November 24, 2022
Lots of new stuff was added this week with the Beta code being due on Monday. A lot of it is very visual, so enjoy the GIFs this week!
Players can now select one of 6 costumes for their character in the lobby screen. I modelled them in Blender by modifying the initial mesh and its textures and attaching them all to the same parent rig. The last two, the crash test dummy and the Santa costume, are just for a bit for the fun. It’ll be that time of year when this game is finished— got to get in the Christmas spirit!
I have started on the environments for the 2nd and 3rd stages (Act II: The Sands and Act III: The Fires). For The Sands, I also did some modelling for environmental features like cacti, rocks, and dead trees. I also worked on some cliff face modelling for both stages to distinguish them from The Falls (the first stage). For The Fires, I’ve also messed around with making lavafalls (WIP) and using some more interesting lighting that (hopefully) makes it feel like there’re pools of lava off the edge of the cliff and lots of light radiating off them.
I have added a few more interactables (as well as made the campfires emit some shiny particles to make them look more interactable— feedback from playtesting). One of them is the chest, which will contain a rune that the player can pick up for free. Currently, the chest is simply openable with an animation and some particle effects. The other is the magic shrines which will allow the player to learn a particular magic attack. These do work, but are currently lacking some feedback when interacting with them.
While there are currently no real spells implemented, the framework for magic spells, their cooldown, and their GUI representation are there. When players learn a spell, they get a floating icon on their status bar that represents the status of the ability. It flashes on use and displays a radial-fill cooldown circle with a counter of seconds remaining. The spell is not available for use when it is on cooldown (it’s a little hard to see in this lossy GIF).
The rune shop(s) also got a makeover this week. It now features a floating magical shop owner with some prototype runes surrounding him (in case it wasn’t clear by how much glow is on everything now, I discovered applying emissive materials to particle effects this week).