Anyway, the result looks great, and the process was fun to follow!

Thank you!!

I don't get any results if I search for "Ảhdo", which language is that from?

Custom, so you wouldn't Thence also name of game and town. Think I've settled on Oas for player character now too.

Dare I ask how many more characters there are to go?

There are currently over thirty in my list And I can't really say any one is more important to prioritise since the whole point is to make them mingle throughout the timeline, especially on the square. Lots of work ahead! But I think I set a good baseline with Atwa by roughing out the shapes of the clothes without going into much detail. Will try to do the same for the others to begin with.

[EDIT:]

54

Atwa

I'm not done with the model, but I reached a point where I was just poking aimlessly at it, so it's time to move on.



Finally gave the character a proper name as well. Anglicised from Ảhdo.

Lessons

Despite the name this update isn't really about this specific person, but about how they represent, I suppose, the current culmination of the setup I've been posting about over the last few numbered devlog entries and in between.

There isn't a lot to add today really. Besides modelling I've now also unwrapped the base mesh as well as some clothes and partially textured everything as you've seen. Won't have to unwrap the face for the next character, and I can borrow and rework the painting I did too. Also found another thing I had to fix in the 3D import code and wrote my first lines of C++ in many months

And of course I've received a lot of helpful comments from you all, so many thanks again!!

Conclusions

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out in the end, even if it took a long time. Each new character will be faster to do as I build up a library of assets to flip. The art style feels suitable for the game and I think it looks cool with the watercolour shader too. As always there are specific angles and distances where it can get a little wonky but I wanna try and avoid fussing over it too much for the time being.

Next

It's tempting to redo the player character right away but the old one will suffice for now. I think I'll prioritise new NPC ones. If sitting down to try and work on another person proves to be productive I might do so, but if not I think I might go back to coding for a bit. Try and get some stuff out of the most recent Unity prototype and into the real game. Fix some workflow annoyances. We shall see!

EDIT:

I figured it might actually be fun to have some sort of profile on each character as their in-game look is established in the future, starting with this one, so despite previous introductions here's just a quick description:

About

This is the "coordinator" character I've mentioned before. Sort of like a mayor but more like a position of responsibility rather than power. Doesn't really decide how to run the town, just makes sure things are working out according to communal plans. Lots to do with produce, imports, exports, keeping track of deliveries, making sure there's food and water.

Thus knows most everyone quite well and gets about the town during the timeline so makes a useful friend in the beginning of the game as you start figuring things out together, starting with Atwa's account of events as roughed out in the recent prototype.



Has a belt full of keys and will be walking around with notebook and pen in hand to stay on top of things.

Ello again!

I tried the stuff you said I think mouse smoothing off helped but even at max mouse speed it felt slow so would be great to just be able to crank that up even higher just in case you're on a weird system like mine (it was fine with the built-in mouse pad but I was playing with a regular external mouse and even at max OS speed setting for that, it was much slower, which is not the case outside the game).

I think I also managed to put my finger on why it felt weird last time! When you're pulling things, like the platforms you pull out of the wall in the beginning, you commonly reach the edge of the screen and can't pull any more so you have to move your character back physically. But if you move too far, you can't interact anymore and so you lose your grip, so it felt slippery. Would be great if the game straight up prevented you from walking too far while you're still interacting with something with your mouse so that doesn't happen, I think. It would also be cool if maybe the mouse wrapped around the screen if you reach the edge, like in Blender, so you wouldn't have to move at all to keep pulling something all the way.

I also forgot, but something that happened last time too, and again this time, was that I wasn't able to interact with anything at the beginning of the game (no hover icons, no click response) before going into the pause menu and back again. I reloaded the game multiple times now and it happened every time.

Finally, the graphics for this icon don't quite match up between the hint thing and the actual wall:



It was all criticism and bug reporting this time so just want to throw it in there once again that I really like the game and hope that this is helpful

Yay! Here are bigger but still decentralised highlights for you:



Slight tinge of colour too since the lighting in the actual game is purplish. Which size is better?

Environment mapping is a cool idea but between watercoloury shader mush and the fact that you won't generally be right up in people's faces I'm not sure you'd even be able to see that

Thanks so much for the continued feedback, everyone, it's super helpful! <3

[BATTLEJUICE ALCHEMIST DEVLOG:]

BATTLEJUICE ALCHEMIST DEVLOG:

Environmental Freeze Effect

Hey everyone,

to be honest, I did not have the greatest week after catching covid. I had to lay low for a couple of days but now I am back at my computer where I belong.

What I managed to work on is making the player feel more powerful. The character you play is not a tough person splitting their foes' heads with a Claymore. But you are supposed to have a strong feeling of agency nevertheless. I want your actions to have an impact on the world that surrounds you, which is why I started implementing environmental effects. If you use a damage type in an environment receptive to it, something substantial should happen.

The first effect I implemented is the freeze effect. If you use a Juicified Freeze flask in any tile that has a body of water in it, that area freezes. This does not the player down, but lets them move faster by sliding over the ice. Furthermore, ice crystals are spawned. You can utilize these crystals by pushing or pulling your enemies into them for some ouch.

Last but not least, you can use the freeze effect to traverse bigger bodies of water quickly: Just freeze the surface and walk over it instead of swimming.

Environmental effects will be there right when you start the game. They are not some kind of ultimate power and can even be triggered by enemies or your companion Plato. I have just started on the fire environmental effect and am very excited to see if it turns out as fun as the ice effect.

Thank you for reading and have a great weekend!


Alain

Oof, good to hear you're getting better at least, and hope you don't get any lasting effects Snow and ice stuff is looking really pretty, and environmental effects seem like a really cool mechanic too!

I think you're both right! Let's see…

Also, if there are no pupils, how do you plan to show eye movement?

Very literally!



Here also with smaller highlights as per Ishi's suggestion~ I know they should probably move a little too but I threw this together very quickly just for this response haha

Also wondered about adding just a bit of depth to the eyes with a gradient like this:



But I think side by side I prefer full black, somehow it actually looks less creepy and lifeless.

Did you feel the same way about the eyes back when I was just showing a grey person without the full character designs?

Interesting! I had to go back to look, but yeah to me the eyes felt more normal then. Even moreso when they were still capsules. Maybe it's a color thing? Have you tried white with black/colored pupils?

For what it's worth, I don't feel that strongly about it one way or another. I see it as just a striking (neutral/positive) design choice.

Ohhhhh, hmm, this is more complicated than I thought haha. I see now you said it in your previous reply already but I must've overlooked it: so the white dots are just meant as highlights/reflections and there wasn't supposed to be distinct pupils versus "whites" at all. Just beady eyes. It's so interesting that that's how you interpreted them! Now I'm really second guessing myself lol

Thanks! Definitely want motion in there, both moving to show where they're looking as well as squinting and things like that.

I guess I've been looking at these eyes for too long myself, they just feel normal to me Did you feel the same way about the eyes back when I was just showing a grey person without the full character designs?

Oh, but I love Coraline and the scary button eyes! But yeah, I don't want these characters to be (too) creepy. But I do want the game to feel a bit dreamy, ephemeral, like an incomplete memory. Tough balance. I'll try and ask some more people about the eyes to see what the majority opinion is, really appreciate everyone's (varied!) viewpoints, so thank you both <3

Ahh, will try those options out later, hope they work As for shortness I didn't mean it as a negative just to be clear~ And yes, I did like it very much

Just played through the demo! Didn't realise it was so short since you've been showing so much more content here than was actually in it, or I wouldn't have worried about setting aside a whole evening for it and waiting forever to play

Really liked what was in it so far! Only thing, and it might be specific to Mac or the performance of my computer in particular, is mouse movement felt a bit sluggish and slippery and it was tough to interact with the precision required sometimes. Like I'd move the cursor towards that little thing I wanted to pull and it'd accelerate kind of slowly, but then when I stopped moving the mouse it'd still have momentum and keep going past the thing? Is that just on my end?

I also got stuff like this sometimes:





For reference I was playing in full screen on the lowest resolution on a 2015 MacBook Pro with Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB.

Anyway, back to the "review"!

It started off really well even before it got to the game itself with the whole sequence about how it's best played in the dark with headphones. Nice touch.

I've told you before that I love how the game looks and sounds from what I've picked up on through this thread, but actually getting immersed in there, lights off, phones on, full screen, that was great. I was already tense when I got back into my room, having scrambled to turn on the light, and then I realised I could open the window too, and it remained open until I found what I needed to go outside. And that dog or whatever as I did...

And so much stuff to examine and start piecing the story together just in that one little room! Can't wait to see where it goes when there's more for me to play. I'm liking the mechanics and being able to do all sorts of things, moving, pushing, pulling, inspecting, taking.

Great job so far, excited for more!!

Thank you two! Asymmetries coming up, got some stuff to attach to the belt on one side for instance

Also figured out how to preview with eyes and brows rendered on top of hair in Blender, whaddaya think?

Haha. Well, every character in this game will have the same kind at least. I like the idea of keeping the eyes simple.

If it helps, here's the face now much more properly textured. And lips! But still WIP. Ignore the feet



Might do the Wind Waker thing and draw eyes and brows on top of hair too.

Thanks! Do you think the eyes need some changes?

Just wow. This is so cool just from an end result standpoint, and seeing what drives it all behind the seen is just as impressive. Must take a lot of work! Not to mention actually designing and writing the characters in the first place.

This looks so good! What a huge transformation from the old pills. For simple characteristics and colors, it has so much personality. Love it!

Thank you!! <3

Not sure if sweetheart or Dolores Umbridge :p

We shall see

AaAaaa, haven't been able to find the time yet but I've been aware of this release for a while now, I'm excited to play when I can!!

Wanted to finish this before updating but it's gonna take a bit more time so here's some work in progress. Focussing on finishing up the model for now to finally have the game's first real character made after all this time



Only the main robe currently has an image mapped to it and the rest is just solid colours, so hopefully the skin won't look like clay once I paint it properly. Mostly working out overall colours and shapes at the moment rather than actual textures. Gonna add a few more modelled details as well. And shoes!!

It's been a bit slow because I've only got in a little bit of time here and there. I seem to be picking the pace back up now that something to show for it is finally coming along.

Hopefully anybody who's been following the thread for a while now will know who this is

Thanks for another lovely post

Wow, those trees are huge! Thought the hut looked tiny on the outside but then I saw the interior and realised that the juxtaposition had tricked me Always cool to see more of the story-related non-nature stuff too.

As for devlog updates, hope you're not getting stressed out by trying to stick too rigidly to any sort of schedule