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The cover art is a wide format, but I wanted to have a piece that was versatile that I could do a physical release without having to rework it. I'd love to do a physical release if the digital version is successful enough. I don't know how much it costs to do a physical release. I'm just taking it step by step

@@officialgrimwaregamesllc I would love to have that sitting in my game collection

At the beginning of every level, a traveling witch will trade in your ectoplasm for upgrades/weapon types and at every activated checkpoint you can swap your upgrades. The upgrade system currently works, but its deactivated in the demo for now. The witch needs some reworking/animation and dialog menu system. Kinda like in Resident Evil 4 and 8 merchant guy. Whataya buyin

@@officialgrimwaregamesllc ohhhhh, that sounds GREAT

Thank you!

yaaaah!

At the beginning of every level, a traveling witch will trade in your ectoplasm for upgrades/weapon types and at every activated checkpoint you can swap your upgrades. The upgrade system currently works, but its deactivated in the demo for now. The witch needs some reworking/animation and dialog menu system.

@officialgrimwaregamesllc Will it be a cute, attractive witch or a traditionally ugly one? 😬

Thank you! ehh not always haha, I think I criticize my own work a lot. Step back like 6 feet from the monitor and look again.

Thank you!

Thank you!

It probably smells funky in there.

I'd consult a lawyer as I'm not one. But my reasons were: Creating an LLC gives you Limited Liability Protections. Separating your personal assets from your business liabilities. If you face any legal issues or debts your personal belongings like your car are protected unless the corporate veil is pieced. Having the game be under the banner of the company and being able to hire a contractor is also easier this way for legal paperwork, as well as trademarking and name protection.

@@officialgrimwaregamesllc thank you for the response, I can see how this would be needed when you start publicly announce your game, its a serious project not just a flash game on newgrounds portal 😊

First I test enemies in isolation in a testing level...Then I design ideas on grid paper of encounters with enemies and how they can possibly play out. Labeling encounters Easy, Medium, Hard. Then I design the level and enemy placement/Interactables...Basically only things that the player would interact with is greyboxed...test it out...if its fun to me and a few of my friends then I proceed to art it out. Easier to change stuff when its grey boxed than if you have 200 assets you move around.

@@officialgrimwaregamesllc thank you so much for this, the grey box did you create it like a tile asset or is this a placeholder u can find within these programs, I ask because they look smooth like you tile em out and ive seen others exactly have these gray boxes.. thank you btw for taking ur time to answer your comment section, it is appreciated 🙏

@@67steinip Its been a while, but check out...Supergrid on the unreal marketplace...I remember buying it like 8 years ago maybe and modified the material for my needs.

Thank you!

I think at the end of Devlog 0 or 1 I have a section at the end that has some resources on game art. I don't personally make tutorials, but there are many resources out there, Artstation, Gumroad, Gnomon Workshop, and youtube all have great tutorials.

Thank you for the kind words. Yeah its a lot of work. As far as 2d or 3D its 3D using Unreal Engine 4.

​@@officialgrimwaregamesllc got it, its like Crash Bandicoot (Bonus levels). Its 3D but modtly sort of in 2D side scroller.. Ill follow the process, I cant get over the quality and the improvements when u view the first videos as they evolve.. good luck getting this game out.. Im gonna wish list it next time i open my steam (on phone now)

@@67steinip Yeah or like Donkey Kong Country Returns in some ways. Using a 3D assets but locking them onto a 2D plane so they can't move in the Y axis Forward backwards...

Working hard to make it good and true. haha

Depends on the assets, for characters I sculpt in Zbrush, bake in Substance painter, then handpaint over it in 3D coat Environment assets, some I sculpt in Zbrush, some I paint directly in Photoshop and put them on alpha cards for background elements, some are tiling textures so I just map them onto the 3D object as needed. Tutorials, there's tons on youtube as well as Artstation and Gumroad. I think either my 1st or second devlog, I mentioned a few specifics?

@@officialgrimwaregamesllc Thank you, i have a loooooong way to go

Thank you so much! Haha pressure is on!

Thanks for the tip! I'll look into that. Appreciate the advice!

@@officialgrimwaregamesllcanywhere you’ve implemented a cast aside from animation blueprints id look into replacing it with an interface. It will help significantly with blueprint communication

@@jb2760 I'll look through the code, I think I already do a lot of that or use tags with blueprint interface. But I'm sure more things can be optimized.

Thank you!

good idea, like making the animation feel heavier, and having an anim for like a "failed attempt at dash"

Thank you for your feedback! will look into it

I indeed am going insane for sure 😅

Oh cool, I rather enjoyed Strider 2014 great job! Thanks for the kind words!

oooh haha interesting idea!

oooh like if you do it several times? I'll look into that! Thanks for letting me know! - EDIT - Just tried it...yeap, easy fix, will get that done asap thanks again! - EDIT again...Fixed! Should be in soon

yeah I went back to test an older build, the new one for sure felt a lot smoother.

Yeah from 9.5gigs went down to 3.5gigs. At least its no CoD 200gigs, But yeah 3D assets have a higher file size than 2D assets or pixel art and I'm no compression wizard. I'm sure though when I finish the game I'll be able to optimize it further. I do believe Mario Wonder is about 5gigs for the entire game? But they also have a more simplified art-style. Lots of solid colors vs handpainted world of warcraft stytle textures.

@@officialgrimwaregamesllc could you expand a little on how you accomplished this? Thank you for your vids - I’m always excited to see them pop up

@@AkitaAbroad Some of it was making sure I only build the levels that need to get built, that they aren't referencing assets that aren't being used and some of it was optimizing on some repeated code using a function library, macros, and deleting floating unused blueprint code.

@@officialgrimwaregamesllc Thank you!

😁

That would be fun! Gotta finish this project first! haha

I do love me some Rayman Legends

Thank you, Yeah Epic has been very pro developer, it might be because they aren't on the stock exchange, they're very generous with their tools their pricing structure. That's one of the reasons I'd choose unreal vs unity. Also I have like 10 years of experience in unreal 4.

Thanks I appreciate that.

@@officialgrimwaregamesllc Yeah I second that, I wasn't expecting such a polished professional looking game from a devlog well done!

Could it be that you might not have activated the checkpoint? The way it works is you hit UP to activate it when you're in front of it, and you must have 20 ectoplasm orbs to do so. This works in a way similar to souls when you activate bonfires but its supposed to challenge you to make a decision between using 20 to heal or use 20 to save a checkpoint. So if you don't activate them, then yeah you'd get sent back .

@@officialgrimwaregamesllc oh I see I couldn't notice that am very bad gamer 😂😂, after all good idea

@@salimabdellaoui2463 you are not the only one that didn't notice this, I need to figure out how to solve this issue, so more people notice it and understand it. I'll look into it today. Thank you for the feedback! Appreciated

@@officialgrimwaregamesllc happy to help 😊😊

Thank you, I appreciate it

the steam page is up currently, GOG and Epic, I'll need to spend some time setting that up

no microtransactions are planned, cuz I don't like them, so I'm not putting them in my game haha, don't really have cosmetics planned, but if there will be, they will be unlockable