Caveworld Testing Begins!

Caveworld
5 min readOct 18, 2022

--

A few days after we minted The Search, our first exploration experience for Pets and other rewards, we learned of a new and unexpected deadline. In order to have Caveworld ready for Solana Breakpoint, we needed to have a demo prepared for October 17, 2022. So, for the past two weeks, the team has been working incredible hours to finish months-worth of challenging development to deliver our product in time, and the progress has been monumental.

The internal testing of Caveworld has truly begun! With much of the team continuing to work on development, many team members have started playing against each other on our servers, in search of finding and fixing bugs, and to let of some Cavemen steam! Let’s do a deeper dive into everything that has been accomplished, and how everything has been shaping up!

Visual Effects (VFX)

The Stun Ability mockup (Left) and final effect (Right)

When you think about video game design, especially one as visually complex and beautiful as Caveworld, in-game visual effects are massively important. With dozens of planned effects for each player’s ability, our talented artists and coders have been prioritizing the creation of these in-battle effects lately. Seen above is a work-in-progress of the “Second Chance” and “Stun” abilities, which will, as the titles suggest, provide an additional chance to strike and a stun effect onto opponents!

The Ring of Fire Ability (Left) and Beehive Bomb Ability (Right)

The process of creation is lengthy for visual effects. First, our coding and effects team must first find proper references. Then, they sketch the unique effect and create what we call an “asset plan”, which lays out exactly how the effect will function inside Caveworld. Following this, they begin coding the effect, and then they move to finalizing the visuals. It’s because of lengthy processes like these that we are confident in Caveworld being truly unique in the gaming ecosystem.

Animations

Animations for the ‘Two-Hand Swing Attack’ (Left) and ‘Victory’ (Right)

The Cavemen are finally moving the way they were meant to! In addition to the infamous “belly jiggle”, Cavemen can now perform many battles moves like the “Two-Hand Swing Attack” and “Victory” effect! These animations, accompanied by the beautiful visual effects we’re making, will add much-needed life to the Caveworld arena and make the battles even more thrilling!

Animations for ‘Taunt’ (Left) and ‘Throwable’ (Right)

UI/UX Design

Internal iterations of the UI design. Notice how Icons progressively change!

As you can see, the Caveworld user-interface has made some remarkable strides. Not only have we continued to add in-game prompts and descriptions for each ability, but we have also been testing various button shapes, colors, and styles. Below are some of the potential options for the attack buttons! Although playable on PC, our focus on mobile-gaming is forcing us to build a mobile-friendly interface that isn’t too crowded with confusing content. This is why the UI team has spent many months perfecting it!

Potential “Attack” Button Designs

Solana Breakpoint

The Caveworld team is officially headed to Solana Breakpoint, happening in Lisbon, Portugal from November 4–7. We will soon be announcing where you will be able to find us and how you can compete in your first Caveworld battle, but for now, just know that if you attend, there’s a good chance you’ll be meeting the team and testing out the game! Stay tuned for additional information!

Demo Testing (Internal)

As much as we would like to ship the game out to the entire community, it’s not ready, yet. However, the progress over the past few weeks/months has been astounding. As stated by team member Pit Princess in our Discord, “Game Development progress is exponential. Most stuff only really comes together closer towards the end.” We are at the point that our 12+ months of development is finally coming together, as many of you can tell by all of these exciting visuals!

Finally, we’d like to apologize for many of the recent delays in production and releases. On top of the traditional challenges with running a 25+ person international team, we’ve been dealing with many internal issues pertaining to the Russia/Ukraine War that forced many team members to relocate and find alternative accommodations. Although we are mostly back at full force now, we continue to feel the effects of global economic and political changes and are constantly supporting team members around the world.

Join the Caveworld Community

If you are not a part of our Discord community, we highly recommend it, as we are constantly dropping great alpha to our community. Simply visit discord.gg/caveworld to join, it’s free!

To find links to purchase Crypto Cavemen NFTs (our in-game characters) or $CAVE coin (our in-game token) visit our Linktree: http://linktr.ee/Caveworld!

OOGA BOOGA to all!

--

--

Caveworld

A Play-to-Earn project built for true gamers. Built by the Crypto Cavemen Club on Solana.