Howdy all! I'm trying out a new type of content for Patrons! I wanna start doing "Behind The Scenes" type posts that'll serve as mini dev-logs, but might not always cover things in active development! This'll also be a nice way to talk about what I'm working on and show off more stuff, kinda like progress reports but wider in scope.
This one will be mostly just be ramblings about random things I have cut from the game, and why!
Cut Classes
Bubblemancer
This class was gonna be a magic user class that specialized in Bubblegum elemental attacks! The main gimmick would've bene that each attack you do adds a "Chewing" stack to foes that causes them to take damage scaling with their number of stacks each turn.
Some moves would've also interacted with these, like an ability that lets you inflate a foe from inside, scaling with their number of Chewing stacks.
I had ideas for this class to mainly be a sort of damage-over-time class with some support options (chewable gums for buffs, some utility with it's own "Sticky" type bind ailment", etc.) but ultimately decided to cut it since I thought Poppeteer was a stronger DoT class fantasy and something people would enjoy more.
Bubblemancer was definitely my favorite of the cut class ideas, and I might rework it's abilities into a specific subset of skills any of the magical caster classes can use eventually if there's interest!
Rogue
Rogue was one of the earliest classes I had planned, and it would've focused primarily on utillity abilities and physical damage. The idea was that rogue had access to abilities that would exploit vulnerabilities in enemies such as elemental damage amplification, as well as many of it's attacks ignoring the enemy's defense.
I also had ideas for critical hits, similar to Gunslinger's mechanic, that would've boosted your damage and efficacy of certain traps. The class would've had access to things like a smokescreen to lower enemy accuracy, and traps to bind them.
I ultimately decided to cut this class as I thought it was too item dependent, when options like blimp bombs were already designed and available to all classes. I took some of the cut ideas and used them for Duelist, though!
Sculpter
Sculpter would've been a summoner class that made inflatable golem gals out of soft, elastic clay. The idea was for there to be different type of summons available depending on what environment you were in, or you could summon them manually at a resource cost.
This one didn't receive too much development beyond that, and was ultimately scrapped in favor of Druid since they both would've played similar roles.
Tinkerer
Tinkerer was another summoner class, but this one would be a mix of a physical fighter and a summoner. The idea was for tinkerer to set up automatically attacking air compressors that would latch onto foes to inflate them! The tinkerer themself would have access to abilities to overdrive summons to make them stronger, or to directly attack using more advanced pumps.
This class was really just cut because I forgot about it and moved in favor of more interesting classes back when I was brainstorming ideas.
Flautist
Flautist was my idea for a bard type class, and would've built up notes by using different abilities, kinda like Monster Hunter's hunting horn. The idea was for it to primarily focus on buffing allies & using buffs/debuffs to weaken enemies.
I ultimately scrapped the class because I thought mechanically it was a bit too similar to Sorcerer's already existing mechanics.
Cut Elements
Way back in like 2023 when I was working on initial systems like the list of elements, I had actually planned out quite a few extras. Things such as cream, slime, and blueberry would've been their own elements that battlers could have different resistances to.
I had ideas for a class that would've used like milk & marshmallow to inflate foes, but it didn't really go anywhere before I decided things like slime & blueberry were better off just being status ailments. I also thought a class based around milk/lactation might've been a little out of place compared to the lewdness of other parts of the game.
That said, I do plan to make things more spicy going forwards, so maybe it'll come back eventually!
Overworld Bosses
When working on the 1.3 story rewrites back in like February of last year, I had originally planned for each of the five chapter bosses to be live action fights. That is to say they would've had live action puzzle mechanics you would have to solve in order to get a damage phase where you could inflate the boss in a stunned state.
For example, the first boss was wind themed and the arena was lined with bellows. She'd send gales after you that would track your location, and she'd stand on a ledge above the opposite bellows to watch. Ariana would run to the bellows and together you could pump it at the right time to launch the gales back into the boss and inflate her with her own attack!
The overworld boss idea was ultimately scrapped just because I thought it wouldn't be very fun to have the most climactic bosses in the story not actually be fought with the skills & stats you'd accrued on your journey.
A few of these mechanics have been set aside for use in future side-dungeons, though they'll be general puzzles rather than boss mechanics.
Open-World Elements
Progression
When originally working on Swelladia, I had wanted the game to be an open world life/survival sandbox without a main questline. As such, I had actually planned on the player being able to start in a variety of different places and progress from there.
For example, you would've been able to start in Greeha, at a farmhouse settlement out in the forest, or on the coastal village. Each would've had its own questline to get you ready for the general areas beyond them, and as you got further from settlements the game would progress in difficulty.
World Bosses
Another idea related to this was world bosses. These would've been multi-quest questlines that led to an encounter with a more difficult boss at the end that would've rewarded you with incredibly strong legendary equipment.
The first one I had planned was a dragoness who had been abducting people to form a treasure trove of balloons in her cavern, and if you lost she would've had you join the party >:D
The main reason I don't plan on doing these anymore is they don't really fit with the planned structure going forwards from 1.3. You'll only be spending about 10 levels in each area of the world, and fitting in larger bosses like these on top of the main questline/chapter bosses feels a bit too cluttered.
Miscellaneous Stuff
I always wrestle with the idea of going back to a more open-world setting like this, rather than having a main story. I think it would be a lot of fun & open up more medium-length questlines with new characters, and a greater risk of seeing your allies pop in the plot.
I really like the idea of inflation elements in a normal sort of adventuring life sim, similar to a game like Elin/Elona. These are my favorite type of game and I really enjoy that kind of "new adventure" vibe games like that have.
Another advantage would've been shorter updates, as I can release bits of content whenever I feel an update has enough, rather than sticking to a chapter plan like I have outlined for future updates.
I do quite like the story I have written, but I often consider if it's the right call to go that route or to have a sort of decentralized world like I had originally planned. The current story I have could reasonably be cut up into short regional questlines as well without too much work.
Especially as I continue job searching I feel like I would have more time for this in the future, as it's definitely shorter in scale.
Old Romance System
For the original romance system, I never had gone too in-depth with the idea since it's very low on my list of priorities, but I did have an idea of what I wanted to do. Basically, for romanceable characters you would've had randomized missions that would pop up and progressing them would boost your affinity with a character.
Eventually you would've been able to ask them out on a date, the contents of which would be randomized to keep things fresh. I ultimately cut this as I felt like it was kinda sloppy, and too heavily leaning on a "quantity over quality" type of gamplay.
The modern plan for romance, whenever I get around to it, is for each character's romance system to be it's own questline you can progress. Once you finish it you'll be able to have them move into your house and unlock more dialogue, all that good stuff.
That's about all I've got for this one! If you wanna know more about anything like this, leave a comment! If I get enough there'll be another one of these pretty soon C: