The development of Depths of Erendorn continued at a strong pace last week, with significant progress made across all teams. From refining the animation and movement systems to enhancing social interactions and resolving critical server issues, each department made substantial contributions to the game’s ongoing evolution. The 3D Modelling team advanced the design of key characters, while the Set Piece Design team focused on enriching the settlement environments with detailed assets and set dressing. Meanwhile, the Server team worked diligently on implementing new server architecture and resolving dungeon generation bugs, while the Client team improved social functionalities and tackled character movement issues. The Sound and VFX teams continued to refine audio elements and visual effects, ensuring that the game not only looks stunning but sounds and feels immersive. 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 past week, the 3D Modelling team at Depths of Erendorn focused on advancing the design of the high-level Minotaur character. The team successfully blocked out the various parts of the creature, laying a solid foundation for the detailed sculpting and texturing that will follow. This blocking phase is a crucial step in ensuring that the Minotaur’s proportions and overall structure align with the imposing presence it will have in the game. With this groundwork in place, the team is well-positioned to move forward with the next stages of development, bringing this formidable foe to life in the world of Erendorn. An example of the work completed by the team can be seen below.
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Set Piece Design
The Set Piece Design team at Depths of Erendorn has made progress in enhancing the settlement areas with detailed set dressing throughout the past week. The team focused on adding more assets to the residential areas, including the completion of a spiky wooden fence, which adds a distinct aesthetic and defensive feel to the environment. Additionally, further PLA assets were finalised, contributing to the depth and authenticity of the settlement’s design. Research also continued into new assets that can be incorporated into the residential zones, ensuring that the world feels lived-in and immersive for players. These efforts continue to enrich the visual appeal and realism of the game’s settlements, inviting players to explore and engage with their surroundings. An example of the work completed by the team can be seen below.
Programming
Client
Over the past week, the Client team at Depths of Erendorn has focused on resolving a character movement desynchronisation issue while continuing to enhance social interactions within the game. New commands for each social interaction were added, expanding players’ ability to communicate and interact with friends and party members. The team also refactored how character movements are handled to ensure synchronisation between live and dry testing environments, improving overall movement reliability. In parallel, work began on implementing a new method for switching between game sessions, such as when players travel between Settlements, Adventures, and Dungeons. This updated approach allows the server to handle session transfers internally, removing the need for clients to connect to different URIs, which reduces the risk of connection errors. Additionally, this new method enables the retention of social connections, allowing players to message or invite friends regardless of their in-game activities.
Server
Over the past week, the Server team at Depths of Erendorn has made significant progress in deploying and implementing the new player server, which sits between the game servers and clients. This required ensuring that current clients could still connect to the 'Stable' cluster while new technology was being integrated into the 'Experimental' cluster. Several adjustments and bug fixes were made to the server coordinator to enable the different clusters to function independently, taking into account the addition of the new server type. The implementation of the player server revealed numerous bugs, requiring extensive fixes and adjustments, with ongoing work planned as more issues are identified. In parallel, the team began planning the server-side development for the Social Panel, which will commence next week. Additionally, the final blocking bug for Dungeon generation was resolved, along with other bugs related to ballots crashing dungeons and specific abilities. The team also implemented rebalanced and reworked abilities for the Twilight Elf Assassin Character Class, alongside new generic abilities for all Character Classes, contributing to a more refined gameplay experience.
Sound Design
Over the past week, the Sound team at Depths of Erendorn focused on creating and refining audio elements to enhance the player experience. Drafts were made for the Max XP and Levelling Up sounds, which are now awaiting testing in the engine. The Max XP sound has been designed to align with other UI sounds used during combat, given that this is when it will most likely play, while the Levelling Up sound features a more celebratory fanfare to emphasise the sense of achievement at camp. Additionally, the team created a set of generic magic effects, primarily bass hits, as part of early experimentation for new abilities. These will serve as foundational layers to add impact to spell sounds, though further refinement is needed to steer away from their current sci-fi tone. This work lays the groundwork for more immersive and dynamic audio in future gameplay. Examples of the work completed throughout the week.
Animation
Over the past week, the Animation team at Depths of Erendorn focused on refining and planning animations to enhance motion fluidity and improve character visibility during gameplay. In parallel, the team tested physics for both clothing and hair to ensure realistic movement. A key task was resolving a synchronisation issue between the hair skeletal meshes and the character models, which significantly improved the overall cohesion and responsiveness of character animations. These updates continue to push the visual and immersive quality of the game forward, ensuring a smoother and more engaging player experience. An example of the work completed by the team can be seen below.
Visual Effects
The VFX team at Depths of Erendorn made progress on refining visual effects for the Arcane Giant and exploring potential concepts that could be applied to other magical creatures or constructs, particularly those with prominent shoulder designs. In addition to these creative explorations, the team also had to address some material issues after a recent update introduced complications with greyscale textures. This required a time-consuming process of converting their modes to virtual greyscale to ensure compatibility, though this task was necessary to maintain the visual fidelity of in-game effects. Despite these challenges, the team continues to push forward with developing visually striking and efficient effects. Examples of their work can be seen below.
That’s it for this week’s devlog, but have you seen our monthly roundup of September yet?!
