This week, I've been working on artwork and animations for the first level. They're not all implemented yet (thanks Smash Bros!), but I've got the most important ones in there. There's also no sound yet for most of the animations, including a new song that I'll need to request at some point.

Click 'Read more' to see some of the sprites and the process of creating Viola's animations!

This week and the last have mostly been spent on contacting publishers (if you're a publisher and you're reading this, hi! Please help Viola!). But I've also been concepting characters and mapping out the game's story and levels. I've created a timelapse to show how I move from a concept sketch to a final sprite.

Click 'Read more' to see all the character concepts I've created this week!

There isn't much to talk about this week. I took one day to submit Viola to a "stimulation fund", looking for a cultural subsidy to fund Viola with. After that, I worked on getting spell animations to work, complete with sound and particle effects. Most of my time was spent actually getting things to work, with only two spells being actually implemented: Viola's.

Crescendos are powerful spells that use their own Crescendo Points, rather than the standard Ability Points used for spells. You gain Crescendo Points by taking damage. The system is based off of Lufia's "Rage" system, combined with the flair of super moves from fighting games.

Battle animations and player feedback is in! The things still missing are animations for spells, as well as their visual and sound effects.

Click 'Read more' to read more about the animations and some of the choices I've made for the battles.

I've had a busy week, but the time I did have for Viola I spent on character animations. I made a timelapse to show how a single sprite for an animation gets made!

Click 'Read more' to see a few sprite sheets I've made.

Games often use enemies to keep the game filled with conflicts for the player to engage with. Obviously, Viola is the same. So, this week, I put some extra love into the enemies you see in the game, and I added a fight against one of Viola's antagonists: Justice.

Click 'Read more' to read more about Justice and the other enemies in Viola.

I had to do more UI this week, since I didn't get to finish all of it last week. Turns out there was way more functionality left to do than I thought, so it took up the whole week. But, that makes the UI complete, other than some functionality for equipment, which will get its own sprint.

Click 'Read more' to see a few more screenshots and explanations!

I worked on the graphical end of Viola this week, specifically the user interface. I've got all the art, but not all of the interface is implemented yet, due to the nature of these interfaces. Most of them need to show off the party in some way, which means I need to grab data from other objects to link to health bars etc.

​Click 'Read more' to view a few more screenshots.

Spells are now functional in-game during battle. Global warming made things a little more difficult (how do people think in all this heat?), but wow if it doesn't work. Visual and audio polish are still necessary to give the player proper feedback, but it's important to put functionality first.

Click 'Read more' to read more about spells!

This week, I worked on creating the "Wishfire" mechanic and section. After (almost) every level, the player gets the opportunity to rest at a Wishfire: a camping ground where you can heal your party and have an extended chat with them.

Click 'Read more' to read more about the origin of this mechanic, and my implementation.