In this week’s devlog update, we’ll be showing you all the progress we’ve made on our settlement Inn, as well as the brand new visual fx that were created for the Parakaw Astromancer’s special spells. We’ll also be showing off some recent sound effects, as well as some in-game glimpses at animations and our recently-overhauled UI. Check out the development of our online RPG over on Twitter, Instagram, or Reddit - now let’s get into it!
Animation in the Engine
Our Animator continued with their work in the engine this week, including:
- Working on Animation Controllers and updating spell states
- Adding missing abilities, their BPAs, and their DDAs to the engine
- Adding more spell animation drafts that weren’t in the engine yet
- Testing abilities to ensure that the animations were playing correctly
We also played around with some animation ideas for the Forest Druid’s ‘Forest Fury’ attack, which we already had some VFX for. Check out our progress with it in the game so far:
https://doe.horus.ninja/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Fd-Ff-1-1.m4v
In-game VFX and WIP animation for the Forest Druid's 'Forest Fury' ability
Environment Design
Interior Designing the Inn in UE4
Our settlement Inn is really starting to come together after this week:
- We finished creating the roof in MAYA
- The Inn’s interior has been created and set-dressed
- Props include fire torches, wooden chests, and various plant pots
- The dragon-head doorways we created a few weeks ago were implemented
- We also reused the Guard House flags to maintain consistency and decorate the walls
- A chimney breast, as well as dual fireplaces are currently being created for the Inn as well
There’s a still a lot more work we need to do before the Inn can be called complete, but here’s where we are at the moment:
Visual FX for the Parakaw Astromancer
New visual FX were created for the Parakaw Astromancer’s talent abilities this week, including:
- Crystallic Preservation: When used, this encases you in a crystal and makes you immune to all forms of Damage. On its end, you’re granted some additional Health.
- Arcanic Leech: This allows you to deal a good amount of Arcane Damage over 2 turns. You’ll also receive +1 Mana for every enemy you manage to injure.
- Meditation: This transforms any remaining Movement points you have into 2 Mana per Movement point. So, if you have 2 Movement points, this will become 4 Mana.
- Prayer of Rejuvenation: Use this to target a 3x3 tile radius and restore Health to all adventurers within that area.
Sound Design
Recording Sounds for Weapons & Tools
Our Sound Artist spent some time this week making new recordings for weapons and tools in the game, specifically for their general hits and scrapes.
The variation of materials we recorded also happens to double as an excellent SFX source for ambient drones, magics buffs, and other ability effects by giving us a lot of material to play around with. Check out some of our favourite recordings from this week:
This is the sound of a serrated metal screw scraping against the inside of a hollow metal tube
This is the sound of blowing through a metal tube
https://doe.horus.ninja/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Cork-Rubbing-Glass-03.wav
This is the sound of a cork rubbing against glass, which was originally meant for the Scorpion and is rather painful to listen to on repeat (so says our Sound Artist)
Sound FX for Knight Abilities
Sound effects were also created for three of the Knight’s talent abilities, including:
- Arcing Strike: This deals damage and prevents the target from regenerating Energy on the next turn
https://doe.horus.ninja/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Arcing-Strike.mp4
'Arcing Strike'
- Attack of Restoration: This deals damage and heals the player with the lowest amount of Health
https://doe.horus.ninja/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Attack-of-Restoration.mp4
'Attack of Restoration'
- Combat Prowess: This makes your attacks cost 50% less Energy and also means that the Knight will take 25% less damage
https://doe.horus.ninja/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Combat-Prowess.mp4
'Combat Prowess'
Ambient Sound Effects for Fire Caves
Some draft sounds for fire samples were also worked on for all of the in-game torches, though these will also be able to be used as bases for any larger fires we have in the dungeons.
Speaking of, the last thing our Sound Artist worked on this week was some ambient sounds for Erendorn’s fire caves. These are one of the four types of dungeons we’ll have in the game - others include cave dungeons, jungle dungeons, and ice dungeons. Check out how our fiery pits are sounding so far:
https://doe.horus.ninja/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Fire-Caves-Ambience-Short-Sample.wav
This is a short sample of the WIP ambient sounds for our fire caves
Programming
Overhauling the UI & Hotbar Display
This week saw the long awaited start of our UI overhaul. We’ve been planning this in order to bring the quality and function of the in-game UI up to par with the rest of the project. Work so far has gone towards:
- Designing meetings regarding the composition and function of existing UI elements
- Planning and accounting for features that haven’t been implemented yet
- Exploring the system requirements and work needed to implement our designs
Aside from this, we’ve also added the ability to display multiple hotbars in the UI. Now, a selected character’s hotbar icons will display at a fixed size, and will fill the main hotbar before overflowing to additional ones. We also added a consumable hotbar, which is a separate bar that will be used for keeping track of potions and other in-use items.
The new hotbar display means we now have more stability in the structure and positioning of the UI as a whole, and higher-level characters can be accommodated for as we’ll be able to display up to 36 abilities for any character.
Fixing Abilities in Unreal Engine
We had to fix quite a few abilities this week because of some small issues that were popping up. For example:
- Earthen Rage grants you additional Strength, but wasn’t increasing this stat correctly
- Thorn’s Aura allows you to reflect damage back to enemies, but wasn’t lasting the correct amount of time
- Nature’s Rescue restores Health, and if yours is below half way, it even heals 50% more - but it wasn’t applying the 50% extra Healing to relevant targets
That’s it for this week’s devlog! See you next Monday!
