Update #4: UI improvements and shadow integration

Hey folks, long time I have not been posting any updates, mostly because I was focused on development and in general was quite busy.  Nevertheless, the project was not standing still and I believe the demo version of the game is around the corner. Something which I am really happy to share with you is finally completed UI rework (the 7th version). I actually like it. Since I am not UI/UX expert, something I had to learn by hard and I believe I finally got the lesson, is stop thinking too much about future expansions and features of UI. One should always focus on what is required at this exact state of the game! I had to switch my mindset, fight this guy who tries to plan everything ahead inside of me, and finally with my mind free, I could focus on what was required essential for the current release, making user interface as simple and as functional as possible for those features which are implemented at the moment. Voila, finally I managed produce something I am actually quite happy about (feel free to judge :D)! Additionally,  as I mentioned in my previous post, I purchased some assets, which made it look even nicer. There were also some important changes on the game sources side, mainly the integration of the game objects shadows and introduction of the traps, which can be used either for hunting (again I am dreaming about future functionalities :D) or against the enemies. More detailed updates list follows below.

UI+GFX
- Created 'Bear Trap' (or leg trap) with all respective life cycle assets
- Created preview assets for buildings which can be constructed and units which can be recruited
- Reworked the basic wooden tower assets to be consistent with the rest of the models
- Added details to most of the final assets for the first level

Game Core
- Added support for traps (which can be placed in the forest), however some logic is still missing, as well as integration with menu
- Added configurable hotkey support (configuration menu is missing yet though)
- Added support for building shadows
- Completed rework of the game screen UI and respective user interaction
- Added building and recruitment dialogs
- Added building placeholder, so the player can see where the building will be placed and whether the construction is allowed
- Integrated run animation (the assets were there, the animation was not integrated)
- Added tutorial logic with respective objectives/tasks configuration
- Improved campaign details window (now objectives and level description can be seen before starting playing the level)

Game Tools
- Updated the tools to allow outlining of the objects as Blender in some cases is unable to do that automatically (for example Blender cannot create outlines for 'Hair' particles)
- Updated rendering and cropping tools to support shadows 
- Updated rendering pipeline to allow creating previews

In order to prepare the upcoming demo release, there are still a couple of tasks to be undertaken, mostly related with graphical component, story line implementation and game balancing. The plan is to stop adding new features and focus on those tasks in order to finally release playable version which you guys can try out. Meanwhile, enjoy some screenshots and do not hesitate to leave a comment or follow (if you are so kind :D)!

The main menu

The campaign screen

The campaign details

The game screen

The dialogue screen