Category Archives: Animation

DevBlog 48 / A new chapter

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Hi there!

Since PAX East, our art team has been working on the new chapter. Hopefully, just by looking at the first enemy concept you can tell it’s going to be very different from the previous one. A more medieval approach, with epic battles and battlefields. We already have this area blocked out for quite some time, but both the look and feel of the enemies are still in the works. Also, some level design refinement will be done. As previously mentioned, the story and mood will get darker as the adventure progresses, and the upcoming environments will reflect that change.

Cursed soldier – Under-armor concept.

We are working hard polishing some aspects pointed out by some players during PAX (thank you for playing and giving us honest feedback!). A lot has been done in combat fine-tuning and camera behavior. Parries now work much better and are fun to use, and defending with shields now works properly, taking into consideration the direction of the attack (this applies to the player and the enemies alike). We also added some more visual feedback when an attack lands on bigger enemies (for example, if you hit their legs, they react to it subtly by twitching).

Like we’ve mentioned in previous updates, every time the player gets killed in the game, the Girl will awaken from a “nightmare” in the last checkpoint. That specific animation has already been implemented, as you can see below.

Waking up from a nightmare.

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DevBlog 46 / Road to PAX

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Hi there!

We’ve been having a very busy week – preparing everything for PAX, making posters, testing, bug fixing and adding new improved material.
New fresh sounds were introduced, and we hope the american audience will be able to notice them 😛

Final look of the current buildings.

Mostly it has been all about polishing what we’ve got. Small additions like flag vertex animation and candles’ behavior, or the placement of simple props laid out strategically allow us to enhance the mood and fine tune the visual storytelling.

Cool illumination effects with particles.

This is a small devblog post, there are way too many last minute things to do right now!

The flag says it all.

Wish us luck! Next week we’ll write about our experience at PAX.

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DevBlog 43 / Animation improvements

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Hi everyone!

This week various changes were made in the AI department, from simple enemies to mini bosses, and their behaviors have been polished. Also, some bugs that still persisted since our last showcase at Comic Con were finally fixed. Plus, we’ve added a simple stress meter that shows up while riding so players can tell for how much longer they can mount the Elk before needing to feed it some berries.

Our animator did a lot of new animations for our enemy models and gave them the appropriate mood and feeling. He’s constantly working on custom ones to replace the old placeholder animations that we still have in the project. Additionally, different weights are now assigned to each foe as they are instantiated, so that every enemy acquires a stronger sense of individuality. Here are the various forms of transformation of this type of enemies.

Hey! I’m walking here!

We’ve also been working on an important event that takes place in the final area of Chapter One – the meeting with the Kid. The player will be able to help him escape from the cage he is trapped in, eventually learning more about his origin as the journey continues.

Please save me.

Can I axe you a question?

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DevBlog 38 / Jump Start 2017

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Hi there!

The Amplify Creations’ team hopes everyone had a blast during the winter break! This week we are back at full power, picking up where we left off. The “Rift Windmills” area is shaping up, and currently André is working on the tutorial/intro scene, where the player is introduced to a small background of the story and the first meeting between the Girl and the Elk. Like we have mentioned before, the game will feature more visual storytelling rather than an exposition narrative, so expect this tutorial/intro to have some small cutscenes but also gameplay.

Windmill materiality concept exploration.

Rocky shapes sketch for the “Rift Windmills” area.

The Kid is currently being animated, and we really want his carefree attitude to come through. This is a simple animation test to show of the cloth dynamics.

The Kid Test Animation.

Next week we will be working on the final chapter boss battle and event.

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DevBlog 36 / Darkness creeps in

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Hi everyone!

Once again, this week André was improving and fixing some stuff following the feedback we got from Lisbon Games Week. Some UI changes and rearrangement were done for a more readable inventory, for example. Two handed swords will also start to behave like one handed ones, since various testers sheathed the weapon by mistake in the middle of the combat. Also the Elk control and camera were improved, and probably a change in the controls will be made at a later stage. Since the prototype that the inspiration for the Elk control was Shadow of the Colossus, but maybe it is time to test a new control system, more similar to the Girl control. We will have the chance to test these changes at Comic Con Portugal.

We also revamped the area with the cave tunnels in order to achieve a more immersive ambiance.

Close encounters of the slime kind.

One last thing, we are having a lot of fun doing some promotion captures with the cinematic camera 😛

Wandering in the swamp.

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DevBlog 34 / Muddy Slug

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Hi there!

Once again, the team is working hard preparing a build for showcasing at Lisbon Games Week. Almost everything is ready, and we are finishing some small details as well as play testing a lot. Some additional features were added like an option to auto draw weapon when the player is near a threat. These showcase events are great for defining the default options of the game.

We also introduced last week some new enemies like the half transformed villager and a swamp slug. The latter is still in the making, but we can show you guys the concept.

The swamp slug.

Mid-transformation villager.

We are working on some new move sets of the Lumberjack Brother. There are still some balancing issues, but the feeling is there. We added physics to the pony tail.

Combo Attack move set.

The swamp area is complete (for now, we will add more stuff later). Time for some light baking, and small color grading tweaks.

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DevBlog 33 / Straight outta the Lumberyard

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Hi everyone!

It has been a very tough work week for everyone. We are closing a new area of the game that will be shown in Lisboa Games Week in 17-20 of November. A lot was added or improved, from characters, props to polished code. We are also doing some playtesting.

The swamp area is practically complete, and now we are tweaking the overall colors and exploring ways of adding details that enhance the mood, like thick fog and small water puddles. Here is a shot showing how the whole thing is coming together.

Unknown lands.

In the previous blog update we’ve shown the concept for the Lumberjack’s twin brother, and now that we’ve wrapped up the production for that character we can show how it turned out.
We also added a few minor details to the UV maps of the first Lumberjack, including a placeholder “hand-painted” fur texture to his shoulder pad which we plan to eventually change into “hair cards” further down the road (similar to the system we’ve used for the Elk model).
You can see in the image below the Lumberjack siblings chilling together.

You walked into the wrong neighborhood.

Here’s a sneak peak of the Wanderer’s idle animation. Remember to go talk to him!

The Wanderer, idle animation WIP.

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DevBlog 32 / The Lumberjack Brothers

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Hi there!

This week André was working in the logic pass in the new area Tomé was populating a while ago. This area suffered a lot of changes, now has a lot more to explore and this led to a more careful balancing in enemy placing and rewards like the plants of the treat mechanic, what is inside the chests, etc. Collision testing is also a very monotonous task and there are always a few places where the character can get stuck during this phase of development. André also added these areas to the streaming logic for a more fluid progress throughout the game. Next week we will show some environment screenshots with the new Amplify Color calibrated.

Iuri is now rigging and animating two new NPCs we’ve already shown you, the prisoner and the wanderer.

Lonely prisoner.

Remember the axe-wielding mini-boss we have shown in previous blog posts? There are actually two of these foes roaming about, the Lumberjack twin brothers that inhabit the Forgotten Forest. Tomé has been working on the look of the sibling we hadn’t mentioned yet. He is supposed to appear very similar to his brother, with a few distinct features like facial hair, tattoos and differently colored garments. This hulking giant will also be carrying a particular kind of weapon, which we will show at a later stage.

Concept paintover of the Lumberjack’s brother.

Pichel made a lot of progress with the model of another enemy we are adding to the game. This opponent is very important narrative-wise since it shows an early stage of the transformation of flesh into bark, which the peasants from the surrounding villages have been undergoing. It hopefully shows that the fully transformed wooden aberrations you may encounter were not actually born that way.

First phase transformation Wood Enemy.

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DevBlog 31 / The Wanderer and Elk treat mechanic

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Hi everyone!

This week Pichel finished the first version of the Wanderer, the next version will include a cape and additional details. This is a very important NPC that will appear several times through your journey and will keep you informed about lore if you talk to him. He is also currently working on new enemy variations.

The Wanderer model next to you for scale.

André and Iuri continued their work on the treat mechanic. In order to mount the elk, players will have to gain its trust by feeding it a particular type of berries. The player can then mount it for some time, provided that there are no enemies around. The elk is not meant to be a simple mount, but more of a journey companion. Tomé did a berries prop plant that will be available in some zones (larger zones). You can pick them up and feed them to the elk at any time in order to mount it and travel through the world faster. Be very careful when approaching enemies, the elk will likely force a dismount and run away!

Revisiting a calm zone.

Raw run animation clip.

Berries Plant prop.

André also did a complete rewrite of the elk mount control code, it had a lot of prototype junk, a total revamp was due. This piece of gameplay is heavily inspired by Shadow of the Colossus control and feel. He improved the elk turn control, the object avoidance and the enemy reaction threshold system.

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DevBlog 29 / Wanderer NPC and companion interaction

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Hi everyone!

This week André was working on some minor improvements regarding the feeling of impact during combat. A pause of 2 frames was added to the attacker animation when a successful hit is landed, as well as HUD vibration whenever the player takes damage. With these two small additions, the feeling of causing/taking damage is even more noticeable. We already have hit animations, particles and gamepad vibration, but we think these small details are super important.

André also merged some sub state machines in the Animator for more fluid transitions and to simplify the Animator tree.

Tomé finished a new concept for an NPC that the player will frequently meet throughout the journey. He is a very enigmatic character that will often inform the player about lore, comment on the state of affairs and even open some shortcuts. Pichel is working right now on the high poly model for this character.

The Wanderer Concept.

Iuri and André are developing interactions between the Elk and the Girl. One of these consists in a “treat mechanic” which is being implemented. Basically, the player needs to feed the Elk some fruit in order to gain its trust and be able to mount it. We have always leaned towards the idea that the Elk is not a simple mount, and we hope that with details like this one we can make that show through.

Idle interaction with the Elk.

We intend to have this mechanic ready in a few weeks. Afterwards we will start populating the various locations with fruit props and control the zones where the player can mount freely.

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