This last year has been...

Well hellish. We are a team of two, both with lives outside of working on this game and unfortunately, it lead to us not getting as much done as we wanted to...

I can only speak for myself of course... But i want to give you all a peak as to why things have been so slow. As I've mentioned in previous dev logs, in 2023 I became a father! This (unsurprisingly) has continued, as has my education in University which has left me with very little time. Add to that, family troubles including a recent dementia diagnosis (more on that later) and... yeah you can see why things have been difficult. For a long while I had no access to a computer other than a macbook, but fortunately I now have a modest gaming laptop up and running, allowing me to actually put some work into the game!

gEVENTS

This year I began working on a new system for handling events in a manner that made them easy and simple to implement, whilst allowing for complex events. This was incredibly important for the game as we intend on making some absurd scripted sequences that will elevate the games action! Think of the destruction of a build engine game, but designed by people who dont understand that build engine cant launch models flipping and rotating into the air!

Creation of this system was handled by me. In it's most basic form, it is a system comprised of three core components: A Trigger, a Receiver and an Activator.

Triggers are exactly what you would expect them to be! They are the starting point for the event and can be anything from a trigger volume, to a button, or even an NPC function. What they are is not important, as in reality they are just a dumb, binary object that sends a signal to a Receiver.

Receivers are the true brains of the system. They act in a similar manner to a radio tower, receiving messages from triggers then distributing them to designated Activators. Receivers can also delay these messages, allowing for events to be timed.

Finally, Activators receive the event messages from receivers and perform the event. These activators, like the triggers, can do anything, from simply enabling or disabling models, to activating animations, and so on. Activators can also act as triggers, allowing for event chains!

This system is simple, easy to use and robust! We have done a few basic tests with the system and it has been incredibly effective and easy to use. Currently, we are working toward creating a level designed as a true stress test of the system... We aren't ready to show it yet, but it has a train in it! :)

BLOOD!!!

I worked a bit on our blood effects in preparation for working on gore effects. These aren't complete, but the results so far are incredibly cool! The basic splatter is broken up into several components; a basic splatter that splatters on surfaces behind the hit, a directional splatter that splatters beneath the hit point in a relative direction to the attack, a particle effect with fancy bump mapping and droplets which fly from the point of impact, leaving small splatters behind! Already, it looks great and is really satisfying to play around with, but it's not done yet and wont be 'Complete' until we have our gore system working. Hopefully that'll be sooner rather than later! Watch this space!!

Additionally, I have worked a little bit with shader graph to create a system for dynamic bloodiness on weapons. This is still WIP but it's promising!

New Art Style

We haven't really shown off much of our intended new artstyle other than stating "it's full 3d now"... There's a couple good reasons for this, firstly and truthfully, it hasn't fully been established yet. We've experimented a tonne and we know the broad strokes but are still figuring out the details. You can probably tell this through the footage and images we've shared. Please bear with us as we just need a little more time to put together an artstyle showcase but we are nearly there!

What you are seeing in the new screenshots and gifs, the splatters, the 3d models with ragdolls, the pixelated bump mapping and etc are indicative of the direction we are headed. So, if you like that, you'll like what we're doing!

Miscellaneous

There's a bunch of other things...

• Caleb has been reworking our player controller to fix various issues we've had with it. I've experimented a little bit too but mainly in how to handle animations.
• We've been working on our weapon system and drafting HUD designs. As you would have noticed, we're still currently using out 2d weapon sprites. This will change in the new year.
• AI and enemies have been being worked on.
• Inspired by the HL2 documentary, I added a ragdoll magnet. It's fun.
• Potential Unity 6 upgrade coming in new year (we'll see)

So.. That's it for the updates. Now onto something off topic that I think we can all get behind!

As mentioned earlier, this we had a dementia diagnosis in the family. This has been extremely tough on everyone, but being that i'm living on the other side of the country at the moment, it's left me feeling lost as to what i can do. So, I've decided to do a little fundraiser to raise money for Alzheimer's Society! This is just a little thing to help those who need it... It's a fucking horrible illness not just in terms of what it does to the person with it, but what it does to those around it.

So, if you've got anything to spare and feel willing, please donate! This money goes straight to charity, so it's risk free. And if you want to contribute but don't have any cash, dont fret, just share it around!

Bald to Raise money in aid of Alzheimer's Society!

And yes, I am going to shave my hair off for this.

Thank you for reading this. It means a lot to us that people seem to like this project and we can't wait to show you more of what we have planned... Hopefully soon we'll have a steam page ready for you to wishlist the game, and then before you know it, the game will be out! We hope you enjoy it when that day finally comes. Have a fantastic new year. We will see you up ahead.