Corpse Castle
CORPSE CASTE - COSMIC THRONE UPDATE (NOW STREAMER FRIENDLY)
Welcome to the CORPSE CASTLE DEMO v0.0.018!
Happy Holidays, I hope everyone is doing well as we finally approach the end of this year. It's been a doozey so here's to hoping that 2021 is a better year for all of us 🥳. I have a lot of exciting announcements today including our INCREDIBLE NEW STREAMER FRIENDLY SOUNDTRACK that you heard part of in that trailer up above.
We also have A FULLY RESTRUCTURED DEMO WITH NEW BOSSES, NEW COMBAT MECHANICS, A WONDERFUL NEW COMPOSER, AND MORE! There's A LOT to cover so lets jump right in.
THE DAUGHTER OF THE COSMOS
Where better to begin than the end? The demo now concludes with the first of 6 stylized boss-fights that will be in the game.
I am still balancing for difficulty but the fight against the Cosmic Daughter does a good job at exemplifying what I intend to achieve with boss fights in Corpse Castle.
Gimmicks & Phases
The Bosses are Ancient, God-like Undead who have persisted for countless ages beneath the Castle. As immortals, each boss has a gimmick that prevents you from dealing damage to them. The first step in each fight is figuring out what sustains the boss and how to interrupt homeostasis so they can be harmed.
In this case the Daughter is invincible when she sits upon the Cosmic Throne, so you must first knock her off the seat before damage can be dealt. However she is tuned into the meat within the Tower of Rebirth and will form tentacles from it to attack you and place her back upon the throne.
Boss fights will also happen in somewhat distinct phases. The Cosmic Daughter has 4 phases in which I slowly layer in complexity and challenge. This way I can introduce players to the complex elements of the battle while still allowing keeping things on the higher end in terms of difficulty in late phases.
I will carefully break down the boss attacks and phases in appendices at the end.
BLOCKING AND COUNTER-ATTACKS
Perfect blocking has already existed in the game for a while which is EXTREMELY hard to execute on purpose but immediately regains all your health.
However with this update I have introduced DEFLECTIONS and COUNTER-ATTACKS to the BLOCKING mechanic! Indicated by a large green burst, activating your shield near the moment an attack lands will cause an enemy's attack to have a slightly longer cooldown time than usual, allowing a window of inactivity.
These are much easier to pull off and can be done fairly reliably. Presently the enemies do not telegraph attacks very much but rather they lock you into consistent rhythms that allow you to predict enemy attack timings and execute deflections.
And while this 'low telegraphy' works and is manageable and whatever I am still not a fan of it from an accessibility standpoint, so I am working on some things to help enemies better signal impending attacks.
LEVEL STRUCTURE AND 'THE VERSES'
I've dramatically altered the length and structure of the first 3 levels to maintain better pacing throughout the 'Tower of Rebirth' and to help the first areas not feel as daunting when tasked with FILLING THE PIT!
I've also changed how I am naming areas in the game. Labeling them based on their physical location in a structure was confusing and everything down here is underground anyways, so I switched it to a "Bible Verse" format where levels can be referenced more inline (for example 1:3 to reference the First Ossuary). I intend to play with this convention a little more to see where I can take it.
Anyways if you made it this far I really appreciate your sticking around and following the development of Corpse Castle.
We have a reddit, discord, and a twitter page now where I post frequent small updates. I am a big fan of user feedback and suggestions and so if you want to reach out or just want to more closely follow development then I will provide some links below.
TWITTER - twitter.com/WickedCakeGames
REDDIT - reddit.com/r/CorpseCastle/
DISCORD - https://discord.gg/HPKGNcy
Thanks again everyone and please feel free to reach out to me whenever. Have a safe and happy new year and I hope to see some of you online!
Now here are some helpful appendices that I promised you 😁
APPENDIX-A: BOSS ATTACKS
| Hunter Tentacle | Feeding Tentacle | Shooting Tentacle |
| This is the roving tentacle that is on screen most of the time hunting the player down. While its attacks are fast and lack telegraphy like the others, it strikes in predictable timed-intervals that can easily be adapted to for blocking and interrupting. | This tentacle lowers from the ceiling on the right side of the screen with a large number of mouths that bud in and out of existence. It waits a moment before sweeping across the entire level. This attack is very powerful but can be easily avoided by moving to and waiting in the lowest point of the stage/meat pile. | This tentacle will lower down from the ceiling on the left side of the stage and begin shooting bone bolts in 8-directions several times. By carefully maintaining your angle to the tentacle or hiding behind the throne this powerful attack can easily be avoided. |
APPENDIX-B: BOSS PHASES
| Phase 1 | In the first phase the 'Hunter Tentacle' will pursue the player in short intervals, occasionally leaving for a little bit so that players can focus on figuring out how to hurt the boss. Once she has actually taken some damage and reached around 75% health the Daughter will enter her second phase and begin using the 'Feeding Tentacle' and the 'Shooting Tentacle'. |
Phase 2 | The Feeding Tentacle uses a powerful sweeping attack that combs across the entire stage, and the Shooting Tentacle blankets the level in projectiles. During the second phase she will only initiate one tentacle type at a time so the appearance of any of the other tentacles, including the recovery tentacle that shows up when the Daughter is unseated, will all cause the hunting tentacle to go away. This allows players to learn her attack patterns so they can dodge these while under pressure in later phases. |
| Phase 3 | The third phase activates around half health and this is where it starts getting tougher. The hunting tentacle will now attack you during the other more powerful attacks, keeping the pressure on! One saving grace which will help is that dethroning the Daughter causes the hunting tentacle to leave, for now... |
| Phase 4 | And then we have the 4th and final phase which can get pretty challenging. The Daughter tests you on all the boss strategies you have learned so far and keeps the hunting tentacle active at all times. |
EDIT: Ignore this weird junk table data that literally will not let me kill it lol
| <td <the="" third="" phase="" activates="" around="" half="" health="" and="" this="" is="" where="" it="" starts="" getting="" tougher. the="" hunting="" tentacle="" will="" now="" attack="" you="" during="" the="" other="" more="" powerful="" attacks,="" keeping="" pressure="" on!="" one="" saving="" grace="" which="" help="" that="" dethroning="" daughter="" causes="" to="" leave,="" for="" now...<="" td=""> |
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