SQUISHEE

Dev blog for a story driven single-player RPG by @lampsicle.bsky.social, and @piano55.bsky.social ! Other Platforms: linktr.ee/Lampsicle

[squisheedev]

REST OUR SOULS (Sugarbomb Dev Log #15)

The sun is setting. I know I know! It’s just over here somewhere… I know it is. Popcorn… What.. where did you find this? Oh! I found it on a flowery patch just on the way bac- Are you certain that this is not another one of his tricks? It doesn’t smell like him… But look! It talks! It talks..? Hmph. Wait no! I haven’t finished the entire thing! Finish what? This is dangerous, Popcorn. It was telling me a whole lot of stuff! … Fine. I’ll listen to what it says.

Stuff in this Dev Log:

Why are there guns in my Gardening game? (ARG)

Absolute UI (Sugarbomb)

Nothing Burger

Can you feel it?

Absolute Removal of Gerble…

Hello Hi! Sorry for the delays! Wowa wawa! New dev log! So cool! Also i was thinking of separating the arg and sugarbomb dev logs but i was like noooo it doesnt need to because there wouldnt be alot of updates to show on the arg maybe (not really actually)

What do you think it’s saying? No idea, it’s kinda weird.. but somehow I’m drawn to learning about it more!

Follow us on our platforms! Twitter account: ( @ squishee_dev ) Bluesky: ( @ lampsicle.bsky.social ) Be sure to follow us there as well for updates and extra goodies!

Why are there guns in my Gardening game? (ARG)

I never really intended for the ARG to be so much bigger, while there was no playtest this week, I have been conceptualizing and preparing for the stuff within it.

There will be guns in the game… in the form of a water gun of sorts and I plan to make it interact with different stuff with the obstacles in the game as well as with the main mechanic of the game which is watering the plants. Different bullet types and trajectories? Maybe in like 2.0 or something, not going to be in the first version.

I made this viney guy as a concept because I had this idea of this enemy randomly having 2d and 3d limbs. I didn’t think the visual wouldn't work because I thought the 2d sprites wouldn’t move but it does look funny from different angles. The torso is static because I don’t want it to follow the camera and it would also look weird! I don’t think this guy would show much since the area already feels cluttered with all the bullets and stuff I planned.

If viney guy would be added then I would worry about pixel alignment because it doesn't really look good right now.

Eurgh... You okay? I'm fine. It just looks wrong.

Speaking of bullets, Yes, this would be a bullet hell game, (inspired by Survival of the Objects) But… How can I imagine trying to enjoy managing a garden with plants that try to kill me with undodgeable bullets!!! This is definitely not so casual!!!

Well, I do have to mention that the gameplay has no time limit even though it’s meant to be fast-paced. Since there is no time limit or pace in how the game should be played, you can definitely make the game easier by just planting trees one at a time. I do try to keep in mind the people that like the story aspect of the game.

This is definitely a game meant for solo play (?) but it also has public servers in mind (which would be chaotic and I definitely would see a lot of griefers in it)

Absolute UI (Sugarbomb)

I actually focused on the UI?!?! No way!!!! The thought process was kind of interesting because I initially started to make things simpler. I tried to make it somewhat cooler or unique and be interesting visually but it did not fit the way I want Sugarbomb to be. I tried making it more like Sugarbomb by making it softer, but it also looked weird. So I gave up and then told myself that I would just make it silly.

This is exactly what I want, although I do worry that it might look a bit too distracting? Slowing down the time it switches to the next frame should help.

The other UI I looked into and sketched is the menu for equipping gear, customizing moves and checking stats of your party members. There were initially two versions of it but I decided to go with the second version, it looks really great actually.

The above is the first version, lots of empty space and important information are shoved to the side/not big enough. The portrait should also be a bit bigger so that the player can see the stuff you’ve equipped to your squishee.

This is the second version, much better than the first. I wouldn’t say it's perfect yet but it is nice to look at and the space is used better now!

I would look into the “Almanac” next, we actually made concepts of it back then on the earlier days of Sugarbomb!

This thing is useless. A waste of our time. Come on Popcorn, we're going to run out of Flan's cooking by the time we get there. Wait let me go!!! I wanna eat some now!!! You're going to leave the pot with bones again.

Urururu... So that's what they're doing.

Thanks for reading!

If you can hear me. You're a peculiar one... I just need a few questions. That's all.

[squisheedev]

I napped for too long (Sugarbomb Dev Log #14)

HI HI HI!!! POPCORN HERE! Uhmmmm… I saw this little device thingy on the way back home and I decided to tinker with it and for some reason it led me here! Well, they’re saying that whoever recieves this should cover today's deal loaf? Is it like food or something or… I don’t know but apparently whatever this derp lol is I’m going to read it!!! Also, this Piano person doesn’t have a section for this week… because she lost her device. That’s okay! Maybe I can find that device next week! Me and Cinth are going to scout the river! Maybe it’s deep down there!

Stuff in this Desk Lint:

Updates to ARG game !!!

What are they doing to Cinth...

A little music sneak peak !!!

General development updates

Piano giving me more foil cards

Updates on Popcorn

Popcorn’s silly antics live on stage

Updates on Popcorn

More Updates (Possibly for Popcorn)

Apparently still removing Gerble…

Follow us on our platforms! Twitter: ( @squishee_dev ) Bluesky: ( @lampsicle.bsky.social ) Be sure to follow us there as well for updates and extra goodies!

Updates to ARG game !!!

Okay so I have to read this thing… So many words! So boring… Whatever!

Here’s the sprite for Combi’s design, beside the average robloxian. I did not intend her to be… Tall and disproportionate compared but I like her like this anyways! I did not finish her tail wagging animation for this week but I will make it next week. I don’t intend to make a lot of Combi sprites since this should be a small game after all.

I did have difficulty with implementing her “petal” designs around her clothing but I think I transcribed it okay. The shotgun will be placed somewhere else since adding it to her back makes the sprite clunky.. It would be hard to see anyways!

Ooh I really like her she looks pretty.. Do I get to meet her someday? Well considering she’s in a game I doubt I ever would. She looks so friendly! I wanna be friends with her!!

The main system is still not yet done but it can definitely be playtested next week since I only need to make the assets and the gameplay. Below is a sneak peek on the “base” of the plants I’m going to use. I say “base” because I’m definitely just going to tint the assets with colors.

The gameplay loop might get a bit unfair sometimes from the looks of things, tedious mostly, but I’m trying to mitigate that! And hopefully feedback from the testers I have will make the game better to enjoy.. Casually?

The gameplay is simple and definitely done before but to add a twist, generally this is a bit more fast paced than your average game in the genre. I would describe it to be an incremental management game… Probably! But wait… Isn’t this squishee 1? OMG THIS IS SQUISHEE 1 GUYS NO WAY NO FAKE AND

About the puzzles… I hope they aren’t a bit too hard! I would probably make things a bit easy first but my Stanley mind says otherwise…

I do have more things to show, but that’s practically leaking everything! You can have this though!

Coward!!! If only I had Guppy to give me this sort of password or hack into it then I would leak EVERYTHING!!!

What are they doing to Cinth...

This person knows Cinth! What! What are they implying! I’m going to see… Hopefully it’s not something bad…

“This is just ramblings of a madman, don’t include this in the Derg clog Popcorn!”

I’m going to read it anyway! You can’t stop me!

I have been thinking of Cinth so much lately, moreso on his story and design. There is this version of Cinth that is definitely different from the Cinth that’s in the game. While everything is not too late just yet, I just can’t help and think if this is what I want this character to be like.

I guess I sort of feel less of a connection with the Cinth now but maybe that’s because his story feels a bit too bland and more of a plot device to spark unnecessary conflict. (which mind you, Sugarbomb already has a lot of it.) This version of Cinth focuses more on being selfish and yet still being selfless in a sort of way because of his struggles, mostly referring to freedom. (Of course I’m not gonna say anything yet!) You don’t feel a connection because you don’t know him! You don’t know the times… where… Uhm… Well… Well there’s something! I know there's something! I just can’t remember it yet because I’m so angry!

I sketched this design of Cinth for the story, but initially I just wanted to make Cinth have a more interesting shape to his design. The design now isn’t bad, don’t get me wrong, his design is intended for his story. He looks smooth and softer, his hair is not that messy or unkept compared to this version, and I think that is mainly how it separates him from this version. 

HE LOOKS FINE!!! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!!! The old Cinth is so much more superior! I will make a petition to stop this madness…

Cinth loves and takes care of his hair so much though! Which is something I want to have for him that the other version doesn’t have! But if I decide to go with this then I would definitely make changes.

Does this mean the Cinth I know is changing! But how! I don’t believe it! I don’t… I don’t want that to happen…

I doubt it!!! I don’t believe something like that would happen anyways! Sounds silly!

...

Do they know about me..?

A little music sneak peak !!!

I did make a track! it’s still WIP. This is probably for the ARG although I’m not too sure just yet!

Visit Original Link

I did experiment a little bit more on this one and it’s a different sound from the other tracks I made. Maybe it’s because I’ve been listening to and revisiting Halley Labs/Lapfox Trax lately!

General development updates

The next week is also me hopefully actually focusing on the UI for Sugarbomb! I have been stalling for so long because I hate the UI! I hate working on UI! It shouldn’t be so complicated! Why is it so complicated!

Other than that, there's nothing else to say! I’m super excited for the ARG to drop!

Thanks for reading!

Thank you for reading this… Oh.. The battery is about to die! Whatever… See you next week or someth

[squisheedev]

It's 4 am and I want to sleep so badly (Sugarbomb Dev Log #13)

Hey everyone! Stanley here, New dev log for this week! This one is going to be short, but we are announcing something that's coming on the way! Unfortunately, Piano doesn’t have a section for us for this week, hopefully she can join in the next dev log.

Stuff in this Dev Log:

ARG game coming soon…

New character!

General development updates

Removing Gerble…

Follow us on our platforms!

Twitter account: ( @ squishee_dev )

Bluesky: ( @ lampsicle.bsky.social )

Be sure to follow us there as well for updates and extra goodies!

ARG Game

Alongside with the development of the game we are going to make an ARG, hosted in Roblox. This is also a solo side project as Piano doesn’t code in Roblox.

I initiated this first because of the lack of any squishee content out there, as well as I think it could bring some more eyes on the project. I will try to make sure it doesn’t slow down development on Sugarbomb but from a past experience, I know this is not going to take that long if I put my mind to it.

The main system of the ARG is almost complete, after that I would start decorating/building and make some sprites for our new character below.

Meet Combi!

Combi is as lost as you are in these areas... She seems to be struggling a lot with planting new life in her yard as they have been hostile and a hassle to her lately! It is your job to help her grow the area into a beautiful garden! She needs all the help she can get!

Some extra stuff about her, she is a fox cat (OF COURSE IT'S A FOX) she also has homophobia in her eyes, the thing behind her is a shotgun (which is super cool) and she's very friendly and nice and sweet and caring!

THIS IS NOT HOW TALL SHE IS

Other Stuff

I did start on the UI for the dialogue, I was thinking it should be a bit more simpler from our older one. I also decided that we aren’t going headshots, but it will be replaced with more expressive sprites of the overworld when the characters do interact in most cutscenes.

There’s not much to say in my end but hopefully that’s plenty for today!

Thanks for reading!

This concludes today’s dev log! See you (hopefully) next week! We are very much open for questions about squishee, the characters and about the project overall!

[squisheedev]

I love my weekly gloved i mean dev log (Sugarbomb Dev Log #12)

Hello! Stanley Bobanley here! The dreaded weekly dev log… Oh no… Well, today there wouldn’t be much from me! It's been an extremely busy week for me and I haven't done a lot of stuff.. I had to settle and move into a new location and stuff… But it should be okay to work next week.

Stuff in this Dev Log:

Common Enemy Designs

Ask the Scavengers anything?!?!

General development updates

can i bake a cake in the microwave

how long should i bake a cake in the microwave

microwave smoking what do i do

microwave on fire what do i do

microwave smell funny

which type of plastic safe in microwave

how to clean melted plastic in microwave

second hand microwave cheap

Follow us on our platforms!

Twitter account: ( @squishee_dev )

Bluesky: ( @lampsicle.bsky.social )

Be sure to follow us there as well for updates and extra goodies!

Common Enemy Designs

I was thinking about how I could distinguish enemy squishees with ally squishees and one way is prioritizing fur patterns.

They don’t have names but the first one is called Slashy because he slashes and the other is Bumper because he charges and headbutts.

I would say that the idea is final (maybe not the designs), I do think the design would show more on the sprites, I do worry that my fur patterns would be too boring, I never really had the best fur patterns in mind.

Ask the Scavengers Anything?!?!

In a later date, I would set up an Ask the Scavengers anything! I’m leaning towards hosting it on strawpage instead of tumblr as it’s way easier that way (you won't need an account which is cool). 

It woul⁖ be really c⁖ol to build the characters through the sill⁖ questions, however there’s s⁖rt of a question that’s going to be floating aro⁖nd and it’s how the questions would be canon or not

They wouldn’t act like they know the audience in the ⁖ull r⁖lease or the d⁖mo, of course not. I guess this could be lIke a separate plane of exis⁖ence where the characters are in a plain background answering questions in the ever expanding void that is their universe. Creepy and weird but yeah! ⁖

Other Stuff

Next week we will focus on UI and maybe making talking head sprites.

There’s not much to say for today, sorry about the lack of content!

Piano's Section !!!

Forms? What for …m? Anygays, its piano crawling out of her grave for you yet again, and them howdy do i have an idea for you guys! The idea is me doing work, which would be great, but because my computer runs on burning 5 dollar bills instead of electricity, development can get a bit expensive when i am between jobs.

But its not all bad news! Im planning ideas out in my head (where they belong) about how i want to handle dialogue and stuff. Im  not sure how much im gonna copy rpg maker but its probably gonna be a lot. In fact before i knew the plans for the combat system i wanted to make all of it in rpg maker! But i refuse to do something like port rpg maker into unity or port unity into rpg maker because why would i… ewwwwww

Im on a lot of sugar rn even tho i should be sleep but this cake is just too tasty and these waters are so good with sex rtra sugar i did that on accident but its funny ehehehehehehehehehee

Fun piano has been executed. 

Thanks for reading!

This concludes today’s dev log! See you (hopefully) next week! We are very much open for questions about squishee, the characters and about the project overall!

[squisheedev]

THEY TRIED TO PUT ME IN THE COVER OF THE DEV LOG BUT MY LEGS WERE TOO LONG (Sugarbomb Dev Log #11)

Hey everyone! Satan Here! Can’t believe that it's been a year already! SUPER EXCITED for today because of the stuff I’m going to show!!! I try not to reveal too much about anything but there is a lot of stuff in this log!!! (Also took too long to write and it shouldve been posted yesterday,,, sorey it took so long!) Happy 1st Squishee Anniversary!

Stuff in this Dev Log:

New Scavenger!

Customizable Squishees

Reveal of Essences and Trainers

Updated some music tracks!

General development updates

Follow us on our platforms! Twitter account: ( @ squishee_dev ) Bluesky: ( @ lampsicle.bsky.social ) [will move soon.] Be sure to follow us there as well for updates and extra goodies!

New Scavenger!

Meet Kevin! She would be with you throughout Sugarbomb along with Popcorn, Cinth and Ticket! He always seems to be ready to strut anywhere he goes claiming every land with his platform heels!!! He was a veteran before Sugarbomb happened! I would love to explore a lot of his habits and experiences to the present day. So yeah he is a furry femboy soldier, a very common trope… obviously,,,,,, He also has an Iron stomach, she has the title of being the first to eat anything that seems suspicious, even if it kills him! I think she also likes cheesy romcom movies,,, (very useful information) About the missing weapon, I have to admit something… I DONT KNOW HOW TO DRAW GUNS!!!! Or make guns!!!! But I wouldn’t worry so much about it, because my partner is going to help me with designing the gun for Kevin!as an american i know what guns look like

So the quality from the last scavenger’s design is very much noticeable (Ticket) but I do actually plan to look into Ticket’s design a little bit more, he does look a bit bland… But I do want to make his outfit more like a suit than it is something a jester would wear. ticket would look better MORE bland imo Ok no well Maybe  ok why do u care abt ticket,,, dont u hate him,,, growls,,, Enough about Ticket, I contemplated on if I would change his design to fit with the rest of the cast but then I realized that Kevin himself wants to do the unconventional and the weirdness that should be normal! So no, her design is fine.

His old design was made 5 months ago. I added the blade on the side of his weapon but I want to emphasize the stripes in the design. I also removed the camo imagery, because it kind of contradicts her story. But the weapon mockup is shown here, it would be attached to his fore arm, it honestly looks heavy but because of Spritz technology it’s light! I removed the collar and put it on his belt because I don’t want any collars on any of the characters because Popcorn already has one! I try to differentiate each one of them.

Customizable Squishees

These are some of the templates I made that I plan for enemies and the player’s customizable avatar. For the player’s avatar, these are not the final ones, these are just the stuff I made in the week! I do want to add more species, but adding so much will affect progress on the sprites. We will try to cover a wide variety of different squishee species! I’ll see on the next dev log to make templates of other animals like amphibians, avians, reptiles, little bugs and fish! fish mention!!! For enemies, I don’t know if I would make different sprites for one enemy. But for now there would be the same template for one enemy type. (It also probably fits with the story anyways!)

Tails being detachable and separate from the body/base makes it so tail accessories would be easier to implement by just replacing the tail sprite and the position of the attachment. In the third diagram I was expressing how I want the tail to sway or move around by using physics or some tween. Like, who wouldn’t want to see Popcorn wag his tail in cutscenes! That would be so cute! ok but i should bring up how the pixels not lining up might be noticeable, im not sure if thats the goal or not, i think it would look good but its not like i can imagine it amirite Oh thats fine i dont think it should be the intention, the tail pixels are gonna be diagonal anyways when it wags so,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Essences and Trainers

Essence is a way for your units to have a secondary moveset, usually they are obtained through npcs called TRAINERS.  Trainers can be offered items, currency, or even complete a quest or maybe a battle in order for you to get their essence. Essences give you a subclass in which they can give you passives.(for example, higher defense, more health, conditionals, etc.) Their main mechanic is to give units a secondary moveset which usually is 1 - 2 moves. Every playable unit in the game can get a subclass, this gives way to different builds and playstyles, and also replayability and gives way to making niche teams (I love niche teams i think they're so cool) But something special about the Trainers and I will reveal it early is that it can be one of you guys! Yes! (There’s already someone amongst you that already is one…) Your OC in the game might get teleported to the realm that is Sugarbomb… (Very bad) Although I will also have to say that most likely this would be an option for people who support the game financially (I would clarify in later dates about it) It does sound like more work for me but the solution is really cool and I’m not gonna reveal it yet!! Excited to implement it,,,,

Music !!!

I feel really proud of the music I made for Popcorn’s theme and I would say that I’m pretty confident now on making music although sometimes it is a struggle, since I am self taught. I try to make and envision the stuff I want in my works but if the game were to be successful, I would want to find a music person to translate my words and ideas into the music that I envisioned!! I added some other instruments to make this one track not sound repetitive,,, let me know what you think!

Visit Original Link

This one is a new track and ive shown it in a bsky post, it’s still in WIP but this is how it is so far!

Visit Original Link

Also heres a pirate theme for popcorn’s theme that i made for fun (starring the amazing vocals of Ritz)

Visit Original Link

Some Other Stuff…

I would be focusing on more spritework on the following week, and also helping with the,,, dreaded ui,,, (i hate the ui you would know why) but i think i didnt say this in a dev log but im like having trouble with making the headshots of the characters the squishees are too blobby that i cant make them look good in pixel form,,, But yah!!!! I think this is everything that I want to say for now!!!

Piano's Section

Wow guys, its been a whole year, and squishee is just a week away! Can you believe it guys? Squishee in just one week! If only piano’s dev drive didnt reformat itself for NO REASON while she was doing something important! Just to clarify, the project did not get damaged, and i dont NEED to make a new project and start over, but the truth of the matter is things were starting to resemble spaghetti code, and what i thought stanley wanted and what stanley thought i wanted ended up growing different from eachother and while i worked on one thing stanley was developing ideas for another,,, i would have to rip out a whole bunch anyways, and we had a whole lot of assets that we didnt quite need yet. I do not want to release something with spaghetti code, and i made the decision to start a new project. This is not us starting over from scratch. This is only a minor minor delay, and with a fresh project i realized some things that i needed to do differently anyways! WARG!!!! It makes me feel like ant simulator to do this, but i really didnt know if i could keep going with the jumbled mess we were working with. All my fault tho, and i will make sure when we bring you squishee it wont be spaghetti because spaghetti is not squishee and squishee is not spaghetti and

WAIT! Whats that? I said something about realizing something? Yes thats right people its time for me to steal stanley’s percents again!!! I am much more comfortable working with the canvas based ui instead of the document based ui. While the document works a lot like CSS, it lacked any sort of way to edit what buttons did in code, something we DESPERATLEY  need to do because thats what we need to doooooooooooooo. But why didnt we have that before? Because i, piano, didnt change a dropdown box that i missed setting up the canvas last time (DONT TELL STANLEY PLEASE PEOPLE)

no more percents im cutting your pay(piano art) in half

Please dont cut me in halb (we dont need percents PER SE but i think i can do something similar if i make the canvas a set size, make the boxes pixel size, figure out the distance, and make the anchors line up, which sounds like a lot but is probably just like 9 clicks please dont cut me in half please please i dont wanna be cut in half

Thanks for reading!

This concludes today’s dev log! See you (hopefully) next week! We are very much open for questions about squishee, the characters and about the project overall!

[squisheedev]

PUNTING IS A SIN (Sugarbomb Dev Log #10)

Happy new year! Slices of Ham here! I actually have something to talk and show now! WHAT?!?!!?! CRAZY?!?!?! SO CRAZY!!! Never happened in squishee history ever,,, anyways mostly the highlight of the log is that im going to talk about the gameplay and what it is like! Follow us on our platforms! Twitter account: ( @ squishee_dev ) Bluesky: ( @ lampsicle.bsky.social ) Be sure to follow us there as well for updates and extra goodies! I’ve been really slow and sluggish lately, maybe (and is) due to the fact that my sleep schedule is very bad,,,,, But it has been caught to my attention that in Jan 16th, we will have our first ever squishee anniversary.. Oh my god it has been a year!!! what!!!!!! Also it is our 10th dev log! wowowowow!!!!!!wwowowowowo!!!!! I, piano, have also been struggling with energy. More on that later We are planning something big for the anniversary! And I feel a little bit more confident on releasing whatever it is,,, Although it does need to have some tweaks and stuff to work out, But I assure you that it will be complete by the time the anniversary is out. I, piano, will also try to have something ready for the anniversary Also, progress on coding is hopefully going to be substantialley better than the weeks before! Expect more updates on Piano’s section by next week! I, piano, also have news about coding

Ok stanley what are you saying actually

Gameplay, mechanics, shenanigans have been dawning on me lately, until I had a huge epiphany or a urethra moment like piano likes to say and it did fix issues about the main things I was concerned about. We mentioned this on our live stream but to say it here, our game is based on Artillery games, but not entirely focused on just ranged units or how the gameplay is usually trial and error about landing your shots. We are definitely going farther and farther away from it, which isn’t a bad thing. It definitely doesn’t sound like Artillery game but RPG! Or Artillery game but you can attack closer now?!?! I looked at our first ideas for melee units and how they have very versatile usages, which don't get me wrong, is good but it's too good as just a single punt can avoid a lot of things that attacks provide as well as it can cover so much more distance from our intended way of movement. But what are punts really? And isn’t that the main thing that squishees love? To be punted? Is Stanley killing the game?!?! Punting, in gameplay, is how a squishee can fly or be thrown into any direction. I usually imagine them jumping. It doesn’t really make sense because who is the punter? The mythical Puntigonalisius of course!

My theory is that Puntigonalisius doesnt actually exist, and punting instead happens as a form of manifestation, where squishees temporarily form their own tulpa that punts them because they believe they are getting punted so hard it actually happens Actually he runs a shawarma truck i know because ive been there (stanley is in sugarbomb)

We aren’t entirely killing the idea of punting, but it should be used rarely in moves. I did had a thought of making punting to be slower by utilizing windups, but we would try to experiment more of it when there’s actual gameplay to tinker around with. Punting is a problem because of how the game can be cheesed by only doing punting most of the time, and punting is not a short hop, it can potentially cover a lot of distance and distance is the big enemy here! I hate distance!!! But I guess we shouldn’t be too sure just yet because we're still in the concept phase of making the gameplay. The first problem that we had was about projectiles, because our squishees are usually very fast and always moving. I imagine projectiles are somewhat small and harder to aim, as most of them are in arcs. We try to prioritize the players' experience, lessening unintentional mistakes and making aiming and hitting to be a little bit easier. How I see the game, it usually is a little bit more fast paced. While I don’t see it yet, I imagine the gameplay to be slow and it can drag out common encounters and Sugarbomb usually has high enemy counts and shenanigans. This makes the strategy for ranged squishees focusing more on trial and error be somewhat bad, but distance really is a big factor in this. There’s not a lot we could do to stop punting for ranged squishees until we had the idea!! The second problem is for how there’s so much more guesswork to be done when you try to hit directly with punting moves. I want melees to have good hit detection while also not making the hitbox big or have the move very easy movement. We thought of ‘Impacts’ which are like little explosions they make when they hit the terrain but, the problem is how they need to hit the enemy directly.

What's the Solution?

The solution that I came out is what I call ROLLING and CONTACT moves! Rolling in gameplay is how units roll along the line of the terrain, usually the goal being to hit an enemy. Terrain affects the speed of the squishee’s rolling dramatically, slowing down when rolling up a hill and going faster when going down. Contact moves are when a squishee hits another and usually they go into a thing called a ‘cutscene’ where they exchange hits to each other. This and Rolling should be the typical or the standard move type that will be used across all melee squishees. While in this cutscene, any damage can be applied to both parties, like a projectile can deal damage to them when they get hit. This solves how projectiles can now be more easily predicted but you still have to aim where they are going to land! Though I do think giving them indicators on where they would clash together will be a great thing to add. This is my concept on how contact moves in a cutscene should play out!

While ‘Steps’ are mentioned somewhat before in past devlogs, I don’t want to reveal them right now but imagine these as like frames for an animation. I actually don’t know if it should be this fast, but I do love this! (You can tell its very much heavily inspired by project moon, particularly limbus company (and i think library of ruina but i havent played it) Below is an explanation of the video: Step 1 is usually when the rolls do activate, they will try to find an enemy to make in contact with. In this case, both parties are using contact moves. Step 2 is the initiating of the cutscene when it gets in contact with, waiting for the Step to end. This can be initiated in any step because usually rolls can go to a certain distance by the step count. Step 3 is the windup, usually all contact moves will have windups applied to them. Depending on how fast a squishee will attack, they usually will use 1 - 5 steps. Step 4 shows the red guy’s attack since they used a move that used only 1 step. The blue guy is still winding up. It shows UNINTERRUPTED on top of the screen because theres also another version of red guy cancelling blue’s attack. (shown below.) Step 5 shows the blue guy finally attacking using 2 steps before hitting the red guy. Step 6 shows the end of the cutscene, as every status effect will be inflicted here usually (but it can change)  + some natural knockback. This is the version of what happens if the red guy interrupts the blue guy’s attack. (See Step 4)

That’s what I’m going to talk about for the gameplay section because the dev log is now too long and too revealing! (looking at you first squishee stream,,,,,) Anyways, I’ve mostly made progress on the writing as well. I think everyone would love the design of this main character… They focus a lot on their design with clothing! I also have been focusing on making groups in worldbuilding like The Paw, if you want a gist of what the group is: They can try and try again, but hope is all lost for those who seek a way to destroy the unstoppable." I don’t have much progress on spritework, but I am working on species templates and transposing full form character designs into ittee bittee squishies!

PIANO !!! SECTION !!!

Hello everyone! I wont get into too much personal detail here, because thats not what this is about, even though it kinda of is a little? My job sucked. A lot. Not my sugarbomb job, my pizza making job. It suckeddddddd. Ive worked a job i liked, a job i didnt like, and now a bad job. The hours were always longer than what i was scheduled for, the work always more than i could complete on my own, i was never given the help i needed, and my boss was emotionally manipulative. There have been countless days when I would wake up, ready for work, and ready to work on sugarbomb when I got home, but as the day wore on small disasters would end up sapping my motivation. I have quit that horrible job, and while i do need to find another one, i will spend the time inbetween getting my mental health on track and also working on sugarbomb! This is good news people, and i trust we will all be happy soon.

Programming the enemy ai is gonna be sooooo much fun IM SORRY THIS IS THE DESIGNERS CURSE Can we just have the honor system and let the player control both sides and tell them to try their best on both But whats the point of killing them,,,,,, (which is how the game is(more killing(and more killing) oh wait they can just i mean like well i guess its a bit more better because were actually avoiding the thing were based off on!!!!! (maybe) Can we have a difficulty called games journalist that uses this instead of ai and thats the difficulty the demo is locked to so that way i can delay the  ai coding until the actual game (this is a joke please) I think it gets unlocked when they fail the first encounter in the tutorial and there would be a popup saying “is the game too hard?? Lets try an easier difficulty! You can change it when you start a new playthrough!” No instead of failing first encounter its if the player accidentally rolls into something on the rolling tutorial like rolls into the wrong thing yknow Wouldnt that be more inconsistent? Like i imagine them failing the first encounter 5 times or something The only person who would fail the first encounter 5 times on the second easiest difficulty is a child and i dont think children should be playing this game No thats game journalists and i can see it happening already in the future Yeah good point. Too much water. Okay when they roll the first time with this difficulty they get a special cutscene that explodes sugarbomb and they win (we will definitely add this) Im being fr about wanting a game journalist difficulty that makes it incredibly easy. Also it might be the worst or the best difficulty for speedrunners depending on how fast the ai makes decisions I imagine if this is implemented there would be stupid challenges like “can you ever die in game journalist mode????” i would love to see it That is literally the exact reason why i want game journalist mode, that and to patronize game journalists What if they beat the game with this mode on We make it so you need a certain number of non games journalist battles won in order to do the final boss fight and you cant get games journalist for the final fight so you cant just cheese it yknow Can we just make the final boss in the mode the hardest ever like its almost impossible Yes. this discussion is kinda long rn so i think we should go back to writing devlog

Thanks for reading!

This concludes today’s dev log! See you (hopefully) next week! We are very much open for questions about squishee, the characters and about the project overall!

[squisheedev]

Whimsical Delights (Sugarbomb Dev Log #9)

Hello, it’s Stanley. There are not a lot of things I could share right now since I haven’t been working that much on Sugarbomb this past week. I do still have thoughts that I want to share for today. Follow us on our platforms! Twitter account: ( @ squishee_dev ) Bluesky: ( @ lampsicle.bsky.social ) Be sure to follow us there as well for updates and extra goodies!

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About squishee streams, I don’t think I would often do livestreams because it is not something I see myself doing, especially for long periods of time. Although that is not to say I wouldn’t do it again.. It was fun, and something new that I tried and I think there would be more to come in the future. I’ve been thinking how large, and I can’t emphasize it enough, how large this project is. I expected Sugarbomb to be so expansive and I liked the challenge but, I never really thought about how big this actually is. There would be at least 7-8 chapters, or maybe even more down the line. The demo for the game, we haven’t really reached an agreement of where it would stop. I think everything hasn’t been concrete, with ideas, characters, writing.. It feels like I’m writing more about the moment or ambitions of how I want the story and characters to go and never actually something that makes sense. My characters came and were based mostly from my own experiences. But, it feels like I’m sort of trapped in this writing process of making them all the same? I feel as if they are so similar to each other, but I feel as if they are intentional in that way. I planned to write the main characters to be compatible with one another, as I see these people to be supporting each other through thick and thin. Compared to the home they once had, I wanted to make them feel like they belong to this newer home, even if it’s scary or dangerous or bad. I do admit that I procrastinate a whole lot and it doesn’t help that it has been so many months that there's just nothing I could say that feels like this is final, this is what I want or this is what I truly love to show to people. But amidst everything, I think that for all the thoughts and ideas I had scattered around in my mind or in my unorganized notes. I feel like at one point I will have something to show and something that I could put out and say that it's complete. Maybe take things slower or consider them more thoroughly. I’ve wanted to answer this question recently, and it has been on my mind for several days now. The question being, Is the art that I create for the people or for myself? In a lot of ways I feel as if I’m losing a sort of connection to what I create, that being Sugarbomb, but I also want to keep developing and continuing it as it might find people that's in need to be heard, seen and loved. That's a promise I made before, to make everyone happy by the art that I create. Even if I feel demotivated to work on Sugarbomb, it's not like I'm afraid it would fall into obscurity or it wouldn't be successful enough for a release. I just hope hope hope hope that a random soul would come across my work and feel and connect with Sugarbomb. Thank you.

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For the writing I looked a little into Ticket’s character, and decided that this story that I've conceptualized for him is mostly final. I won’t give you hints but what I do know is that it's hidden in plain sight already!

Okay, just this once I will talk a little bit about Finnegan, because he also has a group of foxes with him. You would possibly know which foxes I'm referring to! I’m excited to work on them!!! (Not because they are foxes or Im very biased towards them totally) I won’t say too much about the group although they are called ‘The Paw’ and they seem to be a bit lost currently.. But it's fine because they're a family run boutique! Speaking of groups, there is also another group that I'm going to show although I'm not gonna show much as well! You would be surprised that someone comes back… Although in a more different form.

This may be a bit different from what it was based off of, not that you know much of it though! So I wouldn't worry too much about it. And for the long awaited, POPCORN’S THEME!!!

Visit Original Link

I feel like a smidge of it is still subject to change, but not much! I know Ive been saying this so much in our dev logs but Im not going to show much of the process of how I made Popcorn's theme because it ties with his story.

If you were to ask my favorite part, its the middle section of the third part where its all loud or something! I also keep making my music feel like they're battle themes! I cant help it! This track is inspired by 'dancing around in circles until my little feet fall off' by spellcasting! I tried to make it sound very silly, but too silly! Or something,,, idk ask popcorn!!! I'm very proud of this one, felt like I've improved from my past songs that I've shared here.

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Piano is not here today, although I will be speaking in behalf of her progress! Piano has told me about her development process. She said that she is working on battle checks, planning it to check every frame to see if the squishee that's currently their turn had chosen their move. If successful, it will change to the next squishee in the order.  She thinks that it shouldn't take too long, taking a couple of tries to make it work.

Thanks for reading!

This concludes today’s dev log! See you (hopefully) next week! We are very much open for questions about squishee, the characters and about the project overall!

[squisheedev]

ITTEE BITTEE SQUISHEE (Sugarbomb Dev Log #8)

Hello, Stanley Gambley here, with a new and new and new and new and new and new and new and new and new and new and There’s gonna be less new content for me this week! I apologize for that, I'm having some trouble lately in the past week (and after this), but it will resolve itself quickly, hopefully. I can’t say about what’s been happening behind the scenes, but it does involve me mentally. Although I think what I am about to share should be substantial enough for this week’s dev log. It’s quite a bit old but it involves some sprites I want to show for this week! Also, crisis is coming… I love crisis, one of my favorite holidays. Happy early crisis or whatever you celebrate over there. Follow us on our platforms! Twitter account: ( @ squishee_dev ) Bluesky: ( @ lampsicle.bsky.social ) [will move soon.] Be sure to follow us there as well for updates and extra goodies!

Spritework and Other Stuff !!!

These are the sprites I wanted to show for now! I’ve tweaked Popcorn’s walking cycle and changed a bit of Cinth’s base squishee design.  And yes, there’s no tails. I wouldn’t entirely reveal why yet but I assure you that they have tails! I plan to have them separated from their main sprite. Ticket is fine right now, although he will probably be tweaked a little since I’m not aligned with this design yet. He is a bit muddy looking… I did have trouble transcribing his full design to the itty bitty pixel squishee. (omg she said the thing!) I wanted to make Popcorn’s walking cycle to have his arms free and waving or flowing with the wind. I also had trouble capturing that energetic essence of Popcorn with this current cycle… Although I am quite happy with it for now. I do love how itty bitty he looks in this.

Okay fine I will address that THING… I’ve been drawing popcorn with the wrong design! I’ve switched his ear, hair and horn to different places everytime!! I wouldn’t say it's intentional though, it started as a joke as I have been drawing popcorn with only one ear or horn, but then I changed the design to what it is now. Yes, he only has one ear and horn. Although my favorite to design is Cinth. It is quite fun to transcribe his armor and markings to something so little and squished. You can clearly see his armor and the different pieces of it.

I actually made a reference for how his armor would look, I didn’t do it for the others though (totally, i wouldn’t lie ever).

Here's some normal squishees as well. They look so ittee bittee squishee (omg she said the thing again!) I haven't done a whole lot with writing, however I did come up with ideas for Ticket’s story. If I were to say something about it without giving too much… Have you noticed anything unusual with his design? Anything missing perhaps? U ruru.. as he would say! I think I have a better grasp and understanding of Popcorn’s character, he had a lot of changes throughout the months and some characters took traits from him. I think I can say that his character traits are finalized, however his story… :3 Cinth is actually a bit confusing for me to understand right now on how I wanted to write him as or to be. Although I could say that he is most level headed and fit as the leader of the group… Though I actually never intend the group to have a leader, Cinth kind of just naturally takes it in place. He would have the most logical and sound answers after all. That’s all I could say for now… Actually I thought this would be shorter than I expected but I guess not!

Piano's Section !!!

Whats good piano nation, its piano, coming back at you with another text version of a vlog! Ew i hate people like that so much Anyways! I have successfully eradicated the number 4! Although i am not certain as to what was causing our digit denizen to infest my iterator based button scheme, i can say for certain that it wont be an issue going forward! But now i will begin an undertaking very dark and grave, as i must confess the sin that gave me the power to destroy the number 4. THE PROBLEM: While i am not 100% sure, what i think was happening was when i told the buttons to do X action with N number, instead of a value expression it was a reference expression, where instead of making X do whatever N was, it would instead do N This is a problem because N would change the next time the loop executes, and the loop would continue until N was 4, meaning that at the end all buttons would do X with the number 4, instead of using N when i made X. THE SOLUTION: So if i lost you on that, this next part will make even less sense. N would increase each time the loop looped, which means it is our iterator. The specific type of loop i used was made so you can do operations with the iterator directly, and when the loop is done, the iterator would stop being used. This is a problem however, because of the issues laid out above. I implemented a switch statement, essentially a ladder of if else statements, that would take in our iterator, and make X use N of its current value, instead of N itself. This is actually very bad of me to do, and im sure that there is a better solution, but that solution isnt piano crafted, is it? 

Ignore how it says “i” a bunch, i just felt like N was easier to understand, and yes i did my best to translate my thinking process into something i hope most people would be able to understand.

Thanks for reading!

This concludes today’s dev log! See you (hopefully) next week! We are very much open for questions about squishee, the characters and about the project overall!

[squisheedev]

URURU !!! (Sugarbomb Dev Log #7)

Hewwwwoooo :3 Stanley here! New week new dev log! Wowwwiee! VERY VERY EXCITED Because NEW CHARACTER REVEALLLLL!!! (note: NEW CHARACTER) (ps. NEW CHARACTER) We apologize again for missing another week, the team is trying their best to put out updates! We promise from now on that there will always be weekly updates, whether it has nothing or small additions, I want to make sure to inform everyone that development is still ongoing! Piano cannot be here today, I wish she could but unfortunately she cannot do her section for now. We will see her next week though! Follow us on our platforms! Twitter account: ( @squishee_dev ) Bluesky: ( @ lampsicle.bsky.social ) [will move soon.] Be sure to follow us there as well for updates and extra goodies!

The Scavengers

Before we reveal our newest character first, I’d like to do a short segment introducing the group name of our roster. Eight individuals, trapped in the world of Sugarbomb, Surviving everyday to strive for a better future… (Popcorn thought of the name and the others never used it. Poor Popcorn.)

Meet our Sneaky Sly Fox, Ticket.

The cleverest of them all, Ticket is one of the Scavengers who you travel with throughout Sugarbomb. His role is similar to a bard… A pretty bad one when inspiring allies though. Although, some say that his tongue can cut through multiple pillars of stone… But I think that’s what he tells himself in the mirror everyday. The lands fear him, Every enemy he comes across will ultimately be feared because of him. His words spread out like wildfire… Practically everyone has heard about him already. But that also means that these people who fear him want his power. He resided and joined the scavengers despite the others knowing it was a bad idea. In the end, they had no choice as the scavengers needed more forces to survive another day, and with Ticket, he always does well for his job. His weapon is a recorder that can also be used to fire his blowdarts, although it’s more of a novelty than it is useful. He mostly uses it to annoy others, but he also wants to learn songs… Maybe you could hear one from him during your journey? I wanted his outfit to look both professional and silly at the same time. His clothes consist of a suit with a striped undershirt and pants with the same pattern, gloves and ruffles around his neck and wrists accompanied with jingling bells.

His laugh (U ru ru) comes from URURU TV, and the woman who has foxes over there calls their laughs URURU. He laughs like Alfik! My favorite fop over there. Speaking of him, a little bit of his personality is inspired by him because of how lazy he is! Well, not really, but I always see him lying down being happy and cute! While you see his normal colors in this design, we actually plan him to constantly change colors like the teaser for him I posted a while ago. Although I might just stick with this design for now, not saying the color changing is fully scrapped though! For the demo though, I don’t think there would be a lot of ticket stuff, but he is there! (Sorry future ticket fans) But like for all scavengers, they are all important in their own ways.

Other Stuff !!!

Luna received a full color design! Although I’m a bit mixed on which one I want to go with… Leaning with the first one though! Yes I took the purple guy sprite and based it off for Luna (she is not a serial killer though she just looks like a night guard ok…) Did you know that her hat’s symbol changes to different ones? Which ones? Who knows! I am not Luna…

Here's a sneak peek for some of the enemies..

Thanks for reading!

This concludes today’s dev log! See you (hopefully) next week! We are very much open for questions about squishee, the characters and about the project overall!

[squisheedev]

NEW DOG NEW TRAIN (Sugarbomb Dev Log #6)

Hi everyone, this is Stanley. I will share my thoughts and progress for this week, such as showing off one of the NPCs you would encounter in the game. They act as one of your ways of fast travel throughout all of Sugarbomb. Development about the project is posted on our Twitter, ( squishee_dev ). If you are interested in our weekly dev logs and progress about Sugarbomb or Squishee in general, be sure to follow our account. One of the ways you can support us is by engaging with our posts through our platforms (liking, reposting and commenting.) We need the reach and engagement for more people to see our game! We would be eternally grateful if you do consider! Work has been slow lately, but it’s quickly picking up its speed! We hope to post the next dev log in a timely manner. I apologize for my section being so small. There's not much I can show for this week and for the past weeks I’ve missed. Hopefully it changes in the next dev log!

Meet Luna!

Luna is the fast travel NPC we plan to put in the game! I can’t really say why she is in Sugarbomb but she has a train that the party can board onto! She works across the land to deliver goods and her services. I plan her to be an important side character in the story, although I hope she won’t take the spotlight! It should always be the main characters to shine afterall, I mainly created her for understanding the effects of ‎̵̟͎̺̈͜ ̵͇̪̩̫̀ ̵̙̐͒͂‎̸͖̲͐̐ ̸͔̫̉̐͆ ̶̼͕̭͇̄‎̵̤͖̊͋̑ ̷̰͓̀͐ ̷̡̭͗̕‎̷̨̡̺̺̬̽̂́̾ ̴̳͓͙̎̀̀̌ ̵̢̻̼̖̼̚͠‎̶̡̲̙̩͍͑̌ ̸̻̲̔̓̈́̕ͅ ̶͉̀̔‎̵̦̙͔͓͐̏̈́̏ͅ ̸̺̮͔̳̩̽̒̒̈́ ̶̛͙́̾͛‎̵̺͕͉̊ ̵̠͚͂̍ ̴̟̞̬̄̉́̕‎̴̢̩͖̇ ̴̨̗͔̈́̓̓̕̚ ̷̛͉͎̺͕̔̐‎̷̝͈̈́̋̃̅ͅ ̵͇͙̣̲͔͌̃͘ ̴̠̼̩̥̀̏͒͒͝ͅ‎̴͚͓͚̌̎̃͘ ̶̛̩̣̏̊͊ ̸͍͆͂͗ and for worldbuilding. She is inspired by lampo, the dog who rides trains that i love very much. Not much has been done with spritework and story, although I have finalized some of the designs for the main characters and are planning to work on worldbuilding. I’ve felt that it’s best that the game isn’t so much of a barren wasteland as that was initially what I’ve written the characters in. I think one of my favorite parts about writing and designing is the references and easter eggs the team would put. Especially when people eventually point out and find the silly things we put there.

PIANO’S SECTION

Hi guyers and girlers and otherers it's me piano and im here to talk about buttons! Thats right our game runs on buttons as fuel, and as long as it can make it's own buttons, it will never be able to be stopped. And it almost made it's own button!!! The only issue is the number 4… lets get into it I made it so squishees can know up to 4 moves Then I made it think about buttons 4 times If a squishee has a move in slot number one, have a button with the name of that move as the label that links back to the squishee with that number move slot Does that make sense? I hope so The button label is being changed, but here is where the number 4 comes in Computers start counting at 0, the first move should take a value of 0, but the button sends 4. The buttons should never even send a number higher 3, but here we are with 4. I plan to do numerous tests to find why this happens and how to fix it. After this I can make it so you can aim your moves, after that I can make it so turns happen, and then people (and others), and then, I can start working on dialogue again.

Thanks for reading!

This concludes today’s dev log! See you (hopefully) next week! We are very much open for questions about squishee, the characters and about the project overall!

[squisheedev]

Sharp horns you got there! (Sugarbomb Dev Log #5)

Hello, it's Stanley. I’d like to share some thoughts and plans for Sugarbomb, such as spritework and additions we have made in the past two weeks. Hopefully this can satisfy and make up for the lack of updates. I would like to address my increasing lack of motivation in the project as in a lot of ways, development can be draining for the team. I am quite inexperienced in this medium, and I still have so much to learn and in a lot of ways it can be frustrating to work with. It is a dream to work in game development and have a small team that would make the game blossom further. Feedback, interaction, and interest do help alleviate and support the development. Thank you for reading and sticking around in our early stages. Regarding the plan on our previous dev log about putting out something, I don’t think it would be the focus primarily although it is still in the works. It could be published this week but I couldn’t promise anything. Development about the project is now posted on our new Twitter account, ( @squishee_dev ). The decision for this is mostly for reach and for newer people to follow our development journey. As we said in our past dev log, we will gradually post on more platforms.

Writing and Gameplay

About the writing, slowly I am putting out some work, primarily focusing on the main storyline and making small adjustments to our main characters. We haven’t decided the amount of content we would put in our demo, but I’m mainly working on one of the areas that we agreed would be the players’ experience first. I’ve always asked about where Popcorn keeps his weapon, which is his knives. It is a bit tricky initially, as in some of his planned attack moves, there would potentially be fans of blades he could throw at enemies, and again, I’m stumped on where he should keep them.

I have also thought about the purposes of his horn that he has on his design, but let’s say initially it is a side effect. In his newer design, he can now detach and create new horns and sometimes he could change the shape of it. The horn is made out of sugar, making it naturally sticky so he can get a good grip and stab enemies with ease. He can regenerate this on will, although it can be draining to him if he does it too much. Regarding the gameplay, I’ve come up with an idea that the team has supported and are excited to implement as it focuses on variety in gameplay while it also aims to (hopefully) conserve our resources. One of the things I can say about this mechanic without revealing too much is how it changes the playstyle of the characters in your party. I have thought of the sprite to somewhat resemble a wisp, comet or a soul. This is the design I have picked for now, although this isn’t how it usually looks like in game as I intentionally made sure it looks flexible.

Here is the design with a variety of colors.

These are the older versions of the design. However, I am concerned that we are straying further and further away from our basis in the start as mainly one of our problems is how we could implement physics and interactions, it’s hard to make a concept that looks like it can work… Although I may just be overthinking.

PIANO’S SECTION

Yeah this is mainly on me. Due to a LOT of things happening sort of at once and coming from all angles of my life, work on the game has become very difficult for me to do. I really want to be better than this and I would like to apologize to everyone in the team and everyone waiting outside. Im sorry. When it comes to the moves for sugarbomb, i wanted to follow the design of other rpg games, where most of the moves are very similar with different effects to set them apart. I understand we cant follow that exactly, because of our unique game mechanics, but i still want to have certain groups of moves that are very similar (moves that punt, moves that shoot a projectile, etc.) that have different stats and effects. The reason why is because the way I have the moves currently set up is that it would be very easy for the interns to just plug in values that correspond with the right move type. We could have hundreds of moves with just a few templates without much custom code for each one, which means i can shove most of the work to the interns. The more unique each move is, the more fun the gameplay is, but also the more work each one takes. I understand we have to mix things up from time to time, but if the interns cant do any of the work it will really slow down development after i make the templates to mass produce moves.

[squisheedev]

Wash my Squishee !!! (Sugarbomb Dev Log #4)

Hi Its stanley and urghhhhhh i have a runny nose But im ok i think its just a cold i hope i dont ermm like die or something or undergo extensive mitosis but anyways I have been doing a bit of work with the writing, and might've gone a bit too far from what we should be working (because I LOVEEEEE this new character!!!!), but ive designed some weapons, particularly Cinth's giant greatsword!

I have written some concepts about the gameplay. I focused more on the character’s moves and once piano has completed the battle system I would be super duper excited to design everything. But mostly I think I’m just going to throw things and see what sticks. I'm also planning something fun coming about a few days from now. What I could say right now is that it's about the revealed characters and how you might get to know them a bit more about their little quirks. Here's a little sneak peak of it...

Work is a little bit slower on my end, but hopefully I will deliver in the next week’s dev log with tons of goodies! I have eaten the cardboard box.

Piano's Section !!!

Its me pianer aka pibble aka panini aka the bone breaker aka piano aka piano55 aka piano5 aka pianos aka peenar aka gweebler aka piano aka the piano aka the glib aka the programmer aka piano aka a genius aka pisser So ive been doing some work on the game this last week, specifically the much desired battle system! After forgetting how to do a damn bubble sort last week i locked in and did a decent amount of work this time. I built a placeholder ui that i should be able to just plug and play moves into, that when clicked will tell a specific squishee to execute the move that was selected. I did run into a slight problem with triggering the move when the button was pressed, turns out its kinda difficult to change what a button does after its already made but luckily i had a brilliant idea that was almost an urethra moment! 

I did a bunch of thinking thinking and i decided that the best way to handle this was to constantly destroy and make new buttons, and that each move could have a button associated with it that we could pass in information like what the text and color of the button should be, and the way i have it planned wont be the most optimized but i have time to come up with new ideas and suchess and im a genius arent i people like think about it why struggle to update a button when i could just kill them and create new ones like a god im god arent it im god worship me Anyways im hoping to start implementing this new button idea this week, after that ill have to make move aiming, and once thats done i can finally give stanley a playable demo which will allow me to go back to making the dialogue system!!! Been not working on that for a while which is sad but hey! OH SHIT I FORGOR TO MENTION! We might have to start over on the project because apparently unity is stupid and if we dont steam will hate us, although maybe the most recent unity version will magically fix my button issues and problems and so forth and such on and the like Worship me

Thanks for reading!

This concludes today’s dev log! See you (hopefully) next week! We are very much open for questions about squishee, the characters and about the project overall!

I have written a poem for you.

Wash my squishee. Yay. Clean my squishee. Clean my squishee.

[squisheedev]

when does the uhhh

when does like, popcorn pop the corn

[squisheedev]

who is the tallest person in the dev team

apparently piano is the tallest and im (STANLEY) definiteyl the shortest one (the shortest one is kiki)

[squisheedev]

Glowy Puddles (Sugarbomb Dev Log #3)

Hello again! Stanley here, dev logging you again,,, whether you like it or not…. In this dev log I will show you concept art for another area in the game as well as updates on the code provided by Piano!

Still Waters

Above is concept art by me! I was trying to make something stagnant and very viscous looking. I was thinking a lot about still water, the mushroom looking things you see there are actually inverted and like a cup! I call them mugishes. Still unsure if I want it to be grassy although I do want the marbled look of the land. I wanted to continue and add more to the area other than just mushrooms and viney flowers, but that would be thought of later down development. I wanted to have the look and feel of the area first. I wish I could post some other concept art that I made this week, actually for the characters, but I won’t reveal it because it is pretty big and significant in the game. Just expect something… Altered. Anyways… Oh yeah, the box was being filled with dust and I didn't want to die so I had to get out of it as soon as possible. I wouldn't want to catch a cold and miss out on everything…

Piano’s Section

Whats up my squishee FANatics (Fantastics), its piano, coming at you with an ice hot dose of squishee game dev updates I made a camera work. Thats pretty much it. Lots of stuff going on for me right now, most of it bad, but i hope i can have more to talk about next time. Whats so special about this camera? Well it uses a special thing in unity, a package called cinemachine that i briefly used for an educational project, and when i opened it back up turns out a lot has changed! I think i like most of the changes, although it took me a bit to figure out. I thought i had to delete the old camera, but turns out the new version uses and old camera but tells it where to go, neat! This is a huge improvement over the default camera in the first squishee project, if you were following the lore you would know that i parented the camera to the squishee itself, and then had to parent it to a circle inside of the squishee and make the circle rotate in the opposite direction of the squishee. This was a calculation done every frame, which as i discussed in my previous devlog, was not something i could rely on doing for a project of this size. I hope to learn more about cinemachine as i continue working on the illustrious, elusive battle system that stanley is talking about, speaking of i found the box but i did not find stanley and i can always hear them but like i dont know where from im scared im so scared the construction crew took down every single wall so i no stanley isnt there but im so fucking scared guys please please send helb

Thanks for reading!

This concludes today’s dev log! See you (hopefully) next week! We are very much open for questions about squishee, the characters and about the project overall!

[squisheedev]

Eternally Loved, The Banner (Sugarbomb Dev Log #2)

Our new Banner !!!

We have a new banner! Made by Stanley, it shows our current characters that have been revealed and we would add more characters as development goes on. We are very excited for your thoughts on these future characters! Sprites are currently being made for the characters! While we can’t show a lot of spritework right now, (why the hell am i talking in third person) (i actually kind of like it) (like,,, Stanley has wares, if you have coin.) look at this silly walk cycle of a squishee Stanley made!

Anyways, strangely I woke up in a very dark room. It feels a bit cramped here. The walls are cardboard… I could break out of it but.. I don't know, it feels oddly comforting.

Piano's Section !!!

Hey guys, it's piano. I put Stanley in a box, but I can't find where I put the box, nor can I find Stanley. This worries me. Things are getting kinda turbulent, with a construction crew tearing up my ceilings and having to deal with the stress of strangers in my room. I also am coming to terms with the fact that my usual development process is simply not going to work on a project of this size. I usually work straightforwardly, taking on assignments as I want, and not really planning them out before working. I've hit a massive roadblock in that the code for the battle system does not work properly because all of it is inside of a method that executes every frame, and because so much is stuffed inside it's possible for it to happen again before the first one is done running, breaking all sorts of processes. Figuring out what was causing the entire turn to be done when only 1 squishee did a move was exhausting and made me realize I needed to gut absolutely everything, and that I would need to set up multiple systems in a specific order for them to work, not bounce between them at my leisure. I attempted to make a flowchart for how a round would play out, but the numerous asynchronous elements proved that difficult, so instead I've decided to describe it in text (I've always found it easier to think in terms of words rather than pictures) When a round begins, the object controlling the battle will sort a list of all the squishees currently on the field. They will be sorted in terms of their step (look forward to hearing about the ten step system in a later devlog) and if any of them are on the same step, they will be sorted by their speed. After this list is sorted, the first squishee will be prompted for it's move, which entails the camera focusing on them and an ui popping up for selecting a move. Selecting a move will both execute the move inside the squishees code and also tell the battle controller to move on to the next squishee in the list. This continues until all squishees have completed their turn, and the list is sorted once more to start the process once more. I would love to start working on this now, but I've got a lot of stresses on my mind, not limited to the construction crew, but even when not coding it is important to think about and plan what I will do next.

Thanks for reading !!!

This concludes today’s dev log! See you (hopefully) next week! We are very much open for questions about squishee, the characters and about the project overall!

[squisheedev]

Blood, Sweat and Soup (Sugarbomb Dev log #1)

Hello! Again! Stanley here, so so excited to talk about what we’ve made in the last month before the initial announcement.

About our Dev Log Scheduling...

First, I’d like to address our dev log scheduling… Last month we planned to have dev logs every week but it didn’t work out the way we wanted it to until now. Expect to see more from the coding side of things every week! Designs might come a bit more slower but hopefully I could deliver on those side of things!

Some Shiny, Some Dull… (Introducing Characters)

Most of the writing done from the last months are the main characters! I’m very excited to introduce some of them for this log and in future dev logs I would share the others! I would like to focus on these two characters for now. They are your primary team that would accompany you throughout all of Sugarbomb!

You’ve seen his design before in some of my posts, His name Popcorn! He is someone who’s purely silly! He is quick and nimble, impatient and has a mind full of the thirst for blood. This curious little guy gets into messy situations, oftentimes biting more than he can chew. He loves spending time with others, and who could ever hate on him! He’s very excited to meet you!

He carries thousands of his knives with him, using them to throw or messily attack without abandon! If you ask where he gets them from or stores them in, you would probably be killed first before you could have the chance to talk.

The next character is Cinth! He is stoic, calm and usually serious. He is usually quiet and he surprisingly has a lot of patience, especially with Popcorn’s antics. He looks intimidating at first, mostly because he has trouble with presenting emotions, but he usually responds with well intentions.

He wields a big sword, lugging it around as his primary weapon. He is an unstoppable force, he doesn’t give up very easily. Although, he is sensitive in how he would handle the enemies.

Past Designs and Changes

Popcorn started as a character in the first squishee game, we reused him for this game instead! This design was made because I wanted to make my first ever sparkledog. His design here looks very messy and we wanted to tone that down while still capturing popcorn's silliness.

Cinth was initially made as the mage of the party, and he looks older and wiser in this past design than the one we have today. I wanted a wet long snoot puppy and that's how cinth was made. I wanted to have his hair to sparkle in a way, but I then made it duller so it fits his design and personality more.

Coding ! ! !

Hi yall, its piano, expert programmer and amateur gambler (ive only lost 30 ish dollars) coming at you with a red hot programming update!

I was gonna work some on the system for controlling dialogue but i had spent so long trying to get it working it was just too frustrating to continue and i began working on the combat system! A lot of the work i did this week won't really show up until everything comes together, but i have been laying a lot of groundwork to quickly make the moves and handle turns being taken. What i am most worried about is how the enemy ai will work, stanley wants a highly responsive enemy from what i can tell, and im not sure ill be able to handle that. But hey, im god so ill probably figure it out before too long!

Thanks for reading!

This concludes today’s dev log! See you (hopefully) next week! We are very much open for questions about squishee, the characters and about the project overall!