Kickstarter demo launched!

Here is the changelog with most of the updates!

[0.1.3] - Demo_02b [Kickstarter] - 2021.11.03

Added
- Cards displayed in "Order Custom Piece" submenu in the Workshop now
individually show their price.
- Colored car outline when a car panel is being hovered.
- Disabled realtime race broadcast Deaf City's TV screens in "Performance"
graphics quality mode.
- Credits icon for the Workshop and Race Finish screen.
- Color gradient in cards background.

Changed
- The set of cards obtained from Rumagging in the Junkyard will not contain
repeated cards.
- Route Preview and Race Earnings panels now appear in the background when
the player is asked to discard a card from their hand.
- "Order Custom Piece" submenu in the Workshop no longer closes itself after
purchasing a card.
- Softer CRT effect in Deaf City's TV broadcast screens.
- Set balanced graphics quality as default in the settings menu.
- Replaced banners displayed in Deaf City's TV broadcast creens.
- Balanced boss car "Crust Core".
- Car death banter panel now has priority over other types of banters.

Fixed
- Bug which would render circuit tiles black while pressing the "additional
info" button during a race.
- Solved dark-tinted artifacts might appear on some UI text elements.
- "Order Custom Piece" submenu in the Workshop no longer shows placeholder
text.
- Fixed issues where route preview tiles would not correctly show the outcome
of a clash.
- Solved issues related with car panel pips when the game is running at high
speed modes.
- Bug where "Rumage in the Junkyard" submenu in the Workshop would not recognize
left mouse clicks.
- Solved missing tooltips for card "Backup-Up Propulsion".
- Fixed run-breaking bug which may occurr when setting "Overwhelm" pip value to
zero.
- Bug where player would start the race one turn late if the game speed is set
to "Ultra".

Join our Kickstarter here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/deckrx/deckrx-the-deckbuilding-racing-videogame

Thank you all for your support so far!

Best,
The Meteorbyte Team

We are thankful for all of your support and feedback and will be giving one last chance to get this version of Hate Free Heroes on or special discout of 55%.

We will be having our very last sale event for this version of Hate Free Heroes on 11-11-21 through the end of the month. After the sale, HFH 3.0 will remain in the Steam store until the end of the year.

Hate Free Heroes is being updated to a 3D format with many enhancements. The new version will be available here:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1690790

This older version will be discontinued on Steam and removed from Steam's store page but you will still have access to play the older version on Steam if you have purchased the game.

Once again we would like to say thank you to everyone who have shown support and continue to provide us useful feedback and help. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Halloween has come and gone, but monsters are forever…or until you defeat them at least! There are all kinds of weird and wonderful life forms in the mysterious underground world of Core Keeper, and we thought we’d show off some of our creations today. From the humble Slime to the terrifying Caveling Brute, we’ve got quite the roster of creatures. In fact, you might even say it’s a bit of a monster mash!

Location: Dirt Biome
Attacks: When provoked

The Orange Slime is the very first monster we designed for Core Keeper, and it’s probably the first monster you’ll encounter in-game. Slimes have been an RPG and adventure game staple for as long as anyone can remember, and we love their jello-like features. The Orange Slimes aren’t aggressive in Core Keeper, meaning you’ll be able to walk among these blobs without fear. Just watch out for the goo they leave behind though, it’ll seriously slow you down. If you do decide to initiate combat, make sure to sidestep the Slime’s jump attack before landing the killing blow.



Location: Nature Biome
Attacks: With poison (duh)

Purple Slimes are a lot less passive than their Orange counterparts, and they’re much tougher too. If you wander into one in the Nature Biome, look out for their purple trails, as these Slimes ooze a poison that will temporarily reduce the amount of health that you can recover from healing. Their attack patterns are similar to those of our other Slimes, so they can be dodged with a simple sidestep. Just make sure you’re not sidestepping into a puddle of poison!

Location: Larva Biome
Attacks: Relentlessly

These little grubs may look cute, but they’re very aggressive when it comes to Explorers. You’re likely to find a handful of Larva in most parts of the Larva Biome, and they can be taken care of with a couple of well-timed attacks…it’s their cocoons you’ve got to watch out for. Step too close, and they’ll start to hatch (we think it has something to do with the Explorer’s body heat), spewing out multiple Larvae at once. Don’t you just Larva challenge?

Location: Larva Biome
Attacks: Torches & Explorers

Little Larva are one thing, but it’s the big ones you’ve got to watch out for. These chunky bugs are twice as aggressive, and they’re also very photosensitive – meaning they’re not the biggest fans of torchlight. If you ever place a torch, go off exploring, then come back to find it destroyed, you can almost guarantee it’s the work of a Big Larva. Oh, and did you know the Big Larva is Sven and Max’s favourite creature?

“The Big Larva started out lying down just like a regular Larva, but we had visual issues where it was clipping into walls. My solution: let's make it walk on two legs and give it a sassy walk cycle. Easy fix!” – Sven, Pugstorm CEO

“I think I like the Big Larva the most since a walking larva is just cool. Sometimes it is a bit of a love-hate relationship though when they keep destroying my torches.” – Max, Programming & Multiplayer Developer

Location: Stone Biome
Attacks: Explorers & Other Creatures

The Cavelings might just be the remnants of an ancient underground civilisation, and there’d probably be a lot you could learn from them, if they weren’t so feral. Cavelings are very territorial and will attack anything that crosses their paths. The only exception to this rule is other types of Cavelings – all of whom seem to tolerate each other just fine. Not much is known about the common Caveling, other than the fact that they enjoy mining and seem to subsist on some rather strange looking bread. Our designer, Julian, is also very fond of them.

"My favourite monster is definitely the Caveling. They started out as simple enemies, but they have ascended into mascot status for the game, hence why they play a bigger role now and there's more variations of them." – Julian, Lead Artist

Location: Stone Biome
Attacks: With Fire Magic

Caveling Shamans are a strange and mysterious variation of the common Caveling. They wear peculiar headdresses and have a wild look in their eyes that suggests they may possess dangerous magic powers. They also shoot fireballs from their staff, which confirms that they possess dangerous magic powers. Caveling Shaman can attack via both melee and ranged combat, making them formidable foes. It’s rumoured that the Shaman can predict an Explorer’s movements, making dodging their fireballs all the more difficult!



We hope you’ve enjoyed hearing all about our monsters. We’ve still got a couple of creatures up our sleeves and plenty of bosses that we’ll be sharing more info on later. For now, make sure you join our Discord server for more news, updates, announcements, and information on Core Keeper.

Return to Terra to unearth secrets cold, lost, and deadly in Heart of Steel, a free Skyforge update now available!


The merciless Mechanoids have long besieged Aelion in great, seemingly exponential numbers. Created by William Wynd—a sinister scientist turned intergalactic villain known as The Integrator—little is known about the origins of these machines, less so whether they can ever be truly stopped. In a brand-new 5-player Dungeon, uncover the mysteries of Wynd’s Laboratory, and do battle with the Mechanoids once more… the fate of the universe may depend on it!


 
Delve deeper than ever before into the bowels of this mysterious planet in a new 5-player Adventure: Crystal Grottoes. Bore into Terra’s sparkling crystalline caverns covered in glowing water and shimmering crystals—a priceless, highly-coveted resource—while fending off evil forces like Draconids and other unsavoury foes.


 
Are you not entertained? Put your skills to the limits against other Immortals in a new PvP Arena: Xintara’s Trial! Play in two teams of three as you battle for supremacy across a map based on Terra’s subterranean labyrinthine network. Rush for power-ups to increase your damage and HP and gain the edge in battle!


 
The Mechanoids aren’t happy with Immortal activities on Terra, and will do everything in their power to put a stop to them. Be on the lookout for Mechanoid attacks in the open-world — help defend Terra-1 and push these metal menaces back!

On November 24, the Lands Awakened update goes live. This update brings a new era of open-world gameplay to Albion with reworked dungeons, mobs and treasure sites, new open-world PvP objectives for groups of all sizes, massively improved visuals and layouts for all five biomes, the new War Gloves weapon line, fully reworked Guild Seasons, numerous quality-of-life improvements, and much more.

Check out the teaser trailer here:

From reworked static dungeons with limited-time events and multi-zone exits, to mobs that increase in power and value over time, Lands Awakened brings a completely overhauled open-world experience. All five biomes have massively improved visuals and layouts, dynamically spawning treasure sites offer intrepid players a chance at lucrative rewards, and an expanded soundtrack brings new emotional depth to the world. On the combat side, War Gloves, Albion's first completely new weapon line since launch, offer brawler-style combat options, while Elite Levels offer advanced mastery options and the overall speed of Fame progress has been boosted significantly.


Power Cores and Energy Crystals encourage strategic capture-the-flag gameplay with huge rewards, while Headquarters Hideouts offer protected bases for dedicated guilds. Guild Seasons have been completely reworked, with the Conqueror's Challenge giving individual guild members the ability to contribute to seasonal progress while earning their own rewards. And the new Might and Favor systems give guilds of all sizes, as well as their individual members, countless new ways to earn Season Points and unlock rewards.


Player-created Loadouts can now be purchased directly from the Marketplace, while Farming optimizations let players tend crops and animals with fewer clicks. Rerolling items is newly streamlined, crafting and refining fees are clearer, and new party commands offer faster and easier party management. Alongside these changes, a host of additional improvements, fixes, balance changes, and optimizations make the world of Albion better than ever.



For more of what's coming, check out the official update page:

The game got a small update. List of changes:
1) Added the option to turn off screen shake when the trap animation is triggered.
2) Choosing bigger character portraits is no longer reset when you exit the game, but the game must be saved before exiting.

Hello everyone!

Today we are going to talk a little bit about the artificial intelligence of the characters and how the animations are used to make the characters move and interact in the 3D world, seamlessly.

This is the continuation of the previous article, in which we talked about how to make the characters feel alive with animations. I recommend you to read it before diving into this one, to better understand the role of the animations in the artificial intelligence behaviours.


Animations that require interactions with objects, are the most difficult behaviours for the artificial intelligence applied to animations. On one hand it requires that each object has its own skeleton, and on the other hand it requires a synchronization with the character's animation.

This synchronization happens at two levels:

• Space: The character must begin to perform his animation from a specific point of origin, so that his positions fit properly with the shape and position of the object which he is going to interact with. We call this point, the "interaction point".
  
• Time: Both the character and the object must have animations with the same duration. It should also start to play the two animations at the same time, to really make it feel like the character's movement has an impact on the object it is interacting with.

The interaction point is a really important element! We will talk about it later in this post.




When you are designing a tycoon game, animations are a key part of the leveling process. More specifically: their duration. But the duration is something that is not known at the time of making the animation, so we generate the animations with a mechanism that allows us to define later how long they last. Then, we can tweak this in the leveling phase of the development.

The mechanism consists of generating the animations with tree phases of key poses:

• Start phase: The first frames of the animation start in an idle pose and are located in the interaction point. The goal is to get the character to the position where the action will really begin.
  
• Loop phase: The main action happens in the central frames of the animation. In the case of the bench press, the action is to lift the weights. The trick is to prepare both the first and last frames of this segment of the animation, so that it can be played repeatedly as many times as we want without seeing any jump.
  
• End phase: The first frames of the animation begin in the last pose of the loop and end by leaving the character at the end position of the animation. In the case of the bench press, the soldier gets up and reaches an idle pose.

We adjusted the leveling so that the character spends 30 seconds doing the bench press exercise and gains 1 experience point in strength each time that the exercise is performed.

So, this is what happens when the character's AI decides that he is going to perform this exercise: the animation will start and it will reach the animation loop, which will be played for 30 seconds, lifting the weights over and over again. After that time, the character will gain 1 XP in the strength stat, then the animation will finish the loop to end with the character getting up from the exercise machine and going away to another action.


The artificial intelligence of the characters is closely related to their animations. In order to make the characters feel alive, their intelligence is divided into two groups of behaviors:

• Navigation: Everything that has to do with moving from one point to another, either running or walking. This includes being still with an idle animation. This part of artificial intelligence uses various animations and mixes them, also altering their speeds so that everything fits with the movements made by the character through the 3D space.
  
• Action playback: When a character is going to interact with an object, the predominant behavior is simply to play the animation. Any displacement of the character that occurs at this time will be determined by how the bones move within the animation, but the logical entity of the AI remains static and waiting until the end of the animation.

In our case, in the characters we have two closely related entities:

• The artificial intelligence agent represented by the red arrow. It is the logical entity of AI. Basically a directional vector that moves through space from one point to another.
  
• The visual 3D model represented by the green arrow. It is the character itself, what the player sees. It shares the position and orientation of the agent (red), except when taking actions. At that moment the two entities become detached and they will synchronize their position again later.

We can see how the character on the left of the image is in action playback behavior. When playing the animation of the character running through the obstacle course, the agent (red) and the 3D model (green) have been separated.

On the right side of the image we can see how the character is in navigation behavior, and its two entities remain synchronized.

In the next image we can see the relationship that exists between the navigation behaviour and the action playback behaviour and how they change from one to another:

• The character at the bottom right has decided that he wants to exercise on the bench press (even though the machine is in use at the moment). Then, the AI calculates a route to get to that object. The result is a route from the point of origin (O) to the interaction point (IP) of the object.
  
• The character will remain in navigation behavior, playing a walking animation and following the pre-calculated route.
  
• Once the character is at the interaction point (IP) with the proper position and orientation to start the animation, he will go into action playback behavior and then he will start to perform the bench press animation.

When the bench press animation begins, this is what happens:

• The character starts from the point of interaction with his two synchronized entities.
  
• Performs the animation until it ends.
  
• The character ends the animation and his drawing entity is in a different position and direction than the artificial intelligence agent.
  
• The artificial intelligence agent overwrites his position to adopt the same position as the drawing model. This way, they remain synchronized and the character is ready to continue walking in the direction he’s facing, without any jump in his animations or positions.

Sometimes, in some animations, the offset in position and rotation between the two entities involves compensating both movement and rotation. So, the synchronization must be done in six different axes to match the two entities.


One of the things I’m always thinking about is the amount of work that goes into everything related to the characters. From their generation, to the methods used to move them around the 3D map and make them interact with objects in a realistic way. And then the player sees all that from a quite distant perspective. But, in the end, all that work counts: those facial animations, the characters moving their small fingers, the micro gestures of some parts of the body… All those small details are what really breathes life into the game, once the player sees the final result with everything happening at the same time.



I hope you enjoyed this look at the animations in One Military Camp :) Don't forget to wishlist and follow the game on Steam! It will give us a nice, warm and fuzzy feeling, and you won't miss the next entries of this Development Diary! (and we have lots of cool things to show, trust us ;) )

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1743830/One_Military_Camp/

See you soon, soldiers!
---------------
Written by Miguel García (Creative Director of Abylight Barcelona)

Aveliana will be showcased at the next AGFD on the 3rd of November at 6:20 pm (CEST). I will introduce the stealth aspects of the game: how enemies react to player movement and how they scan the environment when they detect the player. For this event, a new version of the game demo has been uploaded!

The live is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AG1aD9ExbB8

Find the page of the event here:
https://store.steampowered.com/sale/agfrenchdirect2021



Feel free to try the demo and Have fun!

TheFrenchDev

Today we will be revealing live game play of Expeditions: Rome over on Twitch in 15 minutes at 1:00 PM Eastern / 5:00 PM GMT

Hey Panda Peeps,

Are you ready to enjoy the fruits of Babybelle’s labor? Good, because it’s time for the final installment of her three-part Phone Fling!

You might have noticed, but this is no garden-variety friendship. When Babybelle needed a little support, you rose to the occasion! And if you were to find yourself with a thorn in your side, she’d surely do her best to help you out in return. Isn’t it nice when two buds can really count on each other like that?

Anyway, the real question is: where will this flowery little chitchat lead you? Don’t just sit there, go find out! Put the petal to the metal and rush over to check out Babybelle’s new messages now.

We love you so hard, and don’t you forget it!

The Pandas