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Details details details

Mostly just trying to get the Redtree area detailed up this week.  So far I've been sticking to the roads and main areas.  I moved the player start to a bit north of Redtree and dropped Nyth (from the old tutorial content) along the path.  I need to go through and check her dialogue and animation scripting to see if it needs updates for this location.

I added a height slider to the character creator!  This is similar to how Skyrim implements height.  So whenever...

Back at it!

First pass on the shroom textures and their low poly meshes.  I'll drop a few in the map but they won't be rigged or animated in the next build.  But hopefully they will be soon!

I did a pass on the transformation potions.  Fixed some of the bugs, added the ability to randomize effects, and also set a randomized value to some stuff.  Like a healing potion that'll heal a random number between 30 and 50 health.  Or this potion has a 10% chance of giving the player...

Last bit of internet for a while

Just poking my head in - I'm not going to have internet again until the end of the month!  But I'll be home and on my work PC again too!  So I'll respond to any messages or anything once I get home.  

Also Version 1.15.02 is open to everyone supporting on Patreon! Feel free to hit me with any thoughts, feedback, or bugs that are super annoying!

I'll see you all at the end of February!

Working from the road

Just wanted to check in super quick.  I'm still out traveling around, seeing the sights, meeting people, drinking all the coffee.  

But I'm also chipping away at content for Feign!  It's been a little hit or miss working on the train or on a bus though.  I can't really do the full NSFW content stuff with people around.  So in those cases I'm usually working on furniture and environment assets.  Then when I'm winding down in the hotel room I'll ch...

Version 1.15.02 Build Notes

Grab the build for 1.15.02 here 

And the last build 1.15.01 is now available to all supporting patrons here 

So much placeholder stuff!!!  Now that the bare bones are in I'm going to pivot to filling in the content around Redtree and Swamp Town and polishing up...

Version 1.15.02

Build Notes are here

Google Link

I'm uploading a version to mega right now that has been taking like 5 or 6 hours on a good day recently.  If the upload works I'll add a link to this post. Update:  the mega upload died on me last night...

How to: Character Creation System Overview #1

I'm going to try something a little bit different this week.  Over the years as I've been learning game development I've always relied heavily on free resources and I get the impression that some of those resources are drying up.  I figured I'd try giving something back and also give people a more in depth view of how I make things.
Just a quick disclaimer!  Nothing that I'm going to write is going to be the 'best' or 'only' way of doing things.  There's a million diffe...

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays everyone!

I started adding in a few farm critters to the game.  They aren't properly animated yet but I'm going to set up some spawn points and have them sliding around the map in the next build.

I'm still working on a basic detail pass around Redtree and hooking up the town merchants.  

And lastly I've been working on the grapple animation scenes for imps dudes and goblins.  I'm hoping to have those ready for the next build too!

I'm goin...

Odds and ends

Started adding Redtree content back into the map.  I moved things around a bit to hopefully work better with the flow of the landscape.  I'm hoping to get the major vendors setup and get the tavern interior hooked up for the next build.  I need to do a proper art pass on the buildings and walls then I'll start on the building interior spaces.  

Did some save system polish.  I had forgotten to hook up the player's stats to the sa...

Version 1.15.01 Build Notes

Still a LOT of wip stuff in this build.  Not quite as bad as the last one but be prepared for graybox placeholder assets and bugs!

New in this build:

• 3 new weapons - pickaxe, hand sledge, and woodaxe (available at the general store)
• 1 new outfit - Miner's clothes (available at the general store)
• Swamp town building progress
• Updated dialogue text to use Proto's animated text plugin, still need to add the scripting to dialogues ...
  2023-12-04 00:11:13 +0000 UTC View Post

Version 1.15.01

Lol, I'm so terrible at numbering versions.

New build is up!!!

Build notes here

I'm trying out a new file host so let me know if you run into any issues!!!

I forgot to include an option to choose the save slot when loading a save game.  I just uploaded a hotfix build.  Be sure to grab the _hotfix file in the download directory!

2023-12-04 00:01:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Version 1.15 open to all supporters!

It's been roughly a month and I just opened the 1.15 build to all Patreon supporters.   

https://www.patreon.com/posts/91735457 

and be sure to check out the Build Notes for 1.15 if you haven't already
https://www.patreon.com/posts/version-1-15-91735664  2023-11-28 23:39:54 +0000 UTC View Post

More work on the swamp town content

Just a quick heads up I'm going to be away next week visiting family for the holiday.  I'll have my laptop with me but won't have as much development time for Feign.  Hopefully I can get through some of the dialogue trees and writing.  

So onto the update!

I started dropping in the building models into the actual map and working on models and textures for the building trims and siding.  I still need to make some proper windows and do a detail pass to break up t...

Finding that groove again

Working on a bunch of stuff right now!  

There's the miner's outfit zbrush sculpt that still needs a quick detail pass and then can go to the low poly stage.

There's the gray block outs for the main buildings in the swamp town.  I've started working on the sculpts for the different tiling textures and should start putting those together soon.  

The frog dudes I was working on their AI tree. &n...

Version 1.15 Build Notes

Finally!

Subscription Billing Change!!

I'm changing over the billing to the subscription model on Patreon.  Which means:

" You’ll charge new members when they join, then monthly on that same date instead of the 1st of the month.

Existing members won’t see any changes, and are still charged on the 1st of the month."

Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  This just seems more intuitive for anyone that ...

Version 1.15

Be sure to read the build notes before grabbing this one!!!

Download Here 

Keeping payments paused for October

If you're currently a patron you won't get charged at the beginning of October.  New patrons still get charged when they first sign up though I think.

Still waiting for things to settle down so I can get back to work on Feign.

Brb dealing with day job stuff

Just a crazy week.  Waiting to get some day job stuff sorted out. I'll be back as soon as I can!

Back to animations and bug fixing

Just a quick update this week.  I'm trying to clean up the last animation pieces, the environment work, and any major bugs that pop up during my play tests.  

With the save system currently anything in the over world or outside of buildings that the player drops from their inventory will not be saved.  I have a plan for a system that I'm going to try implementing after this build is done.  I'm thinking that the area surrounding player's housing will be sort of a safe...

The Save System!

With all the play testing I've been doing it becomes super obvious how much it sucks not to have your progress or actions save in the game.  On an abstract level I understood this but kept thinking that since it's so early in the development process that it wouldn't be too bad.  Hah.  Nope it sucks.  So... with that in mind I sat down and worked on the save system all week.  I'm still testing it and I'm sure there are going to be bugs.  But it seems relatively fu...

Pausing September charging

Just a quick note.  I'm really close to being able to put out a small build but between the day job and the hurricane it's not looking good for this week.

So I'm going to pause the payments for September and they'll resume again in October.  I think any new Patrons will still get charged when they sign up though.  Just something to be aware of!

But yeah, I'm still squashing the major game bugs.  Like somehow the hand meshes on humans had gotten completely broke...

Bug fixes...

I'm trying to get Feign in a playable state.  It's still going to be rough around the edges but I want the foundation to at least be solid and fun.  Which means I've been trying to play the game like a player and not a developer.  Normally I spot check things, load the map in the editor, test something out really quick, see it's working, then close the game and move onto the next thing.  The problem is that so many bugs don't happen the first time.  

Let's take ...

Trying to find that groove again.

I'm trying to maintain a steady flow of work and balance between Feign and the day job now.  It's a little bit shaky but I'm making progress on Feign at least!

I have the menu map and the character creator hooked back up and working with the new overworld map system.  This was broken way back when I jumped from UE4 to UE5 and had a bunch of really weird bugs.  There's still something going on with textures and blendshapes in the character editor that I haven't figured out...

Progress!

Sorry, about the sporadic updates... the day job has been chaotic and my sleep cycle is a complete mess right now.  I'm evaluating different options to get things back on track.

But I've been crunching the last few days on Feign trying to catch back up!  The swamp town is roughed out, I have gray box geometry for all the buildings and interiors and I'm about halfway through setting up the spawn points for all of the villagers.  Most of them have 3 different spawn times an...

Parts and Pieces

So I have this pile of mechanics, systems, and assets.  If I was putting together a bicycle it would be something like the image above.  The problem is, even though you have all of the components for a bicycle, you can't hop on it and ride anywhere... yet.   With Feign right now it's possible to spawn in, run around, see some cool stuff and see the general shape of things but it doesn't feel like a cohesive game... yet.  

My goal right now is to get a build out ...

Some inquisitor texturing.

Finally got some time to work on this outfit again.  There's a fine detail and grunge pass that I'd like to do but I think the broad strokes are in place.  

Now I need to set up the rigging and body types.

The frog dungeon writing is underway and I'm trying to steadily chip through the dialogue trees and the environment assets.  

And the day job has been eating up more of my time than expected.  But now that I'm getting settled and figuring out how to wor...

Cruising along...

I've got a little bit of down time before starting the new day job so I'm trying to get caught up on stuff for Feign. 

Finished up the high poly sculpt for the low level Inquisitor and I'll get started on the low poly soon.

Worked on the assets for the frog dungeon.  Lots and lots of brick sculpting for arches, walls, floors and trim. 

Some more polish the swamp environment and trying to optimize the foliage a bit.

And also a bit of design work.  I'...

Doors...

The jump to Unreal 5 and the world partition system has come with a few speed bumps along the way.  Instead of the old system (and its headaches) of managing individual levels and loading / unloading them for interiors and exteriors.  Now I'm loading and unloading layers that are all in the same level.  Which has come with some new and different headaches.  The doors in particular were giving me a number of issues.  NPCs wouldn't load, the player would need to use the...

Detail sculpt pass

The outfit is starting to come together.  I still want to do another detail pass on this to add more stitching and patches to really sell that it's worn and falling apart.  

I've also been chipping away at the frog dungeon.  The throne room has been blocked out and I'm working on some of the lighting and also the layout of the lower rooms.  

The Law in Feign (Possibly slight spoilers)

After thinking about the morality system I started try...

Busy week...

Day job stuff has been kicking my ass this week.  So I'm a little behind on stuff for Feign.  I did get a bit more sculpting done on the inquisitor costume and should hopefully have the sculpt done next week.

I also worked a bit more on the swamp town detailing pass.  I reworked the water material a bit in the swamp and split up the mesh into pieces instead of one giant plane.  Then I went in and worked on the external spawn points for the NPCs in town.  

...