IndieDev Prototype Week 2
Oh gosh, it's that time again? Well before I suffer from a United drubbing in the Manchester derby, let me tell you a bit about the progress we made with our prototype this week.
However, before that, I just want to take a moment to highlight an announcement we made earlier this week.
We are delighted to announce that Axyz will be involved with the expanded Steam Event portion of the upcoming Six One Indie Showcase! While we did not make the showcase itself, we're still incredibly proud to be selected for the Steam Event and to be included alongside a wealth of exceptional indie games and studios. To celebrate our inclusion, the game will be on sale with a 25% discount during the event period (Sep 18-22), so if you haven't had a chance to play Axyz yet, celebrate with us and pick up a copy!
The Wind Rises
During week 1, we started work on implementing the wind current mechanic. We're using an asset from the Unity store that simulates movement with wind currents, but we'll need to tweak elements of how it works to match up with the intended gameplay.
The package out of the box is designed and implemented using accurate real-world physics to simulate both the heating of the envelope and the movement of the craft via wind currents. For the game, we're aiming to hit something similar in 'feel' to Kaze No Notam, which has elements of feeling like a hot air balloon simulator, but worries less with reaching specific temperatures, and focuses on being at the right height to hit specific wind currents.
There are also the differences that Kaze has to Balloons of Paradise; where Kaze is mission/objective focused - similar to something like Pilotwings, BoP will be open world, giving the player the freedom to explore at their own pace and direction. This means we need to ensure that traversal and exploration never feel slow or boring,
which will likely be the biggest challenge we face over development and - more crucially - playtesting.
In terms of the wind, we have a 5x5x5 grid of boxes across the map, each one with a wind direction and wind speed min/max. The plan is to make these changes at points set to a clamp. The balloon craft can ascend and descend between a minimum height of 200 and a maximum of 1200, with each box set to 200 Unity units in height. We are also considering setting a column of 5 boxes that are childed to the craft, and then using additional zones within the map for where we want to tweak the RNG elements of wind changes and speed. Currently it's working in principle, but we'll be working on this over the week to get the right feel, because right now it feels too slow and the currents change in such a way you end up stuck floating in the same area.
Cel Games
We took some big strides this week in establishing the art style we want to achieve for BoP. The aim is to hit something that connects between the low-poly but colourful effect of Donut County, with the cel-shaded, almost 2D comic look of Wind Waker or Wheel World.
We started by achieving this effect on the trees, which are fairly prominent throughout the prototype's environment. Although this involved a lot of waiting around due to requiring bake lightning to get the ambient light colour from the skybox.
The shader also had an immediate effect on the cliff sides, which we've yet to add any additional rocks or geometry to, although there was an error in the terrain lighting that needed to be fixed, as it sapped all the colour in specific textures, as you can see between the two images.
Next up we worked on adding an outline - a common feature of cel shading, to see how this would look with the shader at this current stage. At close up, the outline makes the overall effect really 'pop', but at distance it looked too messy and required additional tweaks.
For now, we've added a small amount of transparency and tweaked the clipping plane. There will also be fewer trees in the center of the map - where you'll likely spend a lot of time. For now, at least, it's already looking like something that matches our vision.
