Devblog 10 (and 11?) - Lighting, Portraits, Reviving & More!
It’s been a while since I’ve posted a dev blog on here- I've created a couple of dev vlogs in the mean time so I thought I would make a blog-format version of both of those, combined. One of the more useful things I’ve done is put my game up on the subreddit r/destroymygame, from which I got really useful feedback on how to improve. Let’s dive into all the changes I’ve made!
Portraits
I’ve improved all of the character portraits that show up during battle. The resolution is much higher, and I think it gives a much better idea of the character’s appearance now! Below are some before & afters:
Improved battle maps
The battle maps before were pretty flat and plain looking- I was doing a lot of testing and working out basic features before when I had first made the maps, and didn’t consider that the maps I had made were pretty tactically uninteresting. I’ve added much more terrain difference and tactical pathways around the map, so hopefully they’ll be a lot more interesting to battle in now!
Player animation improvements
The fabric on the player’s cloak was very static before, and didn’t look quite right- so I improved the player animation for an all around more flowy looking animation.
Improved Camera System for Battle
The camera was a bit snappy before and moved too quickly between targets, not giving a clear image of what was going on- so I’ve improved it with a little “pause” between each target it focuses on, so it’s clear what’s going on.
Light effects
I’ve added some light effects to make the world look more bright, warm & alive- I think they go very well with the particle effects that I added previously. Take a look at the forest area with lights added!
New Confirm System
Rather than the old “Confirm Action?” menu that was feeling a bit stale, I’ve replaced it with an action icon on top of the selected target that you simply have to click again to confirm the action, or right click to undo said action. It makes the battles flow much more easily, without as many menus in the way of each action!
Revival System
Previously I had been brainstorming how best to approach a revival system- I was considering a system where the player can be revived by another player to the point where they started off in battle so it was guaranteed to be out of the way and in a position where it doesn’t make any other enemy or player “stuck”- but via a comment suggestion in one of my Youtube videos, a better idea came! The system I’ve implemented uses a symbol to represent the KO’d party member (for now a number- art to be added later) on the ground. If another party member with a revive skill or item stands over it, they can revive that party member to a free square next to them. This introduces possible interesting mechanics in future, like an enemy standing on top of the symbol to stop revivals, and maybe having to use knock backs (again, some future possibility) to push the enemy off and revive them.
I hope you enjoy what I’ve had to show- I'm getting closer and closer to the coveted demo stage of the project, and I’ll be keeping you updated on the way there!