zeekerss

Progress chugging onward

(This dev log was written on September 3. I decided not to post it until after the closed beta playtest.)

I couldn't believe it's only been 2 weeks and a day since the last post here. First, I spent a while fleshing out the "placeable ship objects" system, adding in a rotating shop of random furniture and the ability to store furniture you've bought.

Then I added in save files. They are more practical and necessary than I thought before adding them in, since a sin...

Move it! (the objects in the ship)

What an eventful two weeks it has been since the last post! I may even call it another explosion for the project, though it's not quite as earth-shattering this time. It is still the same game, by and large, even if there have been some big adjustments. ...

Exciting times

Hi! Over the last couple weeks I added a new enemy and prepared another one called the Jester (which is going to be one of my favorites). I spent the majority of the time polishing and fixing the game up, then filming the trailer. In case you haven't seen it, the trailer is out with the release date, October 23. It's a milestone that signifies that the game is finally "finished." It's surreal to see the game i...

Polishing... more

Hello! The past two weeks have felt monstrously long. I had to put my new enemy ideas on hold even longer, since I've realized polishing is going to take up a big chunk of the time this project has left. So I've continued to polish and test the game with a group of a few friends.

Some notable things that happened: I spent some time adding in a jetpack--yes, you heard it--which breaks all the game's character physics and pushed me to extend the game's boundaries so that players don't sma...

Polishing and fixing! (plus a little more)

Hello, it's an exciting and ultra-busy time for the project. After the last post, I fully planned on adding in the rest of the enemy concepts I have lined up, but I've been constantly distracted by other features and ideas.

Making the planet surface feel "alive"

In some ways Lethal Company feels like a game split in two halves--inside and outside. The inside map feels highly randomized but always feels similar overall, while the terrain of the outside feels more unique and hand-...

Looking back + major progress

After some good playtests, I think Lethal Company is at the highest point it has ever been. I have always liked this picture, because I can always map out where I was at which times:

It could be a little cocky to assume I'm on the upward trajectory before the project is finished, but I think it's safe to say it's out of murky waters now. This is sort of what happened for Lethal Company:

...

What did he see?

Hello, the past two weeks have been very eventful. For a lack of better words, the entire development of Lethal Company has been intense. I think I bit off just as much as I could chew; sometimes I feel overwhelmed with the game's problems (which is a truly dreadful feeling), but I keep pushing through it.

The first thing I did was add two new enemies to the game. One of these is a stand-out which could be the best one in the game, even after I add in the rest. It is one of the original...

Working towards the end goal

Hi, I finished the new randomly generated map which I started a couple weeks ago. I was finished with it much sooner than I expected, and I'm very pleased with the result. I'm still not going to show what it looks like since it feels like I'd be spoiling something cool, especially since I'm looking towards doing a larger playtest of the game. I still don't know when that will be, since I want to make another bunch of enemy types and fix a ton of bugs. I'm almost to the point of seeing the gam...

Making levels

Hello! Lately the routine for me has been to make ample progress in Lethal Company so that I can play Splatoon as a reward to myself; in a few days that's going to be Zelda instead. I've never worked on a project this long, and I usually get more anxious the longer a project goes on--so it's interesting to note how steady the progress is and how relaxed I am.

The first thing I did the last two weeks was exactly as I planned: I created the next enemy in the game, which is an outside enem...

Somehow work is getting done

Lethal Company is still making steady progress. It's now the longest project I've worked on. Since the last post, I finished a new enemy type (in record time) which simulates fluid physics very basically using bones/armature and raycasts. The "hoarder bug" enemy, which I mentioned in the last post, has been the most fun enemy to test. I just realized its name also takes on two meanings.

I finally got around to finishing the bestiary system. Scanning enemies unlocks files that look like ...

New enemies + steam valves (that don't kill you)

Hello! Of the past couple years for me this has been the month filled with the most stress and busy work. Creative work has been a little hard. Still, the work I put into the game's AI system is paying off by making it joyous and easy to add new enemies to Lethal Company. So there's been a healthy amount of progress despite the distractions. This is the strategy I learned around the time I made The Upturned: spend the first half of development preparing luxurious systems to make the second ha...

The new monster is being born

Hello, the past two weeks have been a down and then an up trajectory for me. I sort of burnt out and spent that time playing some video games and finishing the revision of that book which I've been writing since 2018. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OYvwcnAi82zGRxyukGvLUZpaA0Q5JoeMf5wqWAZKOM8/edit?usp=sharing 

Here it is for free. ...

Working on AI

Hello! The first thing I did in the past two weeks was adding in a hints system to the UI to point the player to certain things; it also unintentionally works as a jumpscare because it pops up with a loud noise.

Then I finished implementing doors into the game so they are compatible with enemy AI now. Some enemies take longer to access doors, whereas some enemies will just slam them open. The difficult thing was making sure each enemy will have an "idle" behavior it defaults to, in case...

Wowee, lots on my mind!

Wow, the last time I posted (Feb 23) feels like forever ago. So what did I do since then? (I think I already mentioned this before, but these progress posts are really helpful for giving me a sense of my progress, since I'm forced to look back pretty far.)

Non-Lethal Company stuff, and imagining some things

The most major thing I did in the past two weeks was add 3 more bonus levels to The Upturned (after the 3 in January) and release them all. They are available to play now, bu...

February! Bug fixing, misc. content, and story

The pace has continued through the past two weeks.

First of all, I tested the game some more and fixed a load of bugs. As always the mystery is not how it's so broken. It's how it has been functioning at all?? Bug fixing can be overwhelming, making it feel like the game is falling apart--especially on apocalyptic days where all the rare bugs happen to show themselves at once by random chance. But I'm pushing through it, and the game becomes more and more stable.

Walkie...

2023-02-23 21:36:11 +0000 UTC View Post

So much progress

This has been another really industrious period for me. I don't know if it's because I got that side project idea out of the way, or if it's because I got some ideas that gave this project a more precise direction, or if it's just the natural highs and lows, but it's probably all of those.

1. The ship is fun now

First, I added in security cameras and a button to open and shut the door ...

My weird little point and click game

I decided to make a little point and click game and make it like my own personal game jam. Here it is in case you haven't played it. It is very short. https://zeekerss.itch.io/take-your-wish

I have always wanted to make a creepy, atmospheric point and click exploration game similar to Myst; that wish of mine goes back to the time before I had finished a single game in Roblox. This is not ...

[ominous silence]

I would normally post today, but I'm going to have a cool thing to show in a day or two that is very nearly complete, and I can't spoil it. That's all I'm gonna say!

Verticality, bonus levels, and pack monsters

Hello, the last two weeks have felt pretty long. I've been able to get stuff done, which is pretty good, since winter tends to be the least productive time for me and I've had a tiny bit of fatigue. The first thing I did was add a new map tile that introduces verticality to the map design. 

I haven't been able to nail exactly why verticality feels important to me; the only REAL...

happy end of year

Hello. The past two weeks I ran a couple tests and fixed an overwhelming amount of bugs. (I also did a lot of other things such as learning guitar again, video editing, and drawing gift art for friends and strangers. happy holidays!) 

One other thing I did was adding music into the game in the form of little stingers that act as a cue of certain gameplay events. There's not much room for full music tracks in this game, so I think that's what I'll be doing instead. It see...

Making enemies (also, the object scanner!)

Hello! The second monster is on another level from the first one (and has been developed in a third of the time). In multiplayer, it may be one of the most hysterical monsters I've created. I'm keeping from showing the monsters since they are one of the main pieces of content, but I really wish I could show it. 

Aside from emphasizing co-op, I'm thinking about ways to design monsters to synergize with each other if they're in the same space, rather than clumping together and causin...

Development is speeding up a little

Hello! So what's happened with Lethal Company the past 2 weeks? It's actually been doing quite well.

Audio!

Firstly, I gave the game a good audio engine. Among other things I was able to add in binaural audio, so things sound like they're actually in a 3D space. (This is something you don't notice is missing from most games until you hear it.) Since I don't know how it sounds when using a single speaker, I might have to make it an option.

Delivery!

Second, I added ...

Adding stuff to the ship

I feel very bogged down by bug-fixing, but at the same time adding content to the game is getting a lot easier. This animation of a player on the terminal was very quick to set up and took almost no work!

This terminal is where players will purchase items and other stuff. I didn't think I'd get to this part so soon, but it will be a big part of the progression of this game to afford less-shoddy...

So many systems

Wow, Patreon is very useful for keeping track of my progress. Since the last post I've done this stuff:

* I added in the system for spawning scrap items in the factory, which you'll need to collect and return to the ship to meet the profit quota. This was actually painfully complicated since the system needs to make sure the total value of all the scrap items isn't below the quota or too high, but it also can't spawn too many or too few scrap items on the map, and the value of each scra...

Working on the game loop.

The past two weeks I've been reworking all the systems for the new prototype. Since I removed the elevator which previously transitioned players between levels, I've basically turned the spawn ship (the equivalent of Phasmophobia's van) into the new elevator. So now the ship is a lot cooler.

It turns out that getting player physics to work this way, like in Sea Of Thieves, takes a lot less work...

The final prototype?

This week I made probably the last big prototyping-like change to Lethal Company: it's not going to be a roguelite.

One of the first posts I made here was called "What is the shape of the game?", and in that post I described how each game of Lethal Company would consist of multiple levels, as players try to descend as far as possible.

Well, it didn't feel right. I've been trying to pinpoint a reason, but I think this is one of those times where prototyping was necessary. 

Time!!

Besides some extra behaviors, I have finished the first actual enemy, whom I call Flowerman. Now testing the game is immensely uncomfortable unless I cheat to know where it is.

After that I got back to the game's main objective and implemented a simple time system; during each "work shift" you have until nightfall to get back home, or it becomes much more dangerous to get back. Dusk happens to look prettier than anything else in the game right now, so I included a video. It's probably s...

Designing Monster #1

I am realizing this gets into full-on spoiler territory. The monster design is the meat and potatoes of this game, which means it would be the most fun to talk about but may spoil the experience.

So I won't be describing what this enemy actually tries to do. I will just describe the personality I am trying to capture and show what it looks like.

[ MEDIUM SPOILERS AHEAD! ]

I considered starting with some...

How to stay on track.

Hello. So where is Lethal Company now? It's been a couple weeks since I posted on its progress. For so long, I had a deep concern that the project had somehow gotten lost and would stay that way. But then I found out what was wrong.

A bit of context...

I described before how I wanted to find a way to make encounters with monsters feel "avoidable, yet inevitable" instead of just plain random, in a game that will be fully randomized. That's a puzzle.

And I figured out a way ...

Addendum to "Concept Art from The Upturned"

I found some more old stuff!

This is the old design for the player character, in the first couple days of development. This is probably the first asset made for the game. I only got this far before I decided I didn't have the level of expertise to translate my art style into a 3D character. So I went with something more simple.

(At this point the game wasn't even planned to feature a hot...