The Hand of Merlin News

Hello there!

Here are some updates on what we’re doing and where we are.

• The programmers are implementing the new UI concepts Shiv made before the break. We’re mostly focusing on doing the code implementation and exposing all the knobs to the editor so an artist can come in and play with them and make the UI just right.
  
• Shiv is finishing up with the book UI concept so we programmers have everything we need to do the implementation. Once that’s done, he’ll be doing the opening cinematic and making sure the in-game UI looks like all the concepts he made.
  
• Aleluja and sanduk were working on maps, and while sanduk is still working on them, Aleluja started working on improving some older models and making better animations for the last abomination unit for zone 3.
  
• Kaz was churning out icons for ability upgrades, blacksmith upgrades and is working on adding new relic icons along with new ground materials.
  
• Mat was working on a prototype of the final final boss fight, which he’s completed, and we’re soon having a meeting to talk about how the boss fight will look like (models, aesthetics, mood, etc). He’s also made some new relics.
  
• Mia is working on making template encounters for zone 3 so the writers can make them story rich.
  
• AlenHR is a beast, making destructions for most of our obstacles so they can be split apart by explosive abilities. He’s also done a neat new feature you can see below.
  

Our internal target for the end of January is to have all encounters for zone 1 and 2 complete, have the templates for zone 3 and 4 done, finish the in-game UI rework, finish the intro cutscene (it’s partially done, just not finalized), add questline encounters (that span multiple zones), add 15 more relics, finish all Merlin Spells, do half of the zone 3 skirmish fights, have a prototype of the final final boss and start working on localization support (not the actual localization, just make sure the system works).
The good news is that we’re on schedule with all of this, more than half of the tasks are already done. There are always bits and pieces that just happen out of nowhere that take a bit of time, but they aren’t too time-consuming. An example of this is the little feature AlenHR proposed to me yesterday, which we got working in about half an hour of testing.



As units get damaged, they become more visually bloody. This example is only a blood cover over the unit, but we also have an armor coating applied which might be used for some units as well.

In general, we’re happy with our progress, and we’re currently on schedule with our timetables. This should put us to be released sometime during Spring, so with that in mind, we’re likely not to put out any more demos until release.
Thanks for reading! If you want to chat with the devs, we’re all on our Discord server.

MarkoP

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

Hey peeps!

We’re back from our 2-week winter break. We’re settling back into the workflows, and everyone has their stuff to work on. Programmers are programming, designers are designing and artists are… arting.

So I asked the team what they were doing over the winter break. I'll use the names we have on our Discord. Here are some stories.

Mat, a Brazillian lost in Croatia, was not prepared for the harsh cold weather of Croatia in December (it’s summer in Brazil). So after a few attempts of enduring the near-zero temperatures (celsius), he and the missus gave up and focused on making food and playing DnD.

Sanduk, a cool weirdo, got inspired by the earthquakes that hit Croatia to draw something related. The stronger quake hit when she was returning from a walk with the dog, and she briefly thought she was causing the shaking, but figured what was going on when plaster started falling down off the walls. Other than that, she made some cookies and cakes, and after 2 years of wanting it, she bought the toaster.

Aleluja, the cat wrangler, said her break was boring, but I beg to differ. She cleaned up the chaos in her apartment, finished Red Dead Redemption 2, worked on an EU stop motion project, and spent time learning Swedish! Mycket bra!

AlenHR, the effect wizard, is a big drone aficionado and has spent time working on a prototype drone that mixes two types of drone rotor configurations (push and pull for the front and back rotors). It has some benefits for drone size and flight characteristics, but he’s not sure if the thing will fly at all. He started kitbashing one up, so I guess we’ll see!

MarkoZ, the guy who walks his cat like a dog, learned to make french macarons, and he says he was very successful. Can’t wait for the pandemic to end and we start working in a shared office to try them.

Kaz, the cowboygirl, spent time working on illustrating a school book and an encyclopedia, drawing dinosaurs and fungi, while listening to Arabic language lessons. She also had fun with her pet slugs and pigeons doing unspeakable things. Not with each other, mind you, individually.

Shiv, the bear, is traditionally the one who messes up everything, and he managed to mess up being a blood donor. The needle pierced his vein in a bad way, and now his left arm has a nice rainbow pattern that will last for around 3 months, according to his doctors. He’s still alive but has some trouble sleeping due to the bad arm. We all wish him a speedy recovery. Thankfully it was his left arm, so he can still work (the one thing he did right).
Mia, the LARPing dungeon master, spoke of having some gender role reversal in her household, where the gals played Zelda almost every day, while the men were horrified by the fact they’re playing games. Apparently, the men in her house don’t know what fun is.

MarkoP, yours truly, spent time programming (what a shocker) with the focus on learning OpenGL and having it work alongside a D3D11 renderer, playing board games with friends, and waiting for the next Path of Exile expansion. He also got a vegetable chopper for Christmas, which he’s pretty happy about. (weird writing about myself in the third person)

Sorry for not having some interesting game news this week. Returning from a 2-week work break does that. All of us have gone back to doing interesting things, so next week should have some stuff to share.
If you want to inquire more about any of the things you read here, the whole team is on our Discord server, available for questioning. I’m guessing some people might want to ask Kaz some stuff. Sheesh.

MarkoP

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

Hey folks.

A very different blog post this time around. The team is currently on a two week collective vacation for Christmas and year number rollover. As such we don't really have a lot of interesting things to show, so i thought i'd show the animals the team owns. I'll use the names people use on our Discord.

Aleluja (artist)


Jakov (our IT admin)


Kaz (artist)


Jonas and Verena (writers)


MarkoP (programmer)


MarkoZ (programmer)


Mat (designer)


Mia (designer)


Sanduk (artist)


Shiv (artist)


Regular (game related) blog posts will continue on January 13th. Come join our Discord server for more animal pics.

MarkoP

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

Dear gamers,

When I originally started writing these blog posts, I made an initial plan for about 48 blog posts. At the beginning of the year, we thought we’d release the game in December. We knew what features we wanted. The start of the year was looking good for us. Nobody was expecting the Spanish Inquisition.

Then the fire nation attacked.

From March 17th, due to the Covid-19 induced lockdown, we were all working from home. We thought it might just last a few months. We were -oh- so wrong.

From our perspective, as a small team of 9 people (give or take a few over the course of the year), working from home is a huge impairment to communication and decision making. We were used to working from a single room in the office. When we needed to discuss something, we could do it by just turning in our chairs. Ideas were free-flowing since everyone could hear everything in the room. Showing somebody something on the screen was much easier in person. Working from home added a large aspect of friction to that. While we can still communicate via voice chat and screen share, the fact is that the friction is still there in the form of the time delay from when you want to start the communication to the point when the communication actually starts. Not to mention it’s much more useful to see the person talking because body language and body cues are important when humans communicate.

All this to say: we were slowed down. We were also preparing builds for festivals on multiple occasions. While this was very beneficial to us (by getting useful feedback from the general public), it also meant we were working on a demo version of the game instead of the full version (from a code perspective). Some things had to be disabled, other things had to be excluded from the game, and we were making a tradeoff: invest time making sure the demo is properly limited instead of working on the shipping version. Not that it’s a huge time tradeoff, as some aspects of the demo are just part of the shipping version, but the time investment is real. It accumulates with the time wasted initiating communication between us.

We discussed the planned December release. We could release the game if we rushed the rest of the content for the game. It would not be polished, it would be buggy, but we could do it.
We decided against it.
We’re pushing back the release to Q2 2021, most likely spring. We have a project chart timeline which puts us at around that time. This includes all the polish and initial balance and testing and stuffs. Since we got a smidgeon better at the whole work-from-home situation, we feel this is a pretty good estimate. Everyone who played the demo can probably attest that the game is almost there, but we still need a bit more time to add the sparkles, the glitter, the shine. We’re updating the store page as well to show the approximate release date.

For a final thought, it’s Wednesday, my dudes.



Thanks for reading. Come voice your sadness and anger about the pushed release on our Discord server. I provide free virtual hugs.

MarkoP

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/

Oh hi there!

Today I’m happy to present pieces of our new UI we’ve been working on for a while.
A month or two ago we scheduled some time to make a newer cleaner interface art that is connected in style, theme, visuals, etc.
Our lead artist, codename Shiv, took the task with a passion. He’s never done a proper full UI before. We have 4 different scenes, each with several elements that need to look like they belong to an overall theme.
The main menu will get new textures for buttons, some new label backgrounds, and in general making things more clear.



The world map has also received a facelift. Shiv wanted to have everything consistent and connected, and so we’re using the same icons for every piece of UI that has the same semantics. The legend should also help with understanding these things at first, and later when it becomes second nature will just always be closed.



The fights will also receive a facelift, with a newer unit header that collapses when the unit is not “in focus”, a new action bar, and all portraits shown for all enemies. We’re also changing the portraits for Merlins’ party to be in the same style as the enemies, as it’s easier to make them that way.



I'd also love to show you the updated book, but it's not yet ready. We expect to start implementing the new UI this week, and will probably finish it early next year. While most of the changes come down to changing some content files, some of these things will need a little touch up on the code side, so MarkoZ and MarkoP (that's us programmers) will split the task somehow. Honestly, I'm very excited to see this new UI in game and start recording new gifs with it.

This will be a big change to our UI, and as such I’m very interested in hearing your thoughts and feedback. Does everything seem reasonable? Does anything still look confusing? Do you feel some aspect needs another improvement? Leave your comments all over the internet, but tell me where I can find them. Plz, I don’t have time to look all over the internet. You can find me on our Discord server.

MarkoP

https://store.steampowered.com/app/600610/The_Hand_of_Merlin/