Project Vault Game Dev Log 014

Hit some major things that the game has been really needing this month! An important part of the game I really want to have is Bod's ability to design and use various tools and gadgets to help with exploring the ruins of his world. There is a whole slew of different gadgets I've planned out for the game, but each of them has their own interesting hurdles in terms of game development. So I figured I'd get the first 2 starting ones knocked out for me to start testing in game! Those would be the scrap chunk and Chaff Sower :3!!

Scrap Chunk Throwing: Ho boi this one had a lot of learning involved! One of the first tools Bod is able to use in the game is chunks of scrap material that he will typically carry around amongst his loot. These can be used to distract enemies, hit switches, and overall help with various puzzles in and around the ruins. To get this working I needed to finally figure out how animation blending working in Unreal XD. A lot of this involves getting Bod's upper half to behave in a different way when aiming or using a gadget compared to the lower body. With a bit of trial and error I have gotten some decent placeholder animations in for testing so that I can hone in on a method that works best for future animations! In addition to this I needed to figure out how to get Bod to aim for the right area. Worked through a bunch of code that can use the mouse position in game to create a target point that Bod can throw at. For the most part this is working pretty well, although I already have a handful of quality of life fixes I'd like to implement down the road :3!

Scrap Chunk Models: To give Bod some toys to play with, I spent a bit of time working on a few of my scrap chunk models. I'd sketched up a whole slew of them a few months back and had a good bit of time working on modeling them finally! These are now setup to fit in Bod's hand as he equips and throws them. Likewise they have some in game pickups that Bod can grab while sneaking around :3!

Chaff Sower Gadget: The 1st Major gadget that Bod builds in the game is known as the Chaff Sower! It's pretty much a scratch built chaff grenade that Bod can use to help get past some of the magnetic sensing enemies and traps found within the game. For this I needed to get some additional design portions worked up to represent how they work in the game. One key aspect was the fact that the Sower would release a bunch of small darts upon detonation that slow enemies and puzzles if they hit them. Adding in a few effects such as floating chaff, puffs of chaff on detonation, and projectile tracers has helped create a decent look for the gadget right now! Got some stuff implemented for it to now connect in with the other enemy systems that I'll be working on next month :3!!

Workbench and Parts: Since Bod is going to need to design a lot of his tools, one of the things I really needed to test and build was a "workbench" sort of system that Bod could use. Worked through some placeholder UI work and got it all working so that Bod can pickup various parts that he finds and see if anything useful can be made from them at the workbench. So far everything looks to be working fine and seems to be easily scalable for the other parts as more gadgets are added down the road!

Now onto July! With these gadgets now working I'll need to start implementing them with the AI. Planning on doing another pass on the current AI guard next month to add some depth to their AI work. Spending a bit of time to cleanup the model and give them a first pass on the textures will also be a much needed thing so that they look a bit more distinctive in game! In addition I'm hoping to finally put some time in on the second enemy type, the Living Mine >:3!!