Tamarak Trail Dev Diary offers insight into its monster design

Tamarak Trail, the upcoming turn-based dice-oriented deck-building roguelike from Yarrow Games and Versus Evil, has received the third and final entry in its Dev Diary video series. This last entry explores the creation of its enemy design, focusing specifically on the creation of the “Sluggard” foe.

Here you can see how every appendage and joint of Sluggard independently rendered, allowing for unique animations across every nook and cranny of the monster. Color layers are also kept separate from shadow, which combined with the 2D linework allows for quick color changes while retaining the fixed shading. See how the puppet tool allows for various layers to shift in unison with one another to create believable, fluid animations.

As a member of a secret society named the Sturgeon Lodge it’s up to you to piece together the mystery of a decaying earth, hunt down the source of this corruption and put a stop to it at all costs. Embarking on this adventure, you can choose one of three characters; The Magician, the Tracker or the Detective, each with their own unique abilities and traits. Depending on your preferred playstyle, the character’s different skills and attributes allow you to craft a unique strategy for your character as they navigate the ominous trail. Procedurally-generated paths create a myriad of possibilities where you can encounter events, monsters, campsites, treasure and more. Every new discovery reveals new bonuses and strategies to explore.

To combat the monsters and nefarious foes you’ll encounter, you’ll have to be tactical in your dice-building, as each face could mean the difference between victory or defeat. Different dice sides can be used to attack directly, apply buffs and debuffs, inflict damage over time, defend yourself, to “flip” them to another side for combo awesomeness and much more. You can even apply “dice cores” to secure passive abilities. You’re given direct control of your dice rolls, and getting them to smack together allows you to create killer combo attacks. In true deck-builder fashion, dice faces can be customized with more abilities after each victory, adding new attacks, defenses and combinations to take forward into future battles.