Sin Spire - Dev Log 13

Hello everyone! I hope you’re all having a good week. Last week, I was in a bit of a strange headspace, and while I can’t say I’m all clear headed, I’ve still made some good progress. This week’s work includes adding a new enemy, working on test-build specific features and working on lots of animations. I’ll save the animations for a different post due to them being explicit.

First off, let’s start with the horrifying/lovely lady in the image above. This is a brand-new Halloween-appropriate enemy type I call the Banshee and she’s tuned as one of the highest threat enemies in the game. I wanted a fast, feral type of enemy that could also use ranged attacks and the Banshee checks both boxes. She will hurl electric bolts at the player and then charge in for close range attacks with speed.

Her design draws inspiration from a couple of different sources. Some time ago, I saw some very sexy/creepy fanart of Dark Samus and I somewhat mixed what I saw there with the Revenant from Doom 3, giving her a transparent body with a visible skeleton beneath it. I’ve always wanted to have a skeletal enemy in the game, because skeletons are cool.

I experimented with shaders to achieve the overall look and, to add some extra flair, I gave her glowing eyes that leave behind light trails, similar to the demon ninjas from Onimusha. She doesn’t wear any clothes because I couldn’t come with an outfit that wouldn’t clash with the transparent look so I left her naked which is probably for the best. I also censored the image for the public post but the uncensored is available on Twitter/X.

In addition to the Banshee, I’ve also been working on some test-build specific features. Nothing exciting, just watermarking the game version on the screen and adding an introductory message with a changelog. I also linked all my socials on the menu as well as created a backdrop for said menu for when you start the game up.

I’ve also been hard at work on those sex animations I mentioned last week. I wrote up a list of the general animations I need to create and I’m just about half-way done. The next week or so will be spent on continuing this and setting them up with specific enemies in-game before moving onto more unique animations for the Stalkers, Savina and another character.

The enemy roster has also been finalized. Not having a set number of enemies was weighing on me, with so many potential designs overwhelming the creative process. So, I decided to officially lock the roster. It might disappoint some, but I’m only adding three more enemies to the game. I realized that whatever I don’t work on in this game, I can work on in future projects.

The last three enemies are designed to feature unique gameplay scenarios to spice things up, rather than just slapping the player around like the rest do at the moment. Additionally, variations of existing enemies are still planned, so the variety should still be there even if only cosmetically.

Next week, I’ll continue with the animation work and chip away at one of the remaining enemy designs. I’m also planning a bit of clean-up for the test-build and will work on preparing promotional material for the Steam page (again). So pretty standard stuff for me.

Anyway, that’s all folks! Thanks for reading and I’ll catch you all next week. Until then, take care!