Developer Diary #5

Fort Experiment

After travelling via Banshees River for hours on end, you spot an imposing structure in the distance. With common sense at hand, you turn right toward it as you're certain it's probably safe.

When you wash ashore, a tall cabin stands before you. Everything would look normal if it weren't for the metal sharks surrounding your boat.

The door creeks open and you wander inside. A guardian stands before you, just like you, but something is wrong. It's body is twisted, jaw unhinged. There are so many.--

New Faces

For the past few weeks we've been working on the next major location, Fort Experiment. Standing tall for decades, the fort has been repurposed by an enemy with a unique interest in your soul altering abilities. The Chimeron.

Chimeron arrived here long before anyone else. Discovering a source of untapped technology, he took over the crumbling fort and restored it. This map will be covered in a unique kind of enemy.

Experiments have been conducted on countless guardians who fell at the beginning of the apocalypse. Some more successful than others.

Without spoiling too much, these enemies are largely mashups of other foes you'll encounter throughout the game - with the exception of two. This is the first time we've intentionally tried to "copy" from other enemies, but as usual there are enough new enemies that things aren't repetitive.

New Locations

We cant share too much of this yet, but Fort Experiment is quite a large map. Bordered by two bodies of water, it features the Traveller's Cabin, Oilfield Stables and Boathouse.

The rest of the level is contained within the fort itself. Housing 4 unique barracks levels and two larger areas: The Chapel and The War Room.

Expect to see new mechanics such as fishing and shock gadgets, alongside new art, sounds and secrets to discover. Fort Experiment is a major town, so will include the usual chores, bounties, minigames and other recurring aspects.

We've also hidden one of our most secret weapons in this town... but you'll get no hints.

Final Word on Fort Experiment

We're burning through the work on this town and we'll be able to show you more pretty soon. However we are intentionally hiding a lot of content the further we get to the end of the game.

The Rest of the Game

Now that we've grabbed your attention with the new stuff, its time to look at the old stuff. But it's not as boring as it sounds.

Banshee's Bluff

Banshee's Bluff has neared completion, with all levels finished and mechanics finalised. Some polish remains, but we're pretty happy with how it looks.

We wanted a unique way for enemies to get into this town. Of course, the usual spawn mechanics exist - you can't just spike trap the mines and hope they never get out. But, enemies will come in via minecart until you figure out what to do with them. Maybe they can be burnt for fuel... surely not?

As always with Defiled West, make sure you explore everywhere for the best experience - you'll find new weapons and gadgets which will massively help when taking on harder enemies - but don't count on the snowball doing much damage.

New Enemies

Banshee's Bluff.. without a Banshee? - Introducing, the Banshee. (Bottom left)

Banshees are a new world-covering enemy which will appear in almost all towns, but more commonly in the final few towns. Expect them to provide a lot of help and make things a lot easier. (For other enemies)

Wraiths (top right) are more simple. They are simply a spectral enemy with a ranged weapon. This is a first for Defiled West, we probably shouldn't have got this far without one. But just because it sounds simple, doesn't mean it'll be easy to fight.

Wraiths like to hang out in darker areas (so he probably shouldn't be out in the snow) and they spend most of their time outdoors. Get used to off-screen cries of war!

Other Exciting Bits

As we play through and test the game we always notice things to improve - we often include them as free updates to the demo - why wait?

The next demo update arrives soon, bringing the Where Wagon (a new NPC to help you get around), item storage, and some more quality of life improvements. We hope you give them a try!

Stickstead is Pretty Again

We've redrawn the ground texture for Stickstead, replacing the old repeating texture. Overall it's less "detailed", but we feel it pops a lot more with the new colours, rocks and plants. Every area has been intentionally designed instead of looking the same at every corner.

This is more in line with every other map except Riftwood - we'll get there.

Banshee's Blizzard

The other day we blocked out the sun in Banshee's Bluff and added storm effects, having a total blast with the new Tempest Iron. The Tempest is a weapon capable of controlling certain aspects of weather, completely transforming the mood of the game.

We've decided to implement a hidden mode which plunges the map into darkness and allows you to fight off hordes of undead with only this overpowered weapon to help you. Just for fun really, no other purpose. You'll have to find out how to get there first...

Swamp Thoughts

The next map for Defiled West is has been fully planned and sketched out: The Blistered Bayou.

This location is a much darker green than Fort Experiment, leaning heavily toward a mossy overgrown landscape packed with insects and violent enemies.

Of course we don't have much to show just yet, but we can reveal a few of the new mechanics!

• 8+ new gadgets

• 5+ new weapons

• 4 new exciting levels (incl. one horde-style level, defending the Blistering Chapel)

• new secrets, a new minigame, new animals

• and more scope creep to provide an even more entertaining experience.

We'll share more as we get closer, but we're very eager to get to work on this town. It's probably going to be a personal favourite of ours.

The End

Thanks for coming along and reading through our latest update. Although we didn't make it into this month's Next Fest, we hope you discover all the amazing games being put out there by some great developers.

Until next time!

The Mindmoss Team