Full setup and dev plan presentation

Hi!

It's official: Cosmic Void has entered the development phase!

As such, we will now be sharing the design decisions, along with the planned roadmap.

Our design principles

These will upheld throughout the entire development.

Design pillars

• Retro style metroidvania with modern elements
  • PC have mice and controllers have joysticks. There is no reason to not be able to aim precisely anymore.
  • It has to feel new, yet familiar.
  • As such, it will have a vast interconnected map.
• Tense narrative with multiple endings
  • The environment gets oppressive as the story progresses, urging the player to leave ASAP
  • 3 endings; Bad, Neutral, Good.
  • No over-convoluted requirements for the Good End; no locks on endings!
• Strong female character? Is that even a pillar it should be a standard
  • Seriously though

Game loops

The main game loop consists of these events, each being a reward in itself for different kinds of players, some being actual in-game rewards as well.

• Explore
• Fight monsters
• Get upgrades
• Unlock new area

Magic moments

• Discovering an upgrade and realizing it’s the key to open new areas
• Finding shortcuts between areas

Roadmap

Currently, most of the development is focused on gameplay features. Starting early February, work will also begin on mapping.
Here's the current list of features being worked on: (some have already got some progress done)

• Platformer physics - 80%
• GUI System - 15%
• Map display
• Inventory system
• Equipment system
• Upgrade system - 5%
• Collectibles
• Cutscene system
• Dialog boxes - 50%
• Room persistency
• File system
• Level editor

The current priority is the GUI system, along with text boxes.

I think we're making good progress on that end. 👍