What does a spaceship hotel need apart from a reception and rooms for the hotel guests? Yup, a crew to steer and control the spaceship!
On the 5th floor of the hotel there are crew quarters, a canteen and of course the bridge. The rooms are still under construction, but the new characters have just been finalised.
The crew consists of 8 crew members and they can only rarely be encountered at the start of the game, as you as the player do not yet have access to certain rooms. However, when you meet the individual characters and get to know them, you realise that there is a little soap opera of its own going on on the 5th floor with all kinds of drama. I don't want to give any more away at this point, just this much: you will have an influence on it.
May I now introduce (from left to right):
Undine "Dini" - Security Cadet
Bram - Chief of Security and Chef
T.J. - first officer
Captain Carter
San'dar "Sandy" - Navigator
Faelanduin "Fael" - Analytics and Xeno Specialist
Riven - Analytics Cadet
Novaleen "Nova" - Mechanic and Technician
Here's a little behind-the-scenes look at how I developed the characters' profile pictures. First I created the character, then I tried out different poses and pixelated the one I was most happy with into a profile picture. A profile picture consists of about 8-10 layers, with the bottom layer simply being the black outlines and flat filled colour. Everything else I call "render" and provides the necessary depth, consisting of light and shadow layers, colour accents and coloured contours.
Each NPC will of course have different facial expressions, ranging from neutral to cheerful to angry, which will be visible during dialogues. If you want to know more about the dialogue system, have a look at my Devlog #3!
I've also been working on a new UI style. First of all, there's an Octowheel to select certain areas such as items, a map or an overview of all NPCs.
For the Octowheel, I've already received a lot of positive feedback on Reddit, as well as a few tips for improving, and I couldn't be more grateful for it.
There's still a lot to do on the UI, because so far I've only finished the area for items and for the NPCs.
That's it for today :D
Best regards,
pixlerin