Sept 2023 Development Blog
Greetings Xenotherians,
It has been a few months since our last Xenotheria update. Following our Next Fest Demo, we have been hard at work integrating player feedback and expanding the initial levels of the game.
One of the standout aspects of Xenotheria is our game’s art direction. Since Next Fest, we’ve expanded our art assets to new heights. Additionally, we've fine-tuned gameplay, continued to refine our cards, and completely overhauled our UI and options menus. These past few months have been incredibly productive, so let's dive deep into the array of features we've been actively developing.
A New Look at Familiar Faces:
Our current goal is to distinguish our dialogue scenes from our combat scenes. In the demo, we initially used the same avatars for both types of scenes, but this approach didn't effectively convey the depth and emotion we desired in our dialogue sections. To address this, our character artist, Chris Gardula, took on the task of crafting visually captivating and more immersive character portraits specifically tailored for our dialogue sequences.
The screenshots above and below offer a behind-the-scenes look at how Chris developed these character concepts.
We've completed the remodeling of most of our existing characters and have integrated their portraits into the dialogue sequences we’ve made so far.
While there's still a substantial amount of work remaining on characters we haven't revealed much about, our team is enthusiastic about the artistic direction we've chosen for the dialogue scenes. We're looking forward to sharing it with you, and we hope you'll enjoy it as well!
New Environment Art and Building a Universe:
Our Environment Artist Sam Heisler, has dedicated extensive effort to crafting the diverse levels and locations within Xenotheria. Over the past few months, our main focus has been on the opening levels of the game, referred to as the shipyard and the wolf's hollow canyon. The meticulous detail Sam has painstakingly infused into every part of these locations is truly remarkable.
It's worth noting that these screenshots merely represent a portion of the shipyard level, and Sam would probably point out that they lack any visual effects. Nevertheless, even without these effects, these scenes are undeniably captivating.
Our commitment to detailed environment art extends beyond just the isometric aspects of our game. This dedication to detail also carries over into our battle sequences. Here's a glimpse at battlefield background art before we overlay it with our battle grid and characters.
The meticulous detail in the isometric view also extends to this different battle perspective, showcasing Sam's talent. This attention to detail is key to building an in-game universe that feels meticulously crafted and meaningful.
Our objective at Ganymede is to create worlds that possess a distinct sense of space and a rich depth of lore. We're deeply committed to our storytelling, and this commitment extends beyond just the dialogue.
The image you're seeing here is the asset we've chosen for the town of Moros, which serves as the central hub in Xenotheria. Moros is where you'll encounter key story events, interact with quest providers, and purchase cards. We've invested significant effort into refining Moros, carefully considering every building, color, and size. The addition of crashed starships is a recent development, aligning the narrative more seamlessly with the game's visual elements. We intend to underscore the importance of narrative in the game's aesthetics, emphasizing its role in the overall gameplay experience.
New Card, Who Dis:
In addition to character and environment art, Xenotheria also includes unique card art. I'll start by briefly showcasing some card art and then delve into more details about the gameplay elements.
Above is a sketch of Squig's hologram card, which we adore at the studio for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, the Holo Squiggles depicted with lifeless black eyes evoke a sense of eeriness. It's akin to the scene from Jaws where Quint describes the shark with "lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes..." For me, Holo Squig represents a chilling entity that Squig conjures whenever he utilizes his Holo ability. Our team loves this detail because it has indirectly influenced how we're developing Squig as a character. While we all see Squig as a noble and competent figure, it's fun to think that he isn't perfect at using all of his abilities.
Secondly, and likely more importantly, this card opens up exciting gameplay possibilities and assists our development efforts to make Squig a character with unique support abilities that reflect his engineering background.
Here's a preview of what the final card will look like, excluding the proper description and stats on the written portion of the card. One key consideration for our game designer, Felipe, is developing a creative strategy that maintains the uniqueness of each character while still allowing players to create their own combat approaches and builds.
We're satisfied with the core gameplay loop of Xenotheria, as demonstrated in our demo, but we are actively working on enhancing the role-playing aspects and player agency within the actual gameplay. In the past few months since the demo, our focus has been primarily on improving combat and introducing elements that enhance player engagement and overall enjoyment, whilst also further defining each character's abilities.
Jump Around with Movement Points:
On a related note, we've shifted away from utilizing energy points for movement. Instead, we've implemented an individual movement points system for each character. For example, at the beginning of each turn, Squig will have a few movement points that allow him to move two spaces. Players must expend these movement points before initiating an attack; otherwise, they forfeit their chance to move.
To underscore the importance of player movement, we've introduced a feature that allows players to hover over an enemy about to attack and visualize their attack range. This preview provides valuable information, indicating whether a character should be repositioned or if a shield-bearing character should intervene to protect an ally. Similarly, you might need to relocate a character closer to an enemy to match the attack range specified on your card. These adjustments are crucial for fine-tuning a grid-based battle system.
New Baddies:
Additionally, we've introduced new adversaries that players will encounter in the early stages of Xenotheria. The GSEC robots comprise a range of machines employed within the shipyard. When the gravitational anomaly strikes Wolf Prime, the crash-landed starships inadvertently activate their defensive protocol, leading them to mistakenly target Squig and Norton. These robots have been conceived by Chris and brought to life through animation by Georg Dukhnov.
These enemies possess a range of attacks derived from their original functions. In the screenshot provided, you can observe several variations, including the imposing Juggerbot and the more compact Spiderbots.
More Glowups, UI Updates:
We received feedback from our demo regarding our previous UI system, with many players finding the menus somewhat overwhelming. Since then, we've overhauled our crafting, building, and upgrading menus, consolidating them into a single unified menu. This new design simplifies the process of managing your cards, tracking your current build, and identifying upgrade options. It streamlines the user experience, reducing the need to switch between multiple menus and making everything more accessible and efficient.
We've also introduced a much-needed options menu that gives you control over fundamental settings, including the pace of play to speed up animations between turns. These are minor quality-of-life improvements that we believe enhance the overall quality of Xenotheria, and we wouldn't have prioritized them without the valuable feedback we received from you all during Next Fest!
That concludes the in-depth discussion of the blog's elements. Below, you'll find a comprehensive list of the features we've been diligently working on over the past few months.
Full List of New Features:
Added point-and-click movement
Added options menu
Added autosave feature
Added the first 2 levels of the game: Shipyard and Moros
Added Mr. Squiggles card to Squig’s collection
Added new enemy units: GSEC Drone, GSEC Spiderbot, and GSEC Juggerbot
Added UKH’S SHOP to buy new blueprints to craft
Added tooltips to keywords in menu descriptions
Added feature to preview enemy attack ranges
Added movement points (MP) system:
Movement no longer consumes energy.
Each character has a personal MP pool
Characters can move as long as they have MP left.
Using an ‘Attack’ card causes a character to lose all remaining MP.
Full List of Modified Features:
Changes in Wolf Hollow dialogues
Changes in Wolf Hollow level topography
Changes to Wolf Hollow enemy abilities
Multiple changes to card effects
Changed how evasion works
Changed character dialogue assets to 2D character portraits
Expanded attack intent icons and tooltips to provide more insight into enemy targeting
Removed ‘Cover’ status from entities. Now, any entity can work as cover from line attacks
Enemies will now move every turn after taking their actions
Changed ‘Block’ type cards to be considered as ‘Skills’
Reworked deckbuilder menu, now upgrades and crafting menu are accessed through each card in the deckbuilder collection view.
Updated tutorials
Implemented variable grid sizes in combats
Reworked quest log menu and objectives system
Upgrades:
Players now must choose one upgrade from the available ones, they can no longer buy all of them.
Changes to some specific upgrades.
Deckbuilding:
Character decks have been reduced from 10 to 8 cards each
Card copies have been reduced from 4 to 3 per deck.
Join Our Discord
If you haven't done so yet, I strongly recommend joining our official Discord server. It's the best way to access screenshots, gameplay videos, character art, and more early. You also get to hang out with other Xenotherians and talk about our game or your other interests!
What’s Next?
We have a lot of upcoming news to share in the coming months as we continue developing Xenotheria. Stay tuned for updates!
Oh, and make sure you wishlist Xenotheria on Steam and tell your friends about it too ;)
On behalf of the crew at Ganymede Games,
Anton, Community Manager
P.S. The rumors are true, Holo Squig is indeed evil.
