Kudos 1.2 -> some graphical changes

I’m in the middle of converting Kudos to compile with a different development environment, in order to help shake out bugs more easily, so theres going to be a delay before the next patch. In doing so, I’m planning on changing the way the backdrops are drawn. As you may know, each avatar has a single static backdrop thats drawn behind everything. I’m tweaking this so that the backdrop is actually composed at runtime (not every frame though, its still fast). This will make the games use less big chunky graphics, so I can maybe add some more artwork for the same filesize. Im also raising the quality level of the smaller avatars so they are less blocky.
And it lets me have the backdrop reflect the current weather like this:

I think that gives more variety and looks nicer. What do you think?
I might have to move the text for how many activities you have, and maybe darken the backdrops more. Any thoughts?

Whoa! That looks awesome!

So when’s it gonna come out?

Good idea. I’ve been tempted to do some custom images to use in the game but I’m kind of put off by the messing around you currently have to do to get them to work. Probably doesn’t sound like much work to someone experienced in messing about with graphics but I’m no artist and rarely play about with graphics myself so it does seem a bit daunting.

Just wondering if it’s possible to make it a little easier to mod the images - perhaps a little program to add your own into the game to save messing about so much manually?

I am liking the idea of weather related backdrops.

well it might be a lot easier with this new system, because each component of the backdrop is a separate file, either a bitmap or a ‘dds’ file. Enhanced mod support is certainly something I’m interested in doing.
I need to ensure this system works on everyones video card before I release it, and I’m not going to release any patch without doing a lot more testing this time.
It will be a big patch too, because all the old big bitmaps will be replaced by a new system entirely.

this looks awesome I am looking forward to the next patch

I really like the new look. Just one question - Will there be multiple backgrounds for things such as a change in seasons, or even the mood that your character is currently in?

I Like the looks of it so far. Keep up the great work.

Looks great, keep up the good work! :slight_smile: