Devlog Sep 26 - New characters and a new area

Welcome to the second September devlog!

Our goal for this period was to start expanding the game with a new area, the local town. This town will serve as kind of a hub for the game, so it will be larger and contain more characters.

This sprint we have not written any new code, but we have focused on drawing all these new characters.

Let's introduce the characters:

We have drawn a portrait, usually 1 or 2 expressions and poses and 4 in-world sprites for each character. A few will also need animations for e.g. walking.

This is an apprentice of the mage academy. Each culture in the game has a different relationship with magic and the Morani Republic (where the game starts) has magic academies where magical theory and practice is taught. When you visit, the professor and most students are out practising, so only this apprentice has been left behind. Perhaps he can help answer some of the player's magic related questions. 

On the left we have the High Augur, on the right two regular augurs. The outfit is copied over, but it would be quite easy to for example change the colour of the tunic. 

The Augurs are a religious order in the Morani Republic. They studies the movement of birds and believe they can predict the future.

The shoulder sash is very stylish right now. The latest fashion in the capital!

A wealthy farm-owner who has trouble at his own farm. His problems may or may not be related to the problems our main cast has experienced.

Even though the game only takes part in a corner of the Morani Republic, there will be a variety of races, skin colours and outfits. This is intended to tell the player that the Republic covers a large and diverse area. 

On the left we have a merchant, from whom new equipment can be bought with silver coins, the main currency in the Republic.

On the right, we have a minotaur laborer, one of the first non-human characters we have drawn for the game. We'll return to the role of non-humans in the Republic in a later episode.

To save time, we have duplicated parts of the outfit for these Tax Office guards 

Finally, we have the private guards of the Tax Office. The way the real life Roman Republic collected taxes is quite fascinating and so we wanted this represented (in a small way) in the game. The main job of the guards in the game is to provide some extra life to the area and provide the player with additional dialogue, giving an idea of what's happening in town.

We have started drawing the town area itself, but unfortunately it's not done yet. It's a quite big area, so there's going to be a lot to draw.

Here's a teaser of one of the buildings in town:

This building is close to the town entrance.

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!

The next update will be on October 10th, where we will start looking at XP and gaining new levels. Hopefully we will also have some time to draw some more of the town.