Single Player
We have new VFX for phantoms! They’ll have a slight smoky glow with a sparkling effect. It’s most noticeable when they stand still, and will leave a subtle trail behind them when they move. Here’s an example on a Phantom Lumala:
North_Star is waiting on final touches for their model, and will be ready for rigging soon. Violet_Fang’s model is currently being rigged for animations, while standard and combat animations are underway for Little_Bandit.
Mr. L_K’s model has been rigged and implemented for his scenes, and Mr. Green_Collar’s model is rigged and awaiting implementation. We’re also in the process of creating concept art for another major human NPC.
Multiple outfits for NPCs are currently in the rigging process. We’re modeling a few new hairstyles, including the simple bun we showed on Twitter this week. Human characters will soon be receiving several miscellaneous animations like getting in and out of a bed, sliding and turning while sprinting, and gardening.
We’ve given the character creator an option to randomize the initial character! We also cleaned up our character creation, inventory, and quick use menus for a smoother experience.
The boss room we’ve been working on has come a long way! We implemented the boss character’s final model, and the model for the room itself is mostly complete, with scaling and a few set piece models still in the works
While we continue working on concept art for the opening cinematic, we’re also creating concept art for graveyard set pieces. We’re nearly finished with all the house models for the town. Very soon we’ll be implementing all these houses and adding more NPCs to create the full town experience.
Our cinematic animations are out of the previsualization phase and into the polish phase! This means we’re finished blocking out the general animations and camera movements, so now we get to focus on the details of smaller motions in the animations. The VFX for an important scene are finished and we’re really pleased with the result!
We’ve been writing NPC dialogue for Guild officers, with different versions for those patrolling the wilderness and those stationed in towns. They’ll have a handful of different lines of dialogue depending on difference circumstances.
We’re doing extra terrain sculpting in a few areas for a unique side mission. The logic to run through this side mission has been implemented in its basic form, and we’re currently adding more of the details.
We implemented combat AI at different levels for one of our starting area Kinfolk. We’ve also added features related to flying NPC AI and how they navigate when in combat.
In an effort to continue polishing the feel of combat, we changed the camera to make it rise up a fair bit while you're using spawn, call-down, and lob attacks for easier aiming. We’re also trying out some changes to how certain ranged attacks can be used while running away from a target. Instead of a Kinfolk being able to fire directly behind themself without looking, they now stop and turn around to shoot. This only applies when running away; shooting while strafing is unchanged. The change allows attack animations to actually line up with the direction the attack is traveling, and levels the playing field for melee focused characters.
We’ve improved how we handle GUID components that are most often used for saving and loading. Essentially, we automated much of the process so that it's easy to work with and less error prone.
As always, we continue to implement new Kinfolk abilities and fix bugs as QA finds them. For example, we fixed issues with NPCs having incorrect rotations when firing abilities.
We worked on some tooling for Steam so our QA testers see version updates more reliably. We’ve also discovered that Steam counts working in Unity as playing the game, so our devs are going to get some impressive hours in!
Community
Tailor backers: Today is the last day to submit your outfit to be included in the game! If you haven’t yet, be sure to send your submission to SkymillTailors@gmail.com
Scribe backers have until July 31st to submit their titles. If you have this tier, check your email! If you have any questions, send a message to support@skymill.com.
Thanks for stopping by! Our next newsletter will be out on July 14. See you then!
