AbsentLog

ABSENT LOG Dev Update 3/15/2024

Added 2024-03-16 03:04:12 +0000 UTC

For this month's update, we decided to pivot from bug fixing and mechanics implementation to get a few steps ahead in our level design and asset endeavors. The main focus for this cycle was to nail down a finalized plan for TW and Huey’s ship, and immediately jump in to getting the block outs and level assets built. We carefully thought about placing each room, deck and hallway in a manner that would be sensible, rather than just, scaling each to fit wherever there was space. An observation deck would obviously need to be at a location that was fairly close to the hull, the engineering bay would need to be at a section that would allow it to interface with the ships external engines, etc…

Taking this approach has allowed us to hopefully, better sell the scale and function of the ship as a lived-in and occupied space, opposed to general rooms that are connected via doors and hallways. This is important to the purpose of this level, as this ship serves as the main introductory level, the player's home, and should include flavor and set dressing to explore TW and Huey’s lives, backstories, ambitions, and many other aspects of these characters. The in-game-world purpose of the craft also influenced a lot of the interior detailing, being a smaller craft, details and panels are smaller, tighter, more dense and visually busy than the larger prefabricated hallways and rooms of the world-ship. Asymmetrical elements like loose cables snaking through rooms and various floors, open panel hatches, large tubes and support trusses, help to give a visual distinctiveness and a somewhat scrappy feel, reflecting the thrifty, scrappy nature of its owners.

The main modules for the cabins, side hallways, and central hallways were already blocked and near completion, so naturally, after developing our plan, we decided to start the rest of the ship by focusing on the central elements, most notably the central elevator.

The next area of importance is the Engineering Bay, which houses the maintenance utilities and core reactor for the ship. The basic idea for how the core reactor would work is that it's an organic fuel source housed in multiple modules, encased in a thermal plastic protective sleeve. Scattered across the reactor are aorta-like plugs, with 2 large cables moving power on the left and right directly into the engines, and various smaller cables that will snake through different points of the room, running power to the rest of the ship. The room will be 2 floors, with catwalks lining the sides of the core reactor. Just in front of the engineering bay there will be a large bulkhead door leading directly into Hangar/Storage. That way, there is a natural progression when any heavy duty equipment or items are being moved into the ship, like the core reactor itself, it goes though the hangar hatch, through the bulkhead, and installed directly into engineering.

Included change list for 3/15/2024:

- Adjusted Target Camera offset, FOV baseline, and collision radius for player camera, to help alleviate the camera bumping into constant nearby objects.

- Adjusted collision channels for certain level assets that are small enough to be ignored by the camera, to avoid having the camera jump around and smash into every little object.

- Implemented first base mesh of the Male Crewman mesh template

- Implemented the security outfit for the Male Crewman template.

- Expanded the testing map a bit to include some of the new implemented character assets

- Adjusted placement of platforms and obstacles to fix clipping issues.

- Added a mechanical door sound to doors when opening and closing.

- Added a “chime” sound for when a door is unlocked.

- Implemented updated mesh and textures for the Morning Star revolver

- Added blockouts for TW/Huey’s ship central elevator, engineering bay, and core engine block.

ART ASSETS:

TW & Huey’s ship: Exterior progress and interior planning.

“I've still been chipping away at the exterior model for Huey and TW's ship. As I'm still learning about building assets to be usable in games (unlike the art reference models I've typically built in the past), I keep stumbling over new challenges and considerations that I need to account for.

One of the big challenges is finding the right balance of geometry-defined detail to be cut into the model's surface. I have to be very careful about the position and complexity of geometric detail, lest I make the UV unwrapping and texturing process too complex to handle with my own limited experience.

I also thought it might be interesting to show a little bit of the back-and-forth between 2D and 3D that happens when I'm working on this stuff. I'll periodically sketch over the in-progress model to get an idea of what sort of details will flow with the broad shapes. I try to use important modeled details as anchor points for finer details that will be defined in texturing.

Lastly, something important that happened with this ship is that Loom and I recently spent a few hours hashing out a firm interior layout. A couple parts of it haven't been finalized yet, but it's allowed Loom to start confidently blocking in playable map spaces for this homey little skiff.”

-Tekka

Imperial Confessor:

“Most of the art work I’ve done for the project is more or less related to assets to be created in game. So naturally, when I'm not working on the back end, I tend to switch to this. However, occasionally I find time where we have a backlog of designs that need to be worked on that's built up, that it's not prudent to start on a new project. During these low times, I try to find ways to quickly think about the set dressing of ALOG, exploring world building and story elements that may not be strictly related to gameplay.

One thing I’ve been itching to start exploring, even if just a few rough sketches, is the role of the Ah-Sahmar, a deific cosmic figure that is a key component to the lives, philosophies, politics, and culture of the humans in this setting. Generally, This world building element is not something that is ever explored to a significant degree, or ever encountered directly in gameplay, but rather a background element to help contextualize the actions or beliefs of certain characters.

A theme I’ve always enjoyed in stories, is the idea of being “forever at risk of the influence of old things.”, and I don't believe that this is something that is exclusive to the pure “horror” aesthetic. The themes and ideas of Lovecraft extend beyond horror, and taps into a primal concept that can be utilized in various different manners. In ALOG, that manifests itself by presenting the idea that the human beings of this setting, may have not just occurred naturally in the world, and that upon our discovery by something, it has attempted to influence much of our development and culture, to propagate aspects of itself.

This influence has led itself into the formation of a spanning ruling body wearing the motifs and visages of said entity. Religious and ritual garbs adorned with Baroque images of scales, slithering coils, weaved cords, meant to reflect the snake-like nature of the Ah-Sahmar, invoking a hidden knowledge, a new light of deep understanding.

I wanted to explore a bit what that might look like, what a ritual garb of someone who is an adherent, or some priest to the Ah-Sahmar and the Imperial ruling body would look like, would feel like. I had this idea that a common hand gesture for members on the ship, and just the imperial ruling forces as a whole, would be to form their arms across from each other on their abdomen, and moving their hands perpendicular from each other to form a “diamond” like shape, a recurring visual motif of the Imperial Sahmar."