Hey Guys,
I hope you all enjoyed our April Fools post. No, Rivals of Aether has not been redesigned. We did hear all the feedback that people are interested in a “Tetherball Mode” for the game. We find it intriguing as well. Currently, we have no plans to introduce it as an official mode, but if time allows then we will explore getting it in there as a fun, alternative way to play.
For now though, we are back with another developer update! The month of April has been very important to Rivals development, particularly to features behind the scenes.
We have begun development on Online Multiplayer. There are many parts of the engine that need to be updated and tweaked to support playing online so we are working through those changes now. We are aiming to have our first tests with the feature in June.
In March we implemented Profiles so players could add names and save their settings. In April, we increased the settings for a player to customize by adding Custom Controls! On the character select screen, all four players can customize their controls. If they are using a profile then their options will be automatically saved to that profile for future use. Players even customize the right stick to trigger something other than a strong, such as an attack, special, jump or dodge.
For custom controls, you can easily see if a player has them set by seeing a yellow icon next to their character name or profile name. If you are swapping players constantly, then you can press the back button to set all options to default and unassign your profile. This is a quick way to pass controllers around without having people mess up your own profile by changing the controls. Custom Controls currently only support XInput controllers. That means this feature is for Xbox360 or Xbox One Controllers only. We have plans to support DInput as well but we have not decided if those will be customizable inside or outside of the game.
During April, Ellian has been hard at work on sprites and animations. We have actually completed the sixth character and have moved onto character seven. We are not ready to tease our sixth character just yet, but expect to see it in our next trailer. The next character is a ton of fun to play and Ellian did a fantastic job with animation. We look forward to seeing your reactions to the reveal.
Also during April, Johan has been putting in hours of work on updating one of our first stages – the Treetop Lodge. Some of you may remember seeing the stage in early trailers and promotion. While the stage keeps the same layout, Johan has overhauled the atmosphere and created a location that truly represents the Aetherian Forest. The stage is dark and mysterious and shows off the pride and prosperity of those who dwell high in the trees.
The Treetop Lodge will also have its own unique interactions, but we aren’t quite ready to show them off. You may be asking, what character calls this locale home? We will be happy to show you in our next trailer!
Ryan Sicat has been working on some great new promotional pieces and frozen moments for our next trailer. They are coming along really well!
Flashygoodness has been working on the next song for the game which will be played on the Treetop Lodge. This song will capture the culture and atmosphere of the forest while also being wonderfully catchy like the other tunes in the game. You can look forward to hearing it soon in our next trailer!
Rafael Langoni Smith is currently working on sound effects for our latest character. Most of the special moves will have their own effects to match the character’s unique abilities.
And that’s all for April. May will be another month with a lot of work behind the scenes but it will all be worth it to show off the new characters and features.