Greetings, Heroes.
Today I will tell you about last major update, in development of which was updated Expanse - one of the Hero's Story outdoors locations, and a little bit - about the game's future!
I'll start with the fact that Expanse is probably the biggest location I've done in all of my games, and that I moved the game to the new engine precisely for the sake of efficient rendering of large open spaces. I started with a large square stub without textures or any objects.
Of course, in process of creating any level you can use ready-made maps, or use a certain landscape generator (especially if you are an indie developer). However, I came to the conclusion that a more primitive, but hand made location is better than those made by someone else.
During the development there were several options for the color scheme and lighting of the level, but in the end I decided on warm colors that do not irritate players eyes. Also at the request of the players, the vignette effect was removed, and the blur was reduced.
During the creation of Expanse I encountered many difficulties - the area of the level was too large to properly bake the lighting, the shadows were too dark, and the performance left much to be desired...
I have managed to partially smooth out these problems by changing objects settings, but the day and night cycle had to be temporarily disabled for improvement. In the future I plan to add weather effects as well. In total there will be five large open zones in basic version of the game (including Expanse).
And the next Early Access update is scheduled for release within 1-2 weeks!
Be strong, take care. Sincerely, Silentplaygames.
