From Zero to Fighting, Steam Page and Action! December Progress Report

Hey everyone, Adam here for a review of our very first month of developing Pik the Archon! Honestly, so much has happened that it feels way more than just 4 weeks, but I'll try to be brief with my recap here.

My short term goal is to create a functional demo, and I want to have enough material for a trailer ASAP, as that can boost engagement a lot on Steam. Having said that, we're making amazing progress and you can expect a playable build soon, just to fiddle with controls whatsoever :) If you prefer a video over reading, you can also check the YouTube video I just published, showcasing most of the controls!

• From NO functionality at all, the player's move set is all coded and ready for deployment in fights! (Same goes for animations and SFX, they all got slotted in)
  • In case you're not familiar with the game, the set of moves include: jump, double jump, mid-air glide, run, default attack (a three-part combo chain), charged attack, defense stance, parrying, saddling (Read below for more on this)
  • I'd like to emphasize the amount of polishing, refinements and research that went into this in topics such as snappy combat, input sensitivity, jump logic (gravity, behavior under certain circumstances) and many many more, which are absolutely worthy of their own posts
• Saddling mechanism: The game takes inspiration from Crash of the Titans' mount-and-combat feature where you saddle creatures to fight stronger
• Created a conceptual demo level, assets and design sketches are already being made for it both in concept and inside the actual game engine (our beloved Godot!)
• Hired a very professional, talented crew for most departments (This took more time than expected! Hiring is not easy)
• Marketing efforts -- this is still a learning area for me that I enjoy, so I'm taking my time to experiment with several approaches, even if it means less progress on the game itself
  
  • Created my Steam Page, Discord community and even a website -- wishlists and joining my Discord are really appreciated!
  • Consistent devlogs here on itch
• Started creating world gimmicks like death triggers, hittable bridges to make a path and interaction triggers for saddling
• An enemy to saddle is WIP on the 3D art side of things, the demo will contain the player and this type of enemy to fight and control

I wish you all a happy, successful new year and I'm hoping to see you around, thanks for reading!