Release 1.5a - Assets Update

As a developer, I find it difficult sometimes to switch gears between programming, writing, and creating artwork.  So for this latest release I decided to stay primarily in one groove, and focused on adding and improving character graphics.

I finally retired the AI generated dialog rig stand-ins of Bran's friends for my own artwork.  Barnabus, Carver, Vanderoy, and Sumatra now have their own dialog rigs (though no facial expressions just yet).

The Orocs are where I poured the majority of my time this release.

Firstly, I added 2 new body types: Runner, and Muscular.  The Runner body type is for younger trainees.  By human standards they look ripped, but for Orocs they are still pretty small.  The Muscular body type is similar in size to the existing Chunky body type, except with less fat around the midsection.

Next, I expanded on the number of skins for each tribe, to closer match my reference artwork.  This resulted in Plains 3, Desert 2 & 3, and Mountains 2 & 3 variations.  Below is a graphic I created for social media to showcase all the different Oroc skin and body types.

Finally, I put a painstaking amount of effort into creating a variety of different hair and beard styles, eye colors, and other variations, so I could get characters looking close to their reference portraits.  The final result was 76 unique Oroc heads (all with facial expressions)!

One of the biggest changes was the way Orocs eyes look.  Even in the graphic above they still have the old-style of eyes, in one solid color.  But in the game they now have irises and whites like humans.  My biggest motivation for this change was that it enabled me to create a larger variety of eye colors.  Some colors, like dark brown, looked terrible when used across the whole eye, so it became necessary to add the whites for contrast.

As for new features in this release, I did some major restructuring to how the game handles character dialog.  This gives all characters some generic conversation options, with the possibility for their specific personalities to override these for a more personalized spin on the topic.  After you've introduced yourself to an Oroc customer, you'll now be able to learn about the significance of their appearance differences.  After Bran has seen enough different skin variations, he'll have a conversation topic to ask about it.  Once an Oroc explains about the 4 different tribes, Bran can then ask Orocs about which tribe they are from, and learn to identify them by appearance (although he'll discover some Orocs have change tribes, so he can't judge solely by appearance).

I also began to prototype some storyline for Oroc characters, focusing on the 3 Frostborn brothers.  Once you've met Crusher or Reave, you can ask their younger brother Snowy about them.  Snowy will reveal why neither of his older brothers talk, and you can use this information to sympathize with them and try to help.  It's a story that needs several days to play out fully, assuming you're lucky enough to have Reeve or Crusher come to the tavern every day.  It's just a small sample of what's to come as I start to fill in the stories of other characters.

Other changes include:

• You can now choose to Skip tutorial modals.  The tutorials will still appear in the Help area of the game menu as you trigger them, but they'll no longer interrupt gameplay.  The Help area also has a toggle to control whether to skip the tutorials or not, so you can always re-enable them later if you like.
• Many minor bug fixes

Known issues:

• Timed dialog events (ex. Carver leaving, Barnabus and Vanderoy leaving) can appear over top of the beer or water pouring inset if your timing is bad.  You can still finish pouring in the background, or advance the dialog until it goes away again.
• Order point interactions don't update if you're looking at them as a customer places an order.  You can work around this by looking away and back again.