Dev Diary: The Wargs

In today’s developer diary, we want to tell you about the path of the Wargs: who they are, how they appeared in the project, and maybe give you some useful gameplay tips. Be sure to read to the end!

History and Origin

For those who don’t know, Wargs are the antagonists in Murrlandia’s story, arriving from a harsh, resource-poor world in search of a new home. Upon discovering the abundant Mana Stones, blue crystals used by the peaceful Meowkles for magic, the Wargs opened a portal to bring their army into Murrlandia. They fortified their position around a massive Mana Stone, led by their ruthless queen. When the Meowkle mages tried to destroy this stone and close the portal, the resulting explosion shattered Murrlandia into thousands of islands and scattered the Mana Stone fragments across the universe. These fragments retained their magical properties, transporting any living creature that touched them back to Murrlandia, thus maintaining a connection between the worlds.

Creating the Wargs

Once we gathered enough assets, we started creating the enemies for the game. We tried different designs until we decided that we wanted the Wargs to look like large, massive wolves and started bringing this idea to life.

Yes, this is how the Wargs looked in the initial stage. There was a lot of work ahead, but we were already on the right track.

We kept working and the Brutes, Rogues, and Recruits were the first to appear in the project. They differ in combat difficulty and hierarchy in the animal army.

The work on the wargs is still ongoing. We are creating new enemies for you so that your gameplay experience becomes more engaging. Check out this serious guy here!

Warg Recruits

Wargs are smart, wolf-like humanoids. The recruits are their basic soldiers and do a lot of simple jobs. You can find them wandering around wild islands, guarding important places, or staying in camps. If you kill them, they drop valuable items. They have a few basic attacks and are tougher and stronger than big animals.

Warg Rogues

Warg Rogues are quick and dangerous warriors. They do special missions for the Warg Queen but often hang out on the islands while recruits do the basic work. You can find them roaming the wild islands, guarding important places, or staying in camps. If you kill them, they drop valuable items. They have a few basic attacks and some deadly combos. They are the fastest Wargs and have more health and damage than Warg Recruits.

Warg Brutes

Warg Brutes are big, heavily armed warriors who lead the groups and give orders. You can find them roaming the wild islands, guarding important places, or staying in camps. If you kill them, they drop valuable items. They have a few basic attacks, deadly combos, and powerful heavy attacks. They are the toughest and strongest Wargs, with more health and damage than Warg Rogues.

Animation

Currently, we are mainly working on creating animations in Maya. The main focus is on making the character setup as high-quality as possible, ensuring that all animation elements move naturally and correctly. During setup, it’s important to carefully analyze the characters, imagine the movements they could make, and choose interesting poses according to the concept.

After sketching the animations, we move on to timing the movements to better convey the sense of action. Then, we smooth out the movements, add details, and perfect the animations. Various specialized scripts are actively used in this process, significantly simplifying the work.

Working on animations often involves technical difficulties. Our animators consider the specifics of game engines, the peculiarities of bone animation, and constantly keep optimization and game mechanics in mind.

And here’s a tip for you:

Use combat consumables in tough or large-scale battles with the Wargs. Remember that meat-based food can heal you in battle. Read the attacks correctly and dodge them, fight the Wargs with appropriate gear and weapons.

Working on the Wargs in the Murrlandia is a process of constant improvements and changes. We strive to create interesting and memorable opponents that make the gameplay exciting and engaging. We hope our players appreciate the effort and attention to detail put into each Warg. And who knows, maybe someone new will show up soon. Only time will tell…