It has been an enormous week for Depths of Erendorn! Not only have the majority of the abilities in the game been reworked, and a new canine creature been sculpted, our very first teaser trailer also went live! If you haven’t seen it yet and want to know what kind of skirmishes unfold in our dungeons, check it out here before you read this devlog! Now, let’s get started.
3D Character Modelling
Following on from our previous game devlog, the mesh that was created to be used on all canine creatures in Erendorn was retopologised and unwrapped at the beginning of this week. Using this base mesh, our Character Artist was able to sculpt three canine character types that appear in the game; and, fortunately for us, this base mesh can not only be used for sculpts, it can also be used as the low mesh for these sculpts. The three canines modelled this week were the:
- Dire Wolf
- Ice Husky
- Savannah Wild Dog
The sculpt information was then baked for those three canine types and we are now at the stage where we are ready to start texturing them! Before we do this, however, our artist decided to bring to life another fearsome canine from the game - and this one has wings. That’s right, there are Skyhounds in Depths of Erendorn and our artist began sculpting them this week using the trusty canine base mesh.
Multiple ideas were tried and tested when it came to creating the wings on these awesome creatures. In the end, though, we decided to give the Skyhounds more bat-like wings in order to give them a larger wingspan that doesn’t compromise on a sleek aesthetic.
Animation
With our first teaser trailer now released, a sigh of relief can be heard exuding from every team member at Project Gamechanger as they settle back into their usual rhythms. Creating, refining and perfecting the animation in the trailer has been the team’s priority over the last few weeks; and now that we’re finally able to showcase it to you all, it’s time to get back to basics!
When our Animator wasn’t working on the trailer animation, tweaking various poses and refining every scene, she was boxing off some other bits of work, like exporting the Dwarf animations to Unity. Our Animator also rigged and posed our terrifying Revenant this week. These enemies are some of the most powerful Undead creatures in the game, equipped with the ability to raise the dead - and if you want to know more about them, make sure to head over to our Instagram or Twitter.
Environment Art
A lot of our Environment Artist’s time this week was spent tweaking the Twilight Elf Assassin’s aura that appears in our teaser trailer. Twilight Elves are heavily attuned to the Void and as a result, possess dark and powerful abilities. This attunement manifests itself as a purple aura that emanates from each individual, including the star of our trailer.
In between making adjustments to the animation trailer and tackling issues that were occurring in Unity, our Environment Artist began mood boarding Erendorn's ice cave environments. Their goal when populating this mood board was to gather references that convey feelings of a frozen, harsh and unforgiving environment. It was also important to focus on the small details of these environments and how we can use them to bring dynamism to our ice caves:
- Sounds would bounce off of glassy, frozen walls and rattle throughout the caves
- The remains of animals that could not survive the cold would be seen
- Remnants of abandoned traveller campsites would also make an appearance
- Patches of grass and hardy arctic lichen would be able to cling to life - but just barely
With all of these ideas in place, as well as a mood board filled with inspiring reference images, we will be able to create unique and detailed ice cave environments that speak to the perilous world of Erendorn. Before work is started on creating them, however, more references will be added to the mood board as development continues and ideas are generated.
Server and Game Client
It’s been a colossal week in the programming department here at Project Gamechanger. This is because nearly every ability in the game has been reworked to include the major stat rebalance that was carried out a few weeks ago. Scaling was also added to the abilities so that their damage/effects can scale with the new stats as well as the current ones. The new stats include:
- Haste
- Armour Penetration
- Ability Power
- Critical Chance
- Critical Modifier
Reworked Abilities
Several playable characters had their abilities reworked, starting with the Zentragal. A humanoid spider skilled in the deceptive art of dark magic, these creatures rely on an arsenal of sinister abilities that have all been modified this week. Corrupt, for example, now deals 1-2 (+30% Ability Power) Void Damage ignoring Resilience and Armour. It also reduces the enemy’s Movement by -2, allowing the Zentragal to more easily attack its target. This ability has a 3 turn cooldown time and costs 0 Mana.
The Parakaw Astromancer also received updated abilities, including but in no way limited to:
- Mass Fireball: This hits 4 targets with the Fireball spell, each dealing 5-9 (+30% Ability Power) Fire Damage ignoring Resilience and Armour. It has a 1 turn CD and costs 36 Mana.
- Black Hole: This creates a 6x6 area that deals 7-10 (+30% Ability Power) Arcane Damage and gives each 1 tile enemy a 30% chance to be stunned. It has a 5 turn CD and costs 21 Mana.
- Thunderstorm: This means that for 2 turns, each enemy has a 75% chance to take 1-4 (+20% Ability Power) Lightning Damage ignoring Resilience and Armour. It has a 6 turn CD and costs 21 Mana.
The unparalleled and terrifying stealth possessed by our Twilight Elf Assassin is reflected in the ability Shadowleap, which allows the Assassin to silently leap behind an enemy up to 6 tiles away and deal 19-25 (+30% Ability Power) Physical Damage ignoring Armour. Shadowleap stuns 1-4 tile enemies for one turn, has a 6 turn CD and costs 40 Energy.
Over 140 abilities were reworked this week, including ones for other characters like the Human Knight, Forest Druid, Earthen Dwarf and Watertarg Excursionist. Of these abilities, over 50 generic spells and skills were also reworked to include the stat balance.
Ability Blocks
Abilities aren’t the only things getting reworked in this week’s game devlog. All ability blocks have also been reworked so that they inherit some functionality from a base class. This simplifies the retrieving and setting of variables that are shared between blocks. A few ability blocks actually had some inputs that were being used incorrectly, an issue that should be fixed by next week. In the meantime, a few new ability blocks were added:
- Add Percent Chance Stat to Counter: This currently allows us to use the percentage proc chance of Haste or Critical in abilities, as opposed to using the raw values.
- Add Scale Stat to Counter: This allows us to add percentages of stats to variables which are shared between ability blocks.
- Set Status Value: Now statuses can have values changed and passed in by abilities. This means we can set the damage for Damage Over Time (DoT) at the time it is cast rather than re-calculating it each turn.
- Set Runtime Status Value: This sets aside some memory which allows newly created status effects to take on some values from the ability. This means we can set the damage for DoT at the time it is cast rather than re-calculating it each turn.
In addition to all this, ability blocks in the DOE Editor have also had some of their tooltips and labels reworked for clarity. Ability blocks and statuses are now also listed in order to enhance user friendliness.
Final Works
Abilities and ability blocks weren’t the only things to receive a lot of attention this week. Four new mechanics were also implemented into the server:
- Haste: This mechanic is where you have a chance to get a 1 turn CD reduction when you cast an ability. The stat is also used to scale certain abilities.
- Critical: This means that player abilities and attacks can crit for 150% damage (50% extra). Enemies have a crit modifier of 125%.
- Armour Penetration: This is the amount of armour that is negated on your attacks.
- Guaranteed Crits: It is now possible to guarantee a critical chance with an ability.
After all of this work was boxed away, focus was turned to game entities. All players now start with 15 Ability Power, 50 Haste, 50 Critical Chance and 150 Critical Modifier. As well as this, all enemies now also start with 50 Haste, 50 Critical Chance and 125 Critical Modifier.
That’s it for this week’s game devlog! Remember to tune in every Friday to keep up to date with the latest news about our upcoming fantasy RPG. In the meantime, make sure to follow us on social media where we post exclusive content every day!
