An attempt to shake up the art direction! Outlines are here to try and make the shape of things stand out a little more. Tweaked a lot of textures and color-balancing to try to match the new lined style.
Dialogue! Some more of the dialogue is in place. I've added in three different conversations, but one won't show up quite yet.
I also added a new option in the level-select screen that should let you reset the dialogue flags in case you missed something or want to hear things again.
[H1]What's Next[/H1]
I've finished writing the (first draft) dialogue. Begun searching for a voice actor to perform the remaining role in the script! That should be fun.
With the script in place, there are two other levels that need to be created! One will be another large enemy, like the Airship Takendown, but on the ground, this time. The other will be another base-defense like the Phylactery level, but portioned into clearer waves, rather than having one constant push.
And then after that, it'll be time to flesh out the levels, the aesthetics, and so on! Balance this game like I've been saying I would for months!
Laser Eye Surgery
What's new?
The golem's punch attack was kinda bad against anything that wasn't a large, stationary building, so I gave him a laser eye. The laser eye is in all incarnations of the golem, not just the Sky Navy level.
I've tweaked the magic system to start rejecting gestures that don't actually look like any of the symbols. Before, if you were careless, it would just pick the closest symbol even if the resemblance was next to 0. Now, if you accidentally pull the trigger, you won't get a tiny circle that's impossible to get rid of, or fling you and your dragon off in some random direction!
Fix where the Encircled Magic wasn't working properly.
More attempts to get support for other controllers working.
[H1]What's Next?
More voice acting! Still looking for someone who can do a lady professor...
Still have rebalancing on the mind, too.
The armor for the Lich needs reworking. It's a little underwhelming from a first-person view.
Two Mules of Dirt (New Patch!)
What's new?
Some people take soil back from the holy land. This sorceress heaved a monument into the air.
So the "Sky Navy Assault" map now has a win condition: destroy the spawner and all golems on the main air-ruins. The golem will attempt to punch you, but he's not that good at it. I'll work on making him more threatening.
Smaller tweaks:
Tweaked some of the music to be nicer and clearer and more cohesive.
Fixed weirdness where cannonballs would spawn in incorrect places and kill the people who fired them for no good reason.
Updated the skyboxes on Sky Galleon and Sky Navy levels. It should be nicer!
Toned back the clouds on the Sky Galleon and Sky Navy. Shouldn't lag nearly as much anymore, and the dense clouds looked weird anyway.
More attempts at fixing control schemes.
What's next?
Gonna put guns on the golem! The level itself needs more fleshing out. Maybe some means of making it so you can't just fly past all the stuff to get to the end.
"Sky Navy" Works, right? (New Patch)
[H1]What's new?[/H1]
Hopefully Oculus controller scheme support works by default now (can't test myself). Support for other controllers should be possible through the binding options.
There's now a preview version of the Sky Navy assault! It's like the Army Assault level, but with flying units and a lack of ground.
I changed the music out in the level select room for something more appropriate.
[H1]What's next?[/H1]
More work on units and layouts for the sky navy assault. More intergration of voicework!
I'm also planning on putting in a small marionette toy experiment in for giggles.
It's been a year and 2 days since this game went up on early access. I know I said it would be about a year to get it to 'release' state, but while the gameplay loops are technically complete, there's so much more I want to put into the game.
Been a While (New Patch! Finally!)
[H1]What's New?[/H1]
Been working behind the scenes (and slacking off just a little!), so here's the obvious stuff you can see:
Voice acting implementation has begun! There's currently a small conversation, with some accompanying animation that plays in the level select room when you first start up the game. There's more dialogue to come!
Rearranged the main menu. It's now compartmentalized a bit. More organization to make room for new levels to come.
SteamVR 2.0 support. Now controls can be remapped, and we have a broader support for things like Valve's "Knuckles" controller setup.
A few texture updates. Things like concrete and rocks should look a little more detailed and less fuzzy.
There are also a few things that are probably less obvious or invisible:
Upgraded to Unity 2018.3. There's a few features that should let me work faster and hopefully make a greater variety of enemies for less work!
Nailed down a couple longstanding bugs, which caused some minor performance issues.
Touched up the sound system.
Set up rudimentary motion capture to get better animations going.
New Substance plugin (texture stuff)
The longest things to deal with were SteamVR upgrade (which required redoing a good number of gameobjects and touching most of my control scripts), and the Upgrades to Unity and Substance. Basically, I'm hoping to never upgrade these things again.
What's Next?
More dialogue! This time while you're playing.
Maybe an option in the level select to reset the dialogue flags, if you want to hear some of them again.
More work on a new level!
Better animations for the Clockwork Zombies.
Greater variety of enemies.
Whoa! Quick update (No Patch)
Been a bit, huh?
Don't worry, still working away here. Trying to get voicework in. Preparing another level. I've just been delayed slightly because I've been moving to a new place. Also, I'm waiting for a few updates to the development tools I've been working on. They should make things move a lot smoother and make it easier to make a variety of enemies and obstacles.
Let go of your earthly tethers (New Patch!)
What's new?
The hamster ball method of locomotion is now an option in the main game! Incidentally, the ball is rotated using the grip buttons instead of the triggers now, to avoid overlapping functionality with the spell casting. Swap from mounted/dismounted/hamster ball using the menu spells!
Also, as you can see from the screenshot, you can tether/grapple on stuff. Click the touchpad to tether onto stuff. I recommend using the tether alongside the Air spell to propel yourself around.
What's next?
I'll probably fix up the tethers so the line doesn't go straight to the center of the ball. It clutters your vision a bit as it is.
It'll need some features stolen from the dismounted mode. Gonna let it stun enemies it hits at speed, and give it the same kind of landing explosion.
I think I know what the next level is going to be now. It'll be something like the Army Assault, but in the air this time. Fighting over objective points that spawn units. Probably a few more obstacles and things to fly around and onto. No floor.
Music to my ears (and yours) (New Patch)
What's new?
Small patch today. The Phylactery Defense level now has its own music. It might be my favorite piece in the game, actually!
What's next?
Gonna give the hamster ball a tether and make it a movement option in game. It's happening.
Milestone Trailer! (New Patch)
We've hit a milestone!
After (mostly) weekly updates, we've hit what I considered internally as a large milestone in this game. Look at how far we've come! Since starting, we've:
Added in two levels, and fleshed out the two levels we already had.
Added in several songs and sound effects everywhere.
Moved from one kind of featuresless grey enemy to to having several kinds of enemies with detailed models and unique behaviours.
Golems!
Airships!
Ornithopters!
Battering Rams!
Hot air balloons!
Laser turrets!
Cannons!
Redid the models and textures for nearly everything.
Added moving features of the level that you can interact and climb on.
Added in a new method of moving while dismounted!
Redid some of the spells entirely, making each one unique.
In-game tutorial videos!
New magic-systems for free-drawn magic (not in a circle), cloned magic, and moving circles around.
Just look at the difference between these two screenshots!
What's new?
We've got a new trailer. Go check out the store page! It's 3x as much trailer as there was before, and with a lot nicer looking stuff in it.
Those camera controls are in-game now. You can turn on the secondary camera and move it around with menu spells, instead of messing with keypresses.
I redid some of the music on the airship level. The music loop is longer, and it isn't all in the upper-range of notes, which was awkward.
I also replaced some colliders which had disappeared, causing the airship to be invincible.
Fixed up the army assault level so the NPCs attack them properly.
What's next?
The inverse-kinematics for some of the dismounted stuff will occasionally flip out, and I'm having trouble figuring out why. I'll fix that up before moving on.
I think we need to pass over numbers for balance.
I think it's time to make another level. I'll have to hash out what exactly it will be, but it'll be fun.
I might also put the hamster ball into the main game (without the stickiness).
More music. The phylactery defense and the training arena share a song. Gonna fix that.
Mostly Boring Patch (New Patch!)
What's new?
This update's mostly touch-ups and bug fixes.
Got that cannon asset in more places, like those balloons. Fewer grey cylinders!
Line of sight now on fire and ice bursts spells. You don't get to blast stuff through shields and walls now.
Bringing unmounted mode up to speed!
Destroying weapons while dismounted works now.
Wand casting point and particles now move properly with equipping/destroying weapons.
The Secondary/3rd person camera now renders clouds properly.
Audio tweaks for the wind while flying.
What third person camera?
Oh, that's been in there for a while, undocumented. Press "Z" to toggle it on and off. Press spacebar to move it between spots. One of those spots is actually a 1st-person view, but rendered wider and larger, and centered in the head. The normal 1st-person view is from just one eye, and cropped.
This secondary view makes for nicer recorded footage, but also puts more work on your computer. You'll probably see your framerate drop when it's on.
What's next?
I'll give the third person camera an in-game toggle so you don't have to take off your headset and walk to the keyboard to manage it. Maybe store the value between levels in the same session, but default it back to off between play sessions.
The sound balance for the airship level's music need addressing.
After that, it's time for another milestone trailer, I think. There's been an entire level, a host of sound effects, an entire locomotion method, and a suite of visual updates since the last one.
