Welcome, drifters! We’re about three weeks away from Alpha Demo #3, releasing September 3rd, 2021. If you haven’t visited Drifter Dynasty‘s current game page, check it out here! It has been quite a while since I’ve blogged about a particular feature in-depth, so what better way to hype up the next demo than with showing the new headlining addition.

Melee Combo System

Typical melee combat in Drifter Dynasty. In development. Eric Ramos.

This screenshot above shows The Drifter (left) duking it out with a generic goon (right). Now more similar to ranged combat in presentation, melee combat is shown on another plane of the display. This was done in an effort to establish consistency between melee and ranged combat, but also to isolate the new rhythm minigame that represents melee combat.

Fight to the Rhythm

Melee combo system rhythm minigame isolated. In development. Eric Ramos.

If you’re at least a bit confused about what’s going on in the revamped melee combat, don’t sweat it! I personally have never seen a rhythm minigame embedded in a strategy RPG (SRPG), but I feel that all of the work and progress on this fusion will culminate in engaging and unique gameplay. Let’s break it down with the image above!

• A track holds the notes, orange and black ones in this case, as they scroll right-to-left. The notes’ color corresponds to each character, e.g. orange for The Drifter.
• As each note enters the yellow section of the track, we press a key to issue that command to The Drifter.
• We have a selection wheel to the left of this track that serves as a reminder of the possible options we have for taking down our opponent.
• Bookending the character sprites, we have a command history for each combatant. These serialize the options, so that the player can make informed decisions while stringing together combos.

New Generation of Marketing

Playable cast of the Prologue Chapter, Individual Character Art: Madison Branch, Composition: Eric Ramos.

With the third demo right around the corner, I’ve also begun creating and updating promotional material. The composition above was my latest effort to concisely display the playable cast for the upcoming demo. I’ll continue to tweet this sort of promotional art, so be sure to check out my Twitter to stay up to date.

For convenience, I’ve also consolidated all of the relevant websites and social media for Drifter Dynasty into a handy Linktree. As more avenues for marketing open up, I’ll be sure to update that! The project will also be transitioning to one blog post per month, effective next month. In other words, art updates will be streamlined into monthly updates. and we’ll finally feature more in-depth sound direction! Until then, stay well and drift on!