PURE ONYX September 2023 Progress Update!

Hey again guys!

As usual the next Pure Onyx release will be posted later today!

This one is the same as the Inner Circle test release from the 19th, as we still need some additional time to get the Brute finished.  Some of his behaviors rely on the next iteration of the physics work Mr. Kittyhawk has been doing, and we want to get that polished up before putting it out.  I've included a look at him in-engine below :D.

The big changes this release are that Onyx's gear can now be destroyed via combat, and the parallax backgrounds for Slums Street have been finished!  We've also added missing animation from the Thug + Runt scene, as well as made a lot of improvements to the recent H scenes.

We have a lot of art progress to show off as well though!

Check out the topics for this update below :D

Topics for this Update

• September Release Details
• Onyx Tier 6 Equipment Sculpt!
• Splicer Brute
• Fleshpod Carrier Sculpt
• Slums Street Parallax
• Player Clothing Destruction
• The Hub Concepts
• Website Upgrade
• AI Style Progress

September Release Details

Changelog

• Onyx's gear can now be damaged/broken via combat.
• Added Onyx v Thug + Runt transition from le booberjobber to das BJ
• Improved animation in new Onyx v Thug + Runt intro
• Added/fixed physics for hair/clothes/boobs in Onyx v Thug and Onyx v Thug + Runt intros
• Made a lot of animation and clipping fixes + added missing physics to Onyx + Semi's H scene
• Added parallax and additional background artwork to Slums Street map
• Repainted sections of the right side of the Slums Street map.
• Removed support for 21:9 aspect ratio (too many game breaking scenarios)
• Fixed issue resulting in The Hub shop being broken/corrupted after restarting the mission/stage from Game Over screen
• Fixed issue resulting in player lives indicator (stars under gauges) not working correctly after changing the playthrough - loading the game, starting new game, restarting stage from Game Over screen, etc.
• Changed Exhaustion gauge in pause menu to fill from left-to-right instead of right-to-left
• Changed consumables sorting rules so that ones with lower charges are listed on top
• Added clothing damage FX (confetti) to match Onyx's clothing colors
• Fixed the "camera flash" visual glitch caused by clothing damage explosion unexpectedly replaying for a few frames.
• Fixed Help artwork that incorrectly says H scenes are unlocked via green containers.  It's now via light blue containers.
• Fixed shop pause menu displaying "Game Paused" instead of "Shop" or shop name
• Added male cop to set of spawnable enemies in Slums Street
• Spawning into new maps now always starts player with intended facing direction
• Adjusted player spawn position in Slums Basement to prevent player from walking right back out if holding Up upon entering
• Fixed issue with camera at startup for sewers wave survival mission

Onyx Tier 6 Equipment Sculpt!

Kame has finished Onyx's Tier 6 equipment sculpt!  Color choice shown isn't final(?), but would make a good palette to select from I think ^-^.

Splicer Brute

We came close to getting the Splicer Brute in-game for this release, but he still needs some more work, and since we can't add him without the physics update that we're still debugging we had no choice but to delay him till the Inner Circle tier release next month D:

That being said, I did wanna show some progress on him, so I've included some screens of him in game :D!

Fleshpod Carrier Sculpt

Demonu has finished the next Fleshpod enemy sculpt :D.  Colors aren't final on this boi yet, but I'm really excited to see him in-game!  I plan on adding the drippy liquid FX shown above during his in-game animations as well ^-^.

Slums Street Parallax

The background parallax for the Slums Street map is done!  This required way more art than I had anticipated, but it was a great exercise in testing the boundaries of our parallax system and workflow.  Xxoom and Limbo helped a lot with painting new elements, as well as upgrading the existing ones.

We still have to add additional scaling motion to the sides of the buildings and highway in the background, but need additional code for that effect.  Once we add that, we'll add motion for closer objects like the lookout post behind the fence/wall and the dumpsters behind Mr. Black.  There will also be foreground layers eventually ^-^.

Sorry for the crappy GIF compression!  I've attached a 4K video of the above so you can check it out in high quality :D.

Player Clothing Destruction

AltairPL has finished the first iteration of adding clothing destruction via combat for the player character ^-^, meaning Onyx's gear can now be damaged/broken via combat!

Right now all equipment has the same amount of durability, but this will change in the future. Like with how we've shown for enemies, we will eventually likely add a torn up "damaged" state to Onyx's gear where wear and tear is shown when durability reaches half or so.

The Hub Concepts

If you've played the test releases recently, then you'll know there's a location on the map called "The Hub" that acts as a town/safe point of sorts.  This obviously is a placeholder, and we've been workshopping ideas ideas to take the next steps on it.

We were discussing this when I suggested that we turn it into a bar literally called the Hub :D.  It'd be a dive bar with a hub cap logo and kitschy automotive stuff everywhere. The "town" can then be the street that the Hub is on, located in Onyx's neighborhood in the Void.  It started with me generating some signage as concepts and Limbo cleaned them up.

During development we could use it as a place to show off characters we've finished but haven't added to the game yet.  Eventually it would become a location to pick up side quests and progress the events of the game.  Returning to the Hub at different times may yield different events that would appear based on having met certain conditions, etc.

I encourage you to check out Limbo's art above in detail, as it features some great cameos from our characters thus far :D.

Website Upgrade

We've been working on a website upgrade the past couple of months and I just wanted to show you one of the early mock-ups made by Zydaline :D.

We've brought on a web developer to get it rolling, as well as to handle things like search engine optimization and analytics.

AI Style Progress

I've made a lot of progress this month developing a combination of networks to reach our target "augmented" in-game style for characters.  That is, a consistent style that reflects our in-game 3D characters that we can use for promo and 2D artwork. At the rate things are progressing we can potentially combine our 3D and AI pipelines for animated trailers / an intro cinematic.

You can check out one of the results for Onyx (finished up by Xxoom and I) at the top of this post ^-^.  I can't wait to show more, as it's improving almost daily.