Dev Diary #4

Greetings, Explorers! ⚔️

Our birb has one or two things to tell you today!

Welcome to another Zarktor's Realm Dev Diary. We'll be providing you regular updates to keep you informed of what's happening behind the scenes to bring you this fantastic game.

...and now for something completely different... ːsteamhappyː

This has become our defacto motto and one we're trying to integrate into everything we're doing with this game.

You can click the image to zoom in but please remember to click BACK! Steam post image A sneak peek of what I've been preparing for our PAX ventures!

Well, it's been a hectic few months with so many things going on - including rebuilding the main development PC (from scratch), designing posters like the one above for our upcoming indie booth at PAX, and buying a caravan so we can take much-needed breaks from our day jobs (yes, this is being built in our spare time!). However, development is still pushing ahead on the playable demo and packaging it up with an installer.

Branching Dialogue 👨👳‍♂️👩🏾‍🦱👴🏼

Firstly, we're getting the main quest logic and mechanics in place to support broad role-playing experiences with multiple outcomes that affect both the player and the world around them.

We've now got the NPC dialogue working quite well and integrating pre-recorded voiceover audio to trigger lipsync.

I'm pleased to report that Jane has joined our team and will be writing dialogue for the game. This includes NPC's giving quests and rewards, rumors, and generally fun, insane conversations. We'll be using "barks" which are essentially background dialogue that you don't need to interact with, such as overhearing the grave-diggers conversations.

Jane will be writing dialogue for both the player and the various NPCs and as we have 12 different player character choices, we're also adding some variability so that the dialogue may actually vary depending on who you've chosen to play as.

We've managed to work out a way for Jane to create branching dialogue using a visual, node-based HTML editor which we can then import into the Dialogue System in Unity. Once this is done, we can then add in scripted cutscene controls such as NPC camera close-ups, camera pans, character emotes (such as smiles, anger, and hand gestures), or trigger changes in inventory such as giving/receiving items and quest rewards.

In the example below there are multiple quest reward outcomes: coin (giving the player a reputation as a mercenary), a white cat companion that won't fight, or an angry ginger Tom cat companion that scratches, or a choice of having no physical reward but instead gaining a huge reputation boost as a hero.

Below is a single quest reward tree (player choices are in blue). You can click the image to zoom in but please remember to click BACK! Steam post image Branching dialogue with different consequences! Your choices do matter in Zarktor's Realm.

The reputation system will work on the basis of deeds and will translate into other NPCs across the game world treating you differently, such as reduced prices in a store, optional quest lines, and special rumor dialogue in inns, etc. We hope that by implementing this style of branching dialogue, you'll have a lot of fun exploring the role-playing aspects of the game through replays.

With Jane's dialogue imported into Unity, we're able to play the scenes and select player responses to test the logic and ensure it all works and the dialogue actually makes sense - in context.

We've got the ability to set it up with language codes so the player can switch to one of the other localized languages. At this stage, we're planning to translate the game user Interface and all dialogue (subtitles) to Russian, Simplified Chinese, German, Japanese, Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese (which we understand are pretty similar).

Will you accept her quest?

When a chunk of NPC dialogue is ready, we can then commission voice actors to record audio, and at the same time, get the subtitles translated. Bringing those audio and localized files back into Unity will automatically trigger playing the audio files as the dialogue choices are made. This will also trigger lipsync and display subtitles in the player's chosen language.

Once we've launched we hope to add additional languages to the localization list and may also consider recording audio in different languages if that is what the player base wants.

Everybody asks who is a pretty birb, but nobody asks how is said birb doing...

Anyway, we're really excited to get these aspects working in the playable demo as it now opens up the ability to get the whole dialogue, questing, and storyline parts of the game into full swing - in parallel with enhancements to the combat system and level building.

Zoomy-Zooms 🎥

We've managed to get the follow-cam to work well with zoom-in and zoom-out controls - at this stage with the mouse wheel, but planned for gamepad control too. Here's our player considering what to do about the poisoned well...

Now let's take a looksie at the wellsie...

Background Music 🎼

In between bouts of programming and building levels, I have been working on some music for the game with influences ranging from Queen's "Seven Seas of Rhye" to Megadeth's "Five Magics" and Queen's of the Stone Age "Song for the Dead".

How about my bard cosplay?

The studio is a bit of a mess right now, but I'm capturing ideas on guitar and piano with the acquisition of a mandolin being a source of inspiration for the neo-medieval metal to come. Needless to say, we are keen to expand Zarktor's Realm to include a 13th player character...

🤘 The Bard! 🤘

Introducing: Cat antics 😻

Pet companions are starting to become a reality in Zarktor's Realm. We're still working on what you'll be able to do once you've acquired them - whether a domestic cat can actually be bothered to do combat for you, or will just curl up next to your lifeless form when a boss has just given you a right thrashing. Spoiler:

Yes, you can cucumber the cat

Eat more healthy, human!

Lockpicking! 🔓

We've now integrated Skyrim-style lockpicking into the demo scene complete with breakable lockpicks (there will be a limited inventory of these). If you enjoyed this feature in games like Skyrim and Fallout 3, you'll remember that the vibration on the controller was haptic feedback to let you know the lockpick was going to break. We're hoping to do something similar through haptic feedback too.

Time to revisit your lockpicking skills!

PAX Aus 2022 Approaching! 🔥

Come and say hi if you can :D

With the PAX event imminent, we're in full logistics mode, trying to figure out how to get everything crammed into our caravan to go down to Melbourne for the 7th-9th of October. Needless to say, we are excited to be showing Zarktor's Realm at this awesome event.

You'll find us at Indie Rising Stand #20, just inside the main hall after the queue entrance - we'll be the ones wearing these (assuming they arrive in time)... The finest clothes in the realm!

Features in Development - coming soon...🗺️

We've extended our use of the awesome Invector Third-Person Controller which is at the core of our game. We've procured several new add-on modules and we'll be progressively integrating these and other features in the coming months:

• Magic users rejoice! 🖐🔥 We've had some awesome magic special FX on ice for quite a while and now that melee and ranged combat are working, it's high time we add in fireballs, lightning bolts, area of effect spells, healing, phase door, etc. ...You'll know what we mean...

  Free climb 🧗‍♀️ Scale the outside of buildings, rock walls, cliffs, etc. Most likely for Assassins wanting to sneak around and avoid stairs, etc.

  Swim 🩲 Wherever there is a large body of water, you'll be able to swim and dive down to the bottom to collect items, etc. However, watch out for sharks and more importantly, loose-fitting budgie-smugglers.

  I am Ironman! 🦅 One of the characters will have the ability to fly - at least as long as they abide by the rules of their order. Spoiler:

  The Female Templar has wings!

  Craft a thing 👜 Craft new things from existing things in your inventory so you have even more things to go with your other things. Gee, better make a bag of holding!

  Build something 🔨 Build by placing construction materials in the scene. We're going to experiment with this and see how it fits in the game. Join our Discord and let us know your thoughts on this.

  Destructibles 🚪 Did someone put a ruddy door in your way? No problemo - kick it in!

  Pyromania, anyone? 🧯 Set fire to stuff - you know you want to!

We're also working on a clean installer to wrap the game in so we can distribute the playable demo. ...Watch this space.

Finally, if you have a few moments, please check out a recent playthrough of the demo level we created a few weeks ago. We'll continue to upload gameplay footage from our Twitch streams to our YouTube channel so please subscribe and follow!

We hope this article has been interesting for you. We'd love to hear from you, so please drop into our friendly Discord server and follow us on our social media platforms.

Stay tuned for the next Dev Diary update!

Thanks for visiting.

Cheers, Martyn Founder, Zarktor Studios