Hi there, my name’s Sean, I’m the Artist and Designer at Crispy Lizard. Today I’m here for this first developer diary, I’m going to fill you in on what Crispy Lizard has been doing this past week and tell you about some of my ideas regarding the architecture in Cyber City.

After the wonderful feedback we received on our Discord channel about the first version, PA.1.0, we have already made extensive changes and improvements to the combat. We’ve made heavy attacks into something you have to charge with multiple successful light attacks. Once the bar on the corresponding side has charged, you can inflict heavy damage on your enemies. Later on in development, these heavy attacks can be switched out for special abilities, both combat and utility abilities will be possible.

Lisa(Crispy horned lizard) has implemented an enemy lock-on system which is a welcome addition to the game as we push towards having more hack and slash/brawler combat mechanics. You toggle the enemy lock with one button and switch enemy targets with another button. For keyboard/mouse it’s CapsLock for locking onto to the closest target and Tab for switching target whilst in Lock-on mode. For gamepad, it’s right stick press to toggle lock on and left stick press to switch target.

We’ve streamlined the reaction of combat animations and the code behind it. I know this is something many had issues with, where the punches seemed to take forever to actually happen. It didn’t feel good, everything felt sluggish. For a while I wasn’t sure how to fix it, I’d tried a few things before I started researching hack and slash game animation specifically. There wasn’t much on the subject, a Reddit page had the most info, but the solution was still eluding me. I have a few hack and slash games on steam and decided to do some hands-on research (perks of game development). I looked closely at the timings and positions during general gameplay, how fast a blade would hit an enemy, when would a heavy attack actually strike the enemy after hitting the attack button. I noticed that most fast attacks had animations which started a sword swing far ahead of where it was before an attack. Or at the very least the animations were blindingly fast. So with that in mind, I adapted the animations used in combat to reflect my findings and it feels so much better. It’s not perfect, but it’s a major step in the right direction.

We now have a camera shake toggle in the options menu thanks to Lisa not being a big fan of all the juiciness, so for all of you with an aversion to juiciness, camera shake can be removed if so desired.

Other than that, there have been edits to the control scheme, fixes for a potential sound looping issue and you’re no longer (probably until someone figures out how again) able to fall off the elevator.

So I’ll talk briefly about my ideas with the architectural style in Cyber City as it has evolved quite drastically over the last few days. So as you’ve seen in the first version of Cyber City, the architecture was all metal and whilst this worked for the game’s vision when it was created, that is no longer the case. What I learned from creating them will be taken forward, along with some of the models, but what I’m going to do instead, should be much more interesting. Ever since 3D printing became more mainstream, it’s been an interest of mine. Whilst I don’t have the equipment to do it myself, I make sure to keep up with the current technological developments. In the last few years, 3D printing has started to push into the construction industry, allowing architectural designers to model a building with software and have it 3D printed with polyurethane foam or concrete with these huge construction 3D printers. It’s possible to print a house’s walls in a matter of days if not less with minimal waste and manpower. NASA, the ESA and many other space organizations are planning to use 3D printing to create habitats on the Moon and Mars using regolith gathered on site. They then print the desired habitat building layer by layer on the surface of the Moon, Mars or wherever we go next.

The point is, this technology will become more and more advanced and cheap to use as the years go on. In the future setting of Cyber City, 3D printing is used for pretty much everything. The Rigs you’ll be playing as will be 3D printed in your own 3D printed player home. Most of the architecture you’ll see around the colony will have been printed. Very little will have to be imported as final products, as almost everything can be manufactured in the colony via 3D printing. Using 3D printing as my base of inspiration for construction techniques will allow for some really interesting architecture which will soon be possible in the future. Who knows, one day, you might be living in a 3D printed home just like your character in Cyber City. I’m picturing huge 3D printing construction robots which construct entire buildings without the need for human interference. The pay gap between areas will be more apparent, as low wealth areas would be quite basic in design to produce quickly and cheaply. Rich areas will make use of better materials, more advanced printing robots and extremely complex designs which push the limits of 3D printing and structural engineering. Seemingly impossible structures which cannot be built with conventional means. The materials used for everything from robots to buildings will reflect this too, as many commonly manufactured materials look different when 3D printed and there’s also plenty of materials which are emerging thanks to 3D printing.

If you’ve read this far, then thanks for sticking through it. Stay tuned for updates and new versions of the game coming your way. And of course, thank you all for your continued support and feedback, it means a lot to us!

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