It’s Friday and I have a new progress report on Reynard! In this devlog, I’ve merged a couple of videos and thoughts from my archive.
Feature update
Because Reynard can move in multiple directions and we’re using only 4 directions to visually show where he’s going, it was really hard to aim with his ranged attack. That’s the reason why I’ve created an “aim assistance system”. I know… it sounds way cooler than a “pointing arrow”.
I’ve spent some time working on a weapon system… Weapons will be able to slow down, stun or knock back enemies. Each weapon will have different stats and will consume different amount of stamina.
Because there are no great RPGs without loot dropping pots, I’ve added loot drops. Now these “normal” pots can drop hearts that can heal Reynard.
Remember that in previous post I’ve mentioned that I was working on a stamina and health system? Well… they are now connected with UI and working. Currently they are displayed as pink and green bars. We still didn’t decide if we want to leave them like that. Maybe in the end we’ll use numbers instead.
I was working on treasure chests… Reynard can interact with them and swap weapons. The idea is that Reynard will only be able to carry a single melee and a single ranged weapon.
I’ve spent decent amount of time working on AI. You won’t see a huge progress in this video, but let’s say that we have a simple slime (bluegreenish) that randomly roams around the level. A slime (red) that can follow the player but if player hides behind an obstacle it just keeps on moving… and a slime (green) with pathfinding system.
Art update
I’ve gathered the courage to work on Reynard’s looks. So here he is… our first version of Reynard the fox:
I’m kind of satisfied with his side profile, but there’s something that bothers me on his front side. I’m always surprised how much time and effort has to go into pixel art… Specially in animations… Pixel art is something that I really want to get better at and this definitely isn’t the final version of him, so don’t be scared! Video time:
If you have any suggestions, comments or thoughts… Please let me know in the comments section down below.
In previous blog post I was writing about our Pariah progress and why we decided to work on another game instead. From now on there will only be progress reports for Reynard project.
I’m gonna try to keep these progress reports short and simple 😀
Reynard’s Story
Reynard is a human-like fox who works as a ranger. One day all the children from the “animal” town went missing and because of his personal reasons he decides to travel the world to find them. And that’s all I’ll ever probably write about the story before the release 😀
Art update
For now we’re using some sprites that we could find / buy on opengameart or itch.io. Even though we already had a dummy art for the main character I decided to replace him with a “bigger” one. The reason lies behind the fact, that we’ll have to draw our own main character which will be larger than our previous “blonde dude”, and I needed something to visualize how his size will fit in with an art.
Feature update
Our character can now:
Attack with a sword,
Cast a “spell” or throw something,
Dash
Besides that I was working on different systems which still aren’t visible in video below, but are working as intended. Some of those systems are:
Health system,
Stamina system,
Weapon system,
Perception system
Enough with the words… It’s video time 😀
Next week I’ll probably work on a simple AI system or maybe on interactable items like treasure chests, locked doors or something similar.
Another thing that always surprises me is pixel perfection in Unity3D. Setting up a camera that satisfies my “pixly” eyes is not so easy in an engine that was originally made for 3d games. So I have no doubt that eventually I’ll tackle this problem sooner or later.
If you have any questions or opinions please feel free to express them in the comments down below.
If you’ve been following our blog, you’ve read that we are working on a game called Pariah: Anton. Well… the development did not come to an end, but it reached the point where we took a pause.
Here are couple of reasons for the pause:
I have to finish couple of systems (AI is one of them).
Žiga still has to finish environment and UI art.
Patrick has some song and SFX writing to do.
I can tell that my motivation dropped because I’ve been working on a codebase for a long time. And the biggest reason for the motivation drop is a lack of vision of a finished game. I’ve reached a point where I couldn’t visualize the end game and that made me very frustrated.
The team had a meeting where we discussed the future of the game and how we’ll implement some stuff to finally finish it. A couple of days before that meeting I’ve shown guys a prototype I’ve been working on… And because prototype seemed cool… On a meeting, we decided to start and finish that prototype before finishing Pariah.
The prototype – Reynard
Sometimes when I have no willpower to work on certain projects, I start prototyping and designing other stuff. Which certainly isn’t a pattern that many other developers face. As a fan of Hyper Light Drifter, Final Fantasy and Zelda games, I knew that sooner or later I’ll open Unity3D and start working on my own version of a top-down game.
It actually happened… and unlike other times when I keep prototypes for myself, I showed it to my friends in hyper fox studios.
It is a very basic prototype of a top-down game, but it directed us on a new path. To keep me motivated to the end of the project, I’ve decided to post an update on a Reynard game every Friday! Follow us on social media to stay tuned!
