Nelo News

Nelo has now using UE4 4.25 to take advantage of newer graphics hardware and DirectX 12.

Nelo now runs in DirectX 12 out of the box which allows a much greater performance boost on newer graphics cards and faster load times.

We are able to get an average framerate of 140-150 fps on a single RTX2070 at 1080p. We have been testing newer rendering features like raytracing with the game but we decided not to go that way and prioritize getting framerate boosts instead.

-Hit frames are more exaggerated with well time shield blocks and some melee attacks.

-Shield blocks takes off 20% of shield energy on initiation to counter spam blocking.

-Fixed bug with some Endurance levels displaying campaign HUD elements.

-Fixed some bounding issues and polished effects for some projectiles.

Price Drop.
Since it's been over a year since we last had an update, we feel pretty bad about it. We are aware that Nelo's updates have come to a crawl. This is because both of the Magic & Mirrors devs have taken full time jobs in the video game industry so we can ensure ourselves some stability. When we got the Unreal Dev Grant and Kickstarter funds, we were able to spend all of our time working on Nelo. Now we can usually only spend weekends working on it. Since Nelo has been so lacking in progress lately, we feel like a price drop is the best we can do to make up for it. We still greatly thank our fans for the support for the project and your activity on our discord. We thank you for your understanding for the state of the project.

Please remember to report bugs on the Steam forum or our Discord so we can eliminate them. The more detail you describe them with, the easier it is for us to hunt them down on our end.

We also strongly advise you verify integrity of the files after the update is finished downloading.

Thank you again,

- Kevin & Michelle

Major Features

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Reworked Levels
Aurora and Plemniba have been reworked from the ground up and Moon and White Blazar have been heavily modified to have generally better pacing than before. Most levels are now more open and some objectives can be completed in any order the player chooses. Rally points are no longer used. Instead, we broke up chapters into smaller pieces.

3d map viewer
While Act I levels are generally flat, many future levels will have more verticallity in the layouts with tunnels and pathways spanning across multiple tiers. We had to redesign the map system to work with these layouts. we came up with a 3d map viewer that can be navigated in 3 dimensions. map geometry above the user cursor will be rendered as transparent to allow better clarity.

Wall run upgrade
We thought about just giving the player unlimited wall jumps. Then we thought it would be cooler to just have the player continuously run up walls as long as the player is holding down the jump button. You still can't wall run out of maps.

New shield system
We reworked the shield system to work more like a block mechanic like in many fighting games. you can no longer move when the shield is activated but a well timed shield can damage an attacking foe.

Other changes

Removed Features
-Crafting
-Special Items
-Scanner Nodes

Patrol ships no longer respawn

Elite enemy types have reduced health

Some tweaking to audio mixing

Isometric Omni-Fire is now the default

We will be adding more fixes soon. Please remember to report bugs on the Steam forum so we can eliminate them. The more detail you describe them with, the easier it is for us to hunt them down on our end.

We also strongly advise you verify integrity of the files after the update is finished downloading.

Thank you again,

- Kevin & Michelle

New level design approach,

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



One of the biggest changes to the game is we have redesigned several of the single player levels. Two of the levels from Act I have been completely redone and some of the Act II levels have been reworked as well. We wanted these levels to have better pacing and be more simplified and ‘Open’ than before. Originally these levels would take 1-2+ hours to get through grinding through room to room waves of enemies and platforming. The levels should now take 15-30 minutes to get through with more freedom for how the player progresses. You now progress through levels by collecting fusion nodes earned by exploring the map. These nodes can be collected in any order the player chooses. We tried to make walkways wider and building further apart in many areas to allow more running room.

Other Changes

Wallrun upgrade



When designing these more open levels we thought about the possibility of giving the player unlimited wall jumps. Along with this, we came up with the idea of maybe having the player run straight up building instead of just wall jumping constantly to go up. It works by simply holding down the jump button when next to a wall.

New shield system



The shield now disables player mobility and has to be held down to keep activated. Well timed shield activations can inflict damage to nearby attackers.

Patrol ships no longer respawn

The Nightsithe Patrol ships still work like normal but they will no longer respawn once you defeat their waves. This should remove some frustration with the game’s stealth sections.

Why are we doing this?



Simplification

We notice we were losing interest and fun developing the game because we were spending too much time and effort on things we realize were not that fun. So we decided to focus on the best parts of the game only and remove many of the extra features and gameplay systems that didn’t add excitement. We just want more fun.

Feedback

Even players have been voicing their opinions about the general pacing of the game and we agree.

Practical scope

We also believe this will give us a more practical scope for finishing the game. We were just adding too many features to the game that didn’t add much to the core experience and it was only making development more difficult for us.

Thank you everyone for taking the time to check this out. We should expect to have this update released in the next couple of months. We will let you know when it’s ready. Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter @nelogame.

Hello, a small patch is now available. Here are the patch notes.


-Ai is less aggressive at close range
-Ai no longer blocks or teleports as a defense
-Technique penalties have become more linient and non-existant on Recruit
-Light added on Nelo’s back for visual clarity
-More health given to Nightsithe
-Combo can be increased by inflicting damage as well as kills
-Camera backs out when enemies are close behind player
-Adjusted lighting on aurora
-Added rain post effects on aurora
-Nerfed platforming on aurora
-Added camera lead when strafing
-Improved Camera transitions for Omni-Fire in both Top-Down and Isometric views
-Player holds more ammo; weapon pickups also supply more ammo
-More territory time in Endurance
-Adjusted shader effect on character
-Cross hairs have moved up on screen
-Fixed bug with only one loadout available for customization in Main Menu
-Fixed bug with only one Helmet available for customization in Main Menu
-Shield effects updated
-Added auto-exposure effects on some levels
-Fixed camera issues with executions
-Fixed bomb and stunbomb prompts overlapping on hud
-Paused tutorials; some tutorial prompts in earlier levels will pause the game, grabbing player attention
-Game Audio re-implemented, some audio effects have been redone.

We will be adding more fixes soon. Please remember to report bugs on the Steam forum so we can eliminate them. The more detail you describe them with, the easier it is for us to hunt them down on our end.

We also strongly advise you verify integrity of the files after the update is finished downloading.

Thank you again,

Hello Everyone, and thank you again for your patience. We know we have been very quiet about progress lately but only because we have been very busy on developing the new content for act 2. If you have been following our most active social media pages ( https://twitter.com/NeloGame , https://www.facebook.com/NeloGame ). You may have seen some images we have been teasing for the new act 2 content including characters, levels, and enemies. We have also uploaded a few video updates in the past couple of months showing our progress.



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

https://youtu.be/JoIe8Tc0f0w

https://youtu.be/qKGd9fXUMTk






Again, thank you for your patience and understanding.

-Kevin

Remember to follow us on these social media channels:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NeloGame

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NeloGame

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/MagicAndMirror/