Arbiter - Monthly Recap - April 2021 (Patreon)

What's up Keyblade Wielders and Devil Hunters! 

Welcome to another Arbiter Recap! If you liked this content, be sure to smash that like and follow button and hit me up with a pledge of your choice. If you have Amazon Prime subscription, you can also subscribe to my Twitch for FREE using their Prime Gam-

I spent the last month making a lot of terrain, rocks, and trees. I suspect this month I will making many more terrain, rocks, and trees. Level design's pretty fun, and placing objects I've created to create a nice space is great. But dear unholy god mother of shit making environmental assets is the most mind-numbingly boring aspect of this process. That said, it's a valid excuse to jam out to the JJK OST on loop as I eternally model more and more terrain, rocks, and trees. 

I also spent a healthy chunk of time tweaking my environment shaders to keep them performant and pretty (?). It allows me to do some fun stuff like vertex blending multiple textures, painting shadows/occlusion directly onto the models, and some other minor lighting hacks to fit my mood (which is everchanging). 

Arbiter's levels will primarily show the different ways in which energy has corrupted its world. In this level, things are starting to come back to life, but the great trees are still dead. The yellow energy throughout the levels represents ancient energy that doesn't really have a phase typing anymore (no longer light or dark). I've been focused on background assets right now, but will be getting to midground and foreground stuff pretty soon (so Ashe doesn't feel like a tiny baby boy next to these absolute tree units). 

Honestly it all kinda looks like shit right now, but Twitter said it wasn't half bad so I guess that's neat. I'm just gonna make a whole buttload of reusable assets this month to make things at least passable so that your journey from combat arena to combat arena isn't too dull. Truthfully, I'm gonna do my best but I've kind of accepted that Arby's environments are gonna be slightly above serviceable at best, and I think I'm okay with that. As long as they serve their purpose, I'll be satisfied (and if they come out pretty somehow, all the better).

I also spent some time working on a new level mechanic called "orb thingies." You can see them in my latest post here (be sure to comment, like, and retweet to get a virtual nod, slight smirk, and thumbs up from me). These will speed you up a bit and restore some energy if you hit them with the right phase. 

I'll probably work these into getting enough speed/momentum to bridge large gaps in the slides, but they likely won't get that crazy in the demo level. As of right now they just kinda feel good and give you something to do on the slides while giving you a general direction of where to go, like snagging coins in a Mario game. They'll also be used on some wall running sections to allow you to run longer distances. All in all you can think of them as a speed boost mechanic to make platforming and exploration a smidge more fun, nothing more. 

I'll also be working on some ability changes in my spare time which I'm super excited to show off. With how boring the environmental stuff is, I'm trying to allocate a bit of time here and there to working on some fun stuff too, typically stuff that's a little more entertaining for social media. Please look forward to more combat posts showing off new stuff, as well as (hopefully) some combo streams in the Arbiter Discord. Speaking of which, be sure to join the Arbiter Discord, as well as sending us a comment, emoji react, and Nitro Boost if you enjoyed this conte-

Lastly, and this one's very important, I added a new tier for pledging called the Human Tier (in hindsight I should have made the icon a literal tear for the pun, damn it). Anyways, this is basically just the Sealer Tier but you can give me more money. I don't really have any rewards for it planned yet, but at least one person asked me for a $10 tier because of how much they enjoy my presence, so I figured I'd add it just for them. 

The only real benefit you'll get from it is a shinier tier icon and my undying love for your beauty as a person. Honestly, that's actually pretty worth it so why don't you go ahead and up that pledge to help me pay my C̶h̶e̶e̶r̶i̶o̶s̶ ̶a̶d̶d̶i̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶  bills. I'd greatly appreciate it.

Anyways that's it for now. See ya next time!

Jordo