CryptRat
Arcane
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2014
- Messages
- 3,558
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KickStarter Arcadian Atlas: FFT/Tactics Ogre inspired RPG
- Thread starter Siveon
- Start date
-
- Tags
- in-development indie srpg
Cross
Arcane
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2017
- Messages
- 2,997
Of all the things to take from these games, why would you replicate the boring and completely linear equipment progression and list inventory? It doesn't look like the developers have any ambition beyond creating a carbon copy of FFT, warts and all.
Thank you so much, finally a REAL game. I have a unhealthy obsession with Tactics Ogre that I want to enjoy again in a new form! I'm sure it's also the case for everyone in your team.
Terra
Cipher
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2016
- Messages
- 897
It was strange, but it grew on me over time. Come to think of it, Shining Force did the same thing years earlier.
CryptRat
Arcane
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2014
- Messages
- 3,558
New update : https://www.kickstarter.com/project...spired-by-classics/posts/2117630?ref=activity
Update 12: Anatomy of Animation, Map Efficiency, and More!
Update 12: Anatomy of Animation, Map Efficiency, and More!
Welcome all you wonderful backers to another action-packed episode of Arcadian Atlas! This time around we've got tons of details from all across the game development spectrum. Whether it be animation, portraits, map-tunage, music, or behind-the-scenes on programming - you're in the right place!
So dive on in. The waters are warm and cozy!
Anatomy of Animation
Artistically, animation is the most pain-staking process of game development. It's a multilayered art, both literally and figuratively, and we wanted to give you a peak behind that process in more depth as we finalize the animations for our core classes.
Example Animation Sheet
Each core class has a list of essential battle animations, arranged in a sheet, that are consistent across classes. What's not consistent across classes? Attacks & Skills.
Keyframe Process
So when making new animations, we start with real-world examples and build keyframes from them. In the case of the above Apothecary Bottle Throw animation, I used myself as a base and built from it.
Skeletoning an Animation
New animations typically work in stages:
From Naked Base to Clothed
So in essence, any new animation we create is actually 3 animations, and from start to finish with the Apothecary Bottle Throw it looks like the example below:
Apothecary Bottle Throw Process
And that's just the specialized animations! We've got a whole slew of basic movements and actions to tackle.
Back to Basics
Ah, the essentials of a fight. We've got our Idling, Walking, Injured, Charging, Jumping, Flying, Landing, Death animations, and the list goes on! And remember, that's for front views, back views, male, and female troops. 48+ unique frames per class, 2 genders, 4 classes - that's 384+ unique frames just for basic animations!
Cavalier & Ranger Walk Cycles
Over the last few months we've been steadily chipping away at them, and we're happy to say we've not only finalized the designs for our male/female Apothecary and male/female Warmancer - but we've even knocked out all of their core animations! Yep, all 384+ of them!
Apothecary & Warmancer Walk Cycles
And now we move on to the specialized attacks for each class, one of which Becca's been hard at work on below:
Hammer SMASH!
Serving Fierce Face
Let's face it (see what I did there?): little Apothecary and Warmancer sprites are super cute, but sometimes we need to look a person square in the high-detailed eye and give them a good talkin' to.
Portrait Process
So Becca and I have been hard at work on portraits to go with our sprites. Because there's nothing sadder than walking into a tavern and the tavern-master won't even look you in the face. That's enough reason to brawl right then and there!
Cavalier Portrait Process
Improvements Abound with Odin
And as pretty as these lil' dudes are walking, slapping, and smashing about - a video game has to be as efficient as possible. Patrick recently upgraded our Unity build with Odin Inspector, a powerful tool that's allowed him to streamline how maps, cutscenes, and menus save data and juggle database information.
We've gone from complicated and rather ugly excel files for items to completely in-engine databases with images and separate, easy-to-read and alter fields like this:
Database Improvements With Odin
But it's not just for databases! Odin has far-reaching implications for space saving, with the potential to reduce both disk and RAM space requirements by upwards of 90%! That's huge for download size and run speed! In fact, we're already applying it to how maps are constructed and saved:
Odin's Vast Improvements to Map Building & File Sizes
So while we absolutely adore the animations and art side of Arcadian Atlas, this is easily what is making us most happy!
Oh, but we forgot that we're even improving how animations are handled in the background ; ). Blend Trees will allow us to better organize all of our isometric animations within Unity so that we can finish hooking it up to our unique characters and classes faster! Possibly 75% faster! NUMBERS! BIG NUMBERS EVERYWHERE!
Blend Trees to Reduce Animation Programming Lag
Tavern Tunes
But wait, there's more! We wanted to serenade you out with the latest tune Moritz is working up for our tavern patrons. Because if there's one thing you want while getting a bit tipsy (or enjoying a nice virgin piña colada perhaps?) it's some jazzy tunes:
https://d15chbti7ht62o.cloudfront.n...2e899e5b247c8c93a65266cfc4244fb2_mp3.mp3?2018
Tavern Main Screen
Oh, and why not grab a contract to smash some more things while you're at it?
Contract: Slapping Vagrant
Speeding Into Summer
That's it for now, but keep your eyes peeled on our twitter page for glimpses of what's coming up in the Arcadian Atlas pipeline as we get closer to beta!
Arcadian Atlas Twitter
And we'll see all you crazy kids next time with juicy details of skills, fighting' poses, menus, and all the clockwork that makes this beauty tick!
So dive on in. The waters are warm and cozy!
Anatomy of Animation
Artistically, animation is the most pain-staking process of game development. It's a multilayered art, both literally and figuratively, and we wanted to give you a peak behind that process in more depth as we finalize the animations for our core classes.
Example Animation Sheet
Each core class has a list of essential battle animations, arranged in a sheet, that are consistent across classes. What's not consistent across classes? Attacks & Skills.
Keyframe Process
So when making new animations, we start with real-world examples and build keyframes from them. In the case of the above Apothecary Bottle Throw animation, I used myself as a base and built from it.
Skeletoning an Animation
New animations typically work in stages:
- Raw Footage - a video or gif of real-world people performing the action to be animated.
- Skeleton - the basic shapes of an animation, typically very rough. This is used to ensure the flow of the animation looks correct before detail is added.
- Naked Base - the naked form all classes can use before hair, clothes, and other details are added.
- Clothed - usually the final stage where all class-specific content is added to the naked base and added to that core classes' sprite sheet.
From Naked Base to Clothed
So in essence, any new animation we create is actually 3 animations, and from start to finish with the Apothecary Bottle Throw it looks like the example below:
Apothecary Bottle Throw Process
And that's just the specialized animations! We've got a whole slew of basic movements and actions to tackle.
Back to Basics
Ah, the essentials of a fight. We've got our Idling, Walking, Injured, Charging, Jumping, Flying, Landing, Death animations, and the list goes on! And remember, that's for front views, back views, male, and female troops. 48+ unique frames per class, 2 genders, 4 classes - that's 384+ unique frames just for basic animations!
Cavalier & Ranger Walk Cycles
Over the last few months we've been steadily chipping away at them, and we're happy to say we've not only finalized the designs for our male/female Apothecary and male/female Warmancer - but we've even knocked out all of their core animations! Yep, all 384+ of them!
Apothecary & Warmancer Walk Cycles
And now we move on to the specialized attacks for each class, one of which Becca's been hard at work on below:
Hammer SMASH!
Serving Fierce Face
Let's face it (see what I did there?): little Apothecary and Warmancer sprites are super cute, but sometimes we need to look a person square in the high-detailed eye and give them a good talkin' to.
Portrait Process
So Becca and I have been hard at work on portraits to go with our sprites. Because there's nothing sadder than walking into a tavern and the tavern-master won't even look you in the face. That's enough reason to brawl right then and there!
Cavalier Portrait Process
Improvements Abound with Odin
And as pretty as these lil' dudes are walking, slapping, and smashing about - a video game has to be as efficient as possible. Patrick recently upgraded our Unity build with Odin Inspector, a powerful tool that's allowed him to streamline how maps, cutscenes, and menus save data and juggle database information.
We've gone from complicated and rather ugly excel files for items to completely in-engine databases with images and separate, easy-to-read and alter fields like this:
Database Improvements With Odin
But it's not just for databases! Odin has far-reaching implications for space saving, with the potential to reduce both disk and RAM space requirements by upwards of 90%! That's huge for download size and run speed! In fact, we're already applying it to how maps are constructed and saved:
Odin's Vast Improvements to Map Building & File Sizes
So while we absolutely adore the animations and art side of Arcadian Atlas, this is easily what is making us most happy!
Oh, but we forgot that we're even improving how animations are handled in the background ; ). Blend Trees will allow us to better organize all of our isometric animations within Unity so that we can finish hooking it up to our unique characters and classes faster! Possibly 75% faster! NUMBERS! BIG NUMBERS EVERYWHERE!
Blend Trees to Reduce Animation Programming Lag
Tavern Tunes
But wait, there's more! We wanted to serenade you out with the latest tune Moritz is working up for our tavern patrons. Because if there's one thing you want while getting a bit tipsy (or enjoying a nice virgin piña colada perhaps?) it's some jazzy tunes:
https://d15chbti7ht62o.cloudfront.n...2e899e5b247c8c93a65266cfc4244fb2_mp3.mp3?2018
Tavern Main Screen
Oh, and why not grab a contract to smash some more things while you're at it?
Contract: Slapping Vagrant
Speeding Into Summer
That's it for now, but keep your eyes peeled on our twitter page for glimpses of what's coming up in the Arcadian Atlas pipeline as we get closer to beta!
Arcadian Atlas Twitter
And we'll see all you crazy kids next time with juicy details of skills, fighting' poses, menus, and all the clockwork that makes this beauty tick!
CryptRat
Arcane
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2014
- Messages
- 3,558
Four Legged Friends, BITE Enhanced Map Editor, and More!
Welcome back everyone! Hope your holiday season is in full-swing and you're juggling social life with the slew of new games coming down the pipeline! Holster those Red Dead pistols, put Pikachu back in his poke-ball, and step outside your Fallout shelter for a minute to enjoy this new Arcadian Atlas update!
BITE Enhanced Map-Editor
Tis the season for new improvements to our BITE engine, and this go-round we've got a vastly improved mapping interface.
What exactly is new? Well, the UI has been completely re-vamped, enabling quick, at-a-glance organization of tiles from base, half-height, height, slants, mutators, and giant props, as you can see below. There is 0 lag in the new system, a vast improvement over the previous map editor!
Organization and placement of tiles has never been simpler, with individually segmented boxes and easy scrolling through long sheets. Patrick's new BITE engine also boasts incredibly small map files, meaning our maps are now 10 times (that's right, 10 TIMES) smaller than they were before, meaning quicker loading times and smaller file sizes!
And the customization options afforded by BITE means we can now quickly sort by a few simple tile sheets, and even customize each sheet to have special properties all the way down to tile-by-tile specifications. Ever wanted to designate certain tiles land, rock, water, or other spell-related affect tiles? Now we can!
Tile-Sheet Customization with BITE
And of course, as our map editor is being improved with these new additions, we're working up new maps and exciting new biomes to battle in, just a few of those additions you can see below like some gorgeous desert staples and gnarled stumps and fall colored trees just in time for Winter:
New Map Biomes!
Four-Legged Friends
And these new maps wouldn't be complete without some variety in our battlers. That's why we've been focused on our four-legged friends and foes, fleshing out animations and getting them ready for the fight ahead. Like our Kitsune Fox friend, Robert, below:
Robert Walk Cycle
When Robert's ready to get down-and-dirty in battle, he's got those trusty fangs of his ready to tear some chunks out of people:
Robert Bite Animation
But there are things more fearsome than Robert (and much larger to boot). Our Forest Spirit, who I affectionately call Marilyn, is ready to walk the Forests once more, defending those sacred spaces with her life (at the cost of yours, if you're not careful):
Marilyn Walk Cycle
Cruising For a Bruising
And as always we're expanding the repertoire of our classes, with new portraits and battle animations like our Apothecary and Cavalier's gorgeous art nouveau styled portraits:
Female Apothecary's Portrait
Female Cavalier's Portrait WIP
Along with this we're making the finishing touches on our Cavalier's two-handed sword strike below, giving both their fighting styles unique animations:
Cavalier 2 Handed Sword Attack
With these new attack animations we've also been working on skill/spell animations, with a shoutout to the marvelous Pixel FX Designer program that allows us to make eye-popping pixel animations through particle systems. (You can find out more about Pixel FX Designer at David Masia's Twitter)
Charge and Body Rush Skill Animations
This extends to work on simple animations like those above for the Ranger's storing of power with Charge, and the Cavalier's Body Rush skill that damages and pushes targets away to more complex particle systems like custom graphical work with the Ranger's Arrow Rain animation below:
Ranger's Arrow Rain Skill Animation
Come Back Now Ya'll, Ya Hear!?
Arcadian Atlas' Shopkeeper Says Hello!
Before you run off to buy another bottle of Snake Oil or an Ultraball to catch Vulpix, Arcadian Atlas' very own shop keeper wanted to drop in and say hello. He may eat a few bugs, but don't call him out on it. He's very sensitive about those things.
Until next time all you cowpokes! Yeeee-haw!
BITE Enhanced Map-Editor
Tis the season for new improvements to our BITE engine, and this go-round we've got a vastly improved mapping interface.
What exactly is new? Well, the UI has been completely re-vamped, enabling quick, at-a-glance organization of tiles from base, half-height, height, slants, mutators, and giant props, as you can see below. There is 0 lag in the new system, a vast improvement over the previous map editor!
Organization and placement of tiles has never been simpler, with individually segmented boxes and easy scrolling through long sheets. Patrick's new BITE engine also boasts incredibly small map files, meaning our maps are now 10 times (that's right, 10 TIMES) smaller than they were before, meaning quicker loading times and smaller file sizes!
And the customization options afforded by BITE means we can now quickly sort by a few simple tile sheets, and even customize each sheet to have special properties all the way down to tile-by-tile specifications. Ever wanted to designate certain tiles land, rock, water, or other spell-related affect tiles? Now we can!
Tile-Sheet Customization with BITE
And of course, as our map editor is being improved with these new additions, we're working up new maps and exciting new biomes to battle in, just a few of those additions you can see below like some gorgeous desert staples and gnarled stumps and fall colored trees just in time for Winter:
New Map Biomes!
Four-Legged Friends
And these new maps wouldn't be complete without some variety in our battlers. That's why we've been focused on our four-legged friends and foes, fleshing out animations and getting them ready for the fight ahead. Like our Kitsune Fox friend, Robert, below:
Robert Walk Cycle
When Robert's ready to get down-and-dirty in battle, he's got those trusty fangs of his ready to tear some chunks out of people:
Robert Bite Animation
But there are things more fearsome than Robert (and much larger to boot). Our Forest Spirit, who I affectionately call Marilyn, is ready to walk the Forests once more, defending those sacred spaces with her life (at the cost of yours, if you're not careful):
Marilyn Walk Cycle
Cruising For a Bruising
And as always we're expanding the repertoire of our classes, with new portraits and battle animations like our Apothecary and Cavalier's gorgeous art nouveau styled portraits:
Female Apothecary's Portrait
Female Cavalier's Portrait WIP
Along with this we're making the finishing touches on our Cavalier's two-handed sword strike below, giving both their fighting styles unique animations:
Cavalier 2 Handed Sword Attack
With these new attack animations we've also been working on skill/spell animations, with a shoutout to the marvelous Pixel FX Designer program that allows us to make eye-popping pixel animations through particle systems. (You can find out more about Pixel FX Designer at David Masia's Twitter)
Charge and Body Rush Skill Animations
This extends to work on simple animations like those above for the Ranger's storing of power with Charge, and the Cavalier's Body Rush skill that damages and pushes targets away to more complex particle systems like custom graphical work with the Ranger's Arrow Rain animation below:
Ranger's Arrow Rain Skill Animation
Come Back Now Ya'll, Ya Hear!?
Arcadian Atlas' Shopkeeper Says Hello!
Before you run off to buy another bottle of Snake Oil or an Ultraball to catch Vulpix, Arcadian Atlas' very own shop keeper wanted to drop in and say hello. He may eat a few bugs, but don't call him out on it. He's very sensitive about those things.
Until next time all you cowpokes! Yeeee-haw!
Deleted Member 16721
Guest
Can't wait for this one. 
Deleted Member 16721
Guest
Same here. That game is like the Holy Grail of tactics RPGs. I liked it more than Final Fantasy Tactics which is the more popular game, but TO just has tons of cooler stuff in it (like way more companions and alignment checks, branching paths in the story, etc.). It was more challenging, too.
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2011
- Messages
- 701
What FFT/TO inspired game do you guys think is more promising? This or Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark? Fell Seal is in EA but I haven't bitten the bullet yet.
Deleted Member 16721
Guest
I don't do EA so message me when it releases. I'm stoked for Arcadian Atlas though because Becca is a cutie and she has cute designs, too, which will reflect her angelic cuteness in the game itself. So it should be a charming game to play, for sure.
CryptRat
Arcane
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2014
- Messages
- 3,558
Battle Timing, Status Effects, and Royal Pains!
Welcome back everyone! This latest go-round in development has seen us focusing on the systems behind the systems - battle animation timing and effects, those pernicious status effects that can throw a wrench in your best plans, and unit animations.
In other words, the backbone behind everything!
So let's jump in with a look at some new battle animations:
Battle Timing
Every fight is made up of a slew of systems running in the background, from unit editors, equipment and stat systems, animation systems, and many more. We've been working on all of these, toying with the timing of attack animations and skill animations, like Poncho's powerful Smashing Shank:
A good ol' fashioned bar brawl!
And different skills have different effects, all which require precise timing on the animation side, like the Ranger's crossbow attack, which lacks the height advantages of a bow, but makes up for it in range and armor piercing ability:
Like a hot crossbow through butter.
Some encounters, like the classic dodge and counter below, require even more precise iterations on the animations and systems running in the background. This Kitsune with the blind status effect has even less chance of hitting, but little does he know that our Cavalier's shield lessens those odds even more.
Add in the counter attack reaction skill, and this enemy Kitsune never stood a chance. Which is honestly super sad because he's really cute.
The ol' dodge and counter.
I Don't Feel So Good...
Status effects - the good, the bad, and the ugly! They pose an interesting design challenge, especially as they begin to stack on your troops. As we've been designing visuals, we've also been deciding how best to visualize the callouts for status updates, as you can see below:
Status Effect Callouts
When only a limited number of afflictions apply to your characters, we'll have a standard single callout like these above, or below in a typical battlefield example:
One-Box System
This is to keep the information as clean as possible, while still having an at-a-glance view of effects.
But what if a soldier has more than five afflictions, both good and bad? Well in that circumstance, we're toying with a two-callout system, with positive effects in the upper right, and negative effects in the bottom left as seen below:
Two-Box System
Of course, what good are callouts if you're not sure what each symbol represents? There will be a repository in-game of all status effects along with the symbols that go-along with them so new players can familiarize themselves with the status effects as they go. A few of our current iterations are below:
Status Effect Meanings
Royal Pains
Just because Vashti and Desmond work for Queen Venezia and her right-hand general, Wulff, doesn't mean they always have to like it. The Queen has been acting erratically of late, and ever since the King has fallen ill, rumor has it that Wulff and Venezia have been a little too chummy.
So we've been focusing on our Royal Pains, fleshing out their animations and prepping them for all the drama that's unfolding in Dantalion, starting with Wulff:
Wulff Animations
And of course, our regal lady, Queen Venezia, can't be bothered to sit on her royal bum all day. Last we heard she's been pacing around the castle, anxious about something. Perhaps it's her new animations and portrait? Or maybe something more sinister....
Queen Venezia's Portrait WIP
As always, we're plugging away and creating some unique character animations as well for our classes, fleshing out alternative attack patterns and exceptions to the normal play style, as with our Cavalier classes two-handed strike and shield block:
Cavalier Shield Deflection Animation
Cavalier Two-Handed Strike Animations
Oh wait... and that desert looks vaguely familiar. That's right, Becca's got some more assets added like those below, so Seco Desert is ready for fighting!
New Desert Biome Additions
Seco Desert Coming to Life
Until Next Time, Stay Cool!
It's starting to warm up out there for the summer, so as the desert heat sets in everyone stay safe and well refreshed! Kick your feet up in the air conditioning and in your free time, if you're anything like me, take a quick breather with your Switch.
Because Vashti and Desmond may be stuck in the desert, but that doesn't mean we have to be!
In other words, the backbone behind everything!
So let's jump in with a look at some new battle animations:
Battle Timing
Every fight is made up of a slew of systems running in the background, from unit editors, equipment and stat systems, animation systems, and many more. We've been working on all of these, toying with the timing of attack animations and skill animations, like Poncho's powerful Smashing Shank:
A good ol' fashioned bar brawl!
And different skills have different effects, all which require precise timing on the animation side, like the Ranger's crossbow attack, which lacks the height advantages of a bow, but makes up for it in range and armor piercing ability:
Like a hot crossbow through butter.
Some encounters, like the classic dodge and counter below, require even more precise iterations on the animations and systems running in the background. This Kitsune with the blind status effect has even less chance of hitting, but little does he know that our Cavalier's shield lessens those odds even more.
Add in the counter attack reaction skill, and this enemy Kitsune never stood a chance. Which is honestly super sad because he's really cute.
The ol' dodge and counter.
I Don't Feel So Good...
Status effects - the good, the bad, and the ugly! They pose an interesting design challenge, especially as they begin to stack on your troops. As we've been designing visuals, we've also been deciding how best to visualize the callouts for status updates, as you can see below:
Status Effect Callouts
When only a limited number of afflictions apply to your characters, we'll have a standard single callout like these above, or below in a typical battlefield example:
One-Box System
This is to keep the information as clean as possible, while still having an at-a-glance view of effects.
But what if a soldier has more than five afflictions, both good and bad? Well in that circumstance, we're toying with a two-callout system, with positive effects in the upper right, and negative effects in the bottom left as seen below:
Two-Box System
Of course, what good are callouts if you're not sure what each symbol represents? There will be a repository in-game of all status effects along with the symbols that go-along with them so new players can familiarize themselves with the status effects as they go. A few of our current iterations are below:
Status Effect Meanings
Royal Pains
Just because Vashti and Desmond work for Queen Venezia and her right-hand general, Wulff, doesn't mean they always have to like it. The Queen has been acting erratically of late, and ever since the King has fallen ill, rumor has it that Wulff and Venezia have been a little too chummy.
So we've been focusing on our Royal Pains, fleshing out their animations and prepping them for all the drama that's unfolding in Dantalion, starting with Wulff:
Wulff Animations
And of course, our regal lady, Queen Venezia, can't be bothered to sit on her royal bum all day. Last we heard she's been pacing around the castle, anxious about something. Perhaps it's her new animations and portrait? Or maybe something more sinister....
Queen Venezia's Portrait WIP
As always, we're plugging away and creating some unique character animations as well for our classes, fleshing out alternative attack patterns and exceptions to the normal play style, as with our Cavalier classes two-handed strike and shield block:
Cavalier Shield Deflection Animation
Cavalier Two-Handed Strike Animations
Oh wait... and that desert looks vaguely familiar. That's right, Becca's got some more assets added like those below, so Seco Desert is ready for fighting!
New Desert Biome Additions
Seco Desert Coming to Life
Until Next Time, Stay Cool!
It's starting to warm up out there for the summer, so as the desert heat sets in everyone stay safe and well refreshed! Kick your feet up in the air conditioning and in your free time, if you're anything like me, take a quick breather with your Switch.
Because Vashti and Desmond may be stuck in the desert, but that doesn't mean we have to be!
Former update : A New Challenger Approaches, New Maps, Mapping Features, and More!
Howdy from Texas again, ya'll!
We've got a smorgasbord of new goodies to show off this time around, from new maps, brand-new mapping features that show off the capabilities of the BITE Engine, a new challenger with distant relation to our dearest trash-panda, Poncho, and much more!
Let's dive right in:
A New Challenger Approaches
Seeing as we named our sweet lil' dude below after our favorite western-wear (and because it's a dang cute name), we wanted to flesh out his move-set with that western bravado we all love so much:
Poncho Gettin' Stabby Stabby
And we've been fleshing out Poncho's entire move-set, including making some modifications to his charge and casting cycles with tail swishes:
Poncho Ready for a Fight
But there's a classic western song Becca and I love by Willie & Merle, Pancho & Lefty, and we thought, you know... Poncho needs a buddy. Sooooo, without further ado, a new challenger approaches!
Lefty: A Red Panda with Attitude
Lefty is a Red Panda, and while hailing from a distant and mysterious land, he's come to have a classic western showdown with our pal Poncho. And watch out when he swings that big stick of his, cause bamboo doesn't bend or break easily.
Lefty Swinging His Big Stick Around
And with all this work on our furry friends, we haven't neglected some of those small touches that give our other characters life, with some custom animations like Fennic's below:
Fennic Feeling Suave
BITE Feature Expansion - Mapping
And with all this work on animations, Patrick's been hard at work expanding the Map Editor Features of BITE, like the new ability to customize key mappings for all the Editor's features. So whether you're more comfortable with the Arrow Keys or WASD, he's got you covered:
Map Editor Control Options
And building maps ain't easy, so he's added new brushes from a single-tile, four-tile and fill brush to quickly cover more ground!
New Tile Brushes
But my favorite new feature is the simple Impasse System, which allows you to designate individual tiles that are impassable, leaving the control completely in the creators hands as to how maps are navigated. Plus, it looks beautiful:
New Impasse System
We've already gone through and added these impasses to our existing maps, spreading the love as you can see below:
Impasse-enabled Maps
And we've worked up a few new places for you to cause havoc, like these alternate, fighting-enabled interiors:
Fightable Recruitment Center
Fightable Tavern
Oh, and did we mention we're hard at work on a new biome: the desert! That perfect place for Poncho and Lefty to square off in, especially if a tumbleweed blows through:
Desert Biome Maps!
BITE Feature Expansion - Cutscene Editor
And these improvements from BITE are already filtering into the Cutscene Editor, which Patrick is engineering to include streamlined event re-ordering, actor additions, and a whole slew of visual tweaks that we've got previews of below:
BITE-Enabled Cutscene Editor Preview
We're excited to show off the practical in-game implications of this next time!
Until Next Time, Yeeeehaaaaw
I guess the desert tiles are bringing out the country in me, but we've only just begun with these and another exciting biome we've got in the works:
Coming Up!
Wait, is that snow?!
Guess we'll all just have to wait and find out :D. So until next time, holster those six shooters and go play some video games!
We've got a smorgasbord of new goodies to show off this time around, from new maps, brand-new mapping features that show off the capabilities of the BITE Engine, a new challenger with distant relation to our dearest trash-panda, Poncho, and much more!
Let's dive right in:
A New Challenger Approaches
Seeing as we named our sweet lil' dude below after our favorite western-wear (and because it's a dang cute name), we wanted to flesh out his move-set with that western bravado we all love so much:
Poncho Gettin' Stabby Stabby
And we've been fleshing out Poncho's entire move-set, including making some modifications to his charge and casting cycles with tail swishes:
Poncho Ready for a Fight
But there's a classic western song Becca and I love by Willie & Merle, Pancho & Lefty, and we thought, you know... Poncho needs a buddy. Sooooo, without further ado, a new challenger approaches!
Lefty: A Red Panda with Attitude
Lefty is a Red Panda, and while hailing from a distant and mysterious land, he's come to have a classic western showdown with our pal Poncho. And watch out when he swings that big stick of his, cause bamboo doesn't bend or break easily.
Lefty Swinging His Big Stick Around
And with all this work on our furry friends, we haven't neglected some of those small touches that give our other characters life, with some custom animations like Fennic's below:
Fennic Feeling Suave
BITE Feature Expansion - Mapping
And with all this work on animations, Patrick's been hard at work expanding the Map Editor Features of BITE, like the new ability to customize key mappings for all the Editor's features. So whether you're more comfortable with the Arrow Keys or WASD, he's got you covered:
Map Editor Control Options
And building maps ain't easy, so he's added new brushes from a single-tile, four-tile and fill brush to quickly cover more ground!
New Tile Brushes
But my favorite new feature is the simple Impasse System, which allows you to designate individual tiles that are impassable, leaving the control completely in the creators hands as to how maps are navigated. Plus, it looks beautiful:
New Impasse System
We've already gone through and added these impasses to our existing maps, spreading the love as you can see below:
Impasse-enabled Maps
And we've worked up a few new places for you to cause havoc, like these alternate, fighting-enabled interiors:
Fightable Recruitment Center
Fightable Tavern
Oh, and did we mention we're hard at work on a new biome: the desert! That perfect place for Poncho and Lefty to square off in, especially if a tumbleweed blows through:
Desert Biome Maps!
BITE Feature Expansion - Cutscene Editor
And these improvements from BITE are already filtering into the Cutscene Editor, which Patrick is engineering to include streamlined event re-ordering, actor additions, and a whole slew of visual tweaks that we've got previews of below:
BITE-Enabled Cutscene Editor Preview
We're excited to show off the practical in-game implications of this next time!
Until Next Time, Yeeeehaaaaw
I guess the desert tiles are bringing out the country in me, but we've only just begun with these and another exciting biome we've got in the works:
Coming Up!
Wait, is that snow?!
Guess we'll all just have to wait and find out :D. So until next time, holster those six shooters and go play some video games!
SwiftCrack
Arcane
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2012
- Messages
- 1,836
Thanks for the big update.
Maxwell's Demon
Arcane
I forgot this was a thing.
Viata
Arcane
What happened with this game?
Maxwell's Demon
Arcane
I don't know, the last update was at the end of June.
The Red Knight
Erudite
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2017
- Messages
- 485
Becca, that's been doing the majority of PR stuff, reportedly:
Taylor seems inactive in social media.
- got divorced, which involved her ex-husband trying to kill the project
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...0yNTg1NjQ4OQ==&reply=Q29tbWVudC0yNTkyNjkwMA==
On 15 Oct on a question about legal issues she said: - had some other issues (which I assume were the reason for doing some commissions/freelancer work and likely resulted in delays and/or lack of dev updates)
https://twitter.com/TupelosHoney/status/1196781759876042754
https://twitter.com/TupelosHoney/status/1196781589323243520On 19 Nov she said:
(is fibromyalgia what Realm of the Tempest's dev is suffering from?)
On 19 Nov she said: - did some travelling
- met Iconoclasts' author konjak at some point (over Discord?)...
https://twitter.com/TupelosHoney/status/1177995381021581319
On 28 Sep she said: - ... and is going to or has already married him this year (which likely involves moving to Sweden)
https://twitter.com/TupelosHoney/status/1164368159010430976
https://twitter.com/TupelosHoney/status/1196782202228551680On 21 Aug she said:
On 19 Nov she said: - is still working on the game and whatever part of it they're working on now is going to be a mystery until it's done
https://twitter.com/TupelosHoney/status/1162765683383513088
https://www.kickstarter.com/project...ics/comments?comment=Q29tbWVudC0yNTQ0NjA3NA==On 17 Aug she said:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/691790/discussions/0/1630791709841996550/On 31 Aug she said:
https://twitter.com/TupelosHoney/status/1204461016043737090On 10 Oct she said:
On 10 Dec she said: - is on Christmas break right now
- been changing her hair color a lot
- is never going to do PR herself again
https://twitter.com/TupelosHoney/status/1208793130012684289
On 22 Dec she said:
Taylor seems inactive in social media.
Latro
Arcane
so if permadeath is confirmed, how will it handle recruitment and levelling? grind grind grind?
Jinn
Arcane
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2007
- Messages
- 4,951
She should really just stick to talking about her game on social media.
Considering how long the project is taking, either we can expect something really nicely polished in terms of gameplay, or a system that shows the strain that amateurism has taken on the game. I've been having the feeling it's going to be the later for a long time, but would like to be pleasantly surprised.
Considering how long the project is taking, either we can expect something really nicely polished in terms of gameplay, or a system that shows the strain that amateurism has taken on the game. I've been having the feeling it's going to be the later for a long time, but would like to be pleasantly surprised.
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