After long time not posting anything on devlog, we decided to create another devlog to make sure that we still develop this game. 

For the past month, we were trying to fix some of the code, splitting mechanics to different scripts, to make them tidier and easy to understand and look through by our programmers. We will try to elaborate what we've been doing as clear as possible to make sure you understand most of them by explaining them based on each roles.

Here we go !

• Programmers 
  • Besides tidying up script like we mentioned above. We've also implemented some features. Let's see :  Character select. To be honest, using the Unity's new Input System for the first time, is a complete relief, because the features and efficiency it offers, but at the same time, it also such pain in the a** . We spent several days to learn the new system thoroughly, from to implemented it to our input controller, to  implemented a simple multiplayer system. The result can be seen in our very first uploaded build. But our job is not done yet. We need to make a character select system (because.. it's a fighting game, duh) and then send the chosen configurations (characters, the controller you use) to the gameplay scene, and implement them to make a proper gameplay mechanics. We need to make the flow for the character select, and implement the character select alone (minus choosing the configurations, then implement them to the next scene) needs about 4-5 days, and storing the configurations needs about a week, for lacks of documentations. We had to do many discussions and unity forums, and finally found an advanced character select implementation tutorial on Youtube even though it's 1 hour long tutorial, but worth to learn(shoutout to BrokenKnightGames!). We have created a simple character select foundation. as you can see on the gif
    
    Here is the Explanations on the gif, as some mechanics are not visible : First we assign the player and the used controller like you usually do in co-op mode, then you can choose the character by moving the cursor with your controller (Super Smash Bros style). Then when you choose the character, you need to press the choose button twice, one for choosing the character, second to confirm it, so you are considered ready for battle. If all players are ready, the game will move to the next scene. The configurations are stored and then instantiated by game manager in the next scene, to instantiate the characters and the controllers they belong. There. From there, we can make more advanced mechanics, such as choosing the skins, accessories, and many more. but right now, we leave the mechanic as it is.
  • We also have implemented health bar and manna bar. The health bar will have 3 layers, and be able to regen. but if the health is reduced by 1 layer, the max health you can regenerate is the amount of the rest of the layers. so let's say you have 300 HP, divided into 3 layers. If you have 290, or even 201 HP, you still have a chance to regen it to 300 HP, but if you have reached less than 200 HP, your max HP becomes 200 HP, and so on. The manna bar just works like the usual manna bar, has only 1 layer and will be depleted if you use the skill, and then wait for some times, then you can regen the manna. we have tested the health mechanic, and it worked perfectly. for the manna, we have coded it, but we need to gather all the components into one game, so we can test it. 
  • The new skill mechanic has also been implemented. We use the interface for the skill application. We will test the result further after the animator have done arranging the animations in the animation controller. Basically what we have to do left is gathering the asset components into one gameplay, and hopefully, the game would start to appear by November, because we need it for our next pitch and demo day, lol :D

• Artists
  • Despites of having only 2 artists, they have worked very hard and willingly spent their times to make a great artworks, while still doing the college. We have created sprite effects for both Merlin and Haddock and implemented them to the animations. these look good to us, but we need to improve them more with post processing effect, shader graph and more to make them look polished than ever. we'll get into that soon hehe.                                                                                                     

• Besides animating and new sprite effect, we finally have done our fourth and fifth characters. Introduced the new characters, Alicia the Orb Mage and  Agatha the Illusionist! These women powers will be featured alongside with another characters that has been displayed in the previous devlog (Merlin the Eastern Rite Sorcerer, Lahlan Haddock the Wizard Grandmaster, Ito Hanze the Ito Clan Shinobi ). Alicia will be equipped with magic orb, while Agatha will be equipped with lantern and spread illusions, confusions and fears to their opponent. We've been through several processes from the sketch, the concept, and then the actual sprite. However we will start using the sprite right after the first four are done developed and animated. Here's some concepts and the result. most of the concepts are not displayed, the rest would be available, if we want to display them in the future. for now, Enjoy
  

• Audio Engineer
  • Audio Engineer has started his works. he will be responsible to create general SFX like movement, attack, etc to be applied to characters, and also specific SFX for the first two characters. We planned all the SFXs mentioned above are done by November. We have got the general SFX, all we have to do is implement them to the game.

• BIG ANNOUNCEMENT.
  • We have discussed the actual title for this project. and we present you : THAUMATURGY : CAST AND CLASH. we will replace the name with this title in our itch.io site, and also in our discord channel. Here is the pre-made logo. the logo is not officially done though, but you get the gist what kind premise it offers you 

And that's it! We have given you such infos, we are very sorry if we didn't give much update (honestly, we still confuse what to post lmao). But from now on we will give you more sneak peek to our discord server, such as videos, gifs, and many more at least once a week, while the complete information of the game progress would be available in the devlogs, at least once a month. Thanks for reading this long a** post. We are looking forward for this game, and we hope you are too. Have a good life fellas, and stay safe! :D

Best Regards,

Restu_Ibu