Voices for the Delivery Level (previously named the "Army Assault" level) have been added in!
I also fixed a behaviour in which the boss of that level would slowly kill itself over time, so you wouldn't have to fight to win. Can't have that happening.
I also added in another experiment of mine. This is a marionette. You should be able to manipulate it around, shoot stuff. If you set the marionette on the ground, and 'drag' it, it moves the ground with it. The spellcasting button will make the marionette shoot. Something amusing to toy with.
Just plop the marionette down in the home circle to go back to the level select screen.
What's Next?
I have the last of the voicework to put in! One more level, and some post-completion dialogue left to get in there. Soon, we shall be complete.
Then more audio touch-ups (attacking, etc).
Some more animation touch-ups are needed (zombie attacking, running). Maybe model updates. George the Wyvern still isn't quite there in the face department. The Lich's armor is also kind of boring looking from 1st-person perspectives.
Voice Acting (New Patch!)
No screengrab for this one!
What's New?
Voice Acting! For the Sky Navy and God Takedown levels.
What's Next?
Voice acting for the remaining levels and some in-between levels stuff that happens at level select. I've got the workflow down now.
Note: after all these voices are in place, I plan on making it so you need to play through the levels in sequence.
Slow and Steady wins the race.... (New Patch!)
But mabye not quite as slow as they were moving before.
What's New?
Gotta go fast. The turtles have more than tripled theri walking speed because otherwise it would take full minutes for them to become remotely threatening.
The regular turtles finally do something with this patch! They'll damage the building once they reach it.
The artillery turtles will also stop once they get close enough, instead of marching straight up. Also, their artillery fire is a little more accurate, instead of literally being unable to hit the broad side of a barn.
The proportions of the later waves have been tweaked to swap some of the normal turtles for artillery ones.
The base you're defending in this wave clearing level also visibly explodes when it dies, to make it more obvious why you lost the level.
The island had some tweaks for better pathfinding and aesthetics.
A few bugfixes, too:
Fix for some items which were supposed to die/take damage when they deal damage. They weren't, except in some weird circumstances. Now things like the magical orb will disappear instead of lingering around, dealing extra damage and looking weird.
Fix for being able to break line-of-sight (LOS) with certain damage courses (like the laser turrets) by putting your Lich body between it and the damage source. Now you take damage.
That laser should sound nicer now, too.
What's Next?
Well, the villa's collapse probably warrants some sound effects, for one.
I've got all the voiceacting turned in! Now I've got to sort through several hours of takes, pick out the ones I want to use integrate them into the game!
Slash or Credit? (New Patch!)
[H1]What's New?[/H1]
This is mostly a sound update!
Ambient sounds! Gears make gear sounds. Propellers woosh. Trains chug and clatter along the track. The beach makes sound at the ocean. The giant hamster ball bounces.
Existing sounds have gotten balanced and returned a bit. For example, the sound of the clockwork zombies attacking was mega-loud and didn't change properly with distance. Now, you'll still be able to hear when combat is ongoing, wherever, but the sound is directional and fades with distance. The same went for the cannonfire. Yay!
Also retouched the music for the Army Assault level to be faster and more on-rhythm.
I still wanted something new to screenshot for you guys. So, I've put in credits for the voiceacting in the form of statues that you can interact with in the level select screen.
Oh, and dragon breath shouldn't cause enormous framerate drops anymore.
[H1]What's Next?[/H1]
More sound touch-ups. That laser turret sound is too harsh. The training arena and phylactery defense levels need their turn at getting ambient sounds. The ballons could probably do with some wind-whipping kind of effects, too.
The Luncheon Defense basic tortoises still need to be able to destroy the building.
I still need to make Luncheon Defense compatible with Endless Mode. Endless mode itself might change from an 'option' to 'Side Mission' since only a few of the missions make sense being endless.
Bombs Away! (New Patch!)
[H1]What's New?[/H1]
The Luncheon Defense level has gotten an updated layout. It's got more sand, fewer hard straight lines. A dead golem. Looks a lot nicer (see the older post to compare!)
It's also got two more units!
Artillery. They'll march slowly forward and lob single magic orbs.
Bomber. A hot-air balloon hoisting an explosive into the air. They'll also drop their bomb whenever they die. They deal friendly fire to their fellow turtles.
The normal troops still don't do anything when they get to the base. So, uh, I guess you don't have to worry about them, yet.
The lighting, reflections and post-processing settings have been touched up across all the levels! Now they:
Exist, and
Are consistent across levels.
Quality settings! You have 5 different choices to pick from in case going FULL BLAST on the quality wasn't working out (which was the default for a long time). Lighting might flip out when toggling, but will be fine if you close out of Steam VR completely (just restarting WyVRn doesn't help for some reason).
What's Next?
The normal tortoise troops still need to be able to hurt the base. I'll work on that.
There also needs to be some indication for the base taking damage.
This was a lighting/graphics pass. I think sound needs another go-through, too (hopefully more voice acting!)
The framerate also drops something unpleasant when you use dragon breath and it hits stuff. Gotta figure that out.
A Slow Invasion (New Patch!)
What's New?
Started blocking out the layout of the last level! Waves of turtle and turtle-based enemies! At the moment, it's just one type of enemy, and it can't do anything besides walk towards your base until it dies. But it comes in waves! There'll be four of them total.
I've also made the nature of the victory circles more obvious with a little 'home' symbol on them and a 'lock circle' that shows up where the circle will go once you beat the level. This way:
You know what that blue circle on the ground/in the air actually means!
You know where it'll show up once you win.
You know if you've actually won or not, instead of wondering if you've already won and just can't find the home circle yet.
Also laid down some placeholder assets to get ready for more voiceacting.
Laid down some reflection probes and lighting changes in some places, with some accompanying changes to textures. Thing should look nicer, more dynamic and reflective in some places (especially the Army Assault level).
What's Next?
The new level is kind of plain. It needs some sprucing up.
The enemies in the new fighter need a way to actually hurt your base.
More enemy types! I'm thinking turtle sky bomber.
More work on voice framework. While I'm at it, there needs to be some work on the sound effects (especially ambient ones). I'll put in a bit of time for that.
Stop, hey, what's that sound? It's some voice acting (New Patch!)
[H1]What's New?[/H1]
Voice acting for the character of Clem has come in and I've started bringing the audio in. Try jumping into either the Phylactery Defense level or the Sky Galleon level, which has been given a little touch in the screenshot above.
I also added a new value to the save data, so you might see your music, grip settings change unexpectedly. Sorry about that! Should be the last time.
[H1]What's Next[/H1]
I'm going to be tweaking the end-level behaviour, making it so you need to progress through each level before going to the next.
Going to tweak the end-level 'victory circle' to be more obvious, and give one to the tortoise level.
Might give the option to mute the dialogue.
Maybe continue modeling out stuff for the Tortoise level and start blocking out the Luncheon Defense level. This one'll be much closer to a 'wave fighter' than the other levels.
Magic Missile Bonsai! (New Patch)
I wonder how many different photos of this level I can take before it gets old.
[H1]What's New?[/H1]
The Tortoise is a threat now. The petals (leaves?) on the tree on its back shoot homing magic orbs. They'll kill yeah before the mana explosions will if you're not careful.
You can now kill the tortoise if you defoliate it (destroy all the leaves.) You'll still be stranded in the level after it's dead though. Bring up the menu spells to get out.
The level has some air-support come in to try to take the heat off of you and maybe even destroy some of the leaves themselves (but probably not 'cause they'll die pretty quickly).
The effects on the level boundaries, the mana font explosions are different/updated.
What's next?
Killing the tortoise needs to trigger the victory condition to let you go home. I'll get that done soon.
I've selected the last voice actor! Going through lines, direction and such.
The in-level voice system isn't fully in place yet, but it should be relatively simple, with a lot of overlap with the level-select dialogue system.
I need to flesh out the level layout of the tortoise level, make it a bit more interesting and dynamic.
Starting to line up the last level and how it might end up looking.
Turtle! (New Patch)
What's new?
I put the newest level's progress up in the game! Also started rearranging the order they show up in on the level up screen.
The enormous tortoise walks around absorbing mana fountains. This hurts you, but can't kill you for now. You also can't kill it. You can climb on it though. There isn't a proper win or loss condition yet. Just enjoy the moving tortoise and climb around on him for now. He won't be so chill with it once his petals can attack.
What's next?
The voice-acting auditions are closed. Going to slim down things and pick one to work with. Exciting!
I'll also work on:
Getting the tortoise to be a proper threat to you
Getting you to be a proper threat to the tortoise
Spawning in friendly units
Finishing up the landscape for this new level
Tortoise! (No Patch)
What's New?
No patch today, but I've been working on the centerpiece of the next level I've been creating. You'll be taking this guy down, before he gets to a leyline to fully awaken.
The petals on his tree will shoot magic or something. I think this one will revolve largely around managing obstacles between you and the death so you can get in and mess them up.
If you look closely, you can see George and the Lich riding on the tortoise's head if you want a sense of scale.
