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Devlog: Weeks 8 and 9 (Level Design)

Proyecto Soul
A downloadable game for Windows and Linux

Hello again and thanks for staying with us for one more Devlog. In this time, that felt so brief for us, we’ve been making many changes to our little game, we improved the gameplay, added our first true level idea and designed a project Logo! ヽ(°〇°)ノ

As it was mentioned in the previous Devlog, the team opted for a partial synchronization mechanic for the players. Because of that, we’ve added a toggle to temporarily desynchronise one of the two characters (leaving the other still). This “Async'' state consumes stamina (from the beautiful stamina bar we’ve added), that represents the time you have left as a player, being able to control one character independently. If this bar depletes, you are pulled back to your original position before activating the toggle. This applies to both characters, as we’ve already implemented a toggle to select your “current” character.

Like we briefly mentioned, we’ve added a pretty HUD that shows your characters, their health and the aforementioned stamina bar 🙂

As you can see it’s even difficult to understand in visual form xD, but the main idea is that you have Player “A” to the left and Player “B” to the right, so your characters start in points 1 and 1’ respectively. Your goal is to open the door in the middle of the screen. To reach it you need the key (only Player “A” can pick it up), the thing is, at first character ‘A’ cannot get to it, because there is no ladder to climb through. This ladder can only be activated if you desynchronise with player ‘B’ and activate a switch. Only then player ‘A’ can get on top of the platform and eventually get the key (After a little more puzzling). You get the idea xD. The important part is that levels are going to be designed around the idea of switching between ‘Sync’ and ‘Async’ mode, and the fact that you get pulled back when you run out of stamina in ‘Async’ mode. It’s confusing to explain and it’s better for you to just try it out.

ヽ(°〇°)ノ. One of our main short term goals is going to be finishing up this level, so everyone can actually test it and give their opinions.

And here it's what we have now in the game, as you can see it’s basically the same but in Godot form ヽ(ー_ー )ノ:


Another idea for level design is the following:


Although it seems complex at first, it’s really simple (・ω<)☆. Basically, like we described before, each character has the ability to desynchronise temporarily while the other stands still in its position. When your stamina time is over, your character gets pulled in ghost mode to its initial position before desynchronizing (Following a straight trajectory). The neat part of this design is that we leverage this straight movement to pick up keys at each side of the screen when the player is on its way back. This allows them to open the door that will let them continue to the next level or level segment.

We’ve strategically placed lava pits in the level to ensure the player actually uses the aforementioned mechanic, eliminating the possibility of free movement of both characters through the level. Because the character on your right cannot get to the door on its own, we’ve planned for a platform to block the lava pit once both keys are obtained. This would allow for the completion of this level.

Of course this all needs to be programmed and put into practice, so everything is subject to change xD

Besides, one of our team members designed and drew a new logo that represents the core idea of the game, and seeks to improve the game’s experience by enhancing the visuals and providing its own identity to the project.

At the moment we’ve only got a static image, but we want this logo to have movement and an animation each time we launch the game:

Finally, part of an animation for a collectible in the form of a kitten was drawn (´• ω •`)


We hope for you to be as excited as we are for the future of this project, that progressively has more and more identity and soul (Pun intended) 🙂

So keep an eye on future updates, because things are only going to get better (⊙_⊙) The team of Disobedient Cat says goodbye, and see you next time ( ̄▽ ̄)ノ

Files

  • ProjectSoul_Experimental_3.x86_64 89 MB
    Oct 16, 2023
  • ProjectSoul_Experimental_3.exe 88 MB
    Oct 16, 2023
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