ABSENT LOG Dev Update 6/15/2024

This month we finally get back into our regular flow of updates and progress. Recovery has been completed and we have been able to grab everything which could be salvaged from our old build, which was nearly all of our art assets, bar a few textures and the crewman officer model. Since our last update, we have been hyper focusing on rebuilding all of our base mechanics and systems, and establishing a lightweight, modular, and easy to understand framework for the rest of our game content. With a renewed focus, and cleaner code. Making changes or refinements to systems will be more efficient and straightforward, as we have the benefit of not being bogged down by hundreds of lines of test code and WIP systems.

As we started laying the groundwork for the project reboot, we identified key areas that we needed to improve from our previous attempt. Optimizations, technical debt, scope creep, and code organization. One thing that is clear is that, going forward, we are in the production phase of the project. What this means is that we are no longer experimenting with big systems, overhauls and mechanics, but rather anything being developed will be most likely implemented into the game as is. Dev time will be spent on actual game assets and mechanics that will be in the players hands and the primary goal of our end of the year vertical slice demo will be the top priority for us going forward.

Due to the heavy need for development work on this, new art assets outside of concept art, exploration sketches and ideas will continue to be light for a bit longer. Heavier focus was placed on getting our mechanics established for this update as opposed to a lot of new and fresh content. This has also proved necessary as we already have a wealth of currently made and ready assets that need to be refined and implemented anyway, and we need to ensure that implementation of these assets follow our newly established guidelines for our game systems. 

WHAT'S THE STATUS OF THE ENGINE SIDE OF THE PROJECT?

Right now, we have our base mechanics for TW up and running, including animations, locomotion, controls, and interaction systems. Our weapon and gunplay systems are working and we have the standard Messer implemented, with the rest of the weapon roster to follow suit soon. Damage and health systems are working, both the player and AI can take and give damage to each other, and we can call events based on percentages of health available. Basic UI systems are working, including items such as Inventory, Journal, Pause menu, and Main menu. We have a save game function working but still needs some more work to be fully functional, (currently it is not saving weapons equipped or ammo stored). We have environmental context items and interactable items for story telling and world building, specific items that contain important information will auto populate the player’s Journal. AI for the standard Mandrone is working on a baseline level, and can patrol, attack, pursue, and receive damage events from the player, but requires more work to interact with the world in a more meaningful way, such as cover systems, and an EQS system to tactically maneuver around and towards the player.

The next phase of establishing base systems is to continue work on AI and get a proper behavior tree set up so that we can stress test current systems for weapons and damage, and make sure these systems are communicating with each other properly. Following this, will be completing our save game system, and rebuilding our first level assets, such as the starting area (TW & Huey’s ship) and the first deck of the world ship you will begin the campaign proper in (flight deck/ Hangar bay). Though we have other Enemy units, we will wait on implementing those as those enemies will not show up until later in the game, and we feel more time spent on refining the base AI system will give us a much more deeper and robust AI for the player to fight against.

We still aren’t ready to publish a playable test build yet as these systems are still in need of work, but we have made tremendous headway in a short amount of time and with our renewed focus. We have started to get a gameplay feel that is a lot closer to our original vision for the game, being a more tactical, slower paced story driven experience. 

We thank you all again for sticking by us during this reboot, and all the kind words and encouragement. We are feeling super positive about the project and are working hard to deliver a unique visual and story experience that is more focused and refined than before!

ART ASSETS:

Imperial Yhanates Script.

“From the start we knew we wanted some kind of fictional language as it's absolutely fascinating to us, but we wanted to be very selective about how it's used and presented. A good amount of research was done to ensure that the script followed basic rules of written languages, and was applicable not only to general letters, but accents and speech modifiers. Obviously languages are fairly complex constructs and take generations to develop. But despite this, we wanted to make sure that it wasn't something that was just scratches or obscure symbols, but something that reflected real speech, that could be understood by people in this world. The basis for the language was inspired heavily by ancient Orkhon and Yenisei script mixed heavily with old Transylvanian styling, serifs, and motifs. The Imperial Sahmar encompasses politics, economics, culture and philosophy, and we wanted to design a written speech to be used in game that would engross the player into the greater mysterious nature of the ruling bodies. Much how the Ah-Sahmar injects aspects of itself onto humanity in this setting, the formal, regalia and serif styling modifies ancient human runes, morphing it into something alien.”

PDA Gadget

"Smaller update from me this month- I want to showcase a nifty little gadget that kind of highlights the interplay between mechanics, UI, and art during development.

As we've been getting the game's systems rebuilt, we've had opportunities to evaluate some of our prior decisions and look at possible alternatives.  One of the challenges we've consistently dealt with is trying to keep as much of the UI diegetic- actually present within the game world- as possible.

We've gone back and forth on whether or not to have ammo counters projected from weapons.  While it may be good for immersion, it can get awkward depending on the shape of the weapon.

While we were looking at some alternative approaches- such as having the weapon ammo/status attached to the crosshair rather than the weapon- I floated the idea that maybe we could have a device on TW's suit that would handle the weapon UI.  This would let us keep the diegetic HUD, but would also allow us to make it more uniform in presentation instead of needing to custom tailor it per-weapon.

I worked up a couple ideas for what this device might look like, expecting that it would simply clip onto the wrist or hand so as not to interfere with TW's varied armors/skins.  Loom immediately gravitated toward the "bracket" design so that's what I went forward with.  I think it was a good call, as the somewhat bulkier shape will help it stand out as a functional element on TW's gear.

I translated the overall shape almost 1:1 into 3d.  Once I started texturing though, I wasn't happy with how the original sketch's details were looking in 3d.  I tried to refine the details and styling on the fly, and I'm pretty happy with that decision.

As Loom and I were discussing this gadget's role, we realized that it could also be used to display the PDA menu, and maybe even other context-sensitive UI.  So we started with a UI question, answered it with visual art, and in doing so we've actually given ourselves a framework for solving more UI- and possibly even mechanical- questions in the future."

-Tekka

AUDIO ASSETS:

ALOG Intro wip. 

https://on.soundcloud.com/bZsnnuYNjg5sCkSq7

“This track is for an opening cutscene to introduce the setting of the game, tons of organic pulsing and low sounds. The effect is to make the low sub feel like it’s breathing as the intensity rises”

-Machine Ghost