Had some downtime the past couple of days and have been in a creative/medieval mood, so I did a lot of work on the Barbarian game. Added some new weaponry and the option to breathe fire and bite people. I added The Mouth Of Sauron as an enemy, and did some tweaking on a character based on Perseus’ stepfather from Clash Of The Titans, who bleeds scorpions when you damage him.

I also experimented with a type of unit I had in mind to create a while ago but hadn’t figured out what genre it belonged too. I adapted the idea for the Barbarian game in the form of holographic swords that move at lightning speed. Conceptually, the idea was to have a swarm of fighters that move instantly to a target, surround it, mow it down with firepower until it’s destroyed, and then instantly surround the next nearest target until all targets are gone and the fighters instantly shift to surrounding you in a defensive position. Teleporting would have been preferable, but the programming to simulate teleportation would have created strict limitations, but using the Follower tool at maximum speed and acceleration creates the effect of teleportation pretty closely, especially with the object made out of holographic material so that it can pass through solid objects.

Anyways, I tested out the Living Sword units as a group and the results were every bit as cool as I had imagined, and surprisingly hilarious. Picture a swarm of light-up bees attacking something at several times the normal speed, stopping suddenly for a breather, then attacking again, and you’ve got some idea of what it looks like.

I’m undecided on what colours I want them to come in though. When they form a defensive perimeter around the Barbarian, in large numbers, and with blade pointing out they create an interesting star effect, which makes me think reds, yellows and oranges might be nice.