Devlog · Episode 28
My game got a hand painted look
Cavaleiros Celestiais got a hand painted look, the maps started to make sense, the Especial became a manga panel and the game reached phones, played sideways. And the stumbles, of course.
On phones
Cavaleiros Celestiais also reaches phones, played sideways, with an analog stick on screen. I asked for this thinking mostly of people who play away from the computer.
On phones, the game goes full screen and stays sideways. On the left, a thumbstick shows up wherever your finger lands. On the right, the big attack button and the skills in an arc. The chat became an icon.
Hand painted
I wanted the game closer to those old MMOs that look hand painted, without replacing anything that already existed. The jagged edges are gone, the ground got watercolor brush strokes and every creature got a soft shadow under its feet. Each region also got its own weather on screen: shimmering heat in the Forno, a cold chill in the Manto Branco, salt in the air of the Bacia Seca and metal dust flying in the Garganta de Ferro.
The maps changed too. There were things scattered around the field for no reason. Now everything spawns in groups, with a story: a mine with rails and a cart, a ruin with the fallen column next to its base, a camp that looks like a camp. And underwater, in the Corte Submersa, the dry land tree was replaced by kelp, coral and barnacle rocks.
Your character
You can now pick your body and your height when creating a character, from very short to very tall. When mounted, the whole mount jumps with you on top. Capes got a glowing edge. And each Casa's Especial got a quick black and white manga panel. That one is my favorite.
Talking to townsfolk became a movie scene: the interface fades away, the line sits at the bottom with the portrait and the choices sit in a side panel.
Sound and stumbles
One of my sentences became a rule: sound has to be the game's strong point, since the graphics are not. Every Guardião got its own sounds, and the audio that stuttered and went silent while farming in a group works again.
And the stumbles. Weapons went through the thigh while running. Standing still, the character seemed to have a nervous tic. The mount footprint was bigger than the horse hoof. And the wolves spun like tops. All of it is fixed now.
