Jungle boss. Polls concluded, and Pix's Hscene1 sneak peek.

Heyo everyone! It's that time again! This week was entirely dedicated to the Jungle boss. I'll go over the process from day one, and one this boss' attack patterns and general fight will be like. There were some extra steps this time, as this boss was actually rigged, unlike any of the others. (I did actually rig the Stone Golems as well, but those didn't have any blended weights)

Before getting into it I would also like to cover a couple more things!

The poll for v0.4's character is completed! The winner will be our Shark girl along with her water level!

The next poll will take place upon the release of v0.3!

Next I will say alongside this post, Lana's Hi res art will be posted for all Groupies! Without further ado, let's get into this week's progress!

----

Before the work week began, I actually decided to use my day off to do something I think I missed on my scheduling, so I animated Pix's in-lobby idle, and decided to add a "Hover" animation to the characters in the hub.

The first day was dedicated to.. well... rigging. Blender isn't completely foreign to me, but I definitely wouldn't call myself seasoned by any stretch. Getting used to using Blender slowly will help with things that may come in the future, so I saw this fight as a great opportunity to ease in.

Upon importing I decided it would be best to do all associated animations in Unity itself. While the interface for doing so is a bit more of a headache, it would allow me to easily make adjustments on the fly. Which I knew I would be needing to do.

As mentioned... Pigman is not the boss of the Jungle, and this is why.

The boss for the most part will have fairly simple patterns (3 distinct attack types), 2 of which will leave itself vulnerable to attack.

The first is seen at the head of this post. The plant will open it's tentacles, and lunge at you, one at a time. This is it's most vulnerable state, as all of it's tentacles will be open, leaving the gem exposed to attack.

The second is called "carasol"

It will open one at a time to fire an "Ancient Laser" at you, in the same way the previous ruins enemies do. This attack is rather long, leaving you to play a sort of "Chicken" game with the laser timer if you want to get the best damage you can.

The third attack will spin it's tentacles in circles, forcing the player to the top of the screen to avoid being hit. In this state, the tentacles are not vulnerable, though this may change as development continues.

Finally, if you destroy all tentacles, the boss will use a last ditch effort to consume you.

This main core is the real source of this boss's health. Damage here is critical. If you do not manage to destroy it in it's vulnerable state, it will grow its tentacles back.

Upon destroying the core, the boss will be defeated.

That should cover this week.

Overall, if I am being completely honest, I am not happy with the boss in it's current state. There are things I don't like about it's pacing. In theory, I liked the idea of destroying the tentacles to kill the core gem, but there are some stages I feel like just... don't feel fluent enough. Before this build's release I will likely be revisiting the boss and making adjustments and tweaks to it. I already have several ideas planned for fixing the problems I have it with, but they may have to wait a couple weeks.

The reason they may need to wait is because the next couple weeks will be Hscene time! That's right, and I'll give a sneak peek to the Hscene as well!

Alright everyone! We are entering the 2nd month of v0.3. I feel like there is still a ton I want to get done before it's release, let's hope it's a good month^^ haha. Catch you all next week for this image in motion along with perhaps a preview of the 2nd Hscene.

-Regulus