Dev Log #4

DevLog #4 | 2 weeks into the second half of development time

In the past two months, this game has changed quite a bit as we chipped away at it over the break period between the two halves of this project with many differences in the systems we had and are currently using and the general art style of the game being completely different.

LOOK

For a while, I felt as though the game was lacking something to make it stand out, and I think this new style really helps the game shine. One thing I wanted to focus on with it was making sure that we achieved a sort of pixel-y art style while still keeping the game clean-looking. I ended up pairing a (kinda shitty Walmart-brand) posterize effect with a depth texture leading to the effect of further things appearing to be rendered in a lower resolution than closer things.  Then I just paired it with oversaturation™ to get the effect we currently have.

FEEL

A larger thing that changed within the game internally has been the systems we've been using. There was a kind of lack of organization within our team over how the systems would function, with each person having a sort of mental vision of what they thought was going on, which has been largely reduced by having prototypes for most major systems within the game. Moving towards the more finished systems rather than the placeholder ones is a step in the right direction towards getting our game to the point we want it at in 6 weeks (our deadline).

Another part of the games feeling which we're attempting to improve is combat, which previously was boring. The challenge that we faced with making interesting enemies is finding out what makes an enemy interesting to fight, especially in a close-range setting. The big switch I'm in the process of making is moving from basic built-in ai to a combination of AI paired with root motion movement, which should allow for move diversity and complexity in movement while making it look generally better. This (in theory) should allow enemies to be able to evade, dodge, and chase the player more effectively, leading to a greater challenge.

FEATURES

Some of the new features that are currently being worked on by our team include:

-Music | This is a challenge for us as we have no dedicated musician, however game development in small team settings often leads people to develop new skills

-Sounds | We're making improvements to how the game sounds to make it sound less "gamey?" and jarring, to a more grounded yet stylized style. 

-UI improvements | reworking placement of buttons, general layouts, and the look of buttons, crosshairs, etc.

-New levels | Two new levels ideally coming by our end date in six weeks taking our protagonist deeper beneath the city

-More world-integrated storytelling | We previously had "datapads" which had lore snippets on them, these aren't super integrated into the world and are a fairly lazy way of storytelling. We're working hard to integrate these details into the look, sound, and story of the game without making the player stop and read

-AI improvements | previously mentioned animation improvements, new enemy variety and functions

-Updated systems | Moving away from placeholder systems to more stable and "finalized" versions of what we are aiming for

-New limbs | Funny little gizmos that let you fight in unique ways