ACT2 Summer Progress Report

Work has been progressing steadily, we've almost wrapped up the gameplay part, this includes all the new enemies and bosses, character movesets, stage gimmicks, new mechanics and level blockouts. From here on one of us will be working on implementing the remaining elements while the other will work on level art and cutscenes. There's still a mountain of work ahead of us but we're starting to feel optimistic.

This devlog will contain spoilers

for new enemies mechanics and player weapons, we won't be touching up anything story related, but if you wanna go full blind, here's your heads up.

Now then,

Following Blue's secondary weapon, Red's got another whole moveset with his brand new weapon:

RED

PUNK STAR

Red can now use a giant shield he can throw at enemies, while weaker than his gloves, they make up for it with increased range and crowd control as the shield will drag enemies with it, keeping them at bay.

But of course a shield's main job is to block attacks and this weapon changes how the mechanic normally works. By holding the block button Red will protect himself until the button is released, this makes it easier to block in general but it has the added benefit that the player gets to decide when they release the shield, allowing them to block+counter much faster, even between enemy attacks. Blocking many attacks will charge up the shield.

Perfect Block works as it always has, raising the shield right as an attack comes will count as a perfect, parrying/staggering and filling your Flow gauge, BUT it'll also charge the weapon instantly.

The size of the blades depending on shield charge.

One of Punk Star's Flow attacks is called Counterblast, this move will instantly shoot a large explosion in front of Red, the size and power depends on the charge level (No charge, Level 1 or Level 2) which will be consumed on use. The charge is kept even if you switch characters.

You can imagine the synergy already, block a bunch, risk some perfect parries and get strong punishes as reward.

View store page We might go into more specifics of its Flows and combos in a future update, but for now let's jump onto Yellow!

YELLOW

We finally got to expand on Yellow's moveset from the little teaser you guys got in the Prologue and she is a beast to play as. Think of her as the berserker of the group.

HEARTBREAKER

Yellow's giant hammer, it is the strongest weapon in the game and also the slowest, all of its attacks are able to guard-crush enemies, allowing her to interrupt a lot of enemy attacks and break through their armored states (more on that later).

Her Flows include a variety of spins and flips that end with her either crushing downwards, blasting enemies away or taking them for a ride.

Sure, she is slow but here's where her main gimmick comes into play:

FRENZY

This single Flow deserves its own section due to how versatile it is. Yellow is not particularly right in the head, and this is the gameplay reflection of that. Activating this Flow ability will make her enter a Frenzy state that will last for 5 seconds, it can be stacked it up to 3 times for a total duration of 15 seconds. During this state all of her moves will get a speed boost, her basic combo will get extra attacks and each Flow will get a different buff.

She will however take double damage during it. But there's more, and here's probably the most fun aspect of Yellow's toolkit.

When Yellow is Frenzied, switching to another character while she is attacking will make her continue to attack until the Frenzy runs out, if she was using her basic combos, she will chase down enemies and continue to attack non-stop, if she was using Flows she will repeat them until she runs out of Frenzy or sucks up the Flow gauge completely. This will vastly raise the DPS dealt as Yellow can be out Frenzied while Blue and Red do their own thing. Just keep in mind the double damage, she can be devastating but having her completely unchecked might shave off most of your health bar if something big hits her.

NUTSCRATCHER

Yellow's second projection is a colossal chainsaw, the weapon is fully implemented but we won't go much into details to keep some surprises for you all to explore. We'll say its main gimmick is that it attacks by holding the button, dealing sustained damage. It's really fun to use on its own but its especially brutal when combined with Frenzy as you'll see Yellow shredding up enemies around the other characters.

View store page

ENEMIES

Most of ACT2's enemies are complete and we're really happy with the expanded roster. ACT2 also includes more bosses than 1, so look forward to that!

Because we don't wanna spoil too much we'll focus on one miniboss today:

CRUSHER

The second largest creature you'll find in ACT2, Crushers are towering colossus with an armor made up of highly compressed zenodian blood.

Here's where one of the new mechanics comes into play. There's a new blue bar under the enemy health (and that beautiful placeholder texture for the portrait), this their armor bar. You won't be able to deal damage to them unless you use guard-crushing moves like Red's charged fists, some of his Flows and of course, our MVP for ACT2, Yellow.

Enemies with armor won't get staggered by attacks so timing and positioning is required to break through them, once you do, the slimey monster underneath will burst forth and you'll be able to defeat it.

Be careful that if you take too long, it'll regrow the armor!

LEVELS

ACT1 covers chapters from 1-7, ACT2 will go from 7-14.

This is the part that's still heavily WIP. We do have all the layouts blocked in and we can play the whole ACT2 from start to finish... but it looks like ass.

Doing an art pass of all these levels will take considerable time, especially since a lot of them have brand new asset kits and set pieces. You will have to wait a little longer to see that.

In terms of gameplay, we decided to make the Double Jump an unlock after beating ACT1 so we could expand on the verticality for ACT2 onwards. These newer levels have more cool platforming sections where you'll be able to zoom around using your extra height. Early playtests are very promising!

CUTSCENES

Because our focus is and always will be gameplay, they've been pushed to the end of the cycle, if something needs to be cut short or scrapped, we prefer it be narrative than new enemies or areas.

We'll start working on them as soon as the levels are looking presentable. Really looking forward to bringing back the VA gang!

SURE, BUT WHEN!???!!!1

We're aiming to release ACT2 by the end of the year. That's the goal, so far so good, we're halfway through the year and we're 50-60% done. It's gonna be close but we'll do our best!

EVENTS!

For those of you that are in Spain. We'll be attending Iris Games (Málaga, 3rd of July) because Genokids has been nominated for Best Indie! How cool is that? https://www.premiosirisgames.com/

That next sunday (July 5th), we'll be back in Valencia to attend OWN, where you'll be able to play the game and chat with us. https://www.openworldnow.com/