In this Developer log: Onwards until Dawn! We talk about our new website, progress and sneek previews of progress in the games development. Read on to see how things are going! Its a doozy!
The Website
The old website was more or less slapped together, somewhat of a symbolic gesture of “getting ourselves online and out there” but I didn’t really feel like it…reflected us, our goal or capture a snapshot of who we are. It lacked life, for lack of a better phrase.
Once we were happy with the direction things were moving with the game, we began to look at increasing our internet pressence in anticpation of marketing at a later stage, and part of that plan was to address the dumpster fire that was the previous website, we knew what we wanted: An easy to manage content managment system. A central hub for all information regarding Wyrmgate Studios and its games.
Pretty neat, huh? Yeah, we think so, too!
But it for sure threw us for a loop!
Personally, I got my start in web development, coding raw HTML, Javascript and CSS. Mind you, at this point in time, everything was still Dial-up but I was hooked and things snowballed from there. So, I don’t particuallay consider myself a newbie when it comes to coding websites in up-to-date languages, HOWEVER, WordPress is not exactly the same as coding a website within an IDE like Intellij, and that definently threw me off guard a little. I don’t know what I was ecpecting but this wasn’t it.
but you know how it is: “Onwards until dawn!” So, pushed on we did and 3 months later, this is what we had carved. We liked it. A lot. We feel that this perfectly encapsulates who we are and what our mission is. Its easy to use and manage. I mean, heck, Im typing this post from my phone! How crazy is that!
The Game
We’ve made a lot of progress over the past few weeks, we’ve made a lot of map progress, Assets like Doors, Portals, Torches and Floor tiles have been animated or enhanced. The preview level is ALMOST ready to be revealed, but we can show some sneek peaks here:
The Safe Room
This is one of 4 versions, this one features a single entry/exit and is coined to be the start of the first few levels but there are 3 and 4 Entry/Exit versions that will randomally spawn within the dungeon tile set. These rooms will reset mobs back to the origin position if they pass through the door but will block players who are in combat to prevent abuse.
Save Point
This is the save point. A randomally placed tile that you’ll come across your adventures. This is the save point in its inactive state, which is if you’ve saved within the last 10 minutes, this altar will allow you to save and reload savepoints and checkpoints.
And this is the save point if you haven’t saved within the last 10 minutes
The Animations
Lord have mercy on my soul for I have sinned. I have said more curse words in these last few weeks then I think have ever been spoken in history, I think I one point I was just randomally making up words and sylibles in the hope one of them may reach the machine spritis who would hopefully take pitty on me and give me a break….
Yeah, that didn’t happen.
but I did learn more about keyframe interpolation, for those who don’t know: “Keyframe interpolation is a technique used in animation and video editing to create smooth transitions between keyframes by estimating intermediate values. It allows for more fluid motion by adjusting the rate of change between keyframes, such as using methods like Ease In and Ease Out.” – Google
This was pretty much exactly what we needed, after messing around with Bezier Cruves, Graph Editor and Dope sheet, we were finally able to acheive buttery smooth walk and run animations:
I mean….come onnnnnn…it looks great!
That is all we’ve got for you for this devlog. Progress shall continue as we strive to bring you a quality game. We’ll be posting of these Developer Logs every 45 days, so follow our social media channels to stay up to date with latest developments and secure exclusive rewards on launch!! More on that later 🤫🤫🤫