"Tiny Little Bastards" Developer Diaries #1: The Game

This is the first post of the "Developer Diaries" series I intend to write talking about the game "Tiny Little Bastards", currently being developed by my Indie Studio, Overlord Game Studio.

What's it about?

Tiny Little Bastards is a story of many things, but mainly about Love, Beer, Vikings, Cows and Flying Sheep. It tells how three siblings - Ivarr, Helga and Ubba - found themselves in the biggest mess they've ever seen and how they need to solve it. There is action, civil war, clans of smelly Goblins fighting each other and the vilest theft of the history of Bjorfold (the world where this story happens). This is a game strongly based on nonsense humor, be warned!

The narrative begins when Ivarr, Helga and Ubba, owners of the best tavern in the region, realize that all the olives in the storehouse are gone and they need to go to the Crossroads Village to buy some more. Until now, there's no big deal, right? But on their way back they hear rumors of a goblin invasion on the region and many villagers are reporting sightings of Goblins running with beer kegs coming from the Tavern. I will not go any further on the narrative so I don't give out any spoilers... you need to play the game after all! But I do promise that this story goes WAY beyond a simple theft on a small tavern near a small village...even though this came to be the worse of all thefts in Bjorfold. (You see... Bjorfold means Beer World... or at least it was supposed to mean that!)

Hell Yeah! Let's punch some Goblins!

How does it work?

Tiny Little Bastards is a 2D sidescroller platformer Action-RPG (ish) where you can chose one of the three siblings to start your adventure. Each of them has a different set of skills and stats that creates an unique feeling to the gameplay. 

- Crafting and Trinkets

Gameplay differences are enhanced by the Trinket System and the Crafting System that are strongly tied together. The player must find crafting material inside the dungeons so they can create powerful trinkets or generate higher level materials. The trinkets can be socketed on the many skills the player will learn along the game and improve the way that skill works, thereby some trinkets may add, for example, poison damage to an attack or may spawn a piano filled with annoying rabbits that will fall on enemies crushing their tiny little heads (mwaahahaha!).

Every trinket, as every enemy, has a ruling element that dictates the type of damage it will cause. There are eight unique elements in the game: Fire, Nature, Death, Blood, Tech (Technology), Hair, Music and Frost. Each of them is resistant to other two and vulnerable to other two. For example: Nature resists Technology and Death, but is vulnerable to Fire and Frost.  

Crafters with different specialities will be unlocked as the game progresses and will craft the trinkets if the player has all the materials needed and some ... gold... crafters also need to eat, don't they!??

The fun part is that this whole system is mixed with lots of platformer challenges and skillful enemies and HUGE bosses and weird but awesome environments (a dungeon inside a giant pumpkin!? Hell yeah!) and funny NPCs and ... Well, I hope you'll love it just like I do!

The Drunken Sailor's Bay and the Tavern

- Skill Upgrades and "Orbs"

Every skill the player uses will have an upgrade that will be available on an NPC store. To buy the upgrades the player will have to collect what we're calling "Orbs" (this name will change soon) and trade them for the items that will upgrade the skills. These "Orbs" will be scattered around the world and may also be rewards for some minor in-game challenges.

- Player choices and progression

Throughout the game, a main objective will be shown to the player in his journal, that is the main storyline. But many NPCs will have different stories and missions to the player, even if these missions are not really shown as oficial missions. Does anybody remember when in "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past" the old witch tells you that she needs an ingredient for her magic potion but no "quest" info is shown on the map or anywhere else, but if you bring her the mushroom, she'll reward you!? Well.. That's the kind of side mission I'm talking about! (but a little more elaborated). The choice of following a side mission/story or the way you chose to do it may add some cool elements and some minor changes to the gameplay itself. (Will you help an old man capture a forest creature muggler or will you accept some gold coins from the creature's father to leave it alone? How will the old man react to that? Will the monster grow into a hard-as-hell to kill mini-boss? Who knows!)

Besides side missions and side stories, in some ocasions the player will be presented with some dialogue choices that may or may not alter the outcome of some events in the game. This whole choice system makes every gameplay a new experience and opens up space for replayability (you have 3 different characters to play the whole game with after all!) 

Sorry for the poor gif quality.

I think this covers the basics of Tiny Little Bastards for the moment! If you have any questions, please leave comments or go to our social media pages!

See you guys soon!

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