DevBlog #15
[h2]Filipe - Lead Programmer[/h2]
It’s been an absolutely great month with plenty of awesome new things coming down the pipeline. This month I worked on the Pachycephelosaurus Headbutt ability. This ability will arrive with two variations, a tap and a hold. We are still designing the main differences between those variations, besides animations. Balancing it is also a work in progress and fracture will also play a role in these abilities.
The Utahraptor Pounce has also received some attention, besides the usual bug fixes it got some new flashy animations and small changes to its momentum when performing the ability while standing. One complaint we kept hearing was the dismount after pouncing big targets, like Stegosaurus, so besides the animation it now falls further away from the target and is faster to land as well. This ability will continue to be updated with new animations and improvements to the mechanic and overall look, so it isn´t finished yet. Expect more improvements in general in the future.
The Diet System is under vigorous testing from our Quality Assurance team, with the majority of the bugs eliminated we are ready to organize a more robust and populated test environment to see how it performs, which will require assistance from our awesome community, like a stress test, but far more limited and focused in scope. Additional details will follow in future.
Another important feature being worked on in conjunction with dmIV is the fracture system, the design is simple, but allows a lot of variation in gameplay, not only different effects applied to your character during fights, but there will be another important factor to surviving in general.
I also updated Knockdown with ragdoll because having it be animation only doesn't look as great as we would like, so the ragdoll adds some realism to the fall, it works well when hit by the Headbutt ability, however this is still work in progress and will be extended to many other mechanics and systems in the future. Besides all that I’ve been occupied with the usual bug fixes, performance improvements and some stuff I can't comment on yet. So, see you soon!
[h2]Amar0k - Programmer[/h2]
As you’d expect, I’ve devoted much of this month to developing additional AI variants, including the new Ambient AI which will make its debut as part of the upcoming Diet System, breathing new life into the island’s ecosystem through a variety of extant creatures ranging from chickens, sea turtles, goats and much more that I’ll leave for you all to discover in-game.
Besides that, I’ve recently completed some extensive work on our backend. However I can’t share the details of that just yet.
[h2]Wedge - Sound Designer[/h2]
I finished off designing the fracture sounds early this month. I've taken a modular approach to how these sounds will be implemented, creating a collection of different elements [breaks, cracks, pop, crunches and splinters]. I’ve created variants for a range of sizes/severity, which will provide control over the fracture sounds make-up as I can vary the combination of these components. Continuing on from fractures I’ve also finalised some blunt force impact sounds, with the majority of focus aimed at getting the Pachy vs Pachy headbutt sound to hit just right.
I have returned back to ambient audio to create the cave ambient audio. I’ve designed some bedding loops as well as bat and water drip one shots, once I’ve finished designing the sounds for this (currently) final biome, the audio currently not set up, will need to be as well as refined properly in Spiro, aiming to achieve a dynamic and tasteful soundscape with a balance of both diversity and sparsity.
I have also been focusing on experimenting with the design of a selection of creature’s vocals for some new additions that will be coming soonest, including Compsognathus and Pachycephalosaurus, in addition to editing [and designing, for the more unique species] sounds to accompany the ambient animals arriving with the Diet System, all of which I will be carrying over into the next month.
Additionally to the above I have also made some general adjustments to audio; the Utahraptor adult broadcast has been improved as well as the attenuation set up being fixed. Further work has been done in general on the vocals' pitch and volume; the adult Stegosaurus vocals in particular have been improved with some level balancing between layers. I’ve also added some improvements to the environment audio such as randomly triggered stick snap sounds to the jungle floor surface footsteps and light wind and foliage rustle loops to some of the new ambient zones.
[h2]Baardo - 3D Artist[/h2]
In the last few months I’ve been continuing work on the large amount of edible plants we want for the diet system. In addition to the Tagetes, Sunchoke and Agave plants I showed last time, I’ve also wrapped up work on a Horned Melon, Wild Potato Vine and Chanterelle Mushroom.
What I didn’t get a chance to show last time was the assets in the engine, so enjoy some nice eye candy. I’m looking forward to seeing these assets scattered throughout the game world for players to spot and eat.
[h2]Bryan - Animator[/h2]
A devblog from me? First time for everything I guess. Been working on improving our animation workflow, centered mainly around the addition of Pachycephalosaurus and its ability to knock things into next week. One of the hurdles we’ve had with animation is with the left and right turning, used to be those were in separate files so if we wanted to make changes to the base animation, it required us to then have to remake the left and right versions of that locomotion cycle.
Recently however I’ve found a workaround to a bug in 3D Max that allows us to use Layers, which is both significantly more convenient to work with and faster to do. The major upside to using layers is we can readily make changes to the base animation and not have to remake the left/right versions of that locomotion cycle. As an added bonus, limping and other injuries that are visible during locomotion can be done as layers as well, which makes the whole process of adding injury animations to all the current roster faster and more productive.
[h2]Fred - 2D Artist[/h2]
I've been helping out with how our natural environment will be handled. Overall the island is to be a tropical environment. As you've seen from some of Jace’s stunning work, there will be coasts and jungles, but there’s more to that when it comes to the tropics. We’ll have visually distinct habitats so the island has points of interest and uniqueness without losing cohesion.
Recently I've been working on underwater habitats. There will be 4 different habitats; Swamp, Lake, River, and the Coast. The most important thing for me right now is to make sure each habitat has a clear visual distinction to one another. So for example, the color of the water for each will be different, as well as the plants and floor. The real challenge, after finding some visually interesting plants, is finding their names. Googling plants isn't fun. Next I’ll be working on the Rivers, then the Coast. The concepts take a while to be completed but they’ll make their way into the phase-two channel, then eventually into the game for you to explore.
[h2]Tapwing - 2D Artist[/h2]
A lot of my recent work has entailed me revisiting the old dockyard and working with VisualTech, Jace and Dondi to tackle the layout and aesthetic. I gathered the old dockyard concepts, reimagined some structures and worked to create a rough concept and overall layout blueprint of the dockyard.
Additionally since we’ve been brainstorming other buildings and facilities to flesh out the landscape, research and write-ups have been the other half of my workload. I’ve been creating pitch lists of human structures and what potential mechanics or lore they could be tied to. With humans on the horizon, we’ll want some of their environments to be ready.
[h2]KissenKitten - Producer[/h2]
Well this month I hit the ground running upon returning from vacation. Bringing with me swaths of on-location redwood reference images that Jace and the rest of the team have been putting to good use. It really feels like another world!
The majority of this month has been diet focused as that will be the meat and potatoes of Update 4 (sorry Punch). I’m sure many of you have caught Amar0k’s ambient AI streams and seen some of those placeholder critters running around. The plan here is to get a relatively solid foundation of diet items in the game for adequate gameplay and testing. Diets as a whole are intended to hit a few marks which include but are not limited to, bolstering your creature’s growth, increasing your stats and moving players as a whole around the map to attain the numerous benefits of following an appropriate diet. That being said, as with most features we have planned, there are no requirements to following the guidelines of the mechanic but you may find yourself woefully debilitated in strength, speed, growth, wellness etc. Be aware that many of the ambient creatures you have seen thus far are placeholders and are subject to change in model, texture, animation and even species. So don’t get too attached. Alongside the animals will be our diet plants which span quite a few species for which we’ll likely drop more images of in the not so distant future. However, the initial release of Update 4 will not include the entire plant roster as that will take far more time to produce than is necessary to release Update 4 effectively. So you will continually be seeing new diet plants added to the game over the course of 2021.
We’ve also been toiling away with fractures. There are currently 3 types of fractures you can sustain from a fracture-causing attack. Each fracture type has its own debilitating effects. Our primary goal with the fracture system was to reimagine the archaic “bonebreak” into something that feels hard-hitting and impactful without being overpowered and an instant death sentence. Alongside this will come many animation changes. As you may know, The Isle has always favored a minimalistic HUD that aims to keep you in the moment when traversing the island. In order to keep with that theme, we needed to be able to convey player vs player impact in a way that remains consistent with our vision but also gives you, the player, visual clarity as to what is happening when you are engaged in combat with another player. So our fractures will be ushering in new animations that will denote what type of fracture you or your target has sustained. So, at a glance, you will know exactly which players are suffering from which fractures (or combination of fractures), giving you more opportunities to coordinate your next attack or make a speedy retreat.
The Pachycephalosaurus has been getting lots of love this month due to it being the poster child of fracturing. We've been spending a lot of time injecting more personality and combat prowess into it so when you are finally behind its eyes, you will be able to fully feel the fantasy of being a no-nonsense, heavy-hitting herbivore that demands respect and its space. In addition to that, we have been reworking some of its older animations to bring them more inline with the quality EVRIMA dinosaurs demand. So be on the lookout for those changes as time goes on.
We’re also continuously working on improving performance across the board. Which is a never ending cycle. Aside from that, there are a few extra flavor adjustments to some of the other inhabitants. The Utahraptor pounce (which isn’t quite complete just yet) has gotten some love and there’s a new ability for the Pteranodon as well as some work for the scavenging Compsognathus and its governing AI. Humans are also well underway and are on track to make their initial appearance this year. More on them at a later date.
That pretty much sums up the month thus far. We hope you guys are as excited to experience these new systems as we are to present them to you. As always, when the time comes, we’ll want to hear your valuable feedback on what the systems are and are not giving so they can be improved upon. We are also welcoming a new member to the team in August. So if you see them around (if they wish to be seen), say hello.
That’s all folks! Be kind to each other and to yourself.
It’s been an absolutely great month with plenty of awesome new things coming down the pipeline. This month I worked on the Pachycephelosaurus Headbutt ability. This ability will arrive with two variations, a tap and a hold. We are still designing the main differences between those variations, besides animations. Balancing it is also a work in progress and fracture will also play a role in these abilities.
The Utahraptor Pounce has also received some attention, besides the usual bug fixes it got some new flashy animations and small changes to its momentum when performing the ability while standing. One complaint we kept hearing was the dismount after pouncing big targets, like Stegosaurus, so besides the animation it now falls further away from the target and is faster to land as well. This ability will continue to be updated with new animations and improvements to the mechanic and overall look, so it isn´t finished yet. Expect more improvements in general in the future.
The Diet System is under vigorous testing from our Quality Assurance team, with the majority of the bugs eliminated we are ready to organize a more robust and populated test environment to see how it performs, which will require assistance from our awesome community, like a stress test, but far more limited and focused in scope. Additional details will follow in future.
Another important feature being worked on in conjunction with dmIV is the fracture system, the design is simple, but allows a lot of variation in gameplay, not only different effects applied to your character during fights, but there will be another important factor to surviving in general.
I also updated Knockdown with ragdoll because having it be animation only doesn't look as great as we would like, so the ragdoll adds some realism to the fall, it works well when hit by the Headbutt ability, however this is still work in progress and will be extended to many other mechanics and systems in the future. Besides all that I’ve been occupied with the usual bug fixes, performance improvements and some stuff I can't comment on yet. So, see you soon!
[h2]Amar0k - Programmer[/h2]
As you’d expect, I’ve devoted much of this month to developing additional AI variants, including the new Ambient AI which will make its debut as part of the upcoming Diet System, breathing new life into the island’s ecosystem through a variety of extant creatures ranging from chickens, sea turtles, goats and much more that I’ll leave for you all to discover in-game.
Besides that, I’ve recently completed some extensive work on our backend. However I can’t share the details of that just yet.
[h2]Wedge - Sound Designer[/h2]
I finished off designing the fracture sounds early this month. I've taken a modular approach to how these sounds will be implemented, creating a collection of different elements [breaks, cracks, pop, crunches and splinters]. I’ve created variants for a range of sizes/severity, which will provide control over the fracture sounds make-up as I can vary the combination of these components. Continuing on from fractures I’ve also finalised some blunt force impact sounds, with the majority of focus aimed at getting the Pachy vs Pachy headbutt sound to hit just right.
I have returned back to ambient audio to create the cave ambient audio. I’ve designed some bedding loops as well as bat and water drip one shots, once I’ve finished designing the sounds for this (currently) final biome, the audio currently not set up, will need to be as well as refined properly in Spiro, aiming to achieve a dynamic and tasteful soundscape with a balance of both diversity and sparsity.
I have also been focusing on experimenting with the design of a selection of creature’s vocals for some new additions that will be coming soonest, including Compsognathus and Pachycephalosaurus, in addition to editing [and designing, for the more unique species] sounds to accompany the ambient animals arriving with the Diet System, all of which I will be carrying over into the next month.
Additionally to the above I have also made some general adjustments to audio; the Utahraptor adult broadcast has been improved as well as the attenuation set up being fixed. Further work has been done in general on the vocals' pitch and volume; the adult Stegosaurus vocals in particular have been improved with some level balancing between layers. I’ve also added some improvements to the environment audio such as randomly triggered stick snap sounds to the jungle floor surface footsteps and light wind and foliage rustle loops to some of the new ambient zones.
[h2]Baardo - 3D Artist[/h2]
In the last few months I’ve been continuing work on the large amount of edible plants we want for the diet system. In addition to the Tagetes, Sunchoke and Agave plants I showed last time, I’ve also wrapped up work on a Horned Melon, Wild Potato Vine and Chanterelle Mushroom.
What I didn’t get a chance to show last time was the assets in the engine, so enjoy some nice eye candy. I’m looking forward to seeing these assets scattered throughout the game world for players to spot and eat.
[h2]Bryan - Animator[/h2]
A devblog from me? First time for everything I guess. Been working on improving our animation workflow, centered mainly around the addition of Pachycephalosaurus and its ability to knock things into next week. One of the hurdles we’ve had with animation is with the left and right turning, used to be those were in separate files so if we wanted to make changes to the base animation, it required us to then have to remake the left and right versions of that locomotion cycle.
Recently however I’ve found a workaround to a bug in 3D Max that allows us to use Layers, which is both significantly more convenient to work with and faster to do. The major upside to using layers is we can readily make changes to the base animation and not have to remake the left/right versions of that locomotion cycle. As an added bonus, limping and other injuries that are visible during locomotion can be done as layers as well, which makes the whole process of adding injury animations to all the current roster faster and more productive.
[h2]Fred - 2D Artist[/h2]
I've been helping out with how our natural environment will be handled. Overall the island is to be a tropical environment. As you've seen from some of Jace’s stunning work, there will be coasts and jungles, but there’s more to that when it comes to the tropics. We’ll have visually distinct habitats so the island has points of interest and uniqueness without losing cohesion.
Recently I've been working on underwater habitats. There will be 4 different habitats; Swamp, Lake, River, and the Coast. The most important thing for me right now is to make sure each habitat has a clear visual distinction to one another. So for example, the color of the water for each will be different, as well as the plants and floor. The real challenge, after finding some visually interesting plants, is finding their names. Googling plants isn't fun. Next I’ll be working on the Rivers, then the Coast. The concepts take a while to be completed but they’ll make their way into the phase-two channel, then eventually into the game for you to explore.
[h2]Tapwing - 2D Artist[/h2]
A lot of my recent work has entailed me revisiting the old dockyard and working with VisualTech, Jace and Dondi to tackle the layout and aesthetic. I gathered the old dockyard concepts, reimagined some structures and worked to create a rough concept and overall layout blueprint of the dockyard.
Additionally since we’ve been brainstorming other buildings and facilities to flesh out the landscape, research and write-ups have been the other half of my workload. I’ve been creating pitch lists of human structures and what potential mechanics or lore they could be tied to. With humans on the horizon, we’ll want some of their environments to be ready.
[h2]KissenKitten - Producer[/h2]
Well this month I hit the ground running upon returning from vacation. Bringing with me swaths of on-location redwood reference images that Jace and the rest of the team have been putting to good use. It really feels like another world!
The majority of this month has been diet focused as that will be the meat and potatoes of Update 4 (sorry Punch). I’m sure many of you have caught Amar0k’s ambient AI streams and seen some of those placeholder critters running around. The plan here is to get a relatively solid foundation of diet items in the game for adequate gameplay and testing. Diets as a whole are intended to hit a few marks which include but are not limited to, bolstering your creature’s growth, increasing your stats and moving players as a whole around the map to attain the numerous benefits of following an appropriate diet. That being said, as with most features we have planned, there are no requirements to following the guidelines of the mechanic but you may find yourself woefully debilitated in strength, speed, growth, wellness etc. Be aware that many of the ambient creatures you have seen thus far are placeholders and are subject to change in model, texture, animation and even species. So don’t get too attached. Alongside the animals will be our diet plants which span quite a few species for which we’ll likely drop more images of in the not so distant future. However, the initial release of Update 4 will not include the entire plant roster as that will take far more time to produce than is necessary to release Update 4 effectively. So you will continually be seeing new diet plants added to the game over the course of 2021.
We’ve also been toiling away with fractures. There are currently 3 types of fractures you can sustain from a fracture-causing attack. Each fracture type has its own debilitating effects. Our primary goal with the fracture system was to reimagine the archaic “bonebreak” into something that feels hard-hitting and impactful without being overpowered and an instant death sentence. Alongside this will come many animation changes. As you may know, The Isle has always favored a minimalistic HUD that aims to keep you in the moment when traversing the island. In order to keep with that theme, we needed to be able to convey player vs player impact in a way that remains consistent with our vision but also gives you, the player, visual clarity as to what is happening when you are engaged in combat with another player. So our fractures will be ushering in new animations that will denote what type of fracture you or your target has sustained. So, at a glance, you will know exactly which players are suffering from which fractures (or combination of fractures), giving you more opportunities to coordinate your next attack or make a speedy retreat.
The Pachycephalosaurus has been getting lots of love this month due to it being the poster child of fracturing. We've been spending a lot of time injecting more personality and combat prowess into it so when you are finally behind its eyes, you will be able to fully feel the fantasy of being a no-nonsense, heavy-hitting herbivore that demands respect and its space. In addition to that, we have been reworking some of its older animations to bring them more inline with the quality EVRIMA dinosaurs demand. So be on the lookout for those changes as time goes on.
We’re also continuously working on improving performance across the board. Which is a never ending cycle. Aside from that, there are a few extra flavor adjustments to some of the other inhabitants. The Utahraptor pounce (which isn’t quite complete just yet) has gotten some love and there’s a new ability for the Pteranodon as well as some work for the scavenging Compsognathus and its governing AI. Humans are also well underway and are on track to make their initial appearance this year. More on them at a later date.
That pretty much sums up the month thus far. We hope you guys are as excited to experience these new systems as we are to present them to you. As always, when the time comes, we’ll want to hear your valuable feedback on what the systems are and are not giving so they can be improved upon. We are also welcoming a new member to the team in August. So if you see them around (if they wish to be seen), say hello.
That’s all folks! Be kind to each other and to yourself.