Hi again and welcome back to the third production blog for Entoworks! My name is Courtney and just as a refresher, let me remind you what Entoworks is all about. Entoworks is a lightweight turn-based strategy and tactics game where players will be challenged to best utilize their team of up to three entogear (robot bugs) to beat the enemy entogear on a variety of unique maps.

Our goal for this sprint was to get all of the models put into the first two biomes of the game and introduce some of the UI to the player. We wanted the player to be able to move units and attack to get used to the combat functionality in the game. My team did a great job getting all this and more done this sprint, so, let’s get into what exactly they did!

Modeling

Now that we have a backlog of character models that have been UVed and are prepared for animation, our character modeler Jenn could move on to some texture work. She did a great job texturing the dragonfly and beetle from the last sprints and even had time left over to model the mantis entogear.

This sprint our modelers mainly worked on texturing the assets made in the last two sprints. Kyle did a great job texturing all of the cave assets to make them look slightly snowy and mossy while Christian and Michael worked on assets for the next area we will be introducing into the game. These models look super cool and we’re excited to show them off!

2D Art

During this sprint, Jonathan worked on finishing the last icon that will be used in the game, the return to selection icon. He also began concepting the biome images for the level selection menu. We will apply buttons to 2D images of each biome for the player to select levels. Jonathan began with an adorable image of the Grassy Plateaus, our tutorial area. Lily continued working on concepts and blueprints for our entogear, finishing up the blueprints for our most recent entogear in the works, the mantis.

Level Design

Our level designers continued building out more levels for each biome with Ryan working specifically on The Scrapheap biome and Micah working on the Metal Pits and Leaden Meadows biomes. Additionally, Ryan imputed all of the completed models for the Grassy Plateaus into the levels and Micah did the same with the Crystal Caves levels. These levels turned out great and we’re excited for our players to play them!

Programming

This sprint our programmers worked hard on the vertical slice of our game. Owen worked on all things AI and movement. The AI is now smarter and chooses to chase the play avoiding walls and destroying walls if need be. The AI can also attack the player to decrease their health. Owen also added a pause menu to the game to allow the player to change exit the level or just pause the game.

Marco worked on the action system for the player. The player can now shoot projectiles, click on different units to pull up their actions, and move the player units. 

Isaac worked more on the UI and implementing artwork for the UI. The player can now stack items in the inventory, the inventory saves between levels, and Isaac added the form directly to the game. 

Christian continued to work on VFX adding water droplets which will be used in cave levels, a glowing shader to the entogears, an outline shader for telling entogear apart, and a really cool water shader with adjustable speeds for different water levels. The programming team did a great job this sprint progressing the game forward and getting us so much closer to finishing the core loop.

Animation

This sprint our animators Daisy and Jay worked on the Dragonfly attack and flying animation as well as the honey bee flying animation. Now that these animations are done or almost done, we can add them to the game next sprint to help give our entogear life. Daisy and Jay did a great job and we’re excited to show y’all next sprint!

Sound

Patrick, our sound designer, made some extremely useful sound effects this sprint. He worked mainly on the sound effects used in the upgrading screen for picking up and placing items. He also started on the sound effects for crafting elemental cores. Each element will have a different sound when a core is made of that type. Patrick made some really cool ones for pyro and electro. Next sprint, he’ll be working on the sound effects for the sol, metal, and steam cores.

Conclusion

Overall this Sprint we had 221 points assigned and completed a total of 151 of them making our current velocity 123.6 points/sprint. Our goal next sprint is to finish the combat system, add the first two biomes to the level selection menu, and have each level in those biomes include only fully-textured assets. The work displayed on this blog was only part of what got completed this sprint and I would like to thank my team for the great work they got done. We hope you’ll stick around and we’re excited to show you what we have in store in two weeks! 

Thank you for reading!