Remember How I Described That In The Fountain, One Of The Factions Encountered Was A Race Of Tiny Bug

Remember how i described that in the fountain, one of the factions encountered was a race of tiny bug people (elves) with advanced tech? It came back in my mind that i had already conceived of a boss for that section so here a quick sketch to share it.

Who knows, maybe ill bring it back in some form in another project.

I went through my old files and collected some plans and drawings from all over irredeamable development. I think I'll start posting a series of retrospective threads about them to show the messy history of making this game and the many iterations it went through. Should make for a nice demonstration of how much a game can change during development and all the ideas i had to adapt or discard along the way.

The next part of the retrospective is taking some time to write, so i think i`ll only release it tomorrow. In the meantime, why not play/finish Irredeamable? The next part is getting pretty close to the actual game story, so its going to contain quite a few spoilers. Download the game now on gamejolt: https://gamejolt.com/games/irredeamable/879931 ...Or Ichio (no copyrighted music) https://blackblooms.itch.io/irredeamable

Potatostrike Progress Report - August 13th, 2024

Today's Potatostrike progress report:

1) Potatostrike is currently part of @indiequesting's Feedback Quest 7, and Gameround's latest playtest.

2) The next patch for Potatostrike will include a weapon rebalance based off the feedback gathered.

Irredeamable developpement retrospective Final part: Irredeamable Well, thats it. The one game in this series that you actually get to play, but even this project encountered quite a few changes as it went. So lets get into some of it.

Early in development, irredeamable was meant to be more of a metroidvania, where you'd explore interconnected levels with several routes, including some that would bring you back to the hub or allow you to visit later levels early.

This is especially visible with grimwood breach which was originally intended as the first level. Part of why it ended up feeling much more twisted and disjointed than other areas was that its rooms were constantly moved around in development as i tried to make a linear level out of them.

What eventually cemented the current form of the game was a change of approach as i began working on the shaded coast and focused on making a linear sequence of rooms rather than a complex maze. (you may also notice that the two levels ended up switching position in the hub)

From that point onward, i worked under the philosophy "focus on the game you have, not the one you want" I continued to make slow but steady progress, occasionally having to make concessions about my plans to make the project more achievable.

During the project, i worked with this hand little thing, a chart of all the areas i had planned (their state of progress being indicated by the saturation of the color)

Here you can see an older version of the chart, and all the side paths that were planned and ended up being cut. Originally, the postgame was meant to be much bigger than it ended up being. Each level had an extra-side route within the world's bowels, ending with a boss rematch. These included an underwater ship graveyard, a forbidden grove, A scrapyard full of undead machines leading to an abandoned factory, rotten tunnels and roots under the forest, an ancient tomb where you`d find the spirits of fallen heroes, and a secret vault where old secrets were preserved. These would all eventually lead to the watchmaker citadel/eye of the watchmaker, a final gauntlet inside of the space station that the "gods" of this land operated from. From all of this, only the foundations remain a single expensive postgame level that ends with a dedicated boss rematch zone. (there is a bit of a secret to anyone who visits this area before finishing the game, but i won't spoil what you`ll find)

Aniway, don`t mind this picture, just needed something to make a cut for this next section about miscellaneous locations and characters that were cut.

First was the original backstory of lady, where she was a giant crystal bird monster and mount evermore was what remained of her body after being slain. The final level back then would have been "house of glass" a journey through lady`s old body where she would ultimately be confronted by the lady of the lake who was once planned as the game final boss

meanwhile the original boss of Mount Evermore (known back then as worlds edge) was the silent sage. An ancient suhagins that had managed to survive all the resets by hiding from the watchmakers within the world`s foundation. He was also completely optional and would just give you lady soul piece without a fight. Much of his role in the story was given to the pilgrim, leaving him as a mere lost memory. If threathened, he would have fought by hiding and launching attacks from the shadows of the background. (there was a vague theme that each boss represented a moral flaw and he was cowardice)

This one won't be too complicated. Violet used to be from New Eden Upper District but was made into a witch to fit better into the areas she is found in.

Krogues/Uris used to fly like the forgotten due to being based on the fairies from the fountain. Their design had to be changed as they became more grounded.

There used to be an arch-witch enemy planned, but she was ultimately scrapped and her grenade-slinging moveset and general aesthetic were instead given to the Uri Chieftain.

The Steam Knight got through a lot of story changes in development. First, he was meant to be Ironwood's son, then it was made into merely a robot that the old man controlled during the first fight. There was plan that the knight would free itself and grow sentient to justify the later fight, but i eventually opted to give control of the robot to another character instead.

Originally, Kingsly was supposed to be donkeyskin father, but while his story was about accepting that his actions had irreparably destroyed his daughter's life and that he would never be forgiven, it ended up feeling a bit wrong to give him a redemption arc when his daughter got a more mixed and ambiguous conclusion. That storyline ended up being used for Faith's father instead and Kingsly was replaced by his aloof son, a much more sympathetic character. Speaking of the boy, there were originally plans for him to become a witch at the end of the questline, but those were dropped as there wast really any justification for it. I also pondered on wether to make him a transwoman since the area story has a big focus on gender and some of the witches, especially his sister and megan, do end up coming off as kind of terfy, but i eventually decided that these were not really the circumstances to explore it. I wouldn't mind if some headcanon that he did go through that character growth after the story through. Anyway, that should be all for now. It was really nice to share all the discarded ideas that couldn`t make their way into the game. So to finish thing off, here some pictures of all the enemies and areas that did end up making it into the game.

Well, i hope you all enjoyed this retrospective. Now i`ll get back to procrastinating. To be continued: whenever i actually get done with the next game.

Guys, i found a leak of mh wild flagship!