Hello everyone!
Welcome to the logbook of March that might be quite long because a lot of things happened this month.
First of all, I wanted to introduce you two new guys who will be part of the team: David Besnier, who will work on animations and Antoine Rozan, in charge of the sound design and the music composition.
No worries, we’ll make a proper introduction of them during April on our website.
But for now, let’s celebrate: Fundation Team is complete!
Ships and planetsThe coming of Mathieu, our second graphist, at the end of February, helped us making huge improvements on the graphical part of the game.
We started to work on our first “cinematic” of the game with our first graphist (Cube). In order to achieve that, we needed Mathieu to make some concepts on elements that will be visible both in-game and in the introduction: the ship and the first planet.
If you haven’t read yet our article about the first planet of the game and the missions, it’s right here:
http://fundationstudio.com/blog/planet-and-missions/
The last element necessary was what we call the “Mother Ship” in which are created the Sklafs.
These are the first concepts that may still evolve in the future. Tell us what you think of it!
The SklafWhen this was done, we started working on the Sklaf again.
It was one of our main priorities, because this is the character which will be controlled by the player. Also, we needed the sprite quickly so that David would be able to animate it.
We already had a lot of researches on the Sklaf, but we still needed to design its armor. It’s interesting to see how much a concept art can change the way we imagined our character.
At first, we were thinking of a modern armor with an “Apple” white and a look really “Sci-Fi”. But then Mathieu has arrived with some concepts and one of them was unanimously chosen. He had an “explorer” style with a bit of steampunk in it.
When we look at it, it’s quite far from our first idea. But, we chose this direction because we found that the Sklaf was way cooler like this.
The steampunk aspect was also more in keeping with our character. For instance, if a Sklaf must repair a machine, it will do it with a wrench… Well, maybe it will hit it with a wrench, but you get the idea.
Another important element is its clothes. We decided that the Sklafs are all dressed the same way except for their hat that will determine their function.
The Sklafs that go on planet have an explorer style, but we also could have cooks with a chef's hat
With the design over and the sprite complete, David started to work on animations. I won’t go into details here because we’ll soon make a full article on it.
The important info here is that all of the Sklaf movements are complete and integrated!
The artificial intelligence: Deep QueenThe Sklaf was finished, so we put our efforts on another important character for the narration: the A.I.
No need to come back on it here, you can find a lot of infos on our blog:
Article about the conception:
http://fundationstudio.com/blog/make-way-for-deep-queen/Character story:
http://fundationstudio.com/blog/deep-queen-2/
“Corpses”There is a lot of works in progress that are almost done. I’ll begin by the “corpses”.
This is the core feature of our game. It allows the player to climb on Sklafs corpses and help him to progress in the game.
Its look needed to be both funny and clear enough so the players will understand that these are platforms. Here are the concept arts that we have kept.
When people were testing our game, or when we talk about this feature, one of the feedback that keep coming back was “Can we pile up corpses?”
The answer was no because it would be a problem for the level design. The players would have been able to block themselves.
We found a solution so that it won’t be the case anymore. Now, players will be able to destroy a corpse by hitting him.
So, we’re glad to announce that you can now pile up corpses!! Here’s a first technical test in-game:
As you can see, the red eye was too catchy, so we add a system of activation on a corpse.
By default, the corpse will have a deactivated eye, and when the player climbs on it, we play a short animation.
Works in progressWe’re currently working on several major improvements:
Evolution system: we want to add a system that allows the player to improve his Sklafs with the Joolees he gets while completing missions.
Retakes on level design to add secondary paths and to reinforce the exploration feel of the game. We want to keep it simple though, and we don’t want to lean toward a metroidvania-like.
Integration of a plugin, Ferr2D, to our production of decors. This will make us spare some time on the set up of the levels and easily add curves to them.
Development of the first monsters and their behaviours.
Production of the first definitive graphical assets for our levels with the new constraints of the plugin Ferr2D.
This is the end… of this articleAs you may have seen, March was full of new things and enhancements.
Our goal for April is to have a level complete. It’s an ambitious objective but we think we have the team to complete it!
We also planned two articles. The first one will be on the animation part, with the introduction of David, the animations of the Sklaf, and an explanation on our way to work. The second one will talk about the evolution system that we want to make. It will include the Joolees and their working.
We’ll also try to post regularly new concepts and graphical assets (and maybe even sound elements!). So come like our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter to stay in touch.
The best way to help us develop is to share our work to your friends!
See you soon, and feel free to comment
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