Although you are saying these are placeholder graphics, I love them and there is something about them that intrigues me. Maybe it is because of your map being a bit more "zoomed out" than expected. My eyes keep searching for little things to discover.

Thanks Prinsessa! Actually, the barrel in the Before screenshot and the one in the After screenshot are two different types: in the second one it is an explosive barrel and in the first one it is a non-explosive one. There are these small differences, because the tiles that make up the town as well as the props inside it are subject to RNGesus. But still, I think the barrel illustrates the fact that interactive wooden objects get lost a little less when placed on the wooden floor planks.

I'm glad you think the changes are improvements and that you liked the video!

Great update! I love the detail that there is a portrait for the captain of a ship. It adds a lot of personality, which is something I as a player enjoy a lot when playing games that are played on a "zoomed out scale" as yours.

Haha, I just noticed this last post was an error  :lol:. I wanted to modify the first post and this video there should have been the trailer.  I just didn't notice I posted it as a reply. Anyway, it led you to watch it so :D haha.

That makes sense ;). But as you said, made me watch the devlog :)

Yeah recently people have told me that I sounded a bit tired in my videos, so I decided to spice things up again. Ultimately I would like to make it a show, not so much a boring Devlog because I want to attract players not developers in the end :)

Sure, that is reasonable!

[BATTLEJUICE ALCHEMIST DEVLOG:]

BATTLEJUICE ALCHEMIST DEVLOG:

Visual Overhaul

click GIF to watch on YouTube ↑

I finally got around facing my wost enemy: the unreadable textures in my game. The feedback for the overall look and style of my game has always been positive, but I heard a couple of times that especially the top-down view caused some sort of sensory overload. I did some reading and YouTube-watching about primary, secondary and tertiary shapes and I feel like things are under control now. I recreated an old screenshot, so here is a before and after comparison.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

It might not seem that much and mainly a change of the grass texture. But I also went over the brightness of all textures, the lighting in general and the level of detail of objects. For example, the planks of a barrel, which can be interacted with, can have a lot of details, but the planks you walk on need less to not become distracting.

My biggest fear was to lose the quite unique look that I was going for since I started out, which included having a lot of grittiness, details and sharp contrast. Any feedback is very welcome, even if you think I made things worse.

The little teacher inside of me got the best of me, so I made a video to share what I learned over the course of this visual overhaul. I also added a little section about creating color palettes and how I manage mine between programs. I am sure many of you already know the concepts I talk about in the video, but I hope you enjoy watching anyway.

Thanks for reading and watching and have a great weekend everyone!

Alain

Hi Phodex! I just watched your video about the player home and really like the atmosphere of the place. I enjoy the parts of the videos most where you talk in a less "dramatic" tone and just chat freely about your work. But I guess a more dramatic presentation puts people in the mood for your game and its world, so I am not the measure of all things

The new jump indeed looks great! Btw., I think the little change in the hue of the belly color also works wonders.

I'm actually doing something quite similar: I have a ritual magic system where you cast rituals by burning a certain amount (1-5) of a certain ingredient (~10 different in total) and say a 4 letter mantra (abbreviation of the ritual's name). When playtesting some players were too lazy to search the clues for the right amount after having found the ingredient and corresponding mantra, so they just brute forced it by trying all amounts. I was surprised that the players who did it that way thought it was fun to figure out.

That's cool, even though it means you have to deal with having to wait All the best to you for the release!

In deed, there is something magical about it. You look at your world and you know you made it, but in a way you didn't, because the algorithm did I'm using UE4.

By the way, I just watched your DevLog #33 and loved your tangent about complexity, fun and time investment.

It's good to hear the spot is intentional.

Thanks for all the support, it means a huge amount.

Your game is super interesting, it is fun to follow it. Also, I see quite some similarties to some parts of what I am working on

This sounds nuts, love it. Btw. the loading animation in the UI looks pretty cool, too.

I hope it keeps working for the sake of your sanity. Btw., I hope the isolated tile that is white in the beginning of the gif is intentional

Thanks for the update! The scope could be scary indeed, but I am sure you can boil it down. Once you have tried enough things out and identified the most fun parts, I am sure you will build something great. I have no clue what it is like to find or work with a publisher, but I wish you all the best and hope you find one that suits you and your vision of your game.

Nice! Sharing your ETAs might put some kind of pressure on you, but you have done these things before and know what you are talking about, so I am sure you will make it! Exciting times

That's cool, I didn't catch that it would be for the players to use too! Making maps for games I love is what got me (and many others here I assume) started with gamedev. It is a nice thought that you might provide similar experiences to others trough your editor for Tendril.

I was right about the bug. It wasn't really a bug. It was the algorithm doing exactly what I had told it to and I had forgotten to change it! 

Are you sure it was doing what you told it? I swear these algorithms have their own forum behind our backs where they talk about how to make the devs' lives miserable.

That's the spirit! Inzane looks really nice and I am sure it will come out great!

Thanks for the update Prinsessa! I think it is almost always a good choice to put a bit of time into improving productivity (I myself am not the best at that).
I love that you are experimenting with making your own sound effects, sounds like a lot of fun

I love looking at the map of the procedural rooms already and can't wait to find out more about your gameplay!