Hello everyone, here are the news from the front.

Inventory System

That’s it, the revision of the inventory system is complete!

First, I added a quick inventory bar, to view and equip objects faster, which works much like Minecraft’s. I also improved the display and now it’s good. Here is an image of the inventory:

And here is an image of the quick bar, which appears when you pickup an object or activate a shortcut:

I also improved the controls and interactions to solve issues encountered during tests, such as picking up an object when you already have an object in hand, and so on.

For this, I decided to separate all interactions into two groups: interact with the object in hand (left click), and interact with the world (right click), taking inspiration from Deus Ex. I was reluctant because it involves drag & drop with the right click to open the doors and drawers, but finally it works really well.

We will see what the players think in the next playtests, but I think that the majority of issues are solved on this side.

Characters

I FINALLY finished modeling all the characters. I also took the time to take back the old ones and to improve them, in order to have a uniform style. The skinning is clean and even if I have to improve the colors a little, I am satisfied with the result.

Here are some pictures to illustrate all this:

The Master

An Apprentice

The Cook

The Executioner

An Adventurer, with an ugly anti-spoiler blur :p. There are several variations of the Adventurer that I will post from time to time.

Group photo.

There are two other characters that I consider spoil, so I prefer not to show them :p

If I have the time, I will add a little facial animation, and physical animation, to give them a little more life, especially in the dialogue phases. I still need to rework the AI, and that’s it.

I’ll probably do a little post with before and after comparison to show the improvements between the versions of the characters.

New Asset: Smart Shadows

I’m happy to announce that my new asset SmartShadows is available on the Smart Shadows asset store: Smart Shadows

“It’s a dynamic shadow manager with a priority algorithm, to improve the performance of your game and get the best dynamic shadows!”

I said I stopped making assets because it took too much time, but I wanted to try again, to see. And it also allows me to vary my activities a bit.

Assets Logos & Pictures Updated

In order to make my previous assets a little more attractive, I decided to review their logos, as well as the images used as examples on the asset store.

I am very interested in your feedback and criticism. Do not hesitate to give me your opinion on the presentation videos, if I ever decide to spend some time to remake them.

For example, here is the new logo for Ultimate Screenshot Creator:

And here Multi Device Preview & Gallery:

All other pictures can be found on the asset store:
Ultimate Screenshot Creator
Multi Device Preview Gallery

Assets on Sale: 30% OFF

By the way, I take the opportunity to inform you that all my assets are discounted at -30% until December 8th. To take advantage, go to the asset store:
Ultimate Screenshot Creator
Multi Device Preview Gallery
Smart Shadows

Roadmap

I still have to make some code changes, which I have a lot of trouble finishing. I finally started to iterate on the first part of the game to improve the gaming experience (and everything else), and I will soon start doing more level design to exploit the possibilities of gameplay.

That’s all for this devlog,

See you soon,

Arnaud

Hello everyone, here are the news from the front.

It’s september, yeah! After two months with a reduced rhythm because of holidays, heat wave, and other things, I am finally fresh and motivated to attack the rest of the dev. I’ve revisited my schedule a bit, there’s still a lot of things to do, I’ll really need this energy. I hope you have also enjoyed the summer :)

Programming

I have made good progress in programming the latest features, but I have not finished yet.

I have implemented a very robust localization system which I like a lot. It is so clean that it would make a very nice asset for the Asset Store, if I took the time to do it. We’ll see.

I had a lot of things to do with the game manager, especially to have a clean management of the game states, the loading screen, and so on. I can now launch the game and have beautiful transitions from the logo to the game, with fade of music and screens, etc. It looks a lot better.

I started making the necessary changes to the inventory system to solve the major issues encountered during playtests. I have to be careful not to refactor too deeply some of the things I did at the beginning that I do not like at all, but still do something clean. In theory it should not be too long. In theory.

Procedural Things

I always play a little with procedural modeling, especially with what I did during my Ph.D. thesis. Here is an image of an quick ecosystem generation test:

Graphic Novel

I really like my dialogue system, because with just a few additions I was able to do a graphic-novel-like introduction sequence. Here is what it looks like:

So I took the opportunity to write the game intro as a multiple choice story. Not only did I have a lot of fun writing it (I should restart to write novels, like I did when I started the game), but the result is really cool. So cool, I was told I should make a game just like that. It’s not a bad idea, I thought about it for some stories I wrote and that I know are too hard to do as an adventure game, but that would be great with this format.

3D Characters

This week, I took my courage with both hands to start the 3D modeling of the remaining characters. Modeling characters is the hardest for me, especially because I do not know how to draw. I make quick sketches to think about the concept, and I’m looking for a lot of sources, but I do almost everything directly in 3D. Here is an image of the Adventurer (work in progress):

I still have to improve it, I do not like its proportions. I would like it to be threatening while being a bit ridiculous, and in armor while having an “adventurer” aspect. I will continue to iterate on. Do not hesitate to tell me what you think of it :)

Roadmap

After the adventurer and a review of the other 3D characters, I will make the last character, which I will keep secret not to spoil. Then, as I said last time, I’ll iterate to improve the game experience (and everything else) on this first part of the adventure, until I am satisfied.

See you soon,

Arnaud