Another month of complete devotion

Hello friends! Thank you all for being around and supporting MoGi Origins with your presence, suggestions, opinions, feedback and any other way possible. It means more than you can imagine.

This month I managed to finish all of Alice's animations for every outfit she was supposed to have. It was a huge challenge but she is now fully programmed and tested as a playable character. Alice has a new Backdash ability, even on the air. Also she has a Special and a Super move that consumes energy. Alice showed up a few bugs but seemingly everything is now fixed and I'm very pleased with the final result. Her Super move is so cool as it shakes the screen and hits all visible enemies!

Titan worked with me for the second time, since our new arrangement. I'm very proud of the number of things we added and fixed this month. Here's most of the tasks Titan had to deal with, during his 20 days of work. Most notably, Slimegirl Red needed a big update and Succogi is now completed as a boss fight. The work speed was hectic and some details may be missing from the following list, but that's a good chunk of the problems we addressed.

Titan will work on the programming of the game for another 20 days in January. Until then I have to finish the underwear version of Ucogi, and revamp and populate as many levels as possible. The level design is tricky in many ways and every guy we hired to help, found it to be a big chore. I need to familiarize with GameMaker and its kinks, as there are no obvious shortcuts to tile each area. But for me is more time consuming than challenging. For example, just to test each level's parallax scrolling, I have to compile the game every damn time.

My main concern is making the levels interesting (especially if they need backtracking) and work well with all 6 playable characters. Moreover, I need to worry about the pacing of the game, which is tied to the level design. Thankfully I have worked on many plans and drafts, but if something is off, I would need to reconsider and correct it. 

Even thought all the levels exist in the game, many of them were left empty, to be populated by objects that I would design later on. These objects are now completed, many levels have Hostage puzzles (an idea that came to me only a few months ago), some art is updated and even the parallax scrolling has been updated to be both horizontal and vertical. Furthermore, the game due to it's semi-realistic setting, it appears to have many flat levels and it does need more verticality. So, I really need to rework and polish most of the areas.

I wish I could have something tangible to show you, especially after all the hard work we have done in the game, but most probably I won't have something ready, until the early months of 2022. To some of you, this might sound disappointing, but please consider that I'm doing my very best. Not only I came up with a viable production plan that works, but I have also been working non-stop (pretty much since September) in an effort to redeem the whole project. 

During November I only went out 5 times (to get food supplies from a supermarket), and I haven't had any other contact with the outside world. The sheer amount of this month's work is a testament to that. I might take a break during the Christmas vacations, because I'm showing symptoms of burnout, and I do need to clear my head, if not for my health, then for the level design's sake.

 
~Veins