HammerHelm News

Hi all!

We have a brand new SOEDESCO Blog Post! This time it's all about HammerHelm's Lead Developer: Jonathan Hanna. Find out what moved him to create the wondrous world of HammerHelm 5 years ago! You can find the full interview right here: https://www.soedesco.com/news/the-developer-of-city-building-rpg-hammerhelm-shares-his-development-story/

Have a nice read and let me know what you thought of it in the comments ;)

-Marten

Tonight's update includes the new resource tool system and some controller enhancements.

Resource Tools
Pickaxes and hatchets have been added to the game!

Two new equipment slots have been added to the "Equipped" part of the inventory UI, one for your pickaxe and the other for your hatchet.



If you have a pickaxe or a hatchet in their slots, your character will automatically switch to use the correct tool based on what you are hitting. There is no need to manually switch using a hot key or opening your inventory. If you swing at nothing or attack a monster, your weapon will appear.

I made a quick video to show off how it works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3EUB4iZqmI&feature=youtu.be
There are four levels for each tool, copper, iron, jade, and diamond.

For trees the better the hatchet the less hits it takes to chop it down. The same is true for mining stone with a pickaxe. For ore, you need the right pick to mine ore deposits. Copper picks can mine copper and iron. Iron picks can mine copper through jade. Jade picks can mine copper through diamond. And diamond picks can mine any of the ore including Blood Stone.

You'll also need a hatchet to smash Alchemy Logs, Supply Crates, and Dungeon Crates. These all still take only one hit regardless of what kind of hatchet you have.

Copper, iron, and jade tools can be crafted by the Metalworker. These can also be crafted at the Weaponsmith, in addition to the diamond tools. Metalworkers can also craft jade ingots. This is to make sure you can make jade tools if you haven't placed a Weaponsmith or Armorsmith yet. If you start a new character you get a copper pickaxe along with your weapons and potions.

This update also changes out the starting axe with a starting hammer. You can see that in the above video as well.

Controller Updates

• Mappable buttons. This is still in testing so if you encounter any issues with it please let me know.
  
• You can now use a controller to place and rotate furniture.
  
• You can now invert the right stick on a controller.
  
• You can change the sensitivity of the left and right sticks on a controller.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused the footstep volume slider to ignore controller input.

I have to admit this was one of the more fun updates I've worked on in a long time. I really enjoyed getting the pickaxes and hatchets to automatically appear before your "attack" hit the object. It feels really good and I want to say thank you to everyone who suggested adding pickaxes and hatchets.

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
[email protected]

• My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
  
• Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco

A quick build to update the HammerHelm logo and images. Also updates the game icon!

New Title Screen


New HammerHelm Logo


New Game Icon


I really love the new icon and new art. Really captures the ideas of both a town builder and an adventure game with characters. You'll notice the Steam page images have also been updated. Once again I have to thank my publisher, Soedesco, for their work on the new art and for all of their support.

This update also has a bunch of UI tweaks to facilitate more languages, especially those that don't use a lot of (or any) spaces. We're hoping to release a couple of languages each week, which gives us time to test them and for me to make any necessary UI changes. Playing and testing a game in a language you can't read can be challenging but I have to say, I love seeing the game with the translated text!

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
[email protected]

• My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
  
• Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco

Today's update adds fully localized text in German and Spanish to HammerHelm! A new button has been added to the main menu allowing you to access the language choices UI.







More languages will be added over the coming weeks! Big thank you to the folks at Soedesco for coordinating getting the text localized.

In other news, the pickaxes and chopping axes are almost done. I'll likely be implementing them this weekend along with also changing out the Achievement icons with the new images.

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
[email protected]

• My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
  
• Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco

Today's build includes a bunch of fixes and improvements.

Controller Updates

• Pressing X on the controller will now open your inventory. You no longer have to open the radial menu to access inventory.
  
• Pressing right stick will now switch your current target. If there are no monsters nearby, then this will switch your active quest.
  
• Added controller support for closing the Tips and Credits UI.
  
• Added controller support for closing the Credits UI with the B button.
  
• Improved the placement of the green controller selector used to select buttons, toggles, etc.

Other Updates

• Added a memory optimization for loading between the title page and the game world. You'll notice a slightly longer pause before the hammer starts spinning but this should help reduce the chance of a memory error when loading the game world.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused buildings to stop moving during placement mode when near the player.
  
• Added a check for buildings with inaccessible first floors (such as the Alchemist Shop) to move the character if the building is placed over the player character. Note this will cause today's update to be a bit larger than usual, that happens whenever I update buildings.
  
• You will no longer get stuck in a loop of switching between attacking and blocking when choosing to block right as an attack hits.
  
• You can no longer dodge roll while jumping.
  
• The kick animation will no longer loop continuously if you kick during an attack.
  
• Enemy mages will now re-engage in combat if they are reset because you moved too far away from their spawner.
  
• Updated the post-processing system and re-activated the saturation and contrast slider.

We're also continuing to make progress on the chopping axes, pickaxes, and the new starting hammer. All of the models are done and the artist is working on the textures now. Quick shots of some of them in game testing size and fit:



Once these are done I'll be updating the UI and all game systems to support them as well as updating the part of the tutorial where you mine the ore.

-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
[email protected]

• My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
  
• Discord Channel: discord.gg/soedesco