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[Pixelcomet]

Hello LoF followers, really late devlog this week! Extremely sorry, but there was a reason for this! Last night we made a decision to keep the server online 24/7 (privately) to not only allow the team to test when they can, but also allow me to grab data whenever I can and optimize accordingly (and I did!) From this morning, the server now runs 3.3x more efficiently. There will always be more room for improvement, but right now I like how it runs. There's a couple things I have to speed up in effect to this change such as movement and gravity but that will be taken care of.

Alright, so let's get right to it! Rogues are pretty much finished! With their entire skill set being completed, minus 1 skill and a lot of revision they went through this week, they're very much playable. The technique that's missing is their ability to summon clones, which is a little harder to complete than it sounds. When Rogues have an active clone around, it alters their abilities, adding special/extra moves. This can be completed this week!

So this week, Rogue abilities were changed quite a bit, not only in ability, but art as well (very flashy).

Slice N Dice


I wanted to make sure I share this first! Slice N Dice targets nearby enemies, up to 5, dealing damage twice to each.

Dashing


Rogues now have a built in dashing mechanic that works outside of Stealth.

Blind Side


Blind Side has been updated to knockdown opponents you run into. This is only performed in Stealth, and will cancel your stealth upon impact.

Cleave


Cleave effect has been updated.

Achilles Heel


Perform a sweeping kick that knocks down enemies in front of you.

Killing Blow


This technique only works on downed enemies. Deals extra damage.

Impale


Strike through your enemies, dealing piercing damage.

Zane has been slaving away at maps, which will begin being added into the game this week as well. And I really can't wait to run around in these maps!


That's the town square where I'll be sitting AFK throughout the day. For anyone who didn't get the RO reference, GMs used to sit AFK in town square constantly when the game was active.



This is another section of the town. The benefits from hand drawn maps are really starting to show. There's a lot of detail that can be put into any little aspect. However, we're going to continue using our in game map editor to add in a lot of the environment as well. We feel like both methods will work really well together.

There's a few things that need to be sorted out. The control scheme turned out to be a bit more complicated than anticipated, but hopefully we'll be able to come up with something later this week. Rogues will continue to be worked on before we move onto building the game and expanding LoF's world.

With the new server improvements, I've added lerping to the live server, allowing smooth transitions in between movements. This still needs some more tweaking but I absolutely love how well everything moves during live play compared to before!

BTW, we've become a lot more active on Twitter, so if you haven't already followed us, you can catch what we're working on throughout the week there.
https://twitter.com/LandOfFireGame

Here's one more GIFt for the road. With the recent server optimizations, the amount of active AI running around has increased by miles!


Which means when I'm just chilling AFK in the town center and feel like spawning a bunch of mobs for a quick event, everything will turn out A-OK.

Can't wait to share what we'll have next week with you guys! See you then!

[Christian]

Discovered this while browsing SlideDB. Is it still planned for mobile devices?

[Pixelcomet]

Sorry for the late reply, yes we do have mobile support planned, right around time of release as well.

[Pixelcomet]

Salutations my most favorite people ever! Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July, BBQ'd lots of food. I had a well deserved break away from the city, but its back to the old grind! This week also marks 30 consecutive devlogs, so Cheers! This week also marks 1 full year of development! Back to when LoF was nothing more than a nude player base running into pixel collisions at 10 FPS!

Unfortunately the holidays have set me back so there aren't any magnificent combat updates this week. However, I was able to get some work done on the login screen which I showed a couple devlogs back. This was way back actually, and it was time to start putting it into play. The idea here is to always create something memorable. The player should always be amazed no matter what system it is we're working in. The login screen is something I personally want the player to be able to instantly recognize it's from LoF and also make it something that stands out on its own. This is a small prototype containing images of the only two classes currently in game. If you don't recognize the one on the left, that's because you haven't seen that one yet! That is the current Rogue class splash art in action! You can check out the image below.


However, SulLight and I have decided it would be better to just create a custom animation in the beginning rather than have the characters show up. This is what it looks like without the characters.

This will be improved upon this week, including a working prototype of the login system itself.

In other news, I was able to whip this system out yesterday. We finally have an onscreen GUI showing hotkeys and their cooldowns upon use. Further customization will be added onto this such as being able to assign skills and keys because right now they're just fixed to your class. Awesome skill art courtesy of SulLight.


Luckily I'm the only one who thinks vacationing is cool, and Zane has been working TIRELESSLY on the new maps, and I gotta say, with each one he shows off, I get more and more excited to play on them!








You can catch more of these on our twitter. We post them before devlogs so you'll be able to see them early.

And finally, as I've mentioned earlier, SulLight is completing the splash art for the Rogue class. This is what it currently looks like.


We'll have a lot more to show next week. By the way, for those of you who like to follow social media, we've recently started an instagram so feel free to follow us on there!

[Pixel Noise]

Wow I can't believe I'm just seeing this for the first time. This is awesome! It's amazing work so far. Do you have a targeted release window in mind? And any OST samples?

[Ashedragon]

Looking good! Though the grass in those screenshots... the pattern is super obvious and kind of jarring. It's not great as a result.

[Pixelcomet]

Hey there LoF fans! Time for another weekly devlog full of awesome content! It's been a pretty busy week and I'm really liking how the game is starting to shape up now!I wanna dive in by sharing our first official dungeon boss, The Stone Weaver! The design was presented by Zane this week and it had me really excited! I can't wait to fight this in game!This is simply the head of the creature. It is going to be a snake like creature, the actual gameplay and moveset is already written down, but I won't be sharing that this week. But who knows, we might have some really awesome gameplay involving it next week. It's heart is located inside the large crystal in the head. Once the heart is exposed, it can be damaged.Next up, Zane has been listening to the feedback in regards to the maps to make them look less tiley, and has come up with some really awesome new maps!And I gotta say, it looks absolutely terrific!Speaking of maps, this week I shared a video demonstrating how we convert Zane's hand drawn maps into a readable version the engine can read. This involves setting up bounds and separating objects that are placed in a single layer. Originally Zane had to place every single object in its own layer, but that proved to be troublesome and tedious. You'll also be able to check out the first part of the town in action!In order to fill these maps up, we will be including animal mobs that spawn and roam around for you to interact with. Wether that be slaying them for their pelt, or breeding them is up to you!I would like to dive a little deeper into the creatures of LoF. You see, Yokai inhabit the world of LoF, and can possess animals and humans alike, changing them into the monsters you will face on your journey. Low tier Yokai inhabit animals, this is an example of how a bunny will transform if possessed by Yokai.So make sure you're prepared, because not everything is what it seems! SulLight will continue to expand our creature database this week.And lastly, something that I seem to be more excited than anyone else, is our login system! Going back to last weeks GIFs, I've finally set up the actual functionality of the login system. But what has me really excited is that players can login using their http://lofrp.com account!The login and register buttons are only temps and will be changed this week!So if you haven't signed up already, feel free to now! It would be nice to get the website and forums busy before the actual release of the game.Our twitter has been receiving a lot of traction lately so be sure to check it us out and follow us if you already haven't! We have been posting very often and will continue to do so, so that'll be your best way to catch what we're working on before it's posted in the devlog as well as other stuff that may not show up on here.Oh and we finally have a company logo! Been waiting for this since last year really, but it ended up being awesome! SulLight did a great job on it!That's all for this week! Can't wait to share all the awesome new stuff in the works next week, see you all then!

[Pixelcomet]

Wow I can't believe I'm just seeing this for the first time. This is awesome! It's amazing work so far. Do you have a targeted release window in mind? And any OST samples?

Thanks for the Kind words! We're hoping to launch a kickstarter campaign around September time if all goes according to plan.

And here's a couple of exclusive OST samples seeing as you asked!

This BGM serves to build up tension before one of the game's first boss battles:
https://soundcloud.com/ford-audio-design/land-of-fire-yokai-tension-distorted-mix/s-EI4kS

There'll be a soundcloud link to this track at some point, but for now you can listen to some more background music in this campfire scene:




Enjoy! 

[Pixelcomet]

Hello again LoF followers! It's been a pretty interesting week, we actually dove into some world content this week, and it's been looking awesome! A lot of our content this week was focused on making new enemies for the area Zane has envisioned, the "Crystal Mines", where you can ride carts, mine rare minerals, and fight Corinth, the devastating earth basilisk, possessed by a Kami tier Yokai.

Roly
They walk around waiting for the opportunity to rev up into a ball, and dash towards their enemy. If they clash into each other, they bounce off each other, as well as bounce off walls and other collisions.





Here are the Rolies bouncing off of walls.


Just for laughs, this is what the Rolies used to be able to do.

It was crazy and had to be changed! Still funny though.

Runemage
These fellas throw magic missiles towards you, and when you get too close, they teleport away, so make sure you strike fast!





Crystal Golem
These are still in development, but here's the current art in the making for them.


Bats
These guys are still in development as well, but here's an animation of them flapping about.



This Bear Thing
This is also still in development, it's a bear with it's head trapped in a crystal.
moo

Corinth
Corinth is possessed by a Kami tier Yokai as an earth type basilisk. Doing this one was extremely tricky, it wasn't easy getting the snake like movements right. We're still planning how damaging this guy is actually going to work, but we should have that to share next week.



For those interested, I've made another recording showing off Zane's mapping process. We're going to try recording work from the complete beginning for future videos.


With that, here are some of the maps Zane has completed this week. We plan on doing some really cool puzzles in this area, I can't wait to share what we come up with!





We also added a new nudge system to keep mobs from staying on top of each other, especially when spawning!



For the most part, that about covers this week. A lot of next week will involve putting the rest of what's missing together as well as polishing some of this stuff up. Can't wait to see how this whole area turns out, and I definitely can't wait to share it with you all! See you next week!

[Pixel Noise]

Nice! The campfire music is very appropriate. Looking forward to hearing more 

[Pixelcomet]

Greetings friend! We've got another packed devlog this week, so grab a drink and enjoy today's read! Last week, we showed off the new dungeon area, "The Crystal Mines", along with many of the enemies you'll encounter there. While there was good progress involved, there was a lot of WIP enemies that made it to completion this week, as well as some new additions.

Abyss
A new feature we've added is the abyss. In certain areas, you can fall off platforms, so watch your step! We've yet to add consequences, but the current one set in stone is losing a percentage of health upon fall.



The bear things, now called "Crhyno", walk about just like the Rolies. They're able to strike with regular attacks, as well as use their hard crystallized heads to ram into enemies knocking them up.


Here are the bats, or Zots, from last week! They're the first flying enemy added that can keep their distance, and strike at you when ready. However, if you guard against their attack, you can knock them back!



This is a new addition, but still WIP.


And if you thought Corinth was the only big bad in the Crystal Mines, think again, meet the Cryvern!


The attack needs a lot of polish, and he also needs a beam, but that'll be added in tomorrow. In case you're wondering, Corinth is big enough to eat a Cryvern.

We also have a new addition to the team, who's name I still have no idea! He's going to be helping out in the art department. J has been directing him to the direction of attire, and this is what's in store.



Square Enix Collective and LoF

Land of Fire has been in development for over one year, every single day except Christmas, and as you guys might've already seen on our twitter, we have started planning crowd funding approaches for Land of Fire. We've announced the Kickstarter date for September 5th, but this will be changed to October 5th, one month after the initial date. There is a good reason for this, as we've decided to apply for the Square Enix Collective on August 20th. This gives games who plan on doing crowd funding an extra push if the popularity demands it. It's basically a yes/no vote type ordeal to see if the community would be willing to support a game in crowd funding. So go ahead and check out the website, we'll be looking forward to your vote! I think this will be a great opportunity for the team, as this will give us a better perspective on how crowdfunding LoF might actually go when the time comes.

Preparation for both the collective and the Kickstarter begins next week, so unfortunately, next week will be the last content update for a while. We'll continue polishing and putting things together for a possible demo, but until then don't expect too many in game updates for a short while. A lot of people have actually been asking when we plan on putting the game up for testing, and I believe this is the best time to start preparing for such a test, this will be said "demo". Land of Fire needs to stand out among other games, and besides being a 2D game with a very unique style of combat, we believe being a 2D MMO is what will really make it stand out. For those of you outside of the BYOND community, seeing a 2D MMO of this scale isn't very common, seeing one of this caliber, is almost unheard of, and it's definitely something I'm excited to see to the very end.

[Pixelcomet]

Hello again friends, last week we've started adding in content that will be premiering in the trailer for LoF's Square Enix Collective entry!

I started back tracking a bit and working on a lot of what people will be seeing during their adventure. LoF has had a day/night system implemented already, but it was turned off for a very long time during the new content additions, and after turning it back on, I gotta say it didn't seem very attractive anymore. We managed to change it into something that's a lot more smoother. I'm going to be playing with the colors a little more, but for the most part this is how it will look -

The .gif doesn't do the colors any justice. But now with night time casting darkness on the world of LoF, lights are in order, which also needed an updated change. I like the way this new light setting looks.


Speaking of towns, Zane has started working on new town areas, which is expected to be covered in NPCs. Here's a WIP screenie -


Mounts are go!
While updating Crhyno's last week, a glitch happened that dragged the player around the Cryhno's location. It made it look almost like the player was mounting them, so with a few adjustments, we turned mounts into a reality! For those of you who remember how we handled mounts in Spirit Age, they weren't player owned, you could ride any available mount nearby, with some possible requirements planned in. I'm hoping we can do the same here with LoF. Hunter classes revolve around this idea of taming enemies, and maybe we can have a way to tame defeated enemies to make them mountable.

The idea mainly came from one of our supporters "SarahTime" after she showed us some really awesome modifications of the Crhyno with a saddle. I've been wanting to make these guys into ride-able mounts since then!

SulLight will be working on enemies for outside the town, so you have something to beat to death when you leave.





Starting this week, we'll be working on our pitch page and trailer video so that we can have a good start when we apply for the Square Enix Collective on August 20th. Luke has started working on the tracks needed, so I'll be sure to share those as well! We'll have a lot of cool stuff to share next week, so be sure to check us out!

[Pixelcomet]

Hi TIGsource, it's been a while, how've you been?!

After a good break from weekly devlogs we're pleased to return and show of our very first trailer!

This is just a teaser of things to come and we're happy to have it out in the open!

We also got some new tracks for our OST which have gone down well with the team so far. There's the theme to one of the game's main towns and hub areas 'Tutsukawa' as well as it's corresponding night time variation for our day/night cycle. Both can be heard here:

Land of Fire OST

This week we're in the middle of making adjustments to several animations, implementing throwing weapons, as well as some general refreshing of older animations. As always, feedback is the absolute best so we'd love to hear it!

Stand by for a few images and gifs 

We're hoping to bring this devlog back to life with regular updates again so please be sure to check in for more soon 

[kamac]

First of all, it looks great! Feels a bit like a mix between naruto and avatar.

Is this game still being made with Dream Maker, as it's hinted on your indiedb page? If so, how do you plan on fixing the lagginess this engine suffers from, or release for mobiles (which DM doesn't support as far as I know)?

I'd love to see some PvP (assuming you plan on having it in).

[Pixelcomet]

Firstly, thanks for taking the time to check out our devlog!

The reason we took some time away from this dev log is because we were porting the game over to a more powerful engine A custom scripting language and java script. This in itself remedies your concerns about mobile support.

We're trying to get a demo together- hoping to get more feedback on our combat system and How we plan to handle character progression.

[kamac]

A custom scripting language? That's pretty huge.

Which server infrastructure solution are you aiming for? Several single servers that can host a good number of players each, or maybe shard the world and have a server per zone?

I'll be looking out for the demo

[HIDEJI]

-

[HIDEJI]

I'm not sure the game needs the HLD-esque rainbow effects everywhere, but this looks pretty cool overall!

[Pixelcomet]

Uuhh I felt the same way in a sense. The older screenshots featured  a lot of abuse in glowing/blurred stuff
We've toned it down... ALOT since porting the game.

Oh and we're not creating the scripting langauge- we're using one that's being developed by a friend,https://vylocity.com/ It's still in beta fyi. We're probably going to investigate a number of options  regarding server infrastructure.

[Pixelcomet]

Hey tig, we're still working on the game! It's been a long time since we've lasted posted but we've making great strides in development. For one our port to a stronger game engine is complete for the most part and we're picking up where we left off previously.

More recently we've been working on implementing the skill tree, filled with all kinds of cool stuff.
Still using a lot of placeholder assets here but for the most part it's functional. This is really our first pass on this we're pretty sure somethings may be off.

Our original intention was to draw inspiration from Final fantasy's sphere grid but eventually settled on a class based skill tree that we intend to expand as the development continues. We're getting pretty close to pushing a public build.