2022 "Finish Your Game Jam" Update

Surprise!  It's an update to Demon's Blood!

I haven't updated this game in years, but it's been on my mind recently, so for this year's PIGSquad Finish Your Game jam, I decided I'd put some work into it.

Unfortunately I didn't get nearly as much done as I wanted.  I was hoping to create a playable build, but with all the artwork I had to create first, I didn't have enough time.   Still, some progress is better than nothing, so I've shared what I've completed.  Randiel now has a basic run cycle, as well as a primary attack animation.  I also converted the background for Blood Wood into a tileset that is compatible with GMS2's auto-tile system.

That said, I'm actually not happy with the pixel art I've made....  There are some things that I feel aren't up to standard, and I know I can do better, so I'll probably do an overhaul later, which brings me to my next point, which is that this jam has helped me to conceptualize where I want to go with this project.  I've decided to make this a long term pet project that I update periodically and experiment game concepts on.  Perhaps this means that Demon's Blood will be one of those games that are never finished, but it also takes the pressure off of me and lets me have a little fun with it.

Regarding the game concept itself, my plan is to create what I'm tentatively calling an "open world 2D Metroidvania."  This may sound redundant, because in some ways Metroidvanias are already the 2D equivalent of a 3D open world game, but they're still relatively restrictive in exploratory freedom.  I'll be delving into this more in future updates, so stay tuned!

Gameplay itself will be pretty standard hack'n'slash for now, but with a twist: I want to make the 2D environments more interactive, so I'm planning on using Layers in the level design, meaning Randiel will be able to shift into the foreground or background as he traverses the level.  I already have this feature working on a basic level in my game engine, but sadly it's not at a playable state yet.

As for the game jam's secondary theme, Transition/Transformation, well... this is already covered.  As stated on the main page, Randiel transforms into a demon under certain conditions.  How this affects gameplay is still up in the air, but for now, it fits the jam theme!

Thanks for reading, and hopefully next time you see an update there will be a playable build!