Elements

October update! NPCs, Enemies, and lots of Weapons
about 1 year ago – Mon, Nov 13, 2023 at 09:33:17 AM

Hey everyone! We wanted to share what we have been working on for the last little bit. Thank you so much for your patience. 

Owl NPC - We just finished these Owl type NPCs. They will be found in the Air, Light, Ice and Nature Biomes. We have a few different clothing and armor options for them as well.

Mushroom Wizard - Quick video showing some of the work in progress AI and attacks for one of the Mushroom Wizards in Elements. I think we need some more attack windows and maybe speed up the projectiles so they can't be dodged as quickly. What do you think?

In Elements there will be some neutral enemy types. Here is a beetle found in the Tropical Swamp area of the Nature Biome. If left alone these enemies won't attack you, but if you attack first they will become hostile. Do you typically leave these creatures alone in games?

Pickaxe - We added a pickaxe for the Nature Biome. You will have to complete a quest in each biome to get the pickaxe so you can mine rocks and minerals. We are trying to make mining satisfying and rewarding. If you have suggestions on how to make a great mining experience, or know games that you think do it well, feel free to comment. After making this clip I noticed the pickaxe was turned the wrong way :)

Weapons 

Two-handed Fire Sword - We finished the Rare version of the Two-handed Fire Sword. We started with some concept art, then turned it into a 3D model, then brought it into Unreal Engine. This is the Rare version. We are very excited to get working on the other versions.

We are still working on the attacks. Do you think they are too fast? I want to make the attacks feel impactful, but I also don't want them to feel slow. What games do two-handed weapons well?

Fire Spear - We finished the Rare Fire Spear. Still working on some attacks to give the spears a much different feel from other two-handed weapons.

 Here are a couple renders of the Rare Fire Spear.

Light Daggers - We finished some daggers from the Light Biome. Here are a few renders. As with the other Light gear they have some Egyptian and Roman inspiration. 

We are still working on attacks. We want them to be faster and possibly close the distance to the target at a certain range.

Dark Bow - We have been working on the first weapon from the Dark Biome. This Dark Bow, named Aroxin's Eyes, may have some added perks that help with finding targets in low light situations...

Level Design - We have been working on another village in the Nature Biome. This will be a more central city where you can find different creatures from across the biome. There will be vendors, a blacksmith, and maybe even a pet shop :) For you as a player what do you expect to see in a bigger city versus a smaller village?

Skill System - We have been adding some new skills to the skill system. This will be based on progression with each weapon. As you use a weapon to defeat enemies your skill with that weapon type will increase, allowing you to unlock new skills. These skills will enhance combat choices and give weapons skills that hit harder. Skills will be on a cooldown so you can't overuse them in combat.

I was humbled to be interviewed by Nick from The Side Quest. He has a great podcast where he interviews indie game developers. 

Alpha - We are still working hard on getting the Alpha ready. We still have a lot of work to finish before players can jump in, but we are hopeful we can get it done before the end of this year. We will keep everyone updated.

Thank you so much for all the support. We appreciate all the hype and feedback. It helps to fuel us and to keep making the best game we can. ❤️

August Update! NPCs, Combat, Scythes, Level Design and UI
about 1 year ago – Thu, Sep 14, 2023 at 12:21:12 PM

Hey! We wanted to share what we have been working on for the past month or so. Thank you so much for your patience. 

Marmot/Beaver NPC - We just finished these guys who will be found in the Water, Nature, Ice and Earth Biomes. There designs we influences from Marmots and Beavers.  They are crafty creatures who enjoy building and busy work. They even have different hairstyles and facial hair :)

Nature Fox - Here are the Foxes from the Nature Biome.  If you like the armor, you may be able to acquire it somehow...

Lizard NPC - We have got some updated texturing for these lizard creatures. They will be found in the Light, Fire, Nature, and Water biomes. 

Enemy Behavior - We want to ensure the enemies in the game feel meaningful. We think they should challenge the player and allow them to scale with difficulty. We also want all the creatures in Elemythia to have personality, even the enemies. 

Here is some work on a single Frotle Melee Enemy. We added dodges depending on the frequency of attacks, so the enemy "learns" to anticipate your moves.

Here is a clip of the Grenadier and Archer Frotle enemies. They are ranged enemies. The archer will flee if you get too close, but the Grenadier will switch to melee if you get close enough.

Here is a bigger Orc enemy who will pickup objects and throw them at you. Not quite a mini-boss, but they will be more challenging than smaller enemies.

Scythe Weapon Type - We also added the Scythe weapon type. We are working on some Custom Scythes now. I know Scythes are very popular and we are excited to have them in the game.

Level Design - Here are some of the Villages we have been working on. We are building them as separate instances in Unreal so we can then drop them into the world. This saves us time and allows us to easily move villages to ensure they are in the right place.

Updated Horse Mount - We have some new skins for our Horse mount. I love how they turned out. Which is your favorite?

Mammoth Mount - We just added some large Mammoth mounts to the game. These mounts will be slower than most mounts but because of their size they will knock down trees. Very helpful in gathering resources for building.

Fire Guardian - We are almost finished the custom animations for the Fire Guardian. Here are a few of them to give you an idea on how this creature will move.

Building/Planting UI - We are getting close to a style we are really happy with. We want to ensure it is clean, but stylized and doesn't take too much attention away from what is important. It is a balance that isn't always easy to find, but I think we are close.

The clip below shows how the biome based building system will work. It does a trace to find out which biome you are in and will switch to that biomes building materials. And no, there won't be a straight line like this separating the biomes in the final game. This is just for testing :)

Alpha - We have been working hard on getting the Alpha ready, but we still have some work left to do. We have decided to push the Alpha Release into Q4. This will give us a little more time to flush out some of the systems and how they work together. We want to ensure everyone who jumps into the Alpha has an experience they enjoy. We want the Alpha to be a solid base for feedback so we can continually improve the game until Early Access release next year. We hope you understand our decision.

Please let us know what you think of the things we have been working on. We love all the feedback and it helps us confirm we are going in the right direction. Thank you all for your support ❤

July Update! Light, Fire, Nature and Level Design
over 1 year ago – Fri, Jul 21, 2023 at 07:06:57 AM

Hey everyone!! Thank you so much for your patience. We have been hard at work and have some updates for you. Here is what we have been working on for the past month.

Squirrel and Rabbit NPC - We have got some new textures for the Squirrel and Rabbit NPCs.  They will be in the Air, Ice, Light, and Nature biome. Not all creatures will be in each biome. If you see a creature or NPC type that you have already seen in another biome, their behavior and characteristics will be different. Every creature in Elemythia needs and wants something different, it's up to you to help them find that on your journey.

Fox NPC - We just finished the Fox NPC. Originally, we had planned on a more "cute" fox. But we settled on the Fox being more of a "Warrior". Not every character in this story will be sweet and innocent. Each NPC race will have their own characteristics and motivations. Some will get along with others and some will not. 

Level Design - We have been working on the level design for some of the environments and villages in the Light, Fire, and Nature biomes. For most biomes there will be 3 major villages or towns with multiple smaller villages throughout the biome. 

Squirrel Village - Some work in progress of the Squirrel Village in the Nature Biome.

Light Village - This village is abandoned. It's up to you to find out why and help the villagers return home. Once you do this will unlock new quests, vendors and merchants you can interact with.

Mayan Village - This Mayan inspired village is still very much a work in progress. We are happy with the layout, but still need to add many things to bring this area to life. We also need an NPC type here. Some suggestions we had so far were; Red Pandas, Gorillas, and Lizards. Let us know if you have any suggestions!

Fire Guardian - The Fire Guardian model is now finished and rigged. We are super happy with how it turned out. We will now be working on some custom animations. We are thinking the movement will end up being more like a Salamander or Komodo Dragon. We are open to hear your ideas on attacks for this Guardian!

Light Armor - The Rare version of the Light armor is almost finished. It has some Egyptian and Roman inspirations. Let us know what you think.

That's all for now. Our next update will dive deeper into the Dialogue System and the Building/Planting System. Looking forward to your feedback! Thanks again for all the support! Have an amazing weekend ❤️

Big Update - UE5 and lots more :)
over 1 year ago – Tue, Jun 06, 2023 at 09:43:17 AM

Hey everyone! I wanted to update you on the project. We have been a little more quiet since the campaign has ended, but we wanted to say we are hard at work and we wanted to let you know what it is we have been working on.

UE5 

First off, we switched to UE5! This was a big decision. It took a couple weeks, but we have already seen huge improvements in development speed just by using Level Instancing, Nanite, and World Partition. 

Katana - We added Katanas. Right now we just have one stance, but we are looking at the possibility of having multiple stances for some weapons.

Custom Orcs - Our Custom Orc models are done.. We are super happy with how they turned out. The rigging is being worked on right now. Can't wait to start giving them personality with sounds and animations.

Fire Armor - We finished the first rarity of the Fire Armor. I think this is going to be one of my favorite sets. I love all of the little details in this set. And this is the Rare version!

 
Fire Guardian - We have had some progress on the modeling of the Fire Guardian. We are super happy with how it is turning out. This boss will guard the Fire Stone and ensure it doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

 
Water Weapons - We started working on some weapons for the Water Biome. We took some Polynesian and Atlantean influences and came up with a unique aesthetic.

Mythical Pets - We now have our first Mythical Pet. We think he is pretty cute. We will be rigging and animating him soon. And he still needs a name :)

Language - Elements now has its own language. I didn't realize how complicated making a language was but we connected with a professional. We will share more about the language later, but for now here are the number symbols.

There is lots more we are working on, but we will save that for the next update. Please let us know what you think about the things we are working on and what you are most excited about. Thank you for all the support ❤️

Locking Orders and Processing Payments
over 1 year ago – Tue, May 02, 2023 at 05:23:07 AM

Hi Everyone! We have 89% of the surveys completed, thank you to everyone who has filled out their survey. Please reach out if you haven't received yours or if you email has changed. You can also go here https://elements-rpg.backerkit.com/ to try and recover your survey.

We will be locking orders for those who have filled out their surveys and charging cards for any add-ons, by the end of the day. If you choose credit card as your method of payment, you can expect a charge today or tomorrow. 

Thank you all for the support. We have got some big updates to share very soon. Have an amazing week! ❤️