How's it going, everyone? I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day. Go to a fancy dinner? Someplace special?
As for most of us, many of us have been working hard on the upcoming Yoltrund update, Canto II: The Steps of Judgement. Over the last few weeks, we'll go through what has been done (as well as summarize some ninja changes that have been made)
Ease of use
ninja update - already fixed.
We recently noticed a minor issue that we sorted out in the last ninja update. When it came to loading scenes, the wrong manager was being used. While minor, the scenes weren't loading as smoothly as they could be since a lot of the data was being saved and loaded at the wrong times. (The scene would load resources first, and then load your sin, which would change the level layout, causing the scene to load again) We sorted this out to make it smoother.
We also added a loading icon when loading a save, so that way you're not brought with a black screen.
We also noticed a minor issue where the sin selected wasn't loading correctly; if you start a save with one sin and start another, it would not properly overwrite the old sin, resulting still having the old sin from your previous save. While not serious now, it's best to fix this issue before it really becomes a problem. This has been fixed.
Current progress
We're using a new tilemap (of course) for Kurldehv, and after about a week of prototyping, we roughly have what we want, and that will be detailed in the imgur post below.
Feel free to offer your opinions as we're still in the planning stage as to using 3D.
We also added a proper settings menu complete with graphics and resolution settings. This way, we can get rid of that default config launcher and those resolution commands. The commands will still be there, but not the primary way to set those settings.
We also got a new audio setup for recording, allowing better vocals with clearer quality. This will allow us to make better sound effects and music in the future updates (and finally add voice acting to the new game menu).
Speaking of the new game menu, I (Michael "Arylos" Cox, lead designer), am responsible for voicing the King and the Master. I have not been able to get around to finishing either's voice lines as of yet, although I've been perfecting how they should sound since the announcement trailer where the King's voice was used. We are totally expecting to have the voice lines for the Master finished up to this canto (yes, including Canto I).
We have not announced a voice actor for the main character, although we plan to have him selected by Canto V at the latest. It's mostly the sheer volume of lines needing to be completed if we have all dialogues voiced. If we go with only main dialogues voiced, it will be easier. We're still sorting these details out.
We're also storyboarding characters for this scene right now, figuring out the best placement, kinds of dialogue and interactions, as well as different tests for the player. I would offer some photos of this, but as River Song would say, "spoilers".
And finally, we're putting the finishing touches on the Punishment System, where the level will change depending on your sin. We'll describe how this works below. (no fancy pictures this time.
The Punishment System
When you start a new save, you select a sin to confess to which will then set a string value (Lost, Branded, Lost, Lust3, Traitor, etc). This value is then referenced like and alongside your character name. A character that will respond to your sin will check the value and if the value equals a specific value, the character will respond in that way.
For example, when the Master spoke about your sin, he would first check what that value read, and if it read "Lost", he would respond with the appropriate dialogue.
How will the Punishment System affect my game besides dialogue?
There's many uses we have planned for the system, but the main one you will all see in the Canto II update. Kurldehv, in Canto II, will change according to your sin. So if you confessed to being Lost, the level will load all resources and adjust the objects in the scene. If you are not guilty of being Lost, anything tagged for that specific sin will disable and the basic level will load and all behaviours will act accordingly. If you are Lost, it will disable any resources not tagged for that sin and tthe behaviours will act accordingly (spirits and souls will be more hostile, more chances to die, and the final test will be difficult).
As for future implementations, we want to use the system to change things like the flow of the story, add mini-games outside of your final tests, and even have characters appear or disappear based on your sin. We also want to add hallucinations depending on your sin and if you're being tested. We already played with this a little with The Tunnel in Canto I and we want to see what more we can do.
A final implementation that will be put in with this update that we will perfect is the player's soul being lost. This is a cool implementation where if your soul is permanently lost to Yoltrund, you will see your lost self if you play again. So if you failed your test in Kurldehv, if you play again, you might see your old self sill in Kurldehv. This feature is still in the testing stages to make sure everything works correctly, but will be done by the Canto II update.
We're still allocating some data space for this data, trying to see what storage options work, but once we're past that, it's just planning the spawns.
And with that, that is our updates on the Canto II update for Yoltrund! Sorry about the length, but there is quite a lot we're working on. We plan to fully announce the update (teaser and all) by end of the month. We're expecting the update to go live around the beginning of March, but nothing official yet.
Michael Cox
Lead designer.
Keep posted on Arylos' Twitter or the Templarius Games Studios Twitter for updated information in realtime. You can also go to the Yoltrund Subreddit to keep posted on developments!