🐾 Devlog #2 – Balancing Dual Protagonists in a Metroidvania World
Hey everyone,
I'm the developer of Bolt & Whalington, a hand-drawn, cat-powered Metroidvania from China. If this sounds like your kind of game, don't forget to wishlist us on Steam!
📅 We'll be running our first limited playtest on June 19! Want in? Join our Discord to sign up
🛒 Steam Page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3535270/_/
When Dual Characters Meet Metroidvania... How Do You Keep It Balanced?
Adding a second playable character—a mech—brought a whole new layer of design challenges. Mainly: how do you make both characters feel equally valuable? If one overshadows the other, the system breaks. But if they're too similar, what's the point of having both?
Here's how we approached it:
Asymmetry in Strengths
From the start, we wanted each character to feel unique in battle.
●🐾 Bolt (the cat): Nimble, fast, low damage—better suited for agile enemies.
●🛠️ The Mech: Slow, tanky, high damage—great for tougher enemies.
As players progress, upgrades help bridge the gap—Bolt gains higher attack speed, and the mech gets better battery life for more sustained action.
Abilities Unlock at Different Times
To keep things fresh, abilities don't unlock simultaneously.
For example:
●Bolt starts with a short dash.
●The mech only gains that after defeating a boss.
Even when they reach similar mobility levels, it looks different:
●Bolt glides with a wing-suit.
●The mech hovers using rocket boots.
Same idea, different flavor—players get to enjoy both styles.
Separate Health Pools = Separate Experiences
We kept their HP systems separate to emphasize their individuality and make swapping between them more strategic.
●Bolt heals by collecting crystals dropped from enemies. We even designed a "cat feeder" mechanic—crystals (like cat food!) drop into the feeder and are consumed for healing.
●The mech uses a classic repair part system—like potions. These are limited, so you'll need to return to a workshop to refill.
To tie it together, the mech uses crystals to craft weapons, keeping resource management tight and meaningful for both.
That's all for now in this dev log!
🎥 Watch the devlog video here
In the next one, I'll dive deeper into how we built synergy between the two characters without making either redundant.Thanks so much for reading. If you're curious to try the game, remember:
●Add Bolt & Whalington to your Steam wishlist
●Join our Discord to get access to the June 19 playtest!
See you in the skies~ 😸🛠️
I'm the developer of Bolt & Whalington, a hand-drawn, cat-powered Metroidvania from China. If this sounds like your kind of game, don't forget to wishlist us on Steam!
📅 We'll be running our first limited playtest on June 19! Want in? Join our Discord to sign up
🛒 Steam Page:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3535270/_/
When Dual Characters Meet Metroidvania... How Do You Keep It Balanced?
Adding a second playable character—a mech—brought a whole new layer of design challenges. Mainly: how do you make both characters feel equally valuable? If one overshadows the other, the system breaks. But if they're too similar, what's the point of having both?
Here's how we approached it:
Asymmetry in Strengths
From the start, we wanted each character to feel unique in battle.
●🐾 Bolt (the cat): Nimble, fast, low damage—better suited for agile enemies.
●🛠️ The Mech: Slow, tanky, high damage—great for tougher enemies.
As players progress, upgrades help bridge the gap—Bolt gains higher attack speed, and the mech gets better battery life for more sustained action.
Abilities Unlock at Different Times
To keep things fresh, abilities don't unlock simultaneously.
For example:
●Bolt starts with a short dash.
●The mech only gains that after defeating a boss.
Even when they reach similar mobility levels, it looks different:
●Bolt glides with a wing-suit.
●The mech hovers using rocket boots.
Same idea, different flavor—players get to enjoy both styles.
Separate Health Pools = Separate Experiences
We kept their HP systems separate to emphasize their individuality and make swapping between them more strategic.
●Bolt heals by collecting crystals dropped from enemies. We even designed a "cat feeder" mechanic—crystals (like cat food!) drop into the feeder and are consumed for healing.
●The mech uses a classic repair part system—like potions. These are limited, so you'll need to return to a workshop to refill.
To tie it together, the mech uses crystals to craft weapons, keeping resource management tight and meaningful for both.
That's all for now in this dev log!
🎥 Watch the devlog video here
In the next one, I'll dive deeper into how we built synergy between the two characters without making either redundant.Thanks so much for reading. If you're curious to try the game, remember:
●Add Bolt & Whalington to your Steam wishlist
●Join our Discord to get access to the June 19 playtest!
See you in the skies~ 😸🛠️