Single Player
We have some awesome new ability VFX we want to show off! You can look forward to many of our new abilities having a similar style in the future. This isn’t the only VFX in the works that we want to show you- there’s more to come!
Concept art is finished for Tender_Foot and Briar_Stomper. Standard animations are in the works for Little_Wing, and Tide_Walker is a few edits away from having their full animation set! We started implementing Puddle_Hopper as a playable character this sprint, and they’re already nearly finished!
We’ve completed the concept art for a human character who is very important to the game’s story, and we’re getting started on another major character’s concept sheet. In addition to describing their appearances for the artist, we’re taking the time to flesh out their backstories as well.
Our location concept art made huge strides this sprint! We have finished illustrations for the different states of the building we mentioned last time. We also have concept art completed for a new boss room, and currently we’re in the early stages of creating another one for a new biome.
We spruced up the sculpting for the town and added a system of paths to match the concept art. The path design flows really nicely, and we’re excited that the overall layout is more complex than our previous work. This should be a fun town to explore! We’re looking forward to adding NPCs and giving them schedules next.
New models are in the works for multiple town assets, as well as some models for the camp, such as the cooking pot. We’ve also implemented some new related consumable items, like vegetable stew.
Our human models are getting multiple new hairstyles, outfits, and 2D facial hair options. We also adjusted the details (scars, wrinkles, etc.) on the characters’ faces to have better visibility at a distance. Keep in mind, these additions aren’t just an improvement for character creation, but also for nearly every NPC in the game’s world.
Currently, we’re working on the logic that takes you from the main menu through the beginning sequence of the game. That’s probably kind of important!
We’ve fully codified the player's name in dialogue. NPCs will now refer to you by the name you input at the start of the game, where before we were using a placeholder, [Protag].
A new boss NPC has been fully implemented to have all their animations and VFX working properly. This is an especially important and unique boss, so we’re making sure to get it right.
Are you the type of person who enjoys snooping on what other people are saying? Great news, NPCs now converse with each other using little popup messages that are physically in the world, and you’ll be able to catch bits of conversation without fully approaching them. You can still approach and talk to them normally of course, but that would require social interaction.
To help the writing team, we created several nodes in xNode that let the NPCs react to changes in the game’s time of day with custom dialogue. This will come in handy as we create schedules for our NPCs to follow, and it will influence your options for camp activities. For example, you can only go stargazing when the sun is down if you don’t want permanent sun spots in your vision.
The Compendium has new functionality so that it automatically updates after you complete certain criteria. Interacting with a new Kinfolk in different ways will influence the level of information you receive.
We’ve implemented the combat AI for Hull_Piercer using the new HTN AI. We also fixed some edge cases and bugs in the new AI framework, and made many bug fixes to NPCs to get them correctly initializing, moving, and launching abilities.
We implemented automated tests for item functionality. Now we can programmatically give a character an item and check that the item performs its expected behavior (ex. aloe should negate the burned status effect).
Thanks for checking in on us! We’ll be back with our next newsletter on May 5.
