Howdy! Hope you all had a good start to the new years! (Also apologies, I'm still more active on Gamejolt! I'm going to do my best to remember to cross-post here)

And with this new year, here comes a big change!

I've updated the art style to fit a Nintendo DS graphic art style!

(water tiles are a wip, will add a beach)

here's Deltarune for contrast:

(screenshot from here)

i'm still figuring out my exact styling... the DS games I've been looking at the most have this "blur" feel to them which I plan on avoiding. the colors are brighter and the detail a lil too much for what i'm going for. (mainly referring to the backgrounds in that regard)

I know the art looks less Undertale like now. That's not a bad thing, I'm hoping the "style" of the game goes further than just the shading detail or textures. The world, characters, "shape language" (or rather, the cartoon stylization) will be the same as UT/DR. I want Angel's to feel like the next generation sequel of UT/DR. Or, well, prequel! Like how Zelda will get a new installment for a new console, and the art will be updated to match what the system was now capable of handling.

(Obviously, and to be very clear on this: this isn't actually next generation lmao, this isn't literal. I think toby's chosen limits work for what he's going for. I don't mean to imply it's any lesser for going for a different console generation)

I guess a more accurate statement is i'm taking inspiration from the DS era, rather than going for something fully authentic. Which, in fairness, is what UT/DR does anyway. it's not fully limited to a single era, the constraints (while consistent) are chosen by preference/aesthetics. It goes for the Feel of the era, rather than a literal attempt at pure recreation.

Eh, anyway, we'll see how it goes! I plan on experimenting a lot more on the look of the game. I need to fix up the auto-tiling and the beach (as mentioned earlier) to make the transition more seamless.

What's not shown is the lighting system, though you can still see it used in the UnderEvent Trailer.

My biggest goal with Angel's is to make the world feel alive. You'll be able to interact with things as you walk around, picking up flowers and pushing into plants.

In addition to the new art style, I've got some great news!

Welcome

(Laser) @FG25

and

@BadBoyWasTaken

as my new coding assistants! Thank you so much for helping me with this project!

As of right now, Laser has been working on fixing up my translation system as well schooling me in general advice for coding. Progress has been going steadily this last month, though I've been on-off with breaks.

I'm working on the inventory system. It uses an Array that contains Structs for each item. Based on this tutorial. Going past that, I hope to use a DS grid for the inventory grid itself.

(UI art is finalized; items use placeholder sprites)

Debating if I want items to stack or not. The tab system was heavily inspired by LOZ: BOTW, but I like the item-limted-by space aspect of UT/DR. We'll have to see how this feels by play-testers down the road.

I also re-animated the starting cave scene as well as the opening.

And while I feel this shouldn't need to be stated but I did recently run into this issue... do not use my art to trace or edit in anyway. I'm not going to publicly talk about it (so please don't pry) but it's something that is extremely hurtful and disrespectful.

Sour note aside, I feel a lot of work has been done this last month. I have one last big thing to say...

While I can't predict how my life plans could get in the way (especially after 2020, nothing is certain!) I can say with confidence that the mini demo will release this year.

What's a mini demo?

It's a short demo, roughly the first 10-30 minutes of the game (depending on play style). It contains a couple of puzzles and monsters.

It's essentially a proof of concept demo.

the actual demo, the big release before the final release, will be out hopefully within a year from the mini demo. So don't expect a full experience until then, this is a teaser if anything.

Thank you all for staying with me on this journey, and I hope you enjoy the mini-demo once it's ready!