Attention Wolfpack!
It’s Sunday update time and we think you’ll love this one.
Our Lead Animator Connor has beautiful animation updates to showcase, each with description breakdowns and how it affects the game.
Download the file in our announcement channel here to see them in action!
Steve has some interesting work progress to update us on — including ‘finding the voice’ for the beasts within our game!
Before we hand things over to Connor, we would like to keep the community updated on 2 important subjects.
- Our hiring process which we discussed in last week’s announcement is still ongoing. We’ll keep the community close to the process if we get any good news.
- The Shiryo SOL Token guide should be released by next weekend (27–28th).
Now then, time for Connors updates!
Hey guys, I’ve got some neat things to share with you this week.
Firstly on a work note, since the last update I’ve been structuring all 2D and 3D animations created for Shiryo into folders that can be integrated into the game.
Fully listing each animation and their variants, all files and folders have now been named correctly with exported PNG’s for every animation. Doing this allows us to create CSV files to bring all animations into the engine and fire from code. Once this phase is complete along with our animation system in Unreal engine, all animations should be able to play in-game.
This will make things easier not only for coding but also useful for other team members in the future. Once a video of each anim is filed correctly we should then be able to send these to our sound designer where sounds for each applicable animation can be created.
Going over and correctly filing animations highlighted some areas which needed editing or improving on. (download anims here).
Certain animations were scaled wrong or had not exported correctly, others needed colour changes or general bug fixing.
Below are a few animations that had to be re-created to play on the opposing player’s board, as the spacing between the avatar, cards and the board’s edge are slightly different for each player.
Anims for both spells, Fulmination and Flash Freeze have now been created for both player and enemy sides of the board. (The animation timeline previews have some lag, please ignore)
Targeting Arrow
I’ve also been working with our UI designer on the targeting arrow (the interface that allows the user to directly select a specific target). It consists of three individual animations which work in unison to create the targeting arrow. I’m still actively modifying and tweaking this.
The components include — The base anim (blue donut) which has a looping animation and will remain stationary on the card that is targeting another card.
The centre anim (line) which will scale and stretch anchored to the centre of the base anim. The arrowhead (shard) moves with the mouse cursor, remaining tethered to the centre anim (line).
Doing this allows the player to select any valid target on the board.
Legendary Beast Placed On Board
Individual 3D animations for all player and enemy board positions have been created for Legendary beasts placed on the board. Along with this, a unique 2D animation has been made.
With the previous 2 animations, we now have each rarity type being placed on the board other than mythic. The higher the rarity type - the more effects are on the card, this is shown in white. In-engine we can tint the colour to match its rarity type or perhaps the corresponding elemental type colour of the beast that is placed. More effects may be stacked onto this to create a more flashy look.
Your Turn Indicator
The Your Turn Indicator has now been animated and will appear once in the centre of the players screen after the opponent’s attack phase is complete.
That’s all from our Lead Animator Connor, now we’ll be passing things over to our esteemed writer, Steve!
Steve updates us on tasks he’s been working through, Steve covers all of Shiryo’s writing around the Game and makes sure the story of Shiryo comes together properly. From making sure the lore is consistent throughout with no conflictions — to influencing the personalities found within the game.
‘How To Play’
One of the tasks assigned to me was to write out the How to Play section.
This would be where players would go to learn about the game or to review game terms they may be a little ‘hazy’ on.
Each entry needed to be concise and clear so that players would learn what they needed to easily and quickly. This meant that after the initial draft was written I would have my work reviewed by others to make sure it was easily understood and clear to players before finalizing.
Here are some examples of the How to Play document in its current iteration:
Game Overview/Glossary
Allows users to learn game concepts, decisions, terminology and rules.
- Mulligan
The Mulligan takes place before either player has taken their turns. Each player will have the option to discard cards from their starting hand and draw new ones randomly from their deck. The discarded cards are then shuffled back into the deck. The Mulligan feature allows the players to “Re-do” their starting hand to better implement their strategies and to avoid starting out in an “Unwinnable” situation.
- Turns
The turn order is decided automatically at the start of the game. Players will take their turn before switching to the other player for their turn. Player turns end with an Attack Phase before handing over control to their opponent.
- Game Board
All game elements needed to play are found on the Gameboard, including both players’ hands, decks and the graveyard.
Once the ‘How to Play’ document was finalized, I moved onto the task of coming up with and writing out voice lines for the Lycan cards.
Finding their voice
Those who are familiar with other online card games will know that some cards often have voice lines that play when the card is summoned, initiates an attack or is destroyed.
These voice lines often give the players an impression of the personality of the character on the card they are using, adding depth to the game itself from a creative perspective.
During the time when I wrote the card descriptions and pack lore for the cards of Shiryo - I endeavoured to give each beast a personality of their own. To a degree - these voice lines gave me the opportunity to showcase that personality.
With each beast, I would describe the kind of voice I had in mind, then I would provide a link to a video (on youtube) featuring a voice actor that displayed the closest approximation of what I imagine that Lycan sounded like.
I also wrote two different lines for each action (Summoning, Attacking, Destroyed) so that if there were multiples of the same card on the board — you would lessen the risk of having the same line repeated in a short window.
Here is an example of the document for Lycan voice lines:
Name
Frenzied Devourer
Voice Type
Manic and Raspy, mirroring its insanity. (Here I’m on the fence between Mark Hamils Joker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ldeJXdQDXM and Andy Morris’ Cicero https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wli4V8iPnBc )
Voice Quotes
On Summon — Your blood… I can taste it!
You’re going to die here!
On Attack — Yes… YES!
Hehehe! BLEED!
On Death — Hehehe Hahaha!
Hehe Haha…
Name
Moltencore Lycan
Voice Type
Rough and Gravelly (Due to living in quite a soot and ash rich environment). I imagine Steve Blum but deeper (https://youtu.be/ARxH1MD9avQ?t=58)
Voice Quotes
On summon — The flames of Kedunn burn inside me!
You will burn here!
On Attack — Perish!
For the Firelands!
On Death — Great Father…
Huahhh!
Name
Thunderfang Hunter
Voice Type
Deep but Smooth with maybe some hint of authority and rage (I’m thinking maybe something like how Peter Cullen voices Optimus Prime https://youtu.be/_i6x7U8ON9A?t=15 )
Voice Quotes
On Summon — I will strike you down
Diebel Rise rejects you!
On Attack — Grah!
Thunderfangs, on me!
On Death — I will become one with the storms…
Blarghhh!
That’s it for this week from our writer, Steve! We hope you enjoyed reading about his creative process and getting a further feel for what our game will bring.
Next week we’ll have updates from other team members but we may have a little exciting extra from Steve, stay tuned and we’ll catch you next weekend Wolfpack.
