Welcome to the fifth edition of our monthly developer blog. This month we’d like to give a deeper insight into our level design workflow, which we’re employing to create Tecta Horizons, Glowing Forest, and other locations that players will explore with their Venari in upcoming playtests. With updated tools and new core features, the team is well-equipped to design dynamic environments, implement balanced reward structures, and manage Venari spawning.

Here’s a quick run-through of what we have been working on:

Level Design

• Outlining a collaborative workflow to efficiently build new locations.
• Drafting narrative outline and strategy for Tecta Horizons and the Glowing Forest.
• Creating bespoke areas within Tecta Horizons and the Glowing Forest utilizing unique points of interest.
• Placing of game assets to bring the documentation to life.

Art

• Redesigning props and landmarks within Tecta Horizons and Glowing Forest.
• Fleshing out boulder design for mining gatherable.
• Designing 2D icons for gatherables.

Engineering

• Fine-tuned our level designer to create dynamic environments.
• Added the economy and rewards module to manage the game’s internal economy.

To kick things off, let’s see how the narrative team is spearheading level design, hand in hand with the game design and art team.

Level Design: Shaping and Creating Caerras

By Mr. Stidz

The primary focus for narrative has been the development of an efficient workflow for building locations from the ground up, starting with Tecta Horizons and the Glowing Forest.

On the narrative side, we first draft the foundational documentation, such as the lore and objectives, for each location. The design team then tailors this documentation to match the player’s journey, balancing encounters, rewards structure, and Venari spawning. Finally, the art and game design teams bring the documentation to life, placing game assets according to each location’s laid-out themes, goals, and design, guided by the narrative team.

For Tecta Horizons and the Glowing Forest, we built a narrative outline and strategy to effectively create bespoke areas that resonate with characters within the lore. This narrative outline extends onto the spawn tables associated with specific locations, matching the Venari players will encounter with the themes and lore of the location. Each location also features bespoke points of interest, with unique assets and interactable elements to support them, becoming visually stunning and integral storytelling landmarks.

Here is a teaser of Tecta Horizons in our level designer:

Overview of Tecta Horizons in the level designer.

Through the collaborative workflow and focus on narrative throughout the level design process, we are aiming for Caerras to become a truly captivating and rewarding world for players, where every adventure feels unique and exciting. Stay tuned for more, as we are very eager to share how we are building Caerras as the center of an interconnected world.

Art: Refining Visuals and Gatherables

By Ven

With level design being the main focus of this cycle, the art team has been working on retexturing and refining visuals for the various locations being designed, mainly Tecta Horizons and the Glowing Forest. Here’s a brief summary of what we’ve been working on:

• Retextured many of the different props scattered throughout Tecta Horizons to give it a significant visual upgrade.
• Redesigned one of the Kore landmarks nestled within the Glowing Forest to truly capture the enchanting feeling of the vast forest, with the Kore at its center.

Giant tree key location in the Glowing Forest.

• We’ve continued to flesh out the various gatherables that can be found in the world, focusing mainly on the boulder designs for minable items this time.
• In parallel with the creation of the gatherables, we’ve been designing the 2D icons for items and resources, as they’ll be reflected in a player’s inventory and other user interfaces. Some may already look familiar to players, like the Cordiam, Swerte Mushroom, and Oria Berry.

Overview of a select few icons for items and resources.

Through each of these updates, the art team aims to create a truly visually captivating journey for Seekers in Caerras. We’re very eager to share even more about how Caerras is being shaped, but for now, let’s see what the engineering team has been up to as they continue polishing visuals and creating new locations efficiently.

Engineering: Performance and Optimization

By Architect

In order to support the endeavors of the art and design teams, the engineering team has been focused on updating the game’s infrastructure and tooling. There have been a few key areas we’ve been working on for that – our level designer, new core features, visuals, and optimization.

Firstly, our main focus was on perfecting our level designer, which helps the design team arrange game assets more flexibly and provides a more robust toolkit. This turned out to be most beneficial for creating much more dynamic environments and, in turn, a richer experience while exploring the world.

Secondly, we’ve done a major overhaul of the visual side of the gameplay, making the locations look much more authentic and appealing for players. We’re also working on additional optimizations and procedural generation of foliage to allow more areas to be created in a shorter period.

Lastly, we’ve added several new core features, like the economy and rewards module. These modules help us manage the internal economy and systems, such as loot tables from Venari. We’re looking forward to sharing more about our engineering progress, but for now, until the next developer blog.

With development on Tecta Horizons wrapping up and progress on Glowing Forest well underway, we’re expanding the game to include unique worlds tied to the main world of Caerras. This lays the foundation for our upcoming gameplay, and we can’t wait to share more through future playtests.

Make sure to check out our recent X thread that goes into the details of our recently released whitepaper. Also, look out for our Early Access campaigns to earn free rewards and secure your spot in the next playtest.

Stay up-to-date with all the latest happenings in Caerras by exploring our comprehensive Notion introduction, filled with community tutorials and resources.

Additionally, make sure to stay connected with us on our social media channels to keep up with the latest updates.

Compiled and edited by BestPwnz and Vanguardian007 from the Community Team.