Project Vault Dev Log 09

First Month of the year is now under the belt! This month was definetly a bit of a learning month that really tested out what I've learned so far as a game dev. Started working on a few new systems such as the footprint system for Bod, sound creation for stealth mechanics.... and enemy AI (the horror ;o;!!). Got a lot of good system placeholders down for the most part! Although I can tell that the AI is going to be a long terms battle to get down haha.

For the breakdowns:

Footprint system: One of the things I'm absolutely proud of is the footprint system for the game! Managed to make a cycling spawn system that can place new footprints as needed for Bod without needing to constantly create and destroy footprints. So far I've got some placeholder footprints at the moment for Bod to leave around if they hit certain floors. Likewise an initial attempt at enemy AI detection has also been implemented. This is probably the one area that is going to need some work down the road, but for now the enemy does follow the tracks if they spot them!

Sound Tracking: Next to the footprints, I've also included the start of the sound generation system. So now Bod will create some noise if your running around which can alert guards if you are too close. It currently scales with the speed Bod is traveling, which will allow the player to sneak past without making a noise if they are walking or crouching. Finally I also created some quick code for the floors so that I can test it out with the enemies (and it works!)

Enemy tracker: One of the other mechanics I got working is a prototype enemy tracker for Bod! Now whenever Bod gets close enough to some enemies, it will create little arrows pointing in their direction. Eventually I hope to get this combined into the mag field circle, but for now just having a working system has been great to play with :3!!

Sensor Puppet Enemy: The final big undertaking for the month has been creating a first pass of the Sensor Puppet enemy! Was able to get at least an initial pass at the model to see how it looks so far! Will still need a good chunk of cleanup before I can start texturing and rigging it, but I love how it looks! Going to probably continue chipping away at the model over the next few months so that I can get it to a game ready state if possible!

Activated Ruins Mechanics: One other thing that I've been working on the side with has been thinking out how I want to handle stealth and getting discovered in the game. Since the game is going to be pretty limited with Bod's combat abilities, I wasn't going to be able to go the route of adding too many enemies or patrols if Bod gets spotted. After a bit of brainstorming with some friends and Naru, we came up with the idea of the activated ruins. Since Bod is exploring ancient ruins and structures that don't want Bod there, we figured it might be fun to represent that. Going forward, one of the major designs I'm going to be playing with on the levels is reactive geometry that can shift and change when Bod is spotted. Overall this can add some flavor to the game without outright punishing them for getting spotted. It will open up new paths, close some off, or even allow clever players methods of trapping enemies. I've got a lot of work to figure out how this all will work in engine, but I'm seriously excited to try it out :3!!

And that about sums up the major stuff for this month! Going to see about ironing out a few of the remaining bugs on the AI with some of the remaining time. So what does that mean for next month! Well one of the things I've been putting off for too long is UI updates. So next month the plan is to revisit a lot of my UI and give it a bit of cleanup. These mainly include:

-Cleaning up the save system before implementing a 4 slot save system that I want to utilize for the game in general.

-Update the HUD to add in the placeholder minimap/detection system.

-Get the equipment menu's working in addition to item quick select in game working.

-Spend some time cleaning up the block pushing and movement levels so that they are usable in the next demo build.

-Setup a new build at the end of the month for Patrons to play with and give feedback on!

So with that I'm gonna be crawling back into my dev hole to work on stuff!!