Danger around every corner

Unfortunately, unlike when I interviewed the musicians that composed our  Tricky Trials soundtrack, these two mobs were far less interested in talking to me, and much more interested in making me drop all of my inventory. Despite multiple attempts – including calling into the trial chambers at different times of day (perhaps they were just about to have their dinner?) 

Luckily for me Cory Scheviak, Senior Gameplay Designer, was much happier to have a chat, and didn’t try to hit me with an arrow even once! So, I decided to start off with the type of really tough questions that only serious interviewers ask:

If a bogged existed in real life, would you eat the mushrooms harvested from it? 

“Look, a mushroom is a mushroom”, says Cory, not even blinking before answering. I already don't know where most of the mushrooms from the grocery store come from - who's to say they don't come from a bogged?” 

I know I’m going to be checking my next packet of store-bought mushrooms very carefully. Shear-able mushrooms are one of the features that Cory loves the most about the bogged. He thinks it’s cute that us players and the bogged can have a wholesome interaction – whereby one of us grabs a pair of shears, and the other one relentlessly retaliates with poisoned arrows. Hang on a minute… 

Alongside those poisonous archers, you’ll also meet a mischievous new mob in the trial chambers called the breeze. Designing the breeze was a long journey, says Cory. “Sometimes the gameplay design comes before the art, sometimes the art comes before the design. In this case, design came before art, and we ended up wanting something that jumped around and could manipulate the world using wind.” 

In fact, the breeze’s wind charge not only triggers traps and levers around you, but it also sends you flying if you are unlucky enough to be at the receiving end of such a blast. And before you reach for your bow – did you know that it’s also immune to projectile attacks? I thought perhaps the breeze was undefeatable (at least it was for me!), but back in the early days of testing it had one crucial enemy:

“I think everyone has seen the breeze jump into a ceiling or wall at some point in the early versions,” says Cory. “And some people were concerned for the breeze  – I mean, that's gotta hurt, right? But I think it's pretty Minecrafty to watch the breeze try to jump and be thwarted by a wall. Their wind must not be strong enough!”  

One of my favorite things about the breeze (aside from its epic eyebrows) is the way it leaps so magnificently over you before delivering a powerful wind gust. I asked Cory whether the knockback and jump physics were difficult to parse out in the game, but he let me in on a little secret so long as I promised not to tell anyone.