BillieBustUp

BBUpdate: Rail Grinding, Ice Magic and more!

Added 2022-10-29 14:58:20 +0000 UTC

Hi everyone! Trying to make sure I update more frequently so I don't have to write a months worth of content out every time.

With the upcoming deadline we are about to see the next big playable alpha update with Chapter 1: The Goat Escape!

Lets start with the ice magic changes. Whilst working on the upcoming chapter I noticed there were some issues with the current system so we've made some adjustments! Ie magic will use a mana based system with different costs (the previous version simply had a power bar based on a timer)

Activating the ice power up means that Billies base moveset is changed slightly. Her mana does NOT drain whilst this is active passively, instead using certain moves will drain her power bar
Billies sword is now replaced by her umbrella (for spells only)
Billies power bar starts at 100 mana
Billie can regain her mana back over time, but health items will also restore some mana
Billies attacks are now ice balls, similar to the fire flower from Mario
Ice balls that bounce across the ground until they despawn after x seconds. Each ice ball costs 10 mana to cast.
In this mode Billie's ground pound will spray out an ice blast, an area of effect attack that freezes all nearby enemies in her radius. Due to being a powerful attack this costs 50 mana
If Billie steps on lava or water during this mode she will start to use mana over time, draining at 10 mana per second.
This can potentially upgraded, mana can be increased and spells can cost less mana
If an enemy is frozen the next ice ball will kill or damage it
Some characters are immune to being frozen

I need to play with the mana balancing a bit but I love the current changes, see what you think!

Rail grinding WIP! Here is a look at some rail grinding, always a personal favourite of mine

</figure><figure>Kinder eggs will see a reskin with their evil counter parts, similar to mario bom-ombs. They will run after you and explode, but you can also use this to your advantage</figure><figure>

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</figure><figure>Time for some more animations, the guests for Dutchs resort are being animated</figure><figure>

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</figure><figure>Avert your eyes! Fantoccio isn't wearing his poncho. </figure><figure>

</figure><figure>Barnaby Concepts!</figure><figure>Barnaby is next to be animated so lets take a look at some of his concept animations</figure><figure>

</figure><figure>First up, Barnaby was an interesting technical challenge, as his face needs to move freely around his body, we've resulted to using decals! Here's a little test of the system. The mouth is a little buggy but we can be concious of that during animation</figure><figure>

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</figure><figure>Happy wing stims!</figure><figure>

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</figure><figure>Outfits?</figure><figure>We're finally adding outfits! It took a bit of trial and error but we now have a pipeline in place, some may know the reference! It was not lost on us that Billie and Ashley share similarties in design. I'm super excited to start customising my Billie once we have more outfits in game </figure><figure>

</figure><figure>Music! </figure><figure>We now have two sailing themes, as mentioned in the previous update, one for when you're sailing and one for when you're in trouble whilst sailing. Adam knocks it out of the park again with some lovely soundtrack work</figure><figure>Sailing Track 1 </figure><figure>Sailing Track 2 </figure><figure>
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Some little icons for missions within the next upcoming build, talk to some NPCs!