Dev Update - December 2015 | End of Year Update feature

Most Important Update Things

After the last update a few months ago, we really set our focus on combat feedback and animation quality improvements. The big takeaways from that were as follows: we really needed better rigs, with better range of motion; we really need camera animations; and we need better effects and "slicing/rip out" animations when you successfully hit an enemy.

So at the time of the Reawakens Video (Youtube.com) we just finished the Naginatashi rig and that video largely showed off what we can do with that character. Now we set focus to getting as much gameplay for this character done as possible.

If you watch the video above you'll see some first-look footage of the character in action, showing off WIP animations from the light and medium stance. We're very excited for the progress over the past two months. If you've seen any of our older videos you'll see a noticeable improvement in how combat looks now compared to then.

Gameplay Update

Our programmers have been working on three things primarily. One aspect is improving our overall game flow, making sure servers restart when matches are over, making sure game modes function properly. The next is on revamping how we handle status effects (stuns, knockdowns, bleeds, etc.) to make them easier to implement and balance on the dev side. The last thing is on our Capture The Informant game mode so we can test it and make sure we nail the rules.

In lieu of all of this, this has called for more immersive elements in our HUD to show kill feeds, important gameplay messages like scroll captures and other feedback improvements to make the game feel less like a prototype and more like a game.

Art Update

We have focused a lot of time the past few months on technical art. This is centered around getting effects, animations, and so forth functioning as well as possible so that combat feels much better.

We are also prototyping rigging for our Ninja character and his highly awesome (but complicated) weapon the Kusarigama. We will rapidly prototype this character as well similar to how we're handling the Naginatashi (polearm wielder).

For levels and environments we've been wrapping up on the Hanako mountain village area of our Yari Foothills map (shown below). Our level designer and designer are preparing the early stages of the Hanako Village map and getting the basic gameplay revived.

Conclusion

Our team has seen a lot of questions asking about our project activity and if we're still going. The short answer is, we want to make sure things are at least in a decent state before we show any of it and we are determined to get the game down. So yes, we are always active even if we're not always showing new content.

Feel free to always ask us what we're up to on Twitter, Facebook, Twitch or anywhere you can find us.

The Hanako Team wishes you a happy holidays and a happy new year! We are excited to have a big 2016 for our game!

- Hanako Development Team