Fight combat against 2 Skeleton enemies. Destructibles can be useful as obstacles against enemies and be able to manage spaces better. In the future I'll have to do a pass on the destructibles in the boxes, they don't always shatter completely.

Fight against Soldier enemy. Strong attack and parry followed by a front stab. I love parries in action games, so I'm glad I included it in my game.

I’m starting the level design of the castle, with the walls and the shortcut tower that takes you back to the bonfire.
As soon as the player starts the level, the castle is shown in the distance to give the player a clear objective. Weenies (in this case the castle) are little clues to tell the player where to go.

The level design of the castle is progressing quite fast, although it will take me all month. I’ve completed the left side of the castle, the garden area, where continuing will lead to a plaza where you’ll have the choice of climbing the walls or entering the dungeon.
Sometimes I waste a little too much time on the aesthetic details, I shouldn’t since it’s a greybox, there will be time for that when I put in the real environment.

The Green Knight is one of the strongest enemies in the game because of its high damage. This knight can be too strong to fight at the beginning, as will easily kill you in 1 -2 hits. However I will still have to reiterate on the enemy, movements are still a bit too predictable.

I’m doing the stairs going down into the dungeon. I like that they are narrow and go downward to give a feeling of tension as you go down (there will be torches on the wall since it will be dark).

In the second screenshot you can see how I placed the slanted ceiling, I tried to keep the same distance from the floor. I placed it a little quickly but it will be done more carefully when I put the models in.

I am continuing the level design of the castle greybox. I put up the section of the castle walls. I’m leaving out a few things (missing floors and walls), I will fix them when I put the environnement.

Fight against Soldier enemy. Destructibles can restrict player movement, in these cases breaking them (e.g., using a dash) is a good idea to get more space.

Almost finished the level design of the last rooms, the greybox is coming along quite well. I almost finished the main square of the castle and the section of the castle wall.

The heavy attack does a lot of damage but the startup is slower than a light attack. There is a small chance that the enemy get staggered, it is an opportunity to be able to make a front stab.

Fight against Skeleton enemy. Often the best strategy is to block the enemy’s attack and take advantage of its knockback recovery to do a back stab. I still need to finish adding and polishing the animations (so some enemy recovery animations are incomplete).

Using Possession Ability the player can take possession and control enemies. Enemies will attack possessed enemies, so we should be careful of other enemies around. I'll have to keep working on many of the enemies' animations, during Possession these come out a bit broken.

Today started the facade of the gate leading to the boss’s room. Also fixed some broken things in the level like the gate that unlocks the shortcut. I was a little tired today so I didn’t make much progress.

Fight against a Soldier enemy. After a Heavy Attack, I do a back dash to avoid its attack and then perform a Lunge Attack. On its last attack, I perform a parry and a front stab to finish it.

Fighting a Skeleton enemy. If the Skeleton is some distance away it could perform a running attack. I blocked its attack and took advantage of its recovery animation to go behind it and do a back stab.

I continued to iterate the blockout, the level design is at a good point. I did the corridor leading to the boss room and finished the castle facade and other rooms. After almost a year of greyboxing, I can finally start the first art-pass.

Some enemies drop rare items when they are killed. The gems are used to unlock abilities. At the moment, the knight animations are still prototype, should be fixed at a later time.

I am starting the first (of probably many) art-pass, focusing on the level opening. Placed floor, sidewalk, buildings and some crates. The street pavement material, although I find it nice, I think I will change it to something more rocky blended with mud.

The possession ability is also useful when there are too many enemies; one strategy is to possess an enemy and use it as bait. I will have to work in being able to cancel the possessed enemy’s attacks, at the moment the combos do not work as they should.

I am adding the art assets of the stairs leading to the square. I also iterated on the floor material, I did some vertex painting using a stone pavement, a soil mud and a mossy stone as materials. There is some repetition in the floor, which I will fix by placing some plants growing between the tiles, pieces of tiles coming out etc.

I’m focusing on the plaza, I added a fountain with a statue on top and some stairs. Also I am experimenting with various floor materials, I am trying some stone tiles with some displacement, I like the tesselation it creates. I would like to try soon some decals like ground and plants.

Maybe right now the floor is a little too defined compared to the rest, I’ll have to make the buildings and the props more defined otherwise it might clash with the style.

When there are many enemies, strong attack can be useful to hit more enemies in a straight line. One must be careful not to miss the target, as the recovery time of the strong attack is very high.

Enemies have slight tracking during the attack, so that it is not too easy to avoid the attack by going behind the enemy. The tracking is only on the orientation of the attack and not on the distance to the player, so spacing is an important element in this combat system.

I am continuing to add 3d models, I placed the gate with stairs leading to the upper part of the city and a square with a fountain. I’m also experimenting with a different lighting, a different sun orientation and a higher intensity, I think the warmer colors go better with the walls and floor. However the floor is too flat and I’ll have to fix it with some modeling.

I am continuing to place mesh to replace the blockout, adding one of the last areas before the castle, such as 2 indoor areas and a few roads to the castle. The more I continue, the happier I am to see my blockout turn into a medieval town, but on the other hand, I’m starting to worry about the amount of work that will await me in making it polished, it’s going to be tough.

Archers are weak enemies, you defeat them with a few attacks, but they can prove troublesome when fighting other enemies.
When enemies are many and health is low, the invisibility cloak can prove useful for an escape.