Hey everyone - Dark and Light associate producer Horsejoke here! We’ve been a little quiet recently, so let’s shed some light on what’s going on behind the scenes in Snail’s offices. To quickly summarize, development on Dark and Light is progressing at a great pace, and we’re well on-track for an Early Access release later this year.
Here’s an overview of just a few of the pre-launch polishing and upgrades that we’ve been working on in the past few months:
Models, Textures, and Animations:
We’re really happy with the work we’ve put into Dark and Light’s visuals, especially when it comes to the world. However, a few character, NPC, and some creature models are a bit older than others, and it shows. We’re in the process of completely remastering a number of models to ensure that there’s a consistently high level of quality throughout the game. Check out some comparisons below of models that we’ve already finished up.
A few months ago, MMORPGcom and IGN released a few gameplay videos of a very early playtest of Dark and Light. We received some criticism on quality of the character animations, which you’ll obviously be seeing a lot of in a third-person game. As a result, we’re putting some extra effort into smoothing out character animations. This is a big undertaking, and we aren’t quite ready to show off our results just yet, but know that we’ve heard your feedback and we’re working to improve on it.
World Design:
One of the pitfalls associated with creating massive open worlds (and something extremely frustrating for players) is a focus on scale over accessibility. Early playtesting resulted in the discovery of a few issues, such as both players and creatures getting stuck on rocks and trees, unintentionally difficult-to-navigate areas in the wilderness and inside cities, and more. One of our main goals now is to work on redesigning these problem areas to create a more coherent, visually-appealing, and enjoyable experience for our players (along with fewer trips to the player support page).
Camera:
In early playtesting, we discovered a number of issues inherent to third-person view - movement and aiming being two of the biggest culprits. We’ve since made some major adjustments to Dark and Light’s camera system, allowing for a wider FOV, easier ranged weapon targeting, and omnidirectional movement without needing to adjust the camera angle.
These are just a few very small samples of the work that we're doing to prep Dark and Light for its Early Accesslaunch. We’re still actively developing, optimizing, and rapidly iterating on Dark and Light, and we’ll be keeping you updated through regular features through Steam announcements, as well as on our Facebook, Twitter, and the official DnL website. Look forward to seeing more of the game as we get closer to the Early Access launch later this year!