It's been a while hasn't it. How are you going? Are you well?

Unfortunately due to the format of this post I don't know if you are well or not but I'll move on with the hope that you are.

A lot has changed. Both in my life and in my game's development. I took a break. Which felt well deserved for how hard I had been working on it. Before then however I implemented some changes.

First up I added the submachine gun, the first automatic weapon to be included in the game. Creating it meant not only modelling and animating but also reworking how the gun system worked overall. The animations and switching of weapons runs a lot smoother under the hood, which will make it easier to make and add new weapons in the future. It also compelled me to add some features relating to firearms. A magazine will drop when you reload now and when you fire the shell casing will properly eject. It's only a small difference and purely visual but it adds a lot to the demo, I think.

Bullet Casing Ejection

Enemies can now change weapons if they run out of bullets for their primary. You'd be lucky to see it in game though as they kill you a long time before running out. But all the same. I stated work on a human model. Not realising how big of a task that is, I set about to put all my time into it. I burnt out which lead to the break I got. It also lead to a lot of interesting reflection. 

In my break the only real attention I gave to the game was playing it every now and again to see what needed changing but also to just have fun. I made a short video about my feelings on the game and showed it to my family. I got some good feedback, and another suggestion on what to change when I get stuck in again.

I only started back up on development two weeks ago, or so, but I've been more than making up for lost time. I fixed a map error where it wouldn't show the direction you were facing when holding the bow. I fixed the size of the laser sight to be smaller when in first person. I tried to fix weapon clipping occurring when you are too close to a wall. Found out there's little you can do with it because of how Unreal manages rendering. Found a compromise which more than anything helped me finally learn the lesson that the game doesn't have to be perfect. A lesson I'd rather learn now than later.

Weapon Clipping Compromise

I added a feature that I've thought about adding for a bit now which is an EMP. At the press of a button you will emit an EMP that will temporarily incapacitate nearby robots. It's on a cooldown that is displayed as a circular progress bar around the minimap, which is a nice design compromise I think. 

Drum roll.

I added a third-person mouse aiming system. With all my deliberation it only took an afternoon to implement. With the following day or two spent fixing errors and reworking my animations, movement and aiming system to better work with the changes as well as work better in general. Smooth is the name of the game, it feels and looks infinitely smoother. 

Mouse Aiming

While not in the game yet my story has come a long way in the last few weeks. Not only have I worked out the different perspectives of the roster of characters (specifically how their perspectives relate to the themes of the story [that's right the story has themes now too]) but I also have a more concrete idea on who that roster is comprised of. 

The current characters are as follows:

Alexei - The player character, the robot of the hour, the one who will, hopefully, take back the Wardlubu Base.

Dr. Ivan Apparat - The creator of Alexei and his father figure. The man who's research kicked off the series of events that the game is set around.

General Jean T. Schiff - A military man who's got no time to waste. His men's lives are at stake. If Alexei is how it gets done, so be it.

Prof. Vanessa Irokawa - The woman who continued Dr. Apparat's research on Wardlubu. She is a genius whose dedication allows her to see only her work. She is taken hostage by her work, shortly before the beginning of the game.

Ex - Ex is the culmination of Dr. Apparat's and Prof. Irokawa's work. Unfortunately it should be that he became twisted from an error in practise. He leads a robotic uprising.

Major Beau 'Boomer' Danson - A leader, pure and simple. He leads his men on the base to fight back. 

A link to my character design document:
https://coggle.it/diagram/ZHr9G-lidps3_lf_/t/simulacrum-people-and-their-beliefs...

I also started writing the story of the game. I'm writing in screenplay format to do a brief run over. It'll also help me write faster and get a better understanding of the player experience. So far I've written the intro and the first real objective. It's looking good.

I'm planning on making a video Devlog to cover some of these topics more thoroughly and to stretch my story telling and editing muscles. All-in-all, I'm back at it and having a blast. 

Thanks for reading.