Hello wonderful people from the internet!
Welcome to the sixteenth chapter of our weekly Progress Blog!
We’re currently hard at work refining our first build we presented at the Werkschau (Exhibition). Based on both player feedback and our own observations, we’re focusing on polishing and improving the overall experience in preparation for December. Much of our current effort goes beyond gameplay itself, we’re also streamlining workflows, optimizing systems, and improving our development process to make future iterations smoother and more efficient.
What is the current state of play?
As mentioned, our current focus is on improving our workflow and efficiency. One of the key steps in this process is developing an in-engine tool that allows us to quickly place assets without manually assigning each one to a layer. To keep everything organized and consistent, we created the tool shown in the image below, a powerful addition that will save us a lot of time in the long run.
We’re also refining and simplifying the collision checks for our objects. Previously, these checks were continuously calculated to determine where collisions should occur (because of slopes), but now they’re managed directly through dedicated objects. These can be easily created and configured, as shown in the image below. However, we’re still facing some issues with the four-directional checks, particularly with front and back detection on slopes, which leads us right into this week’s main focus…
Game Design
In game design, our focus this week is on creating a comprehensive asset list for the world. This will help us better define the content and atmosphere of each world and level. In addition, we’ll continue refining the core gameplay loop, a process that also involves updating and expanding our Game Design Document (GDD) to reflect the latest improvements and ideas.
Art
We’ve now fully transitioned our game to a 2D format, a big milestone that finally allows us to focus on establishing the definitive art style. After many iterations and explorations, we’ve found a direction that feels right and truly represents the world of Enu. With this foundation in place, we’re moving forward by finalizing the asset list, creating a detailed style guide, and then beginning full production of the in-game assets.
Programming
Programming continues with the development of the layer tool, a comprehensive system designed to streamline level building and world decoration across the entire project. It will help us place and manage assets more efficiently while keeping everything consistent. Alongside that, we’re further refining the collision system. The main challenge at the moment lies in handling rotation on slopes, as it requires dynamically adjusting the object’s horizontal height based on the incline.
In this image, you can see that we need the horizontal component of the green vector, which depends on specific angles and lengths. The challenge, however, lies in ensuring that these calculations remain accurate within Unity, for example, when the player is in the east realm (so 90° rotated). It’s a tricky problem, as we have to automatically determine and switch between the correct components (x or y) depending on the situation. Solving this will be one of our tasks for this week.
That’s it for this week’s update! Each step, big or small, pushes Enu closer to the experience we’ve envisioned, and it’s incredible to watch it all come together. Thank you for following our journey, sharing your thoughts, and supporting us along the way. There’s plenty more ahead, so stay tuned, the most exciting chapters are still to come!
