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[RossD20Studios]

Here's a clip showing our Druid in action. Sylvia has the power to hurl squirrels at her opponents and use Nature magic to transform them into formidable mutant creatures. She can also call upon the trees to fight for her, making short work of these poor Goblins.

[RossD20Studios]

Nature Magic
In honor of Earth Day yesterday, today I'm doing a feature on our Nature spells.



Nature magic is associated with the life energy of plants and animals, evolution and survival of the fittest. Druids, elf mages, and orc shamans alike draw upon nature magic in various ways: sometimes calling upon the earth and vegetation itself and sometimes from their inner life force to augment natural fighting abilities to superior status. Nature spells include abilities to buff units power and life, mutate and transform beings into other creatures, animate and multiply life and heal and restore balance.

Here's a link to the video I posted here yesterday with our Druid using the Nature deck to defeat the Goblins.

Characters pictured: Botanical Sage, Ant Warrior, and Giant Stag Beetle.

[RossD20Studios]

Sneak Peak - Menu
Here's a sneak peak at some of the work-in-progress items at the "campfire site menu" we are developing for Summoners Fate:


The armor your see here belongs to 2 of our characters - can you guess which ones? 

I explain more about the campfire menu in my DevLog
here.

[RossD20Studios]

Squirrel Hurlin'
Watch our Druid in action using her Squirrel attack power





This is part of a longer video that involves casting Animal Growth card on the Squirrel - watch that video here.

[RossD20Studios]

There is no Darkness without Light
We've discussed the dark and fear-based magic of the Void and the life energy of plants and animals with the Nature spells. Now, let's visit our Celestial magic.



Celestial Magic is associated with divine order, light, love, spiritual energy and the dimension of time. This magical energy is drawn from celestial beings and the existential ether that shapes and forms the basis of reality. Celestial spells include powerful healing and protection abilities, light energy that can banish demons of the Void and repel the destructive forces of Chaos, and the ability to control time itself.

Characters pictured: High Elf Warrior, Cleric, and Angel Warrior.

[RossD20Studios]

Even more factions!



Elves
You've met our summoner, Albirich the Fighter Mage - a favorite from our first game Hero Mages. Now meet the new High Elf Wizard (left) and the High Elf Warrior (center). Read more about the Warrior's armor design here.

Demons
The stuff of nightmares! Meet our Demons, including our Demon Lord - with his mighty war hammer - as well as our Succubus and Incubus - with their crescent blade and double shotels, repectively.

Insectoids
They're creepy, crawly, and...actually, pretty cool! The Insectoid faction is comprised of many insect-humanoid hybrids that will bug your opponent on the battlefield. We've been creating some weapons for them as well, making them extra fierce on the battlefield. Here we have our Scorpion Wasp, Preying Mantis, and Bi-Ped Ant.

[RossD20Studios]

Progress on Campfire Menu
We recently featured some work-in-progress components of our campfire menu. I'm continuing to work on the menu this weekend, and am really pleased with how it's starting to come together.



A little background - my vision for the menu, since players will spend time in the menu building their teams, selecting campaigns, etc., was to swap the traditional, by-the-book menu for something more charming and natural. The exciting feeling of being part of a team that is gathering at a fire pit in a campsite really spoke to the adventurous atmosphere we're creating for Summoners Fate. Once we have the art in place, animation and sound effects will be added.

Read more of my DevLog on the campfire menu design here.

[RossD20Studios]

Never underestimate 1/1 characters - in large numbers, they are deadly!

Screenshot from some Summoners Fate gaming last night, my wife being the Skeletons (yes, I definitely lost this game!)



She cast the Skeleton Legion card, which summoned quite a hoard of skeletons:

[RossD20Studios]

Ready to do your bidding.



In Summoners Fate we take a top-down approach, as if you are a deity looking over a boardgame. Instead of looking only at tops of heads, your units will look up to you whenever there is an action available.

[ByerN]

I really like the graphics and design in your game. It's easy to see how much work you put into it.
Gameplay seems to be interesting and advanced too but I don't know much about this type of games so it's hard for me to say something about it.

It's interesting idea with this "ready to go characters" looking up at you. It's taking care of one of top-down view cons which is not seeing characters face. For me it is a good idea (but when I was looking at it first time it was a little creepy... :D)

I was watching a few of your videos (you have lot of it, so it's not that easy to go through it all) and I can tell you something about few little things that I don't like that much here (let's take a look at "Liche king fight" video):
-Sounds effects and animations are a little too long for me. It could be like 3/4 of the current length. Voice of the warrior (?) after killing a monster was annoying.
-Graphic design is wonderful here but a few of particle effects are not fitting to it. I don't like fire for example. It's not consistent with the rest of the graphics (too much blurry? hard to say).
-Victory screen (this green text) is not rewarding. It was a little disappointing for me after all of it to see this simple text.

You have so much content. It looks really good Keep going!

   

[RossD20Studios]

I really like the graphics and design in your game. It's easy to see how much work you put into it.
Gameplay seems to be interesting and advanced too but I don't know much about this type of games so it's hard for me to say something about it.

It's interesting idea with this "ready to go characters" looking up at you. It's taking care of one of top-down view cons which is not seeing characters face. For me it is a good idea (but when I was looking at it first time it was a little creepy... :D)

I was watching a few of your videos (you have lot of it, so it's not that easy to go through it all) and I can tell you something about few little things that I don't like that much here (let's take a look at "Liche king fight" video):
-Sounds effects and animations are a little too long for me. It could be like 3/4 of the current length. Voice of the warrior (?) after killing a monster was annoying.
-Graphic design is wonderful here but a few of particle effects are not fitting to it. I don't like fire for example. It's not consistent with the rest of the graphics (too much blurry? hard to say).
-Victory screen (this green text) is not rewarding. It was a little disappointing for me after all of it to see this simple text.

You have so much content. It looks really good Keep going!

Wow, thanks ByerN for the very detailed and objective feedback. I love getting comments like this that help me better understand audience perception and help me with improving the quality. Some of the effects you've mentioned (Victory screen) are just placeholder, while others (particle effects) are the best of what I've come up for now using program techniques rather than artistic techniques. We have a dedicated illustration team that handles character and environment art, but I don't have dedicated FX artist, so I'm doing the best I can to fill in gaps for now until I have a chance to address in the polish once the gameplay is perfected. If you have any insights/resources/etc. where I could benefit on improving VFX, I'm all ears

I'm curious if the animation speed was the result of the capture software or something I need to address in the animations themselves(I know some of the videos have issue with the capture software). The game runs at 60FPS and most of the recording engines I've tried only capture 30FPS, sometimes slower depending on the resolution I'm capturing at. I've received feedback before on the animations needing speed adjustments/better timing, but I've had trouble communicating concrete changes to my animator necessary to correct this perception.

I would certainly love to hear more from you. If you're interested in chatting more and taking part in our upcoming multiplayer release, please feel welcome to join us on our Discord channel here: https://discord.gg/6rZkzAx.

[ByerN]

Thanks I am a little busy with my own game, so I'll try to keep it short (about discord)

What I see inconsistent in fx (fire for example; Liche-1:29) is that everything in your game looks "hardly edged" almost vector-cartoon style but fx doesn't fits to it. I think that for example some of animes (if you are familiar with this topic) has similar problem with CG. But you know, it's a rather minor thing I've catched it first in your trailer with burning "o" at the end. It still looks great

About the speed- for me, a little faster fight in this game would be better. I don't think if it's a recording-fps problem.

Helpful resources would be:
Art of screenshake (maybe not that great for this type of game but still well describing gamefeel basics)




and maybe this one:




I've found it some time ago. There were some more good resources about animation and related topics (overanimating, "strong-frames"- I don't remember the name now, I am not an artist at all :D) on youtube.

In my opinion adding a little more dynamics to the gameplay would be great

I hope you'll find it helpful

[RossD20Studios]

What I see inconsistent in fx (fire for example; Liche-1:29) is that everything in your game looks "hardly edged" almost vector-cartoon style but fx doesn't fits to it. I think that for example some of animes (if you are familiar with this topic) has similar problem with CG. But you know, it's a rather minor thing I've catched it first in your trailer with burning "o" at the end. It still looks great

Man, thanks again for posting these resources! I've watched the first video so far, excited to check out the next one. It's amazing how tiny changes like that make a big difference.

I see what you mean about the PFX and the hard edges, especially on that lingering fire at the end. Here's a really quick 5 minute experiment I did yesterday trying out some different particles and alpha to give it a more cartoony feel:





That editor you see in the video is part of the tools suite I built for creating Summoners Fate content. Right now, it can only edit individual particle emitters, which means the missile/moving particles still have to be hand-coded. I'm hoping to extend this to add the full assembly, so that I'll be able to edit things like speed, layered explosions, shake effects, etc. in real-time.

I can't wait to get to polish because it's "little" tweaks like you mention (animation speed, slowing down deaths, etc.) that really take gameplay feel from average to AWESOME!

[ByerN]

I am glad that you've found it helpful My game is not even close to your's design quality so I have a lot to do too

Nice tool. Experiment is going good way :D

I'll watch this topic to check your progress. Good luck. You are doing great job

[RossD20Studios]

Meet our Cockatrice! For those of you who aren't familiar, a Cockatrice is usually depicted with the body of a dragon (sometimes a serpent) and the head of a rooster.



Here is some of the Cockatrice's animations:



For sounds and better quality, watch this video on our YouTube channel:

[RossD20Studios]

This is an example of how you can use Bonus Attacks in Summoners Fate to your advantage in game. Bonus Attacks trigger when an enemy unit is knocked into an ally. In this instance, since the Treants have"Super Knockback" - an ability that sends a character flying across the board up to 5 spaces - this fun game of "toss the Orc" is possible.

[RossD20Studios]

Manipulate the Fabric of Existence
We've brought you Celestial, Nature, and Void magic features. Now let's deep dive into our Arcane magic, a favorite of those who enjoy mind games:


^{Characters pictured: Zenon the Arch Mage, Arcane Giant, and Ice Queen}

Arcane magic is associated with the fundamental forces that define reality including gravity, materialization, and psychic energy. Long ago, an ancient race left relics of ancient texts and technology scattered across the world. Many of these relics were collected by the wizards of the Academy of Arcane Arts, where they study and use them to manipulate the fabric of existence. Arcane spells include abilities such as the manipulation of gravity, creation of forcefields, psychic attacks, and control of positioning on the board.

Who else is an Arcane fan?

[RossD20Studios]

When You Need Your Own Magical Box Fort

Forcefield is a powerful Arcane spell that protects an ally character from all incoming damage. The forcefield can only be brought down by an enemy melee attack, making it a formidable defense when used in combination with your Summoner in the rear and a defensive line of melee blockers in the front. Notice how even grass underneath the forcefield is protected from the fireball.

Watch here:

[RossD20Studios]

Level Making
This weekend we've been making different maps to play for the soon-to-be-released early access multiplayer version of Summoners Fate. Here's my son and me last night creating some with my editor tool:


^{Don't be fooled by his age; my little guy is quite the strategist and loves using game editors, such as in Geometry Dash and Battleblock Theater. I have no idea where he gets it from...}

We're then spending our evenings playtesting and learning when it comes to fun gameplay, "less is more;" meaning, while some blockades and traps are fun, too much is a hindrance.

Have a great Sunday!

[RossD20Studios]

Here's a new Swamp Map that we created. I took a quick snapshot playing the level just as the opponent Dark Elf Witch was flying over my Dwarf Warrior to attack Nova the Sorceress, my summoner:



What do you think so far? We will be adding more FX later, including mist and/or rain.