Lately I've been focusing on various aspects of the game environment. This includes a bit of model creation, texture work, and experimentation with shaders and lighting. I've added two new screens that more or less showcase the results of my efforts.

When we first thought of having a day and night system in the game we were thinking we would have to make daytime and nighttime versions of every texture and swap them out. Fortunately we've since found ways to utilize light in a limited way that can give us the effects we want without sacrificing the anime shading style we're using. Not only that, but the change can occur gradually (as opposed to sudden texture swapping when night falls) and as an added bonus we get nice architecture shadows without me having to include them in-texture.

Up until now we've had all this figured out conceptually, but now it's finally taking shape. While Blyka is busily working away on the really important engine stuff and pushing us toward our first demo release, my desire to see these visual aspects in action has led me to program a preliminary day-night system that is rough but very functional. It should serve as a good basis for Blyka to work from when he gets around to doing it right.