https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfsuK1ISEb0
Elliot Cannon, Creative Director
We’re on the home stretch! Be sure and check out the cool Abyss Lord video above! It’s bug fixing mode in the studio this week as we push to the finish line. This next release is another big step towards making the game cooler and more fun. Being able to build with any hero, swap in combat, and level them all at once while melting face with the Abyss Lord is fun business. The new UI looks slick and will really allow us to move towards a cleaner cross-platform development flow over time. I’ve been sorting through a massive backlog of robust features and improvements for the game, which we’re prioritizing this week. We need to keep pushing. Our big goal, as I’ve said before, is to get that hero library built out and never stop adding to it, but at the same time there are tons of fixes, improvements, features, and more to do and we won’t forget them. EV2 is the hero up next, but who’s after her is up to you. Keep your eyes peeled for the influence vote! As a former RR 80+ Slayer in Warhammer Online, Age of Reckoning (RIP) I’m going to vote for the barbarian! “Give me death!”
Steven Collins, Lead Level Designer (@Esorath)
Working on the changes to lanes / enemies / and towers. This is an overhaul of the strategic depth of DD2, so we are making sure we get this as fun as possible. As you can see, this lane is comprised of Air Enemies. You can also see they are flying right over my traps and barricades. This is one example of the types of changes we want to make to ensure build variety. We're going to talk more about this on Friday's Devstream!
Daniel Haddad, Design Director (@Blacksmith)
First there was the great flood that shut us down for a few days. Then I got terribly sick again. Ultimately we lost a lot of time that we could have spent solving world hunger, curing cancer, but most important of all, we could have spent that time making the Abyss Lord eeeeeeeeven cooooooooooler. Have no fear! I’ve successfully constructed a time dilating device that allows us to nearly double the amount of time in a day. I call it, the Don’t Sleeper 3000 X PWN!!!!
For the past three weeks we had early builds of the Abyss Lord playable to a close circle of hardcore DD fans. (BTW if you guys want to join this super awesome cult write a comment and reach out to @Dani. The initiation ceremony is not bad at all and we only require you to donate one or two organs.) These DD fans gave us a lot of feedback on the Abyss Lord, and we’ve been tweaking him and making him more and more awesome with each increment. Now I’m working on his Skill Spheres and Passives and playing with him trying to place the final, final touches before he goes off to college and you can all start playing with him. Treat him gently, he’s always been a special boy… girl… er… Cthulhu thing...
Jesus Diaz, World Builder (@N3oDoc)
At this point we have just started to work on a visual test for what might be the next Dungeon Defenders II level. All I can say this is going to be another dungeon type level. Here's a sneak peek. :)
Jason Yu, Associate Producer (@urfyness)
Last week, the Flood of Trendy 2016 closed the building from Tuesday all the way through Monday. A water main had ruptured in an elevator, flooding the basement overnight with 5000+ gallons of water and caused the transformer to shut down, disabling electricity throughout the building. Several Trendy guys came in Thursday to drag a generator onto the roof, snake an extension cord down into our server rooms, and power on the internal servers so we can continue development. After several hours of troubleshooting, a thunderstorm rolled into town forcing them to stop for the night. Luckily power was restored to the building on Friday, and the team rallied for the final push towards our patch release. The effort from the team has been incredible thus far, and I’m incredibly proud to be a part of it.
This week, we’re in finaling mode, one of my favorite times of the project. We get to solve problems and see the fruits of our labor, but by the end of it, I’m ready to get back to making features.
Tim Shannon, PS4 & Live Producer (@TimmyTrashTier)
We’re down to finalization of the PS4 update, so we’re hoping to get the Harbinger + Carnival update out to you in early April. Keep an eye right here for more news.
James Reid, Software Programmer (@Driscan)
Lots more work on the new Hero Deck UIs. The team has been busting their butts getting all this new functionality in. This has also been a deep dive of our UI System and what it can/can’t do. This allows us to make future UIs easier and quicker but requires a ton of upfront work and time. Anyone who’s worked with UE3 native UIScenes will understand.
So while the below pictures might not look like much has changed since last week, the innards are muuuuuch better.
Also, did you see that Abyss Lord video!? That thing is the bee’s knees!
Daniel Diaz, World Builder (@DanielKaMi)
We loved watching you guys what the level was last week. Lots like a good number of you guessed correctly! Now, we are starting a new level.
Dan Pingston, Character Artist
Making heroes and costumes and costumes for heroes and accessories and marketing illustrations and icons and all kinds of fun things.
Chris Flores, QA Lead (@likethatwhenigothere)
We’re still full swing with the new UI testing, Defender Medals, the Monthly Mission for April, Abyss Lord, and a bunch of other stuff that creeped up. Business as usual.