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[Davi Vasc]

Great work, Shaun! Not much to say this time, just wanted to drop by to let you know I always check all your updates, you've been making good progress. Cheers!

[MegaTiny]

Great work, Shaun! Not much to say this time, just wanted to drop by to let you know I always check all your updates, you've been making good progress. Cheers!

Thanks a lot Davi, it's always great to hear that people are stopping by to view the updates. Really appreciate it 

[MegaTiny]

Still alive, still going! My twitter/instagram have more regular posts:

• Twitter
• Instagram

Proper update for here actually scheduled in AND already written for next Thursday. Wow 

[Wender]

+followed . Every now and then I come check out this work, the art and battle systems is what most fascinate me, continue the good word!

[MegaTiny]

+followed . Every now and then I come check out this work, the art and battle systems is what most fascinate me, continue the good word!

Thanks a lot! I'm looking forward to releasing some more info on the battle system in the coming couple of months.

Okay, I finally have a decent update to give!

Autumn's Chorus is coming to EGX Rezzed 2019!

It's nice to use the very first dev log of 2019 announce that Autumn's Chorus is coming to EGX Rezzed 2019! It's my first ever expo and I'm really quite excited about it. If you're going, you'll find me in the great gallery with all the other unaffiliated indies.

For real though, those exotic potatoes are really nice

Autumn's Chorus now has a Steam page

In another piece of exciting news, the game can now be found on the Steam store. This is a huge milestone in the development process, as it signifies a true commitment to the project.

If you'd like to go and have a look (and maybe wishlist it), you can do so by clicking here.

So then friends, what's new with the game?

Having gotten EGX confirmed, I have been working flat out on getting a demo ready for the expo. This will be the first time I've let the game loose on the public, so I'm taking extra care to make sure everything's perfect.

What's in the demo?

The demo is set in Harold's Wood, one of the earliest areas of the game. You're tasked with breaking into the Dragon Sanctuary in order to gather a very particular fluid: dragon saliva. Playing a roguish sort (for the sake of the demo I'm going with a pre-made build), you'll be able to sneak or fight your way to your goal using a variety of tools. There's currently five different endings to this scenario (besides being gobbled up by a dragon), and I'm hoping players manage to find each one in the three short days the game will be available. Though one of them's a little obscure so maybe not.

I'm considering adding a time limit to the demo to prevent people spending an hour trying to suss out the better hidden endings.

Will you be releasing the demo to the beautiful people of the TIG Forum?

Yes, absolutely. I'll be planning to release the demo much more publicly some time after Rezzed ends. However I will be taking the time to adjust to player feedback, as well as introduce some systems that won't be ready in time for the event. I'll announce here, my other development update locations and on Twitter / Instagram when the demo is live for the public (and I'll probably pop a beta of the demo out to you lot first to get some measured feedback). So as long as you're following along somewhere, you shouldn't miss it.

So basically, coding and content

I've had a huge focus on tidying up my code and getting a whole load of content added to the game recently. New weapons and armour have been added, along with over twenty new scenes to pick apart and explore.

My favourite new piece of kit is the Blue Steel Tower Shield which, along with letting you really strike a pose, has a chance of reflecting fire damage that hits you.

Additional benefit: makes you ridiculously good looking

Thanks for reading!

I really appreciate your interest in the game, so feel free to contact me if you have any questions. If you want a quick answer the best place to go is either Twitter or the Steam Forums (though obviously TIG is looked at everyday when I'm at my dayjob).

You can also sign up to the mailing list on the website if that's how you like to receive updates.

And if you're liking what you see, please do go ahead and wishlist the game on Steam. As it really helps push me onwards!

Have a great week everyone!  

[MegaTiny]

Feels good to be adding dialogue content to the game again after a month mostly consisting of hard coding and polish.

Terminal gout is no laughing matter

[MegaTiny]

Since I announced the game outside of these lovely forums I've been ripped a bit online for using asset store assets. I was absolutely prepared for this. As a solo developer I really couldn't find a way to complete my vision without doing so however. I do know how to 3D model and texture, but really I'm an animator at heart.

Which is lucky because 95% of the asset store assets have animations that can best be described as serviceable. So when breaking down my time I put a not-insignificant amount of time into rigging and animating.

The dragon in the below gif actually has fairly nice animations that come with it, but they didn't have a whole lot of personality. And really didn't take advantage of the big fat wobbly belly hanging off of it.

When I was making animations for this dragon I really wanted to focus on making it's froggy belly react to what was going on. For example before it breathes fire it buffs up, then as it breathes out the belly contracts completely. Back to idle and it's a bit saggy again.

Pretty happy with the outcome.

COME AT ME BROUUUURRRRRGGHHHHHH!

Cheers for reading and good luck with your own projects!  

[feelblitz]

Very sorry to hear that you've been receiving criticism for using store assets. I think you've been doing a wonderful job with them, and maintaining a consistent style with a clear artistic vision. I can understand where most people are coming from, as a 3D artist myself, its incredibly obvious in most indie games when they are using store bought assets, mainly because they do nothing with them. About 90% of indie games using store bought assets do so out of laziness and for instant results, With no regards to artistic integrity or level design, which I'm sure you are more than aware of. Really, they should be used to compliment the main assets and art direction, and lower the overall game's production budget.

I think you've been doing this the right way, and while I think the game would of course look more polished with all original art in the exact same modeling style, its understandable that you don't have the budget as a one man team to pursue that. No need to reinvent the wheel as they say. If what you have right now works and looks good, who cares? I wouldn't let them get to ya. Your twitter updates continue to look awesome, and don't rely on the store assets as a crutch. That's all that matters in the end.

[MegaTiny]

Thanks for the in-depth reply and kind words. I really appreciate it and have taken everything you've said on board.

Regarding this little bit:

I think you've been doing this the right way, and while I think the game would of course look more polished with all original art in the exact same modeling style...

In my original attempt at creating this game I was actually using entirely original art for the characters, which is part of the reason I crashed and burned so hard. I've still got those assets and they're making their way into the game as primary cast members. For example this chap (that you might have already seen doing a walk on my Twitter):

In the end it was just too much work to realistically ever finish the game. I considered drastically lowering the scope to only include a few characters, but instead decided to stick to a slightly lowered scope version the original plan. This is why there are default human body types that have various blend shapes to make them fat/skinny/short tall now, with the odd custom charcter thrown in.

Creates a bit of this:

But I'm okay with that. Anyway, thanks again for taking the time to reply!

[ChrisLSound]

This was a fascinating devlog to read through. Congrats on the Steam page and convention spot!

Everything with the personality/relationship/etc system sounds super interesting, and I very much agree with your design goals/philosophies.

I'm sorry to hear people are tearing into you for asset store assets. I think it looks great, and you've done an impressive job making things feel cohesive. There's only so much a single dev can do, and it sounds like you have your priorities straight!

Great work! I'm looking forward to following

[MegaTiny]

Great work! I'm looking forward to following

Thanks very much! I really appreciate the support.

Been adding loads of content to the EGX demo. Also been a busy bee fixing all the combat code I've been putting off so that the game is smooth and shiny for the expo.

This included such joys as:

• Stopping the player getting stuck in an attack animation
• Removing a bug where the player would swap weapons when they attack
• Preventing enemies flying into space when hit (though I might keep this code somewhere and use it for an ability)

The thing that's changed the gameplay the most however, is making it so enemies don't just auto hit the player when they decide to melee attack (wasn't very fun). Now they have a brief window in which damage can occur, which makes sense given that swords only impact during the downswing. Hooray!

Move like a butterfly, sting like an overpowered player character

New note: sort out tacky looking damage numbers before EGX!

Cheers for stopping by  

[MegaTiny]

Good news: all of the content for the EGX demo is now complete! There's a solid 20 minute playable demo of the game, which can be played start to finish with zero game breaking bugs Hopefully people will enjoy raiding the Dragon Sanctuary to obtain the treasured prize of some live dragon spit.

To ensure that little adventure is more enjoyable for people that enjoy stabbing things (and the whole demo can be completed without so much as drawing your sword), I've begun work on polishing the combat experience in earnest. So anyway here's the March update:


Combat improvements

I've been working hard on improving combat for a solid week now, and it's already feeling much, much more exciting.

Main improvements include:

• Enemy/Party AI improvements
• Knockbacks
• Juice!
• Dodge Rolls
• Blocking (with cool block effects)

Hopefully to be included before EGX:

• Spell/Status triggers

That's the TLDR. Now for the folks with time to do a Did Read:


Enemy/Party AI improvements

This was focused on three major things:

• Target selection
• Attack choice
• Combat zones

Target selection

AI can now decide better who to attack based on an old school MMO threat system. Attacks have a threat level, and whenever a skill is used all AI fighters will re-assess who they should be targeting

Attack Choices

AI is now better at choosing which attack to use. Are you out of range? Time to close the gap with a charge attack. Team mate low on health? Heal. They have cooldown timers on these skills to ensure they aren't just infinitely healing/doing a hyper mega destruction murder attack.

Combat Zones

To put it simply, these are threat ranges. Leave the threat range > back to milling about. Re-enter the threat range > it's go time!


Knockbacks

Mmmmmm knockbacks. All attacks now have a weight assigned to them (which can be zero for no knockback. When hit, well you're going for a nice little skid. Here's an extreme example in which I've bumped up the auto-attack weight:

Moonwalk optional

Besides the weight this gives the feeling of attacks, this adds a nice new element to combat, that means spells and skills add the option to create space.


Juice!

Juice! The cornerstone of why any combat system is memorable. Because I'm everything wrong with the 21st century, I was watching a Super Smash Bros tournament and noticed just how amazing the Juice in that game is and was inspired to add the following Sweet Juice to the combat recently:

• Slo-mo kill cams for the final kill of a fight
• Particle trails for knockbacks and fast moves
• White flash and very light camera shake on every hit
• Particles for every single attack
• Knockback of course
• Hit particles (in progress)

Combat is immediately more fun  

Sweet airtime bruh

Dodge Rolls and blocking


Dodge roll is becoming a dirty term in this world of souls-likes. But it's amazing how much more bland combat is without it! So without further ado:

Swiggity swooty, we got that Dark Souls booty

Oh yeah you can totally block too! I've tried to make blocking more interesting than just hiding behind your shield by adding block effects. Besides passive stat boosts every shield can have up to three active effects:

• An effect upon while in a blocking stance, for example, for example health regen.
• An action that occurs when hit while blocking, for example damage reflect.
• Another action that triggers when hit by a heavy attack, like creating a knockback explosion.

This should make using a shield a more interesting choice than just 'less damage output but get hurt less'.

Sweet block stance ACTIVATE!

I'm super happy with how combat is shaping up! I'm really keen to show off the game now. Oh and I made a new logo because I'm a sweet artistic soul at heart:

Cheers for reading. Here's to a strong March for us all  

[Davi Vasc]

Oooh, the combat looks super flashy now, nice work! Gotta have that sweet, sweet juice  Nice logo too!

[MegaTiny]

Thanks a lot Davi! While it still needs polish, the whole thing just feels a lot more fun now

[Pitxardo]

I love the art! 

[MegaTiny]

I love the art! 

Thanks very much Pitxardo! That's lovely to hear 

[MegaTiny]

Busy busy busy building up to Rezzed. Here's a couple of weapon types I added this weekend to keep things ticking along:

Dagger Dagger Daggers

Low damage, long combos. Ideal for applying chance based status effects on your enemies. The four hit combo for this was really fun to animate for these:

Dagger Dagger Dagger Dagger I guess.

Magic Sticks

Or Arcane Sceptres to the more discerning gentlefolk amongst you. Lovely big frontal arc AoEs followed by a projectile spell. I goofed the gif below as I forgot to tell the spell not to target the caster. To the void I go!

"Whoooooooooooops" - A lot of magic user's last words.

They each have their own defensive moves too, but more about that later!

Have a great week everyone  

[MegaTiny]

Hi Everyone! I took the game down to EGX Rezzed last week and, despite my feet being in agony by the end, had an absolutely awesome time. This is mostly because I run entirely on compliments, and received many over the course of the three days.

There were a few crashes and bugs found, but I fixed those as the event went on around me. I was pooing my pants before I left, but the whole thing turned out to be a massive success. Having The Behemoth showing the Castle Crashers remaster right beside me certainly didn't hurt when it came to dragging people over to the booth either.

I also got to be on Rock Paper Shotgun's Best of Rezzed, which was rather exciting. Even if they did spell my name wrong...

Why did my mother curse me with this moniker?!

If you fancy watching a super early version of the game in action and hear me say some words, you can do so by clicking here.

Anyway now that the excitement has died down, and the little stream of Steam wishlists the event inspired has slowed, it's back to business as usual working on the game. I'll be back with more interesting updates as I have them.

Enjoy your week everyone  

[MegaTiny]

Updated the name of the thread to reflect that that's the actual name of the game and what not. Also: here's my dog party member doing a spin.

No I wasn't inspired by M.Bison, why do you ask?

Have a nice weekend all 

[MegaTiny]

Still going! Hope everyone had an awesome weekend. Currently working on a super fun side quest called Mimic House!

No prizes for guessing the theme.

This quest is part of the pest control guild's chain, which may not sound too interesting at first. Of course in a fantasy world, pest control isn't all rats and roaches...