Curator Floor Design - Macabre Mausoleum

[nsweeney107]

So I'm finally committing to this! I've been dragging my feet, but I think I have an idea for a floor/creature design. Honestly, this is probably already an idea you have, but I'll throw it out there anyways!. The floor will be the Macabre Mausoleum, it would follow the Undead and Arcana lines. I would imagine it would be a higher tier level as it would have to follow after the Bonehoard. The unit produced would be a Lich, wielding Necromancy and other spells to weaken foes and raise them to be his/her undead minions! Let me know what you think and I can lay out more details about the floor.

Thanks,

[Jake]

Honestly, this is probably already an idea you have, but I'll throw it out there anyways!

Absolutely don't let this stop you! I have a huge list of floors and creatures that I'd like to include, but that doesn't mean I'll end up doing those things in the way you envision or in a timely fashion; I want our backers to help shape how these things turn out, so I'm glad to work on this with you, and it'll likely be expedited as a result. In fact, I am hoping to put up the Necrotic Nexus today, which is a floor for necromancers (requiring the Sinful Study and Baleful Bonehoard), and to me, this seems like a natural extension of that floor. Note that this would mean your floor would require the Sinful Study path in addition to the Baleful Bonehoard, so liches would not be available if you take dark elves; I think liches as an extension of necromancers makes sense, because they are typically necromancers who have cheated death, but I am willing to explore other options--I'll have to add a dark elf undead route at some point, too (mummies? can we spin dark elves with a vaguely egyptian style? Off topic...). With the addition of necromancers, the Mausoleum will become a floor that I could add very quickly; it may imbalance the Sinful Study/Crumbling Catacomb build path a bit, but there are other things coming down the pipe that should even it out.

The unit produced would be a Lich, wielding Necromancy and other spells to weaken foes and raise them to be his/her undead minions!

Necromancers have the ability to raise fallen minions as skeletal warriors, and allowing liches to raise fallen heroes (or both heroes and minions) feels like an improvement on that ability. As you suggest, they should probably have access to other foul sorcery on top of this; a debuff seems like a pretty good choice--perhaps they slow agile opponents or drain warded ones, reducing one of those defenses and/or impeding ranged or magical attacks?

What would you like our liches to look like? This is definitely a creature we can take some creative liberties with, and as a high-tier minion, they should probably look bad-ass, so don't hold back! Also keep in mind ways that we can make the "champion" versions look even more powerful (richer color schemes, fancier equipment, additional particle effects, etc.) What do you have in mind for the Mausoleum? This is a high-tier floor, so it will probably be a full five blocks tall--you might want to incorporate some verticality into the design. Don't worry about setting things in stone right now, but share your ideas, and folks can provide feedback, and maybe I'll throw up a draft or something. Feel free to link to pictures and whatnot.

Also, I've added you to the alpha group, so you can browse that forum now, and I would like to know your Kickstarter name so I can properly attribute this on the big spreadsheet that I use to track rewards and stuff . Welcome to the forum !

[ThirdAnguis]

I'll have to add a dark elf undead route at some point, too (mummies? can we spin dark elves with a vaguely egyptian style? Off topic...

Replace the spider theme with scorpions and you're golden, not to get too off-topic.

[nsweeney107]

so liches would not be available if you take dark elves

Duh, I get confused as to which path Arcana was, it would definitely be an upgrade of the Necrotic Nexus then! Maybe the Lich is a champion of the necromancer?

Or, if you wanted for your games sake, I could shift gears to do something in the Undead/Arcana realm with an undead dark elf assassin floor or in the Undead/Bandit realm as well.

Basically, I don't want to throw off the path that your game is on by unbalancing one path, but I'd rather help you fill out your options by adding to an area that is somewhat behind the others. So which path(s) are lacking a bit and I can help with those!

Also, I mentioned this before, I'd love to help by creating the artwork for the actual floor and maybe the monster if that's cool with you once we hire out the details. I think that'd be lots of fun actually! I'll get more details from you once we iron out the details here!

[Jake]

Maybe the Lich is a champion of the necromancer?

I would like the lich to be its own minion, because it is one of those iconic, powerful villains, and eventually, we will want these high-tier minions for all of the paths (or as many combinations as make sense).

Or, if you wanted for your games sake, I could shift gears to do something in the Undead/Arcana realm with an undead dark elf assassin floor or in the Undead/Bandit realm as well.

Basically, I don't want to throw off the path that your game is on by unbalancing one path, but I'd rather help you fill out your options by adding to an area that is somewhat behind the others. So which path(s) are lacking a bit and I can help with those!

If you want to try something else, you are completely welcome to change your mind, but do not feel like you have to! I am okay with temporarily over-empowering one branch of the game--I'm already doing that pretty much 50% of the time I add new content! If anything, it gives me a motive to add new stuff elsewhere .

Also, I mentioned this before, I'd love to help by creating the artwork for the actual floor and maybe the monster if that's cool with you once we hire out the details. I think that'd be lots of fun actually! I'll get more details from you once we iron out the details here!

Yes, you can help with the art! As you say, I'll supply details later.

[nsweeney107]

I am okay with temporarily over-empowering one branch of the game--I'm already doing that pretty much 50% of the time I add new content! If anything, it gives me a motive to add new stuff elsewhere .

If you're down with it, I totally am because it's a pretty exciting prospect for me!

Let's get this ball rolling then, how should I go about helping with the art portion? I did watch your Twitch streams, but it's been quite some time since I've done so. You wouldn't happen to have them backed up, would you? Or do you have assets that you typically use as a baseline? I remember you mentioning in one of your streams about the assets and keeping the file size smaller, so I don't want to bloat your game by adding a bunch of new things to the floor.

[Jake]

For the floor graphics, here is a chunk of my existing floor sprites. There should be enough there to draw from palette-wise. In the bottom, I've marked the size of your floor: 128x80 (8x5 tiles).

Do not do any texture packing; that is, don't worry about chopping up your sprites and placing them on this sprite sheet, because I will do that later, when I bring it into the game. You can recycle any assets you see on the sheet (for example, you may want to uses the big tomb thing or some braziers), but do not feel compelled to do so! A 12-pixel row at the bottom of your floor will be devoted to the floor's name plate, and the floor's flooring will go just above that (another two pixels). However, because of the parallax, I suggest drawing the floor without taking that into account, because you will actually want to have some extra height to the floor; just keep in mind that anything near the top may not be very visible in the end.

I am not too concerned about texture space right now; I have quite a lot of room remaining on the texture (far more than is visible here), and you can see there are still a lot of props that aren't as efficiently divided or packed as they could be. You'll notice that a lot of repeating textures, like walls, are chopped up into 2x[3-5] tile chunks--that's my preference, if you used a repeating background, but don't feel like you have to plan around that. Also, maybe consider leaving places to hang banners--it'd be nice to have more floors that display them .

I'm less certain about how to coordinate with you on character graphics, because those are divided up into parts (heads, torsos, arms, legs, items, etc.), each with a bunch of frames. They are also all drawn in straight RGB colors. I would almost rather you took an in-game screenshot of a character and then drew what you have in mind over that, because my typical process probably won't be fun for you . If you can give me some concepts with animation notes (Do they hover? Do they glide? Do they have flaming skulls or glowing appendages? Mystical artifacts that float alongside them? Tattered robes that billow as from a wicked wind?), I can do the rest.

[nsweeney107]

Will do, thanks for the stuff, I'll get cracking at it!

[Jake]

All right! Remember you can always post your work-in-progress for comments .

[nsweeney107]

Here's my first draft, let me know what you think!
I have the xcf file if you'd like the layers. I left space for the banners, with the placeholders for the banners in there.

I also have a quick mock up of the lich, though that is a work in progress as well as he'll need to look much more terrifying!