This week, the team at Depths of Erendorn made strides across various areas of development, focusing on both creative and technical advancements. From the completion of the marketplace assets pack and detailed landscape rework by the Set Piece Design team to the sculpting of the Earthen Dwarf’s first armour set by the 3D Modelling team, every aspect of the game world continues to take shape. The Client team implemented key refinements to gameplay systems, including camera settings, dungeon combat setups, and ability descriptions, while the Server team introduced a combat area web renderer to streamline debugging and began initial work on pre-written quests. The Sound team enriched the game’s audio by layering body movements and dynamic effects to enhance the immersion and energy of abilities like Palm Strike and Blindside, while the VFX team delivered striking updates to abilities such as Embodiment: Life, First Blood, and Might. Together, these efforts bring Depths of Erendorn closer to delivering a polished, engaging, and immersive experience for players. As always, join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit for daily updates on Depths of Erendorn. Alternatively, join our Discord for all the latest! - now let’s get into it!
3D Modelling
This week, the 3D Modelling team at Depths of Erendorn began work on the first Earthen Dwarf armour set, transitioning from early concepts to blocking out the core components. With the foundation now established, the team has started detailing and sculpting the individual parts, aiming for a bulky aesthetic that accentuates the Dwarf's stout and rugged nature. This armour set promises to bring a robust and imposing look to the Earthen Dwarf, aligning with the character's strong, earth-bound identity. An example of the work completed by the team can be seen below.
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Set Piece Design
This week, the Set Piece Design team at Depths of Erendorn made significant progress in enhancing the game’s environments. The marketplace assets pack was finalised, providing a cohesive set of high-quality elements that will be integral to building immersive trading hubs within the game. Following the completion of this pack, the team shifted focus to set dressing the newly reworked landscape, which involved carefully sculpting the updated terrain mesh to restore its natural features while aligning it with the latest design objectives. Work also began on detailing the marketplace area within the updated landscape, adding a sense of vibrancy and functionality to this critical hub. Examples of the teams work on the market place of Erendorn's initial area can be seen below.
Programming
Client
Over the past week, the Client team at Depths of Erendorn has focused on refining several key gameplay systems and addressing a variety of technical challenges. Work included updating and correcting ability descriptions, integrating the new camera tethering system with other systems, and introducing adjustable camera settings for speed and acceleration, ensuring smoother and more responsive navigation. The team also made significant progress on Dungeon Combat setups, including adjustments to Ballots, Rerolls, and the RoomBuilder’s debugging tools, enhancing the functionality of floor, wall, and ceiling placements. Issues with context menus, friend and party member lists, and dead entities were resolved, including preparations for integrating lootable corpses. Additionally, updates were made to the level-up system to improve party notifications and VFX triggers, while a bug affecting stat updates in the team panel when equipping items was fixed.
Server
This week, the Server team at Depths of Erendorn focused on several key areas to enhance development tools and gameplay functionality. The primary task was the creation of a combat area web renderer, allowing developers to view snapshots of active and past combats directly from server data without requiring session access or a client. This tool provides valuable insights into server-side combat states, aiding in debugging issues like client desynchronisation. To support this, an API layer was integrated into game servers, with secure data handling via account permissions and improved CORS handling for development tools. Additionally, game server stability was improved with fixes to two crashes, and connection scaling logic received further refinement. Dungeon development was paused temporarily to prioritise a visualisation tool for generation processes, while initial work began on pre-written quests that alter enemy and event spawns during adventures and offer rewards upon completion. Lastly, the reworked Earthen Dwarf secondary resource Inner Grit underwent bug fixes to resolve scaling issues with its stat bonuses.
Sound Design
This week, the Sound team at Depths of Erendorn focused on enhancing the auditory depth of abilities and attacks by introducing additional body movements, footsteps, and whooshes to the soundscape. These elements are designed to amplify the sense of power and impact during gameplay, particularly for larger abilities where the build-up and release of energy are key to their feel. For simpler attacks, subtle additions such as footsteps and grunts add grounding, while for more dynamic abilities, the team created layers that evoke the sense of charging and releasing power. Comparisons were made for abilities like Palm Strike and Blindside, showcasing versions with just movements and those with both movements and whooshes. These updates ensure that the added sound effects blend seamlessly, acting as padding to enhance the existing audio without overshadowing the main ability sounds. This approach enriches the soundscape, adding punch and energy, especially during the chaos of battle. Examples of these improvements can be seen below.
Visual Effects
This week, the VFX team at Depths of Erendorn continued progressing through the list of visual effects, delivering impactful designs for abilities such as Embodiment: Life, First Blood, and Might. Each effect has been crafted to align seamlessly with the game’s aesthetic, enhancing the clarity, immersion, and impact of these abilities during gameplay. These updates contribute to the polished and dynamic combat experience within the world of Erendorn, ensuring that every ability feels distinct and visually compelling. Examples of the work completed by the team can be seen below.
That’s it for this week’s devlog, but have you seen our monthly roundup of November yet?!
