Since the prior post, the pixel art for the Mill area has been fully completed and I’ve been chopping everything into assets that can be assembled in game. Below, you can see the finished pixel art as well as the current state of integrating it into the game:
You may notice the colors are a bit different in the in-game version (particularly red). This is because the game uses a color grading setup that is not optimized to any particular area in the game. Ideally before release I’ll go through and tweak the color grading a bit for each subarea to lock in a more unique look. If I can’t afford to do that though, I don’t think it looks too bad as it is.
Either way, there is clearly an empty space on the right hand side of the area that needs to be filled in!
The reason the finished art has that empty space is because I will be assembling that section using existing assets from the Shrine area, as it is a mechanical mix-in with the puzzles from that area, and the art for that area was created very modularly.
So, baseline art implementation is around 80% done or so. I still have to implement the exteriors, add some moving parts and add the entrance path below the plateau area to the left. After that I’ll have to add in all the collision and triggers, which is another whole bucket-load of work, but at least everything seems to be proceeding straightforwardly.
I will be very happy to be finished with this area and be focused on tying up the last little loose ends so this game will be ready for release. That’s not to say that I have a firm idea of when the game will be done. Although I think it could still possibly ship before the end of the year, it’s likely to slip somewhat into next year. Thanks for your patience on that front, I’m trying to get things done as quickly as I can.
I know some folks are probably following the written devlog and not the video devlogs, and I’ve been a bit more diligent about putting out those than I have been over here. I apologize for that. I often am remiss to simply post the same information over here that’s in the videos, as it feels redundant, but I think having some updates is better than going a whole month (or two!) without any sign of life.
If you’re not following the video devlog, you can find it on YouTube over here.
Taiji 