Hey folks!

A quick organizational announcement first: I'll be writing this devlog every three instead of every two weeks from now on. This allows me to hopefully go into more depth on the one hand and on the other hand get more work done on the game itself. And it perfectly aligns with a post Gamescom devlog in three weeks! I will be there the whole time showing BattleJuice Alchemist. I'll post details on socials, so please stop by and say hi if you can!

Today, I want to share some insights on verticality in our game. While you can zoom into a third-person perspective, the main navigation occurs in a top-down view. This perspective has posed interesting challenges, but we've been hard at work finding creative solutions to make our world truly come alive. One of our main goals was to incorporate vertical diversity, despite the limitations of the top-down view.

We knew that having mountains would add a sense of grandeur to the game world. However, our world is procedural, making it hard to have predefined giant mountainsides. Besides, most games with such mountains usually don't allow players to interact with them. But in our game, vertically diverse landscapes can be crossed, even though they presented issues with the physics of certain game mechanics, such as when explosive flasks bounce off the mountains. In the end, we decided to keep this feature as it helps players feel more connected to the environment.

Another aspect we've been working on is buildings, especially those with multiple stories. When you enter a building, the upper floors need to be hidden from view, but they should be visible when you climb the stairs. We came up with a simple height check system to achieve this effect, ensuring that your interactions with buildings feel natural and seamless.

The game's isometric perspective led us to face some challenges with building designs. We wanted to avoid obstructing the view of your character. So, we carefully crafted the buildings, cutting out certain parts to ensure they don't block your view.

In the end, we did not want to rely on the hole-cutting shader all the time. So we designed buildings that have holes in them by nature, like ruins. This gave us a more open, inviting feel, as seen in the blacksmith's shop.

One of the most exciting features of BattleJuice Alchemist is the ability for players to create their own portable base - the alchemy tower. However, navigating these unique structures using mouse-clicking and WASD controls required ongoing improvements. It's not perfect yet, but we are getting there. And I just love the view from up there, so the work is definitely worth it.

As we continue to refine BattleJuice Alchemist, I want to express my gratitude for your support and feedback. We're committed to making this RPG a unique journey, and a small part of it is not chickening out on verticality ;)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Alain