Echoes in the Deep Windows game

Welcome to another Outhoused Studio devlog! This time we're going to make another progress update since the last time we checked in.

Last time we talked about the progress we made on our ATB bar and some data refactorings we wanted to make. This time we'll go over the skill selection UI we implemented. We're also continuing our data refactoring in the background, but obviously this has less visually appealing elements, so we won't talk about this too much.

Skill selection

The skill selection UI has been split into the following options

• select avatar (which will not be available for our MVP)
• innate skills; skills which are innate to the character
• class skills; skills which are associated from the character's class
• elemental skills; skills which can inflict elemental boons or damage
• tactical skills (which will not be available for our MVP)

We built on our ATB combat bar with an interface to allow the user to select the skill they want to perform. Skill selection takes place at the skill select point, and at this point the character selecting the skill is highlighted in red and the following interface opens.

To the bottom left we have a small section dedicated to the currently casting playable character, and in the middle section we have a responsive interface to allow for skill selection. As the player selects a category of skill they want to cast, they can also come back if they change their mind. We plan to add more detail to each skill to provide information like status effects, the type of target the skill can be cast on, and so on. Also notice how certain skills have a word indicating the speed at which they can be cast, and this word is highlighted in a color to indicate that speed. For instance, faster, low damage attacks can tend to have a fast cast time, and this cast time will lead the character to the perform point more quickly.

What's coming next

Our next steps will be to provide an interface to show the user which targets they can cast their chosen skill on, and eventually to have a skill perform animation mechanism that functions like Darkest Dungeon, where the only real effects are an impactful zoom and we see character sprites moving slightly. We find it to be a very effective way to show attack animations.

Thanks so much for reading, please contact us at contact@outhoused.me

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