Highlights in this week’s devlog include a fully textured armour set for high level players in the game, as well as a brand new lava pool set piece. We’ve also got some progress shots of our upcoming game trailer in UE4 Sequencer, so keep scrolling to check those out! As always, join us on Twitter, Instagram, or Reddit for daily updates on Depths of Erendorn - now let’s get into it!
3D Modelling
Last week, our Character Artist finished texturing all three levels of our new armour set! They then went one step further and made an RGB mask for various parts of the set so that we can make colour customisation possible.
That’s one awesome part of Depths of Erendorn - players will be able to customise virtually everything about their character, from gear to body proportions! But we digress - here’s a look at the finished armour!
Animation
Lots of animation updates took place last week, including improved walk cycles for the Watertarg, Parakaw, and Earthen Dwarf. Our Animator also performed a touch of ocular surgery on our Forest Druid, whose eyes would pop out of their sockets while walking and casting spells due to having a wrong rotation - not ideal when you’re trying to fight the bad guys.
Our Animator then spent some time learning how to add and edit animations on NPC paths in the engine, as well as how to create a new level that they can use to add and animate new characters in, which will be very useful for testing!
Environment Design
Continuing their work on set pieces, our Environment Artist created a new lava pool last week (just the imagery they needed during a mammoth heatwave...)
To make this set piece look as badass as possible, a new lava material was made for it, and our Artist spent some time learning new functions, like how to make the UVs look like they’re warping and bulging. Small flames and smoke were also made to escape between the plates of rock. We'll have a video for you next week to show this set piece in all its distending, fiery glory - for now, here's a screenshot!
Visual FX
The first thing our VFX Artist worked on last week was a casting muzzle for the ‘Unique Blessing’ ability, which lets you increase one of your teammate's Strength and Resilience. The casting muzzle is basically the point from which the effects will fire, and we think it looks pretty damn cool:
https://depthsoferendorn.blob.core.windows.net/assets/Unique-Blessing-muzzle-2.mp4
Next up, some visuals for falling leaves were created, which will add some great atmospheric effects to parts of our environment. Our Artist also started working on simulations for flocking birds, as well as vertex animations for these simulations. Check it all out below:
https://depthsoferendorn.blob.core.windows.net/assets/VertexAnimTest2.mp4
Vertex animation test
https://depthsoferendorn.blob.core.windows.net/assets/FaillingLeafs1.mp4
Falling leaves effect
Sound Design
Our Sound Artist got up to a whole host of stuff last week. First off, they worked on some environment sound effects using waterfall and swamp ambiences:
https://depthsoferendorn.blob.core.windows.net/assets/SFX_Swamp1.wav
Swamp SFX
https://depthsoferendorn.blob.core.windows.net/assets/SFX_Waterfall03.wav
Waterfall SFX
Next, they teamed up with our UI Artist to ideate some new SFX for things like mouse hovers, clicks, and other general UI moments.
We want to have loads of unique UI sounds throughout the game so that every moment is dynamic and interesting, whether you’re equipping weapons, changing clothes, selecting items, or even just hovering over something. To achieve this, our Sound Artist is currently experimenting with different combinations of various sounds so that we have a wide range of effects to choose from - here are a few examples of what they’ve come up with so far:
https://depthsoferendorn.blob.core.windows.net/assets/Hover-Magic-Transition-UI.wav
UI sounds for a magical hover transition
https://depthsoferendorn.blob.core.windows.net/assets/Music-UI.wav
Experiments with music for the UI
https://depthsoferendorn.blob.core.windows.net/assets/Mech-UI.wav
Experiments with mechanical sounds for the UI
https://depthsoferendorn.blob.core.windows.net/assets/Nature-UI.wav
Experiments with nature sounds for the UI
https://depthsoferendorn.blob.core.windows.net/assets/Standard-Clicks-3.wav
UI sounds for a standard mouse click
Programming
Game Trailer
For one of our Programmers, last week was focused on tweaking areas of the upcoming game trailer, including implementing visual FX, cleaning up character and camera animations, and improving the opening fly-through shot so that we can make the most of showcasing the environment and characters within it.
Working on the camera path for the fly-through of Erendorn:
Adding new VFX:
Adjusting recorded character animations (featuring one of our dungeon portals in the distance!)
Golang Server
Last week, the Golang team were busy creating new items - and with new items come new stats! So this led them to work on homogenising the new items to have more accurately named and valued stats, and to ensure that they’re generated more fairly.
This work was then tied in with a mini rework of how defensive stats currently function. For this, the defensive stats were split into three Damage groups, with each one being given armour and resistances. The team also created an Absolute Damage stat, but this will be reserved for only the most powerful attacks!
So, having put the new stats into the server, the Golang team then went about updating how the client tells the server to equip or unequip an item from a player’s inventory. They also made a start on inventory item stacking to reduce clutter and streamline how players interact with their stored items.
That’s it for this week’s devlog - see you next Tuesday!
