Hi everyone! We have decided to start doing monthly devlogs instead of the biweekly work-in-progress posts. This way, each team member can go more in-depth into what they have been working on this week as well as share their thoughts on the process. This is the first monthly devlog of this year, and there will be many more to come!
Horse tweaking and clothes making
By Mathilde - 3D-artist
This month I have been working on more polishing of the Norwegian Warmblood horse. It all started with me tweaking the horse’s body after getting great community feedback and pointers, which then turned into me looking at many references and realizing that some of the muscular details were off. Since there were so many adjustments being made, especially in the face, I decided I wanted to revisit the high-detailed mesh where all the details lie. Or rather, make a new high-detail mesh instead. Since we already have the low-detailed mesh, I simply had to import this mesh into my sculpting software and up the resolution. This way I could sculpt in new details while keeping the shape of the low-detailed mesh which would save a lot of time when baking the high to the low.
The new details of the Warmblood corrected the odd-looking shoulder, the disproportionate face, and other muscular parts. While the new version isn’t as muscled as the old version, it looks more natural and less strained. This also fixed the transition from shoulder to barrel, as the previous version had a very unnatural grove there. After applying the new normal/detail map to the low-detailed mesh, I did some further tweaking to the neck, belly, and thigh.
The base coat colors for the horse have also had an update. Since the previous base colors were very flat but served as a good placeholder. This month I had time to rework these coats and make them have more shading and color variations. This also gave me the chance to look more into different shades of the bay coat color. Previously, we just had some different color shades with a slight variation in light/darker shades. But I was able to explore a bit more and add shading layers to the agouti gene. This means that we still have different color shades of the bay, but on top of this, we can add variation in darker pigments. Take an example in a seal bay which can appear almost black. And speaking of shade variations, I also added darker shades of chestnut after wishes from the community. I introduced two shades that are more liver chestnut-shaded.
Moving on from horse colors, I’ve started helping out the character artist with the rider clothes at the end of this month. This includes fixing and tweaking the low-detail meshes, creating UVs, and finally doing some light texturing to serve as examples of what kind of detail level we are looking for. I’m excited to keep working on the clothes in the coming month as well as some finishing up and polishing of other aspects.
The spring splash art
By Maja - Concept Artist
This February has gone by so fast that I’ve been primarily working on splash art only. The main splash art in focus is the spring splash art of 2023. Though I did not have time to work on it every single day because of lots of application writing, office moving, and pitch planning.
The spring splash art is not released yet, but I finished it last week. My idea for this drawing was a cute and cozy concept of a Jutland horse saying hello to a cuddly and happy Oskar with small chickens on his back in a bright and colorful landscape. The core colors in this are green, yellow, orange, and blue. Oskar is a grumpy cat, but when the cuddling is on his terms he’s happy to do so. But I did not foresee the amount of work the flowers would cause me. For spring and easter, it’s common for people in Norway to plant yellow daffodils named “Påskelilje”, I believe they are named “lent lily” or “wild daffodils” in English. Flowers are hard to draw. But I made it in the end.
The last time I drew Oskar was almost a year ago and I’ve had quite a drawing growth in that amount of time which I'm very happy about. That is the point of being an artist, you keep evolving every day. You never stop growing! One of my main goals for this art piece was to make Oskar as fluffy as possible. I’ve not been drawing that many cats before, but I absolutely love how he turned out in the end.
This is kind of the first time I’ve had more large art projects going on at the same time. Mostly I’ve had one splash art at a time with concept art tasks at the same time. I am not going to lie, it has been quite stressful for me to have that in the back of my head at all times. Especially when I got to a point where I thought the drawing wasn’t going anywhere. But I luckily managed to turn it around in the rendering phase.
This was also my first time pitching and I was really scared. I'm a quiet and introverted person and I have social anxiety so it was challenging for me, I was so nervous. But this was something I really wanted to work on. I want to be good enough at talking in front of a crowd. We can’t let extroverts be the only ones that are being seen and heard, you know. Everyone has a voice. Anyways, the pitch went great and I was so proud of myself. I probably looked stressed and nervous but I said everything I wanted to say. And it’s much easier doing it together with my amazing team!
Forward, I will be working on a poster for the early access release, a “secret” large drawing, and some concept art from now on.
The Horse Creator
By Green Horse - Programmer
We released a big update to the Horse Creator this February. Instead of having just a randomize button, we added the ability to create a horse from scratch using all kinds of drop-down menus and sliders. Very nice! This enabled us to iterate faster on horse-related assets internally because we can see the changes instantly. Next up is finishing the last parts like having the ability to join a server with the horse you’ve made.
We’re reaching the point where we’re happy to put the stamp of approval on the Horse Creator for now and move along to the second part of the Early Access release which is the show jumping game mode. That doesn’t mean we’re done with the Horse Creator yet. It just means we’re going to finish the rest of it after the release of Early Access up until the full launch of the game.
Early Access will contain two main features. The Horse Creator and the Show Jumping game mode. Moving forward into March I’m very happy I got the multiplayer work done in December as having that in my head would have created a lot of anxiety. So with that already done I think I’m ready to start prototyping some jumping mechanics. But first I’m going to make a proper server list so that our Patreon Testers can see who’s hosting a test server.
Buildings and textures
By Tirna - 3D-artist
The riding arena has undergone some updates to enhance its appearance. The walls are now adorned with more decorative items that later will include Maja's art on the picture frames. The circular model made of marble will eventually be transformed into a watch. We aimed to maintain the older look of the arena, so we made some changes to the textures, replacing the previous ones with darker, more damaged wood and rougher metals. The ceiling lamps are inspired by 1920s factory lamps, and the idea is that they are original to the building, adding to the authenticity of the experience. Riders will get to enjoy their time in a 100-year-old arena, which can be renovated or upgraded to a more modern version in the future if they chose to.
In recent weeks I have been working on blocking the main house on the property. The style of this house was popular among the upper class in Scandinavia from 1860 - 1930. The version you see in this post is our first iteration but I have been working on a new iteration that is a better representation of this style. The new iteration will be posted this week! The interior of the house is yet to be fully planned, our focus is the outside for now since there is no need for the inside at the early access. However, it has been useful to test out a room so that we can estimate better how long time I’ll spend on each room. And it is looking promising when it comes to the full release of the game.
The focus now shifts to the environment, now that most of the buildings are in place. This will likely take up most of my time until the early access release is ready.
Buildings and textures
By Marius - Animator
This month I have been working on a couple of different things. First and foremost I have been working on fixing the more noticeable faults in the horse animations in general, after adding the new horse mesh to the rig. Luckily the mesh was similar enough not to cause any additional problems and just needed some minor weight paint adjustments. Otherwise, a lot of time has gone to redoing the tail, as most of you have seen the current version is quite buggy and at the same time, the mesh got an upgrade and the tail mesh got an upgrade too. The tail is probably the hardest part to update at the moment, as it is a lot of manual work that the more automated tools have problems with.
While adding the new tail mesh is a project in itself, the most time-consuming is to redo and fix the tail animations. The animations are made with a mix of physics simulations and manual animation techniques, as physics simulations by themselves can be unreliable; especially as none of us are physics aficionados. I will get more into detail about the tail sometime in a future Patreon post and have developed it further.
From right to left: Old version with its physics setup, new tail mesh, and animation.
Other than the horse I have been working on remaking a rig for the human character, as the old character is outdated and won’t be used. It is also to know the rig more thoroughly since the last time I rigged the character I tried to use the built-in humanoid rig; which, while good, has a lot of features we don’t need and don’t know the intricacies of. This let me have a session of learning rigging tricks that shortens the animation time and increases the quality of deformations.
While I am in the process of rigging the character, the mesh itself is not done as we only have the feminine presenting version as of now.
Please note that everything shown in these devlogs is mostly showcasing work that is in progress and is not finished. To see work in progress daily, join our Discord server community here! To get more information about Astride, check out our website.
Astride Horse Creator Patch 2023.02.10
A new build of the horse creation test is available. Here are the new features and changes/fixes that have been made. Note that this version of the playtests is only available for our Patreon supporters at Bronze Tier or higher.
You may have to restart your Steam client if the update is not immediately available.
Added features
Sliders for customizing the horse are now available
A text string has been added to display which color the horse has
Pressing F12 will hide/unhide the UI
Flaxen chestnut has now been added to the game and can be triggered by selecting mane colors
Rotating 360° around the horse is now possible
Full and base randomizer is added to the slider system
Fixes and adjustments
The Norwegian Warmblood’s normal map has been updated with a new version
The low opacity issues with the dun overlays have been fixed
The issue with the eyelashes and whiskers not changing colors is fixed
The red dun overlay’s color temperature has been adjusted
Chestnut base coats have been updated along with new mane color options
Bay base coats have been updated but are not yet finished
Known issues
The tail and animations are a work in progress and will be updated
Whiskers and eyelashes copy the color of the mane, this will be reworked to look more natural at a later update
Mane/tail colors do not change with greying
The dorsal stripe is active without dun being turned on, use the dorsal slider to remove it
Coming up
The horse created in the creator will be transferred into the void (play)
More base color reworks
Additional markings for tobiano and face markings
Basic show jumping feature
Testing out control schemes
To get access to playtesting Astride, head over to our Patreon page. All patrons subscribed to the Bronze tier and up, will get permanent access to the test. To get more information about Astride, check out our website.
Astride Horse Creator Patch 2023.01.27
A new build of the horse creation test is available. Here are the new features and changes/fixes that have been made. Note that this version of the playtests is only available for our Patreon supporters at Bronze Tier or higher.
You may have to restart your Steam client if the update is not immediately available.
Additions
Pressing escape now removes the player from the server
Two new tobiano patterns have been added
A pause button has been added for pausing/unpausing animations
A slider to adjust animation speed has been added
Adjustments
Made changes to the multiplayer hosting feature to allow for a better connection flow
The Norwegian Warmblood horse’s body mesh has been updated for more conformational accuracy
The animations have been updated with the most recent versions
The eyelash color for some palomino coats has been fixed
The eyelash texture has been adjusted to be less prominent
Most tobiano patterns have been adjusted to overlap better
Skin and hoof colors have been tweaked
The darkest shades of bay and chestnut have been removed due to being too dark
Whiskers have been tweaked and are placed more naturally
The roan overlays have been adjusted to remove hard edges
The black mane color has been darkened to not look as grey
The "work in progress" warning in the top right corner has been scaled back
The platform which the horse previously would walk on has been removed
Bug fixes
Fixed and removed the issue with the camera detaching by pressing the spacebar
Fixed the camera moving while using the UI sliders
The issue with dun, grey, and roan not showing up on bay/buckskin horses has been fixed
The last stage of greying not showing correctly is fixed
Known issues
The animation speed slider doesn't work on the first default animation
Joining a hosted lobby will lock the joining player's camera and not close when going back to the main menu
Eyelashes and whiskers no longer change color corresponding to the horse's coat and genetics
Coming up
Sliders to change colors, markings, dilutions, and more
Visible genetic code which changes in correspondence with the horse’s color
The horse created in the creator will be transferred into the void (play)
Base color revamps and new normal map for the Norwegian Warmblood
To get access to playtesting Astride, head over to our Patreon page. All patrons subscribed to the Bronze tier and up, will get permanent access to the test. To get more information about Astride, check out our website.
Devlog #26: Week 3 & 4
Hello everyone! This will be the last biweekly work-in-progress posts. After this, we will move to monthly development blog posts instead, as this will eliminate some extra time spent on posting biweekly. You will still be able to see the daily work in progress through our Discord server.
Environment
We have been working on designing the environment on the property for the past two weeks. The design may change depending on how the surrounding area develops, but the overall vision remains the same - a nice property near a fjord with a beautiful view of the mountains on the other side.
We aim to create a cozy and abundant environment. While we want to provide an environment for you to explore as soon as possible, other priorities must be addressed first. Our horses have advanced code, so programming them to walk on non-flat surfaces is not as straightforward as it may sound. However, we are determined to eliminate the "void" issue. Therefore, we have been updating one of the riding arenas that you have previously seen. It will not be ready for the next update, but we hope to implement it very soon.
Emotes
We have been making a few emotes/stickers for the Astride Discord server and they are ready for use for everyone soon. There will be 12 of them this round. We may make more of these in the future.
Sketches
We have been sketching some ideas and putting in some colors. We will see how this will look in the end!
Norwegian Warmblood update
Before we move on to adding more breeds to Astride, we want to make sure that the first horse, the Norwegian Warmblood, is perfect for the game. Therefore, we have decided to do further improvements to the model in relation to the horse's conformation and muscling. The base mesh itself has had some tweaks in the shape of lengthening the back and adjusting the legs, neck, and face. While we cannot do extreme changes to the model due to the rig and animations already being made, we hope that these changes give the Norwegian Warmblood better life quality. We have grown a bit unhappy with the way the muscling on the horse looked, so we have decided to return to the high-detail mesh and redo the muscling and tendon placements.
Speed comparison
We got a lot of good feedback on the last trot update and even had a live work session, where you could give feedback directly. Since then there have been some minor improvements and it is now time to transfer those improvements onto the other trot variations, like half pass and turning animations. While most of the existing animations are at the same speed we do have a faster variant and made a slower variant, what you see here is a comparison between the normal and fast trot. "But what about the slow trot?" you ask; well, we decided to temporarily scrap it as we felt it did not add anything we could not do with the basic trot. It might be edited to a lazy trot version in the future if needed, but for now, it will not be added to the game.
Chewing through hotfixes
While fixing the trot animations was a larger job than first anticipated, we still have other animations that need love. There has been made a slew of minor hotfixes to the animations as a whole, but not to the degree that we feel they are distinct enough from the old ones to show as an example. Working on the different animations we did get some in-between time to revisit an animation we had started a few months ago, but as it was far from a prioritized animation it never finished to any extent. This animation is chewing! While working on it we also realized that we probably will add some way for us to control the muzzle to a greater extent. As for now we can only move the jaw and tongue and felt the limitations with that while making the animation.
Horse creator
We have been doing some refactoring on the network connection code. The previous test was just a test to see if join codes worked. Now we have made it so that players actually disconnect from servers when they leave.
Some work has been done on the Horse Creator too, such as restricting camera movement when you're interacting with the UI and the addition of an animation speed slider and a pause button. The platform was removed because most people disabled it anyways. Next up is working on the menu to allow players to create their own horse from scratch.
Please note that everything shown in these devlogs is mostly showcasing work that is in progress and is not finished. To see work in progress daily, join our Discord server community here! To get more information about Astride, check out our website.
Devlog #25: Week 1 & 2
Hi everyone! We are finally back from the small winter break, and it's already been two weeks of work to show you. Although a lot of time has been spent working towards a very important funding application, we still have some things to show you. The horse creation playtest also got a small update during the first week, and we will keep working on pushing updates to this build over time.
Environment
In addition to the funding application, we have also been exploring new techniques and methods for creating our environment assets. Unfortunately, our previous tool, Gaia, did not work as well with our code as we had hoped. So, we've decided to create our own assets from scratch. This is a new challenge for us, but we're excited to see what we can create.
Here are a couple of our first attempts at creating our own trees. We're still experimenting with different styles, but we're confident that this will bring us a more cohesive look and feel for our game.
Funding application
We are excited to announce that we have submitted an application for government funding, which will help us move forward with our next production phase. Witch means that we have been planning the next 12 mounts after early access launches. That includes a game design document (GDD), budgeting, Gantt diagrams, and more. It has been thoroughly planned and we are all crossing our fingers, and hope that we will have good news to announce to you soon.
Half-pass
We have been at work bettering existing animations after the horse creator test opened for Patreon supporters. The half-pass animation in trot was one of the first to be updated after the test, as it seemed the fastest... Boy, were we wrong. In addition to the feedback, we noticed bigger more fundamental problems with the movement and had to redo almost everything with the legs. As a result, the posting of this animation had to be pushed back until after the new year.
Trot
After we were seemingly finished with the half-pass we began to tackle the feedback we got on the basic trot. It ended up becoming a lot of iterative work as we need to export the animation every time we want to review it. Especially since in this case, it was mostly detail work with a lot of minor changes that have a big impact. Because of this, we decided to add several versions in the same file to show the progress forward. The "Old" is the version you would see in the current test, the "Fix" 02 is the initial improvement, and "Fix 37" is the latest update.
After this was posted we got a lot of feedback on what could be more like it used to be and what could be better and is what our animator currently working on. This also means that the half-pass will most likely get another touch-up in the future.
Multiplayer is back
We have been working on implementing a join code functionality in the game. This allows players to host their own servers and share a 6-letter join code for players to join through. At the moment the server hosting functionality is extremely barebones but more features will be added as we go. Next up is implementing a very simple server list feature so that players can start the game and join active servers if players have chosen to make their servers public.
Secret art and emotes
We have started on a "secret" artwork. It's a color sketch for now, but we are liking the color that's chosen thus far. We'll how it turns out in the end. Other than that and application work, we've been sketching and drawing some emotes for the community in the Discord server that we hope you guys will like and use later. The plan is that every single emote is a different horse. These emotes are drawn in a manga/chibi style. The star-eyed one is based on Maja's horse, Drifandi.
Website launch
As the Astride community is growing, frequent questions keep storming in. To make all of the information about Astride more accessible to everyone, we decided it was due time to have our own dedicated website for Astride. This website has information about the release, game testing, planned features, frequently answered questions, and more! Check out Astride here.
Further tobiano tweaks
The horse creation playtest is currently our focus, and with the feedback from our testers, we know exactly what to work on. We have tweaked and tweaked even more on the tobiano patterns to make them blend more seamlessly and remove hard edges that would appear. Some of the smaller patterns still need an update, but after that, we can introduce more tobiano patterns to the roster.
Please note that everything shown in these devlogs is mostly just work in progress and is not finished. Changes may happen and the things showcased here will have further work put into them! To see work in progress daily, join our Discord server community here!
Astride Horse Creator Patch 2023.01.06
We have a new build of the horse creation test available. Here are the changes that have been made and features that have been added!
Features
Added multiplayer functionality with join codes
Fixes
Horse eyes now have textures and changes colors with some genetic combinations
Fixed seams appearing on the horse's chin with some of the face markings
Tobiano patterns have been tweaked to blend together better and more seamlessly
New back pattern added to the tobiano body markings
Mane and tail color for grey horses has been tweaked to fit better with the coat color
Black mane and tail colors have been tweaked and will now appear darker
Fixed the seams that would appear on the insides of the legs of bay horses
Black skin texture has been darkened and will not appear grey on darker horses
Eyelashes and whiskers change colors based on the horse's base color
Coming up
Sliders to change colors, markings, dilutions and more
Visible genetic code which changes in correspondance with the horse's color
The horse created in the creator will be transferred into the void (play)
More texture tweaks and fixes
To get access to playtesting Astride, head over to our Patreon page. All patrons subscribed to the Bronze tier and up, will get permanent access to the test.
Devlog #24: Week 49 & 50
Hi everyone! We hope you've had a great week so far. It's time for our biweekly update and these couple of weeks have been filled with excitement! A lot of work has been going on behind the scenes, but we have much to show. A new test was finally available in this period, and the feedback we have received so far has been nothing but great and helpful. We still have many ways to improve, and we appreciate you all for finding issues that need to be dealt with.
We are getting closer and closer to a new year, and this biweekly post will be the last of the year 2022. The team is soon leaving for a small vacation, but will be back working the first week of January. So the next biweekly post is sceduled for week two in January. Here is a summary of the last two weeks!
An end to uncooked spaghetti
In the weeks before the coat randomizer test was launched, we wanted to give a more lively look to our horses. And the most visible missing part to our horses is the tail. The last version with movement was... unruly, so we wanted a system that gave more us control. In the meantime we have used a static tail that follows the tail root, which admittedly looks a bit silly.
The idea is to have a main tree with branching bones that the hair can follow and move semi-dependently from each other. Though it was untested at the time we did se if we could get it to fall naturally during a T-pose by simulating physics.
Unfamiliar traits
The basic pose test did look promising, so the next step was to test movement. However physics simulation is not within our animator's comfort zone, so it turned out that even if the initial test looked good it did not hold up in movement.
What you see here is a lesser version of what you see in the current test version (v0.1), as we couldn't show the inner workings without removing the polish. We did learn a thing or two working on this and while the result is pretty good to be a first pass, it has some glaring problems. In the future we will remake and improve with what we learned, to have even more control and make it look as good as possible.
UI random button
There will be buttons and some sliders for the horse creator, character creator and other parts of the game. One of these buttons will be the "randomize button". It will be possible to create a random horse like the one in the test. It will probably be a "customize all" option and a customize option in each category like coat, mane color, markings with some rules based on the coat choices genes. At least that is what I imagine for the creator part of the game. The future will show how it will be.
UI sketch
Here's an idea on how the horse creator may look like in the future when it's possible to choose breeds, a name for the horse and so on. The icons represent: Breed - Coat - Markings - Mane & tail - Traits/personality. There are still parts that are not in this sketch like the random button and other options/text boxes. We would like to have more buttons than sliders where it fits.
Additional face markings options
Creating unique horses is fun, and a part of the uniqueness is the face markings. How can we make them as unique and plentiful as possible? This is where we introduce upper and lower face markings. While we also have full face markings such as stripes and blazes, we thought splitting up stars and snips would be a great option. That way, the player can have horses with just a snip, just a star or both at the same time. Showcased is the first few variations of stars and snips that can be combined to make unique face markings.
Tweaking and fixing the tobiano patterns
After we launched the first horse creation test with the randomizer, we received a ton of great feedback. This is a part of why we wanted the players to start with the randmizer as this would force a lot of random outcomes. This way, we could test that the base colors, white patterns and dilutions/modifiers would work together. We got feedback on some of the tobiano patterns and how they needed tweaking, and that is exactly what we did. As an added bonus, a new tobiano back pattern was made, and in the gif you can see the back pattern being combined with all of the possible front patterns.
Distance riding bridle
Even though there is a lot of planning to do at the moment, we’ve had some time to do 3D work. Here is a distance riding bridle! It might not be the smartest choice to wear in a competition, but it could be handy when you are riding out in the forest or in the town. We can’t say too much about how it will work yet, but we hope that it could at least be a cool asset when it comes to roleplay.
The horse creator
The Horse Creator has been the focus point for the past two weeks and will probably be for a while after Christmas too. We implemented a basic UI on top of the work our freelance technical artist has been doing for the past few months and made it all work together with a simple main menu and a very placeholder play scene.
The randomization code is the first step towards customization because the code includes all the little rules we have for our layering. For example, if you have tobiano markings then you can have a second layer of tobiano markings on top of that. In order to make sliders we need to extract the rules so that we can enable or disable sliders based on previous choices. It doesn’t make sense to have the choice for the second layer of tobiano markings if you don’t even have tobiano.
Next up is to first understand the code our technical artist made in collaboration with Mathilde, our genetics guru, figure out how to branch choices into sub categories and then finally implement all this so people can be really specific in how they make horses. We’re not going to keep you addicted to gambling for long but we will keep the randomization button.
Animation fixes
With the release of our horse coat randomizer test we got a lot of feedback. We are currently working through all the feedback and improving what we have. There is a lot of feedback so it will most likely be a long running assignment though. We removed the visibility of the tail as it will be reworked after new years and was distracting from showing our improvements.
Please note that everything shown in these devlogs is mostly just work in progress and is not finished. Changes may happen and the things showcased here will have further work put into them! To see work in progress daily, join our Discord server community here!
Horse Creation Version 0.1
It’s time to harness your creativity and get ready to create some horses, for the long-awaited horse creation playtest is finally live! The Horse Creation Version 0.1 Playtest is here and can now be played. Right now the only option is to make randomized horses and look through the animations, but another build update will be added soon where you will be able to use sliders to pick colors and markings. Don’t forget to post your horse creations in the text channel #playtest-creations in our Discord server, we would love to see what you create!
If you already tried the previous test, you’ll only need to click “update” on Astride in your Steam library. You will then automatically get the newest test version.
For those of you who have not tested Astride before, please check out the text channel #patreon-info in our Discord server on how to become a Patreon supporter and get access to the latest playtest build. Playtesting is available for all testers who are Bronze Supporter or above! Once you’ve become a supporter, please check out the pinned post at the top of our Patreon page.
Devlog #23: Week 47 & 48
Hi everyone! We can't believe it's already Friday! The weeks go by so fast. As always, we have a lot of development to show you. Many interesting things are in the works, and we are getting closer and closer to a new test build.
Changing gaits
A preemptive stab at having things done before you need them, we redid the lead change on the newer rig. Even though the lead change will probably not be implemented for a good while, we saw that it would be fast to remake and will eventually be needed. It is also one of the last movement animations that had not been remade from the last rig. With the exception of mirrored animations, which would be what you change between with the lead change.
Minor adjustments and sharp turns
While we usually show an animation that have been focused on for a major part of the week. This week there was a lot of smaller details on numerous animations that needed to be fixed and there was no singular animation that was obviously different from earlier. We did start on some new ones but none of them got far enough that we wanted to share them at that stage. There was one animation that stood out with the most visible changes though; We realized the canter turning animation needed to be more dynamic by leaning more into the direction you are moving. Mostly this was because of the speed and angle the horse turns it looked a little off.
Markings affecting mane color
Tobiano patterns and other patterns are fun to make, but lining them up to fit the other parts of the horse deemed to be a little tricky. However, we have found a way to make many variations of mane color splits between white pattern and the horse's original color. We will be testing the system out in the new horse shader, but so far it looks to be working as intended. This way we can line up white patterns with the horse's hairs which will give it a more natural look opposed to just solid hair colors.
Exactly how we thought of and created this solution is currently a trade secret, as we haven't seen this technique done before. So imagine our excitement when thinking of this solution and later finding it to be working!
Color swatches and UI elements
Since the end of last week we have been working more on the UI for the upcoming test. Different icons have been made for a few categories such as coat colors, breed, markings and more. For the coat colors we've made an icon/button for each coat that can be chosen for the horse. There will of course be restriction for each breed when more breeds are added to the game. A lot of time has gone into putting the icons and objects together in a program to see how it all goes together. Some icons will change later, but they work for now.
Animation data
When importing animations into Astride we need to define some additional data like front, side, rotation velocity and when animation events should fire. Good ol' reliable spreadsheets are useful for this purpose. We have a working import pipeline for this now and will keep extending it with extra information. Here’s a screenshot of our fantastic spreadsheet.
Competition arena
This competition arena isn’t completely done, but it is at a stage where we are comfortable to test it. There are some things we need to figure out to give you the best experience of this building in the early access. On the curved walls, you see two levels with grass. Our vision is to have some trees and bushes around, maybe even a statue! Who knows how we decide to decorate the arena. But one thing that we know for sure is that we are going to have different banners around the rails! You can read more about it in this public Patreon post.
Leg markings
We have been steadily adding more and more markings to the horse, and the leg markings finally have their first sets done. All of the leg markings can be changed separately, so in this GIf, you can see the leg markings being randomized. This means that when a player makes a custom horse, they will be able to choose the markings for each leg separately. There will of course be more variations added at a later time, but for now, these leg markings will serve its purpose.
Interiors
We are also working on some furniture and interiors. We hope they will bring more of a cosy vibe to our game. In the stable, arenas and other buildings, you will find some furniture and other decor elements. Even though the horses are our main priority now, it is good to already figure out how the furniture and other decor will look like. Some of them will have more functions rather than just being visually pleasing. But that is something we will need to come back to on another day.
Striding progress
We’re slowly approaching a testable prototype of the striding system internally. We’ve been working on some visual indicators above the jump to show how in sync you are with the requirements to make the jump. The jump has a fixed speed requirement and a point on the ground where the horse should jump from to make a perfect jump. To show this to the player I decided to add a curved line above the jump to tell you if you should speed up or slow down. A perfect straight line means you have the perfect speed.
For the striding we decided to have circles showing the frequency and offset you have from the ideal jumping position. If there is a circle on the line it means you have a perfect stride. If it’s not on the line then it’s up to the player to do some mental gymnastics to figure out how much they need to slow down and speed up again to have a perfect stride and still have a perfect speed. It’s a skill players will get to learn over time. The next challenge is having to prepare for the gates after the current one. This will be the metagame in the show jumping gamemode.
Please note that everything shown in these devlogs is mostly just work in progress and is not finished. Changes may happen and the things showcased here will have further work put into them! To see work in progress daily, join our Discord server community here!
Devlog #22: Week 47 & 48
Hi everyone! We can't believe it's already Friday! The weeks go by so fast. As always, we have a lot of development to show you. Many interesting things are in the works, and we are getting closer and closer to a new test build.
Changing gaits
A preemptive stab at having things done before you need them, we redid the lead change on the newer rig. Even though the lead change will probably not be implemented for a good while, we saw that it would be fast to remake and will eventually be needed. It is also one of the last movement animations that had not been remade from the last rig. With the exception of mirrored animations, which would be what you change between with the lead change.
Minor adjustments and sharp turns
While we usually show an animation that have been focused on for a major part of the week. This week there was a lot of smaller details on numerous animations that needed to be fixed and there was no singular animation that was obviously different from earlier. We did start on some new ones but none of them got far enough that we wanted to share them at that stage. There was one animation that stood out with the most visible changes though; We realized the canter turning animation needed to be more dynamic by leaning more into the direction you are moving. Mostly this was because of the speed and angle the horse turns it looked a little off.
Markings affecting mane color
Tobiano patterns and other patterns are fun to make, but lining them up to fit the other parts of the horse deemed to be a little tricky. However, we have found a way to make many variations of mane color splits between white pattern and the horse's original color. We will be testing the system out in the new horse shader, but so far it looks to be working as intended. This way we can line up white patterns with the horse's hairs which will give it a more natural look opposed to just solid hair colors.
Exactly how we thought of and created this solution is currently a trade secret, as we haven't seen this technique done before. So imagine our excitement when thinking of this solution and later finding it to be working!
Color swatches and UI elements
Since the end of last week we have been working more on the UI for the upcoming test. Different icons have been made for a few categories such as coat colors, breed, markings and more. For the coat colors we've made an icon/button for each coat that can be chosen for the horse. There will of course be restriction for each breed when more breeds are added to the game. A lot of time has gone into putting the icons and objects together in a program to see how it all goes together. Some icons will change later, but they work for now.
Animation data
When importing animations into Astride we need to define some additional data like front, side, rotation velocity and when animation events should fire. Good ol' reliable spreadsheets are useful for this purpose. We have a working import pipeline for this now and will keep extending it with extra information. Here’s a screenshot of our fantastic spreadsheet.
Competition arena
This competition arena isn’t completely done, but it is at a stage where we are comfortable to test it. There are some things we need to figure out to give you the best experience of this building in the early access. On the curved walls, you see two levels with grass. Our vision is to have some trees and bushes around, maybe even a statue! Who knows how we decide to decorate the arena. But one thing that we know for sure is that we are going to have different banners around the rails! You can read more about it in this public Patreon post.
Leg markings
We have been steadily adding more and more markings to the horse, and the leg markings finally have their first sets done. All of the leg markings can be changed separately, so in this GIf, you can see the leg markings being randomized. This means that when a player makes a custom horse, they will be able to choose the markings for each leg separately. There will of course be more variations added at a later time, but for now, these leg markings will serve its purpose.
Interiors
We are also working on some furniture and interiors. We hope they will bring more of a cosy vibe to our game. In the stable, arenas and other buildings, you will find some furniture and other decor elements. Even though the horses are our main priority now, it is good to already figure out how the furniture and other decor will look like. Some of them will have more functions rather than just being visually pleasing. But that is something we will need to come back to on another day.
Striding progress
We’re slowly approaching a testable prototype of the striding system internally. We’ve been working on some visual indicators above the jump to show how in sync you are with the requirements to make the jump. The jump has a fixed speed requirement and a point on the ground where the horse should jump from to make a perfect jump. To show this to the player I decided to add a curved line above the jump to tell you if you should speed up or slow down. A perfect straight line means you have the perfect speed.
For the striding we decided to have circles showing the frequency and offset you have from the ideal jumping position. If there is a circle on the line it means you have a perfect stride. If it’s not on the line then it’s up to the player to do some mental gymnastics to figure out how much they need to slow down and speed up again to have a perfect stride and still have a perfect speed. It’s a skill players will get to learn over time. The next challenge is having to prepare for the gates after the current one. This will be the metagame in the show jumping gamemode.
Please note that everything shown in these devlogs is mostly just work in progress and is not finished. Changes may happen and the things showcased here will have further work put into them! To see work in progress daily, join our Discord server community here!
