Frawg DevLog #2 - "Getting philosophical"

Hello everyone,

I have been making some progress on Frawg in the last 2 days so I just wanna share it:

--Enemies--

Firstly and most importantly I have added enemies to the game, they work as follows; the enemies are completely stationary, they just float, if you touch them you should take damage and some knockback (the knockback part will be added later), you can also use your tongue to get closer to the enemies, and if you touch the enemy while using the tongue you eat it (making it disappear in the demo). After eating the enemy you gain additional use of your tongue so you can chain tongue shoots in mid air and cling on the surfaces previously not available

*just a side note: I had to rewrite a big portion of the player movement code to implement the enemies, so the movement may be a bit clunky at times

--Level Design--

The other big part of my time working on this game in the last two days was spent on level design. This game should be a mix between a metroidvania and a collectathon, like so: each level is made out of 3 parts, which I call the stem, the branches and the leaves.

• The stem is the main part of the level acting as sort of a hub, making traversing between the branches much easier and more linear. The majority of checkpoints should be located here
• The branches are kind of like smaller levels on top of the level, their main purpose is to link the leaves and the stem. There is much less checkpoints here than in the stem, but much more collectables than in the stem
• And the leaves, which act as pockets of some sort, here you can find the hardest and most unique challenges, and the vast majority of the collectables in the game

Than each of these parts will be split into rooms, similar to Megaman or Shovel Knight, the most rooms will be in the stem of the level, and the least will be in the leaves (with some leaves being only one room), and while we are on the topic of Megaman, the level design of this game was heavily inspired by the design of level in Megaman:

Each level introduces about 2 or 3 new mechanics, which can be new enemies, obstacles, hazards etc.. At the start of the level each room showcases one of these mechanics, but the further you get into the level the more the mechanics become intertwined, acting in new somewhat surprising ways. 

That holds true mostly for the stem of the level, because when going into the branches things start to get a little different; each branch introduces a new mechanic or a new spin on a mechanic, for example if the mechanics in the stem would be some kind of uplifts or geysers and the other mechanic would be moving platforms the mechanic in the brach can be that the uplifts cause the moving platforms to move in different ways and such.

Now I have made this "philosophy", but not many full levels yet, although I have made some rooms so my job for the next few days is probably going to be making levels, so be prepared for some kind of demo

--Miscellaneous--

There are a few more things I want to tell (and I want to ask)

I have made a new colo(u)r scheme for the game, down below are some screenshots of the game in its current state, so tell me how do you like it, or if you would prefer the last one

Also huge thanks to everyone who reads these posts, although I am wondering how many people really read these. And a special thanks to all of my followers, if you enjoy reading these posts and you do not follow me yet, than I would greatly apreciace your follow :)

--CONTACT ME?--

If you want to contact me about this project or something else you might want to know, you can do so down in the comment section of this devlog or other one of my projects, or email me at omeletton@gmail.com

Also if you are an artist, and you would like to make some art, animations or music for this non-profit project I am more than happy to let you know that I will greatly apricate your services, so feel free to join me on my EPIC quest to make a small game about a frog.