Sprint 3 Progress

So we have made some more progress on The Hand That Feeds in the last two weeks.

As usual, I’ll break down what each department has done within the last two weeks and what we’ve added to the game.

We have also been doing internal/external playtesting each week to improve on the game and see what needs fixing.

Programming

• Made it so the heavy and light attack now do different damage
• Added Dash Ability
• Added Cyclone Ability
• Torches now turn on as you pass them, so you can tell which rooms you are in
• Added the first puzzle to the game
• Ranged Enemies created
• Adjusted the swing speed of light and heavy attack

Here is a look at the ranged enemies of the game. This should make the game as a whole a bit more challenging and force the player to dodge a bit more. They also show a tell when they are shooting (The red ball before they shoot)

In the future I want to the projectiles to have a particle effect and to be overall more visually intriguing but this is a good start.

Next up here is a look at the cyclone ability that was created. This is an AOE ability that allows the player to hit multiple enemies at once. This like all the other abilities will take a portion of the players health and if the player hits 3 or more enemies they will gain some of their health back as a reward.

It still needs a bit of balancing but it’s good to get it to the team and to start testing it.

Next thing that was made is the Charged Dash. This ability allows the player to dash towards an enemy and the first enemy they hit will stick to them, allowing the player to pin the enemy and stun them if they hit them into a wall. It will also knock other enemies along the way to the side. If the player successfully completes the pin then they will receive a portion of health back.

Here is a look at the combo attack. The beginning of the GiF shows the light attack combo and the end shows the slower heavy combo. We will have unique combos in the future but currently it’s just moving back and forth.

Here is a look at our first puzzle system within the game. The cubes are temp art for now but level designers can use this system to activate something like simple lever that opens a door or designers can set them up in a sequence that the player must complete successfully.

Level Design

Level Design has been working on populating their scenes as assets come their way. They have implemented the puzzle system into their levels to make sure that the player has to use some of them to progress. Both levels now have a small mini boss within their levels.

Here is an overview of both levels

Dungeon Level

Courtyard Level

Both levels made the mobs within the level more aggressive which should make it more challenging for the player. Mobs speed, attack speed, and distance tracking were all increase in the effort to make them more difficult.

In the upcoming future we are going to increase the amount of monsters heavily and scale the mobs down from really hard to easy instead of making the level easy and trying to make it harder.

Level design will also be experimenting with different mob types now that we have two new enemies which I will explain in more detail later in this post.

Concept Art/2D

Concept Art has been working on a large variety of things recently. This is to hopefully get many different aspects of the game going such as set pieces, the boss, and the boss room.

Here is a look at some early stage concepts of potential set pieces that will go in the levels.

These are meant to catch the players eye and should contain small pieces of backstory for the player to enjoy. Set Pieces will range from environment pieces such as statues to murals on the wall.

The next concepts that were done are potential boss rooms within the game. These aren’t finished but we are currently going for a mix between these two images, where we use the throne from the image on the left and boss face above the arch and combine it with the texture of the ground from the image on the right.

Some of the concepts for melee enemies within the game were also fleshed out more, so modeling can get a better idea of color and scheme we are going for.

Here is a look at those

Next is the concept of the boss that we are currently going for.

Here is a look at him

Modeling and Animation

Modeling has continued to work on assets for both levels. Right now the dungeon level is a little bit ahead of schedule and the courtyard level is a bit behind. So in the next sprint I’m going to put an extra modeler onto the courtyard level to try and get it up to speed.

But progress has still made for both levels, here are some of the assets that were made.

The tree has been completed for the courtyard level and the leaves are an alpha so our level designer can go through and add more or less leaves as he feels necessary.

The dungeon got quite a few assets such as tables, chairs, candles. Etc. This has started to make the level feel much more like a dungeon.

The potion like object above is an upgrade potion, this will give the player a new ability when it’s picked up.

This stone lantern is also for the courtyard level, it will be for the puzzles within the level. It’ll light up when interacted with.

The enemy that I showed off last time is now fully textured and has been added to the game.

Here is what he looks like fully textured

We have also worked on and finished a new enemy called “Tiny Crawlers” these enemies are meant to be small and travel in large packs. They do minimal damage by themselves but can chip away at your health quickly if you have to deal with a large pack of them

Here is what they look like

Lastly here is a look at the flower ranged enemies that were in progress they are now fully textured and even animated

Here are a couple renders of what they look like

Then here is a look at some the animations that were done for the ranged enemy

Flower Ranged Idle

https://drive.google.com/open?id=10E1rIX13TaQbrTu5dQIHz0FUZKsNzISd

Flower Ranged Attack

https://drive.google.com/open?id=10Qeig57YCyui0_t7VQt8lhyxnwt2E-no

Flower Ranged Death

https://drive.google.com/open?id=12qFzObJu6RPEuqJ1ffBBEOtuih8uNMcX

In the next update we hope to have the new enemies fully implemented. The main character is now rigged so hopefully basic attack and heavy attack animations will be in. We will continue to populate scenes and improve the gameplay and visual aesthetics.

Thanks for the support!

Sincerely,

The Hand That Feeds Development Team!