The Kristala Dev Blog - Issue #26
Greetings, friends and fantasy aficionados!
Welcome back to another installment of the Kristala dev blog. Here you'll get a front-row seat to the exciting development process for indie game Kristala, the inaugural title from female-lead Astral Clocktower Studios—an indie games studio based in Central PA, USA.
Since we last met, we've been kicking dev for Kristala into high gear and we're super stoked to share everything we've been working on over the past month.
In today's issue, you'll get an update on all the custom 3D assets we've been working on for the capital city of Nisar, plus a peek into our process for creating a fully functional facial rig for our female main character. We're also giving you a special first look at some new environmental concepts and progress made to our newest WIP level area.
Ready to take a break from the mundane and dive head-first into the magic of Kristala?
We've got you covered.
3D Asset Design
In the Kristala demo, you'll play as the chosen warrior from the nature-loving Nisarga clan.
Members of this cheerful and artistic clan value the power and beauty of the natural world; because of this, the Nisargans built their clan villages and towns amongst the sprawling Jhacanda forests of Ailur.
One such town is the capital city of Nisar—a cozy conglomerate of tree homes and huts that are situated high atop the thick boughs of the mighty Jhacandas.
Over the past few sprints, our 3D Environmental Designer, Cass, has been working on modeling out the three individual sets of tree houses that will be featured in Nisar.
This month, Cass was able to fully texture all three sets of Jhacanda tree houses and officially cross this ongoing task off his to-do list.
Let's take a look at Cass's impressive work.
Now that he's no longer working on the Jhacanda houses, Cass was able to shift his focus onto another big architectural modeling task.
In the Nisargan city of Nasahara—the burned city—stands the remnants of an old Kristal Cathedral. During the Great Kota Rebellion, Nasahara was ravaged by fleets of Kotakayan soldiers who set the city's streets ablaze under orders from the Mad King Edam.
Though many important Nisargan landmarks were ruined during the siege, the Kristal Cathedral of Nasahara remains erect to this day. Its crumbling pillars and singed passageways are now grim reminders of the carnage that nearly claimed the entirety of the city.
Although Cass already created an impressive model for the cathedral last year, he wanted to revise his structure to better match the current aesthetic of the level, which shifted over time as our Level Designers worked through detailing the Nasahara level.
Take a look at Cass's updated cathedral model below. We're looking forward to seeing how Cass textures this beast of a model once he's done crafting it.
With Cass hard at work on the Cathedral, one of our 3D Generalists, Karena, has been working on creating some custom 3D assets that will decorate the individual tree houses and huts featured in the Nisargan level areas of Kristala.
Because each of the six clans of Anagativa featured in Kristala has its own designated traits and characteristics, our dev team has been cognizant of adding minute details to each individual model to help show off individual clan aesthetics.
Naturally then, each asset featured in the Nisarga clan levels possesses a subtle nod to the Nisargans' overall naturalistic vibe—including the wooden textures and leaf details showcased in the 3D assets Karena's been working on over the past sprint.
In our last issue of the Kristala game dev blog, we showed off the initial model of this quaint table and chairs Karena's been working on for Nisar. Here's an update on the textures for the outdoor table and leaf shade Karena created.
Once the table itself was completed, Karena then moved on to detailing its accompanying chairs. After working on some initial square-shaped seats, Karena wondered whether a set of round-shaped chairs might better match the circular shape of the table.
To combat her uncertainty, Karena created two sets of chairs to share with our team.
After reviewing Karena's work, we collectively decided to utilize both the regular, square-shaped chairs in addition to the stump-like chairs in the Nisargan level areas of the game.
Here's a look at the final, textured pieces for this fun, outdoor table set.
With the table and chairs crossed off her list, Karena revisited a model she'd previously created for a rope bridge. These bridges will connect the tree houses of Nisar and allow the town's denizens to safely travel from one abode to another.