Progress Report: Last Post Before Closed Beta Playtesting! & New Features: Essences System, Demon Variants, Tutorials, and Mana Fountain

Hello everyone!

Today I want to share that we’re just a few days away from the start of closed beta playtesting for Magical Girl Azalea!

After a lot of hard work (and more than a few struggles), the game is almost ready to be tested by the community.

I’m currently wrapping up some very minor tasks, preparing the itch io page, doing internal playtesting, and making small adjustments to level design and UI.

There are also a few Easter eggs, plus the final artwork for the title screen and the save point asset.The demo is around 99% complete.

It’s been a long journey, and I want to sincerely thank everyone who has supported me and believed in this project.

Your encouragement means a lot.

I’ve finally finished all the features I originally planned for the demo, and I’m really happy that people will soon be able to try it out!

Today I’d like to showcase some of the last features I've been working on:

•Enemy Variants

•Collectible Essences,

•Tutorials

•Mana Fountain

I hope you like what you see!

Demon Variants

Demon Variants are extensions of the regular demons you find in game

you can detect them by their different color palette and extra movesets

they are supposed to be stronger versions of the usual enemies and are rarer to find, be very careful when you meet them! because they scale the challange up when they are around

In the demo you will find the "Elite Capra Demon", she's between a regular demon and a arch demon in the demon hierarchy

She has a very quick sequence of claw slashes after some wind up

and she can cast a ranged earth spell called "Earth Pike" which strikes the player from bellow.

Having the Capra Demon poise protection,deadly quick attacks while still having a ranged spell makes her a quite formidable and dangerous foe

Essence System

During her Joruney Azalea will often find some small particles around called "Essence" they are a collectible object that once picked can provide different effects depending on their Type, we got:

Life essences

Small clusters of life Energy that restores the character HP upon collection

Mana Essences

Small clusters of concentrated of pure Mana that restores the character MP upon collection

Memory Essences

A Essence that can stores memories of previous battles or discoveries, their true natrue is not fully known yet but they sometimes appear around the world, they increase the character EXP upon collection

Tutorials

To help new players with controls i've created a small system that display some tutorials and the current input registered on your keybind for the action that the tutorial is teaching you

this will help new players to get on board and have a easier time figuring out the controls

The System switches the current displayed keys once you swtich the input between the Keyboard and Controller

Mana Fountain

A new interactive crystal that stores a vast ammount of mana and can charge the character MP if attacked, use it to quickly restore your MP if you see one of them around

There's also a New Item: Purifying potion

A old version of a potion developed by humans to aid in the battle against demons, it reduces the Arousal and desire and helps to clear the mind and keep focus

While the arousal system doesn't is a bit incomplete for now, you can already reset your acumulated arousal with this item and prevent your mp loss on climax and reducing the grab escape difficulty

Whats Next?

My next post will be to announce the start of the closed beta testing, right now i'm doing some small adjusments and polishing while doing some solo playtesting

And i've been working on the titlescreen, savepoint and some easter egg assets that you will find on your exploration of the Ebonwood Region!

i'll start creating the itch io page soon, to prepare for the release after the closed beta

Thank you for your support along these months and i hope you enjoy what's coming next!

Aphrodisiac Water Hazard

The first level hazard mechanic for "Magical Girl Azalea" is now complete!

Meet the "Aphrodisiac Water"

"Do not mess around with the pink-colored water. Even though it looks cute, harmless, and smells wonderful… it will mess with your body." — Commentary by a Veteran Magical Girl

These shimmering pink pools are most likely the result of forest water sources tainted by plant-type demons living in the area.

Their roots slowly taint the water over time, turning it into this sweet-smelling, dangerous liquid.

While some enemies are immune, most humans and even many demons are highly susceptible to it.

Overall Moving through any water bodies (even shallow ones) slows down your movement speed, but the aphodisiac ones come with a extra effect on top of it:

Aphrodisiac water Effects:

•Rapidly corrodes any equipment that isn’t specially protected

•Applies strong arousal buildup + HP damage on contact

For the game's demo release we'll have the shallow version of it, which is:

•Wearing boots → Boots gradually take damage, but you are fully protected from arousal and HP loss

•No boots, but wearing tights → Tights slot equipment corrodes + you receive roughly half the arousal & HP damage

•No boots or tights → You suffer the full effect from the aphrodisiac

The Capra demons aren’t immune to this effect, so push them into the water and watch them squirm if you can

Whats next?

This, feature is almost complete and i just need a final run of testing and i'll proceed to the next features, which are:

•Gates and Gatekeepers

•Objects

•Player Current Target HUD

Thank you for following and supporting the project it means a lot, and i hope you have a nice week! 🙏

And see you soon!

The capra demon

Descendants and loyal underlings of Baphomet, these demons are sassy and rely on raw brute strength to overpower and dominate their foes. Watch out for her dashing strikes and ground-shaking counterattacks, she doesn’t play fair.

Over the millennia, demons have been heavily influenced by human culture. Capra Demons, in particular, have taken a strong liking to gyaru fashion and culture from the last human century, recently incorporating it into their own culture.

Development notes

This enemy is going to be the biggest time sink and bottleneck I still have to work on for the demo release.

She’s capable of:

1.Idling

2.Patrolling (moving left and right)

3.Performing 1~2 attacks

4.Dashing towards the player

5.Guarding

6.Counterattacking after guarding

7.Grabing the player

8.Sex

One of the toughest challenges for the demo will be getting her idle and walking animations just right they’ll be key to bringing her to life.

Once I’ve nailed those animations, I’ll jump into developing her AI. Stay tuned!