With our Kickstarter launch fast approaching, I've been shifting our development focus on polish to show our audience just how immersive our tactical RPG game can be. Thanks to some great advice from our community, I'm starting with weather effects, and below you can see how these are starting to shape up.
Gentle snow fall on an ice themed level in Summoners Fate
My first weather VFX is the snow fall. I started here because I have an existing particle engine for our game in place, as well as a custom tool to create particle effects. This effect is created by emitting a series of randomized snowflake particles with some very slight gravity and rotation curves. My goal was to kick up the feel of the cold, icey environment without being too distracting to the player so they can still see their forces and follow the game.
A horrific enemy approaches during a thunderstorm in Summoners Fate
Next, I wanted to create a rain FX - a great effect to compliment exploration of unknown wilderness. This is my first time creating something like this, and I learned that rain is much harder to make than snow. Initially, I'd tried making the rain using particle FX, but the results were less than satisfactory:
My first attempt at rain using particle FX
In order to get realistic rain, I needed to do some special programming to combine multiple FX including: setting the angle and rotation of the drops, creating a mini particle system for the splash, a custom animation for the ripple, and a custom animation plus some lighting tweaks to get the thunder and lightning. Below is the final result. Be sure to watch the video with sound turned on for maximum effect.
Rain and Thunder in Summoners Fate - watch with sound on for maximum effect
Summoners Fate is a fast and fun tactical RPG that uses CCG (collectible card) mechanics to develop unique strategies. We are planning to launch our Kickstarter in late October and would greatly appreciate support in spreading the word amongst friends that might enjoy this type of game. You can help us out a ton by simply clicking the "Support" buttons on our Thunderclap page.
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