Underground renovation is underway (Patreon)

Hello, progress has ramped up over the past couple weeks. Within a couple days I completed the two enemies I was working on (the silly one and the one with a complex model). The second, less-silly one turned out quite well, and because it was so simple, there was room for me to add some extra features/abilities. One of those features was inevitably going to find its place in Lethal Company in a creature of some form, and now it has finally happened; and it has startled every single friend that I've tested it with. Both these enemies are among the smallest in the game, and both their designs are a little more quirky than I would find ideal, but that's okay. The next one I'm going to make is going to be enormous.

Mineshaft Renovation Begins

We tested them on the new Offense, which I wanted to be primarily a mineshaft moon, but then I found that these new enemies don't work so well in the caves. I've known that many creatures aren't exactly in their ideal setting when in the caves, but the silly one especially just does not function properly in the caves because of its design. So I decided it's time to renovate the mineshaft. My objectives were:

1. To add some openness to the caves and hallways so that enemies can be avoided more easily and have space to do their thing.

And 2. To make the mineshaft less hellish in general. There are lots of unique properties about the mineshaft interior that are each cool on their own, but added up together, they amount to an experience that is so oppressive that it drives you to despair. One of these properties is the elevator, which makes entering/exiting through the front a lot more difficult; this is probably not going to change. Another is the fact that the interior is divided into two sections, the caves and non-caves, and the caves hold most of the loot. This is probably going to change. And another is the caves (and tunnels) being so claustrophobic and mazey. This is going to change somewhat. I'm basically doing everything I can to give players a leg up in this interior now; another change might be to add more lights to the caves. I've reworked the way that the generator handles the caves so that the main path has a lot of large cave tiles and generates more claustrophobic caves to branch off of that main path; there is a lot of experimentation on the generator, and the mineshaft will probably feel very different from before.

Working on caves is a very simple, one-step process, as it doesn't require much reference or texturing or modelling of miscellaneous objects, but it's still very long and monotonous and kind of drives me crazy. Still, I have made three large cave tiles so far, which already makes a big impact.

Now I'm moving on to the non-cave section. I'm excited to add more to this part of the interior because it has so little right now.

These 2x3 tiles became 3x4 tiles when I realized the mineshaft uses a much smaller tile size than the other interiors. This makes them seem like the biggest rooms in the game if you just look at numbers.

I think the mineshaft is some of my best environment work, including a lot of really crazy stuff like the connecting rails and curved ceilings and of course the cave systems, and I really hope to make it as fun and cohesive to play as it is to look at.

The Ending

Yesterday I woke up with an idea for the way that the game cuts to end credits, which has been a crucial question. It's nothing incredible, but it's satisfying and doesn't feel like an anticlimax or a bad ending. I fuss so much about the ending of Lethal Company because I'm not good with endings. Practically every game I've made has ended in a way that left people scratching their heads rather than feeling something. That is a big weakness. It's partly because I just don't know how to make a proper ending, and partly because I always get an urge to swing for the fences when I could just do something normal. But every game that I finish is another chance to get this part right.

Now I have a really strong idea for the start of the ending and a good idea for the ending of the ending, and I have to figure out exactly what bridges between those.

V85 is still a little ways off. I'm once again very ultra-focused on Lethal Company and making quick progress, as is the natural ebb and flow, but the past couple months have made me realize that it's really time to make the ending as soon as possible. My mind is more and more filled with entirely new ideas I want to get to. So it's really beginning to feel like I'm working on Lethal Company in order to finish it. The plan for V85 is to renovate the mineshaft and then continue adding as many new creatures as possible (and at some point along the way I'll get Grugga to a more acceptable state, or lock him up for all eternity.)

Games I'm Playing

I've been enjoying some of the best games of the year so far. Creature Kitchen was a delightful little surprise which I enjoyed more than I thought I would, and I recommend it.

I "finished" Splatoon Raiders yesterday: it's not as good as Octo Expansion, but it takes a snug second place in the ranking of Splatoon single-player campaigns. Octo Expansion's style and narrative and characters were just so incredibly strong (not to mention how it pushed the series the furthest in gameplay; even Splatoon Raiders still borrows its formula with very addictive, bite-sized dungeons and challenge levels.) I don't think they will ever top it, but Splatoon Raiders is still probably my favorite game on the Switch 2. It has all the depth that I've wanted them to add to Salmon Run in the mainline games.

I just started Endacopia, and I'm only about 30 minutes into it so far, but this game seems incredible and is exactly what I need!!! I'm eager to play more as soon as possible.