Dev blog 17 - Marca Hispanica combat maps
Hey all!
This week I’m showcasing some combat maps we have in Marca Hispanica. Since the entire zone is snow and mountains, it makes sense that all combat maps are like that as well!
Some of the levels feature very mythical scenery, which we embrace. Since we use the “multiple dimensions” concept for the story, it gives us some leeway for explaining their existence. Now, obviously, some maps might not be accurately mapped to their overworld location - a world location might be in a valley, but the combat map is set on a mountain peak with a large drop in the background. This is not something we plan to address, because it would prevent maps from appearing at arbitrary locations, and it would limit the creativity of our level designers.
The artists were pretty happy with the fact the zone will be snowy because it allowed their creative juices to flow with snow particles flying around. Since all our maps are hand made by our level designers Lucija and Mateja, they have full control over the positioning of assets. Another form of that control stems from the fact our camera has a fixed angle and is only able to pan around the map. That way you don’t get to see … hacks. :)
With each zone, we introduce more enemy creatures for the player to fight. Our designer Mat is hard at work at making these enemies have interesting abilities, and once we iron those out, we’ll make them behave autonomously through their AI. We have the capability to just flat out disable the AI and manually control the enemies on their turn. This is a great help when debugging abilities or just working out how an enemy should be using an ability.
Next week, more heroes coming up! Thanks for reading! Come join our Discord if you want to talk to us devs, or follow me on Twitter!
MarkoP
This week I’m showcasing some combat maps we have in Marca Hispanica. Since the entire zone is snow and mountains, it makes sense that all combat maps are like that as well!
Some of the levels feature very mythical scenery, which we embrace. Since we use the “multiple dimensions” concept for the story, it gives us some leeway for explaining their existence. Now, obviously, some maps might not be accurately mapped to their overworld location - a world location might be in a valley, but the combat map is set on a mountain peak with a large drop in the background. This is not something we plan to address, because it would prevent maps from appearing at arbitrary locations, and it would limit the creativity of our level designers.
The artists were pretty happy with the fact the zone will be snowy because it allowed their creative juices to flow with snow particles flying around. Since all our maps are hand made by our level designers Lucija and Mateja, they have full control over the positioning of assets. Another form of that control stems from the fact our camera has a fixed angle and is only able to pan around the map. That way you don’t get to see … hacks. :)
With each zone, we introduce more enemy creatures for the player to fight. Our designer Mat is hard at work at making these enemies have interesting abilities, and once we iron those out, we’ll make them behave autonomously through their AI. We have the capability to just flat out disable the AI and manually control the enemies on their turn. This is a great help when debugging abilities or just working out how an enemy should be using an ability.
Next week, more heroes coming up! Thanks for reading! Come join our Discord if you want to talk to us devs, or follow me on Twitter!
MarkoP