We’ve been pulling the initial Van-14 build apart over the past couple of weeks and defining some of the core mechanics we want to implement.  This all sounds pretty cool, right?  In reality it means a lot of figuring out who on the team is going to be responsible for which aspects at the moment.  Robin is the mainstay in charge of general direction, art, and pulling it all together, but our Lorekeeper Cim has taken on some new tasks like level-building in addition to the narrative design.  This means we can have two parts being iterated on simultaneously, which means more ideas bouncing back and forth!  It won’t necessarily make development quicker, but it should make it more fun. 😉

We’ve also altered a few things to do with level loading, hoping to combat some optimisation issues, and made changes to how the game feels and plays.  Here’s an early video of the new gameplay:

Camera movement is now significantly restricted in order to recapture that old-school Metroidvania atmosphere.  No more peeking behind the next door 👀

Alpha build testers and keen-eyed screenshot observers may notice more changes to Van herself:  

We’d like her to ‘pop’ a little more from the general background, so she's getting some new accents.  Shiny! 

The basic idea of our plan for ability upgrade drafting is in place, which in turn brings about a bunch of other new mechanics — but we’ll tell you more about that next time.  Follow the project here on Itch.io and join our Discord to keep up-to-date!  

See you next devlog,

The Van-14 Dev Team