Edengrall News

Good news, the Faerie model is done and the facerig works! We can control the eyes and make smooth facial animations instead of just swapping textures like the current NPC faces, in the future I will upgrade the NPC models so they all can have this level of facial animation.



I am now making several animations for the Faeries, so they have a large variation of reactions and idle animations for different situations, Faeries will not only have personalities, but also moods, they can get angry at you and pout or be excited and dance if you give them something delicious to eat.



My brother took a break from working on movement to make the Faerie eye control script, but before he switched focus he did manage to fix several bugs on the wall running and made it so now you conserve momentum when wall running.

New Faerie model done, also wallrunning



The faeries are finally taking form, I have finished the model and made some basic textures for testing, as soon as we get the facerig working we will proceed to making animations.
We currently have only one face, but later each personality will have a different face shape.



The hair is fragmented so we can make many different combinations. there are currently 12 back parts, 13 front parts, 4 ahoges and 5 extra parts (twintails/buns)

At first there will be a single faerie, we want to make sure her animations and reactions are perfect before letting the player having more of them.

We also added a non-magical new movement option: wall grab + wall running, it synergizes greatly with Rockstep as the lv2 and lv3 of rockstep allow you to regain charges while touching the wall.



We still need to polish it, as the trasitions between waterwalk, rockstepping and wallrunning as janky right now.

After that we will add Blastdash.

This week we worked on the Earth element magic, Rockstep, it allows the player to jump while airborne by creating a small platform under the player feet.



The spell has a visual indicator showing how many jumps you have in the form of orbiting rocks.
The rocks recharge a few seconds after touching ground.

Each level of the spell will give you one jump, these gifs are using Rockstep lv3


The jumps conserve momentum, but also allow you to change direction.

One the Faerie system I begun working on a facerig, if this works out the Faeries will have smooth facial animations and if it all works well I will use the same system on the other NPCs late during the NPC overhaul.



Next week we will polish both the Waterwalk and the Rockstep a bit more and make sure they are working with each other, and maybe we will add a new non-magic movement option if all goes well.

As mentioned last week, Faeries will be connected to movement magic. In Edengrall there are 6 basic elements, faeries can have affinity for any element and each element is linked to a different movement spell:

Water - Waterwalk
Fire - Blastdash
Earth - Rockstep
Air - Airglide
Light - Blink
Dark - Moonjump

This week we began implementing Waterwalking, each movement spell will have 3 levels of intensity, you can upgrade the movement spell by having a faerie with very high elemental affinity or many faeries with weak affinity, more details on this later when we implement the Faerie UI.

Lv1 Waterwalk: Allows to move on water, the spell loses power as you move, so staying still lets you float forever, allowing the player to fish on high seas, jumping or sprinting will break the spell.


lv2 Waterwalk: The spell now remains active when you jump, and you can jump when underwater to get boosted out of the water, you also get access to waterskating (water sprint)


lv3 Waterwalk: You now have turbo waterskating, you can move extremely fast on the water surface, this will be one of the most effective ways to travel long distances and will turn rivers into roads.


This is still work in progress, we need to add more particles, sounds and fine tune everything as well as maing the UI elements for buff indicators and the bar that measures the duration.

On the Faerie model I have finished converting the hair into pieces that can be assembled into different styles



Now I need to redo the UVmap, texture and rigging for hair physics

Then I will move to the new face rig.

We have decided to add the faeries before we continue the exploration, but this is not the old system we had planned, but a whole new one inspired by Palworld.

This is the idea for the old Faerie System, very UI heavy and simulated, this screenshot is from the Everyday Lite prototype that I made before Edengrall.


The new system will be fully integrated into the world, less UI and more Faeries moving around, working, emoting, playing pranks and such.
The new Faeries will help you around the farm and lend you their magic for more movement options.

You will be able to keep a few Faeries with you, these are your Companion Faeries. They will give you more options for movement based on their element:
Fire: Blastdash -> quick acceleration, can be used while airborne
Water: Waterwalk -> walk/run on water, useful for fishing in deep sea
Air: Glide -> converts horizontal into vertical momentum
Earth: Rockstep -> Spawns a platform under your feet allowing double jumps
Light: Blink -> Teleports to the direction you are looking at, kills momentum
Dark: Moonjump -> Lower gravity for a few seconds, combos well with Blastdash and Rockstep

Other than lending you movement magic, you will be able to keep one companion faerie active, the faerie will follow you around, you will be able to headpat, give treats and give orders.
When combat is added the Faeries will also lend you combat magic.



Each faerie will have different jobs and affinities based on their traits.

Faeries not assigned to be companions will remain at the nearest fae tree (the large tree at the top of the cliff near the town) or at player made faerie houses.
You will be able to build beds, tiny houses, amenities and work stations for them.

At first we will only add one Faerie to test the system as companion, this may take a few weeks before it is playable.