Wow, I am the worst at keeping up with this devlog, aren't I? Ah well. It's time for an update.

I've had a very rough year in between now and my last devlog, I will be honest. My Grandma was terminally ill and we didn't know how long we had with her. There was a lot of other things going on, like the Bloodline game jam entry I made with KV Kingdom and Steel from StudioBlue. But, at the very least, there has been some progress here and there worth noting and bringing you up to speed on.

First of all, the Shattered Realms: Mortal Tale OST is finished and you can get it from the composer, Meteo Xavier here:

While I originally completely stalled out on the alpha mapping, I've since managed to complete all of the base level designs and have completed the fundamental progressions of the game. What's left is to start developing the actual battles, story events, and deeper gameplay.

I'll likely be overhauling the Ancient Hills as well to align with what my vision for it ultimately will be when I do its tileset. Expect cool things.

I even returned to actual tilesetting for a moment to test out some new ideas for the Blighted Cave. I was inspired by the Underworld Tileset prototyping and got to work testing it out for a bit. I'll be very eager to do more at a later point, but right now I've been working on artwork predominately. Before we focus on that though, let's share what I've done since my last update on the mapping and tiles:

A new tile in the Blighted Cave will highlight places you can go  horizontally to get to other maps. I don't know if getting lost in the Cave was a common experience, but based on the interactions with HawkZombie I'm preempting that problem.

What you're seeing here is the Broken Cave area immediately outside of the last screenshot.  A lot is still under dev here, but I'm hoping to elevate the scenery to a heighted level for when I do eventually update the public demo.

The WIP version of the Side Entrance tiles, for fun.

Now time for story CGs and character art!

As you can see, I've managed to uncover a new approach to my style that has drastically (in my personal opinion) greatly improved my overall technique. I've also fully processed how to handle  full body characters, and will be making brand new  concept art of the main characters over time. 

At present, I am focused more on the Game Design Document and refining how I handle classes, combat flow, the boss fights, and improving overall combat roles to be better compatible with my overall vision, and so that all parties can have a bit more balance.

I'm hoping to have  some actual improved footage once a lot more in game work is done, but for now I hope you've enjoyed what I've gotten accomplished! 

Til next time!