Another promo is being offered at J.Crew this weekend. You can take 30% off your purchase with code LOTSTOSHOP. Everything I’m reviewing today is included in this promo.
It looks like shoulder baring tops are here to stay for Spring and Summer. I do like the cold-shoulder tops a little more than the off-the-shoulder tops because if the straps are wide enough, you can wear a regular bra. Originally, I thought this fit TTS to a little loose for me. I think because I am broad-shouldered, I should wear an 8 or 10. But since these types of shirts don’t have any material constricting right at the shoulders, I can size down. I know that sounds odd but the size 6 fit me a lot better than the 8.
The size 6 fit great in this silk version of the cold-shoulder top but the straps are way too loose. I don’t know if it was this specific shirt or the silk style in general. I ordered the pretty green Warm Clover color so I am hoping the straps are little more fitted.
This is a cute top and the cotton is really soft. I found this to fit a size big since the 6 fits pretty well. You can tie the neck or leave them untied, both look fine. Elastic at the “cuffs” always bother me so this is a no for me.
I’m so happy pants are no longer skinny and there are wide-leg options. I sized down to a 6 in this pant and it fits. The length is even cropped on me! These are very familiar to me. Almost like I wore something similar in this stripe and material as a kid. They are thin and lightweight and not lined, but also not see-through. I could do without the waist-tie though. I’ll either find an old skinny belt or got without.
My store did not get these in stock. This was a return, in all three colors. I wasn’t really sure about sizing so I’m glad someone else made the purchase for me so I could try this on. Like reviewers are stating, this runs big. I feel it does run 2 sizes too big. The size 8 is very loose all over. I am happy to say that I didn’t find the ruffle too overwhelming.
The size 6 fit a little better but still seemed loose under the arm. I like the black though the nude lining is close to my skin tone. I’ve ordered the size 4 so I’ll report back on how that one fit.
This red looks more like a true red IRL and the fringe makes it really fun for Spring and Summer. The size 8 fits TTS and on my hips, making the length a little big longer for me.
I ordered the Cold-Shoulder Top in Fresh Clover, the Ruffle Skirt in Cotton Poplin in White and the One-Shoulder Dress in Eyelet. I ordered the 8 Petite in the dress so I’m hoping it works out.
I’ve been working on level design since the start of the week and had to change the way some things worked in the levels. I also added a way to add an object or enemy at a precise point. That way, calculating the position of the background, i can add a background element in the exact spot it is supposed to be at.
However, while it was working well, i thought that it would be better to have a view of the exact background in the level editor…especially since in this level, there are background enemies (enemies that are on the ground and don’t collide with the ship but fire at it).
So i made those changes as well and i must say it is pretty fun to have a good view of the background as it will be in game. I wish i had the time to put all the graphics into the editor to have a 100% accurate view of the level but i really don’t. I’ll maybe do it in my free time (if i can find some).
I am really looking forward to seeing people use the level editor to create new levels but that will have to wait until after the release!
So far, i only have started on the overall design of this level, however so i must now hurry and finish the level before working on the Mazinger sector’s enemies.
Level 1 to 5 graphics are now created. There will probably be some little changes, but I see the end of drawings slowly pointing the tip of his nose, which is great.
I let some surprise for the game, so I am not going to reveal all from this level, but you are going to face this sorcerer playing with energy :
In this level, I have done some animations with light energy. I find that moving energy renders well, and I guess that it probably is because of the contrast. I would like to do more, as usual, but I have to carry on.
It’s time for another dev update as i finally finished the 4th level boss. Some gameplay from the boss turned out to be more complicated to program than anticipated and i had to change a few things in the core game engine.
As everything is now complete on that boss, i can start working on changes to the level editor and start the level design (the fun part!).
I need to make those changes because this level’s design is particular. We are using a lot of background elements that need pixel perfect placement, something the current level editor can’t do well except on fixed locations (useful for enemies, but not so much for background elements). It will also be useful for the 5th level (and if/when we release the level editor as well).
I’m hoping i can make those changes and have a good first rough of the level by the end of the week.
I’ll then start working on the 5th level’s enemies and bosses, along with the core mechanics of the level.
The atmosphere of level 5 is dark and shadowed, with a feeling of greatness, to change from level 4. For the depth, I took my inspiration from Carthago, a french comic with very nice big drawings giving a feeling of immensity.
It is a style that I like very much and I would like to do more and more, but I have to carry on, the next bosses are waiting for me!
Don’t tell it to anyone but I think I have more inspiration for this level than for the last one – that I really enjoyed also when I was doing it… it is good news for the following.
I enjoy what I do from the beginning, but I enjoy it more and more, I hope you feel it in the results.
The Betelgeuse sector enemies are done (including mid-boss) and the boss is mostly done. I have also been working on game design as we are working with ClemenC on the Mazinger sector’s general design, enemy design and the overall feel we want to give to that level. ClemenC has finished the background and it is a really interesting one.
The level will be quite different from other levels as you will have the opportunity to speed up or down the movement in that level using booster platforms. Your score will also depend on how much time it took you to beat the level…and there might be a surprise on the final boss as well 🙂 but i’ll keep that a secret for now.
As a side note, we have begun thinking about game conventions and events where we could show the game to more people. We need to get more people to know about the game as we feel it is generally well received so far.
The alpha demo is still out so if you haven’t tried it yet, hop on to GameJolt, Itch.io or Indiexpo and give it a try!
ClemenC has been working on this site (the old one was something i quickly threw together a long time ago and forgot a bit about) and has created us this beautiful new logo which will also be used in a new splash intro to replace the old (ugly) one.
As for myself, I have been working on finalizing the enemies for the Betelgeuse sector (the infested planet one) and ran into some trouble with a simple bezier curve (mainly because i had forgotten how to use the function which is, in fact, fully functional). But the enemies are coming along nicely and should be done shortly.
Next up will be the boss which i know will be a fun one. We want to keep the surprise for the full game but believe me when i say you’ll have fun fighting it !
Things have quieted down a bit after the alpha demo launch but thanks to Gamejolt which put us on the front page, we have had a lot of exposure and, as a result, videos of the demo and the first previews of the game on softpedia, indieretronews and other websites have surfaced. The feedback is very positive and we are glad to see people like the game. We have a lot of areas to improve, obviously, but this means we are not working in vain and our efforts will pay in the end. Can’t wait to finish the game and see people play it on a full release.
With that said, removing new undiscovered bugs (there were only a few, thankfully), launching the demo and marketing it and communicating a lot around the game has taken me more time than i wish and as a result, i am lagging a bit behind schedule. I hope to turn this around by working more this week than usual (i’m probably going to end up working all weekend).
I have been working for more than 2 weeks on level 4 graphics, including background, enemies and bosses. It is nearly finished, at last.
For the background, I wanted to add a little bit more atmosphere, so I decided to add rain to the background. At first, I wanted also to draw a dark background, something in the night, so the atmosphere would have been heavier. But because other backgrounds are rather dark, I prefered to stay on something taking place during the day.
For the boss, because of animations, it took much more time than I planned to. It is long to animate even small parts. But it seems okay now and I am waiting for them to be included in the level (at this time I will have some corrections to do, but that is part of the game…).
We had a bug that allowed the laser to destroy enemies behind another enemy on very particular occasions (it only did it on the Claws boss from the faraway sector…the laser was able to destroy the homing bullet when hitting the boss).
With all this solved, i am back to enemy and boss design, notably new enemies (new type of enemies that are on the ground and don’t collide with the player ship but still get hit by bullets and fire bullets as well) and some boss logic for the Cylon sector.
We will be updating the alpha demo with the solved bugs (Claws bugs…the laser thing and the fact that he was both too easy and not invulnerable when arriving) shortly! Probably tomorrow or Friday.
Hi everyone. I haven’t posted here for a while but we have been very busy working on the game, posting on facebook, twitter, google+, indieDB, steam greenlight and it has been pretty exhausting.
I have recently removed a lot of small bugs and added a bit more feedback to several areas. There is still a lot of work to be done, we need to make new sounds (there are a lot of sounds missing right now) and i am now working on the level 2 boss fight.
We are going to post more regularly here and try to keep this devlog alive so that you can read all about the work we’re doing !
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Every once in a while you read a book that’s so good, you can’t look up until you finish, and it’s so clear and specific and moving that you know it’s the book the author was meant to write. This novel, set in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, is indelible in every way: setting, story and character. Dionne frames her novel with Hans Christian Anderson’s tale The Marsh King’s Daughter, and opens with a woman named Helena relating, in first person, that she’s a kidnapping survivor.
The scenario seems all too tragically familiar – Jaycee Dugard, Elizabeth Smart, even the movie, Room – but as Dionne fleshes it out it becomes very much her own story. Helena is the product of an abduction. She grew up in a remote area of the UP in a tiny cabin with only her mother and father. As it’s the only life she knows, it takes her a long time to puzzle out quite what’s wrong about it.
But flash forward to when Helena is a grown, married woman with two daughters of her own, and she learns that her father, the “Marsh King” of the title, has escaped from prison. When the cops show up on her doorstep at the same time as her husband, who has no idea of Helena’s backstory, his first impulse is to get the girls in the car and get out of dodge. Helena refuses to go with him – this is her quest, but she fears she’s lost her husband forever. Trust is not a concept she’s familiar with, and as the story evolves, it’s clear why that’s the case.
The story weaves together the past and the present, so we learn of Helena’s childhood where her mild mother was very much a background figure to the devotion and kinship of Helena and her father as he teaches her to hunt and survive in a remote area with no running water, electricity, or any means of communication. Everything the tiny family has is a product of their hard work, from the leather Helena’s mother softens and makes into gloves and hats to the snowshoes made by Helena’s father. Helena’s only frame of reference for the world are an old stack of National Geographics.
In the present she’s hunting her father in the wilderness they both know so well, and it’s clear that while he’s an expert woodsman, so is she, thanks to his training. They are lethal equals, and Helena’s task is made more urgent when she starts finding bodies.
In the past, while the young Helena clearly loves her father and loves the things he teaches her, she’s also subjected to beatings and punishments (being locked in a well, for example) and her mother is basically being raped every night, with Helena being a product of a rape. These things are only clear to Helena as she gets older, however – when she is a young girl she holds her mother in contempt.
This story could be set nowhere else but the UP, and Dionne is an amazingly evocative and vivid writer describing her setting. While I grew up in Michigan and spent my summers “up north,” entering the UP always felt like I was going to a different country, and Dionne is expert in portraying that feeling.
As Helena grows older and becomes ready, naturally, for the next phase of her life, her growing rebellion and strength makes her father angry and leads to a showdown. As the two of them in the present race toward one another for another show down, it puts this intimate story on an almost epic scale. Everything about this novel is perfect: the writing, which is not too flowery but is memorable and clear; the characters – Helena and her parents will stay in my mind for a very long time; the vivid setting, and finally, the story that doesn’t let up. If there’s a better novel written this year I would be very surprised. Don’t miss it.