Category Archives: WIP

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 42 / Opening new paths

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Hi there!

Since the beginning, one of our goals has been to intuitively make the player realize it is best to keep his four-legged companion by his side, without leaving it behind. In that sense, opening paths to make sure both the Girl and the Elk can travel together on this long journey is always an achievement!
Development wise, we are approaching the end of Chapter One (the first Act has two Chapters) and a big battle draws near, as well as some story reveals.

Lowering the bridge.

We have been working hard in this final zone, even though we haven’t shown much of it yet. We wouldn’t want to spoil all the fun. Nevertheless, here is a sneak peak of a very special weapon that foreshadows an epic encounter the player will have.

A strange sword.

The end of the first Chapter will conclude the “wood theme”, which has been predominant up to this point. The following Chapter will be very different, with a more “medieval-esque” feeling. Stay tuned for the next devblogs!

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DevBlog 41 / I can see my house from here!

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Hi everyone!

Once again, part of the team was working on the first Prince’s boss battle, polishing moves, balancing and adding more animations so the battle feels epic.
Although magic and elemental effects were only supposed to be introduced at a later stage of the game (once the player learns the appropriate skills from an NPC) one of the attacks of this boss required the implementation of the “paralyze” stat. We opted to use this nomenclature because it can be used in every situation in which the player temporarily loses control of the character (such as “petrify”, “woodify”, etc).
Similarly, a placeholder radial bar (around the weapon icon), indicating the current equipped weapon’s durability was added. Before, this very important info was buried in the inventory stat tab.

Paralyze and Durability bar.

That’s a big fall.

We really wanted the Rift Windmills’ area to have its own particular mood and identity, and in that regard the skybox plays a big role. With this in mind, we came up with a brand new sky with some dramatic clouds, as well as silhouetted mountains in the distance. Now the scene looks a lot more unique and consistent.

The swamp castle view from the rift windmills.

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DevBlog 40 / The Rift Windmills

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Hi there!

This is our 40th devblog entry! We want to thank everyone who has been following us in this journey.

During this week of work, a boss battle was born. There is still a lot of balancing and small tweaks to be done in each combat phase, but it’s getting there. We are targeting for an intense battle with various phases, different attacks and transformations. Some of us are hardcore Dark Souls players, so the difficulty is being calibrated in favor of everyone.

We will show some parts of this boss battle in the upcoming trailer we are also working on.

The Rift Windmills

Meanwhile, the work on the new Canyon area continues to keep our artists busy. Most of the props have already been laid out, and the big Windmill that punctuates the landscape is also practically finished.

We are currently focusing on the task of texturing very wide surfaces, and to make that process easier, we asked our colleagues from the R&D team to lend us a hand. After some discussion, we decided to add the Amplify Shader Editor to our toolkit, so now we have a much easier time blending maps.

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DevBlog 39 / Improved companion controls

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Hi everyone!

This week we were working on the intro scene of the game, where we explain how the Girl and the Elk start their journey. It’s a small new area with short cutscenes and playable zones where the player and the companion meet for the first time.

Some AI balancing and behavior was also done, and the Elk now has two types of control (changeable in options). One is the first version, heavily inspired by the Shadow of the Colossus’ control scheme, and the other is more similar to how The Witcher or Dragon Age handle mounting and steering. We feel that adding gameplay options like this turns out to be appealing for various types of players.

Running from the swamp slugs.

The art team is making progress in the new Canyon-esque area, populating the scene with a few new stone and vegetation props. Developing the surrounding landscape is the current challenge we’re facing, blending 3d elements with 2d planes in order to produce a convincing and immersive atmosphere.

In-game view of the Canyon area, still work in progress.

The boss battle and arena is on the works too.

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DevBlog 37 / The Kid from the Mills

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Hi there!

Remember the concept art for the Kid we have shown a few posts ago? We have finally wrapped up the model and textures for that character, and he is ready to be brought to life by our animator!

In-game model of the Kid.

On the environment art side of things, we have started to work on a new zone of the game, which is a canyon-esque area with lots of windmills. Here is a mood and shape concept piece that is meant to guide us while we produce and put together all the various new elements that will compose the scene.

Concept art for the new canyon area.

Comic Con Portugal was a blast! Lots of feedback and people testing and enjoying the game. We will definitely be back next year. For those who did not get a chance to play, be sure to keep an eye out for future updates.

Praise the Sun!

To everyone who got to play our game, thank you!

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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 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 27 / Dynamics, NPCs and facial Animations

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Hi everyone!

André was busy adding some dynamic bones for our characters, and save a lot of time in animations. Small portions of the model like pony tails or small bags now don’t need to be animated so the animation pipeline is more straightforward.

Dynamic jiggle physics, exaggerated effect.

He also added a first version of Audio Occlusion. In practice, the sound is occluded by a low pass filter and the volume is decreased when not in sight of the audio listener. This leads to a more immersive experience, since the player will be able to notice when a sound comes from inside a building or from the outside.

Iuri this week improved the main character’s RIG, imbuing her with a lot more feeling and life. Now we feel like we’re able to convey emotions more easily, which helps a lot with storytelling.

New facial animations.

Pichel is currently working on a very important character, which we will show further down the road. He recently finished up an NPC, a prisioner, and you can check below how the model looks in-game.

Prisoner NPC.

Also check it out our newest WIP gameplay trailer:

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DevBlog 26 / A Mount and Blade

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Hi there!


Iuri has been working on more animations this week and he’s showing a little bit of the process:

“For this animation I didn’t just want to make a generic mount, I wanted to portray the relationship between the two characters, as well as the agility of the main character and kindness of the elk. I started by exploring some poses that would evoke what I wanted to transmit. I analysed videos as well as images.

My first approach on this stage is trying to get the poses that describe the movement in place, I check if the silhouette of the pose is working for the camera view as well in other perspectives, the line of action, twinings, balance, etc. On a second approach to blocking I start to work on timing and improve on some poses, I also add breakdowns until I have all the necessary poses. Going on through spline after having to make some iterations to the animation, I work on timings, ins and outs of poses, arcs, exaggeration, movement resistance, which part is leading the action and which parts are following, etc.

Having arrived at the polish phase I improve the arcs, spacing, overlapping, animation curves, pops and other minor adjustments.”

In the meantime, Tomé decided to take a break from working on the swamp scene (after weeks of only focusing on that) and started developing new weapons. These will mostly be hidden in chests and are meant to work as rewards for players who carefully explore each location of the game.

New weapons concepts.

At the character art department, Pichel is doing retopology and UVs for the new character we mentioned last time, which will be shown in the next devblog update.

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