The Neutral of my Enemy

• Audio Overhaul

• Letterboxing and Resolution support

• A/V Settings menu

• Tutorial hint system

• Steam build pipeline

• Support -> Cantrip Naming Conventions

• Allies & Neutral Unit Faction support

• Unit recruitment flow

• Mid battle reinforcements

• Battle triggers (for things like reinforcements)

• Lootable Chests

• Performance improvements

• So many bug fixes.

The first three features on the list are all part of the same effort. It started as just a lot of little audio bug fixes. Things not fading in or out correctly, little tweaks, little adjustments. Then it became volume settings, which meant restructuring how we think about the audio buses. Then once I’d made an Audio Options panel, it seemed like I really ought to do the resolution support work as well. Originally the game ran in exactly one resolution: 1080X720. That’s because this is a multiple of 360X240 which is the resolution the game pretends to be. It is a very opinionated system. Fortunately I was able to use Unity’s built in canvas scaling and some letterboxing (really windowboxing if we’re getting technical) to get it playing nicely in all kinds of screens and aspect ratios.

Steam post image I am slowly working on the process of turning my friends & family demo into a proper Steam demo and with that has come a bunch of build and upload scripts as well as steam pipe configuration. It also was the catalyst for a quick and easy tutorial popup system which only shows up in the first mission for now, just to help fill the gaps while the rest of the game comes online. I am generally against text tutorials and I’d eventually like to remove them or at least make them smaller and more targeted. As it stands I think they strike a good balance for the time being.

At the same time I’m trying to stabilize everything for a playable steam demo, I’m working in a feature branch on a lot of new tech for making future battles even more interesting! It would be boring if every mission had the same objective or map or pacing and that just requires a deep toolbox in order to keep them fresh and interesting. So with that I have added Allied units, which are friendly to you but you don’t control, and Neutral units. I’ve been calling them Neutral but really they’re second enemy units. They will fight anyone, even Enemies. This will allow for interesting 3 way battles and that kind of thing.

Steam post image Along with the new factions came reinforcements and battle triggers, so now I can set up enemy (or friendly) units to join mid-battle or after a specific area is reached or unit destroyed. This can also trigger dialogue. The final feature for this month is lootable chests. Chests are fun by themselves but this unlocks a very classic Fire Emblem pacing mechanic: the enemy thief, which is what I’m working on right at the moment. Thieves will spawn in and try to beat you to the chests, pushing the player to act more aggressively than they may wish to. Works great in the movies!

Steam post image I haven’t finished all the work in my current milestone and I’m planning to work on these next:

• Enemy Thieves (in Progress)

• Support Conversations / Friendship System

• Additional mid-battle triggered conversations

• Build out lots more missions

• Close tooling gaps from all these new mission features to make mission authoring faster.

On top of all the dev work I’ll be attending FIS games summit in Galway in a few weeks and showing off the game there! Come by my table and say hi! Until then.