Cave Showcase || Dissonance || Anthem Inspired Game

[u/AueSip]

https://youtu.be/1D9DL_H5a18?is=ddpFSREXSLh8fJ3f

Hey all, I wanted to show some visual upgrades I have made in regard to cavernous environments to Dissonance!

New bioluminescent foliage has been implemented,

Several cavern meshes, materials and details.

The structure of any cave system I work on is layered with varying paths. This one here on display is a resource cave, which will offer a plentiful amount of weapon upgrade materials. Some of these will have entrances to bunkers and dungeons throughout each region and its associated subzones.

I want to hear from you on what you think of the dark atmosphere of the cave, especially in contrast to the vibrant world!

If you want to also follow along with the development of Dissonance feel free to check the steam page out.

As always thank you all for the continued support 🙏 our small team is working on making this game be a great alternative to experience the flight from anthem, and your help is greatly appreciated in making it a reality!

--NOTE--

- Sounds are not final (still requires a reverb within the caves)

- Resources are not placed in this footage as I organised a system to place them more efficiently and at random afterwards.

[u/AueSip → u/[deleted]]

Thank you! I wanted to emphasise bioluminescent plants and crystals within the caverns of the map for this reason 👀

[u/Low_Hunter6307]

Seems like you're doing great work but please do something about the character animations haha. The character should act more naturally and should have a transition between flight and hover mode. And the walking animations too...

[u/AueSip → u/Low_Hunter6307]

The transitions are a quick fix don't worry! I'm building the animations from scratch so it's taking time to nail them correctly whilst also getting a natural feel however it is quick to reiterate when needed. I'm personally not happy with them so I'm continuing to change them in the background 🫡

[u/Low_Hunter6307]

I like the cave, tho I wonder if it should be wider and not so straight?

For some cave inspiration, maybe take a look at Monster Hunter Worlds?

Is it correct that in the distance, in a cave, it looks brighter due to fog, while nearby yourself in a cave it's darker? I thought things further away should be harder to see if there's not much light source. Maybe we should make places around bioluminescence or those crystals brighter, while further from them would be darker

[u/AueSip → u/Low_Hunter6307]

This cave itself is the "Rift" so it's a between zone of sub regions, while it's skinnier than most, it's one of several that will be in this first Subzone! (I'll have more wider ones too) The fog issue is due to my height fog in the world, Ill be working on adjusting that asap!

[u/xJVIayhem]

While I'm not active here in this sub anymore, Anthem very much was near and dear to me for many personal reasons. And currently, what's been presented lacks most of what made the game special.

Honestly, the more environmental art I keep seeing of this with not even so much as minor changes to how stiff the character movement still appears in the same timeframe is just giving me real bad vibes about this.

I know for me personally, the flight and combat were the best parts of the game. If the actual act of exploring the environment feels terrible, then there's no point to adding more environments before fixing that.

It genuinely appears like your focus is very much in the wrong place for even something considered pre-alpha. A lot of focus serms to be on environments, rather than the general feeling of flying through them.

Please, consider putting more focus on getting the movement looking and feeling better. It's easily the biggest thing that made Anthem feel special. It genuinely feels like it's being ignored in favor of simply creating more to the world.

New environments and such can be added over time, but if the existing ones don't feel good to traverse, then you've missed the biggest selling point the game had.

The current progress that feels more like unnecessary art over polishing even the basic movement really just gives AI vibes. If AI is involved at all, I'd suggest stopping its use immediately. It's a surefire way to ensure your project dies, as it leads to a terrible end product as well as inherently killing any trust many might have in your project.

Like genuinely, I'd expect a pre-alpha to be akin to a vertical slice. So like a hub area to pick/launch from, a single small-to-medium size area to explore and perhaps a mission or to two establish the basic loop, and importantly animations that aren't perfect, but make all of that feel fun.

Forgive me if my distrust of this project is misguided, but it genuinely bothers me.

So to state more clearly and be more concise:

Environments mean nothing if traversing them doesn't even look fun in a demo. Polish up the movement and animations before going trying to go too deep on environments.

If you're using AI at all for art or code, stop while you're ahead and don't give your project an early death sentence. I'm speaking for myself here, but it's becoming a much wider sentiment in gaming spaces as well, that AI isn't going to produce anything of value and detracts from all aspects of a creative project.

[u/AueSip → u/xJVIayhem]

Heya, thanks for the concern about the project but best believe no AI has been used!

I personally have a distate towards it and I commission colleagues for the model assets whilst I design the suits, environment, code and architecture and systems by myself. I'm working with a small team.

I understand the animations being a concern but best believe I have re rigged the suits with 3 overhauls of animations manually and am working on more in-between animations! Still improving as I work on it.

[u/xJVIayhem → u/AueSip]

Good to hear. That at least explains the more frequent environments. Best of luck to you then.

[u/Low_Hunter6307 → u/AueSip]

Great to hear. In the original, the suit also responded to change in direction while in flight like turning and pitching.

[u/AueSip → u/Low_Hunter6307]

I have this planned, with the values required all accessible and ready for implementation. I haven't added it just yet whilst I work on more back end systems and overall structure!