Agwilcress Garden

AgwilcressGarden2So… already an update on the Garden.

The three outer rings now house pavilions, available to rent for various activities. Similar structures exist on Lucan Hill, the other major “nature” area of Agwilcress. Much of the garden now has a ground cover of sandy soil instead of grass; planters of various flora will eventually make their way on there. At the center of the garden is a sculpture incorporating a waterfall fountain and light fixtures shaped like berry plants.

The outer grassy track is often used for exercise and racing, and every year there’s the “Bisuwiki’s Run”, in which Prerarts dart around the track in recognition of legendarily swift Prerart, Bisuwiki. (There’s also going to be a statue of her here eventually.)

Ayra Katrin Library of Agwilcress

AKL - New Emblems

Some new additions, including some hexagonal designs on the entrance’s floor, some railings and more hexagon designs around the underground residence openings, and some basic foliage. Not pictured are some additions the side walls of the building.

Also new are the four different symbols in the arches of the front face of the library. They represent the four primary divisions of the Ayra Katrin: Engineers, Enchanters, Spellcasters, and Scholars.

For reference, a picture from last time I posted about the library:

 

AKL 4-7 Front, high angleGuess I turned the lights way up this time.

Ky of the Naryyd

Ky of the NaryydKy is the leader of the seven beings known as the Naryyd. The Naryyd possessed incredible magical and spiritual power, and lived for centuries without any signs of growing old. They befriended the Agwils and Prerarts, and ushered in a revival of culture for these races.

Through dream visions, Ky realized that the Naryyd were not immortal and would eventually die. The Naryyd did not have the capability to produce direct offspring, but Ky formulated a way to extend their legacy. Enlisting an Agwil as a surrogate parent, Ky created two children named Dominesa (the green-skinned baby Agwilikan in the picture) and Palades (the gray-skinned Akelikan). They had the body structure of the Naryyd, but many features resembling the Agwil.

Eventually, the other Naryyd created their own half-children, and the Agwilikan and Akelikan races were established. Ky only had the two children, and they were designated as the leaders of the new races. Until their passing, the Naryyd served as the spiritual, inspirational, and civic leaders of all four of the other races.

Slyvette

Slyvette, 3D Model

Slyvette is a long existing character of mine, originally part of the storyline called “Silver and Gray” (which was originally “The Gate War” because I was probably a middle schooler and terrible at naming things). Lately it looks like that project is going to be canceled. Well, more like consumed by another. At one point, Elehura was set to take place in Silver and Gray’s past. Now, elements of S&G being integrated into Elehura, including Slyvette here.

The latest 2D design of Slyvette, drawn in Inkscape.

The latest 2D design of Slyvette, drawn in Inkscape.

Slyvette is renowned for her fighting skill and her ability with lightning magic. She belongs to a holy order of soldiers based in Elehura. Like other members of her order, she’s become suspicious of the people now leading the city, and things got so tense that she and and a clan of her fellow Pritar fled to the wilderness. Now the clan’s leader, she has recently set up camp in the forests of the western region of Elehura.

Sorry you’re not an immortal angel anymore, Sly. It’ll probably make you a more compelling character, though.

Voidplane Tower

 

Sharpheart Tower - 1A building designed to independently rest on the Voidplane. There is an area near Sharpheart Island known as The Reef that is home to buildings and small islands like this one. The tower’s look originated from a drawing I made a long time ago, though this 3d model is now far more detailed.Sharpheart Tower - 2

At the building’s dock, with a Voidskimmer craft docked and unloading supply crates.

Sharpheart Tower - 3A far shot of the entire structure. The outer pieces with the crystalline towers provide balance for the main tower, so it won’t sway or tip over. The glowing bubble is a sky projection, used to give the illusion of a being on one of the immigrant races’ worlds.

The New Pi/Tri

After almost a year without programming, I decided to change the type of game I’m going to be working on with the “Pi/Tri Engine”. It will now be a overhead view action-adventure.

Some major changes to the engine and game I’ve made in the last month:

  • Sprite occlusion testing: when two sprites overlap, this determines which should be drawn in front of the other. (Not as easy as you might initially think!)
  • Pseudo-3D capability using altitude and height properties
  • New camera with “slack zone” in middle of screen
  • 8-directional controls
  • Contextual actions based on what the player is facing
  • Game pad input
  • An input configuration screen
  • Pickups and treasure chests
  • Ability to transition between maps
  • Persistent state tracking (for example, an opened treasure chest will remain open after going to another map)
  • Basic status displays (currently for health and equipped items)
  • Start of inventory system with menu (shown below)

And of course, there was a bunch of other changes here and there with the engine to make it easier to work with, but are a bit too technical to mention here.

The packager, which combines multiple files into one, has been converted to a regular Windows application, so it doesn’t need to run the full engine.WorldBuilder, the level editor, has various improvements here and there.

At the moment I’m debating whether to convert portions of the editor’s interface into Windows components instead of in-engine GUI code.

One thing I’m not looking forward to doing: making the daunting amount of sprites for characters. I’ve inserted Raeja from Agwilika Rhe to stand in as the player’s character for now, but it’s only 8 standing frames, so no walking or fighting animations yet.

Kylal Palace Entrance

Last time I updated the front entrance, I made the upper arch rounder, which also made the painting not fit the space as well. Recently I started work on fixing that, and now the Agwils adorning the doorway have a bit bigger and newer look. There’s also a new seven-sided star, symbol of the nation, placed on the floor.

I also came up with a new symbol of the Kylal family, seen in white in the middle of the new picture. It represents the horns of the family, which tend to stand more upright than most Agwilikans. (The symbol on the old picture is messed up due to some mirroring that went on at some point in construction.)

Kylal Palace Courtyard

A view from inside the main courtyard of the Kylal Palace, situated between the ceremony hall and library. The window in the middle looks into the back of the ceremony hall. The dimly lit dome of one of the wings is visible on the left.

There’s a new design for a common type of pillar used on the palace, with a more circular arch and a blue diamond shaped stone inlaid into each one. The double doors got an update to have better defined edges, and most windows now have brass supports built into them.

The painting around the window represents Mibru, a species of rodent-like animals that are very common in the forests of the region.

An earlier view of the courtyard can be seen here.