Monthly Devlog | March 2025 | No. 74
March marked a completed milestone for the development of Depths of Erendorn, as the entire team worked across multiple disciplines to finalise core systems and prepare the project for the next phase. With dungeon functionality reaching feature lock for Alpha 1, the Client and Server teams shifted their focus to bug fixing, system stability, and performance improvements—implementing key updates to character switching, input handling, and dungeon generation. The 3D Modelling team advanced several enemy characters, including updated Hyenas, refined Human Bandits, and a full rework of the Vampire Bats. Set Piece Design brought further depth to the game’s settlements through new environmental assets and layout refinements, while the Environment team targeted cave dungeons, building advanced materials to support crystal, ice, and lava formations.
The Animation team ensured updated rigs were reflected in new animation passes for the snakes and Hyena, and the Sound team expanded creature and ambient audio with new low-end layers and movement cues. Finally, the Visual Effects team made strides in performance optimisation and visual clarity by refining smoke emitters and integrating new techniques using FluidNinja. Together, these efforts bring Depths of Erendorn closer to a polished, and playable experience. As always, join us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit for daily updates on Depths of Erendorn. Alternatively, join our Discord for all the latest! – now let’s get into it!
3D Modelling
Throughout March, the 3D Modelling team at Depths of Erendorn achieved substantial progress in enhancing the visual authenticity and quality of key enemy characters. The team dedicated considerable effort to the comprehensive update of the Hyena models, refining their anatomy, textures, and visual characteristics to create a more lifelike and imposing presence within Erendorn’s diverse wildlife. Alongside this, significant attention was given to improving the Human Bandit characters, with updated designs and optimised models ensuring these adversaries integrate smoothly into the evolving game world. The team also began an extensive rework of the Vampire Bat models, initially sculpting intricate anatomical details to emphasise their sinister and predatory nature. By the end of the month, the Vampire Bat project transitioned into the retopology phase—simplifying complex geometry to optimise performance without sacrificing visual detail. These collective enhancements continue to enrich the quality of Erendorn’s expanding bestiary, providing players with detailed and compelling adversaries. Examples of the team’s recent work can be viewed below.
Set Piece Design
During March, the Set Piece Design team at Depths of Erendorn achieved significant progress in enriching the game’s settlements and surrounding environments. Key developments included the creation of a detailed ivy tiling texture, adding realism and organic depth to settlement architecture. Strategic integration of new Megascans rock assets further elevated visual quality and landscape cohesion, alongside notable refinements to fast travel sites and bridges to enhance their prominence within the world. The team also finalised the destruction asset set, injecting dynamic environmental storytelling elements into Erendorn’s locations. Additionally, substantial work was completed on the settlement wall, providing clearly defined boundaries and supporting more detailed set dressing within settlements. Early development also commenced on a new Viking-inspired wall set, expanding architectural variety and offering players a richer and more diverse exploration experience. Examples of the team’s recent progress can be seen below.
Programming
Client
Throughout March, the Client team at Depths of Erendorn made major strides in preparing the game for its Alpha 1 milestone, with a strong focus on stability, polish, and performance. With the Dungeon system now feature locked, marking the completion of all core systems planned for Alpha 1, the team shifted attention towards refining the Dungeon RoomBuilder, Set Piece functionality, spawn tile logic, and rerolled room behaviour. In parallel, extensive bug fixing efforts addressed persistent issues such as duplicate audio triggers, UI inconsistencies, and empty ability slots during level-up. A particularly complex issue related to interaction failures after character switching was resolved by restructuring the input system to better manage event cues. Improvements were also made to the logout and character switching flow, ensuring consistent initialisation of systems like inventories, parties, and social data. To support these technical updates, additional work went into rebuilding landscapes, virtual textures, and hierarchical level of detail (HLOD) setups, while efforts to clean up asset references and warnings helped streamline the packaging process. These enhancements bring the client experience closer to a polished state, laying the groundwork for future playtesting and content integration.
Server
During March, the Server team at Depths of Erendorn focused on strengthening core dungeon systems and expanding gameplay functionality to support upcoming content milestones. Substantial improvements were made to dungeon generation, including extensive revisions to the Cellular Automata parameters, which allowed for more controlled and varied room layouts, terrain density, and spatial pacing. Critical bugs were addressed throughout the month—such as infinite loops during generation, unreliable Setpiece connectivity, and a rare issue preventing dungeon rounds from progressing—significantly improving reliability. Combat pathfinding and movement data calculations received dedicated attention, enhancing responsiveness and navigation accuracy across dungeon environments. On the gameplay side, entity death logic was refactored to support default spawning in settlements, paving the way for more adaptable mechanics in future updates. Additionally, the framework for out-of-combat ability casting was established, supporting the eventual integration of items like potions and consumables. Inventory handling was also expanded, enabling communication between zone and dungeon servers for persistent player interactions. These efforts collectively mark a major step forward in preparing the game’s systems for wider testing and long-term scalability.
Sound Design
Throughout March, the Sound team at Depths of Erendorn focused on enriching the game’s atmosphere through a series of carefully crafted audio enhancements. Work began with the development of new bass layers for cave ambiences, created using recordings taken from an antique spinning wheel. These layers introduced deeper tonal textures, significantly enhancing the weight and mood of subterranean environments. Attention then turned to creature audio, with specialised movement sound effects produced for the snake characters, adding a greater sense of realism to their presence in-game. These additions support both environmental storytelling and creature identity, contributing to the overall depth of Erendorn’s evolving soundscape. Work completed by the team can be seen in the video below.
Environment Art
Throughout March, the Environment team at Depths of Erendorn focused on improving the visual fidelity of the game’s cave dungeons, laying the groundwork for a broader environmental overhaul. The team established a detailed plan and task list aimed at bringing these areas up to the high visual standard seen across the rest of the world. A key highlight was the creation of a new crystal master material that uses Parallax Occlusion Mapping to create a convincing sense of depth and texture. This versatile material supports a range of applications, with six unique instance variants designed for use with crystal, ice, and lava formations. These enhancements mark a clear step forward in adding environmental richness and diversity to the subterranean spaces of Erendorn, reinforcing their role in the game’s atmosphere and exploration. Work completed by the team can be seen in the video below.
Animation
Over the course of March, the Animation team at Depths of Erendorn focused on enhancing creature fidelity and ensuring recent rig updates were reflected across relevant character assets. The snake creatures underwent a full animation pass to bring them in line with their newly implemented rig, resulting in smoother, more realistic movement that better conveys their predatory nature. Alongside this, the Hyena character received a major update, including a transition to a newly created mesh with revised rigging and skinning. Animations were carefully adapted to the updated model, significantly improving how the creature behaves in-game. Examples of the team’s work can be seen below.
Visual Effects
During March, the Visual Effects team at Depths of Erendorn focused on enhancing environmental effects with an emphasis on optimising performance and visual fidelity. A primary focus was the redevelopment of smoke emitters, which now display significant visual improvements compared to earlier iterations. These updated effects provide more natural visuals, contributing to the atmospheric quality of Erendorn’s world. The team also explored advanced integration methods using FluidNinja, particularly investigating the use of a single handler across multiple emitters to minimise shader load. This exploration supports more efficient rendering while allowing for greater flexibility in applying effects at scale. Examples of the work completed by the team can be seen below.
That’s it for this month’s devlog, but have you seen our monthly roundup of February yet?!
