With the fruits of Adam’s labor reveals a new progress video for Blackmask!

This progress video done between the last video and now, includes new additions of Slopes, Dashing, NPCs, and Enemies. There’s some jank of course, but development still persists!

Between this and my other art tasks, I’m working on some Dog and Cat NPCs that are Cole’s size, unlike the Deer NPCs who’re twice his size. With these lil’ guys, I’m figuring out a system where I can make quick variants of the characters to swap out heads and bodies. I’m sure this will be my system in refining my npc or enemy sprites.

Most of these sprites are me reinterpreting my initial sketchbook characters as basic animated characters back when still thinking of them as a comic.

Right now, Adam has enough art assets to work with at get things going for a larger playable demo, so my current art priorities are working on environment art and more specific story stuff.

The current idea is a sort of “Tutorial Island” that Cole goes to hunt for a secret treasure and gets ambushed by enemies who also what whatever treasure is on the island. Environments still aren’t my strong suit, but that just means I need to lean hard into the research. One thing that’s helping me out it is figuring out the game mechanics to teach a player. Going off what skills Cole is programmed with so far: Walking, Running, Jumping, Double Jumping, A Basic Sword Attack, and really rough wall climbing, Cole would benefit from an environment that would flex this skill.

A tropical island is a straightforward idea since the world of Blackmask as a pirate, fantasy adventure world. I want to try brainstorming other types of island environments like a floating island, or an ice island like Greenland or Northern Japan. Perhaps something like foggy Britain or Iceland. Maybe a fire island with lots of lava would make a cool first impression.

It’s possible that it’ll change and there be some actual greyboxing, but I want to make the most of this as soon as I can and push harder to nail down my plot ideas. My ideas for game mechanics is a bit simple and low scale, so I’m leaving Adam to figure out gameplay mechanics he’d wants to try out.