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[oldblood]

DEVLOG XIII.

"Lucky Devlog No. 13".

Goblins. One of the key races that will flock to your banner when you begin to unify your horde. Often considered evil and unintelligent, the Goblins are a surprisingly intelligent race who are both hard working and committed. While intelligent and hard-working, the Goblins have had the misfortune of an ongoing bloodwar against the rampaging Orcs that has lasted for upwards of five centuries (but who is counting at this point?). Aware of their physical limitations and lack of combat prowess, the Goblins are keen to join your cause and help unite the warring races against a more looming threat- the holy war and cleansing purge that the Humans intend to bring on you and your kind...

The Goblin's are keenly aware of their short-comings and will willingly accept roles as builders and harvesters in your horde in exchange for your protection. In a pinch, the Goblins can be used as fighters and defenders- and while they will willingly die for the horde... don't expect them to turn the tides of conflict...

Some random variations to skin-tones and clothing...

***

In other news... Still working on animations. One particularly challenging animation is the Bow Aim & Release (technically two separate animations). The aim occurs when you hold down the fire button and holds until you release which triggers the 2nd animation. These animations are also unique as only the arms & bow are animated (the rest of the body will be animated based on what you're doing like walking or running etc).

Just Arms & Bow animated. Rest will be script tied to body Animation

Still very much WIP as the skeletal animation is very limited in how the arms can bend so I can't easily get the arm to position realistically. But it definitely needs more tweaking... The bow is animated with a mesh. It turned out surprisingly decent, but probably needs some more bend to it...

Stay loose for combat...

[Alex87]

The goblins look good to me. The lanky look is different to what I've seen before and the hairstyle of the one in the middle was a nice touch, never thought of a goblin having hair on their head. If possible it'd be nice to see a size comparison for reference, either on the scenery or next to an Orc, they quite tall and I was curious if they're supposed to be as tall as the others. The idea of a Goblin being loyal is different, I might actually feel bad as I send them to their doom ....

[oldblood]

@Alex87: Thanks Alex. Yeah, I definitely want to pull from a lot of classic high-fantasy tropes to help give the world a more familiar feel to players but at the same time- definitely want to turn a few things on their head...

DEVLOG XIV.

Little delayed since the last update. I took a week off for some much needed travel and escape and my "IRL" day-job has been absolutely insane the last few weeks so the development has been very slow thus far in June. Continue to chip-away on a variety of fronts though, but the pace has been slower than I'd like.

One big change from Masochisia is I have a lot less time on my hands this time around, so trying to adapt to things moving at a much slower pace is challenging. At the same time, with life being much busier at the moment, there is also the challenge of not burning out as I try to juggle work and projects. It's a tricky balance. Some of things that've been touched the last few weeks are:

World Generation

Got the process for how the world will generate figured out. The world will be comprised of Sectors, and the world will be "X" Sectors wide. There will be unique types of sectors, some examples would include the sector the player will begin the game in, sectors specific to various types of geography or resources, sectors that hold unique "set pieces", sectors specific to enemy camps etc.

To add variance, I will then create "Y" number of sector variants. So while the world will always be generated with specific types of sectors included, the actual sectors can vary from one game to the next. In example, if there are say 20 sectors in that world, and there are 10 variations of each sector- then that world could generate in thousands of different ways. So the world will always feel similar, and you will always have the sectors you NEED to have. But perhaps some unique set-pieces you had previously are gone, or maybe the world has more (or less resources) than before. Or perhaps that camp of Ogres you found is now a nomadic Minotaur herd etc.

Hypothetically, the system could also apply for unique biomes. So you could substitute the art files for various types of geography which could also be random. So a snowy world, a desert world etc. Currently, I don't have the time or resources to do all that- so for the current time, it will just be one "biome" although I would definitely like to flesh this out in the future.

Currently, need to identify what all types of sectors should exist and determine how many variants should exist (at least for a demo). Then I would like to hopefully start attempting to put together some of these sectors in the next week or two. Currently, the world just generates as a flat landscape with absolutely nothing on it.

Weather & Time

We had already put together a day/night cycle but we want the days to also include cycles. So in example, you will see the moon cycle through season. Full moons, crescent moons etc. This could eventually tie into other parts of the game but for now- it's pretty rudimentary.

Also doing some tests on different types of weather. So it won't always be a clear day. It could be a foggy day, or perhaps there may be light rain, or heavy rain, or snow?

Some early tests of weather and time in game... Rough test...

Currently the weather and time are very much WIP so they look a bit too rough for a vid or GIF but hopefully will have some to share in the near future.

Characters & Implementations

Also in progress, more characters-- including some humans. Will hopefully have some devlogs to showcase this soon. And we're FINALLY in progress on starting to actually replace out the stickmen in game with characters. Honestly, these were supposed to be imported a long time ago and... next thing you know it's been a month. So we can finally start importing and see how things look in game. I can say with certainty that I'm really looking forward to never seeing those stickmen again... Will be nice to start seeing more and more placeholder assets slowly fade away...

TL/DR: Lots of things in progress on a lot of fronts. Need to wrap a few of these up just so some of these milestones can be closed...

[ag radley]

this is cool stuff. i like how detailed your character art is and i like the naturalistic environments. i'll be following this.

[oldblood]

Thanks gabev! Appreciate the support.

DEVLOG XV.

On the art front, we're working in a few different areas. Some of the new creatures are still in the works but almost done, including some of the first human characters (a faction I'm temporarily calling "The Banner"). Some of the characters in the works are: Trolls (similar to the player but can be recruited), Banner Warrior, Banner Archer and Banner Footknight. Will have a few more details on these characters and their backgrounds once they're complete. At the moment, I have about 16 initials creatures that are planned that fall into either friendly, enemy or neutral/creep categories. Ideally, I'd like to flesh that out to a much larger group-- but these characters should be enough to get something playable together.

Also, doing some initial concepts on Buildings! Which means the placeholder art for that can (very) slowly start getting phased out. Getting started with some of the initial buildings you will need to create in your encampment, walls and towers. Lots of other buildings to follow, some of which may take on a bit of an RTS-approach to recruitment but that's probably a whole other devlog topic that I will cover later...

Watch Tower and Upgrades


Walls & Perspective Tests

***

This game (I need to figure out some ideas for a title btw) is a much larger project than Masochisia so it's been a bit more of a struggle to scope out how much time is needed or how long it will take to wrap up certain milestones. Creating the game I want to create will certainly exceed my budget and will probably take a lot longer than I'd like...

As such, scoping out "the game" isn't really something I need to do. Instead, I'm working towards completing the "Minimum Viable Product", which is basically a simplified but playable version of the game. It will be missing a lot of the features I'd like to add and a lot of diversity in characters and environments-- but will give us a foundation to build off of and will determine if the game's concept is really working. My goal is to have the "MVP" completed around the end of the year. Spending a year just to develop what really is just a playable demo seems like a really long time... However, my hope is that the game will have a significant foundation laid that we can then proceed to build upon.

Once the MVP is complete, I will have a few options. If the game isn't as good as hoped, then it can be completed in a more simplified format than initially planned and I can move on to other projects once its wrapped up. If people respond well to the game- then I can pursue other opportunities to raise the funding to flesh out the game and concept more. Investments, crowd-funding, early access etc. There are a variety of options to be explored but I likely won't know which options are best until I know more specifically what is needed and how large a scope the next phase of development will be.

[nnyei]

Sounds like a solid way to approach this project.

[Rarykos]

What's going on man? I just found your devlog and you already abandoned it?! :<
I'm curious what will come out of this foundation!
Good luck!

[oldblood]

What's going on man? I just found your devlog and you already abandoned it?! :<
I'm curious what will come out of this foundation!
Good luck!

Thanks for the support and comment! "Abandoning" is a strong word haha. "Putting on hold" seems like a better choice... which leads me to...

DEVLOG XVI.

What an odd situation to be in. I've never shelved a project before, so this is an odd devlog for me to write but one I feel I should document (since this is how I develop). Almost 8 months, countless hours and time (and some savings) has all gone into the project- but sometimes it better to cut your losses than to compound them... Enough of a foundation has been laid and enough art has been done that it's not really throwing out the project as much as putting on hold. The foundation or art may eventually evolve into another project or perhaps one day it will get picked back up at a better time, but for now-- it's on ice.

The reasoning behind this stems from a few areas:

     + Life: Primarily, this has been a challenging year for me with balancing a career, personal life, struggles and my game dev life into one cohesive person.
     + Slower/Larger Project: The project is a bit larger than I anticipated it to be and development is moving much slower than I anticipated. This exponentially increases the risk of development as I'm not in the best position to manage a multi-year development project.
     + No Love: It's common to have self-doubts about your project, but the feelings have been much stronger on this project than I believe are normal. Additionally, I find that I'm not driven by any deep passion to push the project harder as I have been on previous games and I believe this fully stems from not being 100% behind the concept at some level mentally. I'm also unhappy with the way the game is coming together mechanically and aesthetically as it's just simply not what I envisioned at the start. All of these issues and doubts combined have lead me to this decision to put the game on hold, despite the heavy investment of time, energy and funds.

So what happens next?

Well, it's not to say I won't start any more projects this year. I may start one in a week, or a month. What I'm doing now is taking a step back to determine what kind of project I'm really interested in doing. I could easily start another small, narrative game as this is something I know I can comfortably do-- but I'm not sure that's what I want to do.

Once I know what I'm doing, I will of course be back with another devlog (that hopefully will be more successful).

[TheArtistJiii]

I wish you good fortune in the wars to come

[Zorg]

That's sad to hear, but i'm sure you learned something along the way. So let us know (here) when you are ready to start something new. Good luck!

[Rarykos]

Oh man, that's a shame
But you know, I'm all up for a new smaller narrative game from you!

[Greipur]

I'm sad to hear that you're abandoning it, but yeah, making an indie project you're not a 100% behind feels like a waste. I think most of us are not doing this for the money, it's a lifestyle business (or hobby). I wish you the best of luck with finding something else to do.

[Mark Mayers]

Some high-level goals and objectives this go-around:

     ● More "Commercial": I'm not looking to sell out. Dark, broody, violent, narrative games are a love of mine. But I need to try and do something less "niche" that caters to a potentially larger audience.
     ● Less Narrative: Masochisia was a great exercise in narrative, dialogue and writing but I'd like to spread my wings and work on something I'm not great at: gameplay.
     ● More Help: I will be working with more people. Will introduce the cast of characters as they get started.
     ● Bigger Scope: Generally, this is something a small indie should be avoiding. But after sticking with Masochisia which was pretty small scope wise, I do want to push myself a bit here.
     ● Longer Schedule: Again, this is not typical of indie development. But after burning through Masochisia in 9 months (which was great), I'd like to not swim upstream against brutal self-imposed deadlines. Not saying I want a 2.5-3 year development cycle, but I will need more time with a larger scope.

Masochisia seemed to be a personal game, where as you went more for a commercially viable game here.
Do you think that contributed to lack of enthusiasm/belief in this game?

Also bigger scope/longer schedule isn't necessarily a good thing.
If anything, "Make better games, not bigger games."