Lionhearts News

Welcome once again to the weekly Development Log for Lionhearts, an up-and-coming project on Steam created using Unreal Engine 5.

Week 10 saw solid progress made on systems and visuals for the upcoming demo.

The level design team continued work on the Belmont Castle map blockout, with noticeable progress on the village, keep, church, and surrounding farmland.



Progress on game animations continued on utility actions such as water collection, and the team sourced temporary marketplace assets to support the upcoming demo.



The 3D art team continued work on foliage assets and a modular architecture asset pack for kitbashing. They also started on some premium assets - such as weapons and armor - intended as exclusive Kickstarter rewards.



The 2D art team began work on new UI elements, including a compass, dropdown menus, and health and stamina bars. Progress on the favor tree icons also resumed, with work on the first half of the religion icons underway.



The programming team made some significant progress, such as a restructured character blueprint hierarchy, improving organization. Several new NPC shadow tasks were implemented, including blacksmithing, carpentry, and farming. Work on player-to-NPC interaction systems was also started. Additionally, the task system and favor tree were polished.



The combat system also received some attention through the implementation of replicated locomotion to sync animation and attack speeds. Furthermore, some preliminary work on screen and visual effects for combat was completed.

The team also created a new notification manager was introduced to prevent overlapping UI popups.
Overall, our work over Week 10 helped strengthen foundational elements as development slowly pivots towards polish and presentation for the demo.

Thanks for reading, and please remember to join us again next week as we move into Week 11.

Please join us on our Discord server for forum posting, where you can ask questions and participate in our growing community!

To support this project, please follow our Kickstarter campaign, which will be launching soon!

Our Steam Page is also up with further localization for many languages, be sure to wishlist it!

Written by Credenzio Studios Staff

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Welcome once more to the weekly Development Log for Lionhearts, an up-and-coming project on Steam created using Unreal Engine 5.

Week 9 saw significant progress as the team advanced toward finalizing the demo.

The level design team continued developing the Belmont Castle map and began blocking out additional areas.



The 3D animation team focused on planning and futureproofing by detailing an animation planning spreadsheet.

The game design team worked closely with the animation team to curate animations for the upcoming demo showcase.

On the 3D art team, work on demo assets continued, including foliage optimizations, a new building kit for kitbashing, and some other minor asset revisions.



The 2D art team made great progress with the first half of the trade icons for the favor tree and will soon begin work on religion path icons.



On the technical side, multiple systems received major improvements. A new navigation system was created for NPC Shadows, allowing them to perform resource gathering tasks like chopping wood and mining with improved accuracy.

Combat mechanics also saw significant improvements, with weight added to attacks, a refined stagger effect, and enhanced NPC combat behavior such as strafing.

Progress on the task system continued with a major rework. The dynamic task menu was reworked to enhance code structure. Location-based and numeric-based tasks were implemented to support favor tree progression.

Additionally, the base controller system was improved.

Overall, Week 9 demonstrated strong progress across core systems and the remaining assets, setting the stage for continued work on polishing and optimizing the demo as we enter Week 10.



Thanks for reading, and please remember to join us again next week as we move into Week 10.

Please join us on our Discord server for forum posting, where you can ask questions and participate in our growing community!

To support this project, please follow our Kickstarter campaign, which will be launching soon!

Our Steam Page is also up with further localization for many languages, be sure to wishlist it!

Written by Credenzio Studios Staff

Welcome once more to the weekly Development Log for Lionhearts, an up-and-coming project on Steam created using Unreal Engine 5.

Week 8 brought us further steady forward momentum in the development of the Lionhearts demo.

After some more planning, our level designers turned their efforts back towards the vertical slice, including a new landscape generated using heightmaps. We now plan to build out a new demo map, "Belmont Castle", with the vertical slice as a foundation.



On the 3D animation side, all four directional full-body shortsword swing animations were completed.



The 3D art team completed and approved one batch of new assets. Multiple assets remain in progress, with some nearing completion, others still requiring more time. This includes things like urban props, agricultural assets, mining assets, and more foliage.



The 2D art team continued developing icons for the Favor Tree, this time for the trade path.



Our Programming team oversaw many new advancements, including deeper investigation into and confirmation of SpacetimeDB as our multiplayer/MMO backend, plus further system work across the board.

Progress was made on the task management system, which now supports a few basic task types alongside a prototype HUD to display them.



Our programmers made the NPC shadow-tasking system significantly more dynamic/modular, allowing players to assign tasks based on their territory’s available resources and infrastructure.



The team also enhanced environment immersion with a discovery alert system and an Ambient Zone system that shifts audio based on location.



Combat feel improvements such as a stagger effect and some refinements to swing timing were also added.



Thanks for reading, and please remember to join us again next week as we move into Week 9.

Please join us on our Discord server for forum posting, where you can ask questions and participate in our growing community!

To support this project, please follow our Kickstarter campaign, which will be launching soon!

Our Steam Page is also up with further localization for many languages, be sure to wishlist it!

Written by Credenzio Studios Staff

Welcome once more to the weekly Development Log for Lionhearts, an up-and-coming project on Steam created using Unreal Engine 5.


Week 7 of Lionhearts Demo development again brought us some great technical and creative advancements, particularly as we begin laying foundational systems for scalability and shift focus towards visuals.



On the programming side, shared functionality between Player and NPC controllers is now being moved to C++ in preparation for MMO framework.


Work also began on a new inventory system, complete with drag-and-drop item functionality and stacking, while combat effects like parry stuns and directional animations received further polish. A new audio manager was also created to handle sounds in game!



Early prototypes for the Shadow system, including Shadow "possession" and spawning, have been implemented.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFaKfF5thaM

Some 3D animations were reworked with full-body motion, all one-handed weapon swings are now blocked out and awaiting further polish.



Level design efforts have shifted toward the Jerusalem Siege map to showcase what a siege in Lionhearts will look like.

The 3D art team continued their work across multiple bulk asset orders, including more foliage like trees, more agricultural assets, and military assets.



In Game Design, the Guild system and trade economy have been further detailed with new job types and deeper progression systems.



The cinematic trailer first draft has been completed and reviewed for revisions. Followers should expect to see it within a few weeks!



On the 2D art/UI side, icon production for the favor tree resumed, with some trade tree icons in progress.



Lastly and importantly, the Kickstarter backer tier rewards have been completed and are available for full detailed view on our website! There are some awesome rewards - please let us know if you have feedback or which tier you intend to donate to! The website continues to be updated with the most relevant information on Lionhearts!



Thanks for reading, and please remember to join us again next week as we move into Week 8.



Please join us on our Discord server for forum posting, where you can ask questions and participate in our growing community!


To support this project, please follow our Kickstarter campaign, which will be launching soon!


Our Steam Page is also up and now localized to many languages, be sure to wishlist it!


Written by Credenzio Studios Staff

Repost from April 4th:

Welcome again to the weekly development log for Lionhearts, an up-and-coming project on Steam created using Unreal Engine 5. This blog post has been posted on our brand-new website www.playlionhearts.com which launches today alongside this post. This website includes the most comprehensive info on the Lionhearts project, and we recommend you check it out!

Week 6 of Lionhearts Demo development focused heavily on polishing and finalizing systems to provide and showcase new marketing material.



The favor tree saw major progress, namely modular branches, zoom functionality, a dynamic node system, tooltips, and opening/closing menu functionality all being added, bringing it much closer to a presentable state.



Combat polish continued with improvements to attack charging and the implementation of a new weapon system allowing for the equipping and unequipping of different weapon types. NPC combat saw continued polish and some bug fixes as well.



Several core attack animations were also blocked out, including the right to left weapon swing, the overhead swing, and the thrust animations.



On the level design front, the vertical slice is nearly complete, with only foliage assets left to be completed. A UE5 texture bug briefly stifled progress but this was resolved by the team.

All ongoing 3D asset production has continued, including foliage assets, agricultural assets, and some military assets in progress.



Further game design documentation was detailed to cover systems for property acquisition and management, plus how items will be handled in stockpiles.

Meanwhile, the 2D art pipeline slowed due to delays. Some new graphics were created to support further marketing efforts.



As we move into Week 7, we're shifting our focus toward visuals/presentation to strengthen marketing material for the project.



Please join us on our Discord server for forum posting, where you can ask questions and participate in our growing community!


To support this project, please follow our Kickstarter campaign, which will be launching soon!


Written by Credenzio Studios Staff