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[Kamani]

Makes sense. Will that be doable soon, or no? If no, I’ll think up a different enemy for now, and just use this later.

[IndigoFenix]

It'll probably take some time.  I'm not entirely sure how it will work.

[Kamani]

Okay. I’ll figure out some other effect for this enemy then. Thanks for the... information I guess? Not entirely sure how to phrase that.

Edit: Seem to have found a workaround for the lag. I switched it to jumping every four frames (using an on create loop). Could look odd if teleported more than like 4 blocks, but will generally be fine.
The debuff will only apply to the player (because it isn't actually any kind of functional effect), but otherwise, should work just fine. It resets the lifetime on hit, but doesn't stack (because multiblind is just not needed).

[IndigoFenix]

That was a lot easier than I expected it to be.  It sure is nice when things work out smoothly.  You can add layers now (and also destroy them simply by targeting them with the "destroy object" event).  Dynamic layers do not have independent names, so you must save them as a variable to reference them later.

I've been doing some experimenting with composite effects and boy does it open up a ton of possibilities for cool graphic effects.  (I kind of added them all at the same time just because they all happen to be options for canvas drawing operations, without really understanding how they work.)  Here's a page with detailed explanations.  Combined, these allow you to create a ridiculous number of possible graphical effects, which will be a lot of fun for making cool-looking spells and such.

I added a packaged lighting effect for caves.  It allows you to place light sources (with adjustable sizes) or apply them as status effects, making the rest of the room show up black.  It is also designed so that if you have a foreground layer called dark_layer, it will use that layer as the dark layer instead, so you can make stuff like mobile smoke or hidden passages that open up a circular "cutout" around you when you walk behind the foreground tiles.  It's pretty flexible.

[Kamani]

Wow, that was fast. Good that it went well. Thanks for adding it. I’ll have to update the effect to use it.

Yeah, I was messing around with some of those yesterday. Exclude on a solid white object is fun, as were things like hue on non-solid white objects.

Neat. I’m looking forward to trying this out.

Edit: Golem has been fixed, snakes lunge, and sand dragons blind (and inflict a minor disadvantage status effect (including on non-players)). Now I just need to figure out a forth.
Edit: Unless I use sand slime in the first half instead. The second half will probably have a miniboss anyways (I'm planning on using the same style of dungeon here as Lusuria, besides the town in the middle of the trial (After you beat the trial, you'll be able to go to it without doing the first half). Not all of the Trials will do this, but I'm not sure of how many dungeon formats there really are. Any advice on dungeon formats, while I'm thinking about it?).
Edit: Actually, the sand slime doesn't work too well thematically in the cave, so I think I'll go with something else.

[IndigoFenix]

In general, it's a good idea to have 3 exits to your world: A public entrance, an easy exit that has a few sparks in between, and the true exit for completion of the dungeon.  This setup reduces the probability that the player will be "stuck" in your world and forced to exit to the main menu (which can happen if two worlds where the only way out is back the way you came wind up connected to each other), and also lets you gain a couple of sparks from players who are just passing through and already completed the dungeon.  Of course sometimes this design doesn't make sense (like when the "world" is just one building) but it's something to think about.

Most dungeons seem to go for the in-and-out structure, putting a town in the middle is interesting.  Some popular dungeon "shapes" I've seen over the years:

Straight course from start to finish
Get to the middle and find a way back
"Find the key" sidepaths where you need to backtrack to the main path after getting the key/hitting the switch/doing something that lets you progress
The same as the above, but instead of forcing you to backtrack there is an easy exit that puts you back on the main path once you have completed the sidepath (preferable - backtracking is usually boring)
You can make backtracking more interesting by designing it to be played differently depending on which way you are coming from, so it "feels" like you are playing a new area even when the area is technically the same.  This is rare but cool when it is done well.
"Hub" dungeons where you need to find several keys to progress

When you think about it, most adventure games follow one of these formats in their entirety.  Isn't a "collect the keystones" game basically just a really big "hub" dungeon?  "Every world is a temple for its inhabitants and a dungeon for its gods..."

Anyway...as for a sand-themed enemy, maybe something that burrows in the sand and pops out to attack or throw stuff at you.  Or zombies.  The undead seem to be popular in deserts for some reason.

[Kamani]

That should be pretty easy to do for this one. I’ll have to think about it for Lusuria (adding more exits should be easy, just not the couple of sparks on the way part. Might skip that there).

I figured that I didn’t want to have it just be the exact same shape. Plus, a town makes a more interesting rest stop then a single generic rest room.

I’ll have to think about these more as I continue. Hadn’t really considered it before.

Thinking about it, my whole project is a hub dungeon. Although it isn’t the classic “Hero must gather N artifacts to stop bad guys from summoning the (insert ultimate evil enemy here). But inevitably, after all N artifacts are gotten, the (repeat insert ultimate evil) is summoned anyway so that the hero can dramatically defeat them instead of just sealing them away.”

That should work well. I’ll have to look for some art for them, since what we have now isn’t quite right.

Edit: Wish there was any real 4-way scorpion art on OpenGameArt. Unless I am unusually oblivious today, there is none.

[IndigoFenix]

I added a shake effect.  It can be applied to sprites or rooms, though with rooms it only works if there is space for the camera to move.  That should be improved I think.

I couldn't find a 4-way scorpion sprite either, but I did find one that was nice for free-rotation.  I made a scorpion enemy that uses it.  There's one of them in the palace dungeon.

[Kamani]

Cool. That should be good for some neat effects.

Okay. Thanks for looking. I’ll take a look at it. It might work well.

[IndigoFenix]

I added an option to give status effects a maximum number of stacks, and also a checkbox to determine if they should persist between rooms or not.  There was a way to do this before inside the create function, but this option simplifies it.

[Kamani]

Okay. Thanks. That should really help.

Edit: Minor text glitch sorta?: If you have text that appears character by character, and you have a word that would go past a line and thus gets moved to the next line, it starts on the first line, and then only goes to the next line when the text gets that far. For an example, the middle left Royal Guard in the second room of Throne Room has the word come start on the first line and then jump down to the second (although it happens fast and is easy to miss). It looks kind of odd.

Edit: Scorpion monster is possibly completed? Not sure if I'll keep their design. They have a standardish stinging damage attack, and a special teleport that also uses the sting attack that activates at a 100 minimum range.
Fun to mix with the blinding dragon though.
I should probably nerf their damage, either way. This set of mobs was sort of supposed to be easier, since they are earlier in the Trial dungeons. ... Again, actually, since I seem to recall that this happened in early Lusuria design (which makes more sense placed where it is, thankfully).
I'll keep thinking about it.

Edit: I can't seem to properly type decimals or negatives in the Set box for status effect modifiers? I typed in 0.05 (you can't start with a negative, just like you can't start with a decimal point), but it just turned into 5. After some more messing around, I managed to get it to work either by typing 0.5 and then adding the 0 and negative sign, or by just copy-pasting it in. I guess it doesn't like to have 0.0 typed in, so it resets when you have that.

Edit: Hmm, I think the dragon enemy needs a second skill. Too flat right now. Maybe something similar to Umbra's dragon flying attack?
Edit: Yeah, that seems to be okay.

Edit: Is there a way to use greater than or equal to (and less than or equal to) in if statements without doing something like Is n > 10 | n = 10?

[IndigoFenix]

Yes, n >= 10.  n !< 10 also works.

I like what you did with the scorpion. The dissolve effect works well as a teleport, or an ambush.

Maybe the dragon should be a "sand dragon"?  I might make an enemy scan at some point.

I'm working on making better options for weapons.  Making them is quite a pain right now and it should be more automatic, at least for things that follow the general format of "stick you hit enemies with".

[Kamani]

Okay, that should be helpful. Thanks!

Thanks. Glad that turned out decently. I'm using it as a teleport (because I already have golems as an ambush mob, mostly. I might make a way in the package to let them also work as an ambush mob, but I don't know if I want two different ambush mobs in one world).

Good idea. Thanks. I never really got around to naming them (since I just decided to use the dragon sprite and then the rest of what they ended up doing just ended up happening), so that'll work nicely.
An enemy scan would be pretty neat. Not sure how it would work, considering how many different ways you can design an enemy, but it would be cool nonetheless.

Makes sense. Once there are some good options, maybe I should use a proper weapon (instead of just a damage multiplier like my sword) in one of the Trials to mix things up. Either way, should be neat.

Edit: First attempt for the Sand Slime (Sand Mimic?) is done. On a 5 second cooldown, it transforms into any other enemy, attacks with either of the two enemy attacks, and then transforms back. It isn't super dangerous (5 second cooldown on one attack), but it is a little less predictable then normal.
I don't know whether this will be interesting to fight or no, so it might end up replaced. Either way, I don't actually need them for the first half of the dungeon, so tomorrow, the actual dungeon building should start.

[IndigoFenix]

Only issue I can see with the sand slime is that you already have a shapeshifting boss. It's a cool gimmick but can easily feel repetitive if overused without an in-game reason (I plan on making a single shapeshifting character who shows up in multiple worlds, basically a classical trickster).

Some other ideas for a sand themed boss: slowing down the player with quicksand tiles, a sandstorm attack that obscures visibility or forces the player to find shelter, summoning sand minions (colorisation could help here), hiding under the sand.  Maybe even a "puzzle boss" for an ancient ruins feel (if that's the overall aesthetic you're going for).

[Kamani]

Sand slimes were actually supposed to be a standard enemy, albeit one that only appeared a few times. That’s why they have pretty low life. The bosses for this Trial will be a dragon and a different sand boss (Who creates the sand slimes Spids’s Sorcery style), and a very large golem miniboss. I guess transforming isn’t really a standard enemy gimmick. Guess I made another shocker spider miniboss. I guess I’ll make a different 5th enemy for post-caves.

But I’m probably still using some of these for the actual Hiekka boss. Don’t think this one’ll end up a puzzle boss, although I should consider doing one of those.