The 2.5 Year Quest to Save One Enemy in my Indie Game!

[@InboundShovel]

Create your games for FREE with Rider - jb.gg/Check-Rider #sponsored #Rider Also, if you haven't yet, follow Isadora's Edge on Kickstarter! www.kickstarter.com/projects/inboundshovel/isadoras-edge And wishlist Isadora's Edge on Steam! store.steampowered.com/app/3125320/Isadoras_Edge/ Thank you, everyone!

[@user-Drak]

By the way what type of game is your game? (platformer, metroivania, ext)

[@Qrangg]

​​@@user-Drak metroidvania (and by extension, a platformer)

[@WongZiHaoEanVictoriasch]

maybe tetri can be a boss? it sounds kinda like birdo, controlling the space, you Must defeat her to pass

[@Qrangg]

@@user-Drak wait mb, it's not a metroidvania (since there's "worlds" and "levels", rather than one big space). It's an action platformer, similar to mega man.

[@vuurmos6257]

Sometimes the solution is a lot closer and a lot easier than you think. The solution: Study Hollow Knight

[@Soumein]

Oh no. He's adding Hollow Knight enemies instinctively. Primal Aspid's confirmed.

[@marianosuligoy9750]

😱

[@fafafafafafafa]

Not to throw too much at an already neatly refined enemy design, but consider this: What if Tetrii could spawn thorny vines in his general vicinity? They could target the player, forcing them to move, and perform some area denial by spawning multiples. This would make waiting it out and dodging the projectiles increasingly risky. Then hitting Tetrii could make him retract one thorny vine at a time. This could go well with his rooted theme and would incentivize the player to engage with him.

[@InboundShovel]

Oh, that's a really cool idea - I'll try out some version of this and see how it feels!

[@RockyMulletGamedev]

Tetri is peek evolution.

[@InboundShovel]

100%

[@UnderCurrents15]

So exited for this game

[@Ruthles5games]

And now you can never fix the typo without removing the heart

[@UnderCurrents15]

@@Ruthles5games What have you done

[@Ruthles5games]

@@UnderCurrents15 i didn't do anything, blame shovel

[@QuentinaCandelaria]

It would be cool if you could hit Tetri's projectiles back at it from a distance, giving the player another option about how to fight the enemy.

[@EvelynFTTE]

As you were describing the enemy at the beginning, I instantly thought of the Devout Stalker from Hollow Knight *(is that what it's called? The guys you brought up at the end of the video)*

[@InboundShovel]

Haha, you pieced it together from the start! Kudos! :D

[@Eclectic]

I love your final thought: Play Testing and iteration. I was feeling embarrassed because the game I’m working on has taking me longer and I’ve re-written many mechanics, making me believe I’m overthinking. Now I realize my guts is telling me the gameplay didn’t feel fun. How do you prevent overthinking and falling into perfectionism?

[@InboundShovel]

That's a great question - one of my biggest weaknesses is definitely that sort of overthinking. My number one technique is to have some trusted people I can share my thoughts with - when I had my wife watch me playtest the original versions of Tetrii, I said "I think they're kind of bad, right?" and she said "Yeah, but you'll figure it out" - but with the new version she said she thought it looked great. Aside from that, timeboxing stuff and saying "I'm not gonna spend more than 8 hours reworking this" and seeing how it feels at then end of those 8 hours, haha!

[@soninhodev7851]

@@InboundShovel i don't have an "Overthinking" problem, but that may be inherent to how i desing things. If you may, i will go over the way that i would desing the enemy featured in the video, Tetrii: First it would come out of the idea phase, and i would playtest it, and find that the shield takes too long to lower, and when it the attack is too easy to dodge, i would go like "humph, this ain't fun. I remember there was an enemy in Megaman X2 that had a shield as well, and you could knock off the shield with a charged shot", so, then i would change it so, if you did a full three hit combo, the third hit would knock down the shield leaving an opening, where you could attack further, id playtest it and be like: "man, this dudes defenceless. maybe i add a counter attack", and with it, i would playtest that, find it good enough, and then procced to never touch the guys code again, unless i find a bug, or have a new idea. The thing is that, i would dedicate an entire day of development JUST to desing the enemy, and making just the process of fighting it, in and of itself, fun. And also, when i am indesisive about something, i ask other people, before even commiting, and even then there might be times that i need to refactor, however, i only do that if i see an actual problem. Sorry for essay, LOL

[@theyearofrupert]

Great job sticking with it and not just cutting or probably worse including a lack luster enemy!

[@darkeclipticheart]

awesome to see this process! the amount of thought that's being put into everything has given me so much excitement to play this game ^^

[@szu7422]

Could you make a video about your AI system?

[@BeeDubs93]

I would love this!

[@JohSmith]

I'm sure this game will be great, can't wait for a demo.

[@ceprotypes]

Honestly he looks like a boss to me! You should make a huge version with extra attacks for the end of the level

[@InfernoReaper1854]

editor senpai

[@epicantonio08]

This video was interesting to me. Personally I was thinking of a similar solution around the time you added a projectile. Since the problem was that waiting, we remove the waiting! Specifically I thought you were going to turn the branch into more of a arc projectile kinda like hammer bros (but obviously thrown a lot further). That way you approach him by ducking past the projectile, and then jump over his melee. Which sounds like a cool rhythm. Cool how this ended up similar! Personally, I was even wondering if he even needed a shield. But after seeing the changes in action, he can take a beating before dying. Thus I think keeping the shield was the right choice since it adds a new form of rhythm when your up close so hacking him down stays fun! Idk if what I wrote was legible since I'm on mobile and stuff. But it's cool seeing people's thought processes on handling issues!

[@LoganFaulkner-mv2qg]

Another day another W video!! 🙏🏼 Glad to see you living your dreams

[@InboundShovel]

Thanks Logan! :D

[@insandio]

Tetrii is so much more aggressive now I miss the chill tree boi!!

[@gniludio]

14:54 16x more fun...

[@soninhodev7851]

A couple of weeks back, i added an enemy to my game with an attack pattern very similar to Tetrii. Difference is, his attack IS the projectile. My enemy is actually just this: "what if, you added a shield to a super mario hammer bro?" If you have played any mario game, espeacially the 2D platformers, you will know the desing im talking about. He also counter attacks, though, he only does it if you manage to hit through his shield in the first place. Anyway, i was dying to tell you one thing though, that being that my game also has a badge system similar to yours. And i had an idea for a badge that i thought was cool. That being a badge that actually gives you extra badge points when equipped, but that makes you take double damage from enemies. Now i dont know how you'd go about implementing this, i just know that my game is going to feature a badge like that, as well as one that makes you consume double mana when casting spells.

[@ties_s]

The designs you make for these enemies are so absolutely incredible, how do you come up with ideas like this and how'd you actually learn to make good pixel art (+ animation)? I understand the answer would be somewhat lengthy but I'm honestly so invested

[@chaotixthefox]

Glad you found a great solution in the end. I would've made it so he attacks as soon as you are close enough for the attack to hit you. So you just have to go near him to bait the swing.

[@salmonbamminfish2925]

Honestly what I first thought of when you explained the tetree is hollow knight’s big sword bugs you can find in the city of tears just unable to move and with a projectile

[@VoyivodaFTW1]

I'd love to pick your brain about how you set up your playtesting environment in godot. I can tell you put a lot of work into getting something up and running and being able to test ideas early.

[@Almighty7sStudios]

Cool stuff! I would recommend changing the thumbnail, though, to make it stabd out more. The thumbnail doesn't have enough contrast in the literal way (you can't really see the enemy because of the background well enough. Highlight the enemy a little more), and the before and after isn't really enough. The video itself? Really really cool! Very professional and well explained! I really had fun listening to how you changed Tetri!

[@tm001]

You should try to make the shield spikes out a counter attack... I think it will feel natural

[@nathanbriers540]

Justice for tetri 😀

[@Rezornch_and_Dvelenktronx]

Awesome.

[@InboundShovel]

Thank you!

[@marianosuligoy9750]

That looks super fun. As soon as the video started i tought "why not counter attack _without deshielding?_" looks super fun, i tought on a different guy on hollow knight, is a knight that puths a shiend in front and also on his head if you try to pogo, motherf*cker is very good counterattacking

[@InkyIsScared]

The whole time I thought you were building up to him dropping the shield when you turned your back to him. Attacking you when you aren't looking like sneaky jerk haha. Can play the shield raise as playing it safe and I thought that would give a perfect way for the player to control the shield drop with the risk of having to dodge and turn around to hit. I think your solution ended up being better though!

[@roma540]

I have a feeling that in might add a bit of extra sauce, if you were to add variations on retaliation as to keep you on your toes. Say, not counterattack on EVERY hit of the shield, but rather randomly after 1 to 3 hits. You know, to utilize the shield concept a little bit more. Devout Stalker having attack after one hit makes sense for his predatory nature, and since he resides in tight spaces, more hits would drag him down (yeah, yeah, into the Deepnest). In fact, I though you'd bring Great Husk Sentry or Husk Warrior, as literally shield-weilding enemies. It would need some playtesting and fine tuning to figure out if it slows the pace too much, and how to handle refresh of shielding patterns. Definitely no more than 3 consecutive blocks with no counter, but practical implementation of the rest is way beyond my field. Also, didn't get it from your explanation and maybe you already doing it, bur... You might want to keep long winding attack for the time when Isadora is close, but NOT attacking him. Either obscure mechanic as wake-up call or you can implement it pairing him with some higher-priority target in the vicinity that makes you play around. Again, you'd probably know better how appropriate it would be for the game's pacing and stuff. I'm just here watching from the sidelines with the game in my Wishlist :D Just a little bit of food for thought.

[@NJaeger22]

Hiii, beautiful evolution of an enemy! Who’s the artist of the game? I’m curious to see the process behind its animation and character design

[@deadmanstoolbox]

Interesting solution! My initial thoughts in the first half of your video were to add a disjointed hitbox on the ground, like erupting root strikes, that need to be dodged but can also indicate how long the shield stance has remaining and change the projectile to a arcing castlevania axe. I think your solution makes a lot more sense, it's always better to present the player options for proactive techniques rather than hitting them with reactive walls that slow the game down, no matter how detailed you build out the interaction.

[@vincnz08]

Thats cool though

[@mr.funkid7128]

i'm going to post a video about playing this when it comes out.

[@basilgreen8132]

Random question, what do you use for your pixel animations?

[@GraysonEvans]

maybe you could hit his projectile back at him to knock his shield away?

[@nextos]

Not sure about your progression system in the game, bot potentially you could have a charge attack on your player character that ignores shields. So there is something to do once the player has progressed really far and feel good about steam rolling these annoying enemies when they reencounter them later in your game?

[@KennethHansen-j9p]

i think im the first to see this. love your content inbound!

[@Simon-et4hu]

Maybe? It says to me the video is 10 mins ago and this comment is 7 mins ago! But the pinned comment from Shovel is 1 day ago how does that work?

[@InboundShovel]

@@Simon-et4hu While a video is scheduled for release, I'm able to leave a comment on it! So I uploaded this a couple days ago, scheduled it for today, and then remembered to set the pinned comment yesterday, haha!

[@InboundShovel]

@KennethHansen-j9p Thank you so much! :D

[@похуйпляшем-й1н]

if lowRange then shield; if shielded then deshield and attack on random intervals;//maybe?

[@Vaius1]

Do you have plans to make an ingame language option for change the game's language to one of the popular languages such as French, German or Spanish?

[@meowtube91]

I'm your new subscriber on your channel, can I ask you a question, what is the pixel size of your character? I was just curious about your character size, I want to try to design in that size... thanks

[@insandio]

I think Fer drew her in 48*48

[@PixelLover-e4l]

Feels like it's sped up

[@azizxz8696]

Love you man you have such a charm in your videos . I want to be a game developer but unfortunately this year I'll graduate from secondary school i dont have much time to try and develop a game. And maybe u can advise me , i have many thoughts and ideas i want to put to my future game and i dont knoe ehat to start with

[@ChickenPiez0]

either something is wrong with the way you are rendering your sprites with is causing them to look blurry, or it's just the way you edited the video.

[@user-Drak]

nice video

[@InboundShovel]

Thank you!

[@KennethHansen-j9p]

someone tell me I'm the first to see this. it says 1 minute ago.

[@MeltedPancakes]

nope

[@marcelslofstra2157]

Pretty sure the person who uploaded it was the first to see it.

[@ennasseromar5064]

can u start making 3D tutorials??

[@Baekstrom]

An enemy being fun to play against is only a partial reason for wanting to kill it. As a player I need more than "fun gameplay" to motivate me to want to play the game. That's where story telling comes in. An example of a game that really excelled at motivating you to defeat the enemies is Ico: You were protecting a fragile little girl. If you failed to defeat the shadow monsters, they would eventually drag her into a pool of darkness that appeared on the ground. Another game that really hit you right in the feels right from the beginning is Ori and the Blind Forrest. That game had such a wonderful story that I kept playing the Ginzo Tree level over and over, even though it was super frustrating and borderline too difficult for me. Had I not fallen in love with the little Ori, I might have put the game down right there. One that failed miserably is Grime. You know the one where the protagonist had a black hole for a head. I felt absolutely nothing for him, and when I got to the very first boss, I caught myself thinking "Why am I even trying to kill this sad wretched being? He didn't do anything to me, other than being in my way". Was it a fun boss fight? I don't really know. It was certainly frustrating, but whether it was fun or not was overshadowed by the fact that I had not been given ANY reason for why I should even care about progressing, so I got a refund on the game and never had any regrets or felling of missing out on some amazing experience. What I'm trying to say, is that the gameplay being fun might be a decent motivation for sticking with the game to the end, but why settle for a decent reason if you can provide a GREAT reason by telling a compelling story that really touches the player emotionally? If you fail to connect with the player right away, you might lose them before the game even gets going, like was the case with Grime. If you DO connect, players might even forgive you for some weak parts of the game, like the Ginzo Tree level I mentioned. In the case of your game, you may have a very good story lined up already that you rightfully don't want to spoil, but I would say that it is important to justify why the heroine is resorting to violence. It must be clear why the struggle is really necessary.

[@Scaredy_bear_op]

Plz make this game also for mobile

[@MrJeng300]

lol that'd play so badly. Mobile consoles like switch and steamdeck though... 👌

[@p1imsy]

y’all don’t watch or glaze shovel like I do 🙏

[@thomassoares6564]

Hello, i have a idea of a game can i send a private message ?