Havoc Studios
September 2020 Newsletter
Boldly Going Forward
This month has been quite an adventure for Havoc Studios! After another successful SAGE and a plethora of feedback, we’re already working hard on the future of Havoc Fox. Thank you to all who played the demo and submitted feedback to the team!
SAGE 2020
The Sonic Amateur Games Expo (SAGE) celebrated its 20th anniversary earlier this month. Like last year, we showcased Havoc Fox’s latest development build which was fine-tuned for demonstration purposes. While this demo is one stage shorter than last year’s appearance, the updates in appearance, stage layout, and gameplay mechanics helped set it apart from its predecessor.
The game’s physics, textures, and animations have been updated to provide a more appealing experience. The new dash mechanic adds a burst of speed to Grey and Venice’s movesets, and Venice’s Nova Shot is introduced as her first boss ability! In addition to the gameplay changes, the stages themselves have been adjusted to allow for better navigation, implementation of challenges and hazards, and completion time.
In the end, the SAGE 2020 demo of Havoc Fox reached nearly 1,000 downloads and received a few comments and reviews, most of which praised the demo’s overall improvement over the last year. We’re happy with the outcome of this year’s expo, but we’re far from finished. Thank you to everyone who checked us out this year! If you haven’t played the new demo yet, you can find it here.
Current Development Update
This month, we overhauled Grey’s moveset.
As we move into the future, we felt it was time to update Grey’s moveset. In the past, Grey had the ability to shoot to the left and right, upward, and low along the ground. While these will remain relatively unchanged, we have given Grey the ability to shoot diagonally as well as downward while midair. The extra directions and shooting mobility should help players maintain their pace whilst engaging enemies. Grey’s current melee abilities haven’t been altered too much, although his upward melee attack has received new visuals and an adjusted hitbox; however, a downward melee strike when midair now unleashes a devastating slam attack!
Grey’s dash ability has received some quality-of-life changes as well. While his current dash is unchanged, Grey now has the ability to dash upward for extra verticality. This can be done in conjunction with his current double-jump, allowing players to reach greater heights at the cost of extra dash energy. Furthermore, the dash button can now be held to engage a long dash, allowing players to travel horizontally at high speeds for a short duration. Ending your dash with your melee results in a powerful kick attack!
Naturally, with new abilities comes the need for new animations. As you can see in the previous instances, Grey’s animations are currently unfinished. While we work to finalize these new additions, we’ve decided to update Grey’s sprites overall. The above image is a preview (i.e. not finished) of his new idle animation!
Over the next couple of months, we’ll be hard at work finalizing Grey’s new moves, animations, and gameplay factors related to these changes. Venice will receive a gameplay overhaul in the future as well. We hope to have these moveset updates available for the next public demo!
Community Spotlight: ArtBunny
In each edition of the Havoc Studios monthly newsletter, we will highlight the works and/or relations of a member from the community or studio. We are grateful for everyone within the community and would like to recognize those of you who help bring life to the community. Our August community spotlight features ArtBunny, a creative community member and supporter!
(Atoi from Havoc Fox, drawn by ArtBunny)
How did you first come across Havoc Fox?
“I learned about it from my brother when he was checking out SAGE last year.”
What do you like the most about the Havoc Studios community?
“There’s a lot to like. I love the learning experiences. It’s amazing to talk to other game developers and get advice, and everyone is so supportive!”
How long have you been working with game development?
“My brothers and I have been wanting to make games for years, I’m not sure when we started. But since we got an interest in game development we’ve studied other games and game dev in general and tried ideas on small test projects. We began working on our current game about two months ago.”
Anything you can share about your current project?
“I guess I could describe what we’re going for. Gameplay-wise, we want fluid and quick combat. Three out of four of the moves have mobility, that combined with enemies taking knockback means that you’re hardly ever standing still and have a lot of control over the character. I’m still working on the plot so not much to share right now, but the main character is a wolf girl named Carmen and the villain is an evil scientist rabbit lady named Ivory.”
You helped design some tilesets for Havoc Fox. Anything you'd like to share about the process?
“It was fun. I liked studying the original rocks and figuring out the style so I could make new ones that fit in. It was really cool to see my tiles with the other contributors’ assets.”
Anything else you’d like to add?
“Well, I’m really honored that you picked me for the newsletter! It’s great getting to know all the people that work on Havoc Fox and to watch the development.”
Give ArtBunny some love! Follow her on Twitter and come say hi to her in the official Havoc Studios Discord server!
That's all for now!
With SAGE behind us, we’re excited to keep moving forward! If you haven't already, be sure to follow us on Twitter @havocfoxgame. Join the conversation on the official Discord server. Support us on Patreon! Check out the original soundtrack and development live streams on our YouTube channel!
Thank you for reading the September edition of the Havoc Fox Newsletter. Stay safe, stay healthy, and we hope to see you again in October!