Tag Archives: Concept

DevBlog 39 / Improved companion controls

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.

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.

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!

DevBlog 35 / Bug hunting and feedback from LGW

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Hi everyone!

Last weekend we went to Lisboa Games Week – so we got a ton of feedback and a lot of play testing was done. It was also great to see people from 10 years old to +30 playing and enjoying our game. We are very grateful that IndieDome selected us for showcasing at LGW (IndieDome was responsible for bringing national and international developers).

Super focused player.

IndieDome at Lisbon Games Week.

So this week we were working hard at bug fixing, as well as updating or tweaking some of the art.

Additionally, we have just started working on a very important new NPC, and we just wrapped up the concept for him. We’re currently calling him “the Kid”, and he will be a major help throughout the player’s journey, helping the Girl and the Elk get past certain obstacles, or even supplying them with items and info.

The Kid.

And an extra feature: Cinematic camera test for some showoff captures 😛

Cinematic Camera Test.

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.

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.

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.

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.

DevBlog 28 / GDD updates and new zone study

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Hi there!

This week, Amplify Creations moved to a new office, so the Decay of Logos team had the chance to improve and complete the Game Design Document of the game, and do a review of the overall production plan. Some minor plot holes were covered and the history was enriched.

Everyone helped but some other things got done obviously. André fixed some pending bugs and he’s working on improving the elk control when mounted and implementing more of Iuri’s new animations.

Pichel is finishing a very important enemy, a very peculiar boss that will have a special video preview.

Tomé did a concept study for an upcoming new zone that we are preparing.

The Rift Windmills.

DevBlog 25 / Hard Rock

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Hi everyone!

This week André worked on improving the streaming system of the game. Some shortcuts and hacks were made for hiccup-free loadings, most of the loading is made in a background thread but the activation of the game objects is made in the main thread. So that forced us to make a frame by frame loading system only for the activation of some chunks of zones. André also finished the localization logic so now it is easy to translate the game.

Iuri is back to work after a deserved vacation, he’s working on the mount animations of the companion and player movement while mounted. Riding the Elk is a very important part of the game; we removed it temporarily because we only had placeholder animations.

One of our challenges this week consisted in producing low poly assets that would allow us to improve the look of the rocky cliffs that limit the first areas of the game. Tomé developed a few modules that can be bashed together inside the engine in order to create the steep rock faces you can see below. For the moss on top, we chose to duplicate the geometry from the upper part of each asset, and then we used a grassy material with the Cutout Rendering Mode selected.

Our rocky cliffs building kit.

Here is an example of what we can come up with inside Unity using the kit.

Meanwhile, Pichel is hard at work sculpting a new character model that we will show a sneak peak in a future devblog.