In-Game UI Revealed

The in-game UI mockup has been in development for nearly a month now and was modified dozens of times before reaching a satisfying functional state.

Underlair is not a simplistic dungeon crawler and doesn't feature side-stepping-dancing combat mechanics as the main tactics to defeat foes. Combat is built over a strategy formula, infused with several RPG elements. This results in a heavier and more informative UI, where critical information needs to stay permanently visible for easy access and management.

Below is an image containing some details of each UI element. This simple image consumed a whole week to work. Mostly because it forced me to rethink some mechanics and also because got a BSOD right when saving the file, resulting in the loss of 6 hours of work; punching the desk and screaming at the screen was also featured.

I will now begin the arduous task of making the UI functioning in Unity. The mockup image will be cut into several elements and I still need to study some implementation aspects of it. I'm not sure how long this will take. I'll try to post at least once per week from now onwards, that is, if time and development permit me to have something useful to add.

Encyclopedia - Leveling Up

The Game's UI is still suffering some changes as I prepare its demonstration image. I believe that it will be ready next Friday. In the meantime, I leave you something to read about the leveling up system. Though it has been added for some time now into the encyclopedia, this entry has been updated and finalized. Click here to access it. Let me know your thoughts about it. I'll try my best to consider them so I can make its text cleaner and richer.

I also have the Warrior class encyclopedia entry under works but I'm not sure when it will be complete. This upcoming entry will cover all about warriors and their upgradable classes in the Warrior branch.

Some Changes on the Character Generation Menu

As I keep working on the UI (which is being somewhat restructured for best functionality), I'm sharing a screenie that shows some changes in the character generation menu. Following some feedback, I've changed the main attribute color codes to a less vivid tone to better fit the atmosphere the game presents. 

The most prominent change concerns the main attribute controls that have been converted to arrows and placed close to the attribute score itself, instead of laying on their own panel with the '-' and '+' symbols positions inverted.

In-game UI - First Steps

After figuring out the basics for the multiplayer, it is now time to tackle the in-game UI. Bellow, is a teaser of the unfinished UI, focusing on the party formation, which I believe, will provide a unique feature for combat mechanics. Warning! It may not work as you expect. ^^

The UI's mock-up is nearly complete. Once it is done, I will start implementing it. Since it is a long task and I don't want to stay too long without posting a video, I think the next video will be about the day-night cycle, a feature that has just been recently added.

Co-op - First steps

The first steps towards co-op have been achieved! Using Mirror, Underlair now supports a Server-Client approach for co-op gameplay, where one player will host a session for other players to join in.

Bellow, is an in-game image showing 3 players connected, represented by placeholder 3d models and one first-person view. Each group of characters represents a player. You can see that, depending on the player count, the characters controlled will change accordingly. 

The multiplayer component already synchronizes player position and locomotion animations across all clients but there are still some aspects I need to take care of, like interacting with the world and making those changes visible across all players.

Another aspect I need to consider is having these 3D models reacting to the floor's obstacles and adjust their vertical position when using stairs. Once I get all this sorted out, I will make a video demonstrating the co-op in action.