Welcome back to this week's Rune Records, spellcasters!
Before we dive in, can you believe it's just under 2 weeks till we launch? I've said it before, I'll say it again - time really flies! Before we know it, you'll be unravelling the mysteries of the world of Rhell and showing us your unique spell combos! Exciting times, people. Exciting time. Definitely not Troubled Times (not sorry).
We would also like to remind you about the currently ongoing quiz which gives you a chance to win a copy of Rhell: Warped Worlds & Troubled Times on launch! Answer Rhell's quiz questions about the demo to enter the giveaway! New questions appear here in this form every weekday until launch (final question on 10th March), so check back for new chances to show your knowledge - or join our Discord and sign up to the Rhell's Quiz role to get an alert when the next question drops. Here's the 5th question that dropped today!
And on to the Rune Record of the week! This time, we're continuing to look at how the world of Rhell has changed since concept days to today! It's all about the volcanoes this time.
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For the volcano area, I had planned out this puzzle where you throw goo blocks across lava in order to bounce off and reach higher surfaces. While on paper this was a great design, my next step made it so that this design totally did not work!
My next step for creating areas is to make a blockout. Blockouts are a term for 3D model making where you make a simplified version of something out of basic blocks. In Rhell, this has the added benefit of not only getting a good visual basis for an area, but also being able to be used for movement and planning collisions in game! This is the stage of creating an area where I make the most changes. In this case, I realised the puzzle with throwing goo blocks was… really boring. But from creating this blockout I also found that getting over the large gaps of the bridge design was a lot more fun, and so I reworked its design to fit with this puzzle.
Once I have the final version of a layout for an area I start to work on texturing and modelling. This is my favourite part of creating a level, as my old job before Rhell was making area and environment art! I will theme each area in Rhell around a specific colour palette and stick to simple looping textures and visuals for the environments to get Rhell's toony, simple look.
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And that's a wrap for this week! What kind of stuff would you love to see in future dev diaries? Let us know!