Billie Bust Up-date, Happy New Year!

Hey everyone!

Long break between updates! Thanks for your patience as we took time off for New Years, but we're back and better than ever. Most of the team are actually together in person for the first time ever, meaning our motivation and team moral is high. 

Lets go over what we've been doing, and then go over what's upcoming!

Rig Updates

We are making small updates to the rigs we currently have that will hopefully serve to make the characters more appealing!

First up is Dutch, his teeth lack gums and are spaced very weirdly. here is a redline of what we want with this new rework. 

Fantoccio receives the biggest update with his poncho receiving a proper rig and is no longer relying on the buggy clothing physics of the engine. Scenes just won't have the right impact if his poncho is clipping through his arms constantly. 

His hat is also getting an update. When Fantoccio's model was first made it used the older 2D design. Ash updated his hat to give it a better silhouette, so we're finally seeing that in 3D!

Since we're on the topic Fantoccio...

We've been reworking Fantoccio's boss fight and will soon re-release it on Patreon with lots of new updates for you to try, including SFX, lip syncing, updated particle effects, perhaps a lion or bear...

Watch the full lip sync here 

Fantoccio angey..

Yoink!

Barnaby's Chapter

Barnaby's chapter is really coming together! We recently did a recording session with the scripts that ended up with some of the cast actually crying during the session. I'm so excited to see the level finished. 

Barnaby puts Billie on trial in this fully voiced sequence! Watch it here  

Barnatree concept and 3D model work in progress 

Oh lord he's a comin' 

Barnaby's walk cycle 

Watch the gem...disappear! We like to think that despite being a magic user Barnaby doesn't use it for his magic tricks, but goes for the old slight of hand instead. 

Better start running Billie, he loves the thrill of the hunt

bye!

Barnaby's hand can chase you around. You can also use a shield and your shield knockback 

Barnaby is more intelligent than Dutchs dog guards and Elaines cat pirates, if you turn invisible he will strategize 

Freeze the hand!

Some concepts for Barnaby mobs

A Barnabee

Bat!

Bat butt...

Twisted reality in mirrors....

Candyland for Barnaby's level is having its art and VFX made! Chao is an expert at making things look tasty 

Teleport quickly between points!

Unlock connected paintings to teleport quickly between areas in Barnabys hub 

This is actually for Dutch's area but I have nothing else to show for him so here's an out of context gif of some floating platforms 

Cat Pirates, The Goat Escape!

This very large sequence is almost done, here are the thumbnails!

Beware! Be Wary! Be Quick!

To help animate the cats drumming, Erik animated this 2D sequence to help with the 3D animiation 

Unfortunately due to leaks I've decided to keep songs on lock down for now, but you can see the pretty visuals! 

The puppet shows are all finished now too! 

Redline adjustment!

Claw Bay is being populated soon, during testing I felt something was missing. Towns felt lifeless. How do we fix that? Unique NPCs! The character models won't be as unique as these concepts, mostly receiving a simple texture update, but they will have unique dialogue and animations to fill in the world. 

We also wanted to fill out the environmental story telling, by creating labels and brands. Here we have PurRum and Bog Grog labels used for the bottle labels the cat pirates drink from 

Misc!

Billie's (previously Aristotle's) journal is now completed 

Stickers! Beautysnake is still making wonderful animated stickers for our discord server, check them out! 

We also have a sneak peak at Basiles room theme!  

and some concepts for the next sticker, a celebrate one!

Upcoming...

We are currently reworking some of the songs and preparing them for testing. Future tests will most likely be not streamable, but we will let you know when the next build goes live. As mentioned earlier we will also be rereleasing Fantoccio's boss fight. 

A book?

My father has been working closely with us to release a full length book estimated at 100,000 words. It will take place before the game, going into depth as to how Aristotle and Arthur met, fell in love, and their adventures together. He isn't charging for his time and is retired so it takes nothing from our budget and timeline. We hope it will be available to purchase in March/April time. We've been reading his book as he writes it to ensure it is canon and accurate. Ash will also correct dialogue to ensure characters speak correctly. Here is an example page:

Another Kickstarter?

Yes! You heard right, we want to do another Kickstarter to get a full orchestra to do the instrumental for the songs, to give them that extra cinematic punch! Daniel is currently putting together a budget. To be 100% clear, this will not offer the same rewards as the first Kickstarter and is not needed for the game to release. Daniel is just very proud of the music he has made and we agree he has done a fabulous job. Having a proper orchestra would really enhance the songs and put them over the top! Rewards will not offer copies of the game as we are not legally allowed to sell them now we have signed with a publisher. We will probably look at instead releasing sheet music and demo versions of the songs instead. We are currently aiming for March to give Daniel time to get the orchestra together, create the sheet music and mix all the music accordingly. We would pay for the orchestra ourselves but we are keeping money aside to ensure our project plan does not slip (rainy day fund), we can only release this money closer to the games completion, but then Daniel would not have time to get the orchestra together. 

That's it for this months update, I hope you all had a wonderful New Years! I'll see you very very soon!

- Katie