Hey everyone,  sorry for the delay of our regularly scheduled post. We had a break for GDC during our development process. It was a great time and was awesome to meet so many developers! But without further ado, we got a lot cool stuff done this sprint so here is a look at what we did!

Implemented a New Health System:

I have talked about the new health system in depth previously but just as a refresher, we wanted a clearer way to indicate health to the player quickly and wanted to show the player’s health up to a quarter heart. To do this we have added armor pieces to the health in which there are four pieces that culminate up to a “full heart”.

Taking Damage:

The end result seems to be going well so far in playtesting and seems to be a good fix to the issue that we were having. The healing in the game is also much more satisfying if I do say so myself :)

Healing:

General Game/Mechanic Updates:

• We Implemented the new 2D art for the loading screen into the game
• Made updates and changes to the chase mechanic, because players weren’t understanding it completely during playtesting
• Adjusted a few things to help with this (I don’t want to say exactly what we changed because I don’t want to give the puzzle solution away)
• Fixed a few bugs with the 3rd boss
• Finished the secret mini-game!

Graveyard Levels Art Pass:

After testing the mechanics of the Graveyard levels heavily, we moved on to the art pass of all three levels. We just had them playtested and are currently tuning them. These are the finalized layouts and all the props within the scene really bring them to life.

You may notice the number of lights in the scene, these are all used for a specific mechanic in the level. They also do a good job of bringing the graveyard aesthetic to life while keeping the light-hearted theme of the game.

Art Pass Screenshots:

Cathedral Level Layouts Finished:

The level designers just finished up their annotated maps and sketches for their cathedral levels and have started to block out their scenes with their layout. The cathedral levels are early in development but we are making good progress on them! Here’s a sneak peek on what we have so far.

Cathedral Level 1:

Cathedral Level 2:

These will be the ending levels of the game and should serve as a decent challenge to the player. These levels will not only introduce new mechanics but also incorporate all the mechanics in the game that were taught to the player before.

New Cathedral Assets:

As we are finishing up the graveyard levels, we are shifting our art focus to the cathedral levels and making them feel as full as possible to ensure the player doesn’t feel like they have just entered an empty church. So here is a look at all the assets that were produced for the cathedral this sprint!

Most of these assets are to fill the room and decorate the cathedral to make it feel lived in. This in all in the spirit of immersing the player in the world.

New Itch Page Banner and Background:

I’m sure you guys have already noticed but our 2D artist went ahead and created our new awesome banner and background art for the itch page! We all really like how it looks and feel that it’s a better representation of the Knighty Night style and feel.

Cathedral Paintings:

One of our modelers is also a talented 2D artist and she has been working on some of the paintings that will be used in the cathedral levels. The idea is that we’ll make a frame that these will all fit into and then we will be able to spread them throughout the level. This is to reduce repetitiveness and make the paintings feel more unique.

New UI and Button Art:

We updated the buttons and the UI in the game to make it feel more in theme with the rest of the game. We think it turned out pretty nice! Let us know what you think of it in the comments below.

Moar Animations!

Our animators have been working hard to make a variety of different aspects of Knighty Night come to life and they made some awesome new animations with a ton of personality that really encapsulate a lot of the fun of Knighty Night!

We went ahead and created a new ghost movement animation because it wasn’t working with the perspective that we have in the game, we feel this animation will help them feel more like ghosts and still capture their facial expressions.

New Ghlost Movement:

Cathedral Boss Tell:

First Mini Boss Cut Scene:

Trap Empowerment:

3rd Boss Cut Scene:

That is all the work we got done this sprint! Hopefully, the video gives you some more insight into what the graveyard levels look like, we are excited to share our progress on them. We have about three sprints left and we are looking forward to sharing more of the game!

Until the next update have a good one! Check back here for more updates on Knighty Night!

Thanks,

The Knighty Night Development Team