I continued to iterate the blockout, the level design is at a good point. I did the corridor leading to the boss room and finished the castle facade and other rooms. After almost a year of greyboxing, I can finally start the first art-pass.
Some enemies drop rare items when they are killed. The gems are used to unlock abilities. At the moment, the knight animations are still prototype, should be fixed at a later time.
I am starting the first (of probably many) art-pass, focusing on the level opening. Placed floor, sidewalk, buildings and some crates. The street pavement material, although I find it nice, I think I will change it to something more rocky blended with mud.
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The possession ability is also useful when there are too many enemies; one strategy is to possess an enemy and use it as bait. I will have to work in being able to cancel the possessed enemy’s attacks, at the moment the combos do not work as they should.
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I am adding the art assets of the stairs leading to the square. I also iterated on the floor material, I did some vertex painting using a stone pavement, a soil mud and a mossy stone as materials. There is some repetition in the floor, which I will fix by placing some plants growing between the tiles, pieces of tiles coming out etc.
In certain areas, mobility is somewhat limited due to destructible objects in the way, which during combat can restrict the player’s movement. In these cases you can break these objects with an attack or dodge. Beware of remaining stamina, though, because blocking an enemy attack when your stamina is depleted leads you to be stunlocked and at the mercy of enemy attacks.
I’m focusing on the plaza, I added a fountain with a statue on top and some stairs. Also I am experimenting with various floor materials, I am trying some stone tiles with some displacement, I like the tesselation it creates. I would like to try soon some decals like ground and plants.
Maybe right now the floor is a little too defined compared to the rest, I’ll have to make the buildings and the props more defined otherwise it might clash with the style.
When there are many enemies, strong attack can be useful to hit more enemies in a straight line. One must be careful not to miss the target, as the recovery time of the strong attack is very high.
I placed more 3d models to replace the blockout, made several streets and put some arches in the city. The roads lead you to the castle, so I often placed stairs. I had to remove the volumetric clouds for now, as they were affecting the performance.
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Enemies have slight tracking during the attack, so that it is not too easy to avoid the attack by going behind the enemy. The tracking is only on the orientation of the attack and not on the distance to the player, so spacing is an important element in this combat system.
I am continuing to add 3d models, I placed the gate with stairs leading to the upper part of the city and a square with a fountain. I’m also experimenting with a different lighting, a different sun orientation and a higher intensity, I think the warmer colors go better with the walls and floor. However the floor is too flat and I’ll have to fix it with some modeling.
Invisibility Cloak can be used to make yourself invisible from the enemy and go behind his back to perform a backstab. Very useful against very strong foes or when you don’t want to face enemies.
Today I made optimizations for performance: merged houses (still had all separate modular 3d models) and optimized tessellations on surfaces. I still have high draw calls because of objects not fully occluded, a few walls and rocks to occlude should be enough. In the meantime, I tweaked again the lighting, I think the misty mood is the way to go.
There are various environmental hazards such as the rolling boulder. You will need to have quick reflexes to be able to avoid them. The rolling boulder not only causes damage to the player but also to enemies.
I am continuing to place 3d assets to replace the blockout, adding one of the last areas before the castle, such as 2 indoor areas and a few roads to the castle. The more I continue, the happier I am to see my blockout turn into a medieval town, but on the other hand, I’m starting to worry about the amount of work that will await me in making it polished, it’s going to be tough.
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The style of this town reminds me a lot of BDO/New World architecture. I’m sure there’s a ton of work involved but the end result will surely be well worth it 
Sending you all the good luck. Can’t wait to see it 
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Thank you so you much, I really appreciate it!
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Archers are weak enemies, you defeat them with a few attacks, but they can prove troublesome when fighting other enemies.
When enemies are many and health is low, the invisibility cloak can prove useful for an escape.
When attacking, using the first-person view I think is a little easier to switch between enemies than the third-person view. Of course detecting enemies from behind is more complicated. I’ll have to remember in the future to include a directional damage indicator so you can tell if an enemy is attacking you from behind.
Fighting against 3 enemies. Spearman Soldiers can attack from a distance and have a wide range of attack, which makes them very troublesome especially if there are more than 1 of them.
