Bloom - Creatures Update

This update for Bloom: Memories talks about the progress that was made with respect to the creatures in the game.

After the last post I kept going with some of the missing section of the map. I still need to finish up the area right before the "dungeon", but the lower section is getting there (when we add the atmospheric effects, it will be pushing these even further).

After that, I decided to switch gears a bit and work on some creatures to fill out the world more.

I'm proud to say we have a heck of a lot of unique creatures / characters now (over 50 currently!!!!!). So this next month or two I'm going to start rigging / animating more of them and getting their sprites into the game properly. 

Also, speaking of the game engine, we have made some amazing progress in terms of memory management these past few weeks. Our new custom image format is working better than we had expected in early tests (with 225 full character sprite sheets on screen, we were still running at about 2500 FPS).

It still needs to be integrated fully (converting of current assets are almost complete), but it looks like the hardest part of that challenge is over.

The update comes with a whole range of images.

The next bit is from the comments section, which has some interesting information about the development duration and the engine.

Oh definitely no finished product anytime soon haha. It has only been a year and half since the KS ended :P We still have about a year of work to go :P

Game play slices are still a little off (but should move quickly once we get more into that). James (the programmer) balances a family and full-time job, so it makes progress there a little slower.

The big challenge is we are technically trying to do something that hasn't been attempted before, so we end up trying various things to get over the hurdles (and backtracking a bit now and then, which means the engine breaks while we try something else). I think we have tried 4 or 5 image formats now ...especially since the technology keeps evolving (like new releases of monogame).

After indiecade last year (for example) we noticed HUGE memory problems with the image format we were using (it ran on our main computers, but the laptop had problems with it). We were starting to tackle more game play when that happened, but then we switched to solving performance problems.

BUT! Good news is we are still making some awesome progress other places despite all that :) Like our new world-location system (very different than what we were doing before), or the upgrades we keep making to combat / hit detection and a whole lot of other stuff.

Anyhow, a little further and we should have more game play to show. It will move pretty quickly once we get there too (since throwing in different attacks or enemy behaviour or interactions is more a scripting thing than an engine / programming thing....we have an awesome custom scripting system in the game now).

HOPEFULLY very very soon. The biggest bottleneck with the game has always just been the content though. That is why most indie games are a little more restrained with art (doing models / rigging / animating is a huge task). Just getting it out of the way as fast as I can so it is all there waiting for me when I build out more areas. :)