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Hey everyone!

It’s a band new year, with plenty to do, so let’s get right into the news. Last time, I mentioned I’d be experimenting with a new camera perspective, and here is the first look.

If you’ve been following along since the very beginning, you may think this perspective is somewhat reminiscent of the early 2D development, but as we are operating in three dimensions, we can do a little more. The camera can be rotated around the player, allowing you to see the world from a new angle. This may be used for improving navigability in complex environments, or be controlled by locational triggers in a similar manner to the cinematic dolly camera I showed off in a previous update.

Animation Updates

To better suit the camera perspective, I decided it would be worthwhile to overhaul the player movement animations. Our locomotion system now features omnidirectional movement. This means that if you aim while moving, your character will face the point you are targeting, rather than the direction of travel. This new setup lets us handle strafing animations, and with some setup, it should also perform well in other third person camera positions (like over-the-shoulder).

Arkavite - Omnidirectional Movement

There are other aspects of player animation framework which I've been working to fill in. We now have turn in place animations, run-to-stop animations, and as an extra little special detail, your character will tilt their head to look where you're aiming.

A directional dash/dodge system is also in the works. This closely relates to our blink spell which will allow the caster to quickly translocate several meters in any given direction.

Arkavite - Dash / Dodge Testing.. With style!

For dodge/blinking I would like there to be a magical and non-magical variant. What we have at the moment is something somewhere in-between the two. Mechanically, the magical and non-magical variants will consume different resources and may differ in their progression, but should function similarly enough to one another. The non-magical variant would consume stamina, and would scale in speed and range based on physical attributes, while the magical variant would consume arka, have a high base speed, and a range which scales based on tier of casting.

Gun Sword

Also, in the news, I’ve been improving the gun and sword play. We now have gun animations which can be chained, and blend into our existing sword attacks. To make gun impacts feel better grounded in the environment, I've been busy at work, experimenting with material based impact effects. Walls are no longer ignoring us, and the impact VFX change to reflect the material which was impacted.

The current impact VFX are just for demonstration purposes. Some more stylization is definitely needed. As for our gun animations, I believe there is too much lead in. I will be testing how firing feels with a shorter windup in an effort to improve weapon responsiveness.

Most recently I’ve been working towards intractability, and figuring out more things I can do to make the players presence in the environment impactful. Since I’ve been messing around so much with guns lately, I’ve decided to begin by pursuing destruction.

Arkavite - Destruction Testing

Destructible pillars, statues and other environment props are always a joy. The thought of using this tech to hide secret passages behind destructible walls does come to mind, but before that, I yearn to have destructible crates, and barrels, for loot drops and item pickups. Perhaps I should also add in some explosive props which interact with the rest of these destructible elements? There is still a little more work to be done in this area before presenting the next experimental build, so until then, I will be sure to keep you posted with more updates.

What are your thoughts? Do you have any questions? Be sure to let me know down below!