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Hi everyone.

I'm pleased to announce we are now on Pateron! Not only that. A new experimental build has just gone live. You can check it out now by visiting our SubscribeStar or Patreon. With that out the way, let's get right into the news!

Last time we were taking a look at the top-down camera mode I was testing. Since then, the new locomotion and gun systems have been integrated into the standard camera mode. I've also added a crosshair for aiming. This all came together quite well.

Arkavite - Over Shoulder Cam (Fig. 1)

Arkavite - Over Shoulder Cam (Fig. 2)

So much so in fact, that after comparing and contrasting the two modes, I have to say, this over the shoulder camera mode just plays better than the top-down isometric camera. I won't say that development of the top-down system was a complete waste. Through experimenting with it, I managed to resolve various issues which had gotten me into a bit of a rut. The top-down mode may still be enabled for special use cases, but I don't think its main mode material.

Perhaps I just needed to have a bit more faith in myself. No more flip flopping! What we have now works well, so we're locking in!

Currency & Loot Boxes

Also in the news, we now have loot drops which will be added to the player as currency upon collection. I've opted for Arkavite to use a combination of coins and cut gems as its denominations. And following on from the brief destruction tests I showed off last time, we now have destructible boxes with randomized loot.

Arkavite - Destruction

1, 10, 100, 200, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000 (Value from left to right)

Arkavite - Currency Pickup

Since the implementation of currency called for some updated UI, I went in and touched up all our HUD textures to match. The HP hearts, currency counter and MP bar should look and feel a bit more in keeping with one another.

Arkavite - HUD Update

Warp Room

The sandbox test map currently features an underground zone, which is housing warps to other levels. It has been barren for quite some time, and as this area will soon house the entrance to our prototype dungeon, I felt it could do with some renovations.

Warp Room - Underground Zone Entrance

I've gone in and decorated this space so it now looks like somewhere you're meant to be, as opposed to the blocky grey backroom development hellscape it once was. Much more inviting.

Before & After

Arkavite - Warp Room

QoL & Cleanups~

I have a couple miscellaneous quality of life improvements and clean-ups to report. Weapons can now be equipped and dequipped via the inventory. As you might have noticed, I've also swapped out our old weapon models for something a little more fitting. Now the foundations have been laid, the road is clear to start thinking about weapon variants, or different tools which can be wielded as weapons. I'm not entirely opposed to making it so that you can wield anything from a stick to a spoon as a weapon. I've built a pretty open ended weapon system, so we'll see what happens.

Arkavite - Inventory

Last but not least, I've implemented a fairly common trick, which allows foliage to fade out as it approaches the player camera. This keeps your view unobstructed if you swing the camera through a tree or attempt to maneuver through some dense bush.

Camera Foliage Fade

Conclusion

And now, we have reached the end. These next few weeks, I'm going to be prioritising trait implementation, and build some more on interactivity. I'd like us to have chests soon, and make it possible to pick up items off the ground, or drop them from your inventory. This does mean I may also be investing time into giving some of our 2D sprites, 3D representations. In that same vein, I would like to work a little on mob drops, and if I have time, I really want to experiment with cloaks, as no adventurer is complete without one.

Please be sure to let me know what you think! I'll see you soon, till then, take care and stay tuned~