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[Fainz]

Devlog #9: Combat against large group

Testing out combat against a horde of weaker enemies (about 25). Might be fun to have encounters like this in the game, perhaps with some tougher enemies leading the horde.

[Fainz]

Devlog #10: Minion test, cursor update, hero icons

We've been recently mostly throwing around ideas for the direction and features of the game. While a pretty generic party RPG might work, something more unique could be fun to do.

One of the ideas is a kind of RTS with heroes and minion units (something like WC3 combat). Video of a test with 2 heroes and 7 minions:





A couple of new things:

Cursor now changes to indicate which action right click does. Left to right: default (move), attack, revive ally, interact


New type of icons for the heroes (to replace the simple silhouette icons used previously)


New sword for Warrior hero

[jesseb]

Looks cool. Are you based in Helsinki? That's where I'm living at the moment.

[Thaumaturge]

I might suggest making the "move" icon more distinct from the "attack" icon, and thus more immediately distinguishable.

[Fainz]

I might suggest making the "move" icon more distinct from the "attack" icon, and thus more immediately distinguishable.

Good point, I'll change the default/move cursor to something else (perhaps the classic hand).

[Fainz]

Devlog #11: Talents & attributes

Continuing after a bit of hiatus..

Implemented talents and attributes (strength, dexterity, magic). Talents can be active skills or passive bonuses, and they are automatically sent to the first empty slot on bottom bar when learned (the bar can be reordered afterwards). Attributes are currently used only as requirement for talents, they'll get proper effects later (physical dmg from strength etc).

Other notable additions:
- UI for talents & attributes
- Fancier spellcasting. Spells can now have multiple particle systems which appear at separate times at different attach points. Animation can also have channel loop before the 'launch' animation.
- Status effects and their durations are displayed below health bars.

[Fainz]

Devlog #12: Map UI

Added a simple zone map.
The map texture is created automatically based on tile positions. Fog of war texture is shared with the actual fog of war.

Heroes are displayed as green circles while enemies are red and dead units gray. Hovering over the circle displays name of the character.

[Fainz]

Devlog #13: Hidden health & Map update

Inspired by some old games, enemy health is now displayed more ambiguously. The health description changes in sections of 25% health:
100%: Healthy
>75%: Mildly annoyed
>50%: Kinda hurt
>25%: Plenty hurt
>0%:  About to die

Also updated the red collider ring around enemies. It's very low opacity except for a small section which shows enemy facing direction.

Bandit with a healthy lifestyle:


Added a scrollable viewport for the map, and it can now be zoomed. Also only visible enemies are now shown on the map and fog of war completely hides unvisited areas.

Other:
Basic save functionality is working, allowing player to save during the level. Player locations, health and mana are saved and dead enemies stay dead.

A lone hero scouting the area:

[Fainz]

Devlog #14: Pseudorandomness & new icons

-New demo 02.02.2017-

Pseudorandomness
Added a system to avoid unlucky streaks of missing with a high chance and to generally smooth out the distribution of random results.

Each character currently has it's own pseudorandomizer, used for checking hits and criticals.

Let's call the pseudorandomization value P
A constant M (around 0.3) multiplies the P value to adjust it's effectiveness

Formula for calculating the multiplier for random chance:
If P > 0: multiplier = (1+M*P)    [This can increase the chance over 100%]
If P < 0: multiplier = 1/(1-M*P)  [This divides the chance by some value, so it can't reach 0]

On both success and fail, P is increased by the random chance (as decimal, so 0.8 for a 80% chance)
On success, P is then reduced by 1 (e.g. when hitting with a 80% chance the total change in P is 0.8-1 = -0.2)

The average chance will stay correct, for example with a 80% chance:
one miss:  +0.8*1 = +0.8
four hits: -0.2*4 = -0.8
=> total change in P is 0

This system may need adjustments later, but I think it works well enough for now.


Icons
New icon style. Background is a gradient with a color, icon has main color and outline color. These three colors are defined in the skill set which they belong to. Most of them have a dark icon color with a light outline against a low-saturation background.

[Fainz]

Devlog #15: Simple and/or elegant UI windows

I'm trying out a new style (inspired by Dragon Age) for various toggleable UI windows. The goal is to make something simple, elegant and readable as well as unified in style across different windows.

[Fainz]

Devlog #16: Cheerful victory

Added a happy message when winning a combat. It's accompanied by a positive drumming sound. Additionally experience is now gained when combat ends (instead of instantly on enemy death) so that potential level-ups accompany the message for extra joy.




Avatars of dead heroes now have a skull symbol over them:




New settings:




Other:
- Defeat: replaced 'retry' (where heroes respawned at start of level) with 'reload last save'.
- The game also now autosaves after every combat, so there's less need for walking after defeat.
- Exploration and combat now have different musics. Combat music is chosen at random from 3 different songs when entering combat.
- Juiced up a bunch of abilities and added effect+sound for critical hits.

[Fainz]

Devlog #17: Inventory & GIFs
Inventory now kinda works. Items can be moved and dropped by dragging, consumable items can be placed on ability bar and equipment can be equipped.

Dragging 'Throwing Dagger' item to ability bar and using it on an enemy


Loot pickup. Gold and each item get separate messages


Added message for entering combat and updated message for victory.

Entering Combat


Victory



Sometimes the player simply needs infinite healing potions to survive.

[Fainz]

Devlog #18: Nuclear Rune, story x setting

Nuclear Rune shall be the name of the game. It's related to a major story element, and reflects the combination of nuclear stuff and fantasy.


The setting and story are starting to take shape.

Setting:
A combination of fantasy and some nuclear powered elements: Nuclear energy was used in ancient times to fuel large-scale magic, such as opening a rift to another dimension. Nowadays it is forgotten and little knowledge of it remains, but some recently discovered writings imply that it could be used to gain great might.

Story:
As the nation is threatened by an overwhelming invasion, the heroes set out on a journey to activate five nuclear power sources spread across the land in a desperate attempt to claim the unknown, legendary might. There will be enough time to worry about the consequences of creating a massive nuclear-powered pentagram after the invasion has been quelled...

[Davi Vasc]

The mix between nuclear stuff and fantasy was a great idea. It already sets your game apart from the other dozens of games in a regular fantasy setting. I would encourage you to go even further and incorporate that mix more strongly into the aesthetic of the game as well.

The game is looking great so far, btw. Nice work 

[Fainz]

The mix between nuclear stuff and fantasy was a great idea. It already sets your game apart from the other dozens of games in a regular fantasy setting. I would encourage you to go even further and incorporate that mix more strongly into the aesthetic of the game as well.

The game is looking great so far, btw. Nice work 

Yeah, the aesthetics definitely need work to fit the theme better. Until recently I was just going with plain ol' fantasy RPG, but I believe this will be a more interesting setup.

Thanks for the kind words 

[Fainz]

Devlog #19: Modeled maps
>New demo released 12.3.2017<

I'm planning to create whole 3D-maps for some areas. Here's a few samples of the maps I've crafted so far (props etc. shall be added later).

Cave


Hex tower


Hex - glowy section


Round



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Current version of the world map. Not very fancy, but gives a basic idea on how the zones might be placed. The big black dots on the pentagram's tips are the nuclear reactors/towers, reaching them all will be the first big quest.

[Fainz]

Devlog #20: Fancy ability effects

Created a bunch of new ability effects.


Weapon glow effect (using an overlayed transparent mesh with gradient texture)


Crystal Shot



Crystal Rupture



Blood magics


Bloody ranged cleave




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Once the battle is over, it's time to chill on the edge of a canyon

[Fainz]

Devlog #21: Dialog without pause, portraits

>new demo 30.03.2017<

Dialogs can now happen without interrupting normal gameplay; text appears over the each talking hero in turns.
Added a sound effect for text appearing in all dialogs. The sound is different for each hero in order to better identify who is talking and to give a bit of character to the heroes.






I've also been practicing drawing hero portraits, this is what they currently look like. They will probably keep improving whenever I need a break from usual development.


The heroes might also have multiple emotions during dialog in the future, here's a few test drawings.



Other than that, zone map now has better resolution and is generated from navmesh (instead of tiles, which some levels don't even use)

[Fainz]

Devlog #22: Fog of War & Fishy Village

I figured out a new way to do fog of war: directional negative light (removes light instead of adding it) which uses the old fog of war texture as cookie (a texture which is used to map light intensity).

Pros to this approach are that camera can be freely rotated and zoomed, and tall objects don't clip through the fog. The map isn't really hidden this way, but I think it doesn't matter much since unseen enemies are not rendered.





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A couple more screenshots from the fishing village zone we are working on currently.

Bird view


Inside


Fishies

[Fainz]

Devlog #23: Tiles & Terrain

Back here again. There's been some progress during the past few silent months, most of which can be seen in this gameplay video.




Also got a new demo.

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I created some floor tile textures with blender and photoshop. I'm hoping to add a bit of personality to the environment with these compared to the old generic textures.



Unity's Terrain system turned out to be a pretty good for creating caves. A simple script can texture different areas accordingly based on height and angle: upper areas black, flat areas tiled and angled areas with a cliff texture.