Welcome to our latest devlog! Today, we’re excited to dive into the creative and technical process behind crafting the cloudscapes that set the atmospheric tone in our trailer. From initial design to final integration, we leveraged a combination of art and code to create a dynamic sky environment that enhances the visual storytelling of our game.

To bring our clouds to life, we started by designing various cloud shapes in Photoshop, ensuring they had transparent backgrounds for seamless integration. These cloud images were then placed on 2D planes within our game engine, utilizing a technique known as the "billboard effect." This method ensures that the clouds always face the camera, creating the illusion of depth while keeping the geometry lightweight. By implementing a custom script, we guaranteed that the clouds would consistently orient toward the viewer, achieving a sense of depth without compromising performance—crucial for maintaining smooth real-time rendering in our trailer.

A key element in achieving the desired aesthetic was our shader control. By fine-tuning parameters like brightness, rotation, and saturation, we crafted a cloud effect reminiscent of HDR photography. This approach allowed us to imbue the scene with a soft, ambient quality, adapting the clouds to different lighting conditions and moods effortlessly. Our experimentation with varying levels of translucency enabled us to create a range of cloud types, from soft and fluffy to dense and stormy, adding depth and versatility to our environments.

In addition to the clouds, we hand-painted soft fog elements and applied subtle shader animations to them. This technique gave the fog a gentle, animated presence, ensuring it never felt static or out of place.

The final touch was the seamless integration of our skybox with the 2D cloud planes, resulting in a cohesive and immersive sky environment. This careful blending enhanced the overall visual impact of the trailer's background, allowing us to push the boundaries of what's possible with relatively simple techniques to achieve high-quality results. The process was both fun and creatively fulfilling, and we're thrilled with the atmospheric depth we've added to our scenes.

We're incredibly proud of the end result we've created, a vital element in conveying the mood and atmosphere of our game. As we continue to refine and expand our visual toolkit, we’re excited to see how these techniques will further enhance our worlds. Stay tuned for more updates as we push the boundaries of what's possible with our visuals!

Best regards,
Playdew Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1752540/Lost_Twins_II/

Welcome to our latest game development progress! In this devlog, we'll take you through the creative and technical steps in making our trailer scene. From the initial storyboard to the final touches in Unity, each stage of the process has been crucial in crafting the immersive experience we envision.

Storyboard and Concept Art

Our journey began with the storyboard, which laid the foundation for the trailer scene. This initial step was crucial for mapping out the sequence of events and setting the tone for the visual narrative. From there, we moved on to concept art, where we visualized the look and feel of the final scene. This stage was essential for refining the overall aesthetic and ensuring that every element aligned with our creative vision.

Base Models and Blockout Animation

Once the concepts were finalized, we transitioned to creating base 3D models. These models were the building blocks for our scene and helped establish scale and proportions. Afterward, we imported them into Unity to test basic camera movements and animations. This blockout phase allowed us to refine the scene’s flow and make adjustments early in the process. Once we were satisfied with the animation and layout, we proceeded to more detailed modeling.

3D Modeling

For the final models, we focused on sculpting and texturing. Using ZBrush, I sculpted intricate details to bring the environment and characters to life. After sculpting, I created low-poly versions of the models and baked the high-resolution details into normal maps using Substance Painter. Texturing was a key part of this process, as it allowed us to match the models closely with our concept art. These fully detailed and textured models were then integrated back into Unity, replacing the blockout versions.

Lighting and Skybox

The lighting setup was designed to enhance the mood and guide the player's focus. We used a combination of spotlights and point lights to highlight key areas of the scene. The skybox played a dual role: not only did it serve as the backdrop, but it also contributed to the ambient lighting, enriching the atmosphere. I created the skybox using a custom cubemap in Photoshop and incorporated Shader tools in Unity to dynamically adjust the sky's color as needed.

After all the hard work, the scene came together beautifully, with the detailed models, dynamic lighting, and custom skybox creating an immersive atmosphere.

That wraps up our devlog for today! We’re thrilled with how this scene is shaping up and can’t wait to show you more as development continues. If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to drop a comment—we’d love to hear your thoughts. Stay tuned for more updates, and thanks for joining us on this journey!

Best regards,
Playdew Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1752540/Lost_Twins_II/

Hey everyone! Today, we're excited to share our progress on creating a magical fire effect for our phoenix. In many movies and games, “magical fire” refers to a fire with supernatural or enchanted properties. Unlike ordinary fire, magical fire might exhibit unusual colors, produce no heat, or possess unique abilities such as creating illusions or serving as a portal to another realm.

For our project, we aimed to capture the essence of the phoenix's lore, where it emerges majestically from the ashes of its predecessor. Using the Unity Particle System and a custom phoenix mesh, we set out to craft an effect that not only looks visually stunning but also embodies the mystical rebirth of the phoenix. Here's how we did it!

We used the Unity Particle System to achieve the effect. To simulate the fire-like effect, we adjusted various properties of the particle system, including Emission, Size over Lifetime, Color over Lifetime, Simulation Speed, Gravity Modifier, and more.

To form the shape of the phoenix, we created a phoenix mesh in Maya and applied it to the Renderer property of the Particle System. After tweaking the values for each component, we produced this stunning magical fire effect.

This effect adds a layer of enchantment and depth to our project, and we can't wait for you all to experience it in the game. As always, we appreciate your support and feedback. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to develop and enhance our game!

Best regards,
Playdew

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1752540/Lost_Twins_II/

Welcome back to our devlog! Today, we’re excited to share our process for creating the unique zone shapes that form the backbone of our game environments. From initial sketches to the final assembly in Unity, we'll walk you through the steps we take to bring our interior and exterior designs to life.

Concept Art:

Creating a unique and stunning environment starts with concept art. We gather a variety of references to inspire the design, then create something distinct. The process begins with quick sketches to visualize the exterior and interior. After finalizing the concept art, we break down the shapes into modular components, making it easier to manage during the modeling phase.

Modeling:

Using 3ds Max, we begin the modeling phase by quickly blocking out the required modules. This initial blocking phase is crucial as it helps establish the basic structure and scale of the environment. By focusing on modular design, we can create individual pieces that can be easily repeated and combined in various ways to construct the entire environment. This approach not only ensures consistency and efficiency but also allows for greater flexibility in design.

Texturing:

For the texturing phase, we utilize Substance Painter, a powerful tool that allows for detailed and realistic texture creation. This software enables painting directly onto the 3D models, giving precise control over the appearance of each surface. The process begins with creating base materials, such as wood, metal, or stone, which are then applied to the models.

One of the key techniques we employed was baking unlit lighting into the textures. By doing this, we could achieve a more realistic and visually appealing look without relying solely on real-time lighting, which can be computationally expensive.

Unity Setup:

With the level design as guide, we carefully assemble each module into its designated place within Unity. This step involves positioning and orienting the modular pieces to construct a coherent and visually appealing environment. The modular approach allows for quick adjustments and iterations, ensuring the layout aligns perfectly with the intended design.

Once the modules are in place, we move on to lighting the scene. Lighting plays a crucial role in setting the mood and enhancing the overall atmosphere of the environment. We used a combination of directional light and point lights to achieve the desired effect. By carefully balancing these lighting elements, we could create a realistic and immersive atmosphere that enhances the player's experience.

Thank you for following along with our devlog! We hope you found this behind-the-scenes look at our development process insightful and inspiring. Stay tuned for more updates!

Best regards,
Playdew Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1752540/Lost_Twins_II/

Hi gamers! Today, we're diving into the intricacies of sound design, focusing on the audio experience of a box falling from various heights. Crafting the right sounds for this seemingly simple action is crucial for creating an immersive and realistic game environment.

Box plays a crucial role as one of the key objects used by the twins to solve the puzzles and navigate through the levels so its sound was an important factor in the gameplay experience. We wanted distinct and realistic sounds for a box dragging, falling from varying heights, and our sound artist did an amazing job in achieving this. We wanted to achieve realism by accurately representing the impact and material properties of the box and the landing surface, ensuring variety by creating noticeable differences between low and high-height falls, and maintaining consistency so that the sounds seamlessly fit within the game's overall audio environment.

For low-distance drops, we wanted to focus on the initial contact sound, slight rebound, and any secondary movements while for high-distance drops, the focus was on the dramatic impact by dropping the boxes to capture the build-up of velocity and significant impact upon landing. For the dragging sound, we wanted interactions between the box and the ground, capturing the subtle details of friction.

With meticulous attention to detail and a deep understanding of sound dynamics, our sound artist crafted a rich auditory landscape that perfectly complements every gameplay moment. From the delicate subtleties of a gentle drop to the thunderous impact of a high fall, achieved the perfect balance of realism and emotional impact. The final sounds were integrated into the game, with different audio triggers based on the height from which the box falls. Extensive in-game testing ensured the sounds matched the visual experience and player expectations, and adjustments were made based on feedback, refining the audio to achieve the perfect balance.

We hope you enjoyed this deep dive into the sound design process for our game. We're thrilled with how these sounds turned out and believe they will significantly enhance your gameplay experience. Thank you for following along with our development journey. Your support and feedback are invaluable to us. Stay tuned for more updates and behind-the-scenes looks at our development process.

Until next time, happy gaming!

Best regards,
Playdew Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1752540/Lost_Twins_II/

Hey gamers! Welcome back to our devlog series! Today, we're diving into the creation of a stylized metal texture for a pipe. Creating shaders for game assets involves a meticulous balance between artistic vision and technical constraints.

We aimed to develop a stylized metal texture for a pipe that not only looked visually appealing but also performed well within the Unity engine. Our primary goal was to create a stylized metal texture for a pipe. This involved ensuring that the texture's appearance remained consistent across both Blender and Unity, while also optimizing it for performance within the game.

We faced two primary challenges during this process. First, it was crucial to preserve the visual consistency of the metal texture when transferring it from Blender to Unity. The texture needed to maintain its stylized look across both platforms. Second, we needed an efficient and flexible workflow between Blender and Unity that allowed for adjustments and fine-tuning without excessive back-and-forth. These challenges required us to carefully consider both the artistic and technical aspects of the shader development.

To achieve a more flexible and unique shader, we decided to create the shader entirely within Blender. This approach allowed for greater control over the initial design and texturing process. After creating the shader, we baked the texture to see how it would appear once imported into Unity.

Initially, everything seemed fine until we decided to make the asset unlit to optimize game performance. This change presented a significant challenge: maintaining the texture's visual fidelity without relying on Unity's real-time lighting.

To address this, we baked the shader in Blender, incorporating both direct and indirect lighting into the texture. This method ensured that the texture retained its detailed lighting information. By doing so, we could then convert the texture into an unlit asset using Unity’s Amplify Shader Editor.

The final result was successful. The unlit asset maintained the desired stylized look of the metal texture while optimizing game performance. This approach not only preserved the visual integrity of the texture but also ensured a smoother workflow between Blender and Unity.

By experimenting with different workflows and leveraging the strengths of both Blender and Unity, we were able to overcome technical challenges and achieve our artistic goals. The lessons learned from this experience will undoubtedly inform and improve our future shader development projects.

Stay tuned for more updates and behind-the-scenes insights into our game development process. Until next time, happy gaming!

Best regards,
Playdew Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1752540/Lost_Twins_II/

Welcome to another devlog! Today we'll be detailing the creative and technical journey of developing a stylized glass pipe for our project. This task came with its own set of unique challenges, pushing the boundaries of typical transparent glass materials and aiming for a more animated, cell-shaded look.

Creating a glass pipe presented several challenges. The first major challenge was to move away from a typical transparent glass material and achieve a stylized and cell-shaded effect. This required more creative shading techniques to create strong shapes and highlights from the light hitting the surface.

To achieve the stylized look, we developed a custom surface unlit shader using the Amplify Shader Editor. This tool allowed us to create the desired effects more efficiently than Unity’s default glass material parameters, significantly improving performance. A key technique, suggested by Xetirano, involved using a dot product and a vector math node for comparison. This approach helped create the shiny glass effect and the strong shapes I aimed for. Another crucial component was the Fresnel effect. By combining it with the imported texture from Blender and adjusting its strength with a float, we were able to add depth and realism to the surface. Fine-tuning the Fresnel strength and texture coordinates allowed for precise control of the effect.

Another challenge was designing a single segment of the pipe that would be repeated throughout the pipeline. Ensuring this repetition did not look monotonous required careful attention to detail and design. The texture work involved baking the effects with transparency and making additional adjustments in Unity. We further enhanced the texture in Photoshop, adding more gradient strokes to achieve the stylized look. These combined efforts resulted in a unique and visually appealing glass pipe that met the project's artistic goals.

Stay tuned for more updates and insights from our development process!

Best regards,
Playdew team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1752540/Lost_Twins_II/

Hey guys! We've got a question for you! 🎮

Would you like to see a co-op mode in our game? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

Best regards,
Playdew Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1752540/Lost_Twins_II/

Hello, everyone! We are excited to bring you the latest updates on our game development journey. This time, we're diving deep into the creation of dynamic water effects that will elevate your gaming experience.

Our goal is to make the water in our game not just a visual element but a living, interactive part of the environment. Characters will swim, alter water flows, and encounter various underwater challenges as they progress through the levels.

Water Effect Development:

To make our water look real and captivating, we used Amplify Shader in Unity. This allowed us to create more realistic effects by using a specular surface shader.

One of the main challenges were enabling programmers to control water flow and movement through adjustable parameters. To tackle this, we used a Step node to convert a range of linear values into constant values, essentially creating a mask that filters out unnecessary parts of the water by converting shades of gray to black and white.

We further refined this by combining object rotation coordinates with a rotator node to control the angle in object space. The remainder of the shader involved fundamental math operations, incorporating a noise texture to give a realistic watery feel and animating it to simulate fluidity.

Adding to this effect, we introduced movement by multiplying the Step node with another noise map and feeding the result into the vertex offset. This technique brought the water to life, achieving the desired fluid and dynamic appearance.

From there, the possibilities expanded, allowing us to add elements such as bubbles, jellyfish, and more, enhancing the overall visual experience.

We are committed to refining these water effects and seamlessly integrating them into our upcoming levels. Thank you for following our development journey. Your feedback and support are invaluable to us as we continue to innovate and push the boundaries of what's possible in our game. Keep an eye out for more exciting updates, and until next time, happy gaming!

Best regards,
Playdew Team

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1752540/Lost_Twins_II/