Progress
These past few months have been focused on quite a few systems such as fleshing out darkren AI, updates to combat feel, level design, and cleaning up / tying together systems that were previously built around the beginning of the project.
Jon also traveled to Japan so there was a bit of downtime during the trip and after due to jetlag.
That being said, there’s a lot to cover so let's get into it!
Reminder: Visuals are in progress, not 100% representative of their final version
Zone 1 Internal Demo: Exploration
Kaiya’s Flow Whip
Kaiya’s flow whip has had many changes to it to improve its feel, and utility across the level design.
She now has a two hit (will probably be a 3-hit in the future) combo, that she can use against darkren to start a fight with an advantage or to break intractable elements.
She also has an aerial version that allows her to gain a bit of extra height, or slow her descent briefly. These values are still being tweaked, but as we stated in the previous newsletter, we’re trying to show things off more before without waiting until they're “perfect”.
Overworld Mythren
In the past, mythren would follow behind you to make sure you can’t accidentally interact with them.
We realized there aren’t too many interactions we need during overworld exploration (it's mostly within the campsites), so we removed that so they can run with you on the overworld instead of behind you. It adds a lot to feeling like they are there with you.
Darkren Overworld AI
Previously, Darkren would run up to you and try to swipe. It lacked visual indicators, and was difficult for us to easily configure new attacks. We’ve updated the systems to make it much easier to edit darkren and create new ones, along with having decals for their attacks. This comes with Kaiya having a new roll to make it easier to dodge attacks, and the Specter getting a new orb attack that explodes upon reaching you. We’ve also added a transition for once you’ve hit a darkren enough times to enter combat, and greatly sped up the time to load in and out of combats.
Stats
There’s no easy visual for us to add for this category yet, but it’s a huge step for the various areas of the game. Previously, mythren used their base damage on each attack to calculate damage, and there were some rough calculations for the various stat types. We’ve upgraded that to have a better damage formula, and be able to more easily track how much damage they should do in a variety of situations.
While you won’t have full control over each mythren’s stat lines, you should be able to customize them somewhat through their talent trees.
Darkren Battle AI
Darkren have gotten a lot smarter, and less likely to get stuck in a clump together. Previously we didn't plan on having more than 3 darkren in a fight at a time, but as we were playtesting we realized that it allows us much more flexibility to have larger numbers. This required updating their AI to be aware of each other a bit more so they wouldn’t be too easy to fight. Now we can support up to any number of darkren that we want, which makes fights much more interesting.
Combat improvements
We’ve added a lock-on system for single player combat, and you can now dodge out of any attack. This makes combat significantly less “clunky” feeling, but we do want there to be some stakes in how you choose your moments to attack.
When dodging, you can either: A - Wait for the dodge to be over B - Jump Cancel C - Do a dash attack
This is to ensure that you cannot dodge into whatever attack you want with no commitment, to keep combat against other players feeling good.
Fractured Plains Level Design
We’ve been hard at work coming up with a demo to get some feedback on, which requires heavy focus on level design. It's been a bit of a learning process, but it's coming along well, and we can't wait to show you some more footage as we continue to progress.
Narrative and Lore
Hallie has been working on some of the plant life around the fractured plains and mapping out color schemes options for Seiko and Lilly- while Drake has drawn up some concepts for different portals for the darkren.
In addition, they’ve been mapping out layouts for environmental designs for the Fractured Planes.
Thanks for the continued support, and see you mid-december with the next newsletter!