Last Updated May 30 2026

Welcome to The Book of Bumpslash! This is a free “book” which I plan to slowly fill in with technical design and programming details about every aspect of Angeline Era, so as to be able to pass down the knowledge we learned while making the game.

Note that after the game came out on Dec 8 2025, I released a Design Notes with some info on the game’s art and design: https://store.steampowered.com/app/4166460/Angeline_Era_Artbook/. It’s mostly a quick visual overview of things, there is not a lot of detailed design writing outside of the story/art.

Table of Contents

• Bumpslash Design

  • (2026/01) 27 Tips for Future Bumpslash Designers

  • Philosophy (the paid Design notes has some info on this)

  • Developing the Philosophy

  • Poise

  • Damage Formulas

  • Subweapons and Artifacts

  • Jumping and Movement

  • Leveling Up

  • Action Adventure Storytelling / Setpoems (2024/06/16)

  • Hacks / Tricks (2024/11/28)

• Gun

• Enemies and Bosses

  • Philosophy

  • Code Architecture

  • Process

  • Hacks / Tricks

• Level Design

  • Philosophy / Developing the Philosophy

  • Action Level Design (Scale Levels)

  • Room Design Styles within Scale Levels

  • Item Placement, Secrets

  • Towns / Shops

  • Encounters (Non-Scale Level) Design

    • 2026/02 - 6 Tips For Making Angeline Era-style Exploration

• Overworld

  • Overview available in the paid Design Notes. Does not contain detailed design notes though, mostly screenshots/notes.

  • Motivation, Development

  • Approach, Process

• Game Pacing

• Worldbuilding / Story

  • Writing Misc. Text

  • Story - the paid Design Notes

• Art

  • The paid Design Notes has info on art direction and character designs over time.

• Music - See the free OST Notes from 2025/12 (they are also available as a PDF in the paid Design Notes.

• Future Bumpslash Ideas

Appendix

• Development Logs: If referencing these for design, please note that the further back they go, the more likely they are to be inaccurate simply from what we’ve learned from finishing up the game. As of writing (11/28/2024), I think anything before 6/28/2024 could potentially be out of date. This is possible of stuff I’ve written more recently, as we will likely not have a perfect view of the game until the game has been out for a few months (release is likely next summer 2025)