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[kevin andersson]

The past two weeks have been spent trying to balance one week of vacation while also iterating on the demo based on feedback. I'm now extremely proud of what I've got going. Testers seem to love it and it's just in a good place.

Intro/Outro
One big thing I added was some sort of intro and then an outro, in order to have a better presentation of what you should do. At the start of the demo you are presented with a small dialog that tells you the overall goal with the demo, grab all eggs.

Then later in the level you'll find a "real" frog that tells you that once you've grabbed all three eggs he can take you to the next area. It's not breaking any new grounds but it's at least some framing for the demo.



Improved Animation
During the playtests a good friend of mine said that I missed opportunities where I could show the good friendship between the characters and the connection between the player and characters. The old animation wasn't very reliable, the character didn't always look into the camera which could cause scenarios where you looked at the back of the character. So I tried to improve it by making a new animation and also animating the camera in the same animation. At the start of the cutscene the script will find the "CameraCutscenePoint" in the player rig and then follow that. This took a little back and forth to get good but for a quicker test I think it turned out well.



Added Content
I almost forgot that I added new content since the last devlog. I decided to expand the open area and add new characters there. So I've now added a small jump puzzle, some enemies and NPCs and finally some small platforming leading up to the egg. This flow works great because after grabbing the egg you can use the glider to get back to the start of the open area.



Polish, Polish and more Polish
Once all of the "bigger" tasks were done I sat down, played through the demo over and over. Found small stuff that you always forget and with the feedback from watching testers play I knew quick fixes I had to add. There are these buttons on the ground that you can performa a ground pound on in order to start a path of red orbs that you need to collect within a time limit. Once people started it they didn't quite know where to run so I added a paper circle around it with the pointy side towards the first orb, this seems to help which is a great thing! One tester also found that after you've helped the scarecrow you get a yellow orb.. but if you talk with him again you'll get another one, and another one and so on... This is now also fixed haha.



Also the evening before a deadline the animations all stopped working even though it all looked normal in Unity... I fixed it later by importing the player again.

[oldblood]

This is looking really great, Kevin. Love all the polish you're putting into this demo. It's really starting to show. I really love the little wisps of wind and particles in that final GIF. The whole scene looks lovely.

[kevin andersson]

This is looking really great, Kevin. Love all the polish you're putting into this demo. It's really starting to show. I really love the little wisps of wind and particles in that final GIF. The whole scene looks lovely.

Thank you so much! I'm really happy with it, but maybe need to work on something else for a while :D

[Alain]

That road that is actually the frog's tongue is just great

[kevin andersson]

That road that is actually the frog's tongue is just great

Haha thank you, it was a viewer on Twitch that suggested it and I completely love the playful idea of it!

[kevin andersson]

I think I'm stuck. I've worked so hard on this demo and now when I try to start new areas I know more what needs to be done, but some of these stuff are harder to get going with than what I thought. What I'm trying now is to just make an ugly version of it all to at least get somewhere. Might also be a phase, end of summer hitting me hard.

Anyway here's a quick test for a snow sleigh, in my head this was easy to make..


And I have this idea of a beach area with a paper ball as the skybox, it will rotate between day and night. In my head this will be cool one day.



As I said, it might just be a phase. Just had to write somewhere

[Alain]

I'm glad you are sharing these parts of your journey here as well. Sometimes progress seems barely to be made although that new feature should be so easy to make. Hang in there!

[Ishi]

This is looking lovely! I'm envious of the neat tools you have set up to make placement of paths and other level elements really easy.

Getting stuck happens, especially when starting work on a new mechanic or level it can be really difficult to get over that initial hump. Don't beat yourself up about it, keep chipping away when you're in the mood and soon you'll be feeling as proud of the new content as you do of the stuff you already polished!

[kevin andersson]

Thanks everyone! I didn't know how long I would feel stuck but I made a devlog a week ago or so. I feel like I'm back but the video was important to make for me. Right now I'm working on a new level and it feels refreshing.

[Alain]

Hey Kevin, thank you for this very honest devlog. I'm sorry to hear you have been struggling and it is wonderful that working with your friend helped you to get back on track. Keep up the good work, you have a great project going with PaperKlay!

[kevin andersson]

Well well here I am again... life happened between last post and this one but I feel better now. I also made a video that summarise the first year of PaperKlay development. I hope you enjoy it!

[Alain]

Wow, I was not aware that you were not that deep into 3D when starting out. I love the visuals and it is wonderful to see what you achieved over the course of the last year!

[kevin andersson]

Wow, I was not aware that you were not that deep into 3D when starting out. I love the visuals and it is wonderful to see what you achieved over the course of the last year!

Yeah I was a bit rusty, it's been very fun though Thank you Alain!

[oldblood]

Great vlog, as always. Project has come a long way, and excited to see how it develops in the year to come.

[kevin andersson]

Great vlog, as always. Project has come a long way, and excited to see how it develops in the year to come.

Thanks a lot, yeah I'm also very excited for year two :D

[oahda]

Great update! Looks amazing already. Love how textured everything is and how it really feels like it's made of, well, paper and clay, and other materials. Fun way to do PBR while remaining stylised. And so much work on levels and so on! Looks very smooth to play.

[JobLeonard]

Personally I still think Hoplegs is an underrated masterpiece, so I'm totally going to be that guy who treats the project like "oh yeah I liked this band's early works but now they're total sell-outs".

Nah jk, glad to see this seems to have taken off like crazy, you deserve it!

[kevin andersson]

Personally I still think Hoplegs is an underrated masterpiece, so I'm totally going to be that guy who treats the project like "oh yeah I liked this band's early works but now they're total sell-outs".

Nah jk, glad to see this seems to have taken off like crazy, you deserve it!

Omg I missed this reply, this made me so incredibly happy  I'll save it in a nice folder where I can come back and lift my mood!

[kevin andersson]

I feel like I only come in here to post when I have a new devlog. Not sure if people have opinions about that but here's the latest devlog. June has been insane actually. I hope you like it.

[JobLeonard]

I appreciate it, even though I'm also on your discord