Wishing everyone well!
For those unfamiliar with Slavic lore, Koschei is a dark knight and lord of the dead — similar to the Lich King.
Over the past few weeks, most of the work has been focused on Koschei and his quests.
1. A large dungeon filled with enemies, treasures, and written lore.
2. The Koschei boss fight — his combat mechanics, behavior, and weaknesses.
3. Several in-engine cutscenes. I didn’t want to just show a static image with text like in many other quests. I wanted Koschei’s story to feel more epic — but that takes a lot of time.
4. Developing Koschei’s model and animations, including facial morphing so he can talk.
5. A dialogue system between Koschei and the main character.
6. The dungeon loading system has been reworked — you can now save your progress inside them.
7. Improvements to the companion AI.
8. Followers can no longer be lost — if they fall too far behind, they’ll teleport to you.
9. Companions will now fight monsters along the way.
10. Ranged combat has been added for companions.
11. Companions will now back away if they block your path, so they don’t get stuck in narrow corridors.
12. I'm experimenting with an anti-stuck system — it's still a work in progress.
Working on Koschei and his content took much more time than I would have liked, but I knew it would be the hardest part, so I tackled it as early as possible.
Lately, I’ve been having issues with my right hand — it gets sore, tight, and stops responding later in the day, so I’ve had to work with my left hand only, which has really slowed down development. But I’ve started doing some exercises, and I think that’ll help.
I'm writing this simply to state the facts, so you clearly understand why development has slowed down during certain periods. I'm not saying this to seek sympathy — I don't need it, and it wouldn't help the work anyway.
Have a great day or night, and onward we go!