Back again with another update. This marks 5-month streak, woohoo!!
Last month I mentioned my focus was cleaning up maps, improving the game "feel" (polishing sounds, lighting, ambience, and more.), and making a few UI changes. All those are knocked out!
I did not start on steamworks integration or Act 3 writing I had mentioned. In hindsight, something else took priority. More on that later. Let's dive in.
Audio + Visual Updates
This is a lot of small things: improving sound variety for skills (the rabbit attacks now make a cute chomp sound) and giving each enemy type distinct sounds when encountering, damaging, or defeating them. I've also added varying footstep sounds (and tools to make defining those sounds very easy.)
On the visual side, I've cleaned up the lighting, updated some maps to use the new shader style water effects, and added just a bit of bloom for style.
Fran has also been very busy adding running poses to characters and overhauling some of the character sprites to be a bit more readable. They're looking so awesome.
Battle HUD Overhaul
The old HUD took up too much space. It made the chatter text overlap at times and generally took up way too much space, especially when the party size hits three members. I took inspiration from xenoblade chronicles, got a lot of great feedback from the discord community, and came up with something a bit more compact.
I died taking this screenshot. Too much sass, Amalia?
Other Stuff/Bugs
Added experimental mouse support if for some reason you want to play with a mouse.
Added a couple more tutorials, making sure everything still plays nicely with ultrawide.
Implemented support for follower running poses. Since their move speed somewhat depends on how far away they are from the player, they will often swap between walking and running.
Improved a longstanding issue with the cart switch puzzles where it was incredibly difficult to tell what switches did what. A combination of particle effects, improved graphics, and scripted events when switches are pressed make this puzzle feel like slightly less of a slog.
Added configurable lighting intensity.
The Alcuria railway connects the capital to many of its colonies. Trains are equipped with defensive measures (sealable windows, filtration devices) to prevent harm to passengers from the Umbra. The noxious fog does not seem to affect raw materials, which are also often transported from the colonies via train.
Trailer
I realized the trailer I have on my steam page is fairly ineffective and out-of-date. I'm working on one that showcases a lot of the recent changes: from new environments to polish, improved UI, and more. This one actually has sound effects and music. I'll share it soon.
Insert 2010 buzz lightyear meme: "Additive Blending, Additive Blending Everywhere"
Up Next
I think I'm close to announcing a date for the demo. You can expect the content to be the same as the older betas, just with a level of polish I'd expect the final game to reach. It will also likely be localized to other languages. Please send me recommendations of translators you've worked with. (Paid opportunity!)
Part of this will include sharing a new trailer as well, so keep an eye out for that.
On the game content side, my focus for November will be:
Preparing for localization: Removing all hard-coded text, tagging all dialogue (including NPC dialogue) correctly.
Preparing for Steamworks demo submission, prepwork.
Writing some Act 3 dialogue. Even if it's just one scene, I need to get moving on that.
As always, thanks for your support and attention.
Take care,
Andrew