Nominated! 🥳 - Bug Fixes, Mech Textures, VFX news

Hi everyone! This week I was fixing various bugs and preparing the mech for the Steam trailer.
There will of course be many different kinds of mechs in the future.

I didn't really have the "indie of the year" awards on my radar this month.
And when I gave it a passing thought, I considered it as something for "the big boys" only.

But you guys voted for my game anyways,
and Assembly RTS was nominated standing side-by-side with D.O.R.F RTS (also a very promising game).

Thank you all so much for voting! This was a very unexpected surprise for me 😄

Even though I wasn't entirely satisfied with the shape of my mech, I decided to keep it the way it is.
After texturing this bad boy, I'm not entirely dissatisfied with it's looks.
In the end, the overall impression is all that matters.
It can be hard to guess how a mesh will look after its been textured.
Imperfections are often not eye-catching enough to actually matter.

The lesson to be learned here: Don't be a perfectionist. Quickly try things out and throw away the bad eggs. After all, I keep my models very low-poly, speeding up the modeling process.
Texturing can also be done within 1-2 hours.
I often found this simple adage to often ring true in artistic endeavors- "Less is more!"

Mech during the texturing process

The awkward looking rod sticking out of our mech's cute little snout was the only thing that really bothered me after texturing the model. So I decided to turn this 'bug' into a feature. Trust me bro, it's all by design! 😉

Here was my idea to set things right: You see, now it's actually a kind of lightning rod, but in reverse! (I know, I'm a genius) All I needed was to make some convincing electricity effects that sells it to the player.

Unfortunately, because of some VFX graph limitations, I couldn't get away without the performance-killing ugly uncle of Unity this time, namely GameObjects. However, unless lightning and laser weapons end up becoming a weapon of choice, this sub-optimal solution should still get the job done.

Mechs attacking a building

What I am working on next...
Not that much on my list has changed since last time. Here are some of the upcoming tasks:

• Displaying performant texture decals on unit selection
• Setting up combat animation for infantry with muzzle and projectile VFX
• Creating death animations for infantry

I'm also thinking about redoing the infantry 3D models to be more in line with the overall art style of Assembly RTS.