November 2019 Progress Update!

Hey everyone! 

The first release featuring the 3D character overhaul will be ready by the end of the month!  We're currently still working on updating the combat code (mostly collision and physics), not only so it behaves with the 3D characters better, but because we need to consider Onyx's expanded moves as well as various new effects like knockback.  

As soon as combat feels good, we intend to make a release to the Inner Circle (hopefully on the 15th), so that we can get some early feedback (especially on performance).  We'll then focus on updating the H system code and finishing up the Splicer Thug H animations.  With any luck we'll have all of this ready for the release by the end of the month.

In the meantime, we have a lot of progress to talk about.  While Mr. Kittyhawk has been working on the combat code, we've been fanning out and laying the foundation for a lot of components that hadn't received much attention yet -- especially environment props and weapons.  We've got progress to show off on all of these things, as well as the completed models for three new enemies.  Check it all out below!

Topics for this Update!

• H animation progress
• Attack FX 
• Environment FX
• Environment Lighting System 
• Sewer Tileset 
• New Environment Color Workflow 
• Environment Props
• Traps and Hazards
• Welcome to the Gun Show!
• Energy Cannon 
• Stun Gun
• Vertical Parallax
• Splicer Thug is Ready! 
• Larva Worm Enemy Progress
• Biohound Enemy Progress
•  New Enemy - Splicer Looter 

H Animation Progress!

TMX got head start on the H animations before we started diving into the Splicer combat animations.  He's got the Splicer Thug struggle loop done and has begun working through the transition animations for the first scene.  Keep in mind there's no face rig on Onyx in this scene :D so no face animations yet.  

Attack FX 

One of the bigger accomplishments early this month for Mr. Kittyhawk, TK and I was finally getting attack FX rolling (shown in first image above).  The system we've built is very flexible for creating all sorts of attack trails and texture-based animations.    Since these FX are in 3D and have actual depth, they should have far fewer issues than our initial 2D tests. 

The ones we've made so far are pretty basic, but I'm excited about the possibilities, especially since it can be used in conjunction with our particle FX.  

Environment FX

Firstly, I highly recommend checking out the high quality video of the example scene shown above!  Sorry that Patreon doesn't allow for embedded videos within posts :(.  

I spent the first weekend after the last monthly update experimenting with particle FX systems for livening up the environments, and am extremely happy with how it all turned out.  I think we'll need far less heavy duty work animating the pre-rendered backgrounds simply because of how much movement the particle FX add.  

In addition to what's shown with this sewer example, I've created some fog, rain, and storm effects that I'm excited to show off with an outdoor map soon :D.

Environment Lighting System

Uber has put more work into his automated map generation system, this time focusing on lighting.  

The goal of this part of the workflow is to give us the opportunity to create multiple palettes and versions of maps without needing to re-render anything.  It's an important step in our procedural level generation system that we have planned for Mission Mode.  

It's a very similar system to the lighting system we showed a while back for the MATM battle sprites, in that we render lights as separate groups (daylight, ambient, artificial, etc).  The natural colors of the environment are also maintained, allowing us to completely change the entire palette and intensities of each light group independently for a natural look -- all in post.  

To boot, this system also automatically blends the edges of the map tiles, cutting down on a lot of manual work.  I've posted some WIP examples Uber created using one of his sewer tiles.

Sewer Tileset

Uber finished up the first filler tileset for the sewer level, and the results are pretty great I think :D.  I've included a few examples of what we can create with it (along with the new lighting workflow) above.  

To clarify -- these tilesets will be for filler maps that link the more interesting/unique event maps.  They'll be getting attention first though since we can create long playable segments for releases during the development process.

New Environment Color Workflow

Ubercharge's system for generating different map lighting variations is very necessary, but it has some limitations.  It still takes significant manual work per variation, and would need quite a bit of automation work to minimize that.  It also doesn't allow for individual objects within the scenes to be recolored (yet).  

Luckily, TK discovered a machine-learning based app that surprisingly does a great job of recoloring the final images based on palettes you feed it -- meaning we can minimize the number of variations that we need to run through Uber's process.  With some extra masking we can also make truly unique palettes (as opposed to changing just lighting or editing color on all the objects at once).  Best of all, it actually does such a good job of adding color that I'll be using it to improve upon all our environments.

I posted some examples of our results so far in the gallery at the top of the post!

Vertical Parallax

High Quality Video Example 

Since we've been knocking out all this other environment stuff, Mr. Kittyhawk took a break and tackled adding vertical parallax to maps.  When I was studying Dragon's Crown's maps I realized they were using this to great effect to make their levels feel bigger, working especially well on maps with many background layers. 

Environment Props! 

These aren't only for the pretties -- props will have a significant role in populating maps with interactive and dynamic content.  

• Static - Some props will simply be there to change the shape of the playing field to make encounters more interesting.
• Chests - Unique to Mission Mode, you open these bad boys and get equip-able or consumable loot.  All chests are not equal, and some demand certain items to open them.
• Containers - Breakable props that spray out things like currency, temporary weapons, or in rare cases loot -- these can also be traps!
• Obstructions / Events -  Barricades may be used to enhance encounters, and some enemies may use them as cover.  There may also be events in which Onyx has to break barricades quickly to escape something or reach an objective. 
• Vehicles -  In some cases these may act like barricades, but I'd like for enemy reinforcements to sometimes arrive in vehicles (which you could potentially destroy before they spawn).  Some enemies may also begin encounters on vehicles and when knocked off change to their regular behaviors.

I spent quite a bit of time this week working with styling them in a way that works with the backgrounds while making them stand out enough to recognize that they can be interacted with.

Traps and Hazards

We've given the darker (fun) side of environments some attention recently.  We first organized traps in a way that makes them easy to develop and implement, and then started populating a list.  The Discord channel was a lot of help here, as some of you gave some great ideas (I encourage those of you that haven't joined yet to do so :D!).  Of course, if you have any additional ideas feel free to add them in the comments! 

Anyways, here's the list of ideas that we have so far :D. 

Welcome to the Gun Show :0

Limbo, TK, and I have been working on temporary weapons recently -- most of which just happen to be guns at the moment >_>.   The concepts shown above are potential designs for certain roles we need filled.  

Temporary weapons, or what I'm calling "secondary weapons" since some enemies (and potentially future playable characters) will have primary weapons, are weapons with limited uses, charge, or ammo, and basically act like power-ups.   You can read about the gameplay mechanics we have planned for them here (the yellow text is stuff we're unsure of without testing). 

Also, you can check the full list of weapon ideas that we're planning here!  

Energy Cannon

Here is the first gun to be completed!  This is actually the most heavy duty weapon we have planned at the moment.  We plan for it to launch a beam of energy for as long as you hold the trigger, but we also want it to have a secondary overcharge attack that allows you to launch a plasma ball that explodes for massive AoE damage.  You can check out a GIF of it in action at the top of the post :D.

Stun Gun

The stun gun is the second weapon model we've completed :D.  This one is an oddity in that it's actually a melee gun that has a battery instead of ammo.  It operates similarly to the energy cannon in that it dispenses pain for as long as you hold down the punch button (or until it runs out of charge).  Due to it's electrical nature, it's extra effective against mechanical enemies.

Splicer Thug is Ready!

TK and I have finished up the low poly Splicer Thug model and materials, meaning he's good to go for the next release.   Since his original pants and boots were never intended for a real-time game, TK did a crash course in Marvelous Designer to redesign them like the original 2D version.  I'm really pleased with the results!

Larva Worm Enemy Progress

Here's the first of three new enemies we've made progress on this month!  This guy has actually been the most frustrating enemy so far to get right in this style.  

This enemy was originally only going to be very small, and come in packs that Onyx has to stomp or knock out of the air when they jump at her, but I've decided on doing a bigger version as well.  We may go back and simplify the smaller version a bit since they get really detailed when scaled down.

Biohound Enemy Progress

We've made progress on the Biohound's 3D model as well!  This guy still needs significant texture work I think for him to shine.  Since we've loosened the strict cel shading style a bit, I'm considering adding gradients across his body like in the concept.  Also his belly and claws will be colored differently.

Here's the Biohound concept art if you missed it before.  The Biohound's main feature is that his primary head can be sucked in and exchanged for weird mutations such as tentacles for grabbing Onyx from a distance and pulling her in, or a hand of sorts for gripping her.  He'll also have more standard H attacks, so overall he should be a very versatile enemy.

Splicer Looter

TK and I put together the materials for the latest new enemy -- the Splicer Looter -- a couple weeks back, and I love how goofy he came out.  I can't wait to start animating him, because I'm certain we'll use these guys for more than just the looter enemy.  These guys will be generally clumsy/comical, and will turn up in ridiculous scenarios (popping out of barrels / chests, packs of them riding by on out-of-control vehicles, etc.)