Check out the Arcadian Atlas IGN Awesome Indies trailer, plus exciting news!
Hey everyone! We've got a brand-new trailer to show off as a part of IGN's Awesome Indies showcase, with a look into the coming features and the fractured land of Arcadia! War is coming, and ruinous powers will make themselves known as you build your party and fight through complex tactical battles. An ancient darkness stirs; will you be ready to face it down?
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Get ready to venture forth into a world of conflict when Arcadian Atlas releases in 2022.
In case you missed it: We're part of the Indie Arena Booth Steam event, where we have a demo available! Equip your party, choose their skills and battle through challenging encounters until August 29th!
Indie Arena Booth demo now live Aug. 25th to Aug. 29th!
Hey folks, get ready to journey into Arcadia and guide your party through some hectic battles, because the Arcadian Atlas demo for Indie Arena Booth is NOW LIVE!
From August 25th to August 29th, play the Arcadian Atlas demo and flex your tactical skills in challenging encounters as you equip and specialize your party to your specific playstyle!
The team has been dedicated to providing a solid experience across the board, giving a sample of every part of Arcadian Atlas while building out additional features and content as development progresses! More classes, more items, and more encounters are on the way, and we're excited to show more as we keep working on the game!
As we work to improve the game and show off some of what Arcadian Atlas has to offer, we're also looking for your feedback! We've got an in-game "Feedback Survey" button included in the main menu, where we highly encourage you to tell us what you like, what you don't like, and what you'd like to see in the game! Your responses really help us work on the direction we take with some design decisions, so we greatly appreciate any feedback provided.
Speaking of showing more off, we've got more brand-new announcements to show off tomorrow as a part of IGN's Awesome Indies showcase, so keep an eye out there when that goes live! The land of Arcadia is fractured and perilous, and ambition is the most dangerous foe of all.
If you missed out on the Kickstarter update, you can check it out + new stuff being worked on here!
Hi everyone! We know we've been keeping this under wraps for a while, but the now's the time:
Arcadian Atlas is being published by Serenity Forge!
Arcadian Atlas is an incredibly special project that Twin Otter have poured their hearts and souls into, and we couldn't be prouder to support them on their development journey. As massive fans of turn-based tactics ourselves, we're more than just a little excited to show you more along the way! Speaking of that, we've got more to show you in due time!
The team announced recently that they'd be presenting at Indie Arena Booth as a part of the event, where you'll be able to play a demo of the game! Not only do we have more to show you there, but we're also going to be part of the IGN Awesome Indies showcase on August 26th! We can't wait to show off more about the war-torn world of Arcadia, who's involved, and just what lengths some will go to in the pursuits of their desires.
On a final note, we're grateful for the feedback we've received from players as the team works to refine and build on the game. We've seen a lot of positivity and support from the community, and we're actively working with the Twin Otter team to bring you all an amazing experience!
First, we want to start out by apologizing for the long interlude between updates and progress reports. It wasn’t for lack of wanting to provide y’all with up-to-date info on the project -- And we are extremely excited to share what we’ve been up to with all of you.
Thanks to our amazing backers, the Kickstarter campaign afforded us the ability to do all we had promised:
Going into this, Becca & myself were aware that once the KS-funded dev period was up, we would be taking on day jobs/freelance gigs/contract work to pay the bills and cover the remaining programming fees while we moonlighted as developers for Arcadian Atlas.
It was going fine... until about 1.5 years ago, when the team began to take hit after hit, suffering multiple job losses and freelance gig offers drying up. And that was before Covid-19 hit, when the remaining jobs and scant contracts we did have were swallowed up completely.
But this is nota sad update.
We needed to wait until we had 100% solid news (though we drafted an extremely sad update months back in the thick of the worst of it, but we refused to pull the trigger on it).
Now, after so much fighting for AA, we have an update we actually want to write - with news we really want to bring to y’all.
After many months & multiple pitches to a handful of talented indie game publishers, video calls and Covid-19 related funding hiccups, we are extremely excited to announce we have partnered with a publisher to cover the final stretch of Arcadian Atlas.
What does this mean for all y’all folks that believed in us and supported us before anyone else?
Well...
We're still working out specific details with the publisher, and we hope to have more details for you all when we can make an official announcement!
To call it a shot of adrenaline for all of us is an understatement, and we’ve got our noses to the grindstone—pumping out animations, character portraits, the programming underpinning it all, and everything else that breathes life into the world of Arcadia—and we can’t wait to share it with you all soon!
Some much needed good news in the midst of this topsy-turvy world we’ve all found ourselves in.
In the meantime, let this encourage you to keep fighting for what you’re passionate about. Y’all keep healthy and socially distant, and please be good to each other. We’ll be here fleshing out Arcadia—fully masked, of course!
Sincerely,
The Arcadian Atlas Team
A New Challenger Approaches
Howdy from Texas again, ya'll!
We've got a smorgasbord of new goodies to show off this time around, from new maps, brand-new mapping features that show off the capabilities of the BITE Engine, a new challenger with distant relation to our dearest trash-panda, Poncho, and much more!
Let's dive right in:
A New Challenger Approaches
Seeing as we named our sweet lil' dude below after our favorite western-wear (and because it's a dang cute name), we wanted to flesh out his move-set with that western bravado we all love so much:
And we've been fleshing out Poncho's entire move-set, including making some modifications to his charge and casting cycles with tail swishes: But there's a classic western song Becca and I love by Willie & Merle, Pancho & Lefty, and we thought, you know... Poncho needs a buddy. Sooooo, without further ado, a new challenger approaches! Lefty is a Red Panda, and while hailing from a distant and mysterious land, he's come to have a classic western showdown with our pal Poncho. And watch out when he swings that big stick of his, cause bamboo doesn't bend or break easily. And with all this work on our furry friends, we haven't neglected some of those small touches that give our other characters life, with some custom animations like Fennic's below:
BITE Feature Expansion - Mapping
And with all this work on animations, Patrick's been hard at work expanding the Map Editor Features of BITE, like the new ability to customize key mappings for all the Editor's features. So whether you're more comfortable with the Arrow Keys or WASD, he's got you covered:
And building maps ain't easy, so he's added new brushes from a single-tile, four-tile and fill brush to quickly cover more ground!
But my favorite new feature is the simple Impasse System, which allows you to designate individual tiles that are impassable, leaving the control completely in the creators hands as to how maps are navigated. Plus, it looks beautiful:
We've already gone through and added these impasses to our existing maps, spreading the love as you can see below:
And we've worked up a few new places for you to cause havoc, like these alternate, fighting-enabled interiors:
Oh, and did we mention we're hard at work on a new biome: the desert! That perfect place for Poncho and Lefty to square off in, especially if a tumbleweed blows through:
BITE Feature Expansion - Cutscene Editor
And these improvements from BITE are already filtering into the Cutscene Editor, which Patrick is engineering to include streamlined event re-ordering, actor additions, and a whole slew of visual tweaks that we've got previews of below:
We're excited to show off the practical in-game implications of this next time!
Until Next Time, Yeeeehaaaaw
I guess the desert tiles are bringing out the country in me, but we've only just begun with these and another exciting biome we've got in the works:
Wait, is that snow?!
Guess we'll all just have to wait and find out :D. So until next time, holster those six shooters and go play some video games
Join us on DISCORD
Update 13: BITE Engine, Iconography, Streaming Art & More!
Welcome back adventurers! We've got some awesome news this go-round for not just backers, but creators, so keep your eyes peeled.
But before we jump in, if you've ever wanted to see the artistry behind Arcadian Atlas live, soon you can! Becca and I have worked to get a Twitch stream set up where you can watch her live-stream art creation, from maptiles, character design, animation work, and more!
Give her a follow and keep your eyes peeled for her first live stream announcement. For more info & polls on things like preferred stream times, check out her twitter page here.
Introducing: The BITE Engine
Way back when we jumped from RPG Maker to the more expansive world of Unity, we had a vision for not just our dream game, but for a creation tool so user-friendly it could be given to anyone who wanted to make a tactical RPG (one of the most notoriously difficult genres to create).
That dream is beginning to become a reality concurrently with the creation of Arcadian Atlas. Patrick has been hard-at-work on the foundation for what we are dubbing the BITE engine enhancement - an add-on that utilizes Odin Inspector's tools to create easily-modifiable units, scenarios, skills, items, weapons, and scenes. The best part: this tool is being developed in conjunction with Atlas, meaning every benefit to the system is a benefit to the game, which includes the following:
More Power to the Game Designer - A large portion of a game designer's life is turning knobs and whistles to balance values and to create the best possible experience for the player. You've all probably played RPGs with horrid difficulty spikes, or gotten bored going hours without a challenge. BITE allows us to easily and quickly implement your feedback when it comes beta time!
BITE Engine's Weapon Editor
Smaller File and Patch Sizes - To get Arcadian Atlas' prototype off the ground, we initially utilized Unity Prefabs. Moving to a new different segmented form of data means we can be much more efficient with the size of the game, as well as any patches we make on Steam (and elsewhere). We know some of you backers have internet data caps, so we want to keep file sizes as user-friendly as possible!
Advanced Cutscenes and Scenarios - We've forged a giant pyramid of stats, classes, status effects, and skills out of the prototype's design work so far. Cutscenes and scenarios (missions) rely on pretty much everything, so being clean and organized with those building blocks allows us to quickly create, reorder, and modify events.
BITE Engine's Core Editor
Plug & Play Capabilities - We've re-structured the logic and data to separate it from the graphics, which is a fancy way of saying Arcadian Atlas and future tactical RPGs using BITE will require far less digging into code-bases to create and play!
Effortless Changes - With BITE's data-driven design, we can remove, add, and change everything from units, status effects, skills, missions, locations, cutscenes (or most anything else) effortlessly midway through development based on new needs and feedback!
BITE Engine's Unit Editor
Iconic
To celebrate BITE, we wanted to show off some of the graphics we're paring with Patrick's data-driven systems.
Menu and Stat Icons
Iconography is an integral part of the user experience, and serves both as localization tool (because images require no translation) and ease of navigation. We love the design challenge of creating icons for our stats, items, text boxes, and menus that are at the same time simple, clean, and communicate efficiently. See below just a handful of those we've cooked up for our items:
Item Icons
Interior Designs & Graphics Galore
And of course behind the scenes we've been hard at work on all the graphics, from animations, items, and some drool-worthy interiors. You'll show yourself outside? Why not show yourself INSIDE you reckless warriors!
This go round Becca has been working up some graphics for house interiors and our Recruitment Centers throughout Arcadia. You can see a few of these below.
Recruiter Maptiles
And if we zoom in a bit you can see some light pouring through new windows, and bench for troops to sit and wait (because isn't a Recruitment Center just a glorified waiting room) , and a fancy desk for processing new troops.
Interior Details
Of course, when you're not waiting, you're training with some quality practice dummies and an assortment of weaponry for our discerning warriors:
Interior Details Cont'd
And when you're ready to lay your sweet head to rest, we've got a deluxe bed you could probably cram a couple of people in (uncomfortably, but this isn't a charity!) and some barrels full of wine to help the long hours seem short.
Oh, and not zoomed in on is that lil' cactus. Because we might be thrifty interior designers, but we're not animals. Get some greenery in there!
Crossbow Animations
We're also putting finishing touches on our primary attack animations, ensuring all eight frames front and back are as smooth as possible. From the heavy crossbow toting Ranger above, to the gargantuan hammer our Apothecary is dragging around below, we're nearly done with all our CORE classes and their various fightin' styles!
Hammer Animations
And of course a whole slew of new items for our re-vamped BITE enabled item editors!
Next Time
We're excited to show off some of the interior maps we're working up with these shiny new graphics, the expanded Skill sections of BITE, and lots more art next time! Be sure to check out Becca's Twitch streams and our twitter pages for up-to-the-moment previews and sneak-peaks!
Until then, keep your controllers warm and your bodies cool as we end out this record-setting summer heat!
~Taylor
Follow us on Twitch
Arcadian Atlas is officially on Twitch! Follow along for behind-the-scenes footage and art streams~
Kickstarter Update 12: Anatomy of Animation, Map Efficiency, and More!
Update 12: Anatomy of Animation, Map Efficiency, and More!
Welcome all you wonderful folks to another action-packed episode of Arcadian Atlas! This time around we've got tons of details from all across the game development spectrum. Whether it be animation, portraits, map-tunage, music, or behind-the-scenes on programming - you're in the right place!
So dive on in. The waters are warm and cozy!
Anatomy of Animation
Artistically, animation is the most pain-staking process of game development. It's a multilayered art, both literally and figuratively, and we wanted to give you a peak behind that process in more depth as we finalize the animations for our core classes.
Each core class has a list of essential battle animations, arranged in a sheet, that are consistent across classes. What's not consistent across classes? Attacks & Skills.
So when making new animations, we start with real-world examples and build keyframes from them. In the case of the above Apothecary Bottle Throw animation, I used myself as a base and built from it.
New animations typically work in stages:
Raw Footage - a video or gif of real-world people performing the action to be animated.
Skeleton - the basic shapes of an animation, typically very rough. This is used to ensure the flow of the animation looks correct before detail is added.
Naked Base - the naked form all classes can use before hair, clothes, and other details are added.
Clothed - usually the final stage where all class-specific content is added to the naked base and added to that core classes' sprite sheet.
So in essence, any new animation we create is actually 3 animations, and from start to finish with the Apothecary Bottle Throw it looks like the example below:
And that's just the specialized animations! We've got a whole slew of basic movements and actions to tackle.
Back to Basics
Ah, the essentials of a fight. We've got our Idling, Walking, Injured, Charging, Jumping, Flying, Landing, Death animations, and the list goes on! And remember, that's for front views, back views, male, and female troops. 48+ unique frames per class, 2 genders, 4 classes - that's 384+ unique frames just for basic animations!
Over the last few months we've been steadily chipping away at them, and we're happy to say we've not only finalized the designs for our male/female Apothecary and male/female Warmancer - but we've even knocked out all of their core animations! Yep, all 384+ of them!
And now we move on to the specialized attacks for each class, one of which Becca's been hard at work on below:
Serving Fierce Face
Let's face it (see what I did there?): little Apothecary and Warmancer sprites are super cute, but sometimes we need to look a person square in the high-detailed eye and give them a good talkin' to.
So Becca and I have been hard at work on portraits to go with our sprites. Because there's nothing sadder than walking into a tavern and the tavern-master won't even look you in the face. That's enough reason to brawl right then and there!
Improvements Abound with Odin
And as pretty as these lil' dudes are walking, slapping, and smashing about - a video game has to be as efficient as possible. Patrick recently upgraded our Unity build with Odin Inspector, a powerful tool that's allowed him to streamline how maps, cutscenes, and menus save data and juggle database information.
We've gone from complicated and rather ugly excel files for items to completely in-engine databases with images and separate, easy-to-read and alter fields like this:
But it's not just for databases! Odin has far-reaching implications for space saving, with the potential to reduce both disk and RAM space requirements by upwards of 90%! That's huge for download size and run speed! In fact, we're already applying it to how maps are constructed and saved:
So while we absolutely adore the animations and art side of Arcadian Atlas, this is easily what is making us most happy!
Oh, but we forgot that we're even improving how animations are handled in the background ; ). Blend Trees will allow us to better organize all of our isometric animations within Unity so that we can finish hooking it up to our unique characters and classes faster! Possibly 75% faster! NUMBERS! BIG NUMBERS EVERYWHERE!
Tavern Tunes
But wait, there's more! We wanted to serenade you out with the latest tune Moritz is working up for our tavern patrons. Because if there's one thing you want while getting a bit tipsy (or enjoying a nice virgin piña colada perhaps?) it's some jazzy tunes:
Oh, and why not grab a contract to smash some more things while you're at it?
Speeding Into Summer
That's it for now, but keep your eyes peeled on our twitter page for glimpses of what's coming up in the Arcadian Atlas pipeline as we get closer to beta!
