Time for a new development update!
These past few months have been especially eventful for Mandragora. Especially back in August, when we had a booth at Gamescom, had our latest trailer featured during the ONL 2023 Pre-Show, and shared a first-try demo with Kickstarter backers and media!
If you didn’t get the chance to play that latest exclusive demo, we’ve now also uploaded a lengthy gameplay video of the demo over on our YouTube channel, so be sure to check that out by clicking on the image below!
Reaching the stage where we’re able to share this with you is a great milestone for us and our game. It’s been a key focus for us over the last few months, and we’re really looking forward to sharing even more Mandragora with you in the future!
So it only makes sense that this latest development update is also focused on the big bad boss you meet at the end of the Tutorial portion of that demo: the Warg!
So… how does a Warg become a Warg?
With the Warg, as with most of the characters and beasts featured in Mandragora, their existence began as an initial idea translated to concept art.
Once we have the base concept for the character - in this case, the Warg - established, then we can work on the next steps that help bring them to life.
For our studio, there is a lot of collaboration between the various teams involved so we can ensure that the end result is the best one possible.
- Gameplay and character ability design: This is where we ask ourselves the big questions about their behavior, especially during combat. If they’re a boss, does their fight have multiple phases? What attacks do they have? Can the player parry or dodge them?
- 3D modeling: We also work on the 3D model for the character at the same time. This step is crucial as it brings the character to life, taking it from a 2D drawing to a 3D model. Because while Mandragora is a 2.5D game, all of our characters are fully 3D!
Once those steps are done, we have a kickoff meeting to discuss the next steps and how to best turn the design vision into reality. We then get to work on those next steps!
- Rigging, block animations, and temporary VFX: Our awesome animators brainstorm together on how they could best bring this creature to life. What do their movements look like? Is it purely a vicious beast, or does it think more tactically? How can the animations and VFX reflect that?
- Gameplay implementation: This is worked on in parallel to the above - it’s when we essentially add the logic behind the character model, to make sure it’s not just a pretty face. By implementing the relevant code in the Unreal Engine, we can set behavior for the given character, like what attacks they can use and when.
- Textures and fur simulation: These are added to the model to further help bring them to life. While not all of our characters have fur on them, it was really important to us that we make our furry Warg look exactly that: furry!
- Final animations and VFX: Now that the foundation has been laid, we work on final animations, making sure that they feel smooth and lifelike. We also add VFX here - which is particularly important for any of our characters with glowing magical parts!
- Final polish: This is when we make all of our final polish efforts that help all those other steps that we worked so hard on come together nice and neatly. This includes ensuring that gameplay works well and feels balanced, as well as polishing up all the visual aspects like textures, animations, VFX, etc.
- Audio and sound effects: Because a Warg without a menacing growl is no real Warg at all, right? Making sure each character sounds the way they should is another crucial step in helping said character really come to life.
Then, once all these steps are put together, we achieve the creation of the character that you’ll meet - and battle! - when you play Mandragora.
And the fight against the Warg consists of 2 phases:
- In Phase 1, it has various attacks it'll use to try to get the best of your character: Bite, Turn Bite, Dash, and Entropic Fissure Howl.
- Then, in Phase 2, it turns things up a notch by becoming much more agile - as well as utilizing its vicious Leap Attack!
We hope you enjoyed getting a deeper look into development, and more specifically, what the process looks like for the creation of each character in the game.
We also really hope you’ll enjoy facing off against the fearsome Warg!
And that’s a wrap for this update!
Thank you so much for all your support. We really appreciate it!
Please let us know what you thought of this development update in the comments below.
And if you have any requests for future updates, please don’t hesitate to suggest them! We love hearing from you.
Until next time!
