Hi everyone! It took a while, but the latest devlog has arrived with important news.
It’s been some time since the last update, and that’s due to a difficult situation our family has been going through: after several weeks fighting health problems, a few days ago our beloved dog, Julieta, finally went to the dogs’ heaven. These have been sad days, but also times of calm, reflection, and contemplation. This didn’t just affect the game’s development — it’s been (and continues to be) a hurricane of emotions that we’re gradually adapting to as a family.
Before continuing, and for that very reason, I’d like to briefly talk about how she is present in the game (because yes, she is!). Several enemies have sounds taken directly from her… so you’ll hear her at various moments! Also, the logo of Foca Studios, the little white dog, is modeled after her, so she’ll be present every time someone starts the game.
A huge hug, my little seal. Thank you for always keeping me company and sharing so many development afternoons of Zerra's Adventure. We love you so much =)
Paw prints in the sand...
Alright — now, onto the news for this edition.Highlights
- Smooth development: as usual, the project has continued weekly progress, with scheduled times reserved for advancement.
Watch out for the dragon, Temus!
- Testplay: I’m currently running testplays that are giving me very valuable feedback on the battle system and exploration/maps, among other things. What I’ve enjoyed most about these sessions are the live testplays — I’ve been able to see players’ faces full of laughter or surprise when they reach certain places in the game… that alone makes me feel paid, and I think the game is on the right track.
- Pixel art: new NPCs to make the world of Zerra’s Adventure feel more inhabited (and strange xD). Also lots of “key art” for scenes like the Skill Tree and Save Points.
Random NPCs.
Random enemies.
Character selection screen in the “Skill Tree.”
- New Battle Mechanic: “Damage Bonus.” Watching people play my game, I noticed they loved powering up their characters and, in particular, trying to deliver a massive, concentrated hit to a single enemy. That caught my attention because, in reality, you don’t need to stack that much power to beat enemies — so I asked them why they played that way. The answer was simply: “it feels so satisfying to deal high damage.” After thinking about it for a while, I imagined that behavior is similar to what happens in Tetris: you can clear one, two, or three lines, but players often seek the satisfaction (and score!) of doing a “Tetris” (four-line clear). And so this new mechanic was born, which basically rewards the player with increasingly larger damage bonuses depending on the damage they deal to enemies, which in turn encourages players to keep aiming for higher damage. Simple, but — I hope — effective. I hope you enjoy doing massive damage!
- Demo: it’s ready. So why isn’t it available yet? Ok, 95% ready. As I mentioned earlier, I’m (and will be) spending a couple more weeks on internal testing to polish it as much as possible before making it public. Every testplay provides very valuable information, and one or two bugs always show up xD. So let’s say I could release it tomorrow, but I’m leaving it in the oven a little longer =)
And that’s all for today. A slightly different devlog this time. Thank you again for following the project’s news. See you soon… ;)