Sin Spire - Dev Log 36

Hello everyone! The last couple of weeks have been pretty intensive and there’s plenty that’s been worked on. As usual, I don’t want to outright spoil things, so I’ll keep some details vague regarding content but will allow myself to post some teaser images (like the above). I realized that keeping everything hidden behind spoilers up until the next build isn't fair to you guys. There have been some gameplay changes (with more to come), but today I mostly want to talk about cutscenes.

Cutscene Progress

I’ve finally tackled what I considered a pretty daunting task: cutscenes.

As most of you know, there’s already one cinematic cutscene in the game (made in January) – the intro. But that itself is fairly basic: no dialogue or character interactions and only made up of a few shots. It’s also technically “pre-rendered” (a video file), not something that plays out in real-time.

The cutscenes I’ve been working on now are a whole different story. They feature character interaction, dialogue and happen in real-time – meaning there’s no external editing to help with timing, sound and more. Because I’ve never done this before, I procrastinated for a while, nervous about even starting.

But once I finally pushed through and began – preparing animations, figuring out camera shots and making characters express themselves in interesting ways – I actually got really into it. So much so that, one night, I ended up staying up until 4am working.

Here’s what’s needed cutscene-wise before I wrap up the boss fights:

• A cutscene introducing the final boss

• A story resolution cutscene for the bad/neutral ending

• A cutscene after defeating the final boss (bad/neutral)

• A story resolution cutscene for the good ending

• A different cutscene for the good ending boss defeat

In total, that makes 5 in-game cinematics.

So far, I’ve completed 2: the boss introduction and the bad/neutral ending. The latter was by far the most complex – a full 2 minutes long, made up of about 20 shots with a lot of unique animations. By comparison, every other cutscene is much shorter and simpler.

Honestly, I’m very happy with how the bad/neutral ending has turned out – almost to the point where I don’t even want to make the good ending, since on paper it isn’t quite as strong. Still, I’ll push forward with it and, who knows, maybe it’ll turn out well once it’s fully animated and voiced.

Boss Progress

Good news on this front: the final boss is basically done! Aside from polish and balancing, it has unique mechanics – not placeholder AI from a different boss – and even throws in something new halfway to add variety. Without giving too much away, it’s the only boss fight that really makes heavy use of magic and projectiles (plus very strong attacks).

That leaves just one more fight for the beta: the penultimate boss. Right now, it’s still running on placeholder AI, but does have some unique animations in place already. This one’s more of a physical fight, so it’ll need some proper attack animations with good balancing for parry windows.

Credits

While the final boss defeat cutscenes aren’t done yet (they’re next), the sequencing of the final stretch of the game is in place. I can now play from the end of the current build (the long hallway) all the way through to the credits. Yep – we’ve officially reached the credits.

Because of that, I’ll likely be re-locking Free Mode behind finishing the game, since it was only accessible due to the fact that there was no other way to unlock it.

As for the credits themselves, right now it’s just my name and the voice actresses (as well as few other additional credits). But I’ve been considering adding a Supporters section. Quite simply, without you guys, this game wouldn’t exist. The monetary backing, the feedback and the encouragement – it’s all helped towards getting this game to where it is now.

So, I’d like to include your names in the credits as a small token of respect. If you’d rather not be listed, just let me know. I’ll do my best to pull names from the support history so it’s not limited only to current patrons. There’s no deadline for this just yet, but once we hit beta, I’ll need to start locking things down generally.

Gameplay Modifications

Quick note here, since this post is long enough already: I’ve been tweaking perks after finally playing the game all the way to the end. Some skills are just way too strong – Vampire in particular. With an SMG, it turns you from fragile to immortal, which really kills the tension of the climax. I’ve gone ahead and nerfed all ‘Leech’ type perks, which ended up making the final fights feel a lot more balanced.

Expect more changes of this kind soon, since once we hit beta, fine-tuning will become my main focus. For now, I still have three more cutscenes to animate for the ending, plus more purification animations as well as the second-to-last boss fight to finish.

August, I’ll admit, was a weird month. Not due to health reasons or anything like that – just a lot of distractions both online and offline. Motivation was hard to work up. But I definitely feel back in the swing of things now, even if I’m a bit late.

This coming week, I’ll be focusing on cutscenes and making sure everything plays out nicely in the final arena. Then I’ll be moving onto the penultimate boss fight and will try and finish most of the animation work required for the game. After that, more gameplay adjustments and bug fixing.

That’s it for today’s update – thanks as always for your patience and support. We’re getting closer to beta and I’m excited to show you more when the time comes. Take care and I’ll see you all next time.