Tough Bippy : New Moves & Tools! (Patreon)

Hope you all had a good summer! We've been inching closer to the next test build the past month here, and while we had a few curve-balls thrown at us in the background, things are moving smoothly and we even have some new utilities to help speed up development on Tough Bippy! After juggling some work off to the side as well, we were able to build up our savings a bit so we could budget more on top of the Patreon towards the game. Expect to see a lot of new finalized animations coming next month!

New Aerial Attacks

Bippy now has new aerial moves that can be performed by pressing Down+Punch or Up+Punch while in the air! These can be utilized within combos or within specific situations where Bippy's default auto-combo just isn't going to cut it!

Up+Punch is a move that hits above Bippy and is useful against enemies who are above you. Your auto-combo can cancel into it, and you can also cancel it back into your auto-combo. Useful for extending an air combo or controlling positioning during a combo! 

Down+Punch  is a powerful long reaching punch that is useful for poking from a distance or preemptively spiking an enemy you're juggling - just be careful of that long startup and recovery! Landing or air dashing cancels it early - so reduce recovery when possible!

Move List Progress 

After planning and testing we've ultimately decided to keep Tough Bippy with just two attack buttons - Punch and Special. While down the road we may consider testing the idea of expanding the movelist further out to two buttons, we sat down and planned which moves are most essential for Bippy's toolset alongside what could optimize time spent towards getting the next test build out there. This month will be about finishing up all of Bippy's Special attacks so stay tuned for more on those! Thanks to all these changes we are 75% done with Bippy's movelist!

Sprite & Hitbox Utility

To really ensure a speedy process of implementing hitboxes alongside new animations and attacks - I constructed a piece of software that allows us to work with game assets straight out of the project file's directory! Alongside being able to quickly draw hitboxes for sprites in-game, the software also allows us to make adjustments to sprites on the fly, set unique flags per frame of animation, and also designate information for attacks such as knockback and damage values. This utility works for all characters in-game (player, enemies, bosses) so development has been going much quicker thanks to its functionality!

The goal for August is to finish up BIppy's special moves and work towards implementing a Defense button. Holding the Defense button will permit the use of backdashing and backwards airdashing, and it can be tapped to perform in-place dodges when on the ground. After these are added - Bippy's combat mechanics will be just about ready for the next patron test build! This year has certainly been a strange one but you guys have been helping us hang in there and keep things moving!  Streams will still be happening every Tuesday and Thurdsay if you want to follow animation progress for the game! 

Thank you all again for continuing to support us, and we really hope you guys will enjoy all the new features, fixes, and mechanics! We hope for August to be a very productive month and we'll be back soon with more updates on the game!

~DD