work on our Act 1 boss, the Godbuster is also underway and we're continuing to build it up in graybox. This dude is HUGE- But we are spending a lot of time trying to improve on how to make these mega encounters a bit more strategic. We just built some custom code to control dynamic camera movement for enemies this large.

DON'T GET CLAPPED! For any fighting game enthusiast, the main points of reference we're looking at are mainly Apocalypse from Marvel Super Heroes Vs Street Fighter and even games like the N64 title Mischief Makers if that rings a bell (There are some really cool boss mechanics worth referencing in there). We really want to explore a design space that extends beyond what we've typically seen in fighting games. It requires a lot of custom code, but we've been adding those on top of our foundational systems that are now set in stone.

Some cool news (Potentially) is that we might be attending EVO this year! Last year we did suggest to them with some other indie devs that they should introduce an indie pricing tier as there are so many indie fighting game devs- And it seems like they've actually made some changes to accomodate us. As money is tight with most indie devs, this is really encouraging. We are currently discussing attending as we just got the news.

It's been a concern for a lot of devs in the post covid period as conventions have continued to raise prices year over year (Cough PAX Cough) to worrying levels which is a real concern for smaller teams. We're still in talks but with this new price it's quite likely. Stay tuned.

Last but not least, we have been focused on shipping out all Diamond orders- Which should be done by end of month. Due to the sheer amount of new sign ups this is our biggest order ever- So we're doing it in weekly batches. The cereal boxes turned out really good for something we've never attempted before (In our opinion)- But we're grateful to everyone that helped make this possible.

Thanks for checking in and we'll be continuing to cook. <3