Thank you to those who took the time to fill out the testing form
Feedback submissions
I loved your art style and I think you have a really cool idea. For a moment I wasn’t sure what paths I needed to follow, it reminded me of Hollow Knight in a way, besides a little confusion there I think it’s pretty awesome!
in the starting sections you can see the background over the ceiling (don’t know if it is intentional or not),in the rooftop section if you double jump you can see the untiled background, after you leaving the lab you can see an untiled section under the floor in full screen. in the house section you could put some way to backtrack. with unlimited wall jump you can get in some places you should not be able to.
I think it’s great so far, the visual design is really well done, the general mood is very consistent and the use of lighting to create different spaces is well done. It feels a little zoomed in, like I can’t see that much of the level around me, which I think is in part for effect, but I think playing with different zoom levels or windows sizes could be interesting.
Based on these submissions I took the time to pinpoint a few of these bugs I was aware of, but a few minor details i missed as well in the construction of the level. The last few game updates I made primarily aimed to fix these bugs, make some of these recommended changes and improve the overall QOL for the game. Now that i have the game polished smoothly I’ll continue to work on the final dialogs and area, and any other outstanding changes. One thing I still would like to look at from these submissions is restructuring the supply den section to make it easy to backtrack as i did add a POI diary log that introduces one of the supporting characters, so it would be good to allow players to access it without having to reset the level or climb back over the building.
Also thanks for checking out the Reminiscence web-prequel and enjoying it
as well as taking interest in other semi or undeveloped characters within this universe.
As a concept for an anthology of an ensemble cast I hope to create a diverse set of characters, both human AND non-human that can interest people. To tell their own respective stories within the humans //Diaries:_ series, and the non-humans //Origins:_ series, having their own characteristics, and eventually crossing paths and intersecting with one another in the full Bound in Blood experience.
The first live build for BiB/D:_R is officially out for le Windows and le MacOS, Devlog also posted here.
Stag Head Game Icon
Showcase
The map has extended just about twofold with yet another new set of assets, including the addition of projectiles (however unbinded at the moment because it freezes the player when throwing a molotov) and an overall polished level structure.
Finally got a design i can work with for the bachelor wendigo and put it in a mini arena for now in the sewer, with that i went back up to the surface to add a new set of interior props for the next cabin and start expanding the rooftop branch of the level. i had the character audios working on my laptop but when i transferred my file back to my PC for some reason those audios broke and i cant get them working again so i may just have to remake them in audacity and see if that works.
Runthrough of new area
Edit: i just noticed some missing walls in the video so i fixed them lol
Ive extended the scene again to include a new underground branch with a new set of assets, added missing animations, and properly implemented the static poison obstacle for the underground section. With that i also made a new set of audio for the underground ambience, and i have a few unused samples that i haven’t figured out how to implement in the script yet (jump landing, enemy hit/death, and player getting hit) I also added new nature assets to fill in the empty space on the surface and add more depth, and a construction boundary tile for the end of the level so it looks a bit better. Lastly with so many new assets i did another pass of organizing the scenes asset list.
This is where the sci-fi and lore kick in lol. Non-human life makes its debut with a taste of the Secret Forests local bHCDM sub-species, which means Hot Compact Dark Energy Matter from a Black Hole type parent called a bCCDM (Black hole type Cold Compact Dark Energy Matter, these are highly sentient, conscious, smarter masses of dark energy that trace their way back to earth typically by breaking off of passing asteroids and meteors). CCDM are currently only born from Black Holes [bCCDM] or Neutron Stars [nCCDM] and produce their respective type of HCDM.
LORE DUMP FROM MY SECRET FOREST ECOLOGY FILE
General Wildlife, though rotting and mutated, still loosely populates the woods. Ridden with intense physical and mental anguish, they are highly likely to lash out at almost any form of encounter. Highly advised to avoid contact.
Human Population
Nozomi Ringo (Survivor, New Prospect)
Alden ‘Blue’Copag(Researcher’s Tribe)
Researchers Tribe(Aldens group)
Doomed survivors (various, rare)
Lost Communities(various, very rare)
Wendigo Population
Local bCCDM Host (TBD)
Local HCDM
Whistleblowers
The whistleblowers are the wendigo(s) that will initially make contact with someone in the Living Dimension, render them unconscious, and drag them into the woods of the Rotting Dimension. Instead of immediately consuming them, however, they drop them in a random hunting ground and leave to signal the Bachelor Groupfor the start of a Rut.
Bachelors
The bachelors are the Wendigo(s) that lurk in the woods waiting for the Whistleblowers call. When they hear it they go on the hunt and stalk their human prey, usually leading the survivors into a chaseand/ora state of lockdown as the waves of feral Wendigo clash with both survivors and each other. Given that the survivors fend off the waves in a battle of fire and attrition, the weakened Bachelors will retreat into the woods and focus on recovery until the next rut.
Management
Management are the wendigo(s) that do not participate in the rut, instead quietly observing from among the forest and passively channeling the excess energy of dead prey back to the CCDMs chosen Sanctuary.
Crawling Mist again with an attack animation (not exactly the canon way I intend on using HCDM husks but for this is K)
‘Stag’ a rogue management wendigo that decides to be a sort of guide for Rin and the Researcher’s Tribe after a curious discovery about her connection to her father and the much more volatile CCDM host of the region. (He was meant to be the template for me to also include the Bachelor type wendigo as an enemy as well but i wasn’t really satisfied with the side-profiles i was making for the rest of the animations so i didn’t get to)
Starting to expand the level to introduce the second NPC character / enemy, raised the skybox and expanded the background so i can enable the jump controls, also expanded the player camera to accommodate the new space, added the first collectible item, and added some obstacles, 1 passive and 2 harmful.
