Hi everyone! Happy October! Happy Fall!
Here is our monthly update with what's going on at whimindie. Our 63rd development log! Note that some of this information will be cross-posted to our Spellbearers project page on Kickstarter for project backers.
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Spellbearers
I'd like to start off by showing some new game video footage of Level 3: The Fiery Lands of Floga! Please take a look.
This is some footage from one of the later rooms! What do you think? Looks pretty chaotic. Because of the arcade nature of Spellbearers, only the really dedicated players will be able to make it this far! Do note that we're still working on making adjustments, improvements, tweaks, and changes and what you see here is not exactly finalized yet. But I think Gerren did a great job in compiling the team's work together for a cohesive Level 3. I can't wait for you all to play it.
Now for some of the bad news: We're about a month and a half behind our development schedule. Originally, we were aiming for a holiday release, but we still need some time to polish up the experience and performance of the game as well as finish up some spell assets and art for the final level. Since we're an independent studio, we are not in any rush to complete and we can take our time to deliver the game. For this reason, we are going to be postponing the release to early-2022. Here's a bit of a breakdown with where we're at:
- Most of the programming done for multiplayer selection.
- All Player Art/Animation
- Level 1-3 bosses and enemies
- Level 4 Art and Enemies
- In-game achievement system
What's left to go:
- Level 4 Enemy Balancing
- Final Boss
- Secret Room Implementation/Mechanics
- Difficulty Levels
- Graphics/Audio Setting Implementation
- Sound Effects for later levels/UI
- Xbox Achievements and Polishing/Playtesting
While we still aim to complete what's left this year, we're going to use November-December before the holidays to playtest and adjust and make sure performance on Xbox is also on par with the PC release, all while being able to have the time we need off with our families for the holidays.
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Selatria
Selatria is also making some solid progress.
Matt and I are working on implementing and tying Chapter 5 together. Matt's working on enemy and troop placement for the Imperial Castle and I'm currently tying Don's cutscenes to the gameplay and doing a lot of polish. Here's a preview shot of one of the scenes we're currently working on. (Still subject to change).
As mentioned in the last development log, we're still working on a way to easier explain the controls without overwhelming the player with diagrams at the game's opening. Jon and I are going to be spending most of this month figuring out the best way to go about that.
We've also started work on the official soundtrack for Selatria. As most of the music is MIDI, Shadoe is currently recording the songs how they sound in game, and from there converting to other formats and editing them. There will be 121 songs in Selatria's soundtrack! An amazing collaboration between a few different composers who helped out with the soundtrack. It will be awesome and can't wait for you to hear it.
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That's all for this development log. Thanks for your support, and be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Twitch, and join our Discord! Until next time!
