BattleJuice Alchemist News

Hey folks,

as you're aware, we're a small team dedicated to BattleJuice Alchemist. With our combined efforts, we (that's Patrick and myself) essentially have the workload of one single full-time artist covering everything from 2D and 3D work, including modeling, texturing, and animation. Additionally, we create every asset ourselves, foregoing the use of marketplaces or asset stores. This poses a challenge for a comprehensive RPG, and today I'd like to shed light on a magical tool we use to add diversity to our characters despite these constraints: animation retargeting.



In the image above, you see three skeletons of different sizes. Upon closer inspection, you'll notice that they aren't just scaled versions of each other but have distinct proportions. Given our limited resources, creating individual animations for each character is impractical. This is where animation retargeting becomes invaluable.

If you just slap an animation onto a character without retargeting, things can go quite wrong, as you can see here (image from the Unreal Engine wiki):



Animation retargeting in Unreal Engine is like taking dance moves from one character and teaching them to another with a different body shape. It saves us a lot of time by reusing animations for various characters, even if they don't have the exact same proportions. The process involves setting up a translation of movements and rotations to fit the new character's structure, ensuring that the animations look good on different in-game personas. This allows us to efficiently use and share animations across various NPCs, like these two very different characters:



Here is what the teeny-weeny Leprechaun looks like in-game in comparison to our player character:



As we navigate the challenges of developing BattleJuice Alchemist with our lean yet dedicated team, animation retargeting turned out as a great ally, allowing us to breathe life into diverse characters without overwhelming our limited resources. Eventually, we plan to individualize animations more and more. For example, a giant should walk with more gravity than a Leprechaun. However, it is surprising how many animations work well, especially from our top-down perspective, when shared. I believe this is a smart approach to our work, and it has become one of our prime directives: We must choose our battles wisely by adding detail only where necessary.

Thank you for reading and have a great weekend!

Alain

We are thrilled to announce the release of the first content update of Act 2 for REMEDIUM!

Today’s content update is the first stage in the full Act 2 release, including a new location, new mutant types, boss and new story content being made available for players to experience. A further two locations, enemy types, bosses and additional story arcs will be released over the coming weeks to complete the full Act 2 launch.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We also pleased to announce that there will be NO price increase for REMEDIUM following today’s content update. The price will only increase when we are happy with the content and quality of the game in general and Act 2 in particular. For now, the focus is delivering the most polished and content-complete version of the game during its Steam Early Access phase.

Since the launch of Act 1, we’ve been busy gathering your feedback and introducing many quality-of-life improvements and new features, many of which were requested by players already active on the Steam Early Access release. Some of these quality-of-life improvements include the balancing of battles to make weak enemies more dynamic, a reworked dash movement, new enemy spawn mechanics, improved VFX, blood effects and HUD, as well as many other cosmetic enhancements to the game world. We will continue to work with the community on today’s update to improve and polish the upcoming content ahead of the full Act 2 release and extend our thanks for the support and feedback on REMEDIUM’s Early Access launch so far and look forward to further collaboration throughout the development journey.

Following directly on from the devastating boss battle at the end of Act 1, REMEDIUM Act 2 opens a new chapter in the hunt for a cure to the Grey plague and to your very survival in the world ravaged by hordes of mutants and chimeras. Armed only with your journal, you must navigate the snowy mountain paths and survive the onslaught of warring tribes of mutants spread across three village locations. In each new location, the blood thirsty mutants are protected by a terrifying and unique boss, which must be defeated in order to unveil the path to the cure for the disease and the survival of the remaining humans.

[h3]REMEDIUM Act 2 features:[/h3]

• Act 2 will introduce three new locations with unique mutant types and terrifying bosses.
  
• Today’s update unveils the new Fort location along with new mutants and boss type - Despite their beast-like looks these mutants wear armor and use human weapons like clubs, spears and even mortars. They inhabit a ruined fortress nestled into the mountainside protected by a deadly new boss. Mutant types: Grunt, Pikeman, Gunner. Boss: Huntress. Two more locations (Mine and Abbey), mutant types and bosses, will complete Act 2 and be released soon.
  
• Continuation of the intriguing storyline of the hero’s deadly journey.
  
• Players can craft new parts for their weapons (to further customize them and deal different types of damage) with the new reagents found in Act 2.
  
• Updated visuals and player accessibility for an enhanced gameplay experience.
  
• An improved upgrade system where players can now spend resources to become stronger.
  
• Dash movement and Almalgams use have been split for greater accessibility.
  
• Language support for English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Chinese, Japanese and Korean, with further enhancements to be added.

We are thrilled to announce that BattleJuice: Alchemist will be showcased at EGS Survivall 2023 event in Mexico City from November 17-19! Join us at the Indie Booth, stand numbers 25, 26 and 27! We would like to invite everyone attending EGS Survivall to come over and see the game!

Hey folks,

okay, you caught me. There was a devlog on verticality before this one, but I couldn't squeeze in everything I wanted to share. So, I'll touch on the topic again. I'm sure it will be worth your time ;)

I always wanted to have vertical diversity, such as mountains, because I think having them adds a sense of grandeur to the game world. And I wanted players to be able to climb them and not just look at them from a distance.



So, we have these high places, but what about the low ones? It is part of our design philosophy not to block off areas from players that they feel they should be able to traverse. Remember those platformers from our childhood where the hero dies as soon as his feet touch the water? These games are cool in their own way, but they can break your immersion at these points. That's why we decided to let players swim and even dive.



This, in combination with our Freeze Flasks, adds another aspect to vertical landscape diversity. Players can interact with verticality in a very direct way: they can manipulate it! In the following GIF, you can see me freeze a water surface.



This not only separates me from the creatures that are underwater but also allows me to move faster than swimming. I just have to dodge those ice crystals and accommodate for my slippery feet. Now it feels like playing one of these platformers from our childhood again ;)

I have not really seen this way of working with verticality in many other games, and I think it is a concept worth exploring more. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it.

Have a great rest of the week!

Alain

Exciting news everyone! We will showcase BATTLEJUICE ALCHEMIST at Game Connection during Paris Games Week from 2-3 November!

Located in Hall 2.1, booth 23D, our team will be on hand to demo the game to media and industry visitors.

A team of producers and senior managers will be on hand to demo the game to attendees. Hands-on demo will be available in both English and French, and full media press kits are available!

We would like to invite everyone attending Paris Games Week to come over and see the game!