Hello everybody!
Sorry if I haven’t given news in the last few weeks; I was really busy at work and didn’t feel that I had enough info to share to warrant a post. Nonetheless I worked as much as I could on my game!
Pre-Alpha Test 5
In the last few weeks, I spent my time on fixing bugs, optimizing performance, balancing gameplay and improving the tutorial in prevision of releasing the next version, Pre-Alpha Test 5.
I fixed a few nasty animation bugs that were annoying me for way too long. They were hard to reproduce, so I created an animation debugger that helped me understand what was going on. It felt really good to finally get rid of them!
Here’s a snapshot of the changelog:
- New: Fog of War
- New: Tile effects affecting status effects and other short term effects
- New: Minimap
- New: Better hit feedback, new damage number rendering
- UI: Several improvements all around; most in-game panels now take the whole screen
- Tutorial is now contextual; tutorial slides now appear when specific situations arise
- 4K resolution support with UI Scaling
- Performance improvement in cities, AI and FoV calculation
- So much more!
I also watched a colleague playing the game for the first time (blind test) and I’ve been really happy with the results!
Here’s a few screenshots of Pre-Alpha Test 5:
What’s in the pipeline for the next version?
I already started prototyping/working on new features now that the game is more stable. I am focusing on improving the graphics and world generation:
- Improved multiple light sources performance by migrating from forward rendering path to deferred rendering
- Improved world map generator with many more types of points of interest such as graveyards, towers, ruins, etc.
- Improved wilderness generation with seamless transition between biomes and features (trees, grass, rocks, lakes, rivers, etc.)
- Improved in-game world map UI (world/chunk/local map rendering with indications for quests)
- Addition of new assets (Speedtrees, Blender assets, particle effects)
Once I am done with these, I will go back working on gameplay features. I can’t wait to share new screenshots and GIFs of what I’ve been working on!
See you soon!
Looking great so far, your UI design is surprisingly sleek and modern, definitely something more roguelikes need. Something I find a bit lacking is the textures on your 3D models, in that they don’t match the fantastic pixel character art and on their own are pretty flat. Do you need someone to make new textures for them or is this just a product of being pre-alpha?
Hello Jordan,
Thanks for the nice comments! Sorry the for delay, I didn’t see that someone had commented on this post! 🙂
You are right, the 3D models are still placeholders. When the game reaches Alpha, I will hire artists to improve the meshes, textures, animations and 2D pixel art (right know I’m using a bundle that I bought). I want to wait until the specs and scope for the art is really clear before moving forward.
As for the UI design, it has been massively improved in the latest release (Pre-Alpha Test 8), I will share screenshots and GIFs in the next few weeks.
Take care!
I can help beta test! I’ve been a developer for 20 years and gamer for 30 🙂
Sure! Send me a mail to rogue *dot* caster *dot* games *at* gmail.com!
It sounds and looks awesome! Really looking forward for the alpha version. If you don’t mind me asking, are you still working on this? I haven’t seen any activities in this blog or twitter and it makes me worried.
Cheers ~
Hello there!
Thanks for the comments! Yes, I’m still working on Divided Kingdoms as much as I can in my free time. I’m sorry if I haven’t posted blog updates in a long time, my focus is to work on the game and release a first Alpha version ASAP.
I’ll start writing blog updates again soon, and try to find a format that keeps it short and sweet. I posted new screenshots on the Media page!
Thanks and take care!