Over the last month, I got a bit side-tracked from the coding side of things.

I was showing a friend an early build of the game (which looked like this), and they pointed out how much neater it would be if the characters were actually fighting in the level, rather than inside a “picture frame” in the foreground. They were totally right. Since the levels are actual levels now, instead of just two-dimensional sprites, it’s a waste to drop the players in a flat, featureless box when they could be fighting on a bridge or in the clouds, or something.

Screenshot4
(Pictured: Fighting on a bridge. Not pictured: Walls)

So I got rid of the confining walls (…at least for the outdoor levels).
There will still be some sort of level bounds (lest players fly away into space) but they won’t be as claustrophobic as the giant pillars protruding from the ground.

In addition, I’ve been working on giving the visual style a good polish before moving forward.
By re-making the objects, adding post-processing effects such as SSAO and bloom, and making the water look like actual water rather than a blue carpet, we’ve gone from this:

ScreenshotOld2

To this:
Screenshot3

The game is still in the early stages of development, and there’s plenty of work ahead, but it’s nice to see things gradually taking shape.

-Rimply