We are mainly happy with our improvements on our art department, whether the enhancedments of our main character Azt or the new shaders of our environment blending in to our red themed forest.  Improvements and new implementations are made to our level and our AI system as well so the game is becoming pretty much testable within a playable gameplay.

Azy Ywarath's Progress

The progression of our main character, Azy is going nicely as the model is now testable and the proportions are looking nicely. The textures are still in work in progress state, however the sculpting has been completed and the model is indeed in our Unreal Engine, with a functional rig and animations. We are still using placeholder animations still, but some animations are brought into UE4 such as running and attacking. The following pictures are representing the improvement of the polished version of Azy's model:

The progress of Azy Ywarath with UV and retopology adjustments (top) and with added textures (bottom). The model is still in work in progress with it being very close to be done.

A better view on what Azy's face will look like with the polished materials.

Environment Improvements with new VFX 

We had a sample scene where we showcase what our theme and feel of our gameplay would look like. We also were testing our environmental design and things got better as we added some VFX into the scene. With that we got rid of some of the previous whitebox theme. We are happy with the development of the stylistic look of our game, despite the environment is still in work in progress. The most major change would be the addition of the water and the element of it. There will be additional supportive VFX elements and static models for the water such as rocks and a waterfall.

 We are also aware that the sample level needs a remake just to make the level design better, however it is a great motivation  for us to see the VFX elements and some of the level element models working when the gameplay is underway. The previous edition of the longroot has been improved drastically and it looks mmore stylistic thanks to the VFX improvements. Since this root will be there to complete the platforming mechanics of the game in certain areas of the level, it was really important for us to create smooth and eye catching animations for the model.

The new scalable water effect in the environment sample (top) and the new polished model and VFX of the longroot (bottom).

The Longroot VFX in action both in the editor (top) and in the sample map (bottom).

Gameplay and Mechanics

The gameplay has been expanded as the new level elements is implemented into the game and now the core mechanic feels more complete. Thankfully with the Longroot animation we are now able to lift Azt from somewhere to another with some of the critical fixes recently. We implemented the new moving platform to our sample level in order to test it, and again it works with our core mechanic, health manipulation as the platform would have a health pool on its own.

The new moving platform in action (top) and a Longroot lifting Azy on a higher ground (bottom).

The AI is partially implemented for basic creatures yet it still needs a some optimizing on the numbers and values on it. Right now, AI has three states of roaming, getting spooked and getting scared. Of course these three states are getting transitioned between eachother within the aid of a perception which is the sense of hearing. If the creature hears player's footsteps, it will react to it and get spooked which will its speed faster. During this phase, if the player attack with the scythe, the creature will react to scythes exclusive sound differently, and will be scared to it. This will make it run away from the player.

The three states of the basic creature AI.

As the initial design of our game suggested, there will also be a boss creature which will be able to respond to our actions by attacking back. Again this boss will be a resource to store health, however this time this creature will have a stamina bar that needs to be drained before its health could be manipulated and convert into the players souls storage. The boss AI is still work in progress so it is yet to be shown.

Story

We have created some line art in order to use it in the cutscenes with the narration. We plan on putting voiceover narrations and make a comic styled cutscene intro to our game for the beginning. We are ecstatic with the progress of our art, as it is doing a good job on delivering the holy war between two God's.

Linearts that will be used in some of our cutscenes.

Future Plans

Now that we are able to test our game on much more easier grounds, we will be focusing on fun to play levels by dragging our created assets into our game. The elements of UI and UX are still lacking, so we are planning to improve on that massively with 3D UI elements such as a health bar for the player on the scythe itself. Of course, the required health amount needs to be shown on entities that are health manipulative.

The animations are also in a work in progress state, as it still needs some skeleton fixing. The story will be implemented into the game with our new art and we are excited to get our cinematics into the production phase. Of course meanwhile we will be onto bugs and future problems and will concentrate on fixing them as fast as possible. As a summary, we are excited and happy with our progress on our game, Burden of Kin.