I want to have the next level that contains quite a few cartoony/stylized/linework based creatures, as well as the regular, painted ones. Also I'm making most of those creatures animal themed, so here are a few worm based ones I came up with.
Been doing way too much coding and not enough drawing recently, it's good to switch it up.
Take a look at this drawing. I drew this over a year and a half ago:
I'm mentioning this because even then I drew it with the idea of using it as a base for a level in this game. Take a look at the original post of this drawing in my portfolio, if you want to see how I drew it: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/4Nonv1
The game was in very early stages back then, so naturally a lot has changed now that I finally worked my way up to starting on this level for real. Here is a work in progress of it now. I expanded accessible places, added paths in the surrounding ground/flesh and so on:
The gray background is very much still not done, so don't pay too much attention to that. This whole area is in a different style from the rest of the game so far, so there are quite a few things I still need to work out about integrating this linework style on top of painted background. All the dark blue and dark red areas are walkable, everything else will count as walls. Over the last few days I also added more linework to raise the detail level. This thing is quite a massive drawing , it needs to look good at full zoom. This is the chest area now at the actual size you will play at and I think the linework detail level will work quite nice and is close to being finished:
And this is the same area before:
Like in the first level, Abandoned Archives, I will be adding little areas/ rooms that have a chance to appear, making each play through a bit different. This time these will mostly take form or various organs and missing bones. Here's a sketch of some I came up with so far:
I think all this should be fun and gory to explore.
Lastly, here's how this whole level is placed in the game. It connects to the previous area and a passage will be opeanable permanently from the side of this new level.
I will be adding a secret way to access this level from the very start, which should be fairly hard to find naturally. A little extra for anyone with specific knowledge of a hint I placed where these two levels connect:
The brown rock pattern on the top right contains a three letter code. I'm not going to say exactly how it's hidden, but I would be interested in hearing if anyone who stumbles on this devlog knows the method.
Some up close detail:
About a year and a half ago I uploaded the first version of this lovely skeletal guy, this:
Even at the time I was planning to use it as a base for a level in my monster collection game Abandoned Monsters, but a lot has changed since and it needed some serious overhauling. Way more detail when viewing up close, painted fleshy background to integrate this into the rest of the game and most importantly I expanded and enfancified many in-bone areas where you can move in the game.
It's only the base, many little additions will go into if even before actual monsters and the player character itself, but this is a huge amount of work in the making of this level. Feels good man, I had this idea cooking for like two years.
A little character I drew to be used as a new NPC . This one will be in charge of a certain device I already placed in the hub area. It's not functioning yet, but it will be a way to unlock some story elements and extra artwork in game, though I'm not sure if that will be available in the upcoming update or the one after that yet. You can see in the progress gif where this NPC will be placed, here's the general area from further away for reference:
I wanted a highly tired and overworked guy with a little bit of that homeless chic even. This was partially inspired by a programmer I know who once admitted to me he realized he was smoking five packs a day while working remotely. That's two and a half times more than I have even heard of before from the heaviest smokers.
Some new monsters that will be in the upcoming level. More insect themed monsters should go well with the giant worm eaten dead creature that is this level, but of course there will be other types of creatures to encounter too.
I've been working more on the artwork side recently, since I've been quite burned out on the coding side of things after launching the demo, but I already started adding some of the new monsters into the game. The base level( meaning without the side rooms and such) is also 90 integrated into the game engine already so I will share how some monsters work and look in context soon.
I'm here again designing creatures for the game. Body horror is the theme this time, the best theme is.
I started actually integrating these into the game already. The migraine victim on the left has his head periodically explode into a spray of worms and the pillar man in the middle throws spare organs all around in a desperate attempt to defend himself. I'm still working out some details for the ring man on the right.
I've been working a on a couple new enemies. This migraine man starts making sounds and glowing red when you get close and after a few seconds his head explodes into a shower of white worms. The worms cling to wall and ceiling and fall down after a few seconds so you need to be careful not to be damaged by those either but you can shoot the worms down before that or deflect them with Laser Explosion. In the meantime the monster heals his head and the cycle continues. The weakpoint is visible only while the head is exploded but you can try capturing him anytime if you remember the placement of it.
And these human caterpillar guys throw their own organs around in a desperate attempt at self defense. They are not too dangerous if you pay attention, but the organs do pile up until they burst in a few seconds, so they serve as an extra environmental obstacle and do damage while in contact with the player. In this placement these enemies are easy to avoid, but might be more of a challenge if you need to pass them in a narrow tunnel or in combination with other enemies. The organs can also be deflected by a Laser Explosion like other rubble in the game. The lore reason for these existing is that they are used as bioengineered machines to grow large amounts of organs for transplants, that's why they have multiple holes for convenient organ access.
It is time again for one of my more experimental artworks. I will use this as an in universe painting you can find in the background in a somewhat hidden area to show off some lore, same way I did with this example in the Abandoned Archives level:
This is absolutely too much work for such a small detail, but that's the beauty of personal projects - I can do what I want and waste time where I see fit.
To give some lore context, a large part of the game is sorta body horror themed where everything is grown instead of being built or made in regular methods. You will be able to find a large tree that is made from old matted hair grown for some purpose and this drawing is supposed to depict that area when it was new, beautiful and idealized.
I drew this a bit differently from normal as well. Usually I would draw the linework and have an entire coloring stage after that, but this time I used a lot of flat color so both linework and coloring were smushed into one.
