Build Release and Sprint summaries

Hey all!

There is a new build available for download and though not wildly different from the last one in terms of content it should be much more solid and stable. This last week marked the end of the game’s first real sprint and I have to say I’m quite happy with way it turned out. The sprints highlights were:

• Complete greyblock meshes made for both Base and Wilderness maps. (A rough estimate of about 60-80 meshes)
• Shoreline map proxied in for multidestination travel and future gameplay testing.
• Complete refactoring of character resources and other attributes to make the data more accessible and less prone to loss.
• Loose optimization pass to maintain reasonable playability
• UI and other player experience work.

So moving forward I will try to maintain this kind of month long sprint schedule to keep pushing development forward as aggressively as possible and keep myself accountable for the work I have allotted. For this upcoming sprint I will be focusing almost entirely on gameplay and other design systems, either planning them on paper or implementing prototype versions to test directly in game. The main thrust of the work will be focused on improving implementation of the game’s “hacking” as it is a central pillar, and fleshing out the design of the base management.

I’ve already blocked out all the work so we will see how I do against my timing estimates. I’m also hoping to squeeze some less glamorous but still desired work like implementing game options and video settings to continue to make the game more and more accessible by all.

So as always, please play the build and leave me feedback, and have a fantastic weekend! - CJ

Friday Wrapup! Sweet Cactus Edition

Happy Friday!

I uploaded a new build to IndieDB earlier today and just finished uploading one to Mega (links in "The Game" tab). I'm thinking that I may simply switch over to posting one just on IndieDB as uploading two sets each release is pretty cumbersome. Alternatively I may switch from Mega to another platform that IndieDB supports transfers from, alleviating the uploading that way.

Dev Diary #2 is online and linked below, take a look and leave comments. I'm always open to suggestions and would love to hear about if there is anything particular you all would like to see in these moving forward.

This week was a little on the slow side due to moving but I'm still pretty happy with the progress I've made. Doing well working towards the monthly goals I've set so I'm feeling good about the sprint tasks I've set.

What I did manage to get done this week was some player feedback loop improvements and quick optimizations. For the player feedback I implemented some more UI checks so whether you are interacting with consoles in the base or heading out on missions, you know what is going to happen when you press the button instead of blind triggers.

Optimization is never a glorious thing to talk about but is definitely necessary and can be quite satisfying. I learned a bit about some of the lighting and post process systems, pulling both back pretty significantly which helped performance quite a bit. I probably won't focus on this for a while, just picking where I can but have a few ideas I haven't tried yet that should speed things up significantly. As a related question, do you prefer 32-bit or 64-bit builds? I've been distributing 32-bit as not to alienate anyone but 64-bit would definitely be better for performance. Let me know what you think about that in the comments.

I'll leave you to your weekends with this small model addition, inspired by very cool cactus trees. Thanks! - CJ

Build Release!

Hey All!

I finally worked through my internet issues and have a new build ready!
The previous builds were kind of testing grounds to figure out the process, but I am looking at this build as a starting point, a version one if you will.
A few of you were running into issues with Mega, so I decided to also upload the build to IndieDB, hopefully that will make access easier.
As always I am very welcoming of any feedback you might have, don't hesitate to pass it along.

Moving forward I am outlining sprints to keep myself on track and making good forward progress. The current sprint is a rough proxy complete version of both the Base and Wilderness maps. In addition I am trying to refine some of the action portions of the game and implementing more of the "speed hacking" done in the character's phantom form. The deadline for this sprint is the end of the month and will probably keep on a roughly monthly deadline for future sprints.

In addition to the biweekly builds I will start posting short developer diary type videos to hopefully keep the game's progress nice and accessible to all.

Thanks! - CJ

Mega
IndieDB

Friday Wrapup! Spooky edition

Happy Halloween everybody!

This week didn't quite go as planned but still managed to make some progress here and there. The barrier of course was my storage hard drive dying on me, but fortunately I already have a replacement installed and a couple week old backup of the data restored. I did end up sending out the dead drive for data recover, we will see how that goes. So in the meantime I am switching over to parallel tasks that won't require ugly reintegration should I get the data back in a usable form.

So this week was mainly:

• Fighting with my hard drive
• New text game build - More in depth design work, specifically on the text game test and its role in character abilities and upgrades.
• Writing some basic lore and game premise info (will be shared soon, needs editing)
• Made a material orb to be used as an standard primitive when authoring smart materials. More info below.

Please take a look at the text game and leave feedback and thoughts. The game is a lot cleaner now, and though it still doesn't have much in the way of player choice, it is getting closer to a rough "alpha" state.

The one art task that I focused on this week was to make a material orb for use when authoring textures. I've wanted to make one for a while so I could standardize and make it easier to craft "smart" materials more readily.

 If you aren't familiar with the concept of smart materials, they are a relatively new way of texturing models. By supplying the material with a small set of support textures that are baked for each asset, the material is able to adapt the visual detail to the contours and shapes of that specific asset. This means that if you make a "smart" metal material and then apply it to two different models, it will generate textures for each with the rust accumulating in all the right cracks and oil residue dripping down the surface in the right direction, etc. This coupled with physically based rendering makes it much easier to achieve good looking art that doesn't need adjusting in different lighting scenarios.

 A material orb simply makes this process a bit simpler and more streamlined as you can test the materials against the same model, and because it is built with this in mind, will look good on a variety of surfaces. By decoupling the material authoring from the unique model you can make a handful of materials that can texture an entire environment, and using newer previs techniques, use the materials to inform both the concept art and final models without any extra work.

Happy Halloween all!

- CJ

Rough textures testing out new material orb. 3 different lighting environments.

Backdated Build Notes

Hey all!

Below is a backdated log of some of the initial development prior to releasing online. Mainly for those that are curious and to scratch that completionist itch should I decide to look back someday. Hence why it is before the "first" post.

- CJ

Release - Just havin’ a chat.

• General 
• Restructured some fundamental game state architecture. Now uses persistent custom game instance so is much cleaner in UI implementation and will make carrying information between maps much easier. 
• Initial loading screen added to cover up transition between maps. 
• Some basic setup for game progress, though it isn’t utilized yet. 
• Getting closer to desired fix and result with Phantom, bug is fixed but reset of view isn’t desired. 
• Base 
• Multiple conversations available using new dialogue system. Placeholder portraits for now. Aster is most complete, Doctor after that, Tinkerer and his son are still pretty broken. 
• IES Profiles added for a more nuanced lighting in the base. 
• Wilderness 
• Can now rescue villagers found out in the wilderness. They will give a small gift of a random supply for now. 
• Updated laser gun sounds to give better player feedback. Now has a charge sound to go along with the charge shot. Also better visual effects to support it too (not socketed properly yet though) 
• Added rumble to charging and releasing gunshot. 
• Search command now works to highlight gatherables. 
• Gatherables now picked up with the Use command instead of automatically.

Release - Humans and "Laz0rs"

• Known bug: Creating the “phantom” with Dpad up can cause a mismatch between the control scheme and the camera angle, making it very difficult to move. This is reset when you load between maps.
• Changed weapon to be more of a megaman/metroid style laser gun with charge shot. Hopefully will give combat a touch more variety as it develops. 
• Initial “phase” hacking as phantom. Can hack energy pylons to cause them to become regenerative energy wells. 
• Initial procedural decor, greyblocked most human models, finished some. Scale still a bit wonky and no collision. 
• Initial pass of sound fx; including some loose environment sounds and combat fx. 
• Map work on Wild01 including terrain texture polish and rework of Fir tree. 
• Level ups now driven by data table making them much easier to balance. Consolidated level up system to reduce chance of data loss. 
• Initial “Dwellers”, villagers that will eventually be rescued and possibly recruited. Currently have randomly generated gender, and name based off the gender. 
• UI Controller Layout available in pause screen. No customization but allows for that in the future and will make maintenance easier. 
• Player now dies correctly, playing an animation and loading the base map, instead of simply destroying the actor. 

Release - Workbench

• Initial time of day setup - Randomizes lighting using three set times of day. Currently uses; Day, Evening, and Night. 
• Test of bioluminescent foliage that is only active at night. (Very ugly right now) 
• Resource pickups are now saved as part of the player so they will be able to eventually use them for base and equipment upgrades. 
• Base now has initial UI for map screen and equipment upgrades. 
• Equipment screen has subscreen for upgrading weapons (non-functional) 
• Both equipment and upgrade screens show correct resource amounts 
• Map screen allows for choice of destination (Currently only Wilds and Testing area) 
• Fun little typewriter flourish when mousing over options in equipment screen. First exploration into shared macros. 
• Main menu up and running, links to proper maps, and wipes player save data on “New game”. 
• Tutorial now at least has warp out to actual game, contains notes for planned tutorial and how to play the game. 

Release - Initial

• Relatively fleshed out “Wilderness 1” Map to explore 
• Basic enemies spawn from destructible pylons 
• Very bare-bones base 
• Bare-bones core loop (base to gathering encounter, back to base) 
• Initial experience gain and leveling up 
• Experience and level are saved in file 
• Bare-bones material gathering (colored orbs out in field)