Hey folks, Its been a minute since our last update, and its time to share some of things weve been working on. Before we get into that Id like to apologize for the extended silence, and fill you in on whats been going on. I had someone who was very close to me pass away recently, and I left the good old state of Illinois to spend time with them, and take care of things before and after their passing. This person was my grandfather, and he lived to the ripe old age of 93. Hes actually the inspiration for Iras family, and some of the locations in game (the Homestead, Pilgrimage). So, In honor of him we are making Iras family's last name Morningstar after his. It seems only too fitting. All that being said Im back at it, and our team appreciates everyone sticking with us. So, without further ado we have some wonderful things to share.

Character updates

So Ive spent a serious amount of time updating characters, and making them more polished for the final game. On the right we have old Ira which was created a long time ago when my sensitivity for charter design was not as good as it is today. Ira looks a lot more like, well, a human now. When you tubers originally played our demo they would literally pause the game, zoom in on his abnormally long face, and comment on how creepy he looked. I think we are passed that point now.

Expressions

I created a material based system that makes character expressions and eye movement a breeze. Characters can even track objects around them and have a new level of awareness! No more dead eye stares and slack faces! Check out the clip of Ira acting slightly surprised but mostly disinterested in your existence. Video clip

Meet some new folks

A lot of characters had place holder bodies for awhile, but, now we have a lot more of them fully modeled textured and ready to go.
Meet Old Lue. He owns the public works building that used to provide all sorts of services for the town of Pilgrimage, but, the future is unknown as Intele Co owns most the town, and most of his business. What will happen to the Pilgrimage Public Works? Only time will tell.
Meet Jo. She's a scrappy young jack of all trades that works with Lue down at the public works. You need something taken care of then Jo's your person. She's also a certified Intele Co paper clerk, repair specialist, and a friend to the Morningstar family.
Meet the new Ira. Of course you all know Ira but here he is up to date. Whats that strange device on his desk? Whats strapped to the telescope? Well, you'll find out soon enough. Moving on!

IK systems for dynamic interactions

One area that needed some serious improvement was how a character interacts with the environment. Our goal was to make it so characters don't interact in a way that breaks immersion. When a character tries to push through a door, and their capsule just shoves it open. That makes it so the character has no physical connection grounding them to the action at hand. It always made things feel very strange, and unnatural. So, Nick has developed an Ik system that allows characters to interact with their environment naturally, and in real time without direct prompting from the player. No more ghost doors, and item pickups. Every character is now hands on with the environment. Video clip

How are things going?

Overall things are going well, and falling into place. Mostly just polishing everything to be game ready, starting to play test scenes with more people in order to get more feedback. There are always unforeseen bumps along the way, but, everyday we are a little closer to completion. Anyway, hope everyone enjoyed the update. Until next time folks - The Ira Team

[ 2018-06-06 21:56:02 CET ] [ Original post ]