akasha-game - Tumblr blog

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Yep, that's the update.

You're welcome.

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Yes, I know, it's been a while. I've been hard at work adjusting things for the sidescrolling areas mentioned in the last update. While in these areas, your attacks will temporarily be aligned to the x and z axes instead of x and y, as seen here. Knockback and such are similarly affected, and some other abilities change as well. If a charged spear attack is aimed upwards, for example, you'll leap into the air as long as you're on the ground when you let go of the button.

Hopefully this makes these areas a bit more user friendly, which in turn gives me some more flexibility when it comes to level design, which is good. It also makes potential players less willing to want to kill me, which is also good.

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Getting a little creative with this (unfinished) Liminal Zone. Platforming and top-down perspectives typically don't get along very well, of course, but if areas requiring heavy platforming are designed mostly around the x and z axes, it shouldn't be too much of an issue. I think. I hope.

A bit of a funny story: Those Cloud Crates were inspired by a glitch allowing the player to pull themselves up by their bootstraps (in the more literal sense) by lifting an office chair while standing on it. Sadly, breaking the laws of physics neither improved Sam's standing within the company nor earned him a pay raise. That saying lied to us all.

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I've been working on some things related to Liminal Zones. To start, completed Liminal Zones will display a checkmark over the portal leading to them. This checkmark also shows up on the map.

After completing at least one Liminal Zone, this NPC will show up in Subirb.

After a requisite amount of social awkwardness, she'll give you a quest to find Liminal Zones and start granting rewards for completing all of them in an area.

Naturally, you'll be able to get some pretty neat stuff this way. Just not this thing. I'm annoyed just looking at that gif.

That's all for now. See you later!

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Toilets right next to refrigerators! Cats and birds living together! Mass hysteria!

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Here's some footage of a Liminal Zone I found earlier. Despite what the name might imply, Liminal Zones are not, in fact, procedurally-generated deathmatch arenas that look like cheap motels or indoor pools, but rather self-contained challenge areas with a reward at the end. They do, however, look like chopped-up versions of the area that led to it, because liminal. Have I said "liminal" enough yet? Liminiminiminiminal.

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Hey, just what the hell is playing on these TVs anyway?

Uh-oh.

Uh-oh.

Uh-oh--

wait this actually looks like it's kinda good.

... ... Don't tell anyone I just said that.

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Getting back to work on this (literal) crap. The sewers are, well, the sewers, but they have some good treasure to be found, starting with some tool weapons you can use to clear out gratings and pipes that block pathways.

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So... trust nothing, not even everything?

... There's something profound here, just not this.

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Uh, I don't think you're supposed to be playing that during work. Also, you're not doing any of the techs right. Step aside.

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I don't judge. (I also, uh, can't judge.)

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Really, tough guy? Just for that, I'm getting it wrong on purpose. What're you gonna do, strike me with lightning?

OUGH

I hate it when I'm right. ...wait, does being right about the punishment count as not being wrong about the puzzle?

DAMMIT

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yeah i dunno either ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Hi, Sam here. If you've been reading these posts (in which case, hi mom!) you may be wondering to yourself:

...just what the hell is this?

Well, that has to do with my stupid special power. Anime moves and chronic vertigo clearly work out for some people I know, but those things aren't my style. I do things with a little more sass. So, let's get into that.

If you try to swap characters during combat, you'll taunt instead. If you're playing as Kim or myself, you can use a portion of that gauge to parry attacks with it, just like -- that's right -- Curly Brace from La-Mulana. Man, that game still makes me cry, especially when you find out it was her who accidentally pushed Isaac down the stairs. Even so, she still saved all her monster friends through sheer tenacity before she tragically died from a brain tumor. Instant classic. Uboa still scares the hell out of me, though.

... Whoa, I'm hungry all of a sudden. Gimme a sec.

There we go. Where was I?

Oh yeah, defeating enemies fills up the gauge. Holding and releasing Swap when the gauge is full unleashes the Sassblast. Sassblasting hits all enemies on screen. Any character can do this, but Kim and I fill the gauge faster and deal significantly higher damage with our Sassblasts. Those who are stubborn enough to survive it will get a character-specific debuff for their trouble. Hitting at least one enemy with it also grants you a character-specific buff as well, with its duration improving if you hit more.

In our case, the Sassblast applies random debuffs. Meanwhile, we get buffed with--

...uh, a general improvement to all abilities by a respectable amount. Let us never speak of it again. Ever.

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The mole...

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A few more screenshots for now.

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I haven't worked on anything too interesting lately, so instead I'm going to ramble at random about some of the boring stuff. Apologies in advance.

The text box that showcases the various properties of an item is now more compact, and the icon for the item itself has been moved to prevent it from potentially overlapping the former. The property shown here hopefully gives more useful information than it used to by telling you how much a regular strike and a charged strike multiply your damage by. Normally, of course, it's 1x -> 2x (in which case this property won't show up in the rotation), but certain weapons have modifiers that change this. Flails, for example, are 0.5x -> 2x by default.

Note that certain character abilities may misrepresent the latter number. For example, each strike from Irene's Hurricane Spin does half the damage of a regular spin attack to compensate for it potentially striking multiple times.

While we're on that topic:

Irene's Hurricane Spin has been tweaked a bit. Each strike before the final one does slightly less knockback to keep enemies struck by it relatively close by, and it now grants her semi-invulnerability for its remaining duration if she strikes at least one enemy with it (with the sword itself, not anything fired from it). Furthermore, she's granted immunity to contact damage regardless (as seen here) to help prevent enemies with the ability to do so from popping in and interrupting it constantly, which could be a problem if she's using a sword that doesn't fire beams. These are characteristics shared with the spear's Super Thrust, primarily because some enemies (like these) are immune to knockback, and otherwise would cause you to smack into them during the thrust.

Some notes on invulnerability: there are, in general, three tiers of it:

Semi-invulnerability doesn't render you immune to certain attacks, such as charged attacks, particles (like those fired from an elemental sword) or channeled beams (like the lasers used by the robot in the previous update). Environmental damage and status effect damage are also unaffected. This is the type granted by mercy invulnerability and Sam and Kim's roll ability.

Various forms of ad hoc invulnerability are granted during specific cases, such as during Nendo's dash and Irene's Hurricane Spin (as mentioned above) to protect against things that would otherwise be irritating. Nendo, for example, is protected from everything that involves physical contact with an attack or enemy while dashing, but he's still vulnerable to damage from the environment, status effects, and certain Memesis effects and monster attacks.

True invulnerability is granted from a few status effects and protects you from all damage, except for the damage caused by falling into a hole or being crushed. Harmful status effects can still be applied, but they won't do damage as long as you're invulnerable.

Most forms of invulnerability won't apply while time is stopped for you, except for mercy and true invulnerability.

Speaking of being crushed:

Yeah, that can happen now. I don't expect it to be something that poses a true threat, like in the form of falling ceilings. It's more or less just a confidence check for now (if I'm using that term correctly).

If you're reading this, I admire your patience for the verbal equivalent of watching paint dry. Have a good one!