Howdy from Texas again, ya'll!
We've got a smorgasbord of new goodies to show off this time around, from new maps, brand-new mapping features that show off the capabilities of the BITE Engine, a new challenger with distant relation to our dearest trash-panda, Poncho, and much more!
Let's dive right in:
A New Challenger Approaches
Seeing as we named our sweet lil' dude below after our favorite western-wear (and because it's a dang cute name), we wanted to flesh out his move-set with that western bravado we all love so much:
And we've been fleshing out Poncho's entire move-set, including making some modifications to his charge and casting cycles with tail swishes:
But there's a classic western song Becca and I love by Willie & Merle, Pancho & Lefty, and we thought, you know... Poncho needs a buddy. Sooooo, without further ado, a new challenger approaches!
Lefty is a Red Panda, and while hailing from a distant and mysterious land, he's come to have a classic western showdown with our pal Poncho. And watch out when he swings that big stick of his, cause bamboo doesn't bend or break easily.
And with all this work on our furry friends, we haven't neglected some of those small touches that give our other characters life, with some custom animations like Fennic's below:
BITE Feature Expansion - Mapping
And with all this work on animations, Patrick's been hard at work expanding the Map Editor Features of BITE, like the new ability to customize key mappings for all the Editor's features. So whether you're more comfortable with the Arrow Keys or WASD, he's got you covered:
And building maps ain't easy, so he's added new brushes from a single-tile, four-tile and fill brush to quickly cover more ground!
But my favorite new feature is the simple Impasse System, which allows you to designate individual tiles that are impassable, leaving the control completely in the creators hands as to how maps are navigated. Plus, it looks beautiful:
We've already gone through and added these impasses to our existing maps, spreading the love as you can see below:
And we've worked up a few new places for you to cause havoc, like these alternate, fighting-enabled interiors:
Oh, and did we mention we're hard at work on a new biome: the desert! That perfect place for Poncho and Lefty to square off in, especially if a tumbleweed blows through:
BITE Feature Expansion - Cutscene Editor
And these improvements from BITE are already filtering into the Cutscene Editor, which Patrick is engineering to include streamlined event re-ordering, actor additions, and a whole slew of visual tweaks that we've got previews of below:
We're excited to show off the practical in-game implications of this next time!
Until Next Time, Yeeeehaaaaw
I guess the desert tiles are bringing out the country in me, but we've only just begun with these and another exciting biome we've got in the works:
Wait, is that snow?!
Guess we'll all just have to wait and find out :D. So until next time, holster those six shooters and go play some video games
