Mecromage Status: Jun ‘15

Greetings! This month we’ll take a look into some player and enemy design and how Josh is progressing with the artwork.

As we refine mechanics and player progression, so too must we reflect those changes in the context of how the player is motivated in the game world. I’ve spent some time touching up the player’s character status bar, as well as turned an eye toward our Fire Zone’s opposition and environment.

PLAYER STATUS BAR

The player bar is important because it conveys information to player, not only mechanically, but also the important question the player needs answered – “who am I?”

Standard player status bar demo

The standard character bar conveys the tech-meets-medieval fantasy aesthetic we are going for. It displays the character’s ‘life counter’ status at the top left corner. Currently readied weapons and utilities are displayed prominently. Health and alloy resource indicators are visible with health getting the standard percentage bar treatment along with a numeric value.

Alloy Shell status bar demo

The hero has an ability to transmute the alloy resource through a number useful technique. This demonstrates how we might convey to the player that they’ve gained hardened skin. The character sheds the alloy shell in place of precious health if the player has the fore sight, resources, and inclination to armor up.

Block status bar demo

The player’s shield should play an important role in combat. When the shield is presented by the player, a graphic covers the health numeric value to convey the chance to block damage. A successful block results in no health loss, audio indication, and a status tag persists for a few moments in congratulation.

Power up status bar demo

A number of power-ups may be found throughout Neoblon. When the player collects and imbues herself with this magic, she’s well aware of its sustaining endurance and type.

FIRE ZONE – OPPOSITION

We’re refining our process for designing and implementing awesome groups of enemies for players to interact with. This is exceptionally important in ensuring the player has a dynamic experience when encountering adversaries. This process provides us with quick access to enemy information from our level editor, but we still use concept boards for inspiration and direction.

Group overview in progress

There are a lot of factors to balance when designing enemies. They may be designed to fit an initial role, but must be molded to convey story, provide dynamic interaction, and be flexible enough to be placed in diverse environments. This requires often revisiting designs, merging and morphing not just the unit in question, but also being aware of its place within a group.

These moldings and revisions have been a focus recently. The Rock Biter and the Leader are currently receiving the most attention, with our runner receiving some slight changes as well.

Leader rough Photoshop sprite demo

Rockbiter concept pencil sketch

Rockbiter rough Photoshop sprite demo on stage

FIRE ZONE – ENVIRONMENT

Mecromage is a fantasy experience set in a magical world that isn’t exactly like our own. There are a lot of similarities, but we are really hoping to provide a sense of exploring a new world to the player. The Fire’s Edge stage is set in a magically amalgamated, volatile, yet beautiful area nestled in the crags of a floating canon.

Screen capture of Fire’s Edge stage with Rock Biter draft sprite

It can be difficult to maintain a retro-saturated canvas and ensure that game mechanics are clearly presented on the game field, but we’re happy with the results so far and are confident we can deliver. Since we’re a three-person studio with one artist and limited resources, it’s especially important that we work smartly by thoroughly designing and organizing our assets, have the ability to quickly swap assets kits, and quickly provide each other with feedback to our work. We continually strive to hone our designs and processes to meet these challenges.

Sliced readied environment assets reside in Photoshop template files for quick export