One of the significant things I’ve been working on this past sprint was making a creature who lives in Level 2. This is a Maydrig. They may look fragile and beautiful, but they’re actually quite hardy, and an invasive species in this part of Aethra!
Cesar made the concept art, as usual, and I made it in 3D. I was able to record the process and made another timelapse video about it. It’s been awhile since my last timelapse. I find for certain kinds of modeling that I’m not as comfortable with, recording my process makes me feel like I need to get it right the first time, and it’s not very entertaining to watch me tweak vertices for hours. 😛 So, that’s why I don’t have a timelapse of Lyari (The Caretaker for level 2, who I introduced last devblog)
Another visual thing I can talk about from this past sprint was an update to the Journal Menu.
The individual entries will be marked by bookmarks sticking out of the edges of the journal. As the player mouses over them they’ll pull out so you can read the name. On the one page will be text, on the other page will be some art related to the text (Ignore my placeholder doodles. Cesar will do a much better job!)
These journal entries will give us a glimpse into the world, and help the player to learn more about Jasper, and the context, if they decide to try and unlock them all.
In terms of non-visual updates, we’ve got what we’re calling the “Intro Quest” done for Level 2! Basically, Lyari wants to see what the player can do, and asks you to fly a lap around the level, following a glowing orb on a path.
There’s a long list of bugfixes and tweaks/improvements to many systems as well! Bryan has been hard at work!
Marissa has also written a ton of dialogue and interactions to flesh out the world and the players’ experience. You can now go and interact with various landmarks/items/NPCs, and have some fun.
This next sprint we’ll be adding some of the Flora to the level, which will really liven it up! We’ll also set up the first really “Challenge” of the level. Should be fun!
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