FEATURES

• Day and night cycle completely redone:
  - Beautiful sunsets and during night you can see stars.
  - CycleComponent examples:
  - Certain characters are only active during day.
  - City lights are lit at night.
  
  
  
  
  
• Two-phased enemy attack behavior:
  - Enemies display their alert behavior and change to aggro idle, but don't immediately rush to attack.
  - As an example, Goblin Fodder is made to not be alerted whereas e.g. Goblin Captain is.
  
• Robust melee weapon hits using the 3d pizza slice technique.
  
  
  
• Added critical hits and improved knockback.
  
• Preliminary knockback animations for most enemies.
  
• Added staggered animation for Skeleton Champion.
  
• Reworked the concept of armor.
  
• Throwing characters no longer breaks their physics.
  
• Fixed this annoying T-pose glitch that happened upon character death:
  http://i.imgur.com/ZLEZLed.gif
  
  
• Treasure chest opening and loot ejection improved.
  - Trap chests can spawn characters properly.
  - Loot randomized.
  
• Starting areas expanded and polished.
  
• Objects can follow the angle of the underlying terrain.
  
  
  
• Improved screen-space reflection quality.
  
• New level up effect and other particle effects improved.
  
  
• Major game engine improvements.
  
• More predicable physics simulation and less CPU spiking.
  
  
• New stone fences, smaller watchtower, larger 4-wheel cart.
  
• Increased Ghoul attack range by adding squash and stretch animation for the striking arm. (ala Battletoads!)
  
• Added more characters to random generator lists.
  
• Larger more dangerous Ghoul variant.
  
• New goblin unit Goblin Bomber.
  
• Visual changes to Goblins.
  
• Added new ground foliage.
  
  
• Gold pull effect improved.
  
• Disabled head-tracking in death.
  
• Health bar is always shown for aggro characters.
  
• Addded support for disc shaped particle emitters.
  
• Graphics config changes and more graphics options.

Here's a short video comparing Release 19 mechanics and fixes to Release 18.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6aGdpW_Jiw

Until next time!

Best Regards,
Timo

FEATURES

• Day and night cycle completely redone:
  - Beautiful sunsets and during night you can see stars.
  - CycleComponent examples:
  - Certain characters are only active during day.
  - City lights are lit at night.
  
  
  
  
  
• Two-phased enemy attack behavior:
  - Enemies display their alert behavior and change to aggro idle, but don't immediately rush to attack.
  - As an example, Goblin Fodder is made to not be alerted whereas e.g. Goblin Captain is.
  
• Robust melee weapon hits using the 3d pizza slice technique.
  
  
  
• Added critical hits and improved knockback.
  
• Preliminary knockback animations for most enemies.
  
• Added staggered animation for Skeleton Champion.
  
• Reworked the concept of armor.
  
• Throwing characters no longer breaks their physics.
  
• Fixed this annoying T-pose glitch that happened upon character death:
  http://i.imgur.com/ZLEZLed.gif
  
  
• Treasure chest opening and loot ejection improved.
  - Trap chests can spawn characters properly.
  - Loot randomized.
  
• Starting areas expanded and polished.
  
• Objects can follow the angle of the underlying terrain.
  
  
  
• Improved screen-space reflection quality.
  
• New level up effect and other particle effects improved.
  
  
• Major game engine improvements.
  
• More predicable physics simulation and less CPU spiking.
  
  
• New stone fences, smaller watchtower, larger 4-wheel cart.
  
• Increased Ghoul attack range by adding squash and stretch animation for the striking arm. (ala Battletoads!)
  
• Added more characters to random generator lists.
  
• Larger more dangerous Ghoul variant.
  
• New goblin unit Goblin Bomber.
  
• Visual changes to Goblins.
  
• Added new ground foliage.
  
  
• Gold pull effect improved.
  
• Disabled head-tracking in death.
  
• Health bar is always shown for aggro characters.
  
• Addded support for disc shaped particle emitters.
  
• Graphics config changes and more graphics options.

Here's a short video comparing Release 19 mechanics and fixes to Release 18.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6aGdpW_Jiw

Until next time!

Best Regards,
Timo

The Open World update is available now!



Release 18 has been a long time in the making but the day has finally come. This update makes the game open world as it was originally intended.

After one week in the beta branch most of the nasty bugs are fixed. Thanks everyone who helped us track down the bugs!

FEATURES

• All major locations moved to the open world
  
• Generated roads use A* algorithm for natural paths
  
• More varied terrain generation and better erosion
  
• New continent with Elder King's castle Root Hall
  
  
  
• Queen Ingrid and Castle Snow Peak location
  
• Mountain Sheep Tavern location
  
  
  
• Merchant Union City landmark
  
• Cursed Mansion landmark
  
• Western Harbor landmark:
  
  
  
• Northern Harbor landmark
  
• Northern Guard and Palace Guards
  
• Undead Knight with three variants
  
• Elder Guardians and their Commander
  
• Wolves (plus the ability to buy a pet wolf)
  
• Travel system for going between continents
  
• Procedural idle look at animations for NPC's to make them feel more alive:
  
  
  
• Redone dialogue and quest funtionality
  
• Lots of new items and weapons
  
• More elder villager variants (with more to come)
  
• New quests and dialogue
  
• New story characters:
  
  - Priest Holloway (The hat is special...)
  - General Lupus
  - Gus Grimaldi
  - Grand Jester
  - Merchant Union Leader
  - Tavern Owner
  - And many others
  
  
• New set of masks:
  
  - Woman villager
  - Male villager
  - Old woman villager
  - Old male villager
  - Merchant Fodder
  - Merchant Lord
  - Wood Elf Lord
  
  
• Reynold Von Sparkle boss fight
  
• Ulf The Wolf boss fight
  
• Sir Kuolema boss fight
  
• New consistent damage feedback effects
  
• Better quality shading (removes banding which was visible on large round objects)
  
  
  
• Replaced cube maps with real-time solution
  
• Particles have correct ambient lighting
  
  
  
• Water doesn't flicker anymore on shores
  
• Better quality depth of field
  
• Much longer draw distance
  
• More background mountains
  
• Boss battle HUD
  
• More object LODs
  
• Improved assets
  
• Camera tweaks
  
• Lots of bug fixes
  
• Fixed launch issue that affected some operating systems

We're already hard at work on the next release, stay tuned!

Best Regards,
Timo

The Open World update is available now!



Release 18 has been a long time in the making but the day has finally come. This update makes the game open world as it was originally intended.

After one week in the beta branch most of the nasty bugs are fixed. Thanks everyone who helped us track down the bugs!

FEATURES

• All major locations moved to the open world
  
• Generated roads use A* algorithm for natural paths
  
• More varied terrain generation and better erosion
  
• New continent with Elder King's castle Root Hall
  
  
  
• Queen Ingrid and Castle Snow Peak location
  
• Mountain Sheep Tavern location
  
  
  
• Merchant Union City landmark
  
• Cursed Mansion landmark
  
• Western Harbor landmark:
  
  
  
• Northern Harbor landmark
  
• Northern Guard and Palace Guards
  
• Undead Knight with three variants
  
• Elder Guardians and their Commander
  
• Wolves (plus the ability to buy a pet wolf)
  
• Travel system for going between continents
  
• Procedural idle look at animations for NPC's to make them feel more alive:
  
  
  
• Redone dialogue and quest funtionality
  
• Lots of new items and weapons
  
• More elder villager variants (with more to come)
  
• New quests and dialogue
  
• New story characters:
  
  - Priest Holloway (The hat is special...)
  - General Lupus
  - Gus Grimaldi
  - Grand Jester
  - Merchant Union Leader
  - Tavern Owner
  - And many others
  
  
• New set of masks:
  
  - Woman villager
  - Male villager
  - Old woman villager
  - Old male villager
  - Merchant Fodder
  - Merchant Lord
  - Wood Elf Lord
  
  
• Reynold Von Sparkle boss fight
  
• Ulf The Wolf boss fight
  
• Sir Kuolema boss fight
  
• New consistent damage feedback effects
  
• Better quality shading (removes banding which was visible on large round objects)
  
  
  
• Replaced cube maps with real-time solution
  
• Particles have correct ambient lighting
  
  
  
• Water doesn't flicker anymore on shores
  
• Better quality depth of field
  
• Much longer draw distance
  
• More background mountains
  
• Boss battle HUD
  
• More object LODs
  
• Improved assets
  
• Camera tweaks
  
• Lots of bug fixes
  
• Fixed launch issue that affected some operating systems

We're already hard at work on the next release, stay tuned!

Best Regards,
Timo

Release 18 Info - The Open World Update




This has been the most satisfying update to develop so far as things are coming together beautifully.

All large key locations are integrated into the larger continents. Lots of additional and difficult optimizations were needed to make that happen.

I think it's better to let these images do the talking and show what that actually means.

Goblin Forest with portals as it was in Release 17:


Goblin Forest integrated to the Western Province (random world) in Release 18:


Barry's Field with portals as it was in Release 17:

(and actually it was much smaller as you couldn't easily go past the walls)

The new Barry's Field in Release 18:


There will be 5 continents in the final release version, this upcoming update will have 4 of them.

The continents are:

• Western Province
  
• Eastern Province
  
• Northlands
  
• Mainland ( Elder King lives here)
  
• Tuskland (This will be added for the final release version)

Also coming in this update is lots of new story content.


New characters:

• Northern Guards
  
• Palace Guards
  
• Queen Ingrid
  
  (you can just barely see the queen in the middle of this screenshot)
  
  
• Tavern Owner with his epic mustache:
  
  (Gus Grimaldi on the front)
  
  
• Lorelei Barry
  
• Ted Barry
  
• Priest Holloway
  
  
• Merchant Union Guards
  
• Merchant Union Lord
  
  
• Some of the villains:
  
  
  
  
• New weapons and shields.
  
• Tons of bug fixes. (Flickering water, companions who want to walk through the player etc.)
  
• The game runs much better in more demanding situations and the lighting system & fog have been improved.
  
  
• Last but not least you can buy a pet wolf:
  

The update should be out in the first half of January. We've still got a few things we want to throw in there.

Happy New Year adventurers!

Release 18 Info - The Open World Update




This has been the most satisfying update to develop so far as things are coming together beautifully.

All large key locations are integrated into the larger continents. Lots of additional and difficult optimizations were needed to make that happen.

I think it's better to let these images do the talking and show what that actually means.

Goblin Forest with portals as it was in Release 17:


Goblin Forest integrated to the Western Province (random world) in Release 18:


Barry's Field with portals as it was in Release 17:

(and actually it was much smaller as you couldn't easily go past the walls)

The new Barry's Field in Release 18:


There will be 5 continents in the final release version, this upcoming update will have 4 of them.

The continents are:

• Western Province
  
• Eastern Province
  
• Northlands
  
• Mainland ( Elder King lives here)
  
• Tuskland (This will be added for the final release version)

Also coming in this update is lots of new story content.


New characters:

• Northern Guards
  
• Palace Guards
  
• Queen Ingrid
  
  (you can just barely see the queen in the middle of this screenshot)
  
  
• Tavern Owner with his epic mustache:
  
  (Gus Grimaldi on the front)
  
  
• Lorelei Barry
  
• Ted Barry
  
• Priest Holloway
  
  
• Merchant Union Guards
  
• Merchant Union Lord
  
  
• Some of the villains:
  
  
  
  
• New weapons and shields.
  
• Tons of bug fixes. (Flickering water, companions who want to walk through the player etc.)
  
• The game runs much better in more demanding situations and the lighting system & fog have been improved.
  
  
• Last but not least you can buy a pet wolf:
  

The update should be out in the first half of January. We've still got a few things we want to throw in there.

Happy New Year adventurers!

FEATURES

• City of Snow Peak is the main landmark of the random snow world:
  
  
  
  
• GPU memory usage has been reduced massively due to smarter foliage handling.
  
• LOD system for terrain which reduces the amount of triangles:
  
  (Huge performance boost)
  
  
• 6 stylish pumpkin masks that player can wear:
  
  
  
• New priest character type.
  
• New cloud system. Affects visible clouds and cloud shadows:
  
  (enhances the accuracy of cloud shadows)
  
  
• Two new small landmarks in random grass world:
  - Marquardt's grave
  - Fortuna's grave
  
• House of the Witch landmark redone.
  
• New bush assets and optimized old bush assets.
  
• Terrain texture and ambient occlusion system has been improved:
  
  
  
  
• New snow grass biome and randomized particle system for dropping snow around objects.
  
• Fixed several inventory icons. (thanks for the tips!)
  
• Hires main menu assets. (and x changed to v for clarity)
  
• Minor tweaks.

WHAT WE'RE WORKING ON NEXT:

With the improved LOD systems we can handle bigger worlds so we're working on moving even more locations to the generated worlds.
For example Way to Fortuna landmark is in the process of being moved to the Random Grass World which means the game would start in a random world.
Snow Peak castle will be expanded with interior.

New characters will be added. Here's the concept art for the Northmen:


And here's a sneak peek of the in-game models of that same character:

The Northmen will have a huge shield which will block direct attacks.

Cheers,
Timo

FEATURES

• City of Snow Peak is the main landmark of the random snow world:
  
  
  
  
• GPU memory usage has been reduced massively due to smarter foliage handling.
  
• LOD system for terrain which reduces the amount of triangles:
  
  (Huge performance boost)
  
  
• 6 stylish pumpkin masks that player can wear:
  
  
  
• New priest character type.
  
• New cloud system. Affects visible clouds and cloud shadows:
  
  (enhances the accuracy of cloud shadows)
  
  
• Two new small landmarks in random grass world:
  - Marquardt's grave
  - Fortuna's grave
  
• House of the Witch landmark redone.
  
• New bush assets and optimized old bush assets.
  
• Terrain texture and ambient occlusion system has been improved:
  
  
  
  
• New snow grass biome and randomized particle system for dropping snow around objects.
  
• Fixed several inventory icons. (thanks for the tips!)
  
• Hires main menu assets. (and x changed to v for clarity)
  
• Minor tweaks.

WHAT WE'RE WORKING ON NEXT:

With the improved LOD systems we can handle bigger worlds so we're working on moving even more locations to the generated worlds.
For example Way to Fortuna landmark is in the process of being moved to the Random Grass World which means the game would start in a random world.
Snow Peak castle will be expanded with interior.

New characters will be added. Here's the concept art for the Northmen:


And here's a sneak peek of the in-game models of that same character:

The Northmen will have a huge shield which will block direct attacks.

Cheers,
Timo

We really wanted to get a build ready for Halloween but in the final moments decided it's better to postpone it by a few days so we can finish one very important feature.

That feature is the terrain LOD system and it will improve performance drastically. Short technical explanation of why it's needed: In earlier versions we used to have evenly spaced grid of polygons for the terrain and it has started to cause more and more issues as we've increased the draw distance. The proper way to do it is to have more dense polygon grid near the camera and less dense polygon grids further away from the camera. So Kimmo rewrote the entire terrain baking system with that in mind and as a result we have visually near identical landscape with 4-10x less polygons. (and with even longer draw distances the difference would have grown bigger and bigger)

This is also coming in the update:


Happy Halloween!

We really wanted to get a build ready for Halloween but in the final moments decided it's better to postpone it by a few days so we can finish one very important feature.

That feature is the terrain LOD system and it will improve performance drastically. Short technical explanation of why it's needed: In earlier versions we used to have evenly spaced grid of polygons for the terrain and it has started to cause more and more issues as we've increased the draw distance. The proper way to do it is to have more dense polygon grid near the camera and less dense polygon grids further away from the camera. So Kimmo rewrote the entire terrain baking system with that in mind and as a result we have visually near identical landscape with 4-10x less polygons. (and with even longer draw distances the difference would have grown bigger and bigger)

This is also coming in the update:


Happy Halloween!