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[Impmaster]

ok so this looks all so amazing and it's one of the prettiest devlogs i've seen in a long while... but when are you guys gonna work on gameplay? So far all I've seen is the slashing sword thing? Is gameplay like the easiest part to program or?...

Not trying to push you or anything, just wondering if it's being done on the side and just not shown or what.

[surt]

Is there going to be an option to play with stop-motion-like frame rates to match the clay-like visuals?

[King Tetiro]

Is there going to be an option to play with stop-motion-like frame rates to match the clay-like visuals?

I second this question. This seems like the type of game that could get away with a feature like that. It looks stunning

[Timo Vihola]

Development Update 36:

Impmaster: The project is moving on many fronts simultaneously. Raimo and Kimmo program game systems, gameplay and physics. Kalle is in charge of the graphics programming. Erik does world generator programming. Sampo is churning out 3d art for all key characters and locations. I do game design & concept art, writing data and coordinating what needs to be done next.

Gameplay is harder to show than simple screenshots because longer gameplay loops can look broken without near final feedback systems and I would have to be constantly explaining what's happening in them
But yeah, let's try: Here's an example of the lure gameplay mechanic, this is what we have so far - you can gather a bunch of ghouls and make them attack the Merchant and try to steal all his items:

It already has lots of functional systems: All characters have health bars, attack strength, damage areas, walking speed, attack speed, attack radius, sight distance, friction, behavior, items, factions, animations. It's the missing or unfinished systems which cause the confusion.
So until those remaining systems reach high enough fidelity it won't be easy to understand, this is a mock-up of how it should look like and what kind of difference it really makes when everything is "final" quality:

"It seems like Ghouls are following him because he's the Ghoul Lord and you can make the ghoul follow you by pressing X!"

vs

"He's got a weird debug brain blob in his hand which says Lure!"

Currently you equip the lure by pressing certain buttons on the keyboard (which are not shown anywhere), while the
non-confusing method would be to have a self explanatory paper doll & inventory combo. (we don't have that yet)

So it just takes time to get those systems fully functional and once it's capable of showing what's happening then it starts to make sense.


surt, King Tetiro: If there's enough demand for that type of feature why not

[Impmaster]

Ah ok. I second the motion for the stop motion shader, btw

[TheChaoticGood]

ok I'm jelly, this game looks great.

[Timo Vihola]

Development Update 37:

TheChaoticGood: Glad to hear you like it!

Impmaster: So it's three votes already Kalle joked that it's already possible to get the stuttering slow motion frame rate by turning the graphics settings from high to ultra

Testing some new parameters Erik added to the terrain generator, really liking this curved wonky look - adds nice Lucas Arts (Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max) adventure game feel:


Flat:


Probably something between the two would be optimal for basic look and the curvature could vary according to biome.
What do you think?

[Timo Vihola]

Development Update 38:

Funny GIF of the day, the mask disguise gameplay is starting to take shape:


Also Raimo put the first fetch quest into the game! I've been waiting for this day
Tons of other things got done as well but those are easier to showcase along with the Steam Greenlight trailer!

[Timo Vihola]

Development Update 39:

The game is now on Steam Greenlight (there's plenty of new screenshots) and we've got a trailer:

[Green Gospod]

This is looking great! (Un)intentionally creepy.
A bit too much bloom for my taste though.
The clay shader looks by far the best. Please leave it as a shader option.

[DeadAlienCult]

Voted on Greenlight!  Good luck! 

[justincavenagh]

Definatly following this one, I'll also jump on and vote on green light too! Really nice work.

[MereMonkey]

Loving the art direction of this game and the lighting is outstanding, I can see myself playing this for hours on end!!

[ephoete]

That's an awesome trailer guys honestly!

[Timo Vihola]

Development Update 40:

Hardland was Greenlit in four days! Thanks DeadAlienCult, justincavenagh and everyone else who voted!
Mere_Monkey, ephoete and Green Gospod: Thanks!

NEW GAMEPLAY VIDEO BELOW

Ilmari Tiitinen composed the first ambient track of music and it can be heard in the video! On the audio front we've also got the basic sound system in place. Temporarily we're using placeholder sounds from our earlier games as we finalize the audio systems. For example it's still missing the ability to fade by distance. That's why in the video you hear these seemingly random loud voices. Once Tapio Liukkonen gets going with his sound fx magic it will sound a ton better and more consistent!

TECHNICAL BREAKDOWN OF THE VIDEO

We've listened your feedback on combat animations and the whole animation system is in process of getting a big upgrade. In order to sell the "impacts" we also added dynamically created weapon trails which adds lots of motion to the strikes.

(screenshot of weapon trails)

New enemies: Skeletons can have different armor and weaponry, they come in many sizes. Some of them are weak, some are headless, some are huge like the Skeleton Champions.

(concept art)

Enemy AI has received a large overhaul: their combat behavior is much more natural as the enemies move around the player and pick their shots.

In addition to turning heads and eyes characters can now turn their upper bodies towards points of interest. In combat it improves the overall feel when characters have a better ability to look at each other.

ITEMS

Items can be switched and they all have unique properties: damage, special spawns, armor and physical size which determine the exact hit area. Players can pick up characters, gravestones, vases, pretty much everything. All that stuff can also be thrown and broken - lifting and throwing stuff expends stamina so player has to be careful when trying to lift heavy objects when in combat.

ITEM SLOTS

Item slots are working, characters drop all their items once they die. The slot list: BeltItem, Body, Hat, Knee_L, Knee_R, Mask, Shoulder_L, Shoulder_R, Weapon_L, Weapon_R and two ring slots.

Texture streaming works and we're using texture compression as well to make it run faster.

For footstep sounds were using sensors which are attached to both feet and once the sensors make a contact with the ground the system plays a footstep sound. It works pretty well even for complex feet motions.

INVENTORY

Inventory screen has more features and is starting function like it's supposed to.
Visually it's still very ugly but don't worry - it'll look great once finalized:

It should end up looking more like this mockup:

Dodging and blocking are some of the things we're currently improving. Both will probably be connected to the stamina. You can see experimental version of the blocking animation in the early part of the video.

MAIN MENU

Main menu now has graphics options you can choose from, music and sound fx sliders, invert mouse, invert pad etc.

ICON

There's an actual application icon:

"History Channel" look-a-like and the chicken version didn't work out.
Latter is fun but feels a bit too much like the Farming Simulator

[Timo Vihola]

Development Update 41:

Overview of the graphics tech, it was hard to demonstrate all effects properly in one video so I'll do another one later of the desert village.

If anyone has any questions about the implementation I'm sure Kalle can answer them.

[Timo Vihola]

Development Update 42:

The Early Access version is now available!

The game is far from finished but these are some of the features we did since the closed pre-alpha in August: 

WARNING! IMAGE OVERLOAD AHEAD

In general we had a very high priority on gameplay systems which you can see in the middle of the video.
There's generic character rigs which allows player and NPC's to wear items in various configurations. It means player can wear skeleton shields and weapons and the skeletons can wear the chicken mask etc. The transition to the new system is still ongoing so there's some limitations on what certain characters can wear.

Examples of player equipment configurations:



Various skeletons, all equipped with the new rig and item slots:



Accurate damage shapes for all weapons and objects. Here's a screenshot of the collision shapes lined up in Blender:



Body parts have quite accurate collision shapes as well. If pick up an object and if an enemy strikes at you it will likely hit the object you're holding.



Animation system has been rewritten to allow for upperbody and lowerbody direction to be different. For example: strafing while blocking.



Combat AI improvements, the enemies don't stack around the player like they used to so it feels more natural.



Throwing system is connected to damage so you can kill enemies by throwing items at them.



There's a better stamina system. Jumping, blocking, lifting and throwing spend stamina.

The inventory and item equipping system is much better than before.



Currency has been reworked. Instead of only coins there are various representations for different monetary values. It's also an optimization because you can display one gold cup instead of 50 gold coins:



Day and night cycle was a bit clunky before. It's been replaced with cleaner solution which can create smooth blends between any weather conditions:

      

Lots of new objects and foliage.


Fun weekend mod/remake of our first iOS game Minigore:


Main menu has several graphics options so it should run better even on older hardware.

The world generation is still heavily unfinished and makes the separate elements seem way more unfinished than they are,
that's why we've included the Training Grounds sections where you can see in isolation how the gameplay mechanics work.

Our next goal is to move more manpower to the world generation and get it up to speed. The city generation was a good start and we'll probably take it closer to that direction.

[Impmaster]

jizzed

[cooper2]

The direction this game is going is amazing!
I was a beta tester on minigore and after a while it became kind of a hobby to come up with ideas for it . It looks like you guys are open to community ideas, would the subreddit be a good place to post stray thoughts? Really looking forward to seeing where this game is going.

[Timo Vihola]

Hey Cooper, great to see you here! I still remember that beautiful capture the flag schematic you did for Minigore We don't have Hardland specific forums yet but Steam forums (Hardland section) or subreddit are places which we check frequently and yes, ideas are welcome! Unlike Minigore 1 this time the game is also very moddable, all art and data assets are exposed.

Development Update 43 Short Version:
Some gameplay from Early Access Release 4. We've done some heavy lifting on the terrain generation. Now pretty much everyone on the team is working on it and it's advancing very fast:

Development Update 43 Really Long Version:

Improved terrain generation and biome system, I think these are easier to demonstrate with pictures:


Desert biome


Snow biome


Jungle biome




Comparison of old and new method. The new method is angle-aware.

It's still a work-in-progress with certain shortcomings, tons of other improvements coming in Release 5.


IMPROVED LANDMARKS

Goblin Forest: Goblin captain, bonfires, foliage growing neatly on the sides of the path.


Improvements to the fog system. Locations can be much more foggy.


Town Generator has new "huge slot" which allows for bigger objects like this tree group to be generated

LEVEL UP
Level up mechanic which boosts max health and stamina. You can get experience by completing quests, killing monsters and eating.
It's very basic but will be expanded later once we have another round of iteration with it.

STEALING
Characters will get aggressive if they notice you stealing from their inventory

(some cottage smokes are in wrong position because we updated the house orientations to line up with the roads)

FIREARMS
Ability to use the blunderbuss, it will be improved with proper aiming later.


NEW ENEMIES
The forgotten folk roam the lands:




Speaking of which, do you like these characters with hands or without hands?

(they're currently without hands as we don't yet have a severance system which could recognize limb hierarchies and it would look silly as the hand floats in air)


NEW MAP SCREEN
This is nowhere near final but a big improvement compared to what it was.


New map screen (the stuff inside the red box doesn't change yet)


Old map screen

MINIMAP
New clearer minimap colors and blue north arrow

Don't worry about the overlapping text clutter in the bottom right. At some point we will replace the text info with proper health/stamina/food/experience bars.

NEW WEAPONS
Wooden shield and steel hammer

DAMAGE FEEDBACK
If characters lose items they will detach from the exact locations, here's a GIF animation of the goblin captain losing his helmet:

Death animations playback properly
Characters can follow other characters
You cannot interact or carry characters which are in aggro mode
(For example: in order to carry goblins you have to sneak from behind and lift them)
Improved screen space reflections, screen space shadows, motion blur and temporal AA. Shader performance should also be better.

Various smaller tweaks.