Robot Model
I added some final touches for the robot texture, and also added an armature and weights
I made up another brand for lore resons : What would a robotic/tech company in the 80’s be named? Preferably one from Eastern Europe/west Aisia and the Slavic region. It had to be related to something that conveys trust and also shows that the goal is to help humanity. Also it has to be a bit pretentious of course lol
“Simurgh” is the name of a creature from Persian and Kurdish mythology (also present to some extent in arabic literature and slavic/eastern european mythology). It looks like a gryphon with peacock feathers, a dog’s head and the claws of lions. It is described as a benevolent, wise, and is associated with nurture, renewal and unity. It also shares many traits with the phoenix.
I remeber reading a summarized version of a “The Conference of the Birds”, which is a story told in poems about it (I didn’t understand arabic well enough to read the original), and that lead me to read more about the original story and other interpretations, so I went with that. Another candidate was the bird “Roc” or “Rukh” from “One Thousand and One Nights”, but the name didn’t sound as good.
I didn’t want to use Phoenix, Gryphon and other similar names because they’re too cliché.
Here are a few screenshots and renders of the model
I used a color mask so that I can give NPCs different colors. The default color is pure white, with the desired color multiplied with it. The mask is used to only apply the color on the desired spots.
A test animation with the poses
The model was rigged by Sabbir Hossain on Fiverr (I only did the basic armature and weight painting).
I’ll look into getting this animated and clothed soon, but for now it’s just T-posing in the game.
Blockouts
I did more blockouts for the environment, this time focusing more on the main/starting area. This time it was mostly manual placement of houses (with the assistance of GeoNodes of to project them to the ground). The streets have to be tight and sligtly maze-like. The game starts at night, but I’m using a sunlit version for clarity.
It’s a bit hard to see what’s going on just from pictures, but I’m more satisfied with this one than the less detailed ones I previously made
Mini Game
I decided to add many small mini games for the game. Things that help with the story. The first example is talking with an NPC whose profession is pottery, and they ask you if you want to try it out for yourself. You can accept, and that will start the short mini game. The example is just a very rough prototype with no UI or cutscenes or anything like that.
Most mini games are short (<2 minutes long), and are failable and skippable with no consequences, the NPCs will just say something like “It’s okay, I did much worse on my first try” and you’ll still get a positive reputation. The only exception is if you refuse to try at all (isntead of trying and then failing/skipping), where the NPCs will find it impolite and might get annoyed at you. As a reminder the player is a child with no family, so the NPCs tend to be lenient and forgiving toward you.
Other potential mini game examples include collecting trash, brick laying, card games, herding sheep, fishing and more.
Story
I worked a bit more on the story. Adding some mechanics and newer ways to deliver the story. I added more conversations over dinner, as well as a slower introduction and delayed the main story events to let the player understand the environment and culture first and slowly ease them in. I worked more on characters and other events I won’t spoil.
That’s about it for the past 2 weeks. Thanks for reading, and I hope to see you again soon!