Devlog #4 -- January 10th, 2021

[Note: This is a devlog regarding upcoming changes to the game. The update has not been released at this time. To stay up to date, follow me on my twitter]

Happy New Year, everyone! As always, I'm very excited to share some more updates!

As a reminder, there is a forum topic for "Feed the Crown" over at Weight Gaming, so feel free to join the discussion there. Since I am still working on the branching dialogue that I alluded to last time, this devlog will mainly focus on changes that have been made to the Knight player character. Let's get down to it!

The Knight behind the Mask

While I thought the original helmet designs for the various Knights were fun, they didn't really allow the Player to connect with their character. I decided to spend some time giving each race of Knight a facelift. I figure this will make the Knight fattening up a bit more enjoyable as well! (For those who prefer the original helmet designs, I'll be keeping those in too)

The plan is to have one masculine and one feminine appearance option for each animal. While I haven't finalized the designs of all the options just yet, I wanted to share some of the completed ones:

(Pictured above at their lowest weight: feminine Bird, masculine Cat, feminine Pig, feminine Mouse, and masculine Mouse. It's... kind of creepy seeing them all bob in unison)

Movement Improvement

Some minor tweaks to movement physics have been made. The Knight now has a small amount of acceleration and deceleration when moving, which results in smoother and more organic feeling movement. Additionally, the Knight has a terminal velocity when falling so you won't plummet at increasingly breakneck speeds like in the original game. (Shoutout to everyone who put up with that 3rd Cat Knight level!)

While these small technical changes aren't all that sexy or fun to read about, when in action, they result in the character feeling more responsive and fun to play. Since I don't have anything fun to show for this section, here's a fat Bird Knight doing their best to run:

Addressing the Cat in the Room...

I received a lot of helpful feedback about the Cat Knight from the community. Considering how janky the original Cat played, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the Cat's moveset has been revamped. The Player no longer has to mash the JUMP button in order make the Cat climb--simply holding down JUMP will produce a steady and reliable climb. Additionally, the Cat and all other animals now have a wall slide to slow their decent when falling on a wall, as well as a wall jump.

The new wall jump mechanic feels great when paired with the Cat's climbing ability and allows for some fun and energetic level designs. You can see it in motion below:

The Bird Knight also received some changes to their special ability. Rather than having three extra jumps, they now have a flutter ability that you can use by holding down the JUMP button after your initial jump. The flutter will produce three rapid flaps to grant you some extra air time.

Lastly, the Mouse Knight has a new ability as well, though I'm still putting the finishing touches on it and will share it in the future.

Community Feedback

Every step of this project has been helped tremendously by community feedback. I can't possibly thank everyone enough for the continued support. I've talked a lot today about new improvements and how things "feel", but unfortunately GIFs can only communicate so much. Thankfully, things are really starting to come together with the project and I'm so excited that I'm getting closer to being able to share some playable pieces with everyone.

For the next devlog, I'll be uploading a small "Movement Test" level for anyone who is interested to download and play around with, and of course... provide feedback!

That's All For Now!

I know I keep going on and on about it, but seriously, thank you for reading these devlogs. Community support helps me stay motivated on a project this big. I know progress probably feels slow from the outside, but I promise I'm working diligently whenever I can!

Remember to stay up to date by following me on my twitter and here on itch.io!

See you next time!

- Roops