Still doing skills! Most of the day today I spent adding in graphics. Up until now I've done all the skills with no graphics at all (in fact, if you threw an axe, it would just toss a bunch of randomly cycling sprites from the original Loonyland!). But I really wanted to get the latest bunch of skills to have proper graphics so I could see how they really worked. So I made a few new graphics, all of which are represented, to some extent, in the montage above.
Upper-left is the Flame skill. It causes any successful hit with your axe to create a flame, which adds a little damage to the current guy, but more importantly, sits there for a while so other guys can step on it. Notice the one bear flat on his face. That's one of their attacks, they pounce on you like Werewolves.
Upper right is the Stone Spike spell. It's the first spell I've done. I meant it to be an attack skill (jumping and pressing jump again would slam you down to the ground, launching the spikes), but it was so powerful and interesting, I decided I'd move it to the spells instead. You probably recognize its style - Zombie Lords used to do it, and they learned it from Bjorn the Yeti. Each point in the skill adds 1 more spike at a time, so this shot is at level 6 (there's one heading straight down you can't really see).
Which left me an empty spot in the attack skills. So with a bit of thought, I decided that when you jumpjumped, you'd slam down and create a shockwave that knocks away, stuns, and damages all enemies around you. It's pretty Diabloesque, and it's called the Stomp skill. Like Stone Spike, it's way powerful. It costs a ton of Stamina to use (did I mention before that axe skills use up Stamina and magic spells use up Magic? It's true. Although the Flame skill actually costs Magic), and it's worth it. The shot of it is at level 6, and you can see how far away the victims are falling down. The ones still standing are the survivors. They're stunned. I really like how the ring looks (in action that is), but it doesn't get any bigger as you level it up, which is a bit odd. Those bears are collapsing without being touched by it.
The axes you see on the ground are actually either coins or equipment to collect. I don't know which, because currently all items are drawn as axes. That's some more graphics I haven't done. I also haven't put in the titles for the different zones, as you can see in the lower right.
