Filipe - Lead Programmer
This month I have been mostly focused on the elder system.The system will be fully functional by the end of this month, likely only needing bug fixes and adjustments based on data gathered through testing. It has been made with older UI elements so that it can come before the overhaul.
Besides that I have been working on fixing a lot of bugs, for old and new mechanics (such as elders and its new functionalities), but I also will be looking to devote some time to the pachy’s headbutt (yes, we know it isn´t working as it used to be and are trying to ensure it can be used to parry and headbutt one another) and, of course, hopefully getting the tyrannosaurus rex fully finished for release asap.
Ariel - Programmer
With the update being released recently there’s not much I can talk about this month you don’t already know about. When not working on the update related tasks I made some improvements to climbing up ledges as a herrera/hyspi, and continued working on the pteranodon’s spearing mechanic. It will let you enter a stance like modern day canopy feeding and lure in different creatures to catch. This mechanic will be shared to some degree with other future animals on the roster.
Wedge - Sound Designer
With the audio work on Triceratops complete, we have been fully focused on getting Tyrannosaurus’ sound set over the finish line. The majority of its adult supplementary vocals have been designed and implemented, excluding a select few and any additional sounds needed for its sparring, and some of the sounds I had designed previously have had small improvements as well.
The focus has turned to working on the designs for the juvenile; whilst I design the subadult and juvenile calls the rest of the team is working on finishing the final few adult sounds and getting a head start on some of the juvenile supplementary sounds at a steady pace.
I have also put some more attention into the foliage audio, fixing issues with the volume inconsistencies that occurred due to the complex setup of these sounds. Additionally some other bugs were addressed related to incorrect sounds playing at various speeds and a more gradual falloff to the attenuation that is more audibly impacted by the movement speed as well as weight.
Finally I have started working on a new setup for footstep sounds that will be implemented in the future, coming with solutions for some of the more problematic sounds, particularly for the large sound set and the scaling of these sounds will be factored by weight and speed in a similar way to the foliage sounds. The new setup will give more control and accuracy to volume, pitch, attenuation and scaling adjustments.
Bryan - Animator
It’s been Mighty Morphin Dinosaurs pretty much all this month. The elders are coming, and not the kind that sit around taking notes about HOA violations, so it’s pretty much been a marathon of getting the elder morphs for the current roster done, then moving on to the upcoming animals. With a few exceptions, actually doing them isn’t that labor intensive, namely the ones with feathers that need to be handled with kid gloves, but there were 25 of them that needed to be done in total.
We’ve also got Oviraptor fully rigged now, along with a new rig for Avaceratops. We’ve also got a Snail rig. Honestly it was a lot of fun rigging something with no bones.
VisualTech48 - Environmental Artist
This month I’ve mostly been hammering out new items and locations, as well as fixing various locations. Which includes variation of some of our locations and mixing and mashing different possibilities to them as well in the way they are constructed.
Starting off with our labs, these two rooms can be translated to serve several different purposes that have been designed. Dinosaur holding and study needed a specialized prop and cage to ensure it follows closely on our concept designs by Tapwing, as well as a necropsy room that I’m sure you’ve all seen a certain deceased neurotenic in.
There are additional connections to hallways that lead into this room, thematically a temporary cage or cell, depending on what was inside.
To wrap it all together, we have our incinerator room. This features a massive sloped incinerator for ease of disposal, alongside all of the required support rooms including the burn and observation rooms beneath.
KissenKitten - Animation Supervisor
June has been hordetest focused for a lot of the team directly and indirectly. Tweaks here, bug fixing there, the usual. But the animation and art teams still get to move happily along. The pteranodon is getting kit updates in the background despite having been halted by hordetest priorities at certain points.
The baryonyx and avaceratops are a handful of animations away from being animation complete (barring unique features). Once that’s done we can fully move on to the long awaited oviraptor, which is such a beautiful and ugly creature all at the same time. A blessing for the animation team is that the oviraptor does not sport the same number of feathers as the austroraptor (which was very unpleasant to deal with) and its smaller stature allows it to be more agile and responsive which can make a creature much easier for us to animate. Interestingly enough, the oviraptor marks a bit of an end to an era. While there will still be smaller species coming to the island like protoceratops, minmi, homalocephale etc they will be mixed in among the heavyweights.
We’ve got elders for the bigguns! Ankylosaurus, suchomimus, giganotosaurus and therizinosaurus. All the information we’ve gained over the course of Evrima’s development, with species of increasing size and strength, we’re ready to move ahead with larger species. So enjoy these smaller creatures as they are released onto the island because things are about to get a lot more dangerous out there for everyone. Try not to get folded like a beach towel. That’s all for now. Toodles!
