The KatFS Pre-Alpha State

Hello everyone! Now that KatFS 0.1.2 has been out for a week, I feel that it's time for another update on what's next for the project. The AI rework was a major step for the pre-alpha, and I believe that it will allow me to code the more complex AI interactions that are planned for the planned mobs in Kalia's journey.

A similar rework has been underway for the way abilities are coded (from the basic mob melee to Kalia's specials), which will allow for more unique abilities, such as fire bombs that can be thrown over obstacles, or Kalia's fiery aspect (which you can see in action below)!

There are some other improvements to core systems that are planned, such as a better telegraph for enemy attacks. Right now, the only way they telegraph their moves is with a placeholder animation and a subtle audio queue, but in order to make the game easier to read, I have plans to add more obvious indicators, such as enemies blinking right before an attack, as well as indicators for the area that an attack is targeting (games like the recently released Cult of the Lamb come to mind). My idea is either tie these to difficulty modes, or allow the player to turn these off or on individually, so if a player is aiming for a more hardcore experience, they could play without all these extra telegraphs.

Like this, but in red and for the enemies:

However, something that I'm eager for (and also a bit anxious over) is the fact that the KatFS pre-alpha is getting near a point where all the major core systems are in place and in a good shape for sustained development. Which means that I can start doing less of the "under the hood" kind of work and more of the "add more stuff" kind of work. That means not only improving the current demo chapter, but also adding new ones, with completely different environments, puzzles and enemies. This is great in that it'll get me back on the creative side of things, but also anxiety-inducing in that the game will cease being a prototype - once the core systems are in place, I cannot experiment as much with the game's mechanics as before (not without having to strip things apart). But ultimately that's a part of a game's development cycle, and a good thing that KatFS is starting to mature (also, the feedback I've gotten so far seems to indicate that I've got a solid foundation).

This is all for this week. Stay posted, and thank you everyone for following Kalia's journey so far!