Hail Elyrians!

It is another shiny day! I feel like it’s been ages since the last shiny day, what with me not being available to post a shiny last week or the week prior, but I’m back so let’s shine!

Some of you are probably aware that lately I’d been working on “advanced traversal mechanics” – AKA Parkour – as my primary focus. As the lead designer for the game, I’m the start of the production pipeline. I work with Caspian to translate his vision and designs into actionable specs that the team then takes and implements.

(Sometimes there are visual aids!)

For example, when it comes to traversal mechanics, I spent many days working with Caspian, hashing out what was required and what wasn’t to get moving through the world feeling good for an adventuring player. When that head-to-head collaboration was complete, I had a set of rules and guidelines at my disposal that I could use to build an actual specification for each of the world movement actions a character could take. I knew, for example, that a character that had the right knowledge and skill could vault over objects. What I didn’t know was how that would be implemented. I didn’t yet know how far you would move while vaulting, which controls you might use to make that happen as a player, how much stamina that might require, etc.

So, my job over the next period was to take those guidelines and rules and translate them into actual descriptions of what it feels like to perform these actions as a player, what controls are used and any other technical or mechanical considerations (such as how two possible player actions work together) that might be involved. Once this design spec was done, Caspian and I scrutinized it again, going back and forth as we discussed the implications that things like the defined control schemes and level metrics, such as jump height or sprint speed, would have on the design. Only after we were both satisfied was the spec considered “ready.” And once it was ready, that’s where the rest of the team comes in.

(Super technical visual aids!)

With the ready spec, a cross-functional strike team of folks on the team (folks like Souzou and Jörmungandr) can be brought together to begin the process of implementation and integration, be that in the form of bringing in old prototypes, such as our mine run from Pax a couple of years ago, or implementing entirely new versions of those mechanics, depending on the requirements of the spec. (In the case of the traversal mechanics, we are using a different physics engine than we had been when we made the mine run, which makes integrating some mechanics from an early prototype difficult. Additionally, the spec called for slightly different behaviors based on what we had learned with our past prototypes)

For the last little while, that group has been implementing some of the traversal stuff, including wall climbing, wall running, ground sliding, and a few other mechanics. There’s still a ways to go before it’s ready for prime time, but I’m always happy when I see folks just jump into the work and produce fast results. Our early prototypes really helped in that regard – they taught us a lot about what works and what doesn’t. Thanks to those prototypes we avoided some serious time sinks and had the rough forms of these mechanics, the form you're seeing in the video below, operational very quickly.

But, as I said, there's a ton of polish to go and that does mean that what you are seeing in that video is incredibly early work, but it was in and working quickly, and now we have the time to polish out the rough surface and let the fun shine through.

Well that’s it for today; I hope you enjoy it!

Until next time, stay shiny my friends!