Hey everyone! Sorry for not giving an update until now, I am still trying to figure out when and how to update things publicly, I am not a natural when it comes to PR or social situations. I mostly post content on facebook or twitter.

I have been doing fine since the last update, my day job is now from home and still been working on Hounds of Valor and have made a lot of progress. It has been tricky since I lost my usual in person meetups where a lot of my testing was done but I have been trying to adapt to some online options.

Here is what has been completed during the last 7 months

• The first mission of the game is 98% complete. The only thing left is a final exit cutscene sequence. Timing during testing puts the whole level at just over 40 minutes of gameplay. What is currently in the demo is a truncated ~15 minute version that skips to the end boss.

• The introductory cutscene has been created and missing only a few shots and background characters.
• Human and dog NPC’s with base behaviors. Npcs will fight and be attacked by the monsters. Npcs can patrol, follow the player and have some basic interactions with the player and one another like petting you or chatting with each other.
  • https://twitter.com/i/status/1240749946791493632
• Reworked the agro system along with a number of invisible but greatly more efficient systems for damage and player>monster>npc interaction.
• Reworked 3d camera to behave better with walls, it will now push in more smoothly and contains a number of detectors and conditions to push FOV and targeting to keep the player on screen in most situations. Controllable 3d cameras really are a tough thing to get right.
• Combat feel and physics have gotten a big overhaul. Added conditional friction and drag with updated physics pushes and root motion to prevent the player and monsters sliding around during combat or bouncing with some other conditions. Times where the player could be launched into low orbit should be eliminated now and prevent players dodge rolling into a slope also bouncing you upward. Also these changes included preventing players from floating over top of enemies and a number of tricky physics errors that caused awkward moments in combat.
• Added more in-depth stagger mechanics, some enemies resist stagger for small hits and all enemies can get stacked staggers for getting hit multiple times. Enemy armor can be broken with heavy attacks and give another strategy.
• In-game GUI has been reworked and is far more minimal and clean.
• More ranged weapons for the player.
• Hard mode has been added, called Punishing mode with greater enemy damage, stagger resistance, shorter cooldowns and less health drops. It will need more refinement and testing to make it properly challenging yet balanced.
• Player progression has been added and is saving between sessions. Certain actions like defeating a group of enemies and or saving humans or dogs will grant you a Skill Point. These points are then spent at certain places where new combos and other character bonuses can be purchased with them. A few more advanced abilities like the sword dive have been added to this skill tree.
• A bunch of other small things I forgot to mention. 
  • https://twitter.com/i/status/1271839402294206472

I am currently getting plans together for an online event happening in two weeks. https://www.thegdex.com/ It's the online version of the conference I usually do here in Ohio. I should be getting an updated v06 of the demo out by then with some of the new content. I do plan to keep the demo short and keep the rest of the level for a full release.

To share what I am working on next here is my current task list.

• Finish the level 1 ending, I am experimenting with a fully timeline based cutscene that could be used for simpler storytelling moments and having some technical issues that need resolved.
• A rework to the menu UI, better function
• Get a more robust save/load and checkpoint system in place.
• Create a kind of Arena mode where you can fight waves of enemies and give people a way to test some more enemies I have been working on and focus on the core gameplay of the game and identify where improvements could be made.
• In the above mode make the other dogs selectable and playable. 
  • I have setup the other dogs to work with one another's animations and do have the groundwork but have been focused on more immediate tasks and character updates before trying to tackle this in a more future proof solution
• Start on mission 2

If you have any questions or suggestions feel free to comment below and I will get back to you.