Fates of Ort
Progress update #8 - Skeletal underworld, exploring a soul, & more!
This week we focused heavily on adding more areas, all with a very otherworldly theme. The first one to show is this skeletal underworld. This area is an aspect of the afterlife, and is usually not accessible for the living. The particle effect for this area came out really well. We used the snow particles as a baseline, but inverted the direction upwards instead.
The next area is the internal workings of a specific character's soul. I won't reveal too much about it at this point to keep the mystery alive!
The last area to show is the Howling Plains. This is another aspect of the afterlife, a kind of purgatory for lost souls. You will get hopelessly lost here, unless you have someone (or something) to guide you. The area is inspired by the Lost Woods from Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Without a guide, the player will loop around in the plains aimlessly.
Finally, we added this magical barrier that serves as an obstacle to those who aren't yet sufficiently skilled in the arcane arts. This will be used in a few places as an optional opportunity to find loot and rewards.
Progress update #7 - Gnome airship, soul dimension vortex, & more!
What's new in Fates of Ort?
We have worked on the quest introducing Bracs the Gnome, to make it more impactful. Helping him repair his airship is now a great gameplay moment. Previously, the airship wasn't taking off after being repaired. Adding this animation (and an accompanying musical track) has really helped lift the significance of the moment.
We have designed and implemented the maps for the capitol city of Ort. This is the epicenter of the events that are taking place during the game, and is a path to the final showdown. Even though this is a late stage area, it is available at the very beginning of the game. This is in keeping with the choice to encourage free exploration of the world, and tackling different areas in the order that the player prefers. There are of course some obstacles that prevent access to specific areas, but the order in which these are experienced is still very free.
We added a musician character to the Dragonfly Fen, and his beast companion. The beast is sick, and the musician needs help to cure it. This is another example where a use of an animation and accompanying musical track (obviously) has really helped the impact of the moment.
Finally, we worked on designing a particle effect to represent a vortex portal to another dimension - the Soul Plains. This was quite tricky to do, because the isometric perspective of the game is difficult to capture in a Defold particlefx component. The vortex may be tweaked further in the future to make it look even better.
Progress update #6 - Shady characters, rolling rocks, & more!
What's new in Fates of Ort?
We finished a questline involving a shady NPC. He is first introduced in the dungeons of the castle in the north. If the player decides to free the character, his help can be enlisted in releasing the Master, who is standing trial, from his holding cell.
The maps for the Dragonfly Fen were implemented. This is a large marshy area, reclaimed from the sea long ago. It is situated to the east of the Ort grasslands, and is accessible via airship.
We implemented a puzzle which is located in the ancient Temple high in the mountains in the north. The player is tasked with guiding a rolling rock into specific locations in order to unlock doors and passage to further areas.
To the east of the Dragonfly Fen lies an ancient forest. The entrance is guarded by an old and secluded people. In the forest are key areas, such as a giant tree and some sort of factory.
Finally, we added a sleepy and grumpy giant to the Dragonfly Fen. The giant isn't particularly interested in anything the player has to say, so it is up to the player to figure out if there are any magic spells that could help the giant take a nap.
Progress update #5 - Fungal biome, treetop village, & more!
What's new in the development of Fates of Ort this week?
We designed and implemented all of the maps for the fungal biome, the High Kingdom of Hyphae. This is an isolated island, populated by... Well, you'll just have to find out for yourself!
We also designed and implemented the treetop biome. This is a set of structures high above the canopy of the deep forest. This area presented an interesting visual design challenge. We have a parallax layer of leaves, intended to convey a feeling of height. The problem was that we also had pillars that extended down. Where those pillars met the leaves, the effect was jarring and confusing. The solution we landed on was to extend the pillars beyond the edge of the map. This had the bonus impact of amplifying the illusion of height!
We added some key NPCs to the courthouse in the grasslands, including a couple of bickering lawyers and a judge. This is an important area for a main questline.
Finally, we worked on implementing some functions related to management of money in the game. Ort has three types of coins, each corresponding to one of the three Sisters and their respective element (Life, Mind, and Shadow). This means that there are cases where NPCs would like to only accept a specific type of coin, or a mixture of all three. We designed functions to handle all of these scenarios.
That's it for this week! We'd love to hear your feedback on our progress.
Follow development live at: https://www.twitch.tv/topbraj
Progress update #4 - Temple ruins, witch in a hut, & more!
What's new in the development of Fates of Ort this week?
Last week we finished designing the layout of the Temple biome. This week, we actually implemented the maps and joined them all together. The environment is significant for multiple threads of the main quest line.
We implemented a major improvement to the dialogue workflow. We use Twine to structure and link dialogue nodes. Previously, the process of moving dialogue from Twine to Defold was very manual. Each component (title, text body, option text, option target, avatar, etc) had to be copied and pasted from Twine to a staging spreadsheet, and from there into Defold. Using a Twine extension, we export dialogue to a JSON file which can be loaded and decoded directly by Defold. This will save a significant amount of time, and encourage more dialogue writing!
We've begun adding NPCs to the game. Notably this week was the Witch, who lives in a secluded hut at the edge of the world.
We have designed the layout of the fungal biome, and will work on generating and implementing the maps next week.
Lastly - it's not a big deal, but we added a sprite for a boat on the coastline of the grasslands. While it doesn't seem like much, it represents the possibilites of exploration beyond the near shores of Ort, which is quite exciting...
That's it for this week!
We'd love to hear your comments and thoughts, so don't hesitate to share your opinion!
Follow development live at: https://www.twitch.tv/topbraj
Progress update #3 - Burning oil, rocky coast & more!
What's new in the development of Fates of Ort this week?
https://youtu.be/xfiROmg9gQ0
We implemented another environmental hazard in the form of an oil puddle. This can be spread around by walking through it, and is limited to covering approximately 30 tiles. Much like the other hazards (exploding barrels and sacks of poison gas), this is both a threat to the player and an opportunity to set traps. The player can easily create an oil puddle in a shape designed to damage incoming enemies. We made it so that a specific set of spells trigger the oil to burst into flames. This includes the Burn and Meteor Shower spells, but notable excludes the basic Life element bolt spell (which looks like a fireball). This is because the Burn spell is also available in the Life element set, and we want to encourage the selection of this spell. Not sure about this design choice though, as it may be confusing if something that looks like fire doesn't trigger the oil to burn. It is worth noting that exploding barrels also trigger oil fires, creating additional opportunities for interaction.
We finished implementing the Rock Desert biome. This is a region on the westernmost part of the world map, beyond the Rusts. It used to be a lush coastal area, but has been barren since the Consumption-fueled civil war hundreds of years ago. It contains an NPC key to a main questline, and also holds a small sidequest.
The Rupture spell "infects" enemies, and triggers an explosion of projectiles when they die. Previously, this spell did not its own set of stats (e.g. amount of damage) but instead leveraged the stats of turret projectiles. We changed this, to enable better balancing of this spell. It is likely that the Rupture projectiles will end up doing more damage than a standard bolt, to encourage use of the spell.
We designed the structure of the Temple biome. This is a secluded area, high up on a mountain. It will contain a key NPC, a sidequest, and a connection to an area that is crucial for a main questline. This area will also host a couple of puzzles, which differ from how the bulk of the game is played. They combine a specific spell type and some basic spatial awareness.
That's it for this week!
We'd love to hear your comments and thoughts, so don't hesitate to share your opinion!
Follow development live at: https://www.twitch.tv/topbraj
Progress update #2 - Invisible labyrinth, dwarven fortress & more!
What's new?
It's been another busy week! Check out the video we made, showcasing our progress these past few days.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTC-333EJ9E
- We finished implementing a quest relating to a labyrinth with invisible walls. The puzzle is a nod to "In the Walls of Eryx" by H.P. Lovecraft.
- We finalised adding the map files relating to an ancient dwarven fortress in the Rusts.
- We improved the mechanics of the boss fight in the Black Tower. By introducing the puzzle in an earlier area, we give the players a chance to familiarise themselves before attempting a more challenging version.
- We implemented two new enemies. The first is a flying automaton, which fires a series of lasers when detecting an enemy presence. The second is a Consumption demon spawned from the abyss, which can launch magical projectiles in various patterns.
- Finally, we implemented an environmental hazard object in the form of barrels that explode when damaged. These are of course dangerous to the player, but can be pushed around so that they are placed in locations where they might damage enemies instead.
That's all we have for this week!
We'd love to hear your comments and thoughts, so don't hesitate to share your opinion!
Follow development live at: https://www.twitch.tv/topbraj
Progress update #1
What's new?
Progress is rapid, and it's hard to keep track of the changes! Here's a quick summary of what we accomplished this week.
New enemies
- Wisp - a magical anomaly that targets the hero in an attempt to self-destruct and cause damage.
- Blue flower - beautiful but deadly, issues toxic gas when approached.
New areas
- Astral plane - an alternate dimension
- The Rusts - a dead forest and ancient battlefield
We created a gas sack, which releases poisonous gas if damaged. This can be pushed around by the player, creating the possibility to set traps.
We progressed on the gnome quest, adding dialogue and behaviour for the snow biome.
What do you think?
Do you want to see more updates like this? If so, what would you like to know about?
Want more?
Development of the game is live streamed over at Twitch most weekdays. Follow to get notified when I go live!