Progress
Our stamina system got a shiny new update! The bar drains and refills smoothly, and it has new support for a "fatigued" state when you run all the way out of stamina. This makes you a little bit slower and unable to use any actions that would consume stamina, like jumping or dodging. The fatigued state ends when your stamina bar is completely refilled. As a result, you have to be much more thoughtful about how often you choose to dodge or sprint. Keep an eye on the stamina bar in the preview below!
We completed an initial balance pass on Red Letter mode, which has been a source of many of the improvements we made this sprint! While there’s still plenty left to do, it’s already really fun to play after just a few adjustments.
We’ve added nearly a dozen new combat AIs for different NPCs. These are mostly new strategies for specific use cases (ex. a Kodoki that focuses on putting you to sleep before firing one large attack). Our improvements to NPC target selection from last time are complete, and we reorganized our behavior logic. NPCs are now more reactive to player movement, and in general they’re at least 10-15% more efficient. We’ve also created initial versions of a few new human NPCs for the Beta and added them to their respective locations.
Lock-on is once again in our sights! We’ve made a host of improvements to this feature since the last time it was implemented, and combat feels so much smoother as a result— especially when playing with a controller. While locked on to a target, the target will stay in the center of the player’s view, similar to other games. When using ranged attacks while locked on, the player can also aim to lead the target and account for the attack’s travel time. There are definitely still situations where it’s best to keep your camera unlocked, like when fighting larger groups of enemies or using more advanced combat techniques. That said, so far lock on is proving to be a huge quality of life feature for both melee and ranged playstyles without providing an advantage to one over the other.
We made improvements to how spawn and lob attacks are aimed. The aiming reticle now tracks the player’s aim while a character is starting their attack animation. Previously, the reticle would stop moving when the character started their ability animation, and would only resume moving again after the ability fired. This made aiming these abilities feel "sticky", especially on abilities that had multiple charges per cooldown. Aiming these abilities feels buttery smooth now.
The "Fire On Release" setting is now enabled by default when playing with controllers. This can be toggled off in the settings, but we’ve found that this configuration feels far more natural on controllers. With all of these improvements, playing with a controller is starting to feel even better than mouse and keyboard!
The human character’s 180 turn animation was happening too often while running around normally, so we restricted the parameters to when the character is sprinting and makes a full 180 turn. We also made improvements to the feel of the human's movement when the animation is used correctly; now it feels more like they’re sliding with momentum as they turn.
We’ve finalized (for now) our "seamless transition" framework for multiplayer.
This means that in the full game you can be playing the single player game, and then decide you want to join your friend for some multiplayer fun— without having to exit the game or quit out to the main menu. You can begin connecting to their world without leaving your own. When you do connect, things from your world will fade out and be replaced by things from your friend’s world. You'll bring with you all of your items, Kinfolk, and even spawn in at the same place in your friend's world for co-op.We spent a lot of time reworking our 1v1 match framework to make it more reliable and capable of running in a seamless way. Keep in mind, in the full game you won’t be stuck on the main menu during matchmaking. We want you to be able to queue for a match while you continue playing single player, and then resume single player activities afterwards seamlessly.
We added more greybox versions of various set pieces that will be featured in the Beta, both large and small. We have the placement and spacing between these set pieces in a fairly good spot now, so we’ll be shifting our focus to the actual geometry of the set pieces next.
You know what would be a lot easier than trying to keep track of exactly which characters you defeated, looking up what EV values they give, and then raging every time you find yourself in a combat encounter that forces you to ruin your carefully concocted stat spread?
How about giving you a set number of points when you level up, and just letting you put them wherever you want?
Kinfolk now gain unassigned stat points upon leveling up. These points can then be added to any of the Kinfolk’s stats that the player chooses.
You know, kinda like an RPG.
A small notification appears next to a Kinfolk on the team UI page when they have points that can be assigned. This way, you’ll be able to assign them at your leisure.
LEXICON
The full lexicon can be found here.
Greybox: A method used for designing large portions of map, dungeons, or other important areas. It involves constructing the general form of the thing in question using placeholder assets and shapes. It’s like a framework so when the correct assets are ready, they can be placed in the orientation that was already laid out. This allows for other developers to work on and around the Greybox before the final art is finished.
Logic: The programming side of any feature. For example, “cooking logic” would be the base level programming for the cooking mechanic.
NPC: A non-player character.
Red Letter mode: The codename for an unrevealed game mode to be included in the Combat Arena Beta.
Sprint: A two week period used for organization. Our newsletters are released on the last day of our sprint.
Thanks for checking in on us! We’ll see you for our next newsletter on May 3.
