Following last weekends ‘workshop’ on the combat system in Empires of the Undergrowth the team has largely gone ahead with bringing the new ideas about.
Working alone, John has continued implementing many of the special moves required of the units in the game, including knock-backs, stuns and heals. When working with Liam he has been further developing the afore-mentioned ‘combat manager’ system.
The combat manager’s goal is to ensure that the tug-of-war-like surface battles play out in an exciting and somewhat predictable manner. These battles are major source of game progression, and without this intelligent management system controlling the battles, there is a risk that the player could become frustrated by the simple self-preserving artificial intelligence of the ants.
I have been ill for much of the week (man-flu), but that didn’t stop me working hard on the level editor, the Undergrowth Gardner. Much of the functionality is now in place, including a whole new Warcraft III inspired tile-system for the surface environments. The final piece of the puzzle is to integrate serialisation with the game & editor engines so that designed levels can be loaded and saved. Then it’s back to artwork production for me!
We’re also excited to announce that John and I will be attending EGX Birmingham on Thursday and Friday 24th and 25th September. This will be a good opportunity to show the game to industry insiders, so expect us to have a new build by then with several levels and many new screenshots and videos to show!
