This demo update adds a whole new area - Eastern Trilith, tier 2 equipment for all classes, combat visual improvements, dozens of small additions, and bug fixes. I've done a lot in these four months!

Watch the trailer:



If you do end up playing the demo, please share your thoughts about the direction the game is going, report bugs, etc.

The feedback is - as always - very important.

The information about what's in the next update is coming with LOTLW Devblog #24.

Have fun =]

In this entry: Character creation, bug fixes, Devtober, competitive multiplayer, and me getting sick, which explains why I didn't publish an entry last week.




Started the day by fixing a few more bugs, then watched videos for my Devtober challenge.

One of the bugs that I fixed was here since I have added the interior system - and it was implemented last October, pretty crazy!

Now that the bug amount has been reduced to acceptable levels, I have started working on the small improvements - going to do XP, gathering, and loot reworks.

The loot rework is done:



Seems pretty good - every container contains something useful, but it's also not too rewarding.


Today I have been tweaking XP and gathering.

Previously XP was balanced through class XP modifiers.
For example: Warrior XP = 20 raw Warrior XP * Warrior class XP modifier of 0.5

The modifiers and XP were all over the place, so I've set all modifiers to 1.

I also increased the XP rate for combat classes - because NPCs no longer respawn, it's easy to run out of NPCs to train combat on, so fights must give more XP.

For gathering, I was changing numbers a lot. I wanted to make the gathering more consistent - for example, it wasn't uncommon to get 1 iron ore from large iron rock and that just sucks.

I also didn't like that gathering was creating a lot of redundant game messages, didn't like how junk items were distributed, etc.

After a day of work, things work better now. A few more improvements and I'll be able to start working on character creation, which is the next big task on my list.


​Began today's hunt for tutorials by trying to find a visual effects tutorial for pixel art. Soon I have realized that finding something that would work for Light of the Locked World's graphics and animation styles would be very difficult.

I tried to create an animation style that works with the graphics style - very stiff, blocky, no blur, etc. basically a 'bad animation' style. I suppose it's possible to make it less... that... by adding more frames, but the game will take about a year to finish if I'm lucky, so I should minimize the time costs as much as possible.

After failing to find an applicable VFX tutorial for LOTLW, I decided to learn a few things about coding and that was that.

No visible progress for the Devtober again, oof.

Back to actual game development - today I have:

- Slightly improved Sphere, basic Mage attack ability graphics.
- Improved production devices: Now they convert all resources instantly in 3 seconds.
- Fixed bug: It would say that the player is stealing when they weren't mechanically.
- Made combat music more stable - now it doesn't keep fading out.
- Made final improvements to gathering.

After that, I began working on character creation!



This is just a concept, nowhere near it yet.

Besides the usual features like buttons to rename, randomize, and graphically customize the character there are options that impact gameplay.

1)
Talents

Assign talent points to customize class experience rates.

For example, if 5 talent points are invested in Gatherer class, the player character will gain +100% Gatherer experience from all sources:

- 0 talent points: 0% XP
- 1 talent point: 100% XP
- 2 talent points: 125% XP
- 3 talent points: 150% XP
- 4 talent points: 175% XP
- 5 talent points: 200% XP

The talent system should help balance the game by letting players invest points into classes that are difficult to gain XP in and let players lock classes - this should create unique challenges.

2)
Main class

The player is able to choose their character's favorite class. That class will get various small benefits.

E.g.: The player will only be able to equip a unique Mage class weapon if their character main class is Mage.


Today I did some work on character creation UI - nothing to show still - and did new area testing.
Found a bunch of bugs so I'll be fixing them tomorrow.

If I'll be able to - I think I'm going to be sick, so might be skipping a few days.


Yup, I've caught a cold.
Today I fixed a few bugs and found a ton of new ones thanks to a long playtesting session.

Wanted to do something doing before getting down with the sickness.


(Oh, ah, ah, ah, ah)


Recovering. Watched my friends play LOTLW, was really awesome.


Just going to keep another day to continue recovering. Going to be hard, really want to get back into development =]

Finally uploaded competitive multiplayer footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMgIxF0dH6Q It has a lot of problems, but it does work - which I guess is really *sick* considering that this is functioning splitscreen PVP.


Made game run 0.3 milliseconds faster! That's it. Still not feeling strong enough to work longer than an hour.


Finally a full-ish workday! I was making a character creator.

It already can be used to change the appearance so it will be finished soon. The hardest part will be creating a text input system for a custom name, but I'll manage.



It's not much yet, but I am very excited about building this - the game will be a full RPG when I'm done =]

Anyway, today's Devtober video was about AI.

It got me thinking about AI in LOTLW:

1)

I could probably spawn random rogue/demon groups who would sometimes attack towns. Town guards could patrol outside the town as well. The "Good AI have goals". If I could pull it off, which really isn't that hard thanks to all those AI systems I have already implemented, it would create some interesting moments.

2)

When it will be possible to use consumables in battle, NPCs should bark something like "I need healing" before using a healing consumable so the player could react to that. "Good AI barks".

I'm also thinking about letting NPCs level up and showing a game message whenever that happens. E.g.: "Guard captain Aden has become a level 25 Warrior."

Another idea is to show kill messages that are common in multiplayer shooter games - e.g.: "Player A > weapon icon > Player B" - so the player would know that NPCs are fighting somewhere in the area.

This would make the game's world feel much more alive.




Getting there!




Today I was implementing character naming.

The reason why I'm not done with it is that I wasted a lot of time working on a virtual keyboard for text input.



Renaming UI mock-up.

The 50 of square buttons - virtual keyboard - would have been used for letters A-Z, numbers 0-9, and a few symbols.

But yeah, decided to not go for it because this only solves a minor inconvenience for PC players using a controller - with the current solution they will have to type their character name using a keyboard for like half a minute.

Not worth my time.




It's done visually.

I still need to:

- Implement the "Random name" button.
- Implement the "Random talents" button.
- Add tooltips for talent buttons.
- Improve the name generator.
- Make creator UI open when starting the game.

This will happen in the next entry.

To end this entry on something exciting - I have postponed/canceled Spellscarred Desert and that means the updated demo will be released soon - next week or the week after that.

I hope that is as exciting to you as it is to me =]

Thanks for reading and until next time!

This week I'm hoping to finish the Eastern Trilith area, clean up the accumulated bugs, and do a few reworks - class XP, combat experience, and loot.



The week started with GDWC launching a new vote round which includes LOTLW - exciting!
The results should be mentioned further in this entry.

Anyway, today I have been working on small features.

1)

I have fixed bugs with banisher dialogue. Banisher is meant to take the demon pearls from the player and give coin pouches, and the whole thing was filled with bugs.

Negative gold values, "Give all pearls" working like "Give one pearl", dialogue accessing wrong inventories, ugh.

But it's in the past now.

2)

I have implemented the silk grass gathering.
Now it's possible to equip a new tool - iron sickle - and use Gather ability to get raw silk grass from silk grass plants.



There are only a few of those in the game right now - most of them will be in the upcoming Eir Meadows area.

3)

I have filled the matter kilns of the new area.
There are 5 of them:

- V1: Silver and iron weapon recipes.
- W3: Silver and iron armor recipes.
- L6: Processed crafting material recipes. E.g.: Silver ore > Silver > Silver glyphs.
- R6: Efficient armor and weapon recipes. This kiln is in the abandoned fortification.
- T5: Another kiln in the fortification. Claymore, beacon, arc, and amulet recipes.

These will be fun to use and discover!

4)

I have added the new teleportation spells!

- Desert Gate: Teleports to Locul.
- Battlefield Gate: Teleports to the battlefield between 2nd Strategic Fortification and Eastern Trilith.
- Long Street Gate: Teleports to the Long Street in the town of Eastern Trilith.

Desert Gate and Battlefield Gate instructions are hidden in the Eastern Trilith area, while Long Street Gate instructions will be found in treasure chests of Spellscarred Desert.

Teleportation spell instructions will be rewards for exploration and combat - unlocking every teleportation spell should be like a small quest.

It's inspired by Gothic 3 Forsaken Gods and RuneScape. These games make unlocking fast travel methods very rewarding.


The day was full of interruptions, so I didn't work as much as intended.
What I managed to do is add drying racks and make the rock grinder in Locul work.

Rock grinders and drying racks are what I internally call "Production devices".
They turn materials into different materials.

Drying racks turn raw silk grass into dry silk grass, and rock grinder turns junk rocks from mining into ore. Pretty simple.

Production devices should make crafting more varied, more grounded in the world's reality, and they are interesting assets to decorate areas with.



The joke is that I have implemented grinding today. Literally =]


Today I have:

- Made some adjustments to battlefield NPC placement.
- Added the last of Eastern Trilith assets: Door to Spellscarred Desert.
- Fixed many bugs.



The Eastern Trilith area is now officially complete!




It's October again and I'm joining the Devtober​!
Many people seem to choose the challenge of working on their projects every day of October, but it's no challenge for me.

I confess that I'd rather spend 10 hours coming up with my own solution through trial and error rather than watch a 5-minute tutorial.

Would be great if my trial and error gave good results - unfortunately, I often feel like I'm reinventing the wheel AND not doing it well.

So I am going to try to do as many tutorials as I can during October - ideally for something I can quickly implement into Light of the Locked World for visible results.


After 7 years of game development, I still don't know how to implement sliders. That's embarrassing! Sliders are so useful - everything I tried really doesn't replace them - and my own trial and error sliders feel awkward to use.

So I have followed an excellent tutorial by HeartBeast and it's done!



I am liberated from no-slider-hell! So happy!

It did take me the rest of the day to fully integrate the sliders into my UI system so it's a bit scary. I don't really want to only do tutorials. Might have to change the plans that if it becomes a trend.


Today I have done a tutorial about a 3rd-party text renderer for GameMaker and now I can do this:



Big thanks to DragoniteSpam and JujuAdams!

Now that I know how to do it, I'm not sure where to use it, but I guess I'll figure out eventually.

Today I have also fixed several complex bugs, the game is becoming playable again =]


The day started with GDWC results: Light of the Locked World - 3rd place.
Thanks to all who have voted for the game!

It's not a big achievement, but I am very happy that the game has participated in the championship - I've got some views, new followers, and proof that my reach isn't that small.

It's great.

Today's Devtober progress:



I've learned a lot about shaders and implemented a saturation slider!

Thanks to Gaming Reverends channel!

I'm hoping to do more of his tutorials in the future - shaders are a very powerful tool for making graphics and I want to become good at using them.

That's all for this entry, until next time!

Voting for Light of the Locked World is going to end soon - this is your last to help our game to win this round of Game Development World Championship!

Vote here: https://thegdwc.com
(No registration needed)

Thanks <3

Hey all,

Light of the Locked World is participating in Game Development World Championship: It would be really awesome if we could make the game win this round.

To vote for the game, simply go to the GDWC website and click the "Vote" button under the game logo.

Link: https://thegdwc.com/

Thank you in advance <3

If you're not convinced, check out a trailer I made for the upcoming demo update: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fGLzDeCUiI Until next time!

I have started working on demons!

I have mentioned demons many times before - they are aggressive and indestructible flesh beings powered by magic.

Magic in the game's universe is aura-based. Everything in this universe emits aurae - and they can be manipulated to alter reality.

Mages use physical and mental glyphs - mental images - to create the specific aurae required to produce desired results. This is what spells are - a sequence of actions and glyphs.

It's possible to cast a spell that will a cast spell itself and loop forever consuming aurae of the world.

Demons are the result of incredibly complex spell loops and it is why they are indestructible:
You can destroy the flesh form of a demon, but a spell loop will keep going and eventually recreate it.

So, yeah, I've known what they are for a long time. I only needed to figure out how they would look.



Eyeless demons.
The first concept of the demons. Demons with wrong eyes - wrong amount, color, size, etc. - are common, so the initial idea was to make demons without eyes.

I also made them look unlike animals so it would be easier to animate them.

But in the end, I decided that I can do better than that.



Antler demons.
Idea #1: Bony antlers. Usually, demons have horns - giving them antlers would be pretty unique.
Idea #2: Eyeless creatures look kind of boring. Give them two eyes to avoid wrong eye cliche.

Couldn't go with it because no matter what I did, eyes looked weird and antlers had contrast problems with high-value backgrounds.



Cyclopean demons.
Just wanted to see how it would look, didn't plan to do it because of how unoriginal the look is.



Masked demons.
These are fun! The winning idea.

These demons cover their faceless heads with masks. They assemble the masks themselves from stolen and scavenged materials.

The problem with other demon concepts was that they lacked personality and didn't blend well with other things in the game's world.

Masked demons don't have these problems and - again - it's just such a fun idea! I had to go with it.

After I figured out the look, it was time to start coding.

I'll have to make changes to pretty much every part of the character system to make non-humanoid characters work. For example, I want them to use a simpler animation system to make implementing a lot easier.

Only changed a few lines of code today, it took a while to figure the demon look.


Today I was coding demon systems.

For example, because demons don't use items like humanoid characters, I had to make a system that allows me to set custom stats for characters.

There's a lot of automation when it comes to setting stats, so I had to disable all that to keep initial demon stats intact.

The result:



It may look like a shovel, but it actually is a demon =]
As you can see it can attack and it has a custom set of abilities.

Demons look like that because at the moment the variables that control the appearance of characters are set to -1 for demons.


Today I have worked on demon graphics.
I have made animations, masks, implemented custom animation system I've mentioned earlier, etc, and demons are now done!



Suprizingly, implementing a new enemy type only took three days.


A rather boring day - I was fixing demon bugs and trying to implement interior shadows.


This day was full of interruptions but when I managed to get to LOTLW development, I managed to implement most of the NPCs - town guards, merchants, prop characters, and rogues outside the town.


Today I was fixing various bugs and continued implementing NPCs.



People!



New merchant's inventory - this merchant sells consumables that are supposed to restore aura. Something went wrong though. The game is very buggy at the moment - that always happens towards the end of developing a large chunk of content.

Going to have to start fixing things soon.

Important Eastern Trilith town NPCs:

- Legate. Sells faction items and a silver claymore to friends of Triliths faction.
- Armor merchant. Sells T1 and T2 body and leg armor, helmets.
- Aura merchant. Sells crystalized aura.
- Material merchant. Sells T1 and T2 materials.
- Banisher. Bring demon pearls to a banisher to get gold and Triliths reputation.

Demon pearls are the new items that will be dropped by demons. They aren't just a source of Triliths reputation - it will also be possible to equip them. They will be like magic orbs but will increase curse chance instead of critical chance.


I can't sleep, can't stop thinking about the game.
Let's see if writing them down will help me fall asleep. Might as well add more content to the entry.

Recently I've become dissatisfied with the game - defeating enemies instead of killing them just isn't satisfying and enables grinding.

I think I am going to remove the entire defeating idea and make NPCs fight players to death.
Once they will die, they won't respawn.

This means the world will start feeling pretty empty after the player goes through the area killing enemies, and I don't like that.

The solution is to add a few non-hostile NPCs in each combat zone who don't have to be killed.

Another problem is that there will be no way to farm enemies. Once they are dead, the items they own are gone from the game. Because NPCs can take items, and because players drop items on death, this makes deaths very punishing.

A small price to pay for a more rewarding experience. Might even make the game more engaging by raising the stakes. If what, I can implement a system that allows players to negotiate with the enemies and buy taken items back.

This also introduces a risk of breaking quests and other sequences if the player loses the required items on death.
I'll have to be very careful with quest items.

This 'experience rework' should help reinforce what the game is supposed to accomplish - satisfying exploration, immersive mechanics, and 99% grind-free gameplay.

Yes, this is what circulates in my head most nights.
Sometimes I want to improve my game so badly that I can't fall asleep, so I don't get enough rest, and can't work as much. Which increases the hunger for development further.

Vicious cycle!

Anyway, 25th September here I go!


I spent the day making a trailer for the upcoming update.

Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fGLzDeCUiI
Today I was implementing new items.

The highlight of that is the iridescent hood:



This powerful item will be a reward for doing Spellscarred Desert - I'll write about it in future entries.

I have also implemented two new keys, which are needed for Spellscarred Desert, demon pearls, tier 2 consumables, raw silk grass material, and instructions for the new teleportation spells.

To finish the Eastern Trilith area I still need to:

- Implement banisher.
- Make a new asset: Door to Spellscarred Desert.
- Replace one group of enemies in the battlefield area with a powerful demon.
- Make demons drop pearls.
- Add raw silk grass gathering.
- Add drying racks that turn raw silk grass into dry silk grass.
- Add new teleportation spells and hide their instructions in the new area.

Once all of that is done, I will start fixing bugs and making small changes.

I will:

- Do an XP rework because currently there are problems with XP gaining.
- Do a loot rework because I am still not satisfied with what items the containers contain.
- Improve the NPC name generator.
- Fix the good old building depth bug.

After that, I will implement character creation, options for colorblind people, player data tracking, and add Spellscarred Desert.

Then it will be the time to release the 0.5.0 update.

So that's the plan =]

Thanks for reading and until next time!

Started the day by doing the usual: Placing tiles and assets.

Finished making the meadow edge and after that jumped into making Second Strategic Fortification.

It's the remaining 1/3rd of the new area.

The fortification was built by Berelem during the War to halt the Kingdom's advance to the south - it's one of the biggest military installations in Kayos.

After the War, most of the fortification's crew was moved to other places. Later a swarm of demons roamed in from the burning ruins of the Fallen Kingdom and the fortification has been taken over by them.

Since then it was not reclaimed - doing so would require too many resources, plus it's not that important in the current times.

Anyway, I spent most of the day making new assets:



Here they are in action - exterior:



And interior:




Today's progress:



Living quarters are now complete!

What's left is the main hall, mess hall, training hall, armory, commander's office, manufacturing, and map room.


Today I was a bit busy with non-game development related stuff, so I couldn't work as much.

Still, I made-and-placed-new-tiles-and-assets, finished one of the rooms, and began working on the main hall.



The wall banners bear symbols of Berelem.

The symbol of the tree gold coins is from a popular story about Berelem. It is said that the land on which the city was founded was bought from Erquarian colonists for only that much.


Wasn't at home for two days because I was in an event.

But now I'm back and I have already done the main hall, mess hall, and training hall.

Here's how training and mess halls look:




After taking a day off, I've returned fully rested and managed to work the full day.

The fortification is now complete and I am already working on the final pieces of the area.



Map room.



The final look of the entrance.



Rogue camp behind the fortification.

For some reason, I love the lonely atmosphere of remote and neglected places - the locations behind the fortification are just that.

Currently, I only need to make an archer training site and the iron mine to be graphically done with the Eastern Trilith area.

Soon I'll be working on the characters and gameplay of the area. I need to add a new enemy type - demons, add door unlocking mechanic for the door inside the fortification, optimize spike traps.




The iron mine.



Legate's office now has a clock spire!

The clock isn't animated yet - I still haven't coded something that would let me have animated elements on buildings. Yes, I absolutely NEED an animated clock.

Anyway, all tiles and assets are placed now.

I have also done some optimization work today - spike traps no longer spawn hundreds of damage objects attempting to deal damage to whoever is on them and prop objects like rocks are now deactivated when not in the player's view.

Hooray to a slight FPS boost!

I'm very close to finishing the Eastern Trilith area now - unless demons are harder to make than I anticipated and I'm actually three weeks away from the completion.

<<< Epic foreshadowing >>>

That's all for this entry, thanks for reading, and until next time =]

A tiny bit of the battlefield is now done!

Today I was mostly placing tiles and correcting the no man's land layout.

I also made barbed wire fence assets.



Barbed wire fence objects are the first of the removable objects, they can be removed by the players creating permanent shortcuts.

This will not be possible for a while though, I'm saving it for the 8th class update.


Spent the day placing everything and no man's land is done!

Got lucky making some lovely locations like this small meadow near the mage camp:



Heavily shelled area:



Center ruins:




After yesterday's successes, I decided to make an easy day for myself, so I've done some educational reading and fixed a few stupid bugs.

For example, the quest used to not give XP reward because I just kind of forgot to make it give XP.
Me looking at code: "Yes, it all makes sense now!"

Another example:

switch(faction)
{
case faction_neutral:
case faction_demon:

change_reputation = false;

break;

default:

change reputation = false;
}

if change_reputation == true
{
reputation[faction] += reputation_amount;
}

"For some reason, it's no longer possible to gain or lose faction reputation. Hmm..."

So that was fun to fix =]


Today I continued the clean-up work.

Spent a lot of time trying to fix various issues with teleportation. Had to rework some parts of the area code because turned out that it's not functioning properly while there are two areas active.

For the context, because the game has a local multiplayer option, the game can have two areas active at the same time - so player 1 and player 2 can be at the separate areas.

A lot of the systems around it weren't tested before because until recently there was only one area.

Anyway, that's all fixed now.

Currently, the Eastern Trilith area is 60% done: All I need to do now is make the second strategic fortification and small places in between the town, the battlefield, and the fortification.

Here are those places in between:

1)
The meadow edge.
It is to the west from the battlefield, where the road goes to Eir Meadows.
Looks like I will have to make at least some of what is required for the meadow biome.

2)
A silver mine.
It is to the east from the battlefield. It will have a lot of silver rocks and no enemies.

3)
A rogue camp.
To the south from the silver mine.
A camp of high-level rogues featuring lots of loot containers.

4)
The spike fields and an abandoned fort.
To the north from the silver mine.
An abandoned fort will be the first thing the players see when entering the Eastern Trilith area from Moonrise Desert and the spike fields will be what they will need to cross to get into the battlefield and places beyond it.

5)
An iron mine.
In the northeast corner on the area, behind the fortification.
This mine will have more even more ore rocks than the silver mine - it's one of the rewards players will get for traversing the treacherous second strategic fortification.

All of this should take no longer than a day to put together.

So, here it goes...




Rogue camp.



Abandoned fort.



Mine.

Got distracted, so I didn't finish the other small areas - that's for the other day.


Started the day by finishing making the spike fields location:



After that, I've done some of the boring tile placing work, now the south-eastern corner of the area is ready to be made into the iron mine.

Then - because I couldn't delay it any longer - I have started working on meadow edge.
I was reluctant to start working on it because the meadow biome is probably the hardest to make of the four.

It requires various plant assets and they have to be animated - it took me like two hours to make two large plant assets.

Currently the meadow edge looks like this:



Pretty happy with it and I'm not even finished - this should be good =]

Well, that's all for this entry, thank you for reading, and until next time!

Started the day by placing the tiles that create shadows. All buildings in the town now properly drop shadows. Also fixed several problems with the tiles and made new shadow tile for giant diagonal walls.

After that, I made the steppe biome rocks.



They are recolored desert rocks, nothing fancy.

Since I was making rocks anyway, I have implemented silver ore rocks and a system that prevents characters from mining rocks if their Gatherer level is lower than the resource level.

Now there's a good reason to gain XP in Gatherer class: Level 11 of it is required to gain ore from silver rocks.

After I was done with rocks, I have started decorating the town with the new steppe grass assets.

Some parts of the town are now 100% finished!



Very happy with how that looks =]

After running out of places where I could put grasses, I started making ruined clay brick wall pieces.



Still want to make a few more because the battlefield zone will have lots of them. But that's for the other day.


Started the day by making three more clay brick ruin pieces.

After that, I made a memorial statue:



"Sorrow"

The plaque says:

The War
279-286

I want to add statues and monuments in every larger town and city - something about that is very cool, plus it has to be a very powerful worldbuilding tool alongside making locations at least a little more unique.

The statue square required vertical benches, so I also made a few of those.

Was at home only for a couple of hours, so that's all of the progress today.


Today I was polishing the town.

I started by adding minor details like protrusions to houses and placing more assets to the town.

Then I fixed a minor color issue with the new rock assets and made new giant walls for the town entrance.



After that, I made more assets for the town - flags, signs, decorations, and iron doors.



Spent an hour of so adding them to the town - now it only needs NPCs and some extra content to be finished!

But NPCs will come last - tomorrow I'm hoping to start working on the battlefield zone!

Today's screenshots:



The owner of that white house seems to be trying to make a garden. But - kings and queens! - that's a lot of rocks!



Center of the town and a trilith.


Today I started working on steppe biome pits. I need them for mines and battlefield trenches. The pit tiles themselves are almost done, all I need to do is make shadows for them.



Yep, that's alpha!

Unfortunately, that's all progress today - lost several hours of work again.
I hope I'll get a full workday before the end of this entry, which I guess is just tomorrow.


Pits and pit shadows are done!

Time for...



No man's land!

This part of the area will have:

- Trenches and magical explosion craters.
- War chests, loot containers that may contain silver equipment.
- Traps: Arrow launchers and iron spikes.
- Strong and weak enemies.
- Various battlefield assets: Broken military equipment, barbed wire fences, etc.

To make things interesting, there will be three ways to cross the no man's land:

Long way:
It will take a while to reach Eastern Trilith going this way, but it's a safe way - players will only encounter low-level enemies here.

Short way A:
Going this way will get you to Eastern Trilith very quickly - but this way is full traps.
It will be challenging to use this way without getting hit by arrows from launchers or iron spikes.

Short way B:
This short way will have multiple high-level enemies in a narrow passage between trenches.

Having different ways to get to the same place lets players make meaningful decisions during an otherwise boring task of moving between locations.

Plus, it's always fun to return to the area after a while and see that a section that used to give you trouble - E.g.: Short way B - is no longer a problem thanks to your new skills and items. Rewarding!

Anyway, I have started making the zone by marking where the ways would be:



Then I have placed trenches:



I have ended the workday after adding iron spike traps and automatic arrow launchers for the short path A:



Don't like how these spikes look, so I'll have to improve them in some way.


Today I continued making no man's land.

Short way A is now finished gameplay-wise:



This is not easy to do consistently and I hope it will be fun for the players to challenge themselves with this small puzzle.

After figuring out short way A, I have started working on battlefield assets:



Tomorrow I'm planning to make the rest of the needed assets and begin polishing the zone - but that will go into the next entry.

That's is all for now, thanks for reading =]

Spent the day polishing clay brick architecture tileset, adding new assets, and placing tiles.
Did some work on the Eastern Trilith town, it's slowly coming together.





Made giant wall assets. They will be extremely useful for defining the area borders. These are the walls seen on the world map.





In other news: The game has hit 600 wishlists.




More tile placing!

This time I was focusing on the bastion part of the area.



This is the biggest building I've ever made, it's quite exciting.

Its size is about 1/3 of the first area!

I've decided to call the bastion "Second strategic fortification" because it has that cold military ring to it.

Other ideas were "Ber Bastion" - it was Berelem fortification during the War - and something high fantasy/Lord of the Rings sounding, e.g.: "Adzenlark".

Anyway, now that most of the basic tiles are added and everything is in the intended places I'll begin the next phase of Eastern Trilith development - I'll be placing the assets that actually make things look good.


Today I was continuing the work on the town.

Started by making the ground look nicer.

Step 1: Placing lots of rock tiles.



Step 2: Erasing rock tiles where they intersect with different ground tiles.





That's better!

Next, I have placed street numbers and windows on buildings.





Not sure about the windows, might change them later.

The last thing I did today was starting working on roofs.


Thanks to an engine update that I had to revert, I have lost several hours of progress.

I also lost a few hours of work today - so in the end, my goal today was to restore some of the lost progress and finish putting roofs on the town's houses.



Mission accomplished!


Today's goal was to decorate the town's building walls.

I made a bunch of new tiles, improved some of the old ones, and remade windows:



I think the problem with the old windows is that they were too big and felt disproportional when added to the town's buildings.

Old windows:



Anyway, after decorating the walls, I started placing assets - the town is starting to look good!

The work on the town culminated with an inn building:



Inn's name - Inn the East - reflects the fact that half of Trilith town is on the other side of the world.

(Eastern Trilith and Western Trilith towns have been founded near the talkstone triliths: Going through eastern trilith will take you to western trilith and vice versa - so there is almost no distance between the towns and often they are considered one town)

Western Trilith will have an inn called "Inn the West" =]

The last thing I did this day was implementing a few new combat sound effects.


Roofs are done, walls are done, time for interiors!

Pretty much the same story as yesterday: Placed a lot of tiles, added new assets, improved some of the old ones.





I'm hoping that this furnace in the above GIF will be a cooking station in the future.

I couldn't finish filling interiors today, so it will be a job for the other day.


I have finished filling the town interiors today!



Barracks.

Shelves hold equipment: Silver helmets, magic orb, crystalized aura allowing soldiers to use aura-powered abilities, arrows, disinfection fluid for wounds.



Legate's office.

The document on the wall is Triliths' "Faction declaration", it's a bit like an independence declaration.

Anyway, here's what I still need to do to finish the town:

- Minor building details: Dents and protrusions.
- Place shadow marker tiles so buildings would start dropping shadows.
- NPCs: Guards, merchants, workers, etc.
- Town assets: Noticeboard, signs.
- Town matter kilns: Set kiln recipes.
- When steppe assets are made: Add them to the town.

Tomorrow I'll be making steppe assets - I've already made probably the most difficult assets already: The steppe grasses.



I still need to make steppe clay rocks, silver ore rocks, steppe pits, various tiles... A lot of work.

Not happy that it's the end of Eastern Trilith development week two and it's still not done. I wanted to finish it in two weeks.

I suppose I would assemble an area like that during two weeks if all assets were ready and my estimation was without assets + I lost a lot of time, so maybe it's not that bad.

It is pretty bad, though.
As it often happens, I expanded too much with the Eastern Trilith area - the town alone ate most of those weeks, and it's only 1/3rd of the area.

Luckily it's the most complicated third, and in the end Eastern Trilith will be an incredible area, easily the best chunk of content I ever made: A dangerous path through old battlefield filled with traps, a demon-infested fortification, and a cozy town.

But I have to be careful when designing the future areas to prevent them from becoming too cool for me to build in a reasonable amount of time.

That's all for this entry, hope it was an enjoyable one =]

Until next time!