Well that narrative definitely took me a lot of time to write. I did get the chance to mostly implement it, and there is a thread that you can follow start to finish the NPCs, so that’s exciting. Since we have them teaching the moves now, I got to come up with a few creative ways to introduce them, such as Sigfried teaching you to super stab to help you get through the city, and dash as a reward for eliminating his rival gang boss. Filbert has also come back a few times, and teaches the player pole vault and double jump so the player can get him out of the places he’s stuck in.

I definitely need to do a lot of side areas this week. The new characters definitely make the area feel much more real, but the actual area being built and having different paths will definitely help that too. I’m just going to be cranking out as much level content as I possibly can this week. Once we hit beta, we need to be revising almost exclusively, especially from a design standpoint. I’m going to need a lot of time to fix all the bugs that will certainly come up with Florida, and make sure the narrative is readable and engaging.

I’ve already come up with a few fun ideas for side challenges in Florida. One I was picturing was a test of the player’s hovering ability. They’ll need to use the power to drift slowly down through a series of hazards, and occasionally add in a double jump or a dash at the appropriate time to get to a series of check points. The other one was sort of the epitome of what I’ve been driving with Florida’s level design. It’s a three-lane gauntlet full of enemies, all in extremely tight corridors, leading to a frog at the end. I’m thinking the challenge will be in choosing which path to follow, and making it tricky to double back on a choice, as most enemies will pursue around a few corners.

I did a lot of sounds this week, but I’m still going to need to hit that 75% mark by next week. It’s definitely doable, as the pace I’m at is definitely fast enough to get their, I just have to maintain focus. I’ll have to fit it in my schedule around running Florida through QA, as I’m hoping to get some helpful feedback by exclusively testing the area. We’re almost at the home stretch, and if we keep up this momentum I think we’re gonna make it.