Hello again everyone! This dev blog we talk about the addition of over 30 new skins, our work on weather and storms, and some small tweaks we have done to our dinosaurs to improve their accuracy and anatomy, as well as the addition of a handful of new subspecies.

A lot of this content can already be seen in our demo, available here! https://alderongames.com/store/path-of-titans

Skins

This week we have been working hard on getting a bunch of backlogged new skins into the game. Over 30 new skins have been added in so far, with more soon to come. Of the dinosaurs to receive new skins, our perk funded dinosaurs are some of the most exciting to see expanded on. We initially intended for these dinosaurs to have only three skins at launch, but we’ve now realised that with only 3 skins to unlock, the overall gameplay loop for these creatures would be much shorter compared to other dinosaurs,resulting in them feeling somewhat empty in comparison. We want all dinosaurs to have an equally as engaging gameplay experience, so will be adding 6 more skins to all perk-funded dinosaurs, meaning every dinosaur will have at least 9 skins to unlock through gameplay!

As well as the perk dinosaurs, many old favourites such as Latenivenatrix, Lambeosaurus, Suchomimus, Styracosaurus, Daspletosaurus, Ceratosaurus and Struthiomimus have received new coats too! Of these new skins, several partner skins have also been added for those who have purchased our partner skin perks. These skins are currently viewable in the demo!

Whether you like to be camouflaged or showy, there will be a skin fit for you; be sure to keep an eye out on our social media for previews of the new skins and how they look in the environment, or check them out for yourself in our demo!

Weather and Storms

This month we’ve begun our first steps into Path of Titans environmental system. Ranging from particles, lighting, sounds and even dynamic weather events. We’re designing a system that allows the control of what you’ll be seeing and hearing during our different times of day, types of weather, and location on the map. It is to be fully adjustable so that it can be reused or repurposed on any sort of map, whether it be modded or official, we want to empower all people who are looking to produce content for the community.

On top of that we’re looking into the optimization necessary to ensure stable frame rates on mobile devices and consoles, much time is going to be spent ensuring that our players are all in sync with a smooth, immersive experience.

Dinosaur Enhancements

We’ve made a couple small TLC edits to some of our dinosaurs to improve their accuracy and anatomy. This doesn’t require any rework from an animation, skin, or texture standpoint, and is so small that it may not be noticeable by most people, but it goes a long way in making our dinosaurs feel more believable and realistic.

One drastic comparison is the edits done to the Eotriceratops. The original version had quite a large head and a very wide forehead, and this has been improved with the edited version. In addition to various body edits, it also was edited to have to the characteristic bowed front legs that was present in most ceratopsians. With these subtle edits the Eotriceratops now seems much more balanced and hopefully will improve immersion within Path of Titans.

Subspecies

We have also begun our subspecies additions for our dinosaurs. So far we have nearly completed the Eotriceratops, Kentrosaurus, Deinonychus, Concavenator, and Styracosaurus.

For our ceratopsians, we have added a species option that features quills on their backs and tails, reminiscent of the quills found on earlier dinosaurs in the ceratopsian lineage such as Psittacosaurus. This gives players a great unique option to choose from if they want to stand out from other ceratopsian players.

Some other examples of subspecies variations is the Deinonychus, who now has a variation with it’s secretary bird-like head feathers removed in exchange for a sleek lightly feathered head. This is more of a traditional look for the raptor, and we’re sure some people might even prefer this version!

We still have many more subspecies to create, and we will be rolling them out into the demo over time - be sure to keep an eye out for them next time you load up the game! Thanks for reading!

Podcast

We also have the Alderon Games podcast for this week! In this show we talk about Path of Titans development, and also touch upon the daily life and struggles of being part of an indie video game dev team. In this episode we introduce three new team members, answer some of the questions sent in by the community, and share a little about how development has been going this week. You can send in your own questions at https://podcast.alderongames.com/contact

You can check out our podcast on Spotify as well! http://alderon.games/spotify

We're also on Apple Podcast! http://alderon.games/apple-podcasts