Since my last post, I have implemented the narrative system into the game, including voice acting for O.V/Overlord and the Hacker. O.V/Overlord is voiced by an AI voice software called Speechify (https://voiceover.speechify.com/) and the Hacker is voiced by me.
I opted to use an AI voice for O.V as they are also an AI in the game's story so the fact that the voice sounds a little unnatural and fake actually fits the character. I also opted to use the most cheerful voice possible for the character to evoke the feeling that they are putting up a sunny facade to mask their malicious nature. I edited the AI voice lines by adding reverb to them using Audacity to make them sound even more inorganic. When O.V takes on their true Overlord form for the final boss fight, I dropped the voice's pitch greatly to convey it is still the same character speaking but that they have dropped their friendly disguise. I also added a bass tone during Overlord's voice lines to make it sound more ominous and put the player on edge.
For the Hacker it was essential they were voiced by a real person so that the player could more easily connect with them and relate to them. To further this, I spoke in a loose, casual manner when delivering the voice lines and did not edit out imperfections such as audible mic pops and breaths. This makes the character feel more fallible and organic. I chose to use a slightly lower, rougher, more "cockney" version of my natural speaking voice for the character to indicate that they were living a hard life in the post-apocalyptic real-world. When recording the voice lines, I turned the sensitivity on the microphone to maximum and spoke right up next to it in order to create natural distortion rather than adding it in digitally afterwards. This was done to convey that the Hacker is using poor quality equipment and is barely able to get their message across to the player, making it easier to sympathise with them.
In addition to the narrative implementation, I have reworked the combat system extensively. I began this project intending for it to be a melee focused action RPG similar to Diablo, but I found that the projectile abilities I created were more enjoyable to use and fit the game's themes better. As such, I gradually pivoted to focus more on ranged combat. Over time though it became more and more apparent that as a player you always just wanted more projectiles, any other ability type was less desirable. Due to this fact, I decided to scrap the other ability types entirely. Point and click abilities were removed, self-targeting abilities were removed, and the plans for summoning and movement abilities were scrapped. All that was left were projectiles and AoEs but even then AoEs were just not as enjoyable as the projectiles. To this end, I have removed AoE's as a seperate ability class and there is now a chance that a projectile can have the "spawns AoEs" property, causing AoEs to spawn when the projectile hits an enemy. These AoEs apply the same effects as the projectile and 50% of its damage. Various other additions and balance changes have also been made to shift the focus from varied but generic RPG combat to satisfying projectile-focused combat somewhere between and isometric RPG and a "bullet hell" twin stick shooter. There are too many changes to explain here so I will go through the rest in the following video and also show off the narrative system. My dev-hacks caused issues with the game's finale during the recording so I will show that off in a separate post when possible.
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