Powerhoof! UPDATE 1 progress...


I’m making monsters again!

After launch, I answered emails and did weird nebulous PR/marketing tasks every day until I thought my face was going to explode! Then I want to PAX and tore the crotch of my only pair of pants and spent about 8 days in the same stinky torn-up jeans trying to develop standing and sitting techniques which would reveal the minimum amount of my increasingly visible crotch area.

BUT NOW THAT’S OVER AND I ACTUALLY GET TO MAKE VIDEO GAMES AGAIN!!!!!

I’m working on monsters for our first update yay!

image

Those four are my baseline necessary to get the monster chains set up how I’d like them, and I’d also like to add one more if I get time πŸ™‚

Here are some WIP captures from in Unity:

image
image
image

Let me know what you think, and if you have ideas for the Demon Lord guy I’m all ears- still haven’t quite figured out what my plan is for him!

PS- This first update has been slow in getting underway with all the unexpected launch follow-up admin/support work, but from here on we’re hoping we can put out an update every month!

PPS- Did I mention jumping in and out of blobs? Well Dave is doing it right now and it’s awesome πŸ™‚

image

*edit* update on Demon Lord animations

So many awesome ideas coming in- a pity I only get to make a couple of moves for this guy, but I’m taking notes for future enemies here, so I should have enough ideas to keep me going for a long while πŸ˜€ thanks everyone!

This is where I’ve wound up for his primary attack:

image

It’s a two-part combo- attack 1 launches you into the air where you have much better mobility for a short time. Attack again from the air to trigger the slamdown attack!

I tried a few little tests but this seemed to tick the most boxes, making good use of his wings in a unique way and feels strong enough to be in-line with the personality in the character design πŸ™‚

The secondary move is likely to be a grab attack at this stage, though that still depends on how it goes at the implementation stage…

-Barney

  1. I don’t know about with the beam sword now, but when I first saw the demon guy I imagined him having some sort of muscle man grabbing them above his head and throwing attack. Maybe like the skeletons reflecty shield, but the hero would smash into boxes and stuff haha. Probably a terrible idea though!

    Reply
    • ah yep- we do have a mostly-implemented grab mechanic we haven’t used yet we were talking about polishing up for him, though i think we’d need a bunch of new code for the throwing you into stuff part… maybe not tho

      Reply
  2. Well, first of all, these all look incredible and I’m SO stoked that you get to work on it again!! @u@
    Secondly, since the demon guy has wings(that I’m guessing allow him to fly X3), maybe he could have a ground-slam AOE thingie where demonhands/horns/fire/spikes burst up in a ring around him??
    I dunno, just spit-ballin. ouo)b

    Reply
  3. great monsters.
    for the winged boy: a power that changes the light in the room (dark, only the eyes visible) to make it more bad …

    Reply
    • πŸ™‚ I do plan to prototype some things which will shrink the visibility range and make everything darker for the hero, though it will need testing as it may end up being more of a disadvantage for the monsters not being able to see what they’re doing to aim etc

      Reply
      • How about an area light around the mobster and darkness outside it, and the hero takes damage for leaving the light? Forcing the hero to stay close to the monster

        Reply
  4. The game is super fun! I played the other day with three friends for 2 hours, everyone was laughing the whole time and trying to one up each other!

    Maybe the demon sword guy could have an energy slash that was a slow-moving crescent of energy across the screen? Or maybe, his sword combos would leave slash scars in the ground and walls that the human would have to roll over or run around?

    Reply
    • cool ideas πŸ™‚ slash effects staying glowing in the air after attack could be pretty sweet if i can make the art just right!

      Reply
  5. Just an idea for the Demon Lord,
    He could be a flying monster that moves a bit faster than usual and his main attack would be him swinging his sword but its not charged. His special ability could be he slams into the ground,dealing a small amount of damage and becoming a walking monster with slower movespeed, but he gets a massive damage boost and the sword becomes charged. Then after a certain amount of time, he starts flying again. Just a thought :D:D

    Reply
    • ah yes, I like the concept of him having two distinct states, and using his attacks to change between states- each state with situational strengths/weaknesses! We don’t quite have the code in-place to support this just yet, but we have actually been planning some extra code on our “status” effects soon, which might allow that kind of behaviour! πŸ™‚

      Reply
  6. Plumpton

    Oh man, all of these look so cool! I can’t wait till they’re in the game!
    Do you have any ghouls or demons with like a Glamour/ hypnosis effect? I think that could be quite fun.

    Reply
    • oh man, that’s an awesome idea! the effect could give the “hypnosis monster” partial/complete control over the player’s movement for a time, so he can then try to walk him into harm’s way (i guess like the jockey in L4D2) and that would raise some funny questions with cooperation/competition with regards to feeding him to other monsters πŸ™‚

      Reply
  7. When I saw the demon in the trailer I imagined his base attack just slashing at the hero while the secondary was for him to have a portal open up in front of him and accros the room another would up with him facing the opposite direction like a sneak attack. Can’t wait to kill my friends with more monsters!

    Reply
    • hehe that portal idea is sweet πŸ™‚ i might save it for one of the more tricky spellcaster monsters i have planned πŸ™‚

      Reply
  8. Capybara

    First time commenter. In LOVE with your game!
    I actually really like Mattia’s idea.
    Spitballing:
    1. Since he has wings he could have a powerful wind gust that pushes the hero back with maybe some dmg too.
    2. His massive evil sword could tear a dimension hole in the air which when touched by the hero, disables his basic attack or special.
    3. An alternative to two: He could release some dark matter around him or let out a bloodcurling shriek that disables the hero.
    4. Since he has a gargoyley vibe: he could thrust his sword into the ground, encase himself with his wings (now stone wings) and become an invincible turret for 5 seconds.
    5. Finally, he could fly forward in a straight line, and if he touches the hero he constricts him shortly and does damage to him
    All of these are just ideas! πŸ˜‰

    Reply
    • ah, great ideas! I especially like him using his wings as a shield! it seems a waste to give him wings and make him not use them, but most of my ideas to incorporate them have been a bit generic- I really enjoy the shield skeleton, and using the wings to block could let me make him into something like a super-powered shield guy πŸ™‚

      Reply
  9. I was thinking, for the winged demon, maybe he shoots an aoe fireball on the ground with “A” and can flap his wings with “B” that moves him, but the gust spreads the ground fire in the opposite direction that he is flying in. So, he is basically fanning the fire while moving.

    P.S. I am a huge fan of the game, thanks a lot guys!

    Reply
    • cheers dude πŸ™‚ very cool idea- I love when the two attacks play into each other systemically like that- the wing move enhancing the flame move!

      Reply
  10. jonboiii

    I use a gamepad and I think the ranged weapons, like the bow and arrow, are a little difficult to control sometimes. What if you could hold down a button like the back trigger to hold yourself in place so you could aim without moving if you wanted?

    Reply
    • haha well funny you should mention that, we’ve already implemented something to solve that exact problem πŸ™‚ With archer-style weapons/monsters, you will be able to just hold down the attack button to stand on the spot and aim, then you fire on button-release- seems to work very nicely, and everything still feels just the same for tapping buttons when you want to shoot quickly instead!

      Reply
  11. RΓ©mi

    The new monsters looks awesome! I love the animation when the necromancer summon a zombie. For the demon maybe his special could be a black hole like AOE that would attract the human toward it center, dealing a tiny amount of dammage but making it easy for monsters to get hits on the human.

    Reply
    • hmm yes we probably haven’t got enough use out of damage effects which push/pull the hero around like that πŸ™‚

      Reply
  12. william

    winged guy should be able to set fire traps (little patch of fire comes up out of the ground and stays for 4 seconds) also he should have a cool three hit combo (punch, into another punch into him swinging his sword)

    what if he could set up pentagrams? but the catch would be that the monster spawned from the pentagram would only be 1/4 life?

    he punches/scratches with fire fists?

    … changing the light in the room would be cool too!!

    btw. do you have 15 speedboats yet?

    Reply
    • haha sorry to say i’m still a little short on speedboats- hopefully the full launch will let me live the dream of wearing solid-gold speedboats as giant shoes while I stomp around the city πŸ™‚

      I really like the concept of monsters having special interactions with the pentagrams… and could also interact with other environment elements like some of the store items do, or use some of the other item factors like extra damage on bleeding etc… hmmm!

      Reply
  13. Ideas for the demon eh?
    How about….
    Sets the walls on fire? Creates a fire box that starts at the walls and closes in? Flies off screen and rains fire from the sky? I wasn’t considering logic or how difficult it would be to add so yeah…

    Reply
    • Actually just calling down fire/meteors would be good on its own, I was just trying to give the wings a use.

      Reply
  14. hmm I tried the “calling down meteors” thing for a monster in the past, but i didn’t execute it very well so I ended up cutting it, but it is a cool idea, and something I should try again some time!

    Reply
  15. Maybe the Demon could grab heroes and tear em up to shreds or throw em, and the basic attack could be sword strikes. Or perhaps he’d just use his sword for attacks and maybe tear a fissure into the ground for his special.
    Or even his wings could be the primary weapons and he’d make large swooping attacks at the player, and the sword needs to charge up (a nice diagetic representation of the cooldown) before it can be used. Suppose I can mention the tail and legs for that matter.

    Either way I’m definitely looking forward to the update πŸ˜€

    Reply
    • very cool stuff- i especially like seeing the weapon slowly regenerate before you can use it again πŸ™‚

      Reply
      • Phantaeon

        What if he just goes full on Kung-Fu with a swift Kick, Punch,Punch, Wing knockback hit and for the special I like the idea of the sword striking down drawing players into it as it damages it when they’re close. Mentioning this as a reply because its a mix of the previous comment and another one I saw featuring a black hole,

        Reply
  16. Looking great! That third monster, the girl with the flame, almost looks like a second hero!

    Will you ever (or maybe you already have?) make an animation progress video, from concept to frame-by-frame animating of a monster or something? Would be interesting to say the least!

    Reply
    • yup, i’d love to do this some time, its just hard to find the time to do the testing etc to set it up properly- one day i’ll get it set up tho πŸ™‚

      Reply
  17. Trylobot

    Omg guys so awesome. Maybe for the Demon Lord guy, you could have some kind of telekinesis, to allow him to fling random furniture at the hero! Then when the furniture objects break, the ghosts will collect the blobs and get slimes quicker!

    Reply
  18. SpaceGhost

    I’m reeeaally pumped to see that you get to work on the game again!
    And to throw in an idea of myself..
    How about passiv abilities for the monsters? For example..

    – at 25% life the spitting zombie starts leaking a small trail of green goop (slowing and/or damaging the hero)

    – the winged demon does more and more damage with every hit he lands on the hero (feeding his demon sword)

    – at 30% life the scorpion gets a shorter cooldown for his special attack

    – after 30 seconds the witch gains movement speed

    or stuff like that…

    About the winged demon I really like the idea of him using his wings to protect himself for a 1 second, making him invincible but not able to move or attack during that. After this he’d open the wings again causing an small AOE attack damaging and pushing back the hero.

    I’m really digging this game and I think it has a bright future! πŸ˜€

    Reply
    • yess! great thinking- we just put in code to allow monsters access to some of this stuff usually reserved for hero items (special properties on bleeding/full health/standing on blood etc) but I had overlooked how cool it would be for regular monsters :D!

      Reply
    • The way i was thinking about monster passives was linking it to the deity eg teok gives a buff to spider evo-tree monsters. That way if monsters overlap they can be passively different.

      Reply
  19. I like them all, but i find the girl and zombie lord’s styles most of all! i like the idea of a quick guerilla character haha. In terms of the demon lord, his design looks like he’s a slow, buff, chunky guy with an obviously magical sword, so i think his play style should accompany that. the one thought that comes to mind is that perhaps his regular sword swing is slow and difficult to use, but uses magic to stun/slow enemies. Further more, he could beat his wings to stir a wind that blows enemies away fromhim. He could be a slow character that is focused on longevity and keeping enemies away. Just a thought though, I love the work you’ve done so far!!!

    Reply
    • this is just the kind of thing i’m generally going for- where the regular and special are complimentary and work together like that πŸ™‚

      Reply
      • Haha awesome, I’m glad I could help! I’m sure whatever you come up with will be great πŸ™‚

        Reply
  20. To start this off I wanna say,I really love the way you made Crawl. I also really like how you guys are taking ideas from the consumers which a lot of developers don’t do. I think the girl/boy he should have like a slowing curse or maybe an insanity curse to like bait the hero into the fire ball. The giant demon man should have like a thing where he throws his sword and it bounces around the room but when it’s thrown he can only use flying attacks like a gust of wind. The scorpion could make sting the hero and make them insane or poison(if that’s implemented).

    Reply
    • haha cool ideas- soon we will have some special “status” stuff to allow special-case anims at certain times- this would allow things like different animation sets for with/without sword etc, but it probably won’t be ready til next update, so might have to save those ideas for the next batch of monsters!

      I made a version of the axe knight guy who had axes that bounce around the room- he ended up getting cut, but it is a cool mechanic i definitely want in there somewhere!

      Will definitely look at giving the scorpion a chance to poison players πŸ™‚

      Reply
  21. Trylobot

    I just want to play as the SKELETON KING πŸ˜€

    Reply
  22. Shadowmaw

    First of all, brilliant game guys. I can literately play all day and still want to play tomorrow. Secondly, I has a question. Is this going to just a monster update or will there be new items, powers, traps, (do I dare hope?) bosses and gods?

    Reply
    • Shadowmaw

      Also, the child monster, if it’s possessed, then you could make its special a gigantic shadow mouth come out to bite everything in front of it or maybe the child faints as an invincible shadow creature comes out of it for a bit, like a ghost that can hurt the human. Then after a certain time or the hero does enough damage to the fainted child it goes back into it

      Reply
    • this update is a bit of an unusual one, because so much of my time was taken up with launch admin and going to seattle for pax- i’m aiming for some monsters first, then looking at a few new weapons/traps/items if i get time, but i’m not quite sure what will make it in- hopefully future updates will be fuller as i should have more time πŸ™‚

      Reply
  23. All of these look totally sweet! I’m SO FREAKING STOKED FOR THIS UPDATE! But do you think the boss might undergo some work? My friends and I are finding it easier and easier to beat the same boss, especially when all you need is to get to level 10 to fight him. Really stoked for future updates, especially the first one! πŸ™‚

    Reply
    • cheers dude πŸ™‚ the boss balance is always tough- he’s way too hard for some, way too easy for others!

      the solution will be to give players things they can do in-game to make the challenge harder/easier if they want, but that is fine detail stuff which won’t go in until a bit later i’m afraid!

      Reply
  24. Ryanator

    The Demon Lord should be the final evolution of the Fire Imp. That would be cool. As long as he isn’t just a re-skin of the Bat Demon evolution… Also, I know this may not be a much wanted feature, but is there any way you could add an option to remove the try limit on the boss fight?

    Reply
    • yup, the red imp will end up just below the demon in the evolution chain πŸ™‚

      we’re not planning on taking away the 3 limit (it’s the limit that makes the 3 tries valuable hehe and it solves a lot of design problems that would crop up without it) but we are reworking the bot AI so they don’t rush straight to the boss all the time, so people who play mostly against bots should have more time in the end-game for boss fights πŸ™‚

      Reply
      • Matthew

        Well, it’s almost important to note that the three tries limits game time, which seems to be a core tenant of the design. Additionally, it should be stated that when the bots fail killing the boss, or if anyone fails for that matter, they’re popped out with low health, so it’s a risk to attempt the boss at all. Sure, the bots are sorta gaming the system by rushing the portal, but it hasn’t ever seemed broken to me – they’re just playing to win!

        Reply
  25. You should make more random bosses and a way to configure your run by putting a new needed level to go through the portal, a way to choose the boss if you don’t like random bosses, an option to not choose gods since new monsters are being added and chose individually the 3 monsters you want to go with, a way to not have only three chances to fight the boss would be really cool me and my friends use to love that in the previous build, team runs with, not two heroes but something that helps the hero like a monster that you can choose in the beginning and needs to use that big tree or something else to revive them. Bunch of crazy ideas that would take some time to get them done but i bet that players would really like, besides that keep up the good work because this game is awesome.

    Reply
    • haha πŸ˜€ we’re more leaning towards giving players items/props they can actuvate/trigger in-game to change-up the rules a bit- so instead of a menu with tweaks, you have to find a special item and use it on the portal to give more/less boss attempts etc πŸ™‚

      Reply
  26. HamEnthusiast

    I think that a mimic would be an awesome enemy. It could have weak health, but the ability to regain its health by possessing furniture or it could disguise itself as furniture and then harm the player for attacking real furniture. One idea for the deamon’s attack is the ability to inflict a random curse on the hero such as slow, poison, insanity, pacifism, self harm, and polymorph.

    Reply
    • yess! i can’t wait to add mimics πŸ˜€ i have some cool ideas for what to do with them- thanks for adding more to the idea pool- they are gonna be sweet!!

      Reply
      • Phantaeon

        Speaking about mimics. what if they are decently low vitae cost and turn into any other monster that is in the room. This way high level players have more of a chance to fight to regain thier human form. Of course this could be balanced by having it assorted with only decently good monsters and also its complete reliance on someone else being a good monster. Also if no other monsters are in the room when becoming him he could turn into goat. He could also turn into a goat if he is attacked in the first few seconds of transforming ( of course involving a few seconds of transformation ).

        Thanks for reading ( If you did ). Also Goats rule. But it would be cool if it was a random farm animal like a chicken or a pig ( I could see Stumpt Price loving that. πŸ˜€ )

        Reply
  27. Matthew

    Absolutely spectacular, guys. Really excited for more content. Every single group of friends I’ve showed this to (and I’ve been touting it to anyone who will listen) has completely fell in love with it. Got an email from a friend across the States whom I visited telling me they’ve been playing the hell out of the copy I got for them.

    In reading some of the other posts, the bits about states and status effects made me think of the insanity animations you have in place already. I can’t help but laugh every time it changes to the arms flailing part!

    Also, NECROMANCERS! Awesome!

    You’ve gotten a lot of ideas for the demon dude, many involving wings. I kinda like the idea of his secondary attack being a mid range swoop. A long cool down, fairly powerful attack that may be difficult to time/target (similar to the Beholder’s bite attack) where he swoops into the air and dives, slamming into the ground with his (something). But shit, I’m just excited to play more πŸ™‚

    Reply
  28. Phantaeon

    I’d like to know plans for possibly more bosses. But if there is no plan I have an idea If you want to hear it :D.

    Anyways amazing designs and for the Demon guy all the things I’d like are probaply already said. Just the sword for basic attacks similar to Darkblade and for the special turning into an undamagable turret for 5 seconds ( with the wings protecting him ).

    Also can I request ( Of course I can request it but you get what I mean ) for the Titan to have his stunning punch be a bit faster or something else to balance it more to the dragon. Similar to the 2 Mindflayers how the green/red one is better but cheaper. Just generally more balancing to underused monsters ( Titan, Blue Mindflayer, Mudfish ).

    Thanks for reading.

    Reply
    • Phantaeon

      Forgot to add another idea I had upon seeing the ghost girl as before the animations I thought it was a Banshee. Which would be a cool edition. It could have bouncing soundwaves for its main attack and go invisible for its special.

      Reply
  29. For the demon I really like the idea someone had above of him using like a flame sword that leaves slash marks on the ground that burns the hero but I pictured his special to be something like an underground flame that he gets control of and when it touches the hero a pillar of flame explodes out of the ground the draw back being that whoever is playing as him while they’re controlling the underground flame the demon just stands their laughing manically so it leaves him open to attack

    Reply
  30. Emodular

    Hey guys, you havent heard from me in a while but ive been mastering my crawl skills. I can’t wait untill this next update drops and i will most likely love the zombie necromancer, but i just recieved amazing news that ill be able to attend PAX east in boston in march. I know you guys didnt have the best PAX before (you know, crotch issues) and it really is a long way from AUS, but if i heard you guys were coming that would be AWESOME. Keep doing what you do best, BEING AMAZING
    -e

    Reply
  31. Michael

    About the demon guy maybe his sword would be able to suck up the floating ectoplasm for a more powerful strike and the special could be with the ecto absorbed he could create another version of the hero. Love the game guys keep it up!

    Reply
  32. Kerillian

    regarding the deamon guy, how about his standard attack could be a standard swing with his sword follow up by a spin atack to hit multiple heros? his special shoud be something cool like an unholy-cross move aoe or summoning a secound sword to dual wielding. ps: are you guys planning to include more weaponss like axes, katanas whips ect?

    Reply
  33. Can’t wait to get my friends together and do another game marathon.
    For the demon guy I thought he maybe could have some kind of drain attack as special ! He could drain life (very slowly) until the hero hits him. And to use his main attack he would need to use his own life. That would make him kind off balanced.
    P.S. I love the near dead items, you know that moment when you’re enemies think they can kill you and then you start hitting faster for double the damage and take less damage, it just so much FUN !!!!!

    Reply
  34. My goodness, your pixel art is intimidating,

    Reply
  35. yes
    yesyesyes
    the 2-step attack is beautimus :D!!

    Reply
  36. Matthew

    Looks great! If the grapple doesn’t work out, maybe you can explore the sword some more. A summoned energy sword with a downward slash, creating an energy wave linearly in front of it? πŸ˜€

    Reply
  37. I think the demon lord guy should have as secondary attack grab the heroΒ΄s neck, leech his energy and then throw him to the ground (with of course a long cooldown).

    Reply
  38. Awesome animations! You guys are doing a great job!
    I think I don’t like too much Demon’s green plasma/fire sword. I think it’s too much for that character’s design, maybe too outrageous.

    hohoho Too many posibilities in this game. You have lots of things to build up, innovate and update, and that’s great. I love imagining all the new things that can come up with Crawl, and that’s way exciting. I think it cool arrive a day I could not be bored of this game.

    By the way if you need any illustration for game announcements or something don’t hessitate to ask me πŸ™‚ I’d be glad to collaborate doing some little thing for you guys. I want to do even a fanart haha, big fan. Here my portfolio, you can check it out.
    https://www.behance.net/guillegarcia

    Reply
  39. These are all amazing! The little girl with the fire looks amazing and seems to fun play as. I think that a cool special for her would be to do a similar attack but it would leave a trail of blue fire that would act like the acid and fetid discharge. I love your work! keep it up.

    Reply
  40. head in clouds

    would be nice if there is monster(ghost or zombie) which is like your hero. It has same weapon and spell, but is lot weaker, slower and rotten. problem is that you can affect to its stats by leveling hero and that’s unfair. Maybe weapon class is same but it’s something unigue?

    Reply
  41. I bought it a while ago, and I must say I love this game! So cool, and super intense. Be proud!

    Reply
  42. Will the early access get a steam key for the finished game?

    Reply
  43. Pingback: Powerhoof Power On with a Monster Update | Better in 2D

replying to Barney...

(Cancel)
comment...