Weekly Update #1

Welcome to the first "Weekly Update". I don't have a proper structure yet but I'm sure that'll develope over time. I wanted to post this a little earlier but Unreal decided that my game won't work in standalone mode (AI not moving, broken UI etc.), which is what I use for recording videos, no window borders etc. However this also means, that a standalone built of the game would have these issues, which completely breaks the game. So I couldn't even release a new version if I wanted to, before this gets fixed. I don't even have the slightest idea of what could cause this. Definitely looking forward to spending hours to fix this.

UPDATE: After a few more hours I got everything working by not changing a thing. Instead after upgrading the game to the new engine version 4.19 everything runs as expected. It seems that the last update 4.18.3 might have broken my game. Regardless, everything seems to work properly again.

Anyway, enough rambling, onward to the updates.

Giant's Sandbox

Handheld Feature

Since I've attached a video to this post, I might as well start with that right away. As you can see, giants can now grab and release tinies and it does look quite gentle. What you can't see, is all the bugs that come with it. So those will give me quite a headache until I manage to (hopefully) squash them. Here's a pic of one of them:

Giant House Map

I've got a couple of screenshots for you, showcasing some of the progress I made on this map. It's not a lot but it's something. I got myself some furniture off of the Unreal Marketplace during the last sale. I still have to fit the kitchen though by remodeling the actual furniture but at least I have materials to work with now. Also I got some new quality wooden flooring going on.

Another thing I wanted to adress are picture frames. You might remember the big picture in the master bedroom of me, shamelessly plugging my own art (which might get replaced). I do want to put up more picture frames around the house, however I thought it would be quite fun, to have art of different artists hanging on the walls. The requirements aren't even that high, so it's not like I'm asking for high-resolution versions of images. As long as one of the dimensions (vertical and horizontal) is about 1000 pixels, it's more than enough. Of course I only want to implement pictures with the approval of the artists. Furthermore, there will be proper credits on the picture (name and where to find them), either by putting a little plaque underneath or showing the info on the HUD when looking at it. So I'm open for suggestions, either for artists or artworks. I'd like to limit it to one per artists and I'd prefer to keep it rather tame (no gore or excessive sexual content), nudity is fine though. Do you like the idea or is that just a waste of time? Please let me know what you think.

What's next?

Besides (hopefully) fixing bugs, I'd like to implement at least one new way of handheld interaction until next week. Also some map tweaks and maybe something that resembles a kitchen would be a good start.

Art

Not much planned there right now, I did recently upload three pictures. However I might do some 3D animation practice over the next few weeks, well besides the animation I have to do for Giant's Sandbox.

That's it for the first Weekly Update. Definitely didn't expect to start with a completely broken game. Regardless, I hope this is somewhat interesting to look at and read. Thank you for your time and support!