FTessaro - Lead Programmer
I spent most of this month developing the Skin System, we tested a wide variety of different designs to find which one was best and then we started to add the swatches that each animal can access, for each customizable part of the body. We even tried an eyedrop color picker system, but in the end we decided it is best to have a chosen list of swatches that we can expand overtime. Below is an updated image of the main panel. Keep in mind it is work in progress and more colors, options or features can be added as we move forward in development:
Some QOL were added, such as being able to pause animations (Ptera also has an option to toggle Standing or Gliding animations). See growth previews in real time, rotate in any direction and a very useful button to randomise your skin. In addition to the random button, players are also able to lock each Section, such as Male Display, Markings, etc. That should not be modified by the random button. Not only that, players can also lock the individual colors of each Section, as shown below:
By right mouse button clicking at a color will paint it in black, locking it from the random generator, allowing to have more control of what colors the random generator should use. Then using the brightness and saturation sliders players can have more control of how the Dino will look like.
Another nice feature added is the ability to Share skins with anyone. By clicking the “Export” button, a code will be generated for the current skin of that animal. Copy it by clicking the code and send it to your friends or anybody, they can just click the “Import” button, paste the code and boom! Save it and it is yours!
Players can also choose different Patterns for that animal and we can add and expand that as we please in the future. Besides the skin system, as always, I have been working on bug fixes and improvements to several mechanics of the game. Thanks and see you next time!
dmIV - Programmer
I continued my work on nesting this month. First of all there is a new temperature system, which plays a role in the incubation of the eggs. Temperature decreases gradually on its own and you have different ways to increase it. In the case of mound nests where the eggs are exposed you have to sit on the eggs to warm them up. Debris nests have good insulation and don’t require much maintenance, but if the temperature becomes too low you will have to add more debris to the nest to warm the eggs back up.
The temperature bar is broken up into four sections. In the ideal range (green) the eggs will incubate properly, while in the neutral range (white) nothing happens to them. If they are too cold (blue) or too hot (red) you will start losing incubation progress. Once your progress goes back to zero your eggs will rot. We left the door open to the temperature possibly being affected by the biome, weather and time of day, but that’s something for the future.
The next bigger task I tackled was hatching from eggs. For this I had to enable hatchlings first. Fortunately they were already set up for the most part, there’s just a few smaller changes and bugs left to fix for them. Then I had to adjust our spawn system to support spawning into a nest and then finally I added the actual hatching mechanic. We want to get the players into the game quickly, so after shaking around in the egg a few times you will see your dinosaur pop out and you can begin your adventure.
Hypno - QA Lead
Just a short post from me this time! Besides the QA team’s constant bug testing on both the skin system and nesting, we’ve been looking at the new server queuing system that Amarok has been developing more recently. This system, as you would expect, allows players to queue up for servers that are at maximum capacity. Excitingly, it also allows for server administrators to skip the queue and even join a server if it’s full, avoiding any instance where they could not enter the server to attend their moderation duties. See the video below for how the queuing system looks in action:
Tapwing - 2D Artist
This month I had a few things going on, working on building concepts and getting another set of nature sketches started, but the thing I’ve been most excited to work on this month is testing the skin system. The initial phase was spent zeroing in on what the team wanted the skin system to even look like, do we want swatches? Do we want sliders? How much range do we want to give players and what customization additions could we make in the future?
After some testing, what we’ve got now is a mix of swatches and sliders to allow for more precise color tweaking. Once the UI was brought to a point where it felt good to use, it was on to the fun but somewhat tedious part, color selection! Not only is each dinosaur going to have different colors available to it, each pattern layer will also have its own color selection as well. So that was a few days spent JUST narrowing selections down per category from what I would say was the maximum color range we could potentially use across the roster.
The goal with this idea was to allow as many color choices as we can while still holding players to a mostly natural variance between the same dinosaurs.
Wedge - Sound Designer
I’ve been working on sounds for a new AI creature that will be appearing across The Isle in the near future, Pterodactylus. This small scavenging creature’s significant function is to mob and annoy players, eat their food and give away their position. For this reason the main quality of the creature's vocals had to be irritating. To tackle this I am creating an array of distinct and unusual vocalizations, each one unique for the associated action. When a player is mobbed by a group they will hear a chorus of all the various sounds resulting in a cacophony of annoyance. Passive sounds like its idle are low ugly glucking sounds, when hopping around they will produce a playful warble, attacks will sound like an aggressive cackle as if mocking the player and its dying sound consists of a harsh grating screech, mixed with its signature gargle. Among other sounds It will also have a couple of calls which I’m experimenting with to create something unique.
The Pterodactylus, as an AI creature, is intended to be very vocal in order to give away a player location, however thinking about this brought the current situation of idle vocals for our current roster of playables to my attention and the impact they have on maintaining stealth whilst playing. Idle sounds have now been significantly reduced in volume when standing and resting, and totally removed from idle crouch animations; aiming to strike a balance between audio immersion and gameplay functionality.
I’ve also created a suite of egg cracking sounds that will accompany the hatching mechanic with a variety of intensities depending on the size of the egg. I’ve compiled these into two different subsets of sounds, the initial cracking as the egg shakes and the hatchling stresses the outer structure of the shell, and then a more intense and hollow sounding crack that occurs the moment the hatchling quickly bursts out.
KissenKitten - Producer
Another month down and a heap of progress made. The production cycle for Update 5 has mostly been filled with prototyping and tweaking of systems. We hit the ground running with this update so we were able to run a fair amount of tests. We’ve trialed several different iterations of the skin system and nesting system and some other additions that are to come at a later date. With the progress we have made on the update being substantial, we are finally comfortable showing you more of what we’ve been up to and what these systems are going to provide. We’ll also be including a new and unexpected blast from the past, pterodactylus. Who you’re likely to love to hate or hate to love. This entry is going to be short and sweet as we've got all hands on deck to round out a few more finishing touches and tie up some loose ends. But we’ll be dropping some clips for you soon that span Update 5 features and future creatures coming into the game. We know the Skin and Nesting systems have been long awaited and we’re excited to get it into your hands.