I just published a big blog post about AI in art and game development. It's mostly focused about why I don't want to use it in Elysian Eclipse and also contains some takes from our team members. https://www.tumblr.com/wauzmons/830455304003125248

You can now find creatures of your own species in the world! Just like in cell stage, they can spawn with slight color and size variations.

If youd dont get it , basically in spore , after you equip a part , there is a chance that through bonepiles you get a stronger evolved version of said part like how the gobstalker evolves into the handibles and so on

https://www.tumblr.com/wauzmons/829473207554801664

Here's a showcase of the tackle and tail swipe abilities. Nugget doesn't seem very impressed. The update will release later today.

Nuggets can now be found roaming around the world! As always, they will serve as combat dummies. They often get stuck in the ground and will be catapulted into the air, if you touch them. It's very funny, but I'll sadly have to fix that.

It's been a while since I last posted. The update turned out to be much bigger than planned. I made a terrain populator tool that can not only spawn objects like plants and creatures, but also stamp whole areas like big nests or even islands into the terrain.

Additionally, I'm working on some more creature animations and combat abilities. That's going to take a while. Maybe I'll make another short video at the end of the month.

For the space stage, I hope you upgrade the colony and economic systems to make them more realistic, and I also hope to see more items included in this phase. Keep up the good work!

The world generation has been expanded, so the plant editor trees and rocks are integrated into the terrain now. The next step will be to create more natural layouts and allow creatures to spawn too!

and will some of your creation apear as npcs like in spore?

so i've been following this game ever since i first discovered it 3 years ago and i have questions i want to ask and ideas i want to share

question1: how much bigger than spore are you planning on making this game? spore had tiny planets and a relatively small galaxy with about 42 thousand stars. how big are the galaxies and planets in elysian eclipse?

question 2: how involved will customization be in the finished Elysian Eclipse vs Spore? spore has a TON of specialized parts and textures in each editor (especially with the 2 DLC and Dark injection mod) but i was just wondering what the scope is for this game's customization? and will it include spines for vertebrates like spore had?

Question 3: this ties into question 2 but will there be softbody physics adjustments for creatures when the game is finished? spore has really bendy and flexible creatures by default but i was wondering if this game will let you choose softbody ranges between practically amorphous like amoebas and octopi or rigid like arthropods and crustaceans.

question 4: will different life bases be added? we can assume most of Spore's lifeforms share a common ancestory being carbon based i assume, but i was wondering about Silicate based life forms or other exotic life bases(and no this is not JUST an excuse to get rocky and other eridians in game, i genuinely think truly WEIRD aliens are awesome)

question 5: how many creature categories will there be in Elysian Eclipse? Spore obviously has herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores with evolution going down multiple paths in later stages but what about EXOTIC types in early stages(from cell to early tribal) like autotrophic creatures capable of photosynthesis, or even crazier survive on chemosynthesis or RADIOSYNTHESIS

question 6: what kind of SENSES do you think this game can work with? obviously Spore has pretty much just sight and hearing(i mean ears have no in game function but you can hear the game can't you?) but my comment about eridians back in question 4 made me realize there can be all kinds of interesting senses like IR based thermal vision, sonar vision and seeing in other wavelengths that would mostly just be visual filters but would show different things depending on what you are looking at. electrical sense would be INTERESTING being able to see electrical fields in other creatures. seismic sense is another cool one kinda like sonar but seeing things based on how they move.

question 7: how long will each stage be in the finished game? Spore was kind of disappointing in how SHORT each stage was. you have to actively TRY to make spore's cell stage last longer than 5 minutes or so. creature stage lasted only half an hour on average if not part hunting and you get the picture, spore was a rushed experience i just hope Elysian Eclipse has longer gameplay

and finally question 8: how complex will creatures and other creations be allowed to get? Spore had pretty harsh limits by default due to early hardware limits and Dark injection removed those limits but people quickly discovered lighting bugs with complex creations. i just hope Elysian Eclipse doesn't have the same limits and bugs

Legs now get automatically grouped together for more natural walk animations. In this example, the four hind legs form a group, making them take alternating steps, while the front legs move independently from them.

You can now spawn your custom plants into the world! The terrain generation is also currently being expanded, so everything gets populated with plants, made in the plant editor!

Great news. everyone! The Nugget empire has discovered fire! It looks really pretty at night and hurts a lot.

The plant editor is fully functional now! New plant parts and materials will be added over time.

Plants can't be made underwater at the moment, so I made algae in the aquatic editor.

Hope you like it

https://www.tumblr.com/wauzmons/823016859065597952