drjavi

Devlog: Sheerk Prairie pit

Another tough week at work, but things should stabilize soon enough. Yesterday I started working on the last part of level 3... and finished it in one sitting, it took me five hours. Behold, the pit:

 The pit

The pit can be seen from above, letting the player know what to expect and what path to follow. Inside there will be enemies that can only be killed if ambushed from beh...

Patrons ask, 25.01.28

There we go. Thanks to everyone who participated!

Patrons ask

After a really tough half-term, I think a good way to get back on track would be with a round of questions from patrons, since those are fun and easy to make. If you'd like to give it a go, these are the basic rules:

• You can ask anything to any character from Misbegotten Kittens, CowHammer (which is canonically also part of the Misbegotten Kittens universe) or even Ask Coppercog, if anyone remembers that. Not ZooCity because ZooCity&...

  2025-01-19 07:24:05 +0000 UTC View Post

Devlog: slide hill

I've been very ill and busy this week, but I still got some substantial progress done.

Jan 13

There is a major issue with how I'm handling colliders. Since I'm using a very unhealthy amount of invisible walls to keep the player from jumping off levels, I had to let the camera go through any walls that don't obstruct the view. Add that to a lot of back walls that have no collider and the result is a complete mess.

Since I'm working with low-poly models, I've decided to just...

Devlog: maze exit and sticky swamp

Quick update because I have to grade 160+ tests please send help.

Having the exit tunnel of the Sheerk Prairie maze be a separate part of the level was causing a lot more problems than it should, so I made it a single monolithic structure. To stop players from entering the maze from the wrong end, I used Pythagorean triples to design a ramp that can be knocked down from below. The ramp is 4¼m long when horizontal and, once deployed, it goes down 2m and forward 3¾m (2² + 3¾² = 4¼²...

Devlog: Sheerk Prairie swamp

I haven't had the time or energy to start programming the maze yet, but I did model the next part of the level. This is going to be a bit hard to program, since it has some new mechanics.

Chaos swamp of Sheerk Prairie

Devlog: Sheerk Prairie maze

Merry Christmas! Another small devlog, because I've spent a week trying to figure out how to optimally design the maze area in level 3 of CowHammer. I knew which overall shape I wanted it to be, so I first translated it into an undirected graph that I could program, hoping to make it fully procedural.

  Sheerk Prairie maze as an undirected graph

I then spent a few days buildi...

Devlog: Sheerk Prairie ruins

Small devlog this week because I didn't have enough time to program.

The ruins area is a mess of colliders, but the triggers seem to work properly. I had added some invisible walls to stop the player from skipping steps, but that's no fun. Instead, I rearranged the triggers so it's more of pretty interactive area than a platforming challenge. Now I have to figure out which puzzle to build next. The maze, the swamp, the slide or the sinkhole? The sixth area is just a battle zone with a m...

Devlog: Vecino Forest preview

Lots of progress this week, including a new video preview! As you can see, level 2 is functional, just missing textures, NPCs, enemies and bosses. Read below for a level summary.

Dec 2

It took some trial and error, but props rotate perfectly now. Every time the player enters or leaves the maze, the center prop and the outside prop copy each other, depending on whether the player is going in or out. But when they walk into another room inside the maze, that's when the magic happe...

Devlog: ladders and non-euclidean grove

I missed last week's devlog because I hadn't had the time to get anything done, but there's a bunch of juicy progress this time.

Nov 23

I drew the textures for the rope bridges and the rope ladders, and I extended the rope bridge asset to also work as a rope ladder. It'll probably be needed only once or twice, so no need to make a bunch of specific code for it.

Nov 27

The ladder climbing animation and mechanic are complete and working properly. I fixed a minor bug ...

Devlog: regret and rollback

What a truly awful week this has been, and things will get worse before they get better. But they will get better. In the meantime, this is what I could get done.

Nov 10

I finished modeling all platforms and bridges in the treetop village. I also decided to spend a few hours adding flexible segments to the rope bridges, so movement looks softer.

Nov 11

Apparently an armored cow is nimble enough to completely ignore my whole platforming section by being able to leap...

Devlog: push blocks and rope bridges

This week has been really productive, despite how little free time or sleep I've had.

Nov 3

After refactoring the HUD code a little, I can now request action icons at any time. The climbing prompt now shows when reaching a ledge both from the ground and mid-jump. It was easier than I expected.

The first room of level 2 is complete. I had some issues when exporting the tree that breaks and forms a bridge, but it turns out that I had accidentally reversed its normals in...

Devlog: jumping and climbing

I heard that the new Dragon Age game removed all rude dialogue options because no one is allowed to be mean anymore. So I'm adding more psychopath choices in CowHammer. I ain't telling you how to play. Dame Ternera is functionally mute, but you'll get a lot of options to royally screw everyone over if you want - it's even optimal for speedruns. And those choices will have consequences in the story.

Oct 27

I've made the colliders for all the complex objects in the first area of l...

Devlog: forest exit and non-euclidean grove

Due to unexpected circumstances that I had actually foreseen months ago and was fully prepared for, my workload at my full-time job is now twice as much as it was, so I'm very burnt out and haven't been able to do much this week. But it's okay, I can handle it. And I still got a bit of game development done.

Oct 20

The base structure for the non-euclidean grove is complete. After a reverse boss battle, the player can choose to enter the grove or walk straight ahead to the level ...

Devlog: forest entrance and treetop village

This week has been absolute torture, but I still managed to get a bunch of modeling done, which gives me hope. If I can get this much done in just a few days while barely having any free time, maybe I can still make it to the ETA. So here's what we have:

Oct 16

I have modeled the first room of level 2, Vecino forest. It's designed to help the player learn some new mechanics that they won't have needed in level 1, such as:

• Climbing onto platforms (not painted yellow...

  2024-10-20 04:40:43 +0000 UTC View Post

YCH: Fusions/offspring

Time for another YCH reward. Here are the rules:

• 5 slots are offered (or more, if I have the time and energy). Leave your comment below or message me anywhere if you'd like one.

• Characters may have any age or sex, strictly SFW. Just give me any two characters you'd like me to combine, either as a fusion or as their offspring, and any details you'd like me to add, and I'll mix them.

• Higher tiers get higher priority. Patrons who don't get a slot get p...

  2024-10-13 02:38:01 +0000 UTC View Post

Devlog: doors, flags and automated backups

This week has been quite tough, so I haven't had much time, energy or mental stability to get much programming done. Some weeks are good, some are bad, we have to take them as they come. But still, here's a summary of what I could get done.

Doors

A lot of people seemed to like the way doors look in the latest game preview, so here's how they work:

• Gates are just a big hole on a wall, usually colored black when entering a place or white when ex...

  2024-10-06 06:30:30 +0000 UTC View Post

Devlog: 1st year final notes

I have spent (the little free time I got during) the last 3 weeks refactoring and cleaning up the whole CowHammer project, as well as fixing a few bugs in the first level. While there's still a lot to do there, I think it'd be best to start working on level 2 at the same time, since there are a lot of mechanics that have yet to be fully optimized and they don't happen during level 1.

I intend to post weekly-ish devlogs every Sunday, provided that I manage to get enough progress done dur...

CowHammer, September 2024

This is the result of the first year of development of CowHammer. It doesn't look like much yet, but I expect that I'll be able to progress faster as later levels can build upon mechanics defined on previous ones.

Hopefully I'll be able to manage my scarce free time properly and give you guys devlogs more often.

YCH: Auto-oral

Time for another YCH reward. Here are the rules:

• 5 slots are offered. Leave your comment below or message me anywhere if you'd like one. Characters with male parts will be drawn in Rayco's pose, characters with female parts will be drawn in Javi's pose.

• Higher tiers get higher priority. Patrons who don't get a slot get priority within their tier for the next YCH rewards. In case of a tie, the patron with a larger accumulated pledge gets the slot.

• On...

  2024-07-22 10:37:59 +0000 UTC View Post

YCH: monsterize your OC

A little early, but let's go with another YCH reward.

Choose your OC and your favorite monster and have me combine them! The monster might be from a movie, from a novel, from a game, from mythology, or even something you made up. The more original, the better. I enjoy a challenge!

The rules are the same as last time:

• 5 slots are offered. Leave your comment below or message me anywhere if you'd like one.

• Higher tiers get higher priority. Patrons who don...

  2024-05-30 06:23:20 +0000 UTC View Post

CowHammer overworld map

A general view of how all levels of the game are connected. In game it'll be 3D so there wasn't any real reason to draw this, I just felt like doing it. We can have a little self-indulgence.

YCH: Night Vixen facesitting

Time for the first YCH reward! Here are the rules:

• 5 slots are offered. Leave your comment below or message me anywhere if you'd like one. The character may be of any sex, visible genitals are optional.

• Higher tiers get priority. Patrons who don't get a slot get priority within their tier for the next YCH rewards. In case of a tie, the patron with a larger accumulated pledge gets the slot.

• One week from now, slots will be locked and I'll start ...

  2024-05-05 08:31:17 +0000 UTC View Post

Sir Recaredo

Sir Recaredo is one of Dame Ternera's allies in her quest to save Prince Cordero, provided that the player figures out how to unlock him.

I've been rather overwhelmed by work lately, but the first level of CowHammer has progressed a lot - including a propositional logic puzzle that I shouldn't have prioritized, but darn was it fun to program.

Important news regarding your patronage

As you may know, I now have a full time job that pays my bills, but reduces my free time, which is why I no longer take commissions. However, I can't help but feel that the current system of Patron rewards is somewhat unfair, since it sometimes seems to be forgotten or abused. Therefore, I would like to propose a modification.

This change affects only Outstanding Benefactors, who will still get cameos for their characters and receive all my commercial products for free,...

Devlog: Development notes

All the main levels of CowHammer have now been thoroughly described with concept art and development notes, including the final secret level and the interactive cutscenes that will lead to it, so I'm ready to attempt the modeling phase again.

The whole gimmick of the game is that every level must be played twice in different ways before you can get to the real ending, so I'll give you a little spoiler-free summary of what you can expect.

• Level 1: A basic exploration level,...

  2024-03-29 09:43:02 +0000 UTC View Post

MbK 5th issue

Physical copies of issue 5 of Misbegotten Kittens are finally available for sale! You can order your copy at the link above or by messaging me. Additionally, now you can also buy digital copies of all my comics. Remember, 20€ tier patrons can order their copies for free and 5€ tier patrons only have to pay for shipping.

Chapter 5 support page

The time has finally come to get chapter 5 legally published! As usual, this will go through Spain's intellectual property system and some copies of the comic will be permanently displayed at the National and local libraries, so you might prefer your name not to be in it.

Let me know in this poll if you'd like you name to appear in the comic's credits page as supporter. If you'd like to appear under a pseudonym, just let me know in the comments below.

Devlog: Cornamenta thorough concept art

There we go, I think that's every detail in the whole level (except for the external architecture of the temple, the castle and the gargoyles, which are already modeled and I hope I can reuse). I really hope I can get it right this time.

Unlockable skins

I have no idea if I'll add these in the game, maybe as a free DLC. But I was feeling too ill to get any proper design done.