AoA Weekly #14 - Overall Improvements

This week was another pass on the levels we made, and we can honestly say they're good to go. They've all been made to equal in quality - earlier, if you found some of the 'lamer' ones, it bogged down the pacing. That's been fixed now! These different 'dreams' you can enter are truly a sight to behold!

On the overall side of Ancients of Arkar, we finally got Videos loading. It was a struggle because, not to date the project, but we needed videos loading in a visual studio 2008 environment. Yes, we're developing this game in an ancient environment, and it's even playable on windows XP. But this keeps requirements VERY low, and our game hasn't suffered for it at all.

Long rant short, videos can now be loaded and applied as a texture to 3d models. We might be overhauling a few things. :)

Furthermore, we finally got post processing working, with our game now fully rendered to a texture. We're using our own engine built in C++, so this is a big step forward. Now the rendering will be consistent between most computers. Our post processing is so small in requirements, pretty much everyone will be able to run it.

Next week should be the time where the enemies are drawn and eventually gameplay is added. Let's continue moving forward with Stormbarrow, now with new post processing techniques!

• Brand new Dream: The End

  • A remake that made the level shorter (it was quite the sprint) and added possibly the coolest background effect in our game. It truly feels like 'the end' now. When the flash starts, head for cover.

• Brand new Dream: Playground

  • The playground has been redesigned, since the 'nowhere' level kind of took its unique aspect. The watchful eye of mother floats in the background. If she opens her eye, she better not catch you outside!

• Brand new Dream: Bubble

  • The Bubble level was perhaps the most drastic change. It's now a massive, endless ocean. There's a single fishing pole on the lone pier. Attach the correct bait, and the world's water level may rise...

• Post Processing added

  • Added sharpen ability

  • Added several sepia/grayscale capabilities

  • Added quantization that looks amazing

  • Added dithering effects

  • And much more!

• Video loading and applying as texture

  • Videos can now be put into the game world, or perhaps now you may even watch an animated cutscene...

Steam post image"A look at the titlescreen with our new LUT capabilities with color correction!"

Steam post image"Same titlescreen, only now we've applied bit crushing (quantization)."

Steam post image"And finally (you may have to click it to see) we have dithering, sepia and bit crushing all in one!"

• CorrenBros