Art Production Update!

Hey Guys!

This is Hank. I am one in the trio of artisans working on Bala. More specifically i am the Lead Character artist and general quality control in terms of production assets. However, while we are in this pre-production stage that is this first 10 weeks of development I have been trying to help out with the concept stage.

In this post I will be discussing the different enemy concepts the the team and I have been working on this quarter and explaining them one by one is detail. Since the enemy variety is at the core of the gameplay, the enemies themselves are an integral part of what makes Bala what it is.

Booty Paladin

The paladin is a large horse/ape hybrid that has a very large baboon butt- his only weakness. He cannot be defeated by any means other than attacking the rear. The most finalized of the designs, booty paladin holds a large hammer with a personality. As in, the hammer has a face the reacts to its surroundings and garbles in disapproval.  He has a hard time hitting Dream Witch, but flattens her if she falls into his sights.

Mieosis

Having been seen once before in Kyle's post, Mieosis is a candle

creature who is an angry nuisance that charges Dream Witch any chance it gets. Although easy to 'kill' Mieosis splits into smaller versions of itself over and over again as it takes damage, each version fast and smaller than before. In greater numbers is where Mieosis' true strength lies.

Wizard Cat

First of the cat duo, Wizard cat is a strange dancing crazy-eyes cat in a makeshift wizard robe and hat. He shoots magical balls of energy from its tail as it dances the dance- never stopping. They are easy to kill in theory, but their erratic moving thanks to their dance of death makes them a tougher target to nail.

Scuba Cat

The Wizard Cat's better half, the Scuba Cat loves to swim. Of course, like any responsible kitten, he takes all the safety precautions that come with swimming in deep water and wears his full scuba attire. He snorkels around the player in the water and only ever comes up for air and to take a shot at Dream Witch. Unlike his dancing counterpart, Scuba cat uses his water environment to avoid all of dream witches attack and thus is very hard to hit.

Puppeteer

Seemingly just a puppet, this limp sack of stuffing flip flops around with a blank expression. The true nemesis lies in the shadows and is a big large one-eyed hand that controls the sack from afar. If the player were to fall under the puppeteer's spell then they'd notice strange fourth-wall-breaking differences occurring in the gameplay, such as the controls being reversed for the player. Luckily the puppeteer is easy to beat once you can conquer his trick, but be careful when he lurks with larger numbers of enemies.

Reflecto

Reflecto is a sad being whose personality lies entirely in his mask. He has the ability to both separate his mask/face in half to avoid attacks and take shots of his own. The only way to defeat Reflecto is to use the shield to bounce his own (very strong) bullet back at Dream Witch.

Fire Demon

The most hazardous of the bunch so far, Fire Demon (or Fire Baby as we call it sometimes) is a reckless enemy the randomly travels in every direction sporadically. Because he can only we killed with water the player has to get in close, but be careful as to not get burned. The smaller he gets from taking water damage the faster he becomes, making him very deadly. And be careful not to use wind on him, as he becomes huge. Though experienced players may use this to their advantage  to make the Demon slower.

Bonus!:

The first environment (the Forest) is well under way for both concept and asset production, but we'll have to save that reveal for a later date.

Until then keep following the project and if you want to check out my personal blog and learn more about me personally and what else I'm working on at hanksilmanmedia.blogspot.com