ABSENT LOG Dev Update 3/15/2025

This month We want to share with you all some progress on world planning, and give a deeper look into our thought process and goals for how we want to present the world, specifically, the playable spaces of Absent Log!

As we started getting close to finalizing our prologue level, we began frequently bumping into each other's work, passing one needed piece of content to the other, then waiting for that to be completed and passed back.  After some discussion we came to the conclusion that now that a lot of our base mechanics are functional and in the polish stage, we can shift our development style into a more non-linear approach. To that end, a big part of our work in the last couple weeks has been to create a firm plan of action for getting assets made that will let us jump into work on any part of the game world going forward.

My (Looming) biggest mistake in directing development was approaching this as piecemealing from the start of the game to the end. As in, we work on the FIRST level FIRST, then the second. So all attention and energy from everyone is put toward getting that first level as complete and polished as possible. This works for very very small scale games, and when being made by a single person. But when scaling up to just two or more people this leaves a massive backlog of later content that needs to be developed in order for certain components that are needed now to even be functional. The most noticeable strain in this regard came specifically from levels and level assets, which almost always ends up being the majority of dev time spent in a game. 

So moving forward, dev updates will be more focused on what is CURRENTLY being worked on, and what HAS been completed, as opposed to making anticipations and plans for what's coming next. It's important for us to keep development as organic as possible, and tackle things based on what is ready to be worked on as opposed to the first to last thing from a content standpoint. We still plan to have our playable steam demo by the end of the year, and we will still be showcasing any content being worked on even if it’s not related to the demo throughout the year, but we may be selective about what specifically we share about narratively sensitive content (as to not spoil anything).

PLANNING THE PLAYABLE WORLD SPACE

If there is one part of the development we seem to talk about on a near weekly basis, it’s how the game world is laid out and how the player progresses through it. It is arguably the most important aspect from both a gameplay and narrative standpoint of Absent Log.

The world ship (proper name TBA) is a massive research and development vessel housing thousands of crew members on board. Its scale is practically that of a small city, with decks spanning entire blocks. Scale is a highly important aspect of how the world should be designed, be it in level, visual or narrative design. Obviously with a ship this huge, we cannot make every single deck and compartment explorable, but we plan to have sections where distance and scope can be grasped through distant views.

An important note Tekka had made when we were discussing the layout was that “being able to see where you’re going and where you’ve come from is hugely impactful for creating a mental map of the world around you.”

In the context of a game that takes place primarily in enclosed interior spaces, this can be a bit of a challenge.  I (Tekka) have been in charge of the world ship’s overall shape since early pre-production, and going all the way back to the initial sketches I’ve tried to ensure that the ship’s shape has a lot of look-forward and look-back opportunities.  This is why it has a twin-hull design with large open “valley” areas along each side, and is why it has a variety of cut-ins and pass-throughs (notably the large dock complex) in the ship’s forward sections.

Our own internal grasp of the game world has solidified enough that we’re comfortable sharing our current planning model for overall world layout and progression.  It might look a bit rudimentary, but what this funny little stack of blocks represents is a firm plan for how the game world fits together and how its sections interconnect.

One of the biggest challenges in laying out the worldship is, as mentioned, communicating its immense size while keeping the scope of the game compact and manageable.  How we’ve solved this is by designing a very thick ship, and restricting the playable spaces to its front-right quarter.

To point out a couple examples of “distant views” planned for the early game, from the dock concourse (marked in bright sky blue) you can see not only the other side of the docking complex, but also the ship’s upper hull looming above.  Thematically that’s the mountain you’ll be climbing, and its early-game presentation reflects this.  A bit later, while ascending the Logistic Column (the compact vertical area marked in red), we plan to have an opportunity to look back down onto the docks and see your own ship, Secret Parade, moored there in the distance.  We feel it’s extremely important to give these opportunities to really see progression.

Creating a mental map shouldn’t only be relegated to the interior areas with carefully designed and placed level assets, but also the exterior assets with recognizable visual sections of the world ship. As you progress, you'll see certain decks and sections change visually to reflect their purposes on the ship. The crew likely would spend years of their lives on a single voyage, so beyond workspaces and industrial zones, it also contains realized livable spaces that are comfortable enough for someone to feasibly call “home.”

MAIN PROJECT UPDATES:

• Implementation of consumable food alcohol items

• Implementation of basic status effect events (Drunk)

• Addition of bridge compartment to Secret Parade level

• Further detailing in Secret Parade sensor module room

• Added new player bounds boxes to prevent clipping out of levels

• Minor optimization pass on secret parade level

• Texture touch ups for TW

• Texture touch ups for Huey + face resculpt

• Post Processing changes and optimizations

• Added further functionality for inventory system

• Texture touch ups for MD Kill Team Units

• Implemented MD Kill Team enemy assets

• Complete rework of ladder climbing system (was causing major bugs, currently fixed)

ART ASSETS:

Decal Sheet

“Tekka and are are kids from the early to mid 2000s, a lot of media, music and content from this era has really left an impression on us, and defined how we approach design and visuals. One particular game from this era we both share a fondness for was a little known futuristic racing series on the playstation called WipeOut. It featured action heavy anti-gravity racing drenched in flamboyant, high contrast colors and euro house beats. But one aspect of the game that really stuck with us in particular was its sense of graphical presentation and design philosophy. Primarily led by the Designers Republic, a UK based graphic and media design house, they established such a rich, bold and vibrant look that really captured the optimistic and high tech feel of the era. I knew when creating a decal sheet for ALOG that I wanted to replicate some of that same untapped energy.

A big emphasis was matching some of those bold techy details and crunchy decals, created by using big minimalistic shapes with y2k techno borders and flavoring.

For a lot of the text, We chose “Expansiva” as the main font for a lot of big titled decals and displays. The font is very in line with the y2k look and feel we want and is a proven font design. It also helps that it is totally royalty free to use.

Diagonal striped boxes to indicate hazard zones, delineation lines to section off panel coverings and floorings, Hazard stripes to signify points of cut off, fiduciary marks to indicate use of heavy automated electronic equipment, and of course, no sheet is complete without the excessive use of corporate and manufacture logos so you always know who made what. It’s highly important to us that ALOG reflects many visuals of the early 2000s sci fi media sphere, and decals are some of the most vital parts of this.

These decals aren't just meant to be a small bit of visual flavoring, but also some of them will serve as key important details within levels to help visually guide the player to points of interest. If the crew of this ship relied on these markers to get a grip on where they are within a given area, it stands to reason that the same concept should apply to the player as well. Of course we will have a map at the player's disposal, but we also want it to be just as intuitive as creating a mental map by using these visual cues in tandem with level assets.

It’s almost therapeutic making these, as my personal philosophy is that you can never have enough decals, so I expect this library to grow more and more as development continues.”

- Looming