Combat Arena
We wrapped up several bug fixes with P2P. We’re making a lot of progress, but still want to have things running more smoothly before we make it publicly available, so we don’t plan to include P2P in our next patch.
The Kinfolk animation controller has been adjusted so that it transitions more smoothly between attacks. This helps further improve the feel of combat by allowing your attacks to flow together more easily, without every animation needing to completely finish before a new one begins.
The following bugs have been fixed:
The remote client was not firing dash attacks correctly.
NPC movement was not getting reset to original values when NPCs would override their movement when using certain abilities with the new Utility AI.
NPCs weren't setting the correct direction for certain dash attacks.
Single Player
We’ve received our Nintendo Switch Devkit and have started working on compatibility! There’s a learning curve involved, so we’re glad to be starting now.
The Combat Arena Menu on Nintendo Switch! This build is in Debugging mode so that we can see info from the development console.
Work has begun on sneaking mechanics. This will allow the player to crouch and help them avoid detection by other characters in the game. You’ll only be able to crouch as a human, but certain Kinfolk have their own methods for staying hidden. While crouching, your footsteps will be harder to hear, and other characters will have a harder time seeing you from far away- especially if you’re hiding in tall grass.
We’re entering the preparation phase for character customization. Next week, we’ll be meeting with the artists and developers responsible for this feature to discuss implementation details before work officially begins. Even with a relatively modest list of options, character customization is still a massive undertaking that requires careful coordination between many layers of our art and dev teams.
We’ve continued work on improvements to the game’s pathfinding system to better support Hinterlock as it grows throughout development. We’ve adjusted several settings that have resulted in a 50% reduction in memory consumption by the navmesh, while retaining a similar pathfinding quality. This is especially important for lower end systems like the Switch, where memory is more constrained. These adjustments also drastically reduced the time it takes to bake the navmesh.
We implemented 2 new Active Abilities and 1 new Passive Ability. Some of these are more complex than usual from a development perspective, so they’ve been somewhat time consuming. We expect they’ll be a lot of fun to use and well worth the effort!
The human character’s animations have been touched up when summoning and recalling Kinfolk. We fixed a stutter in the player's animator when sending out a Kinfolk, and when a Kinfolk is being recalled, the player's movement is now halted briefly. This allows for a smoother transition between playing as the Kinfolk and playing as the human.
Implementing our new terrain tools has gone extraordinarily smoothly so far! We expected that we’d need to spend much longer integrating them into our workflow, and have been very happily surprised. We estimate that these tools will save us weeks to months of terrain work, and bring the quality of our environments to a new level.
Thank you for stopping by! We’ll see you next time, on July 1.
