Finally getting some story in here!! It' still rough, but Punchy now has a scripted opening sequence to set up the story and give some context to the combat.

I remember when we started this version of SPF, I said I wouldn't write any scripted sequences. I didn't have a plan to get any narrative across other than the environments and character designs. Pretty silly in hindsight. We've always had the story planned, a classic save-the-community-center '80s/'90s feel-good romp. I finally came to terms with the fact that it would be hard to get the specifics across without dialogue, so I said fine! 

I played around a lot with the design of the scripted sequences. While I wanted to play specific lines of dialogue in a certain order, I didn't want to lock players into cutscenes or anything like that. I also wanted it to be easily skippable for players who don't care to engage with the story. We ultimately landed a system that feels natural; we just have speech bubbles above the characters when they're talking, while the player maintains full control. This means players can walk around, pick up stuff, and straight up leave during a conversation. You can interrupt the conversation with the first enemy and just start fighting him immediately.

This approach has some pros and cons. The main benefit is that it feels pretty immersive, as there is no modal change, and it's easily ignored by players who don't care. The main problem is that it can be easy for players to miss lines if they're not paying attention, or get everyone separated so you can't see them talking to each other in the same screen.

So there's still some kinks to work out. BUT, it's a really good start. We're gonna have a little musical stinger when the first enemy shows up, some little expressive animations for the characters when they're speaking, a new character design for Jaygo, and all sorts of other cute nonsense. This build also has a bunch of new prop art by MAVW, some gamefeel tweaks, and some new abilities for the enemies!

Look forward to some more polish on this bad boy ;p

- Drew