Devlog #2: Transgenically Modified Mutants

In February, we finished: 

• IK animation and ground fitting setup for creatures
• Shader material layers, allowing parts to have multiple textures and normal maps (see the glorious chicken butt below)
• Began polish improvements for part combos, e.g. when combining a long torso with a bipedal stance, rotate the torso
• Chicken and crocodile creatures completed and animated
• Began work on evolution UI
• Learned that there’s a scientific word that defines exactly what our game is about

Transgenic: an organism whose genome has been altered by the transfer of DNA from another breed. TIL! Here’s our not-yet-transgenic crocodile in 3ds Max:

In January we canceled our plan to use CCD IK. Now we’re using regular-old-IK. We’ve found a ground fitting algorithm that works for us, too, so the creature’s feet stay on the ground no matter what angle it’s walking on — up hills, up stairs, etc.

Shader material layers are pretty fun. Basically, we get to overlay the original texture and normal map with a new one, then use a gradient map to determine how much of the part is covered (as long as the UVs are set up correctly!). Here’s an example:

In the 1,2,3 marked locations, the tail, left and right legs have their own textures: yellow feathers and brown fur. But since they’re adjacent to the green scaled torso, they inherit some green scales too. 

By next month you’ll be able to have a setup like a crocodile torso with tiger legs. So the crocodile’s green, scaly torso would extend partway onto the tiger legs. With the chicken example it looks decent already, once we improve on the gradients it’ll look even better.

Finally there’s the evolution UI mockup:

I’ve got a really ugly version of the left hand size set up in Unity. For whatever reason I’m feeling motivated to start exploring the UI style already. But I can’t settle on an exact style or reference yet.. Hrm. Maybe something in the direction of Wild Hearts? Here’s a shot from a recent stream:

Supposedly the game is buggy as hell, but it looks nice!