Discovery Log #4: Updates to the Overworld and Characters
2nd March 2022
Hello everyone and welcome to our fourth Discovery Log!
This week, we won’t be focusing on a single major topic but instead we will be focusing on smaller additions that our team wanted to share. We’ll be taking a look at a couple of updates that have been made to the Overworld along with some early models for the player characters and the design choices made behind them. Let’s not waste any more time and get right into it!
In our last Discovery Log, we took a look at the Overworld level and its many defining features but since that Log was published there have been a couple of new additions that were added to the Overworld.
We’ve added a fog effect to help hide the outer edges of the world from normal view as well as adding atmosphere and personality to the Overworld. The fog was brought into the Overworld thanks to our environment artist, Donovan De Carle.
We’ve also added some dynamic sound effects to the Overworld to give it some ambience. Some sound effects such as the river and waterfall adjust their volumes depending on how close players are to them in the game. The sound effects were compiled and added by Jeffrey Armstrong. Take a listen!
Next, we would like to talk a little bit about the two playable characters of Project Steelwalker and their designs now that our art team have placeholder models that make the two of them distinct from each other.
The Rogue (Name Pending) has an overall design of that of a fantasy Rogue or Ranger and is represented by the color of purple. They are clad in cloth and leather, with a face mask cloak, and some pouches along their belt. They also sport some light armoring along the chest and forearms which are the only kind of protection that they wear.
The Paladin (Name Pending) has an overall design conceived of that of a lesser Knight or Man-at-Arms and is represented by the color of yellow. They wear slightly heavier metallic pieces of armor combined with textiles for protection. They also have a bevor to cover the lower half of their face as well as a colored tabard and bandolier.
One of our biggest goals when designing the two playable characters were to differentiate them as much as possible through many different characteristics. For example, we wanted the Rogue to be a light-footed agile character in comparison to the Paladin, who we wanted to be a heavy duty counterpart to the Rogue’s smaller profile. The design of the Heirlooms also played a major role in these differentiations, with the choices on which character getting which Heirloom being based on their talents and lifestyles. We’ve taken every opportunity to make both the Rogue and Paladin as different from each other as possible, we hope you’ll enjoy playing as both characters!
That’s it for this week’s Discovery Log, we’ll leave you with this sneak preview of the topic for the next Discovery Log. Brace yourselves, because it’s going to be huge…
- Particle Interactive