I’ve been working on some art assets – primarily, more progress on the world map and some proper visuals for the in-game enemies.
The different tiers of hostile minions are color-coded now to help show their purposes, so the $60 minion is always blue and freezeproof, the $100 minion is always orange and fireproof, etc. The shapes of the minions (which blocks are used, how they’re laid out, and which turrets get attached to each mounting position) are still procedurally generated, but these functional and visual distinctions should help to make them feel a bit more different from each other. This is a game with a focus on tactics, after all, so there needs to be something meaningful to think over while you’re selecting which enemies to spawn!
Right now, all of the minions except for that tiny purple one use the same turret graphics, but I’ll make a few different sets by the time it’s all said and done.
Next, here’s a little rundown of the foliage (thus far) in the world map’s swamp zone:
First, we start with a big flat shape to represent the water’s surface. Unlike the other bodies of water on the map, it’s shallow enough for the player to wade through.
We’ll kick things off with some tall, bushy shrubs.
To add more coverage and a better sense of weight/thickness, we’ll add another layer of the same shrub texture, but bend the strips down to be flatter against the water.
This is looking better, but there are a lot of harsh-looking straight edges where it’s a bit too obvious that the plants are just a bunch of strips. To help, we’ll add a layer of moss to the surface of the water – this uses the same fur-grass rendering technique used in the “plains” areas of the map.
Now we’re talking! There’s still more work to do here, but it’s looking pretty good so far.