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Inner Circle Update for June 28 2019!
🕑 Added 2019-06-29 04:06:07 +0000 UTCHey guys!
I wish we had something playable to post, but we've got good news and some significant progress nonetheless.
The biggest news is that Mr. Kittyhawk has the revamp of the combat system working, and with it he has overcome the remaining player input issues. I'll explain the details in the programming update section below, but the big thing to know is input and AI will be much more solid soon, and we can finally get on with all of the other important features we need to add :D.
The second bit of progress is that we've figured out how to properly combine traditional animation with Spine's interpolated animation. It should vastly improve our animations in the long run, and is the missing link for making believable transitions. Check below for more info!
Splicer Boss H Scene Preview
Here's some work-in-progress art for the first boss H scene!
After experimenting, we've increased the boss' size significantly since it provides for much more "dramatic" H animations. We have a few days of work left on the art for the grapple stuff and first H scene, but it will be in the next monthly build for sure.
I'm working toward better transitions and more interesting progression in the H scenes, and as mentioned above being able to use traditional animation elements makes this a lot easier. I've never done traditional animation, so it's a lot to wrap my head around, but things have clicked for me and I feel good about it. The GIF I included at the top of this post is an example of how we're using it in the boss H scene. Utilizing frame-by-frame components will allow for more complex angles than we can do with Spine animation alone, and it only increases memory consumption a bit (only the boobers and belly require sprite sheets, not the entire character).
Big Programming Progress!
Mr. Kittyhawk has finally gotten over all the hurdles of revamping the state machine. If you recall the previous updates, the state machine is what keeps track of each unit's current action, and drives animations / combat logic / AI behavior. In doing so, he's eliminated remaining input issues, such as the 3 frame lag we had to introduce in order to ensure the physics engine stayed synced. The cooldowns on attacks are also much more solid now, and there's no more pose flickering between actions.
Instead of having a separate state machine for the player and enemies, both are now driven by the same code. He's eliminated the need for complicated coroutines (multi-threaded code) that were causing a lot of the bugs in previous builds, which should speed up adding new attacks and logic to enemies.
There's still some debugging, but the next major task is to convert existing enemy AI behaviors to this new system. After that we should be able to finally move on to animation metadata, which will give us way more control over how animations play (very important for improving H scenes).
Syndicate Enforcer Progress
Aside from a few more elements to finish up, we now have a really solid 3D reference for the Syndicate Enforcer enemy. TK has reworked and rigged the Syndicate coat model we made for MATM to match Limbo's design for Pure Onyx. Limbo has started working on pose concepts as well.
Sewer Level Concepts
Not a whole lot to show yet, but Limbo and I were able to bang out some concepts for the sewer level this week. Obviously, the most the interesting thing we could do in this level is include water, and I had some cool ideas for how we could make things fun. One is that these areas could have underwater tentacle traps, which would cue the player as to where they are about to appear with bubbles/ripples. These wouldn't only be limited to affecting players however -- as we could allow for Onyx to knock enemies into them to trigger H scenes for females or for the tentacles to pull other enemies under, removing them from the battle.
I'm curious to hear any ideas you may have for this environment :D.
Dedicated SFX Designer Joining the Team!
I decided I need to delegate some audio work if we're going to get this thing polished quickly, and to fill the void Lewd K will be joining us to help out with SFX. He's worked on a bunch of other H games, including Cloud Meadow, Future Fragments, and Lewdest Labyrinth. He already has the first round of combat SFX for the Chain Splicer and boss done, and we will continue to focus on this kind of stuff until we improve the audio framework for the H animations, at which point we'll start to focus on that :D.
Comments
Jamie C.
oh ok gotcha interesting I was curious cause the above gif looked super amazing and was figuring that with all these really neat advances you guys made that they could be applied but I understand now. :) thanks for answering very intriguing stuff.
Venus
Another suggestion could be to have tendrils or goop that attaches to the player, greatly reducing movement for a period of time and maybe removes an ability like punching. The game seems to value movement to avoid getting ganged up on, so this could put you in a pickle pretty quick.
Like Queasy1 says, there'd need to be Spine support for MATM's engine. MATM has completed 3D models though, and if we were to do animations it'd make way more sense just to use realtime 3D. The 2D rigging process for PO is actually much more labor intensive, but it requires a lot less time to get off the ground per character. Doing stuff in 3D only to animate it in 2D would be double the work, but it does happen for big budget mobile games for performance purposes.
Venus
The more I think about it, the more I like it. More for the additional mechanic in the game. If you throw a female into the trap at the wrong time you could create a perfect storm of mobs and make it near impossible to escape without taking some damage. The risk of doing so needs to be very real, either it was a great way to create some room for you to fight or oh sh1t now I'm in serious danger now.
I'm a simple man, I see bounce, I click Like.
The question of IF they are going to work on MATM.
Just turn the enemy females into tentacle zombies, maybe with wriggling skin? How about "upgrading" the enemy males that fall into the trap too?
If they switch MATM to Unity, sure. If they keep it on URGE/RPGMaker then no.
Speedyshamrock
nice work so far; to chime in a suggestion as well. Onyx having different facial expressions for some bigger bosses might be something to explore, case in point for Wraxe from the concept art in the builds he has "larger than normal" equipment. Perhaps Onyx for larger enemies H-scenes can have a grimace style face or one that looks like she is trying to overcome pain and pleasure simultaneously. Nice acquisition on Lewd K , he has done great work on FF as well (another backer myself) hope to see some working stuff next month!
Jamie C.
got a question love the work you guys have done. With making this game and working the animations as you have can this be applied to MATM? especially for cut scenes and during battle. Cause those physics you have going would make for a great content in MATM?
MangoFishSocks
Yesss. Wraxe size increase. Not double, but triple yesss for the distension. I love that stuff. Agreed with Venus on both the surrendering and the tentacle traps. I'd like to see some more struggle from Onyx, she isn't looking to get used after all and I bet that especially the Wraxe guy is too big for her to handle with pure pleasure only. A 25% or 50% chance for females that are knocked into the tentacle traps to get impregnated would add a lot of depth and kink to the game. Have them hunch over with their hands on their stomachs and a few tentacles poking out of their vaginas as they slowly approach Onyx per the tentacle spawn's will for some double dildo-esque tentacle action. Could even go all the way and take their entire bodies over. That would allow for things like tentacles from their mouths for an 'enhanced' kiss or quick mutations of limbs, hair etc. I've been following Future Fragments' progress too, and having their sound guy on is a huge asset. Sound is one of that game's strong points for sure, beside the excellent voice acting.
Venus
Awesome update, thanks guys. Yes a little H content always tends to lean me personally in the direction of happiness. I do sometimes worry that Onyx is a bit to quick to surrender and just accept her fate. Would love to see more resistant expressions from her as she is a badass. What am I saying you still got me at the animations :)*** As for the sewer stage, an idea could be that throwing female characters to the tentacles can be a gamble. Either you remove her from play being gouged on by tendrils or comes back surviving the ordeal as something stronger. Could add a layer to the decision to throw her in there in the first place. Just an idea. A bit worried that you guys are expanding the team, but then again I don't know the financial status of the project so that's a pretty ill informed opinion. I just want you guys to succeed. Still great update *bouncebouncebounce.
