Billie Bust Up-date - July

Gosh, it's been a while since an update! So we have quite a bit to go through. Alpha backers should expect a new build extremely soon with a whole bunch of new content.  We're almost done polishing the Aristotle tutorial and we're blocking out Claw Bay!

Aristotle Singing Tutorial

So let's break this down into parts, for Aristotle's tutorial we have

Shield Training Lesson 1 - The Basics

First, you'll need to master defense, that umbrella you have, that makes the most sense, I'll imbue it with magic, enough to be strong, but you must time it right or it won't hold for long!

Learn about the basics of your shield. Your shield has a health bar but can only regenerate when not in use. Time your shield to the beat to keep your shield from breaking and stunning Billie.

The next time you find yourself trapped or surrounded, you won't be helpless so don't be confounded! If they come at you attacking in mass, your umbrella discharges one big final blast!

Use all of your shields health bar to create one powerful AOE blast, big cooldown!

Below is a WIP version of the environment and mobs. There will be singing outside of the instrumental segments, it is currently muted for the demo track. Please note everything is subject to change! and a lot of work is still a placeholder during alpha testing and will be improved.

See it in action! 

Shield Training Lesson 2 - The Dragon!

So open your shield it's for your protection! Time it just right and he'll eat the deflection

Learn about deflecting projectiles by parrying. Time opening your shield a few moments before impact to deflect a projectile.  Due to the nature of the game, the attacks will usually be to the beat of the song playing, so you'll have to time your shield to the beat also.

See it in action! 

Creating the Dragon

The first concept

Colour pass and test

Model rig and animation first implementation

Texture pass

Eyes are set up to follow the player and dilate depending on how close the player is

Environment pass

The dragon now needs a particle effects pass, and some additional work done to the background!

A look at his health bar:

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

Defeat! (yes very Cuphead inspired haha)

Ice Training Lesson 1

Concentrate now! Here comes more attacks, aim and then fire stop them dead in their tracks, then when they're stuck and they're frozen in place, strike the blocks with your sword, quickly, make haste!

This segment here is a WIP! This also includes a section for running on water, but I want to wait for it to be slightly more polished before showing it off

Ice Training Lesson 2 - The Kraken

Combine all your skills into one epic battle against a fearsome Kraken! This segment will need the most work now the dragon is almost complete. I worry we made the dragon more dramatic compared to the final boss (whoops!) so I want to spend some time boosting the vibe and atmosphere of this final boss

The big finale!

Kraken health bar!

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

KNOCKOUT

Ending Cutscene + Flight

Next is flight along with this cute lil ending cutscene! These are the rough thumbnails

Click here to see the thumbnails in time to the song's instrumental! 

Aristotle Animations

Some Aristotle animations to be used throughout the tutorial (yes one gill needs fixing)

Yea! You did it!

Face animation for Aristotle

Some of the facial animations for Aristotle

Claw Bay

The Claw Bay local merchants

Claw Bay is being blocked out currently, soon to be ready for alpha testing, it is currently being internally tested

Cat Pirate Dialogue

Check out the cat pirates dialogue trees here!

Some map previews

Click to see a rough blockout of Claw Bay's intro! 

Click to see a rough blockout of Claw Bay's hub! 

Some notes and paintovers by Jovi!

The Carousel can be broken up into two states. A Broken state and a Fixed State.  In its broken state, the Arms of the carousel are at different angles making the carriage be raised at different heights making some of them impossible to reach. The player needs to help the cat crew to fix the carousel to get the arms moving up and down.  When the player fixes the carousel, The arms can now freely move up and down. In this state, as the carousel spins the arms will go up and down in intervals. This will allow players to reach areas that were only accessible if the arm was up (notes from Jovi)

Volcano paint over

Bonus

Animated Stickers

These will be part of discord's new sticker packs for our server! But the HD downloads of them will also be included as part of THE DIGITAL BUNDLE, here are some WIPs

Barnaby

I've been working on the Barnaby 3D model for the game. His shader will be unlit in the engine, so I've included the silhouettes.

Just the wings and legs to go. He isn't actually needed yet, but I wanted to sculpt him in my free time for fun.

Billie Plushies

Billie's plushie is underway! After the success of Fantoccio, we will be producing multiple new plushies, starting with Billie (next we expect Barnaby or Aristotle). The sword and Oscar are removable with velcro.

These plushies are handled by Makeship, a third party. We approve their designs and they give us a cut of the profits. It's essentially zero effort on our part, making for easy funding and cute merch!

The Kickstarter plushies the designs, shipping, and prototypes will all be handled by us (from Budsies), but you will end up with a larger and more customised plushie (as the Makeship plushies tend to follow a template).

Fantoccio plushies ship in August, and Billie's campaign will go live shortly after. If you would like a Billie Makeship plushie instead of your backer plushie, please let me know now, or during the Makeship campaign (Makeships plushies are only available for purchase for a month) so that I can order one on your behalf.

Mini Story

The game features multiple canon mini-stories/comics. The comics will be voice acted and may feature some minor animation. Here are the thumbnails for a WIP comic that takes place before the game begins. Hunting for stars!

Page 1

Page 2

Verified

We got verified on Twitter recently! Make sure to follow us for more updates

That's it for this week's update! But ALPHA testers get ready 👀 I am moving countries in 2 weeks' time so there may be some slight delays but I'm excited for you to test ❤

- Katie (ALSO HI, SAM HERE, I DID THE CROSS POSTING FROM KICKSTARTER TO HERE 👋)