Final devlog before the demo launches!
I've sent the Demo build off to Steam so it's just a case of waiting for approval now. Here are some clips from the first 30 mins or so of the demo.
Here's what's been done since my last update:
- I've broken the horse sprites up into a bunch of pieces and overhauled their animations so their necks, shoulders, haunches, ears etc all now move.
- Steeds now have unique personalities - so they don't all move and act the same way! These aren't "traits" written down anywhere and they don't have names, but they completely change all aspects of the movement and behaviour of the individual steed - each gait has a different animation override and jumping is different as well. Different personalities have small boosts to certain stats.
- Also made them a tad smaller to be more historically accurate. As the art has been re-done I also gave them some subtle shading to match the rest of the art, and there's a few different bases - roan, dun (with stripes!), points etc - so that the colours feel accurate. The sprites are based on medieval tapestries and are a kind of goofy Destrier.
- Markings are now per-body-part, meaning many more millions of possible combinations, and the system has been simplified so it's very easy to add new markings. The chances of getting markings have been lowered as breeding was resulting in fully painted horses almost every time.
- Face markings are now showing up as intended in all directions.
- Personalities and markings are RNG for now so a bit like real life, while there's a bit of a formula for getting the base colour you want and improving stats, the rest is up to chance.
- Added more colours such as silver dapple and red roan.
Other Stuff:
- Added more detail to existing building models, such as wood panelling and clearer 3D doors.
- Added readable books/notes and lore
- Added variety to all the zombies, added some difficulty scaling for areas further out, and added two new enemy/mob types.
- Fixed many things
- Added the last UI prompt bits for inventory, character creation etc
- The world for the demo is pretty much built, with one boss area and three unique biomes to explore.
- The player's farm layout has been improved and the upgrade system has been streamlined.
- Continued working on water, and sorted the edges out, so it looks pretty great now!
- Fixed sound effects as they were a bit messy
The plan is to launch the full game after October NextFest - it may be on Halloween or might be the 1st. I feel the zombie apocalypse vibe fits in well with the season (which is my favourite holiday as well!). Thank you all for all your interest and support in my little project so far, I can't wait to see where this journey takes us next.