Hello Crusaders!
Welcome to the first Dev Log of Cube Crusaders! The game has been in development for quite some time now, but outside of the Discord, I haven't talked much about this game. It's eaten up so many of my weekends and evenings at this point. Some days it feels like I'm working on games 13+ hours per day, as I work full-time in the games industry as well. The grind goes on. I wouldn't do it if I didn't enjoy it though!
Let's talk about Customization!
Cube Crusaders has a ton of different combos of possible armour settings. The customization system itself is heavily inspired by games such as Halo and... well mostly just Halo. I really enjoyed being able to customize a character so that their armour itself told a story. Maybe my Spartan was a behind-the-lines Sniper, so I'd kit him out with optical attachments and some camo netting, with lots of pouches for ammo and supplies. Maybe he was a front-line operative, huge shoulders, big chest. You get the idea. I wanted to portray something similar in Cube Crusaders. Let's take a look at all of the possible customization categories:
- Helmet
- Left Shoulder
- Right Shoulder
- Chest
- Back Piece
- Visor Colour
- Boots
- Aura
- Armour Colour
Helmets
Helmets are by far the most identifiable piece of an armour set, especially in a game where the characters have such big heads. Each helmet has lore to it, to give a player a sense of who their character is and what their past experiences might have been based on what they are wearing. Maybe our Crusader was a pilot, and needs a helmet with a wide visor for maximum situational awareness in a cockpit or other vehicle. The title and lore bit gives some context as to the world around our character, too. In this case, we know that the Unitary Order was struggling to produce ships after raids on assembly plants. Even that tells something about our character! Maybe our Crusader fought at these assembly plants, maybe they still have a ship to fly, unlike many other Unitary Order pilots. It really is up to you as you step into the shoes of your beloved character you create and guide through trials and struggles.
Shoulders
Shoulders, like all other pieces, contribute to building the character into your vision that fits within the world's lore. In this case, let's take a look at the Line Breacher shoulder. This one isn't super lore heavy, and actually references another armour piece. In this case, we know that the Reinforced Plate is issued to Shock Troopers, with the Line Breacher being a modified version of that. How does your character have a modified version of a standard-issue piece of equipment? Did he kill a Unitary Order trooper and take his armour? Did he scavenge it off of a fallen comrade?
Chest Pieces
There are a few chest pieces in the game at the moment, with more well on the way. When creating armour pieces, I always try to include some form of story telling with it and achieve a few different styles to match what you want your crusader to be. Light weight agile scavenger? Tank? It's there to fit your vision.
Back Pieces
One thing that really bugged me about Halo games (except Halo 3 MCC) was that you could never put anything on your character's back. That is ridiculous! No soldier would go into a battle without having at least SOME extra supplies or equipment that's relevant to their mission or specialization. In this case, we have the Medical Bag here. Any military has medical supplies of some kind, why not have them here? When creating the med bag, I had to be mindful not to break the Geneva Convention by using a Red Cross. Instead I opted for the classic Green Cross. We don't like breaking the Geneva Convention.
Visor Colour
Visor Colour is fairly self-explanitory. Change the colour of your Visor! OoooOoooOOooo, AhhhHhhhh.
Maybe not the fanciest thing, but that doesn't mean we CAN'T get fancy with it. Because our visors are their own material on the character, we can create all sorts of neat shader effects in the future to come up with some really unique and fun ones to equip and take into battle.
Boots
Oh boy! We are at boots already? Wow. Anyway, boots are another really critical piece of kit that isn't really explored in games. When preparing for battle, you want to have the right footwear for the job. Are you deploying in a lava region? You'll want something breathable, or self-cooling. Maybe you are expecting your toes to get shot at, and want some heavier plating protecting your feet. Whatever the reason is, you'll want a wide range of footwear to use. Fortunately, we have that!
AURAS!!!
Okay, admittedly, I've been wanting to find some way to get particle effects into character customization. And the way to do that, is with Auras! Auras serve a similar purpose to Halo's on-character effects. What is that purpose, you may ask? The answer, is to look super badass. In this case, some Auras will be tied to achievements or feats of skill, to incentivize players to really put in the extra oomph to find all that there is to be found, and accomplish the (almost) impossible. Currently, there are only 3 effects, but more will be in the full release, and post-launch updates into the future. Here we see the Cold Radiance Aura, for all the wintery Crusaders.
Armour Colours
Here you can change the colour of your undersuit, and then the colour of your armour. Fairly straight forward. In time, we'll also be able to do more unique patters such as camo or other neat patterns/fx
TLDR; Cube Crusader customization is very cool.
That's it for now! Thank you so much for reading. Be sure to join our Discord to get the latest on the game and join online multiplayer playtests!
https://discord.gg/vR3k5XxpuS
And of course, Wishlist the game on Steam! It really means a lot to me, and is the best possible way to support the project!
Cheers!
-Oberst