ExpeditionZ – Tech Demo Update 2

We have been working on the tech demo for about a month now.

Some of the things we did since the last update:

• Added (and then broke) a minimap system where the game world gets unveiled as you explore.
• Add a “journal”-like thing to the HUD, displaying the date, location, supplies, mood, and weather info.
• Add a day/night cycle, time goes by and is reflected on the lighting conditions of the main map.
• Moved away from the fantasy land and into Earth
• Added “rain” particle effect for when it rains.
• Decided to go 3D for the main map view instead of the antique map aesthetic. Invested quite a bit of time on making the water look fine.
• Added instance-able test towns including test town view.
• Added temp title screen.
• Acquired and imported Earth’s terrain elevation data (mainly from 2000’s NASA’s Shuttle Radar Topography Mission), for a sector including the Caribbean, Central America, and part of South America.

Along with these developments, I’ve been working on finishing the GDD and the plans for the completed Tech Demo. We are focusing on finishing a test scenario, and soon we are going to have more involvement from a cool 2D artist to bring the UI to life. The title screen painting is also being worked on now.