Arbiter - Monthly Recap - November 2022

❄🎄🎅🤶🎄❄ MERRY HO-HO GAMERS ❄🎄🎅🤶🎄❄

Okay we're still a month out but I could either do it next month and be late or this month and be early and considering that I've already been BLASTING Christmas music since mid-November, I'm down to be a little bit early :^)

Anyways, let's get to it!

Transformations

Arbiter's Transformation System is now more or less complete! There are four (4) fully playable forms that can all switch between each other, each with their own unique movesets and ability variants. We officially have Gameplay Variety ™ and it only took...a whole ass year god damn.

Jokes aside I'm feeling very happy and fulfilled to be done* with the transformations. I'm throwing an asterisk on there because I do still want to go back to some of the earlier forms (and Base Ashe) and give them a little more love, so I'll be doing that over the next couple weeks. There's also a few abilities I have to remake after cutting a bunch of others, so we're not quite out of the woods yet, but we're pretty much there. 

At any rate, I can't really do the last few abilities until I update Base Ashe, and some of those might be informed by how I adjust the enemy roster as well. And on top of all that, I'm sure I'll be polishing the forms here and there up until the game's release anyways. With all that said, I'm still decently comfortable saying that in terms of their movesets and the bulk of their ability variants, the forms are done! Yippie!

Future Plans

As for what's next, I'll probably spend the remainder of December polishing up the forms. I like to take a nice two week break around Christmas time, so I think I'll spend the rest of the month tidying things up and bringing Wolf and Scarlet up to the standards of the other forms. 

I've actually already started this process, including Wolf's fancy new Homing Attack! I'll be showing this off in a bit, but it's already become one of my favourite moves by far. It's pretty simple in that it dashes towards the target and launches them airborne, but it can also be charged to drill into the target first, hitting them a few times beforehand. It's fun!

I'll share more on the form updates a bit later, but with the transformation system more or less done, I think I'll also be getting back to posting regular gameplay videos. Expect one of those... soon.

Once I'm happy with the forms, I'm going to be moving over to UI and Level Design!  They're both pretty big pillars of development and the game is in desperate need of both, so they'll be my new priority moving into 2023. Besides, I really just need a break from working on characters, haha. 

I've basically been on a loop between animating, programming, and making effects for the past year, and while I've had a blast working on the forms, I think a change of pace would really help keep the creative juices flowing. I still have some small stuff to do for Ashe and the abilities (which I mentioned above), but as those are a much smaller workload, I'll probably just chip away at them here and there over the next several months or so. 

Conclusion

Finishing the transformation system has honestly been a HUGE milestone in the game's development. Being able to seamlessly switch between forms while creating combos was always part of the game's core essence, but to finally see it fully realized has been incredibly fulfilling and surreal. I feel like I've taken a huge step towards building the Arbiter I've seen in my head all these years, and I'm excited to carry that forward into the rest of the game! 

In the meantime, stay tuned. I'm excited to show off the transformation system in its full glory once I start posting videos again, but I'm really excited to just dive into UI and Level Design in the coming months. Look forward to it! 

Cheers,
Jordy