Category Archives: Level Design

DevBlog 24 / Working on new areas

Hi there!

Today we are showing you a new area of the game featuring a very different mood from the previous ones. We want the player to experience very diverse atmospheres along the journey, so we are crafting locations with varied terrain topology, distinct architecture and enemies with a different feel.

In this next area the player will be able to explore a sprawling swamp. Mysterious ancient ruins, half sunken into the earth, hide rewarding secrets but also great peril. You can check the screenshots below to see how the work on this location is progressing. Keep aware that they are very WIP with no final lighting nor final textures.

WIP temporary lighting and textures.

Pichel is working on new characters that will be shown later. André had the tedious task of preparing the UI and other text for localization and also implemented a volumetric light effect.

DevBlog 22 / Armor props and screenshots

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Hi there!

This week Tomé used the highpoly model from the wooden enemies to generate a bark armor set which can be looted from their corpses or found randomly in chests. Equipping the whole set gives the player bonus physical or elemental defense points. We aren’t planning to produce a very large number of armor sets due to our current manpower, but nevertheless some combinations are very interesting in terms of gains in stats.

The Bark Armor Set

André recently improved a lot the responsiveness in the animations and feel of the attacks, something he’s been meaning to do for a long time. He has also been tweaking the streaming logic so the player can enjoy a seamless journey.

Pichel was working hard to create an additional layer of detail for the ground textures. This is our first detail pass, and later we intend to pick up where we left off and add even more asset variety, whether it be new props, particles or textures.

Indoor Battles

Forest mood

Showing the discovery

DevBlog 21 / World and HUD Improvements

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Hey everyone!

This week we all invested some time in the first portion of the game, making a lot of tweaks and populating every space with the assets we produced so far. The shots below show how much more alive the game feels now following this collective effort.

Lumberjack hut area and companion.

The old Temple

One of the things that is still in a clear “wip” state is the texture of the hills and cliffs that limit the areas of the game. There was actually an unfortunate setback in our process – Pichel had made a lot of progress in texturing when suddenly Mari crashed and a lot of work was lost, since it somehow corrupted the backup files. But nevertheless we are back on track.

Long journey

André worked on improving a bunch of mechanics, improving the “ambush” feature, the enemies’ awareness system, and updated the HUD alongside Tomé, using new graphic elements they designed together.

New UI elements

We also got a lot of new elk animations from Iuri that really help making it look livelier. Ricardo also jumped in to assist the team with the general lighting of the game.

The Aqueduct

DevBlog 20 / Environments Revisited

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Hi there!

This week Tomé and André reworked and tweaked some interiors of the game using many brand new assets. Some color calibrations were done to improve the atmosphere of each space and create distinct areas.

Secret areas are easy to be missed.

Some hidden lore in this wooden house.

Another pass in populating this interior.

André did some bug fixing and polished some mechanics. He’s preparing a new test build. Also, a first new version of streaming scenes was implemented with a great performance improvement and also an easier way to edit scenes for everyone.

Meanwhile, Pichel finished the player’s companion and is working on the other characters and NPC’s and doing a more detailed version of the painted terrain.

The outdoors are really coming along, the new areas are almost complete.

Another pass in populating this interior.

Next week we intend to redo the HUD (replacing placeholders) and make some minor functionality changes in the inventory.

DevBlog 12 / New props and Companion Model

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Hi there!

More illumination iterations were done this week. We encountered some light probe problems and had some lighting misconfigurations, but we are working on it. Most of them are related to our scene streaming system and light baking workflow.

Old view on the left, current view on the right

Illumination tests.

Tomé made some concept tests for a rune stone that the player can interact with. These rune stones are strategically placed near points or areas of interest informing the player about story lore, area information or even gameplay. We are trying to have as little as possible distracting on screen tips during gamplay, these runes and some hints in the re-load screen are given to maintain the immersive experience but the core gameplay will be clutter free.

Rune Stone and alphabet concept.

We are doing some tests for an ancient alphabet for the ancient civilization ruins and runes like in the concept above.

Pichel is finishing the high poly of the player’s companion, he followed the concept posted in the previous devblog but naturally some changes were made to match the 3D perspective.

WIP player companion.

DevBlog 10 / Interior Testing

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Hi there!

Our exterior and interior 3D modules are finally ready and we are assembling the buildings that were simple place holders a few weeks ago. We are still experimenting with the overall distribution and lighting of the area.

Modular props are very useful since they can be reused in other buildings, even on later chapters. They can be used as ruins too (with simple painting or decal variations). In the next couple of weeks, Level building will become much faster and fun.

You can use stairs to reach higher places, they will also offer you clues to possible passages.

Some cracks, rubble and wood planks will be added later for added effect.

Temporary lightning, this shot uses a very simple preview light setup.

We plan to have smooth and immersive interior/exterior transitions, visually and auditory. Duck volumes (exterior sounds like birds will be clamped when you are inside), eye adaptation and reverb zones combined will create an unforgettable experience.

Next week André will tackle dynamic spine IKs for biped and quadruped, and Pichel will be working in a new NPC.

DevBlog 08 / Interior Illumination and deferred decals

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Hi there!

Pichel and Tomé are doing some progress in the texturing department, painting maps for all the modular props. You can see below most of the wooden assets, all game-ready.

Various finished wooden props.

This week André implemented deferred decals, they will be used for blood splats on surfaces and for details in walls/floors, like cracks for example, or other numerous applications in static objects.
Some improvements have been made in the way enemies respond to hits, like if the player swings the sword in one direction and hits the enemy, he will stagger in the opposite way he was hit. The direction of the blood particle and blood splat in floor respect the hit direction too.

Here you can see some blood on the ground with the new deferred decal system.

We did some tests with interior lighting too, still very WIP (no final textures nor materials), but now we know that we can achieve cool ambient interiors.

You can see some light coming from the cracked ceiling in the far end.

DevBlog 07 / Current Progress

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Hi everyone!

Today we will show you a floor plan preview of the area we are working on which expresses the planned size for the first Act of the game. The areas highlighted with the white contour are the ones we are currently working on. We are building assets to populate every zone fittingly, for example, if it is a predefined dry and rocky space we will not place colorful flowers.
In the second Devblog we have shown you guys a mini boss encounter that occurs in the area zoomed in the map below..

Floor plan preview of the first Act.

André improved and added more features to combat, like a new trail system (for weapon swipes) and improved bow targeting system. A new Quicksand mechanic was implemented which will have many players trapped when they try to reach some items in isolated zones.

New trail system preview.

Pichel and Tomé are working on texturing all the assets we have shown in the previous blog post. Here are a few examples of floor tileable textures.

Portuguese pavements texture tests.

Decay of Logos

Action-adventure RPG with minimal hand-holding!

Category Archives: Level Design

DevBlog 24 / Working on new areas

DevBlog 22 / Armor props and screenshots

DevBlog 21 / World and HUD Improvements

DevBlog 20 / Environments Revisited

DevBlog 12 / New props and Companion Model

DevBlog 10 / Interior Testing

DevBlog 08 / Interior Illumination and deferred decals

DevBlog 07 / Current Progress