I want to share with you a cool visual feature for Chimera Box that we've been working on lately.

In the game, players control tiny test subjects that are genetically modified with animal DNA to become super soldiers. So, for example, a player with cheetah DNA runs faster, a player with dart frog DNA can shoot poisoned bullets, and a player with armadillo DNA gains a protective barrier.

So far, we have created a pool of 25 unique abilities. During a game, each player typically gains four powers. That translates to 12,650 unique power combinations, a number that gets bigger with each new ability that we add to the game. It is a core idea in the game, as we want players to experiment with different styles of play.

To have this mechanic stand out, we decided that mutations also have to be visual, rather than only mechanical. For example, if you select the tiger mutation, you may get a tiger tail or a tiger head. To make this happen, I'm now in the process of creating a whole bunch of sprite sheets for each animal body part (head, shoulders, hands, legs, and tail).

To create a strong visual impact, we rank body parts by importance. So when you select the camel mutation, you're probably going to get a hump - a shoulders item - as it is the body element that is ranked the highest for the camel mutation. If a different shoulder item is already assigned (e.g., bee wings), you'll be given a different body part. This feature means that the order in which you get the powers affect the way your character ends up looking.

One of our goals for the game is to create a sense of history through gameplay, and this new feature fits into this vision quite well. We hope the new visual mutations will create a more immersive experience for players and can't wait to see you all try it in our upcoming demo.





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Happy experimenting!