December 2020 Progress Update!

Hey everyone!

Sorry for all the GIFs!  There's quite a bit to show off this month.  We're working hard to get the next Inner Circle release out during the first week of January. Here are some of the highlights of the next release!

• Two new H scene(s) for Street Lord Wraxe!
• We've added the options menu
• Volume settings
• Full input rebinding (supported controllers and almost entire keyboard are remappable)
• Localization/Language options (currently Polish is the only new language available, since our programmer AltairPL happens to speak it)
• Resolution settings

And here are the topics for this update!

• Street Lord Wraxe H Scenes
• UI Animation Progress
• Options Screen (First Iteration)
• Splicer Grenadier WIP
• Xibalba Early Concept
• Dev Tools Improvements!

Street Lord Wraxe H Scenes

That's right, I said two(!) new H scenes are coming in the next release.  We've brought on three new animators in the past month, trained them on our workflow/pipeline, and things are moving along very well now :D.  Please welcome Gifdoozer, AnimationAtNight, and Penapsquat to the team!

The two new scenes will be complete with transitions, will each have multiple loops, and should be an overall improvement in quality now that we have the hang of things.

UI Animation Progress

Brum has continued his work with UI animations, focusing this month on realizing the concept loading screen design as well as finishing the character status screen.

He and I have been tossing experiments back and forth, and what you see above is a rough example of what one of the loading screens will look like.  The characters will be animated, and will play out pre-scripted fight scenes while the game loads.  we actually have all this working, just no fight scenes done yet :D.     

Brum and AltairPL have been working on implementing the animations into the game menu UI, and while we're not there quite yet, you can see the progress on the animations working in Unity above :D.  

Options Screen (First Iteration)

AltairPL has completed the first iteration of the options menu!  So far he's tackled volume settings and control remapping, and has included a test run of his localization setting (so far it only includes English and Polish).  Keep in mind the menu currently has a placeholder design!

Volume is currently split up into Master, Music, Sound, and H Scene volumes.  We'll likely add a voice component later.

Control remapping offers full rebinding for supported controllers and keyboard (minus a couple of system-related keys).  I'd potentially like to include presets later, so if you have any recommendations here let us know!

Currently he's working on some broad performance settings -- specifically screen resolution for starters.  We'll see what else we can finish in time for the Inner Circle release in January!

Splicer Grenadier WIP

TK has nearly finished the high res sculpt for the latest enemy, the Splicer Grenadier!

The grenadier will feature various thrown projectiles with different effects, fed to him from his mechanized backpack.  One will be a  standard area of effect direct-damage explosive.  Some may create environmental hazards when they go off that affect movement or deal damage over time.  Another idea is for a gas grenade that makes Onyx go wild for the tra la la.  That is to say, the ding ding dong.

Xibalba Early Concept

Limbo's back from his work on another project, and is starting on new concepts to fuel our hungry pipeline :0.  The first one he's knocked out is for Xibalba, an important story character in both Pure Onyx and MATM.  

Xibalba, meaning "underworld" in ancient Mayan, is kind of like a modern Rasputin.  He has influence over the Splicer Gang, and is even rumored to be connected to Null Sect, an occult faction we haven't yet explored in-game. 

Dev Tools Improvements!

Having Brum, our new UI animator, around has been handy, since he also has a lot of experience developing with Unity.  Between Mr. Kittyhawk and Brum, we have a bunch of new tools to speed up development that are worth a quick mention here.  

• Scene/Actor Picker - Brum's latest tool (shown above) -- this one allows us to navigate to all of the characters' folders/subfolders in a single click, bypassing Unity's terrible file explorer layout.
• Animation Sequencer - Mr. KH originally started this tool to help me test the Charger animations in-engine, but it's become a lifesaver for the new and future H scenes.  I can queue up series of animations, change speed, loop segments, etc. very easily.  
• Liquid Override - This one by Mr. KH allows me to override the game's system for displaying liquids on Onyx, either for tests or capturing promo materials.  Will soon be expanded to include clothing destruction!
• Animation Event Key Editor - Brum created this tool so I don't have to load the very big animation files in Unity every time I edit an event (such as the frame a SFX plays, or when hit collision should be checked, etc.).  I can also now copy/paste single events without overwriting all the other events (something that made positioning SFX and FX animations a huge pain).   
• Material Copier - Every time we update a character's rig, we need to load a new file into Unity and manually set up metadata and add materials to it by hand.  Brum's new tool lets us copy/paste that data in a couple clicks.