Vilya's Work-blog! (aka Pixel Ferrets behind the scenes)

Own

Moderator
April 18

The reveal of what's likely 1/3 of the remaining enemies in the game? Mid-area 4, temple 4, final dungeon. So close to the end, seems like.

http://www.vilyaroo.com/2017/04/desert-enemies.html

I'd be interested in seeing how Cacute moves. Maybe not identical to Jumpkin/Shroomie, but a slightly farther or more delayed bouncing pattern? :D

Solem looks awesome. A yeti that actually has the potential to hit you.

Mrs. Bird looks interesting! I was wondering if we'd ever get another flying enemy. I hope this one is more advanced than the bee, and can swoop vertically as well as horizontally. No more just putting your back to a wall and shielding up in arcade. :)

I had reservations about yet another slime, but this one looks cool! Being able to gigaslime spin attack makes it actually a threat.
 

Own

Moderator
May 1

One step closer to Dad kicking us out of our room! Even though we're, what, 13-16 in-game?

http://www.vilyaroo.com/2017/05/housing-preview.html

Do you think we'll be able to buy a basement or attic level later on for a goldsink, or is it just the one level?

Also, I'm hoping we can designate one of our pets to be a house pet. :D I want my Jumpkin warming in front of the hearth while I'm gone. Mm, roasted pumpkin seeds.
 

Vilya

Developer
Staff member
May 9
Is this finalized, or will it be expanded on in the future? Would be nice to see a pond to fish at while waiting for friends to stop AFKing, maybe in the bottom right.
It's finalized "for now" meaning it's possible to expand the map to add new things in :) A pond seems like a cool idea!
 

oran

Green Slime
hi i am having a problem..
ive been trying making a Angel's Thirst a long time but i dont know how
please help me
 

oran

Green Slime
It's in a puzzle in the final room of Tai Ming where you have to push a block
thx
theres a 2 handed weapon in the crafting tab that says you need 10 sword pieces and ???
how do i get that?
HELP
 
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KoBeWi

Jumpkin
It's probably obtained from Echoes of Madness. Just farm them until you get all their drops.

also, this discussion is off this topic :|
 

Own

Moderator
June 27

Hey, look. Something to put all those extra silver points in. 'cause why cast anything but your most powerful gold charge skill for damage purposes? :D

http://www.vilyaroo.com/2017/06/the-support-skills.html

Challenge - Seems like it would be better used by targeting all enemies in a direct line from where you're facing. If there's a cluster of enemies chasing an ally, being able to hook all the aggro is needed.

Sleep - Suppose it's useful for being able to immediately make a Shield Guardian power off so you can kill it's shielded target, or giving yourself some breathing room where Boars/Statues/Echoes are concerned. If it can temporarily disable Beehives in Arcade, I can see people being happy.

Shield - Does the shield take all HP-damage until it breaks, or does it just reduce a portion of oncoming damage?

Blink - If this can travel further than piercing dash, good news for speedruns! :)

Defense - I'd personally take flinch resistance over shield regen, but both are good.
 

Own

Moderator
Also, was super hoping to see these, Doppelganger especially considering Frosty's inevitable nerf :(

Doppelganger, a Defensive Skill: Summons an exact clone of yourself behind you. This clone does absolutely nothing, but enemies may be drawn to attack it much in the same way as they attack Frosty Friend. While it has much more HP than FF, it's HP will steadily drain downwards after being summoned to ensure it can't be spammed over and over again. At silver charge it may explode on death, dealing damage. At gold charge it will slash once every second in the direction it was summoned facing.

Aura of the Turtle / Personal Space?, a passive skill: Creates a circular field around the player, slowing all projectiles, spells and enemies that get within the bubble, allowing for better dodging and potentially shielding. Leveling it up increases the size of the bubble / slowness of the enemies? Or maybe it should just slow projectiles/spells?
 

KoBeWi

Jumpkin
Currently, we haven't actually made up our minds about this! What do you think you guys would prefer? Two buffs: one for offense (damage, speed, crit) and one for defense (defense, shield reg, EP reg), or three: one for damage and crit, one for speed, and the defense buff left as is?
Since offensive and defensive utility skills both have 3 in their category, the last one should too. I'd just split the 2-system into 3: damage/crit for offense, def/shield for defense and speed/EP for speed.

We've also talked about the amount of silver points spent on each Utility skill. We're considering whether to have each skill have 5 levels (as was planned), or if it's better to cap them at 3 each.
Expanding what was said in first comment, would be interesting if 5th level gave major boost in form of special effect. It could cost gold point to signify that.
 

Own

Moderator
The Future of Smash

http://www.vilyaroo.com/2017/08/the-future-of-smash.html

I'm happy. But there's a problem.

How is this functionally different from being a slower Sword Toss?

There's a few ways I can think of to make it more distinct.

A) Ball gets stronger / changes color by # of enemies you hit with it, so every successive successful hit on it is stronger and stronger until it runs out.

B) Ball ricochets around like a spinsect at higher levels.

C) Smash has a bar like the punching bag game, the higher you hit the farther it goes / the harder it hits. This lets you better control the distance of your ball so you're not scrambling across the map for it.

D) Ball changes colors by every enemy you hit with it, getting increasingly glowy. When the balls time is up, it explodes dealing AoE damage to all enemies around the ball, damage increasing by how much the ball has been charged from hits.
 

Teddy

Developer
Staff member
There are lots of fine tuning left to do for ol' smash, but B and a variant on D are both a part of our initial plan for it!

The ball ricochets on walls and large enemies, and it has three hits before it's destroyed.

The first hit deals regular damage to compensate for the convenient aiming. The second hit deals a good deal more, and on the third hit the ball deals even more damage, travels very quickly and just keeps on going until it hits a wall and explodes! When the ball is gone, or if it's far away, a new one can be summoned.

We'll see how it all plays out!
 

KoBeWi

Jumpkin
flamegold.gif
I love that you made the Gold Charge flame blue, but the animation looks too much like water right now. Does anyone else feel the same?
 

Dr. P!NK

Green Slime
I love that you made the Gold Charge flame blue, but the animation looks too much like water right now. Does anyone else feel the same?
Personally, i think it looks amazing. Reminds me of blue flames from Avatar the Last Airbender.
 

KoBeWi

Jumpkin
Seeing how Tai Ming in Arcade has so many variations and decorations to make maps more unique, maybe earlier areas could get some rework too? Only Flying Fortress and Season Temple are on somewhat similar level of polish.
 

Own

Moderator
http://www.vilyaroo.com/2017/12/monday-meeting-more-arcade-mode.html

Glad to see the real life time-based arcadia upgrading with using gold to speed it up received some more consideration. Would probably remind people unpleasantly of mobile game microtransaction mechanics... even if it would be nice to encourage longer play.

A different way to handle it, if you're looking to keep it, could make it so that each floor advanced in Arcade advances time in town by 1 hour. Different NPCs appear or disappear around town depending on the time of day, maybe. Building the clock tower allows you to set the time of day to whatever you want, whenever you want it, for an essence fee.

And here's a bunch of curse ideas, if you need them :p http://secretsofgrindea.com/forum/index.php?threads/enemy-debuffs-spells.4271/
 

Own

Moderator
http://www.vilyaroo.com/2018/01/a-few-more-arcade-things.html

A couple of deaths after that, Muffin will appear to help you out with treats, and after a while (or after you've reached a certain score and/or floor), he in turn will have a quest for you, which is to bring back Candy who has gotten lost somewhere. Finishing this quest will unlock Curses.

Glad they aren't there at the start, and that arcade content gradually gets added. Kinda wish new curses and treats showed up as well whenever you played with either one, or as you progressed in arcade, but I can see wanting them all available at first too.

A new type of room: or perhaps, rather, another thing that can happen in event rooms! In some event rooms in the future, there might be a captures NPC tied to a pole or shut in a cage, which upon inspection will trigger a mini boss battle. Winning against this mini boss will unlock the captured NPC in your town, where they might just be another friendly face (with a reward?!) or provide new quests in the future.

I'm glad this suggestion got added. :D It feels much more satisfying to see someone arrive in your town because you rescued them, rather than them appearing out of the blue.

All this new arcade stuff looks great. :)
 

Own

Moderator
http://www.vilyaroo.com/2018/01/master-jis-challenges.html

Each area has their own challenge where you'll be presented with either one or multiple of the same enemy one at a time until you've perfect guarded your way through all the enemies of that area. After that you have to perfect guard against each of the previous enemies at the same time. Complete this without taking damage and you'll have cleared the challenge. Clear five challenges and you'll get the first "belt" (a headband of a specific color), ten to get the next and so on (actual numbers might differ depending on how many challenges we have in the final version).

...

In order to make retrying challenges less annoying you'll get the option to retry (yes/no) after you fail a challenge, where selecting no will simply bring you back to regular Arcadia and yes restarts the challenge.

Seems like to me the least frustrating way to handle it for the player is putting them 1v1 against an enemy, both unable to take damage. Perfect guard 3 times in a row to cause the enemy to die. Enemy hits you, reset the perfect guard count. You guard it normally, reset. Let the player just walk out and abandon the match if they get tired of trying. Avoid the Yes/No menu hassle altogether. :) A single perfect guard per enemy probably works better for the group rooms.

There'll be an elite option as well, I hope?
 

Vilya

Developer
Staff member
Seems like to me the least frustrating way to handle it for the player is putting them 1v1 against an enemy, both unable to take damage. Perfect guard 3 times in a row to cause the enemy to die. Enemy hits you, reset the perfect guard count. You guard it normally, reset. Let the player just walk out and abandon the match if they get tired of trying. Avoid the Yes/No menu hassle altogether. :) A single perfect guard per enemy probably works better for the group rooms.

There'll be an elite option as well, I hope?

That's a cool idea, but we believe it'll be easier and possibly more satisfactory for the player to be able to restart the challenge themselves rather than having it start over automatically! We'll see as we begin testing though :)

No final decision regarding elite versions, it's possible!
 
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