I wanted to add some particle effects for a while, so I started by adding them to explosions. The particle system of Unity has a lot of settings, but it's also fun to experiment. Here's what it looked like (the small white particles that appear when something explodes):

I also added particles to crystal collection and to the cursor when you gain energy.

Is it too much? Probably :D I still like it though, we'll see how I like it when I see it for a few more hours!

Next, I decided to look at the dialogue before putting it into I2Localize, and I noticed that it's roughly 550 lines. One of the old negative feedback points was that the dialogue was too long sometimes, and I know that I put in too much "tutorial" into what Commander Neek says. I'll reduce the amount of tutorials and move those tips to the actual game, just like the little tips in Catty & Batty (when Burgundy appears before you can play a level).

It always sounded a bit weird when Neek tells you to hit the Space bar or click on something, so that will be removed to make the cutscenes a bit shorter (especially in the beginning).

While that was going on, I heard back from the artist i'm working with to replace the character images! It took a while to hunt for references that fit, but Auri and I finally found something that resembled the old images. The artist then made a bunch of sketches:

We talked about the expression and poses that I'd need, and came to an agreement. He said I'll probably receive the end result within a month! (I will share the artist's name as soon as everything is complete.)

The clothes aren't uniforms, despite the sci-fi setting. The original game was heavily inspired by the anime Planetes, which featured a lot of characters on space stations in plain clothes. I honestly believe that people will just wear regular and comfortable clothes, if they can. The company that Adalina and Neek work for also doesn't have clothing standards or anything like that. And I think the clothes they wear also add some character (instead of having the usual sci-fi uniforms).

Note that the old images were created by my wife! It was both of our decision to upgrade them for this release, and we've both been looking for artists and talked about the results. We based the characters off of her drawings, so they are still in the same spirit.

The question still is whether I'm going to replace the game art, but I'm not entirely sure yet. It would definitely be nice, and i've also been looking for 2D artists for game art, but it also costs more money. Keeping game art simple is an advantage in my opinion, but it also won't hurt to upgrade it a little bit. We'll see. Little effects like the particles already help to spice it up, I think.

The characters are super important though, as they are the driving force to make the player go through the puzzles. That was actually the original idea for Turnament: To see whether I can make a puzzle game in which you care enough to want to keep going. The characters will also be displayed prominently on the store pages and in the trailer, so they are definitely key in (hopefully) reaching a wider audience.

And speaking of store page, as soon as I have the character portraits and some levels rebuilt, I can already put up the Steam page to start collecting wishlists!

To be continued... 💎