This week we’ve continued the effort to fill out all the empty spots in the skill trees (or skill planes), and have two to show off!
The first one is called Dodging Strike, a skill we hope will further increase the nimble feeling of the one handed route. When you press the skill button, you immediately dash backwards, landing in the charge stance several paces away. When you release the button, you will rush forward to your initial position, damaging anything in your way.
Click to view an animated gif!
It doesn’t do much good to just use it randomly and attack enemies that come near though. The base damage is pretty meager, and the cost and charge time for higher levels are both high. However, if you successfully dodge an attack with the backdash, the attack will become empowered. You will deal bonus damage, your charge speed is doubled and the cost for higher charge levels are greatly reduced. In a sense, it’s a bit like the perfect guard.
The second hasn’t been implemented yet, but Fred has animated pretty much everything it needs. It’s called Frosty Friend and is the third and final summoning spell we’ve got planned for the game. It’s also the only summon that physically partake in combat! That is, it will move around fighting enemies, and it can be attacked by enemies as well.
Since it works very differently from the cloud or the plants, we still have to work out some details. For instance, how smart it should be, what kind of control the player should have, its engagement range and, perhaps most importantly, what should happen when the creature is defeated. We’re considering to either give it a set timer for how long it will remain incapacitated, or using the same resurrection system that we have in multiplayer (an ally must stand next to your ghost for 5 seconds).
Needless to say, it’s going to be interesting to implement, and there’s a lot of design details we will have to figure out after we’ve tried it out in game!
Apart from the occasional GUI assets, Vilya has been keeping up with the portrait makeover, giving many of the main story characters an updated look:
That snow guy is so cute! I can’t wait to summon him.
That dash animation is just AWESOME !! Lovin the snowy minion too, can’t to see it fighting around! :)
Keet up the good work guys, this it amazing!
The frosty frined looks like the Poros from League of Legends with some improved animations! Awesome!
The dodging strike is a great new element which will increase the combat flow significant. It is a great variety to the shield. In my opinion, the effect from perfect guard is a bit too bad. It really need good timing and skill to block an attack perfectly but the difference to the normal block isn’t big.
A suggestion is that if you perfect guard an attack it stund the enemy for a short time (except the ranged ones).
A great artwork again done by Vilya. I like the contrast between the total pixel style and the a bit more resolution portraits.
Greeat work!
Still excited for this game, keep up the good work guys. Kind of curious what your pricing point for this game will be, cause I’d pay shameful amounts for this game.
Loving this update!
The Frosty Friend is amazing.
Hoping I can combo it with my cloud.
Using same resurrect as multiplayer would be plain awesome, making the summon that much more personnal.
I would also love to use it as a fast-walking, enemy-freezing (slow), bodyguard.
Cheers,
Yangna
I just love the animation of Frosty the Sno- I mean Frosty Friend, being summoned.
:P
That frost minion is adorable. Can’t wait to see it in game.
Since there is no question and this is just your “average” amazing update, there’s not much to say. The blob looks really cute and anything else looks as great as always.
This game could easily be the game of the year 2013 (in my opinion, admittedly). Nobody said this award could not be won by a game that’s not finished yet. ;-)
Helloweed in the bottom middle v Halloweed in the lower right. Which is it?
Vilya (administrator) wrote at 11/12/2013 21:41:Thanks for your comments, guys! Always great to hear back from you :)
@Sogomn: One ‘hidden’ effect of the perfect guard is that once you’ve blocked a hit your next skill will start charging at silver level (or as high as possible if you haven’t unlocked silver yet). For some reason it isn’t mentioned anywhere in the game yet, something we definitely should fix!
@Rodney Hahoo: Oops! That’s pretty inconsistent of us, haha! Gonna fix that ASAP, thanks for pointing it out :)
Everyone update contains such awesome pixels. Keep up the good work guys!