Den Ocras Official

Updates, content, development

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Den Ocras by Howl Studios

Indie Horror

DEN OCRAS IS NOW ON ITCH!

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Development update #14 - Post Mortem

The last time we spoke to you all was to announce the game release after a final stretch post LBG. Two weeks of fixes, changes and last minute prep and we want to start by thanking all of you!

The support, the players, the feedback.

The launch of the Den Ocras demo was a success from our perspective, the main demand coming back to us loud and clear: we want more

This project began as a means of meeting a set criteria. To showcase our abilities as individual game designers, but with a reinvigorated appreciation for the project, were happy to announce:

Den Ocras will continue development!

We've decided to continue developing the game to expand the scope beyond this contained narrative. More endings, more map, more features and more story.

We're still an indie team comprised of five people (mostly students) so we ask for your patience as we figure this out. For most of us this is our first game and were still learning, but we aim to develop this into a truly engaging and hopefully successful indie title.

To end this off(for now) with a bang, lets discuss what was achieved in that final stretch!

In prep for release our lead animator Reece developed a teaser trailer, take a look!

On the tech end Declan aimed to take on the feedback from players and make the game a smoother experience overall, with:

Sound affects when enemies are hit

Adjusting map for player exploration

New fonts

Implementing new ui (Thank you Cass)

Implementing new player animations (Thank you Reece)

Fixing ragdoll jank

Adding game icon (Thank you Lonnie)

One issue we had arise was collider issues on the main cottage, which was originally just extra décor to the scene. However, instead off simply adding a collider, we decided to create a new interior from the game. With a baseline of Lonnie's mood boards, Cass dove into modelling and texturing. Creating the beautiful cottage you see in scene;

From Cass, "After numerous players instinctively walked straight into the house during our **Let's Break Games** convention playtesting, only to find out it was completely empty, we realised that we would either have to fix the cottage so players can't walk inside as we originally intended, or let them walk in and make sure there's something fun inside. We ended up going with the second option. I (Cass) started modelling the interiors a little earlier this week, spent 8 years unwrapping them, and then finished with the texturing last night. The interiors of the house are mostly based on late 1800s/early 1900s Irish cottages, with some liberties taken on accuracy (Aside from one photo I saw, lofts didn't seem to be all too popular an addition to cottages in 1800s Ireland lol). Also say "Hi!" (or "cluck!") to the newest member of the farm, Bobette"

This wonderful addition elevated the environment a lot and allowed for a more immersive experience!

So what now?

As our semester has drawn to a close the Den Ocras team will be taking a short break as we prepare for the new year. Lonnie and Declan have began brainstorming and prep for the next stage in development and all of us will come back together in the new year to further this project.

Happy holidays everyone from Declan, Lonnie, Cass, Reece and Blake and see you in 2026!

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Lets Break Games; Post Mortem

As some of you may know, we presented Den Ocras at Lets Break Games last week!

We, among a sea of other developers, set up and allowed the public complete access to our project. This was an invaluable opportunity and learning experience for all of us, so lets get into the nitty gritty.

The Good

Lets Break Games was a bigger success than predicted. Overall we had no major errors in set up or playthrough.

First things first on our end:

Our booth merch displayed perfectly, with an extra outlet for our light up features

Our intended audience of both seasoned horror fans and novices played the game to similar effect, with quick comprehensive of controls

Game functioned smoothly, no crashing

Players expressed interest in business cards and stickers, taking interest in full release

A large amount of attendees took interest in the game

Many players came back to try again to beat the game

Game difficulty was at desired level

From players:

Music, atmosphere and genre all worked together, creating a clear and creepy gameplay experience

Overall visual aesthetics were well received

Gameplay loop was enjoyable

The Bad

Although majority of players had a good experience there were some inevitable issues with gameplay.

Our end:

We felt march wise underprepared, we could've done up a bigger print. Luckily Cass provided the bulletins with concept work and marketing which displayed a lot.

Winner rewards, we could've had a physical incentive for players to win the game

Some areas of the map were laid out incorrectly

Some obsolete features hadn't been removed

Ragdoll glitches

End sequence animations had misplaced text, a missing frame and some timing issues

Old fonts and unfinished Ui

From players:

Collider issues, players could enter a building they shouldn't have been able too, and would run over the fire

Some animations were choppy

Players didn't discover the uncles shack at any point or the lore notes

Players struggled to initially figure out goal

Swing animation wasn't clear

Enemy hit box wasn't clear, players couldn't tell when their hits landed

Overall, the issues didn't halt player progression, just slowed it. We have minor set backs that can be easily rectified and ensure the version we release to all of you is of utmost quality.

For the next week and a half these are our main goals:

Adjust map to lead players to the shack

Fix enemy hit box

Fix collider issues

animation adjustments for clarity

Adding sounds for attacks/defence

Ragdoll fixes

Remove wolfden feature

Update fonts and finish Ui

New notes and text for player guidance

Stretch goals:

Petting sheep feature

Sheep noises

Cottage interior

Thank you to everyone who played! Get ready for full demo release coming soon.

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Development update #13

This week in development has been a stride in animation and narrative. A major change has been made to the games end state; now with a narrative sequence.

Here's a quick, out of context look at one of the endings;

These illustrations by Lonnie are accompanied by text exposition in game. All endings are designed to tie up the narrative and provide players with a satisfying conclusion to their experience.

On other development ends, more animation has been implemented in game.

The secondary enemy has been animated, finishing off the character animations. Now they are being transferred in game.

Alongside this has been some new combat features, like the wolfs new damage models.

Cass developed these head split models to showcase the protagonists strength and desperation to survive. This gory detail allows the axe swinger to pack a punch in her attacks.

On producers side a new team member has been sourced and is producing an accompanying sound track for the game. A folk horror cacophony of string instruments and droning, foreboding tones. Be prepared for a disturbing soundtrack that captures the unsettling world this protagonist inhabits.

That's all for this week as we put together the press kit and print goodies for players to check out!

Thanks for reading and see you for release.

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Development Update #12

This week in development the team has been dedicated to style matching and tweaking features of the game play. The new blood moon has been implemented, meaning the day/night cycle is accompanied by some strong aesthetics

(Video provided by Declan)

Ignore the jank right now! This is just first implementation of the animation, tech side will continue to play around with the animation set.

We've sourced a creator interested in creating a soundtrack for the game, so stay tuned for news about that! The demon evoke a sense of eerie isolation and horror.

The sheep assets have also gotten an update, as the game development has progressed. Before taking a peak at this, prepare yourself! The relentless hunger of wolves led to the idea of implementing some environmental storytelling to communicate this. Thus, the skinned ram was designed, modelled and textured;

The top texture is the one you'll see in game, modelled by Cass and textured by Lonnie. This model aims to capture the darker visual motifs present throughout the game! A stark contrast to the innocent appearance of the livestock.

Here you can see the muscle, fat and torn flesh of the ram. We gathered references from butchery websites to get clear images for the ram anatomy. This alongside some creative liberties makes it appear like a bulk of flesh and skin was ripped from the rams body. Of course, the missing torso tells players of the rams fate.

Here you can see the severing sight and the hollow of the vertebrae, players can stumble across this model while traversing the farmland.

On the less gory side of design, the buildings have had an update! Previously Reece had applied some basic textures to the models to capture the materials and values of the home and shack. This gave a better understanding of the different materials comprising the buildings.

With Cass' input and art lead insight, he adjusted the textures to both maintain this visual weight while matching the rest of the setting.

This side by side showcases the development of the environmental visual language. The development of the carpet, cellar door and bed present the environment weathering and decrepit living quarters of the shack.

To finish this week of development off enjoy our mc among her sheep!

Thanks for reading and see you next week!

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Development update #11

This week in development the team has progressed significantly with visuals. Alongside the new animations breathing life into the scene, a new addition to the environment has been realised!

The sheep! Constructed by Cass the sheep are an important piece of environmental story telling. Through this addition players are told the setting, the socioeconomic condition of the player character and the stakes of the game. Their cute demeanour will hopefully inspire that intended protectiveness in players. Influencing them to push harder to kill the werewolves and survive the night.

As a team we referenced Suffolk sheep as a specific breed. Their iconic appearance adds a unique visual addition to the scene.

(screenshot provided by Cass)

Here you can see the size comparison with the three sheep models, including a ram. You may discover a hidden feature with these guys when playing! Only one way to find out.

On the marketing side we're happy to announce the official poster has been completed!

Here are the two versions including the game title. This poster will function as a banner for the lets break games showcase! The goal was to present players with the overall tone of the game.

Alongside this a sticker pack is being put together for printing.

Players can grab these at lets break games!

They'll feature some important visual motifs from the game like the blood moon, the wolves ect.

On the tech side the animations are being implemented in game. With a few hiccups...

Despite the interesting anatomy here(which is being rectified currently.) we can see the addition of snow! Which does move in scene, adding an extra level of atmosphere for players. Visibility has also been lowered to encourage players to utilise the lantern more.

That's all for this week!

Thank you all for tuning in,

See you next time.

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Development update #10

A week of set dressing, revamping and nit-picking as we further our visual style in game.

Our art lead Cass, after finishing the rigging, decided the player model still wasn't where we needed it to be. With this he went back to the original turnaround and implemented some old design quirks to the model.

The overall anatomy was adjusted for the player and the old shawl pattern was reintroduced. I (Lonnie), originally didn't think the first shawl pattern would translate well and had designed a new one, however seeing the updated model it's clear the old pattern works better.

With this design Cass then moved into modelling the transformation sequence for the game. As players health degrades, the lycanthropy consumes them and they must seek out wolfsbane to heal, returning to normal model.

(Mid health and Low health)

We see the character really take shape with this addition into the game, and can now implement the transformation sequence. Cass will be moving onto general style matching next!

Reece has been continuing with animation in the meantime.

On the tech side of development there's been an update in set dressing while tweaking some features further. Declan grabbed the new assets from Reece and I (Lonnie) and implemented them into the scene.

(Grass assets by Lonnie) (Stone walls by Reece)

That's all for development currently until next week!

Thank you for joining us again.

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The dev team have also been playing ninah...

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Development Update #9

Animation has made way! This week the rigging has been finalised and animation has began on Reece and Cass' end.

From Reece, "The process I used for the walking and running animations is to block in a starting pose at the first frame (0) and then copy those same keys for the final frame (example, 50). Then directly in the middle of the start and end frames (25), I mirrored the pose so that the body looked like it was moving forwards. With those done, I could start refining the animation so it looked like it was walking or running instead of sliding. I started with the legs first, adding in accurate lifting and landing motions of the foot. I also added some rotation for the waste to coincide with the leg movements. For the upper body, I added some slight physics so it wasn’t so stiff. Then for the arms, I did a similar process of making them swing forwards and I added some weight to the hands after every swing. Lastly was the tail where I had some slight swinging motion for when the waste moved. With the key frames all blocked in, all that was left was to leave out the final frame in the playback range so the walk cycle runs smoother."

Here's an example of what we currently have

A walk cycle for the bipedal werewolf enemy.

Other animation in the works is the run cycle and attack.

Now that rigging is completed adding the animations will be a quick and seamless process. This will significantly improve the overall game vibes and playability for audiences.

On the producers end the official poster is being further developed for the game showcase.

The thumbnail previously shown used black and white to determine the main values and the glazing colouring method created the foundation of the colour story.

Our coder Declan did his first round of testing which has given us some crucial feedback for the next stages in development. A major issue was players struggling to find the notes and refill station for the lantern. The solution for this was implementing new environmental elements to help guide players to their main tasks.

The next stages will be furthering the set dressing and adding the animations.

thank for joining us again on another development update!

Until next week.

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Development Update #8

Apologies for the belated update community! Some technical errors decided to rear their heads while posting.

Regardless, we have plenty of updates for you this week.

On our coder Declan's side, we've had some major adjustments and updates to features and set.

From Declan: This week I had a marvellous time with Unity and its terrain system. As wolves aren't particularly meant to walk through trees, I was trying to get the colliders on the trees to function properly, It seems to be an issue with the terrain system that trees painted into the scene have colliders that don't work properly. This was fixed by adding a separate capsule collider onto them, however they also didn't interact with the naymesh system for the wolves. The colliders don't carve out in the naymesh for painted trees, only direct prefabs so l was stuck either placing them manually or finding a solution. Shoutout to this video and script for helping me go to bed before sunrise: Youtube link

(Screenshots provided by Declan)

As you can see there's also aesthetic updates to scene, with the added blood textures and Wolfbane asset created by Lonnie. The new lighting from the lantern also creates a moody, dark atmosphere perfect for gameplay tension. Through these shots we can garner player visibility in game!

GitHub link

On Cass' end the rigging has been completed, this is a big development point in the game as now we can move onto animation. Our two animators will be Reese and Cass, so this allows them to work on different models as we progress in development.

(Screenshots provided by Cass)

Through these rigged models we'll be able to add a plethora of attack, movement, walking and running animations for players to utilise in game!

Cass will be diving more in depth with rigging later, for now here is a brief explanation of the hand rigg;

"-The hand shaped controllers are finger controls - with Curl control you can move between fully curled inwards fingers -1 , default relaxed finger pose 0, or straightened/extended fingers 1 . Finger spread controller lets you move them side to side, from Left -1 , Default 0 to Right 1 . You can change fingers individually or select a few to control multiple at once."

This set up allows the models to be seamlessly animated to intended affect by any team member.

On the Producers(Hey that's me Lonnie!) side there has been effort put toward marketing and the games showcase for Lets Break Games, Nov 2nd.

These Business cards with our socials will be available for anyone interested in supporting our team - who was otherwise oblivious to our project beforehand.

Alongside this there has been a new asset and an official poster in development!

(Screenshots provided by Lonnie: Official game poster WIP and Blood moon asset)

On Reese's end its been a smooth continuation of asset development and ideation of in game animation. Due to the continuation of previously shown work and the super early stages of animation development we unfortunately don't have additional images(yet ;3).

Thank you for the continuous support and for keeping up with us this week!

From the Den Ocras team, see you next week.

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Development update #7

This week has been focusing on polishing existing assets and gameplay features.

Notes from our coder Declan:

Refill station at the shack is functioning

Notebook is interactable

Map lay out reworked to follow the sketch from Lonnie, I will likely tweak it to make it more dense for most areas.

Wolves currently float due to a navmesh issue but this has been fixed

Declan also provided a series of snapshots displaying the current environment in game.

(New shack model and textures by Reece)

Some textures need adjustments to read consistent and carry the overall mood of the game more efficiently, however our art lead Cass is working hard on the rigging. Our production timeline has plenty of room available for aesthetic adjustments and set dressing yet!

Cass has also been working on some of the other environment assets like the trees, which will soon be implemented to replace the old assets.

Enjoy this walkthrough of the process!

On narrative end there's been an update to nates players can discover and interact with in game. So you don't risk spoilers, here's a little sneak peak at a feature based note!

(illustrated by Lonnie)

This page coincides with the visual update of the wolfsbane, that players can discover around the map!

(New design on left, old design on right)

That's all for development this week! Thank you for reading and see you next week.

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This week in development has been a continuation on developing the lore and the rigging. Putting a focus toward the environmental storytelling as we begin to implement the research journal written by Cathal. Here's some sneak peaks at this lore, be warned for spoilers though!

(photos by Lonnie)

As we finalise the story each page is constructed to to present information to players and allow them to discover things as if they were the protagonist. Alongside towing the line between immersion and information they add more activities for players to do in game, making the environment part of the mystery.

Players can learn about Cathal, the setting of the game, some mechanics like healing and the nature of the enemies.

Another area of development has been tapped into this week; posters! Thumbnails for our games poster have been developed and were in the process of narrowing down the best one for showcase.

That's all for this week! Stay tuned.

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“How far do you go? And when does the distance change you?”

—Concept thumbnails by Lonnie

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“How far do you go? And when does the distance change you?”

—Concept thumbnails by Lonnie

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"I write to you in hopes you understand the severity of the situation. After the layoff, I was moved to a farm far into Ulster. Yet, the land was bare by the time we arrived, I can survive alone on field mice. However, this can’t be asked of the others. I became enraged after a wee girl passed away from the hunger. The cornmeal is not enough, and it makes them sick. There's plenty other plants and fish and meat, but with the allowance we can only afford the ones that cannot grow. Even the good food becomes scarcer. I pleaded they feed her a portion of their own, but the bastards only laughed, and I couldn’t help it. Pray for me more, that I control this anger. I should protect my people, but the hunger consumes me.   How is my niece?  Dia Duit,   Cathal."

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Development Update #5

Hi everyone, Lonnie here to run through the past weeks development progress!

The previous week has been an exploration of set dressing. The team have started implementing the new assets and adjusting the environment. While a new map layout is in the works to accommodate for the expanding environment assets, lets take a look at the current map.

(Screenshot provided by Declan)

This set contains the different tree variants, enemy spawn points and place holder housing, fences ect. Some immediate adjustments we'll be making is changes with the tree ratios(having more snowy trees than lush ones), mapping out the other structures placements and expanding the overall map.

Lore related assets have also been implemented for player interaction. These are currently found scattered throughout the map, this will be changed for release. Be warned for spoilers if reading the note!

Alongside this we have the new player lantern and updates on the rigging process.

(Screenshot provided by Declan)

The old model is being used while the new player model is being rigged up. The lantern is to be textured, and players will be able to "charge" the light by refilling at an oil cannister.

Rigging has now taken priority for art lead to begin animation in the coming weeks.

The process has been very successful so far(lol). The player model is the next to be rigged and afterwards will be implemented into the scene.

Thank you for reading!

See you next week.

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