Devblog 23

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Source: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1373910/view/667203475754452281

Devblog 23 - UI, Art, and Map Polish

Released: 2025-04-21 20:27

Disclaimer: Features discussed in this post reflect what is currently under development and may change in the future.

USER INTERFACE

TIME & SEASON

Previously, the map screen displayed the current time and season in a static plain text box. This has been upgraded into a new widget that has visual elements and dynamically animates as time elapses.



In addition to displaying the current time, it also visualizes the current season and weather. Hovering over the widget displays additional details about the current Age.

DAMAGE TYPE ICONS

With Damage Types becoming a more prominent feature, icons have been added to represent them in tooltips.

MAP & ENVIRONMENT

Back in June 2024, we announced the first phase of our “Natural Environment” updates. We revised the look of trees, grasses, foliage, ground scatter, etc., to give Calligo a more unified feel that aligned with our long-term vision for Anvil Empires. Today, we’re integrating the next part: improved water and rock formations. Please note: we’re still actively working on all of these elements, and parts may appear incomplete (such as splash effects for water/waterfalls), while some areas may not yet be integrated during upcoming tests.







One of the more challenging parts of constructing the world for Anvil Empires is integrating new features across such a large-scale landmass. We’re committed to delivering a high-quality, immersive world, and that means building smart tools and workflows that allow us to build something as handcrafted and organic as possible with the flexibility for adjustments as game design needs evolve. It may seem simple, but natural elements like rivers—particularly transitions into other bodies of water— can be quite labour-intensive, especially when working at such a large scale.









Rivers in Anvil are now a lot more dynamic and will naturally flow around riverbanks, rocks, bridges, etc. Flow speed, waterfalls, and rapids form based on versatility, and, in the future, there will be support for different categories of rivers, such as streams and brooks. Accompanying the river dynamics, lakes and oceans now feature improved dynamics themselves, such as cresting waves along shorelines and cliff faces. Oceans now feature interior waves that liven them up, rather than sailing on a sea of endless tiling.











Cliffs and rock formations are also being overhauled. Previously, all cliffs and large rock formations had been temporary to facilitate gameplay or level design needs. Testers will start to notice new, more detailed and varied rock formations replacing old ones cropping up in the natural environment. Some ground scatter rocks will also be updated in the future.

Updates to these elements of Calligo's natural environment were to not only improve fidelity and immersion but also to improve our own internal workflows, thus allowing us to build out each part of the map more rapidly and without as much overhead gunking things up. We hope you’re enjoying these visual updates; there’s more to come!

CART & CARAVAN MODEL UPDATE

The visuals on the Cart and Caravan assets were some of the oldest in the project. They have been refreshed with more detail and fidelity that is consistent with the rest of the game now.



Be sure to add Anvil Empires to your wish list on Steam. If you want to join the community, head over the to official Discord or Subreddit.



Source: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1373910/view/667203475754452281

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