**Every form gets its own voice: cries for two Pawn lines**
Pawnbound's monsters now have cries, and here are two whole lines of them.
In the clip: - A steel hermit crab line and a dragon wyrmling line, five forms each - Each form's cry plays in turn, from stage 1 to stage 5 - The cry plays over that form's sprite, so you can match voice to creature
Every Pawn has its own cry, so you can tell who is in front of you before the name appears. Two lines are shown here, not the full roster, and the sounds are still being worked on.
Which one sounds the most menacing to you?
**First music loops for Pawnbound**
Pawnbound has had sound effects and cries for a while. Now it has the first four music loops too.
In the clip they play one after another, with their names on screen: - **Title**: organ and choir - **Saltmere**: strings and a bell - **Route 1**: a reedy flute
The mood is the same as the look of the game: old, lonely and a bit damp, with a few warm notes breaking through the gloom.
These are first loops, not the finished soundtrack. They'll change as we hear them next to the places they belong to.
Headphones recommended.
**The look of Pawnbound: pixel-art monsters in small 3D worlds**
Here's a first look at the visual style we're building towards: dark HD-2D. Pixel-art characters and monsters stand as sprites inside small 3D scenes with real lighting, soft shadows and depth.
In the clip: - A small test plot built from our 3D tile kit: floors, walls, roofs and water - Pixel-art walkers and monsters standing in it, lit like they belong there - The same scene under each of our dark lighting presets
We're also building low-poly props for Saltmere and Route 1 (a beached rowboat, pier planks, crates) to fill these scenes with, seen at dusk and by moonlight.
The mood we're after: cold, muted colours, heavy shadow and fog, with a few warm lights breaking through. It's still early and the test plot is a long way from a finished town, but this is the direction.
Monsters stay 2D pixel art, and the arenas they fight in are built the same 3D way.
**Our game has a name: Pawnbound**
Until now we've been calling it "Monster Card RPG", which was always a placeholder. From today it's **Pawnbound**.
What stays the same: - 2D pixel-art monster collecting with a dark, moody feel - Turn-based battles where timing matters - Everything you carry is a card: monsters, seals, healing and more
It's still early and we're building the foundations, but the game finally has a name to go with the work. The clip shows the title screen as it looks in our current build.
If you've been following along in #devlog, thanks for being here from the start. Tell us what you think of the name in #feedback!
**Catching a wild monster: the seal throw**
Capturing now works on the real battle screen, and here's the first look.
In the clip: - A seal card is picked from the Cards menu - It arcs across the field toward the wild monster - The monster breaks free on the first try, so the capture isn't a sure thing
Capturing is built around the fight itself: the idea is that a weakened monster is easier to catch, and the throw has its own timing. It's still early, and the look and feel will keep changing.
What would you want to see when a capture succeeds? Tell us in #feedback.
**First look: the 3v3 battle screen**
Here's a self-playing 3v3 wild battle on our new battle screen, still early and very much in progress.
In the clip: - Monsters slide in onto their platforms - Each one gets an info pill with an HP bar that drains as the hits land - Three monsters a side, all on one screen
Three-a-side fights are where we want timed strikes, parries, dodges and team combos to all come together, so getting this screen readable comes first.
We're also working on how art gets into the game, so more monsters can show up on these platforms over time.
Anything you'd want to see on a battle screen? Tell us in #feedback.
**Welcome to Pawnbound!**
This is where we'll share releases and milestones (#announcements) and what we've been building (#devlog). Ideas go in #feedback and problems in #bug-reports: the developer reads everything.