Hello humans, I'm back and completely cured of the "Hyloguilhopipoclosa" (don't ask me how) and today is the...

◇ Day 14 of the production of demo 4 ◇

And today... I want to change the focus again...

...

yeay...

I had promised that I wouldn't invest too much in the story because "it was still demo 3 and I was building the base of the game", well, there's no way to use that excuse anymore now!

And why do I take so long to build the story? Simple... I know that this part will be one of the most important parts of the entire game, do you know why? Be Cube was made to be more than a platform game, it was made to be a universe. If this game has sequels, it will be (largely) because of the public's interest in the characters and the game's universe. This is already in Be Cube's DNA. The unique characteristics of each character literally make the gameplay what it is. So much so that when people ask me why I created Willy's energy system, it was because years ago I looked at the character flying through the level without any difficulties and thought...

"That's not Willy..."

"I don't feel Willy..."

"I feel a cube flying through the level..."

And when I added the energy system, I looked at it and thought...

"That's Willy"

Do you know why? Willy is a normal cube. Unlike the other characters, Willy has to make do with what he has to navigate through the levels. So when I added the energy bar to him, I felt that it showed that he had limits. In other words, it made this cube... more human, you know? That's why it's extremely important to know your character when creating your gameplay, or at least that's how it is with my projects. I know that Nintendo, for example, creates the gameplay first and then creates the characters... but, that's the thing... I'm not Nintendo, they have their way of thinking and I have mine, and going back to Willy's energy, if you think I made this choice out of pure emotion, nowadays the energy bar is a crucial part of making the gameplay so engaging and dynamic. After all...

"Each movement costs some of your energy, some cost more, others less, this brings balance to a game that could be too easy to break, in other words, do you want to fly away? You'll have to know Willy's limits."

And I know that this requires the player to learn and master the controls, and that's the goal, because, just like Willy, the player will have to learn his limits and how to navigate the world, taking away this learning factor would be hindering the experience I want to give the player.

Besides that, there are also many other variables and consequences of this mechanic that need to be "checked", and the only solution for that is... testing, keeping testing the game until everything is right, which is why the game has several different paths to follow in a level... because I was already bored of following the same path (lol)...

Wait a minute...

Where was I again...

Ah! Cutscene!!! I'm going to make a cutscene!

(Wait, I don't think I said I was going to make a cutscene before... anyway)

CUTSCENE!!!!!

and this is something that I've been experiencing recently...

the process of interpreting the script, for the game...

Like, it may seem like something simple, but when you have a "team" like mine, you have to know your limits, maybe I'll make an animated cutscene in the future? Maybe, I've been learning about animation lately, and after I learned how to make music for the game that people have really enjoyed (I still don't know how I do it), I don't doubt myself anymore, but for now, I have to use the game itself to tell the story, so that's how it will be done!

And today I'm going to make a cutscene that is very important for the rest of the story...

☆ The deal ☆

Here, with the chaotic introduction behind us and the player having already experienced the basics of the game, comes the point of all this, the deal between Willy and Agent T, this point dictates the rest of the story and makes clear what Willy and the player's goal will be from now on, and of course it establishes the dynamic between Willy and the triangular being. But, enough talk! Let's start developing!

Starting with the surroundings, the environment is an invisible character, colors, spacing, all of this will indicate what the audience should feel, in addition, I also have to take into account the dialog box in the corner of the screen and make sure that there is no important object that is being covered.

So, dark filter, a navy blue/purple placement, to give an atmosphere of introspection and mystery (in addition to referencing the theme colors of each character), gears turning around to give movement and life, and that's it! Next step, soundtrack...

And... I'll talk about the general soundtrack of this demo later, separately...

Now, I just going to test it to see the scenario and...

Wow...

(5 minutes of a developer drooling over his "incredible" creation)

Ok, I'm back! Focus on the cutscene!

Importing the music into the engine and separating it into its respective group so it doesn't give me a headache later when the player sets the game's volume.

"Boom"

"Pam"

Music added, now I'm going to adjust the scenario and test it to see if it's good...

 ...

Wow...

(Another three minutes of pure drooling later)

Ok, sometimes people underestimate the power of music, because wow, the impact and emotional weight it brings to the scene, there could be no dialogue and you would know the feeling of it, and it's beautiful in a way...

Focus! There's still the main thing! The dialogue...

And since this is the most "fun" part of developing, I'll summarize what will probably happen...

• 1. Copy the script's speech into the code.

• 2. Realize that there is no character expression for that speech and spend 19 minutes drawing it.

• 3. Add the newly created expression.

• 4. Test and see that you forgot something obvious in the code.

• 5. Add the obvious thing to the code.

• 6. Test.

• 7. Make a silly face in admiration and start creating the next speech.

And the cycle repeats until the cutscene is ready...

Want to see? Just wait...

(1 hour of pure fun later)

Ok, there's nothing more annoying than when you say you're going to forget something obvious... and you forget something obvious...

But, apart from that, I confess that I really lost track of time when making the sprites and animations for the characters. I think there's something really interesting about building the timing of the characters' movements and their expressions... and... I'm really holding back on learning how to make animations...

And that's it!

At least 20% of the scene, of course.

What? Did you really think I'd do it all in one day? Creating cutscenes is also a lot of work.

But this time I promise I'll finish it on the next day of development. After all, I'm curious about the final result of this.