Our First Devlog
Hello everyone and welcome to the first ever Soul Split development update! As we inch our way closer to early access we've begun to document the game far more and, as a result, we’re going to begin sharing more of that sweet, sweet behind the scenes content with you, our community. So strap yourselves in, we’ve got some teasers to go through!
Overview
Recently, we’ve been tackling the foundation of the game itself in the hopes of making it faster to develop; our primary focus has been on both the dungeon and enemy pipelines. With the goal of having larger, more interesting dungeon generation and a much more diverse swathe of enemies than was seen in any of our previous demos.
Let's start with the dungeons.
Dungeons
Various areas have been concepted in-game this month all of which are very different from the last. From abyss sunken archives, to poison drenched swamps and demon stained crypts there’s a little something for everyone. These are all early concepts rather than full blown areas and their designs might not be quite as detailed as in future showings, but they’re shaping the world to be something truly extraordinary. In the meantime, enjoy an early screenshot of the Flaying Halls, the third major area of the game!
A big part of improving the dungeon pipeline however was overhauling the first area of the game and preparing it for the sweeping dungeon generation changes that were going to take place. So we finally settled on a finalized aesthetic for The Exilis Archives that could be applied to any number of new strange room shapes.
Speaking of strange room shapes, in previous builds of the game, dungeon generation has been relatively limited to bland box rooms. However we've since addressed this issue through doing a lot of work on the backend. Now dungeons can spawn rooms of all shapes and sizes, making combat and exploration far more interesting and memorable. Below is a screenshot of just a small amount of room layouts we've added to The Exilis Archives.
Dwellers
Enemies have always been a big part of our game, what fun is being a spellslinger without punching bags to explode? As of recently we've been giving a lot more attention to the pipeline of making enemies since for some time its been underdeveloped. The game files are plagued with tens of enemies that have yet to be given any functionality but are fully textured and animated. However now that has now begun to change, and more enemies are being brought into the fold. In fact we'll even share a handful of them with you! All of which can be found in the first major area of the game.
Exilis Knight
Knights guarding the inhabitants of the archives, these automatons are very nearly sentient and act as personal bodyguards to the young inexperienced mages of the archives.
Observer
An elusive mini-boss found throughout the world, Observers are strange alien creatures that appear in unexpected nooks and crannies. Little is known about them, save for their hostile behavior and their fearsome magical abilities.
Defender Golem
A hulking automaton and an earlier design of the Exilis Sect. These golems have been repurposed as guardians of the archives, defending the area from would be invaders with their boulder-like durability and strength.
All of these enemies have been implemented into the game and are fully functional with a couple of fixes that need to be done here and there; the Observer especially makes for an incredibly chaotic fight. We have plenty more enemies to show off but we'll save them for another time. After all, we do have quite a ways to go before early access!
Conclusion
That brings us to the end of our first devlog! Thank you everyone for reading, we hope you enjoyed the first of many development updates on Soul Split! We'll be back soon to share more progress on the game, and who knows? Maybe a cheeky trailer will drop before then?