Updated Ghilcrest - AI Testing & Smooth Wall Collision - Podcast Interview

cryamore:

Welcome all new followers! Here’s today’s Kickstarter update! 

Refined Ghilcrest

We have drastically changed Ghilcrest’s layout for the game. Though we were huge fans of the scale of the first one, we decided to scrap it as it’s a bit confusing when running through it, and very resource heavy:

The old one measured approximately 72 screens!!! (1280x720) The main reason we initially laid it out this way was because of the lack of camera control and that originally houses all had to have their entrances facing the player. So we originally spread each building around to stay meet that factor. Though, looking back, we may have spaced things a bit too much.

While Esmy will rarely be blocked by a building, there’s way too many screens and too many empty spaces. The amount of environments to draw and color is pretty huge and while a big town is always nice, it’s only worth it if every bit of space is utilized properly. We believe this applies to any environment really (clearly evident in MMORPGs and sandbox games).

So we did more studying. We looked deeper into a few games in the Playstation era (Saga Frontier, Legend of Mana) as they were within a similar vein as Cryamore; RPGs with hand-drawn environments not following a tile-based setup. We figured that having a tighter layout wouldn’t really hurt and it’s not too bad having certain buildings obscure Esmy at times.

Pictured above is the updated layout for Ghilcrest composing of approximately 26 screens now, a HUGE downsize by approximately 63%, all while still managing to almost keep the same amount of buildings available. Old Ghilcrest had 17 buildings, while the new has 16. Some entrances may not be visible to the camera this time around, but we are circumventing this with opacity shifting when Esmy appears behind them. We may even provide a cursor option (a la Final Fantasy VII) that you could turn on to keep track of her.

We also even made it more isometrical in view, as originally we could have followed the more open layout, but doing it this way keeps it uncomplicated for the player.

We’re going to add the cemetery and pond (where we can even have a fishing mini-game) along the South exit (southeast exit on screen) which will extend that area down a bit, but this is the new layout! Here’s a small animated walkthrough of the layout so you can check out the symmetry:

Wall Sliding and Mob AI

We’re still setting up a lot of stuff, but we can show how smooth our collision mechanics will be. We want tactility to our gameplay since we’ll be playing with a ton of fun abilities that’ll buff Esmy up. So we worked in the same Wall Sliding mechanic similar to Link to the Past. Also here’s a bit of our 1st Mob AI System: the Detection mechanic, where the mob will detect Esmy if she’s within their comfort zone, chase her, and return to it’s position once Esmy gets far away. We can tweak this however we like, such as making enemies cover more ground when chasing her, waiting for a bit when stopping to see if she’s gone for good, or even chase her indefinitely until she kills it (or can’t… hehe). 

The other AI System we’re currently putting in now is Elemental Acclimatization, where we give each mob an elemental strength to work in the rock-paper-scissors format when choosing your elemental load-outs. Some mobs may make it clear what their elemental acclimatization is, but others may not. It’ll be up to the player to figure things out.

The other AI Types we’re also working in are: 

• Aggro (a variation of what you see above), where mobs will just attack once Esmy steps in their comfort zone.
• Stealth, where mobs can render themselves invisible to the player. 
• Summoner, where mobs can call in other mobs to help them out when under attack.  
• Pack Behavior, where mobs will gang up on Esmy if she attacks one of them.
• Support, where mobs will buff and heal other mobs. 
• Steal, where they can steal cryamore or items from Esmy. 
• Stationary, where they don’t move at all and be rooted to the ground.
• Self Destruct, which is pretty self-explanatory.
• Transformation, where mobs would change appearance or stats will be buffed when hitting a certain condition. 

We’ll cover more of these AI Types the more we go along and as we implement them. We’re working in combat as well now so you should be seeing tests coming within the next week or so regarding it.

Fun Podcast

The folks at Whachow had a podcast interview with some of us (Rob, Alan, Kimlinh, Marianne, and Chris), and we barely had time to prepare so excuse the nervousness and fidgetiness! We share how Cryamore came about, what’s it about, Kickstarting it, the inspiration and influence behind it, voice acting, and more. So enjoy~!

And as always, thanks for the support! You are why this is happening! Keep telling everybody about us!