Studio Umai

@sara.studio-umai.com.ap.brid.gy

Solo developer of Resolute Bay, a horse-themed turn-based RPG coming soon to Steam 🐎 🌉 bridged from ⁂ https://www.studio-umai.com/, follow @ap.brid.gy to interact

This month I've been tweaking the UI for encounters again, putting in some fun transitions between levels and adding a new character into the main game.

Resolute Bay - August Development Updates

## UI Updates After watching some more playthroughs of the game, I've been making some changes to the encounter menus so they're hopefully both clearer and easier to navigate. First, I've redesigned the character HUD to make the characters' states and how certain behaviours will change them more prominent. The behaviour menu is redesigned, so it's (hopefully!) easier to see what's a cost/requirement for the behaviour to be used and which moves are strong/weak against the opponent. I've also taken some inspiration from other JRPGs and ditched the scrolling list for a tabbed view which should be faster to use. Lastly, by popular request, I've put in a reference table for how type strengths and weaknesses relate to the opponent's state. This should make it easier to plan out strategies against different opponents. ## Transition Effects A small but fun change! Rather than simply fading to/from black, the following transitions will play on changing areas or starting an encounter. ## New Character A crafty fox is coming to the full game! He's been causing trouble in the upper areas of the forest, and it's up to the Resolute Bay to track him down and restore order. Crafty Fox - What is he up to??? See you next month for another round of updates!

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Encounters in Resolute Bay are based on natural responses animals have to threats and danger. Here, I'm going to dig into the Fight-Flight-Freeze state mechanics.

Resolute Bay - Fight, Flight or Freeze?

In Resolute Bay, characters will always be in a Fight, Flight or Freeze response state during an encounter. These states change how a character behaves during the encounter. In particular: 1. by changing the character's **underlying stats**(Bravery, Resilience and Agility) 2. by changing the character's **weaknesses and resistances** to different types of behaviours 3. by changing the **behaviours** the character is able to use Fight, Flight and Freeze responses affect how a character behaves during an encounter In general, the **Fight** state pushes a character towards **going on the offensive** while **Freeze** can be useful when you want to take a more **defensive approach**. **Flight** sits somewhere in between, giving characters a **turn order advantage** and access to **more technical behaviours**. Bears tend to adopt a Fight response, but what happens when you put them into a Flight state...? Like in real life, animals in Resolute Bay have a natural tendency towards one of the three response states. For example, bears default to a Fight response. However, an animal's state can change as an encounter plays out, such as in response to how much Resolve they have compared to their opponent. As you progress in the game, you'll learn behaviours that can change states - you might even find yourself using all three within the same encounter! > **So, are you team Fight, Flight or Freeze? Play the Resolute Bay demo to try all the states!** Play the Demo

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I've updated the Resolute Bay Demo with some major changes to encounters and behaviours, and knocked off a few bugs in the process. Check it out!

Resolute Bay Demo Update

## Encounters ### Behaviour Types Behaviours now have their own types separate from the Fight/Flight/Freeze state you’re in. The new types are: * **Neutral** - a standard behaviour that has no state affinities * **Fearful** - works well against opponents in Flight * **Aloof** - works well against opponents in Fight * **Dominant** - works well against opponents in Fight or Flight * **Confident** - the only type that has an advantage against opponents in Freeze! ### Learning Behaviours After each encounter you’ll now learn all of the abilities your opponent used, not just a random one. ### Character Designs I’ve redesigned all of the characters to have their own logic for what moves they’ll use in an encounter. This makes each encounter more like a mini puzzle to work out how to get opponents to use certain behaviours (so you can in turn learn them!). ### Player Attributes After levelling up you can now assign points to the attributes you want to upgrade (Bravery, Resilience and Agility). ## Menu redesign The menus have had a bit of an overhaul along the way, so it’s easier to see which characters you’ve encountered and how many of their behaviours you’ve learned. It should also be easier to find the behaviours you want in an encounter. Mouse and keyboard support is also massively improved, with all menus now supporting keyboard navigation! ## Bug fixes * Fixed issues where you could load out of bounds into a level * Fixed crashing issues * Fixed bug in applying user settings * * * If you want to try out the new updates, head over to the demo on Steam: Play the Demo

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