Overview

Hey everyone!  

This last week there's been a series of posts over on Twitter about the upcoming features, and as discussed in an earlier post, I'll round up the posts in one post here, so that's what this is!

This next update focuses on the open world, and moving to the final world layout, so much of the stuff that's been worked on is here related to that. Mainly some major changes include a (WIP) overhaul of the Sanctuary, _some_ work on the layout of the open world, and open world related features such as time of day, and some visual assets.

Sanctuary

"Sanctuary: The last bastion of Order..."

In the near future, Sanctuary will receive a major overhaul to its layout and visuals. The colors and themes will be more in line with the concept of "Order" in the world of CINIS, and for once, you can actually go outside! But, it's not the most reassuring view out there.

Concept blockout

The environment surrounding Sanctuary has been completely obliterated, and it is the only identifiable feature left...

In-Game (WIP)

More to be done here, but it is in game!

Also a peek at the current interior:

Open-world

Much of this update is focused on the open world, and moving towards what will be the final open world. Part of this development is researching options to better develop the open world, and better test it, but part of it is also actually creating new content and features which will help the game come alive.

Outside of this, there will be a heavy focus on nature assets, whether that be rocks, cliffs, trees, bushes, or other things you would expect to find in a forest!

Time of Day

Work has started on a day-night cycle, which uses an actual 24 hour clock to determine the sun position and sky color. If all goes as planned, this will also affect certain game systems later on, but I have no more to say regarding that for now :^)

There will also later be a weather system, most likely featuring wind, rain and cloudiness, but this is currently not a feature.

Pine trees

Pine trees were added as assets! These will appear through much of the world, but other trees are for sure also an option. These serve as the first visual test of what nature, trees specifically, look like in-game, and how they will be made. I think the results are quite good tho!

Also in video format:

So, that's it for this week!

In secret, more work has actually been happening behind the scenes, but these experiments and alike are not yet ready to be shown off, so, I am keeping these secret a bit longer.

Feel free to share any thoughts about the shown off features, and in any case, thank you for reading!