Lets begin, shall we? Billie Bust Up-date! (Patreon)

Concept of Billie flying by Ash! 

Billies flight mechanic is now functional and in engine thanks to Derek's hard work. He not only animated it but programmed it all in. This will be in the new testing build going up later. 

Watch full video here 

Adventure! 

Can you feel it? Watch the full version with music here. Derek has been working on reworking Adventure by giving it custom animations that match the bpm of the song. 

We are reworking Adventure from scratch as I feel it missed the mark for what was the original intent of the song. The song was meant to be fun, playful and humorous.  A visual spectacle with less of a focus on platforming. As Billie dances around carefree Lewis and Lily will get stuck in traps and are attacked by monsters, contrasting Billies lyrics as she sings. This helps highlight Billies personality. Someone who would die for her friends by leaping forward into danger, but is also careless, short sighted, naïve and selfish. 

During this time the animation from Billie, mixed with the visual gags from Lewis and Lily, and the exploration elements, lead to fun and unique gameplay, compared to the standard platforming we currently have. 

Some notes I made whilst working on Adventure V2. Tiles are randomised so that the forest feels magic and endless. It doesn't matter how fast or slow you'll go in this level, it will adapt to you and your speed. The old version did this too but used portals instead of clever level streaming techniques, leading to a very laggy experience...

Watch it all working over in this video, free with developer commentary but yours truly.  

Prints!

We're making HD prints for the upcoming Kickstarter! 

Here are some previews. I will be uploading the HD versions for the Patreon 5$ tier once they're all done. 

A preview of the Aristotle one, I cheated a bit and used his 3D environment for his campsite to get a headstart on the background, but I'm colouring over it to keep the 2D appeal 

Scrimshaw Song!

Watch the opening cutscene here! I'm afraid I can't show the song, after many leaks I'm cautious of it being leaked early in its incomplete state. 

Composition test as I prepare the environment assets, rough but I'm not much of an environment artist...

VFX time! Here is a concept I made for our VFX artist Chao to communicate what I was looking for. This particular shot is sand being thrown up by the cat pirates that shimmers in the sun. Intended to look like gold dust to highlight the Queens "wealth" 

Here's a quick video I made for Chao explaining my thoughts in better detail 

And time for the final results! 

The cat pirates in Elaine and Scrimshaws respective crews will have unique designs to them. They won't all be a copy paste of Calico Jack (he's the little Calico Cat Scrimshaw is dancing with) Here are some rough concepts 

Each cat pirate has their own name, profession, personality and small backstory. These won't be majorly important, but will keep dialogue between cat pirates consistent, as cat pirates can talk to one another which the player can eavesdrop on. 

More props! Cat Pirates will be able to drink these.

Watch all the idle animations here 

And here are some dialogue animations! 

Watch them all here 

Fantoccio!

Fantoccio's level is the one we're currently working on, we recently recorded a lot of his scripts! Or at least all the cutscene ones

Fantoccio's new hat was finished! 

A "redline" to show the rigging artist (Derek) how to rig the poncho 

"The Fella" ( not his real name but was affectionately nicknamed this the community) has received a sculpt. They have yet to be rigged as they are quite complex. They will need to be able to morph and move around in quite a flexible way. 

Storyboards! Like mentioned earlier a lot of Fantoccio's cutscenes are now ready and voiced. Here's some sneak peaks

Watch the full scene here 

Here are some more audio snippets 

and some more!

And here's some more... 

Fantoccio's giant wooden hands from his boss fight have had a slight change now that the shield power up is added. If the player uses the shield instead of rolling out of the way the shield will clasp around the shield and hold the player down until they use their shield blast

Some updates to the VFX!

When Billie reflects Fantoccio's magic back at him with her shield it will add an element of her magic colour into the mix! 

Some new sculpts, currently a work in progress

Add a lion... A BEAR

Bear beans.  The bear and lion will be used like how Sharkspeare is currently used, popping out of holes to attack the player. 

Also two shark holes! There were meant to be 3 but it was too cluttered. Sharkspeare can now come out of two holes. 

Watch a current playthrough  

MISC

Here's a section where things are misc!

Looking pretty sus there Arthur

Redline to help direct the rigging process, so that Arthur can pull down his hood. 

A sneak peak at the reveal board for Belles VA! Hopefully coming soon, we just got a bit caught up with deadlines, but we're excited to reveal

Dutch props for his animations! He will idle around his office, smoke, drink and do evil things...

A new Billie plushie is in the works! Here's a cute concept

Elaine's eyes now glow in the dark, just like a real kitty cat!

Billie ear flops, currently getting Elaine's cutscene ready in engine. Just waiting on the final shot from one animator and then we will be ready to go. Most of the environment assets are done.

After all these years Aristotle has learnt how to stop juggling. We animated a juggle animation for him around 3 years ago but forgot to make an animation that had him stop juggling. Meaning they'd either get stuck in a juggle loop or we'd have to make him stop when the player wasn't looking.

Ball balance idle! something that Billie can learn as her own idle by watching Aristotle do it. 

Anyway thats it for this months update! Make sure to check out and follow our upcoming Kickstarter here. It goes live on 12th March! We're almost at 2000 sign ups  

Or buy an Elaine plushie! she doesn't have much longer left until she's gone for good.