Trying to avoid sounding like a broken record, but this was yet another busy week. So busy actually that it was hard to make a quick review of the week without overloading you with information!
We have once again been working on multiple fronts, we went through trying out new fonts, testing Monastery's clouded skies for resolution issues when zooming in and out, producing more assets for the Abbey's surroundings, and straining our brains over how to make multiple UIs work in ways that don't break immersion.
With most of these development points still filed under WIP, your feedback can directly help us shape Ale Abbey into an amazing game for all so don't be shy and leave your comments below!
-- Clouds and Mountains
In a previous post, we talked about choosing between pixel-based or realistic-looking clouds. This week we decided to verge toward the realistic option with the entire team agreeing that the look and feel are "more Ale Abbey" than its counterpart, even if pixels would make more sense given the overall aesthetics of the game.
There was also a deeper reason behind this choice, trying to make development more efficient; pixel-based clouds would end up having larger than necessary file sizes and their animation would be devastating in terms of invested time.
With the background mountains adorning Ale Abbey's horizon almost perfected, we are now turning our attention toward the ones closer to the forefront, the ones "filling in" some visual gaps and making everything come together nicely.
And talking about the forefront, we are also working on beautifying the immediate surroundings of the Abbey, adding more details and eye candy, that - who knows - might sometime actually be more practical too!
-- Testing out new fonts
One of this week's highlights was finding a very promising set of fonts that might be what we have been looking for. Although planning a few more tests for readability (especially when accounting for dyslexia) we have high hopes that this will be the one!
So have a look at Oldania!
And in action!
-- On UI and its complexity
This week had an obscene amount of discussion and sketches and iterations of UI that might, possibly, for the love of hops, make it into Ale Abbey. Our main concerns are making sure that UI, whenever the player interacts with it, provides the information necessary while still immersive and organic.
It is becoming quite obvious that we have a hard task at hand, but we won't be backing out until we nail it. And we will ;)
For the time being, a little bit of behind-the-scenes - and highly WIP - ideas made it to the team's server. We'll spare you the feedback and comments that were made about them, it went on for quite a while!
-- Using wild yeast for homebrewing (part 2)
Continuing from last week's post about catching yourself some wild yeast, we are moving past the reasons, and onwards to trapping the elusive micro-organism!
- Start by creating a starter wort (smaller batch, with a bit more hops than normal to limit uncontrollable growth of bacteria)
- Adjust the pH of the wort to 4.5 (using lactic acid)
- Set a jar of the wort outside overnight (at least 10ºC, covered with cheesecloth - both the jar and cheesecloth need to be sanitized of course)
- Bring the wort inside and closely monitor the development of the yeast within it (you can expect to see normal yeast activity, slow and sloppy even, but if you see mold discard it and start anew)
- Once you're happy with it keep raising it until you see it clearly further drops its pH below the starting 4.5
- Use the concoction to create a pitchable starter by continuously feeding it and making sure it remains under 4.5 pH
- Pitch to a new and small-sized batch of wort and see how it ferments
- If everything went well, scrape the yeast cake and store it to use again
- ????
- Profit - you now have wild yeast!
That is all for this week! Thank you for your time and enjoy your weekend responsibly ;)
-- Hammer & Ravens
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