KatFS Alpha Devlog #6 (December 2024/New Year)

Hello all! First of all, a (late) Happy New Years! While we are currently 8 days into January 2025, this devlog is also meant to cover for December, just that with all the holidays stuff going on I didn't have time to write it. Not that much happened since the last devlog anyway, so I'd also like to write a bit about what the Kalia project will be up right at the start of 2025 now that I'm back into the gamedev groove.

KALIA DOT COM

If you haven't checked it out already, KatFS now has its own website! I touched upon the webdev process slightly in the last devlog, but the site wasn't completely up back then. Before leaving for Christmas, I wrapped up the final touches I could and set up the whole thing, which you can now browse at your own leisure at https://www.kaliagame.com/

Currently the site is very simple - a home page explaining the game with screenshots, a story page with a couple lore details, a massive art gallery, an about page with some background behind the project, and a couple other things. There are plans to improve the site later this year and add more auxiliary Kalia content eventually, but for now I intend to get back at working on the game!

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

Continue working on the alpha, that's the big one. Last year we saw the prologue and caves chapters built, next comes the ancient facility, which should be interesting. The ancient facility is the location featured in the first chapter of the pre-alpha demo, and in fact the first location conceptualized for the game! The first playable prototype (v0.0.1) featured loose concepts that would later be repurposed for the pre-alpha demo we all know and love, and further for the alpha and full game!

The facility is an ancient manufacturing plant that would process the metals and crystals from the adjacent mines into magical artifacts, such as the Fire Staff Kalia wields in her adventures - and is in fact where the player will get access to the device. In the pre-alpha, the facility has been depicted as a series of winding corridors and random rooms with a few puzzle devices in place, but not much that could hint at the purpose of the place otherwise. While I did add a series of machinery to this chapter later such as control boards and steam pipes, it still felt too disjointed and arcadey to represent what it was supposed to.

For the full game, this chapter will be having a slight redesign, with more emphasis on large warehouses and factory floors, where the player must navigate the heavy machinery and maintenance backrooms, following an assembly line all the way to the front lobby of the factory. 

NOT QUITE 2.5D

With a lot of geometrically-precise structures and devices next in queue in the art pipeline, I've decided to try a new approach - model a block-out of the assets in Blender, render them from the top-down angle the game is represented in, and then use the render as a guide when drawing the sprites. As I write this devlog, I've just barely gotten started with this method, so it'll be up to the next devlog to showcase the results.

NEW AREAS! (COMING SOON)

As part of my initial set of goals for 2025, I want to draw mockups of some, if not all of the areas in the game that have been conceptualized but not yet depicted, as well as areas that are due for a redesign. Some of these areas include an underground forest ecosystem, a sewer system, the derelict harbor district of the ancient city, the inside of a massive clocktower and a set of magical ancient caverns.

MORE ANIMATED ANIMATIONS

This is more of a pet project for now, but it's something I've planned for KatFS for a while - animation markers for NPCs that would allow them to interact with elements of the environment, such as sit on benches, operate machinery or just do specific idle actions at specific spots. Not a major gameplay detail, but would add some more variety to NPC behaviors when they're not in combat. Besides, it's a good reason to improve the NPC animation tree.

HOLIDAY ART

You may have already seen it on Kalia's social media last month, but here's a set of Kalia art pieces for the 2024 holidays! One winter-themed, for my Northern-Hemisphere audience; and one summer-themed for myself and my Latin-American peers (and other Southern Hemisphereans)!

And that is all for this devlog! Appreciate your interest in the project, and here's to another year towards an eventual KatFS full release!