Here’s a collection of screenshots and GIFs of new features I’ve been working on.

I’ve done some work on pets/companions, including adding a ranged companion (below). It’s now also possible for a second player to control companions – local multiplayer! Like in Sonic 2, if there is no player 2, or player 2 leaves the controller untouched for a while, companions revert to their ordinary AI behavior.

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Hey everyone! Here’s a quick update of everything I’ve been working on lately.

Firstly, I’ve been working on a new script for Lenna’s Inception with SamuriFerret. We’ve made some large changes to the story-line in order to ensure all the threads come together into a satisfying ending, and to make sure parts of the story don’t obstruct gameplay. As an example of the latter, several story characters will now contact you via Lance’s mobile when something’s up, so that you don’t have to return to the town and hunt down specific NPCs.

Over the last few weeks, I’ve added 5 new types of enemies to the game:

From left to right: smileder, sharktula, dolphinja, snail, bombshell.

Yes, Lenna’s Inception will finally have water-based enemies – the sharktula and dolphinja. I’ve completely rewritten the monster-spawning code to support this properly.

Next up, I’m going to be adding a new follower, and then I’ll start implementing the new script in the game.

Finally, if you haven’t seen it already, Stardew Valley just released on Steam. It’s well worth a look!

I’m currently putting in the last of the new features for beta8 this evening (sound effects for new items, actions and tiles). What’s left after that is fixing the remaining bugs, testing and then releasing the beta8 update! You can see my progress towards the release on my trello board.

As I wrote last month, the new GBA-style graphics won’t be included in beta8, they’ll be in a future update instead. The current plan is for both styles to be available in the final game.

While I’m here, here’s a full list of all the new features in beta8:

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Since the last post, we’ve continued adding lots of polish to the game. Samuri has continued his art rework, and we now have almost all the tiles we need, and a lot of the items.

I’m currently in the process of tightening up the combat: fixing weird hitboxes, making sure enemies telegraph their attacks, improving animations, etc.

A common piece of feedback I’ve had is about the “dead” lower-left corner of the player – it’s not actually possible to hit enemies in that corner with the sword as it currently is. So I’ve extended the arc of the sword a few more degrees:

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It’s time for a quick round-up of the latest in-development changes in Lenna’s Inception!

Graphical Upgrade

Jay’s been hard at work on the new art style. So far, the overworld biomes are mostly complete, including (most recently) the graveyard biome and the Autumnal forest:

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As a bit of an aside before we get into the screenshots, I’ll be demoing Lenna’s Inception at the Cambridge Computer Museum next Friday for a BYOB retro videogame night. If you happen to be in Cambridge (England) on Friday, come along and share a beer with me! 🙂

Wednesday is the birthday of H.P. Lovecraft, author of “The Call of Cthulhu”! Here’s a Lovecraft-inspired cutscene I’ve been working on:

Translated from R’lyehian: “In his abode in Daevr, Death waits dreaming.”

It’s possible to beat the dungeons and work through the storyline out of sync and out of order, so I’ve scripted a slightly altered palace cutscene that takes place if you found the prince before he gets kidnapped:

It’s not Charles Darwin’s birthday for another 6 months, but I’ve also been working on pet evolution. Check out this evolved FriedChicken in action:

To be honest, calling this metamorphosis process “evolution” would not be a good way to honor Darwin.

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Quick reminder first: beta3 is available right now. Among other new features, it includes randomized potions and tunics. Go and download the update if you haven’t already!

Screenshot Saturday

If you’ve been collecting the lost library books, you might have noticed the title of one of the books hints at an intelligent race of bears. Although I haven’t written the content of the book yet, these bears are now wandering around in my development builds!

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Palace

When the game starts, Lenna’s students are killed and she sets off to report this to the guards at the palace. Until now, the palace has only been mentioned in dialogue. Now it’s a real location.

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Some weeks I take part in an event in the twitter and reddit game development communities known as ScreenshotSaturday. It’s an opportunity once a week to share screenshots with other developers and find out how your favorite projects are coming along.

If you’re curious what I’ve been working on for beta3, my submissions are below.

Alternative tunics with randomized, passive effects

The healing tunic is one of many tunics I have planned. It gives you half a heart about once every 5 seconds.

The same effect system will be used for the randomized potions, and for boosting the abilities of certain enemies.

Each time you start a new game, the colors and materials of each tunic (and potion) will be randomized. You’ll never know what you’ve found or bought until you’ve put it on. You better hope it isn’t poisonous or made of gunpowder…

I’m hoping people will figure out neat ways to combine effects, e.g. donning an explosion tunic, quaffing a blast protection potion, and then walking into a group of enemies to blow them up unharmed.

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