Hey, friend! Thanks for stopping by our dev blog, I am glad to have you here! In this update, I’ll be sharing how we’re bringing Oliver’s expressions to life with facial animation, plus a peek into how we’re crafting textures and lighting to make our levels shine (sometimes literally). And that’s not all! There’s more behind-the-scenes goodness inside. Let’s dive in! Oliver is alive! Let me be completely honest with you...When our cinematic designer first pitched the idea of giving Oliver a full facial rig, I was very  skeptical. I mean - come on... a tiny team... working after hours, pulling off facial animation with actual acting? Yeah, right. But here we are! Thanks to a trusty phone camera and a bit of creative hacking, we’ve cobbled together our own homebrewed performance capture pipeline, and it’s actually working! This is first test of performance caprure for Oliver, our animator recorded himself and amanage to transfer theat to actual game rig! 🤯 Next level texturing! Last month, I mentioned we were switching our pipeline over to Blender... Well, good news: it’s working beautifully ! I’ve set up a seamless system where tweaks I make in Blender materials transfer straight into Unity with just one click. No more back-and-forth chaos.. just fast, smooth, gorgeous results for our level art! And it’s not just the pipeline that’s looking good — we’ve also cooked up three brand-new procedural materials  in Substance Designer! Rust, Moss, and Metal trim. Our master shader  got a serious upgrade too! It now supports height-based blending across three layers  and color remapping  for each one - giving us incredible flexibility to fine-tune the look of every surface in the world. Texturing our environments has never been this powerful (or fun)! Dont forget to click play ☝️ Meet Stabber! This little maniac is the newest recruit in the Ashborn faction - a fearless infiltrator with a wild streak and zero chill. Small in size, big on chaos. You’ll know when he’s around... Oh, and he’s not just for show — Stabber’s already got gameplay hooks! He’s aggressive, relentless, and has one goal: hunt down Oliver and take him out . Better keep your distance… or don’t. He loves  a chase. As a cherry on top we have the new model of the staff ofr Mithras, the guadian of Electrum. That’s it for this update - from facial animation breakthroughs to smarter shaders and a stabby little menace joining the chaos, we’ve been busy! Thanks for following our journey as we keep tinkering away on Oliver’s Tale . As always, your support means the world. More surprises coming soon, stay tuned!

We Blender! This moment has come, I decided to switch our 3D modeling pipelines to Blender, but do it in my own style... By RECREATING ALL MY MAYA SCRIPTS AND HOTKEYS ! 🤘 ☝️ This is how I felt doing all that, it was a lot of fun! That means more than just porting shortcuts — I’m recreating the feel  of Maya, the little behaviors I’ve come to expect. Modeling? Pretty smooth. My precious pie menus look even better in Blender! 😍 UVs though? Whole different beast. Blender’s got its own weird philosophy there, so I had to bend a little and make it work my way. Oliver is getting emotional! Our rigger’s making serious moves with Oliver’s facial rig.. and honestly, we’re getting more than we ever dreamed of. Nevermind lack of teeth, we have them somewhere! 😊 Looks like we’re about to have an emotional  Oliver lighting up our cutscenes! Explosives arrived! We have our first invironment gameplay object configured and ready to explode! We call them Chaore Crate . A reinforced transport crate housing unrefined Chaore - an unstable, mana-reactive mineral dredged from the deep rift veins. Though inert under controlled conditions, Chaore violently destabilizes when exposed to kinetic shock, heat, or concentrated magic. Highly unstable ore. Handle with care.. or don’t! Our Gameplay Ability System allows us creating rather complex gameplay behavior witout single line of code 😎 Robots on the move! Our robot faction’s getting serious upgrades, most of them are now strutting around with root motion-based locomotion. Smooth, synced, and just a bit terrifying. Sharpshooter Jumper According to the lore, these robots are ancient machines left to rust on Forge Island - a massive factory that once mass-produced them during so called Last War. Meet Gleb - New member of the team! We have Game designer now! Gleb is jumping in to help us craft, tweak, and fine-tune the gameplay mechanics. Hi, I’m Gleb! I’m a junior game designer working on implementing gameplay mechanics for the project. I love digging into how different systems interact with each other, plus, I’m a huge fan of immersive sims and good old boomer shooters. Basically, he’s here to make sure playing the game feels as awesome as it looks. The Chaore Create you saw above was already set up but Gleb🤩 Wrapping it up! That’s it for this update! Between Blender wizardry, emotional robots, and Gleb joining the squad, things are really starting to take shape. We’re pushing forward one system at a time — and honestly, it’s starting to feel real . By the way! Don’t forget to   Sign up for our Demo  if you didn't do it yet😉 And to get news ahead of time - subscribe for my socials: Threads , X , Bluesky Thanks for following along — more magic (and chaos) coming next month!

Oliver Moves Better! I’ve implemented a system that lets Oliver adjust his strafe direction based on pelvis rotation, inspired by an 80lvl article by Albin Thunström . The real challenge was getting it to work with Malber’s Animal controller , which powers Oliver and all our other characters. Here’s how it works: Masked Animator Layer for the upper body, handling everything above the pelvis. Pelvis Proxy Animator Layer to control pelvis rotation. A custom script that “freezes” pelvis movement from the strafe animation. It’s up and running, but still needs polishing and tweaking animations, timings, and fixing foot clipping. That led to our next feature: Runtime Feet IK I added a script that keeps Oliver’s feet firmly on the ground, making his movement feel more grounded and realistic. Oliver's Tale intro cutscene - first look Our animator, Igor Cheltsov , has started work on the intro cutscene. Here’s a quick peek! We’re aiming to capture a sense of adventure, mystery, and fantasy all at once. We want to convey spirit of adventure, mystery and fantasy in as condensed way as possible We also took a leap of faith with facial animations  for Mithras and Oliver. They look promising so far, thanks to Carrie (our 3D artist) who added extra details to bring those faces to life. Isn't he cute?! High-Poly Staff for Mithras Finally, we have a high-poly version of Mithras’s staff; he’s an older character who could use a little support. It’s a small detail, but we hope it adds depth to his persona Rat Brute is getting smart! We haven't forgotten about our Rat Brute! You might not realize it from a single snapshot, but we've pulled off a complex blend of pathfinding, AI behavior, and Root Motion animations. It’s so clever, it can even hop between platforms if it decides to chase Oliver! Stay tuned for more updates soon! 👍👍

Hello, friend! Let's look together at how Oliver's Tale progressed this month! Telegraphs! If you've played action RPGs, you've probably seen glowing circles, flashing lines, or ominous red zones appear on the ground during combat. These are called telegraphs - visual indicators that warn players about incoming danger. Think of telegraphs as a game’s way of saying, “Hey, something bad is about to happen here - maybe move?”  They give players a chance to react, dodge, or prepare for an attack. Fully parametrized, no textures, pure Math & Magic 🪄 In short, telegraphs are an essential part of making combat feel fair, and satisfying. So next time you see a glowing pattern appear under your character’s feet… run! Telegraph Circle shader A Game-Changer for Tail Movement Tails are extremely hard to animate so they look natural, and in our game you Animating tails in games is no easy feat. Traditional animation methods can make tails feel stiff or out of place, especially when you have a lot of creatures or characters with tails. We knew that Oliver's Tale is going to have a lot of tails.🤓 - Sorry, Couldn't resist Instead of manually animating each tail frame by frame, we calculate tail animations procedurally  in real-time. This means the tails move and react dynamically, adjusting to the character's motions as they walk, run, or jump. New set of equipment for Oliver is almost there! Let me introduce you the high-poly model of Oliver's second-tier armor! It is designed to reflect intricate flame motifs, sharp lines, and fire accents that make it feel both intense and fierce. It’s not just about looking cool, though; every detail reflects Oliver’s character. I practiced my vector graphics drawing skills a bit 😇 Wait for next month post to see what we are preparing as a head piece😉 Immersive Combat Experience We’ve just introduced a new set of damage reactions to make combat feel even more immersive and dynamic. Here’s what we've added: Animation Reactions  – When a character takes damage, they’ll react with specific animations considering attack direction. Flash Highlight  – To give even more feedback, we’ve introduced a flash highlight  that briefly lights up the character when they take damage. Orientation Towards Attacker  – Now, characters will orient themselves towards the attacker after taking damage. On top of having those reactions we have Death state utilizing Ragdoll physics now! These reactions are designed to add a layer of realism, making each hit and attack feel impactful. Wrapping Up for Now This is just a glimpse of what we’ve managed to accomplish this month. Behind the scenes, we've started crafting the intro cinematic for the game, started shifting all our characters to use root motion by default, and rolled out a bunch of important fixes to smooth things out. I am thrilled with the progress so far and can’t wait to share even more updates with you soon. And if you haven’t already, don’t forget to Sign up for our Demo  if you didn't do it yet😉 And to get news ahead of time - subscribe for my socials: Threads , X , Bluesky Thank you for reading!

Hello dear friend, and welcome! I have so many things to share with you! Soon you will learn how did we decide to flip the game upside down, so Oliver’s story will never be the same! Let's make friends! In January we decided to go social and share our game updates on X , BlueSky and Threads , and I can tell you I am not the best at it, got around 30 subscribers in a month 🤓 ... At the same time Karina started her Threads about Oliver's Tale and got 120 subscribers over first day! 🤯 Now we make our first steps at building connections with people and talking about our game, and actually.. both of enjoy it a lot! Think Tetris, But with Swords & Gems! 🔷🗡️ In Oliver’s Tale, character progression isn’t just about leveling up - it’s about strategically arranging your inventory. Picture Tetris, but instead of clearing lines, you’re creating powerful synergies: place a gem next to a sword, and it grants +10 Damage. Sword receives 3⚡Electrum damage after Crystal is placed next to it Every item’s position matters, turning your inventory into a puzzle where the right combinations unlock powerful boosts. It’s not just collecting gear it’s engineering your build! 💪 We flipped the table… Yes! We’ve overhauled Oliver’s Tale’s demo to drop players straight into the heart of its perilous world. From the first minutes, you’ll battle the threats of fractured sky islands. Forge Island is long forgotten and overgrown factory of military robots where ancient menace seems to be revived. Concept art by Anna Kulakovskaia ( Art station ) The demo throws players into chaos immediately: after a mid-air ambush, you crash-land on Forge Island, a storm-battered land overrun by hostile machines. No slow introductions, just relentless exploration, combat, and unraveling the mysteries of this world. BTW Sign up for our Demo if you didn't do it yet😉 First of the Ashborn is here! The first mini-boss in Oliver’s Tale’s demo: Razorfang, a twisted fusion of human and rat. Once a man, he’s now a harbinger of the Ashborn - a faction that embraced brutal mutations to endure Earth’s collapse. Meanwhile Oliver is dressing up with T2 set of gear! Here is the sneak pick on T2 set for Oliver that he would obtain on Forge island. On behalf of whole mini-team of Oliver's tale, thank you for you interest in our game. 💖

Hi fellows! Welcome to the first dev blog from the Tinkers team! Yes, that's what we call ourselves because "tinkering" perfectly captures the spirit of what we do - crafting, tweaking, and bringing imaginative worlds to life. But let's cut to the chase - you’re here for the juicy behind-the-scenes scoop on what we’re cooking up! Mithras Has Entered the Game! Our first NPC character is officially rigged and live in the game engine. Say hello to Mithras , the Watchman of Electrum , a timeless guardian and embodiment of order. Mithras concept art Mithras character in game It is still WIP, in the future we are going to improve shader effects and add procedural tail animation. Robots learned how to navigate! Our ancient military robots, the first hostile faction in Oliver's Tale , have mastered navigation! They can now patrol levels, chase Oliver, and avoid obstacles. We are polishing paper design of that faction now, their abilities and synergies. Spinner abilities design implies that robot making bullet hell on distance and deadly on short range, at the same time it becomes vulnerable after using melee ability Brace yourselves, these relentless adversaries are almost ready to bring the challenge! Itemization and ability systems are coming together! While the robots are learning to chase, I’m focused on connecting Items with Abilities. Equipment will now define both passive and active abilities, allowing players to customize their playstyle. By tinkering with gear, you'll be able to forge a unique approach to every challenge. Here I am equipping swords to first and second slots, then activating second slot that shows that I have ability for Left mouse button Stay tuned as we bring this exciting feature to life! Wishing you all a joyful and magical Christmas holiday! 🎄