Monthly Development Update
K.Digi
- Manager This month has been an exciting one for the team as we continue laying the groundwork for the future of Echoes of Extinction. A major focus behind the scenes has been planning for Early Access and ensuring we have the right systems and foundations in place for the journey ahead. While much of this work isn't immediately visible, it's helping shape the next phase of development and bringing us one step closer to getting the game into your hands. We've also been making progress on our customisation system, which will allow players to manage their skins and cosmetic rewards that they acquire through our website and bring those customisations into the game. Many of these customisations are designed as rewards for the community members who have supported us through the years and continue to stand the test of time alongside us as development moves forward. It's our way of saying thank you to those helping make Echoes of Extinction possible, while giving players more ways to personalise their experience and leave their mark on the world of Akura. On the community side, we had the pleasure of joining a livestream with DefeatPete this month. The engagement and enthusiasm from both new and existing community members were incredible to see, and we're incredibly grateful for everyone who stopped by, asked questions, shared feedback, and showed their support. We're excited for what's ahead and look forward to sharing more with you in the coming months.
Dev-blog Video:
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AirSickLowLander
- Level Designer
This month I have continued optimizing the map as always, mostly focusing on foliage but focusing on regular models as well. I remade the full geometry versions of our giant sequoias, which improved both visuals and performance in the redwoods! They are a bit lighter on memory, and the needles are thicker than before, which gives us a really nice filled in canopy in that biome. Some of them are now using voxelization as well, which drastically improves performance with Nanite. Along with that, I have continued adding new locations to the map and improving existing ones! There is a new cave on the map but coincidentally I have forgotten the location. I guess you'll just have to find it. I also made some willows for our meadows biome, which you can find on the map as we speak. The landscape material has received more improvements as well, with a much more realistic look and improved performance. As of the last week of June, Lumen is less than half as demanding with the cost of reflections, which has been improved across the entire map. There are many more changes alongside these, keep an eye out for new details and locations!
Arrived
- Artist
This month, I worked on some new hut models and their damaged variants.
Bohuslav_Salo
- Artist
Hey everyone! This month I`ve kept working on a pachy model. I`ve updated the low poly mesh to support some of the bigger scales, created UVs and started working on final details for the dino.
Chikangia
- Programmer
This month I focused primarily on improving stability and polishing existing systems based on feedback from our QA team. Alongside bug fixing and quality-of-life improvements, I also continued work on the backend systems that will support our upcoming customisation features and player rewards infrastructure.
Dre~
- Marketing/Social Media
This month has been very exciting for me! Not only did we have the new Public Build out but we also had a new community event with Defeat Pete!
Between promoting for the event and trying to get some more content to show everyone, it has been really great. The new build finally allowed me to have more players in game to record with and I can't wait to see the numbers growing with time and hopefully getting to interact even more with everyone.
I'm very excited for what's to come and can't wait to spill the details to all of you!
FuriousSmaug
- Programmer
Hey everyone. This month I primarily focused on two things: bugs from the new live build and the environmental tolerances system. I'll touch on both briefly before giving an outline on what you can expect from the dinosaurs next. For bugs, most were relatively straight forward and quick to solve. Drinking while resting, night vision brightness with the new outlines, digging everywhere, objects growing with players when grabbed, nothing super game breaking but needed fixing nonetheless. As per new systems, the environmental tolerance system was finished up and brought about a few changes to dinosaur gameplay. Players will now need to watch their temperature tolerances and slowly move around the map to adapt at a healthy rate. Failing to do so will incur several debuffs such as poor stamina regeneration, quicker food or water drain, and slower heal times. With that also came some updates to the seasons and weather, mainly incorporating both into some more small features like seeing your breath in the cold and wet skin when raining.
Looking forward, the hygiene system is up next, followed by disease and infection, and, given budget and time constraints, nesting. For the hygiene system, I have shared a bit already, but as a recap, the main goal is to immersive the player further into their dinosaur by requiring them to be wary of their overall cleanliness, dirty wounds, and dietary hygiene. These three smaller systems make up the entire hygiene system and will come with new AI to clean your teeth as a carnivore or parasites as an herbivore, effects to the character when traveling in poor conditions such as mud or dirt, and various effects when open wounds are present and uncleaned. I am also going to be pushing for further advancements in puru and advanced combat. Currently the combat feels a little limited at times and adding those final big abilities will change the game from simple calculations to complex, coordinated strikes and attacks.
RAR
- Artist
This month was primarily working on new skins to get them ready for testing in game. I worked on 4 new ones 2 for eochar and 2 for Ourano.
I then began to turn my attention to the species needed for the hygene system. Nemicolopterus and Coelophysis.
High poly sculpting has been continued for the nemi working on skin textures and details. Similar work has started on the Coelophysis.
Suna
- Level Designer
Hi hi! This month I have been working on a large scale environment surrounding the volcano. This includes lots of new assets, Niagara VFX, and materials to make the environments feel new and exciting!
I started with some hot geothermic pools inspired by Yellowstone and other national parks, with some cascading mineral pools, which then expanded to a burnt forest terrain, mud pools, and even a black sand beach inspired by Iceland. Although there are no impacts to the player quite yet, there are lots of exciting conversations with the programmers on making these pools deadly or give status effects in the future.
Vimlesh kumar
- Artist
I've Finished Eocarcharia and Purussaurus Rigs with all the notes addressed from anim team.
Vittoria Leto
- Artist
Hi everyone! This month I have been working on the different bottom tiers, and I am close to finishing the character Elara Greenleaf, Chief of the Verdant.
Yaroslav
- Artist
This month I have been working on some more skin designs for eocarcharia as well as on tattoos for both human characters as well as dinosaurs
