February 2019 Progress Update (Part 2)! (Patreon)

Hey again :D,

Tonight we’ve got a video featuring the updated Splicer animations, an old favorite enemy returning for Pure Onyx as well as a completely new one, a new map and an update from Mr. Kittyhawk on his work in Unity!

• Splicer Thug Animation Update
• Vioreaper Enemy Reveal + Bonus
• Vioreaper Concept Art
• Tunnel/Vioreaper Nest Concept
• Tunnel/Vioreaper Nest 3D Preview
• New Procedural Materials
• Mr. Kittyhawk’s Unity Update

Splicer Thug Animation Update

So, just to remind everyone, what you saw in the last Pure Onyx release isn’t an example of the final animations.  The actual animations will be more dynamic, readable, and detailed. I made a little comparison showing a punch from the last release on top, which is entirely generated by Spine’s automated animation blending. The one on the bottom is the completed animation.  

As far as H stuff goes, we’ll be working on animating it within the next few days.

The video at the top shows the updated animations for the Splicer Thugs.  There are also some new issues with shadows and a bit of other wonkiness that won't be present in the next release.  The info on the changes shown are as follows:

• Added animations for Punch 1, Punch 2, Defend, Hit (damage), Ground Hit, Knockdown, Stand Up 
• Playback speed is now a function of the individual animation, not the character (meaning Walk can be a different speed than Punch, for instance).
• Punches now have a brief cue/anticipation
• The enemy now wobbles when damage animations play.  This is a technique we saw in everything from Final Fight to Dragon's Crown.
• We have a recoil animation for when the defending Splicer is hit, but we can't add it until Mr. Kittyhawk revamps the AI.

Aside from fixing the more obvious glitches, we’ve already made some improvements to the animations shown in the video. It's definitely a step forward from Spine's automated blending :D.

Vioreaper Reveal + Bonus! 

The Vioreaper is making its return from MATM with a new design! We thought that you guys would enjoy a biomonster enemy sooner rather than later, so we figured out a way to work them into the first level. Limbo also developed one of his early ideas for an entirely new biomonster enemy we’re simply calling a Charger for now. Let us know what you think!

• Vioreaper Design - Full Resolution 
• Vioreaper Pose Sketches 
• Vioreaper Scale Test 
• New Biomonster Enemy! 

Vioreaper Concept Art

After Uber’s design of the Underpass map, I came up with the idea to work in a map where Vioreapers would make sense. We’re going to add a tunnel map into the first level, where you’ll get an introduction to biomonster enemies. I think once we make a public demo this will show players that we’re still all about the weird stuff and not going all vanilla or something.

I’ve chosen the Vioreaper as the first biomonster, and as such we worked on the new design in between H stuff. It took quite a bit of work :D. We’re considering giving them the ability to swap their meaty appendage for a stinger and to shoot paralyzing darts. They’ll also be able to fly off screen and swoop in for a dive attack with their slicers. Let us know if you have any other ideas for their moveset, and check out all the artwork we've assembled below!

• Vioreaper Early Color Test  
• Vioreaper Concepts 1 
• Vioreaper Concepts 2 

Tunnel Map / Vioreaper Nest Concept

Since we’ve got the Vioreapers, we needed a good environment for them as well :D.  The next map we’re working on is just that.  The idea is that Onyx will first encounter some Splicers that were attacked by the Vioreapers, and beyond that will be a nest that spawns them. 

· Full Tunnel Map Concept 

Tunnel Map 3D Preview

Uber’s been hard at work on the hard surface part of the tunnel map.  He custom modeled all of this with the idea for it to act like a modular tileset, meaning we can reskin and splice pieces of it into other environments easily later.   

• Tunnel Map 3D Preview 1
• Tunnel Map 3D Preview 2
• Wireframe 

Uber’s New Procedural Materials

While working on the tunnel map, Ubercharge also expanded and updated the procedural material library he’s been working on. Having this dramatically speeds up things since the surfaces don’t require UV mapping or custom textures.

• Procedural Materials
• Procedural Material Details

Mr. Kittyhawk’s Unity Update

Hi everyone, this month for me has been about ensuring that the base we have to build up from is stable and has the features we need as developers to get content working well in engine. It's not sexy work, but it's gotta happen. We bought a few third party libraries and plugins to jumpstart our initial prototyping. Those were good to get started, but we've already outgrown them in a number of ways. Some had limits we didn't expect, and others weren't as stable as we need. So I've been cleaning house refactoring our Physics, Animation, AI, Combat and general software architecture. The improvements aren't ready for a release yet, but they'll provide a much better base to build on top of. Animation is finished, exposing much more control that the H system needs and being about 1000 lines of code shorter (we're not using unity's packaged animation system at all anymore). Physics is 85% done, and includes a new debugging tool that all of you will have access to! You guys are paying for a closer look at the development process right? In the next release you'll be able to see an approximation of the collision checks that are happening under the hood, this visualizer can be toggled on and off with F1, and will be available until in all future pre-release builds. Combat and AI changes we'll talk about along with the introduction of H content in the coming weeks. Thanks for reading!