CrossCode DevLog: Next Milestone and new Portraits

Hello everyone!

Our last updated from April 1st included a couple of changes we decided to undo after all. :P
All joking aside though, there is a little bit of truth to the whole story: We do plan to improve the portraits!
Also: today we announce the release date for Milestone 0.6 and tell you what you can expect.

Improved Portraits

Now, except for the obvious mask covering the face – did you notice anything different about the April Fools portraits?

comparsonA

Well, let’s take off that mask!

faceReveal

It’s a new shiny and polished portrait!

Most reviews praise CrossCode’s pixel art style and we’re very happy about that! Still, occasionally we received feedback that the character portraits are somewhat lacking in comparison to the smaller sprites and environment graphics. Of course, it’s impossible to be perfect in all respects and that’s ok! And while it’s tempting to fix every problem, overdoing this tends to block actual progress and delays the final release.

Yet, there is something critical about the current state of the portraits: It has a very strong impact on the first impression. In some instances people mentioned that they were initially “put off” by CrossCode, because they didn’t like the look of the portraits. In the end it’s the characters that will grab your attention first.

That’s why we decided to revise our existing portraits. However, to make sure this won’t delay our progress all that much, we got some help: Marty and Gran of 10G Coin (creators of The Island and Springtime Warfare) join our team! Both being very talented artists, they help us with polishing the character designs and updating all the assets.

And these are the results so far:

lea-comparison

shizuka-comparison

sergey-comparison

carla-comparison

Other graphics will be improved as well, for instance Lea within the character menu:

menu-comparison

It will take some time to update all existing characters and their expressions. That’s why we can’t promise to release the new expressions with the next milestone. However, it will happen soon!

What do you think? How do you like the new portraits? For real this time. :D

Milestone 0.6

It’s about time we release a new version of CrossCode for real. However, you’ll have to wait a little bit longer. That’s because milestone 0.6 is going to be HUGE.

This milestone will include:

  • Maroon Valley – an expansive new environment beating both Bergen Trail and Autumn Rise in size
  • Ba’kii Kum – a new village you will find within Maroon Valley
  • Faj’ro Temple – a complete new dungeon full with puzzles and boss fights
  • 10+ new enemies (…including the boss fights!)
  • The cold element
  • More quests and NPCs within Rookie Harbor and Bergen
  • Improve Trading and Shopping Menu – you can finally sell items!
  • Improved party member AI

It is essentially like merging two updates in one, really.

That’s why we’ll need a bit longer:
We will release Milestone 0.6 in the Beginning of May.

Hi-Lights

Finally, let’s end today’s DevLog with a couple of images of our recent development!

dungeon-parallax-animationThis is Faj’ro Temple from far away, now with animation!

dungeon-exterior-entranceAbout time to enter the dungeon! This map will still be improved.

quicksand-fallthroughA small impression of the puzzles inside Faj’ro Temple.

map-beginningMeanwhile, R.D. started working on the new village – Ba’kii Kum…

GIF-SMALL.. and also on finally implementing a proper shop menu – with selling option!

And that’s all for today’s update. We still got a lot to do, so April will be very busy.

Until next time!

23 Comments

  • Darternight on April 3, 2016 at 7:05 pm said:

    THIS IS AMAZING!

  • Needs more parallax.

  • Fantastic.

    To be honest, I was perfectly fine with the old portraits. However the new ones are great and definitely well polished, making the characters look even better. The shine is the most noticeable is a marked improvement.

    Can’t wait for the new area and a continued story. Keep up the great work.

  • Nice, that portrait update was a great move!

  • AMAZING!

    I’m anxious for the final release. Would the 1.0 version be the released version then? If yes, then the game is already half finished (well, kinda)!

    I’m liking the new character portraits. That being said, Carla’s new portait is on a whole other level compared to the first one, I mean look at that rack!

    • Hi!
      Unfortunately the versions don’t correspond to percent completion. So we might jump from version 0.8 to 1.0 or have incomplete versions until 0.12 etc.

  • I really like the new portraits except the one for Lea. I don’t know, i think she’s cuter in the old version :(

  • I like the old Lea and Carla better.
    Lea’s eyes are better in the old version and I don’t like that one horn is light gray and the other is very dark grey, they should be the same. On Carla the nose is very strange and her face is too wide like it was flattened. Other than that they look good. A question I have is will the shock element be purple or yellow? It was not decided in the last CrossQuestion. Keep up the great work.

  • I prefer the old portraits. The new one are strange. Like they are from another game. Or from a texture pack made by a completely different texturing tool. I think that they don’t fit the rest of the game. Even if the armor part look cool.

  • Roblodon on April 5, 2016 at 3:55 am said:

    The portraits look so.. different compared to the old ones.

  • KazeMemaryu on April 6, 2016 at 8:38 am said:

    I haven’t been here in a really long time (had my reasons)… wait, didn’t I write that last time, too?
    Either way, seeing your progress and all those cool additions at once has me unspeakably excited for the finished game! This project is exceeding my expectations with a double flip!
    Also, while I love the new portraits (makes the characters look a bit more mature), some people here seem unimpressed. Maybe a “portrait style” option might solve that, depending on how you’re going to include new portraits/expressions from now on.
    Either way, keep on rocking, Radical Fishes!

  • AsisKotsuro on April 6, 2016 at 1:42 pm said:

    I REALLY hope we can get those portraits back in the completed version as an Easter egg, I absolutely loved it!! Omg please I hope it stays as an unlockable or something xDD

  • I actually prefer the old portrait style a bit – the new ones look certainly more ‘polished’, but consequently also smoother and more convenient. I consider the well-made, but still simplistic old faces with less colors as more unique for Cross-Code.

    But I understand that the smoother style, which is closer to many other Retro-RPGs known by many people, easier appeals to bigger audiences, and this is very important, too.

  • xX_ProGamer_Xx on April 8, 2016 at 3:58 pm said:

    Are you planning a multiplayer mode for CrossCode?

  • Would it be possible to have both, the old and new portaits in the final game, and an option to change them?

  • joseph ricktor on April 9, 2016 at 6:23 pm said:

    any more story in this update?

  • so lea got a little upgrade on her breasts

  • is the multiplayer seprate to the game where you can pick the other classes like the tri-blader

  • Myglasseye060 on April 23, 2016 at 9:44 pm said:

    THE HYPE IS UNREAL!

  • Any plans on shops that sell trade stuff so the players won’t have to grind tens of hours just to trade for a bubblebelt or something? or get places like observatory where you can get a ton of enemies without running back and forth. Repeatable quest where you hunt fauna to get flora can be also a good idea.

    • No we prbably won’t add such shops, because they would kinda defeat the purpose of trading. However we do increased the drop rates from enemies that are harder to kill, so these more rare items are now easy to get.

      • Yay.
        in real MMO you always have players that sells grindable stuff so my point was to place a “player” npc who sells headphone scraps or solid bubbles or wtv for big chunk of cash to give an alternative to players who don’t want to kill thousands of mobs to finish a quest or trade for better gear.

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