BLOG ENTRY 45 - 8.2.024

DEV STATUS

I’ve had quite a year working on the prototype, I’ve barely used the page or blogged. That’s what happens when you’re cookin’ on a nearly daily basis. Since the Gamacon 2023 event I’ve been working non-stop learning how to fix the games major problems, not the lack of polish but rather making sure the mechanics feel good and that you understand that you have powers, a metric ton of bugs and little issues that just made the game feel more uncooked than it actually is.

This has had me swapping between multiple disciplines just to fix issue by issue. Some are animation, some are code, some are game design, etc etc. Anyone who has had to multi-class will tell you it’s hard to keep switching between each type of mindset required to fix or improve any one thing. It’s been maddening some times.

The good news is that I’ve made a lot of progress, from the way the game looks to the way it feels to play, and most of all, making a boss to finish off the demo! It’s almost done and I couldn’t be more proud about how far it’s come. I’ve said this many times before but there’s just such a good feeling when the thing you designed in your head comes to fruitiion and you see it, “Working as Intended”. Those words never felt so good.

PEACEKEEPER PROTOTYPE

This boss is meant to finish the demo, either you take it down, or it takes you down, and it WILL try to kill you. I’m still tweaking the way the boss uses the abilities in order to get to that near perfect sweet spot. but so far I’ve gotten pretty close. When it is actively attacking or defending it feels challening enough that you feel like you earn the kill, what it needs now is a bit of spacing out the abilities as well as believable movement, as the animations are not working properly and I can’t get it to repeat it’s ability suite.

Designing and Implementing this boss has been quite the journey specifically because it is the bite-sized version of what game dev is, and because i’ve had it in my mind for so long it was a matter of figuring out how to get that feeling of getting hunted down by a robot 5x times your size would feel like in game. You can present a boss in a bunch of different ways but the way the fight feels is what is important, at least I believe that. Here’s a quick run down of it’s ability suite.

TURRET VOLLEY

Will track the player and fire repeatedly until it runs out of ammo. Current fire rate feels good but it needs just a little bit more tweaking, in order to really make it feel like those scenes in sci-fi shows where you just gotta take cover and hope you don’t get hit.

ACTIVE SHIELD

Boss puts up a shield that will absorb damage until it runs out of energy. if the player breaks the shield I want to reward the player by having The Peacekeeper stunned and have you run up and stab one of it’s mechanical legs. This will take me a bit of brain power as I have to program animation syncing, in order to make it feel cool. Kino even.

MAJOR AREA DENIAL

The PeaceKeeper will fire off electric salvo rounds that electrify and area, distrupting shields and doing damage to the player. similar to what the player can do if they use their ultimate ability and create Plasma Areas of effect. For this ability I need to create an animation that shows the robot spinning and tossing out these projectiles. Animation is by far the most difficult part of game development for me, I think I’m getting bettwer but we’ll have to see if I can get this through the finish line.

THE OL’ RELIABLE.

Hired a 3d modeler to bring the vision of the Ol’ Reliable to life. We had some sketches and ideas for what the gun was supposed to look like. and after a few rounds of iteration we finally have full original 3D asset for the game.

This model really shows of the aesthetic we’re trying to create with the Plasmapunk look. I’m still working on integrating the animations in order for the character to interact with the animation loops properly. but so far it looks realy awesome in game.

DEMO FIXES AND QUALITY OF LIFE UPGRADES

As I mentioned earlier, after Gamacon with all the feedback we got from players and devs, I felt that it was necessary for me to get on my coding had and just fix everything that I could. I have still been getting a lot of help from Ryan Laley, as far as fixing bugs and figuring out tricks that can solve issues. I have cleaned up a lot of spaguetti code as well, making the game more efficient, less messy, less spagoot.

WEAPONS.

Weapons now display ammo count correctly with a different UI display for each, allowing the player to clearly see if they need to reload.

Reload now plays animation correctly and stops player from shooting during reload animation.
If player spams the fire button the weapon will automatically reload after several dry fire attempts. Once Active reload is implemented this will be a good way to reward the player for nailing the reload animation sequence.
Switching weapons now sets the player in the appropriate pose with each weapon type, some animations are a little bugged and need readjusting, but you know feel like you’re firing a different weapon rather than just holding a different mesh and that’s it.
Picking up ol’ Reliable immediately sets the weapon and animation pose to be ready to fire.
Fixed and issue that was blocking mouse look visibility and therefore making you aim incorrectly. Weapons now fire in the direction you are aiming correctly.

ENEMIES

Enemies no longer smear visually when dying from a damage over time effect, which would set the hit direction to 0 as it was attached to the enemy itself.
Melee tracking feels a little better, I still need to fix the issue that they do not re-adjust and continue to pursue you if you’re not within melee range.
Peacekeeper boss being set up for demo fight

ENVIRONMENT

Set new global illumination and skybox settings. Enhances atmospheric feeling of “Sci-fi”
Improved several issues with level design and interactions that were not working properly
Using Light as a means to convey information and interactivity has become the new art style, until we can get an Art director or Technical Artist to help polish the visuals.
Terrain that blocked visibility was fixed and improved camera placement in order to avoid blocking the players sight.
Fixed musical triggers to play properly when transitioning to new area.
Created “Scenic Triggers” that will adjust camera to show off environment and/or boss.

NEXT STEPS

My priority for the moment has been to get this boss working as it should. If I can’t get it to walk I just just make it an orbital cannon aimed towards the player. Nothing wrong with a static boss I guess. Big turret still hurts. But that’s a last case scenario if fixing the animations and walking/aiming at the same time takes too much effort.

Next is improving the melee combat as well as creating the animation sync code so you can finish off enemies and do cool attacks against bosses when you have the advantage. Fromsoft games have really set the bar for what bosses should feel like when you fight them. I hope I can learn how to tap into that secret kino sauce that makes things feel as awesome as they do.

If I can learn the recipe, I can recreate it.

Still Cookin’ Hard.

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

Daniel AguilarAugust 2, 2024

Finally on Solid Ground...

BLOG ENTRY 44 - 1.4.2024

DEV STATUS

New Year, New Goals. With the prototype played as a Demo we are now at the point were there are 2 versions of the game that we will have to work on. The prototype demo which will be our selling point in our attempt to get funds to produce the game to the highest quality we can. And the other the Pre-Alpha which will be optimized with the lessons we learned from our participation in the GAMACON EXPO 2023.

GAMACON 2023

Ol’ Reliable and Mk3 Rifle Demo Gameplay 2023

The Prototype Demo was a success. We went to GAMACON 2023 in Mexicali and had a bunch of people test it. I cannot overstate how happy I am that the prototype went super well with everyone, players and devs alike found the fun in the demo. Our weekend at the convention was non-stop showing off the demo, granted we only had one booth but still. We attempted to keep track of how many people played and due to the high demand of people playing the demo we just couldn’t even get a counter set up in between.

The art made by our talented artist Lele for the promotional poster was so well recieved that people asked us for the poster. Had we printed out more or had a better booth setup it would have been interesting to give them away if they completed the demo. Maybe for the next big expo we need to make.

DEMO POST-MORTEM

We did a post-mortem analysis of what happened with the demo and we came out with a bunch of good lessons that we can use to improve the game. We also found out how players reacted to the game itself, what they liked, what they didn’t. It was also very gratifying to watch people attempt the Meta-challenges that we set up at the booth.

There was a player that did all the challenges including a speedrun, finishing the demo in a little over a minute, 1:07 to be exact. People attempted to break it and it being a prototype, of course they did, but now we know how to prevent it from breaking. Also people really liked the loot chests. ^_^

NEXT STEPS.

As mentioned earlier we will be working on 2 projects, one being the Prototype Demo which is our proof of concept. We have found the fun, now we need to polish it. As this will be our means of attempting to get funds, be it with grants, publishers or general audience, This demo is our way of proving that we have a solid game in our hands, that can be something really great if we’re given the chance to attempt it.

The Pre-Alpha would be more about streamlining code and hand pick what assets we will be using in the construction of the game, as well as establish the visual identity of the game itself. The demo is close but it’s not the final.FINAL so we need to at the very least find ways to reach that visual art style we’re going for with the game, while still working budgetless. It would also be about setting up the master blueprints in a more organized way, set up base code to be multiplayer friendly. I’ve been advised that it’s best to begin a project with that in mind and since we did not, we’ve been figuring out HOW we’re going to implement friendly multiplayer as this is a PVE game. We’ve seen some really good implementations over the past year that has really made us question what’s the way we would want to have our players share the experience. We’ve got some ideas but they need testing.

TIME TO HUSTLE

While I will attempt to do these more often as there is a posiblity that we might get funded through patreon, I will have to make it a habit of regularly updating. That’s a thing you do on pateron right? I’ve got a lot of research to do into the business side of stuff, but we’ll figure that out once we fix all the bugs.

So for now we will fix the issues the demo has and polish it to a nice sheen. once that is done I will begin work on the pre-alpha, as it will be the base for the shippable game. I want to make sure I clear all the problems that arise from the start and include all the feedback recieved from the demo.

It seems like a lot of work but it’s the best path for us to follow in order to have a solid basis. We’ve already found the fun, We need to make sure we don’t ruin it by adding too many things and overscoping. So It’s a matter of elevating the core gameplay so it feels much more engaging and compelling. We’re building a story after all.

Here’s to working on Solid Ground.

Working Hard

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar
Game Director
Plasmapunk Studios

Daniel AguilarJanuary 4, 2024

The difference is... PRESENTATION!

BLOG ENTRY 43 - 4.13.2023

DEV STATUS

It’s been QUITE the first few months, I unfortunetly got the ‘Rona after the holidays and that severely hindered my progress and flow that I had going. It took me about a month to get back on my feet properly, afterwards I was in a post sickness haze and it took me a while longer to refocus and pick up where I left off. It’s a challenge to figure out how to proceed when everything is important and close to completion. How to you decide on what to work on first? I had to take a step back and figure out exactly why I was feeling everything was a mess when before when I felt like I had a plan that was clear as day.

RETRACING THE BEGGINING

I decided that I needed to think about how I wanted to present the game. What the Intro looks like, the famous First Time User Experience. So I made a list of steps one takes whenever you start a new game. How are you introduced to the game? What sets the tone for the story as well as your part in it? What do I want the player to feel once they’re selecting their first character?

So I set out to put the idea that I had in my head for a while, an updated version of the Diablo 2 Bonfire introduction. I always wanted it to be something akin to that intro but Sci-fi, and making it tone appropriate has been my main concern during this whole time. but Ultimately I think I came up with something awesome.

THE CREW IS ASSEMBLED

It took me a few attempts but I was able to come up with something that I am really proud of. The opening scene with the entire crew and captain, the Holomap of the actual places you’re going to visit during your time playing the game. Every one of the playable characters is presented properly. I am currently working on coding it so when you pre-select your class to check out their skills and story, the characters will step forward and play an animation, with their into card flickering in like a hologram. It’s not science fiction if you don’t have Holograms. And once you select it or decide to check out another class that they return to their original location and pose.

NEXT STEPS AND BEYOND

Captain Varya and the Blackstone Survivors

Once I’m done with the entire intro sequence I’m going to work on finishing each classes kit to the best of my abilities and hope I don’t have to rework them too hard later in the future, we never know what works until we test it, and sometimes, it just doesn’t work. So I’m working really hard on figuring out how each classes kit should work with their passive and active skills. What is the skill ceiling for each character, and of course, PRESENTATION! Showing off the characters personality through their skills and animations is key to making a good RPG experience, Especially when you don’t get to customize their backstory or kit beyong a certain point.

Afterwards I want to finish the loot system and begin introducing gear, However If I am unable to finish that by june I’ll have to keep the inventory system simple for the vertical slice, as it is by all means the terciary loop of the game, feeling like you’re playing the class you selected is more important, and if weapon switching works I don’t think Gearing will be that important for the prototype slice.

For now I’m going to keep working on making sure that the first impression a tester/player gets is that of “Fuck yeah! Playable Expanse!”.

Approaching the Milestones and Nervous as hell…

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar
Game Designer
Plasmapunk Studios

Daniel AguilarApril 13, 2023

THREADING SPAGUETTI IS HARD

BLOG ENTRY 42 - 11.3.2022

DEV STATUS

It’s been quite a ride these past couple of months. I’ve gotten a lot done on the game, so much so that I’m sure I’m forgetting some of the stuff that I’ve done. So instead I’m going to talk about how close to completion most of the features are. Something that I’m really proud of is the fact that I’ve been getting better at coding and finding bugs and fixing them right then and there. When I started this I could barely place things in Unreal and now I can get elbow deep in spaguetti code and know exactly which thread I’m supposed to work on in order to fix it. I guess as hard as it is to code some stuff has stuck around.

My unofficial deadline to start re-sending the prototype to publishers in order to attempt to get funding is the end of November, and so My dedication has been to get something fully functional, even if incomplete. It’s a very difficult thing to do when you know that the game is still unfinished and saying “I swear to you this will be awesome if you put some money down” It’s been 3 years when I pitched without a solid prototype and even though it’s currently leagues above, In my head I still think that “it’s not done”. I hope that those I pitch to actually see the potential this game has. Fingers Crossed.

PROTOTYPE TESTING EXTENDED EDITION

While testing the game and it’s current gameplay which is mostly combat, I’ve come to realize that it was time to start opening it up so I could have more space to experiment. Mobility is great in it’s current form for all classes so far, but I have not been able to finish the motion warped vault system in order to be able to well, vault. So a full mobility gameplay test is not done yet, Once I’m doing with cover slide/vaulting I think I can make a section that will allow for us to start figuring out how to design levels that are accessible to all the player classes without becoming “standardized”.

While it may be uncomfortable for some players, the idea that your class can shine in one map while suffer and have to improvise in others makes it feel more interesting than if you always have the upper hand somehow. I’ve been spoiled by the soulborne series, and find it fascinating that places that I breezed through my astrologer were difficult for my confessor, and vice versa, some levels/areas that were impossibly difficult before suddenly were easy peazy.

It’s a hard decision to make when designing the encounters. I don’t want to make it impossible for any class to finish the main campaign, but it shouldn’t be easy all the time. The encounters when you barely make it out are usually the most fun in any game. Close calls stick with you longer than feeling “overpowered”.

We’ll see how much balancing is required once the full mobility is up and running (ha!), but if these small levels are a good indicator then it really will be about mastering each classes mobility skill, and that should be very fun regardless of the class the player picks.

THE LOOT IN LOOTER SHOOTER

I’ve created dedicated loot chests for specific ammo types. Most weapons will be using only one type of ammunition, so the type of resource management will be very much in the style of Doom (2016)/Doom Eternal. Weapons may share the same ammo type but function completely different. The scarcity of ammo is still to be determined as weapons are still far from balanced, they are still in the overpowered level and can instakill most things with a couple of shots at most.

Another thing I’ve created are the Medigel Packs, they will refill your emergency heal, which I think I haven’t mentioned that I’s already in the game, now you can heal up if you get wounded, but rather than have your charges refill every checkpoint, it seems more interesting to make them a limited resource so you can choose wether you want to pick up the Medigel pack on your first pass through or coming back. I always enjoyed that aspect of the original Halo where fights would be more intense if you had full shield but low health and no health pack in sight. I may also do an instant heal rather than one you activate but I’ll have to work that out later.

I think it will really depend on where the game starts taking us once we have full encounters with both pre-placed enemies mixed with procedural encounters. If low ammo means more intense fun encounters then that’s where we’ll set it, if a more action packed approach turns out to be more fun we’ll set ammo to be more abundant. Health and Ammo are very useful sliders that can make the game more interesting, but we can’t mess with them too much right now before we make a full “Encounter” with all the elements in play.

FAILING “HOW TO SWING A SWORD 101”

I’ve already got a quick melee attack that feels rather good, still has some problems with hit detection, I’ve increased the weapons AOE and it did get better but needs more testing. The main problem is that a whole Melee system is a different type of combat system than shooting. that’s why you rarely see games with both a fully functional melee system and ranged combat system. Usually one of them is lacking because having both work together is very difficult. I could simply set the melee system as is and it’s on par with Worderlands in the way that it functions.

I however want the Warframe approach, where switching to your melee weapon allows you to use it in more interesting ways, use combos, special moves etc. The current roadblock I have is the fact that I don’t have “stances” yet, so if you equip any type of weapon the player characters will remain with their hands in the same position as their signature weapon. Causing the melee attack montage to move completely wonky, not allowing you to actually hit anything as the sword and arm are in a very different position than they should for the sword to “swing” properly.

DIALOGUE SYSTEM

We have been researching what the best way to create the dialogue system is, we’ve found a couple of candidates that we can follow in order to create a simple quest system without it becoming too much work just editing. I’ve already created a mockup of what I think we can do in order to present the dialogue properly, I think it’s neat, but it’s definetly a placeholder for now, I need to figure out how to make it look better without losing clarity as to WHAT you’re going to say.

We also need to see how we’re going to be storing the story in an efficient manner, how we’re going to nest the quests and plotlines so the game makes sense regardless of who you play as without it feeling like your class doesn’t matter. It’s a tricky thing but I’m sure we can pull it off, just gotta fortify our minds.

NEXT STEPS

My priority is getting 3 key things done, The Melee system, Vaulting over cover and having the inventory system work completely. I have an Idea of what I need to do in order to get it working properly, but It slips my grasp at the moment, but I don’t want to stay stuck hence why I’ve been working on the rest of the things.

Once all 3 things are fully implemented the prototype will be basically complete, that’s crazy. Ok well I still need to make the AI do interesting things, attack you, fire their weapons, drop weapons, etc. but I’m more over the bridge than before. I’m going to crunch hard this month to attempt to fix these 3 things so I can have a full holiday with my girl and the inlaws without thinking that I should be working.

I’ll post once more before the holiday break with any updates and as they say, “shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you’ll be the guy that shot at the moon, that’s gotta count for something right?”

Aiming as best I can, you celestial bastard…

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar
Game Designer
Plasmapunk Studios

Daniel AguilarNovember 3, 2022

Preparing to thread the needle.

BLOG ENTRY 41 - 8.18.2022

DEV STATUS

Nanoweaver ready to use alternate fire mode.

I have attempted to sit down and write a couple of times but I am freakin’ beat. There is no shortage of world events going on in real life as well as smaller but time consuming events going on in my day to day life. So when I do get inspiration and time to code properly I binge, it’s probably not the best work method but it’s been the most productive lately. Burnout aside, I have gotten so many things done in the game that I will keep this post short as I think I’ll have more stuff to show for the next post. I just hope I don’t forget it.

The most important thing to note, is that I see the horizon, at the very least the end of the prototype phase. Most systems are in place and working. Most classes have at least their base abilities and some have their ultimates ready. If I wasn’t so aware of how high quality games release every day I’d put it on early access, but in order to be the best game that it can be, I have to be patient and diligent with my attention to details. Little problems always become bigger further down the line.

ANIMATIONS AND SKILLS.

Dynamic Enemy Health bars and Functioning Hardlight Shield

So the big problem I had with getting more things done was the fact that I have very little experience with animation, and besides coding it is another discipline I had to really study in order to understand what the heck I’m supposed to do. And the thing is I have seen a bunch of tutorials, but usually they fail to stick. I get bits and pieces here and there but I never get the full picture.

Sometimes things click and I’m able to string things together, and that’s when I go on my binge coding sessions. Solutions to long standing problems become clear as day, and I have to ride that epiphany wave as long as I can. It is with great pride that I can say, that animation montages are working as intended. I still need to tweak some more stuff, but soon, I’ll be able to do active reloads, combos and hopefully Close Quarters Combat (doom style Glory kills).

NEXT STEPS

I will attempt to polish the base mechanics before introducing new ones as I want to make sure that nothing new breaks old things, or at the very least try to prevent it. I also need to rework the cover system slightly in order to allow for vaulting and more fluid movement. once I finish with that segment I will begin giving AI more moves in order for them to become a threat.

And last but certainly not least will be the dialogue and NPC system. These are core to the experience of the game we’re trying to make, and therefore needs a lot of attention and polish. There are many different ways to do dialogue, but we need to find the one that is right for us.

Once the main mechanics and dialogue system are in. I will begin developing the vertical slice, do some internal testing, and then send out into the publisher wilds.

I can see the event horizon. I need only to steady my course.

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar
Game Designer
Plasmapunk Studios

Daniel AguilarAugust 18, 2022

Pride & Progress

BLOG ENTRY 40 - 6.30.2022

DEV STATUS

Well I have to say that I have been extremely busy the past couple of months. I have been quite productive in the game as well as my personal life. but as a consequence I have neglected to document the projects progress on the page. I usually keep it as proof of how much I’ve progressed since last I wrote about it.

And there is a lot of progress to be documented. I will do my best to update broadly on how things have improved since… April? Fuck. Well, you know what they say about how time flies by. So lets get Into it.

CHARACTER CLASSES.

While each of the classes abilities have been reworked slightly, the core of the Playable classes is indeed still intact. Class Identity is one of the most important things in the game as the whole point of playing as a different class/character is to see the world from a different point of view. It can be Narratively or it can be Mechanically, but they have to feel distinct enough that it’s not just copy paste mechanics/Narrative responses/consequences.

I have shuffled some abilities around, but It’s providing some really interesting mechanical interactions, and opening up a lot of possibility space. I am still polishing the way that all these things work. and will show the updated mechanics once they’re post worthy. If I can be honest there is so much that can be done as far as ability interactions, not only creating a really cool synergy between your class abilities and playstyle, but also the possibility of these interactions working with other players. There is a lot to choose, so I’m working on narrowing down the type of interactions we’re going to make in order to make it manageable, the last thing we need is to overscope and have feature creep uh, creep up on us. you know?

But all in all, Mobility is resolved for all 5 classes, offensive ability works on 3 classes, 2 to go, utility only works on 2, so need 3 more. and when it comes to the ultimate abilities I currently only have one fully functional. The rest of the ultimates are in design, but I am close to making their base functionality, and because of the aforementioned intent on making each class unique, HOW each ultimate works is vastly different. so it requires unique code for each one, there is no copy pasta when it comes to this, hence why it’s taking a little longer than the other, well, more basic abilities.

Wraith’s Teleport + Toxic Area Denial Shotgun.

My philosophy when it comes to ultimates is that it should be the “break in case of emergency” kind of ability, but also make the player go “THAT’S RIGHT FUCKER!”, so the balance between something that you don’t want to use because of it’s potential to get you out of a sticky situation and spamming it everytime it’s cooldown is reset is where I need to focus my design efforts. Also, Ultimate interactions with the rest of your skills? tell me that doesn’t sound fucking cool.

THE ARMORY

This is where I’ve been having the most fun. In order to keep things under control and not spiraling beyond my capabilities. I decided to limit the prototype arsenal to 2 weapons per elemental damage type. in total they’re are currently 48 weapons including the melee weapons that are currently still in prototype due to animation issues. So far I believe I have about 20-30 of them at the very least as it’s own individual blueprint which I can edit manually in order to create their unique alternate fire mechanics.

United Standard Sidearm - Shock Net alt Fire.

I have to say I am very proud of the stuff that I’ve been making. So far the weapons feel unique enough, even though they’re currently all just guns, once I get to making the unique melee abilities, oh boy, we’re gonna start seeing some really cool shit. I am still working on how to do top down melee that doesn’t just require you swinging wildly in the general direction of the enemy, but Melee systems have a little more complexity due to how you’re supposed to manage animations in unreal. It’s all integrated yes, but I don’t know how to use those tools yet. I’m hoping I can get that resolved soon to make some cool new shots.

For the remainder of the prototype I will only be working with the weapons that I have already designed in order to not scope creep before production even starts. My hope is that even once the game is launched, I can easily sneak in new weapons when patching out bug fixes and adding quality of life. There’s nothing better than being surprised with new content when you’re just expecting bullets to stop clipping or something. So my focus will be making these weapons the best I can, and showing off the possibility space for each of the elements.

Staple Shotgun - Alt fire Magnetic field.

ANIMATION GROUNDWORK

Protector Mobility transition into Cover slide + Shield Activation. Weapon displayed Cryo Cannon.

Now that the base for creating ranged weapons is finished and weapon editing is simple enough. I have to make them feel correct. The main Issue is the fact that I’m using basic animation blueprints that come included with unreal, while they are very versatile, as I mentioned before. I dunno how to use them. I believe I have a good base to start working with but I still need to set it up in a way that the gun can be higher than the low cover, in order to avoid shots missing from your point of cover.

That requires for the full animation blueprint to be functioning. As in Register when you are in cover, both high and low. what happens if the cover is destroyed while you’re using it. and of course being able to vault over cover, be it from standing still or transition mid slide/mobility skill. That is a lot of work and I’m doing my best to learn how it’s supposed to be setup. Hopefully I can have a fully functioning animation blueprint to just add the unique animations specifically to each characters blendspace, but keep the back code so everyone changes to when they have a shotgun, or a pistol, or simply casting their abilities while in motion without everything breaking. Gamedev problems.

NEXT STEPS

I will attempt to finish all the class abilities in order to start tweaking and get them feeling right, or redesign completely if it doesn’t play well. After that I will focus on animation in order to get all the things that the game needs in order to feel more complete. I am also on the verge of finishing the inventory system and you should be able to use/store items by the next update (I hope).

The last two main mechanics that would be required for the game to be complete, would be the enemies and their AI, as well as the NPC dialogue system. So to recap, Abilities, Animations, AI and Dialogue. I’m so close to finishing the prototype, all these years of work are going to pay off soon, I can’t wait for this game to be out there.

Waiting on the Lazy Dev to get coding… It’s me, I’m the Lazy Dev.
Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar
Game Designer
Plasmapunk Studios

Daniel AguilarJune 30, 2022

Expanding The base Arsenal

BLOG ENTRY 39 - 4.7.2022

DEV STATUS

I’ve been updating some old tech debt and making some new guns. It’s been difficult to get things done without getting distracted. Making a single gun, even if it already has a good parent base to work off, needs modification in order for it to behave the way I’m designing it. While I have made the parent to be easily editable, there is a lot that goes into the feel of the weapon. Particles, sounds, and most importantly how it behaves mechanically.

I haven’t run into a creative block per-say, but I do believe I have to think hard about what I want the alternate firing weapon modes to do. How they are supposed to feel different. Changing the element is a great start, but I don’t think it’s enough to warrant making an entirely different gun. We’ll see once I finish the baseline arsenal.

ELEMENTAL EFFECTS

FROST/CRYO

I have finished the base Frost Elemental Effect, It now applies a slowing debuff to the enemies. Currently I have not been able to test it as I need to develop an AI that runs towards you so I can balance it, but we’ll get there later on.

The weapon shown is a projectile weapon when using primary fire, and a frost beam when using it’s alternate fire. I’m unsure whether to use it as a base weapon or as a class specific weapon. So far It will be one of the starter weapons for the nanoweaver. I’ve yet to rework her base attack in order to use a melee as a primary weapon, but she should at least have one more weapon in her inventory and this seems perfect for her.

I really want to make sure the different firing modes feel like they complement eachother, There is still a lot of iteration to be done but I’m really thinking I want to design enemies that require some sort of crowd control, I think that will be my focus in the coming months.

TOXIC DAMAGE

I’ve made a more aggressive Damage over time which is the plan for the Toxic elemental effect. so far it’s melting with even minor tweaks. I’m really proud of this one as it clearly shows that the enemy is afllicted with something.

The Weapon shown here is the Toxic Dart Gun. each shot applies a toxic dot that does a little bit of damage but very quickly and for a while. when you apply a couple of stacks it melts the enemys. The alternate fire is a Microwave beam that activates the toxic stacks dealing damage directly without consuming stacks. It might need some balancing later on but right now it feels good so I’ll keep working on making new elements and new weapons.

MAGNETIC STAPLEGUN

This is not a new element but it is an alternate application of the magnetic element. The Weapon shown above is a Magnetic Staplegun (Mag Shotgun?) it’s regular fire shoots 3 projectiles that will follow magnetic fields. The alternate fire does no damage at the moment but it creates the magnetic field. More of a utility alt fire but well placed shots could allow you to pull off some cool trick shots. I have another version that spawns several projectiles, but so far It has not proved to be fun. So I might take some more time tweaking this weapon later on.

NEW TECHNICIAN PORTRAIT

The Technician has had his profile pic updated. Now the portrait should reflect the character that we’re going for with this class. I’m really happy how it turned out. Soon I’ll be able to have all the main playable characters bio accessible. Might add a section on this page. who knows, but it’s cool isn’t it?

NEXT STEPS

I want to finish the base weapons and animations. I will check the new Unreal Engine 5 stuff as I think it might have the animation blendspaces I need to set it for when you’re firing different types of weapons. Right now they’re all stuck on the base animation and man do I have a lot of animation studying to do, hopefully I can do it with minimal pain, learning this stuff takes a lot of brain juice, I have to really get focused in order to understand what I’m supposed to do, so it will take me a bit of time. Hopefully not too long though.

I’m almost done with the base weapons and the inventory interactivity. so once that is done I will start making some enemies that are fun to fight with to finish the MVP. I can’t believe I’m getting so close. Wish me luck internet.

Working Hard to start the real work.

Daniel Freaky Aguilar
Game Designer
Plasmapunk Studios

Daniel AguilarApril 7, 2022

Reworks & Redos

BLOG ENTRY 38 - 3.31.2022

DEV STATUS

Well… Lets try this again, I was already halfway done with the post when it all got erased, why the fuck it happened I don’t know but well I guess my sunny disposition is no long as sunny.

While I realize that i’ve been radio silent for the past couple of months (since december) It has been mostly because I’ve been working on clearing up old tech debt and redoing weapon code in order to fit the updated parent classes. Most of that only reflects in the backend and not really noticable once playing it. However we have done some several upgrades and I think things are looking way better, and since I’m clearing up all that tech debt everything is working a lot smoother.

VISUAL UPDATE

So while reaserching how to blockout levels we came across an asset pack called supergrid which has some really good assets that you can use for your game regardless of genre. This has made it so much easier to distinguish between safe cover that never breaks (green), Cover that breaks after a few hits (Yellow) and cover that is fragile and will break with one hit (Red).

While this will not represent the final visual style of the game it has been so useful for testing purposes. now we can plan out maps a little better and test them out real time in game to see what we need to change. For now I’m still making the building blocks, turrets, items, weapons etc. so it’s still a bit before we start making new levels.

Also on this GIF is Fiona’s Special. It has been a testing weapon which switches elements, this way I cant test each elemental effect seperately without breaking anything. Since this gun has been so useful I think I will end up adding it to the final build as an Experimental weapon. I’m sure If i balance everything It should be a fun little weapon.

WEAPON ROSTER UPDATE

For the past year or so I’ve been working on learning the basics of weapons and how they work in unreal, I believe I’m almost to the point where the master weapon is complete and I can start making new guns. All of the guns above are placeholders, but they should be able to represent the idea of the weapons final identity. Colors, Shape design. Reload style. but most importantly weapon Mechanic. What will each weapons alt fire do?

This is much harder to design than you might think, because you have to think about how each gun will behave and overlaps have to be kept to a minimum. Why bother using Weapon A if weapon B does the exact same thing but better?, It has to be sufficiently different that It justifies it’s existance as a weapon in the roster, but with an understandable mechanic that won’t leave the player to confused about what it actually does or how to use it.

I may Implement some kind of Codex for all the information in the game, maybe have it unlock when you reach certain milestones. Encountering a given number of enemies, reloading the weapon correctly, or even something as simple as firing it any given number of times.

Given this limitation, I’ve opted to reduce the starting roster (21 weapons so far) to just a couple of weapons of each element instead of the intended full weapon roster (around 60+). I may just end up making new guns once in early access once the other more important bits of the game are solved.

CLASS SPECIFIC WEAPON UPDATES

Because of the reworks done on the master weapon and the projectiles themselves, I ran into several issues which made the base weapons unusable. Therefore I spent quite a bit of time making sure they work as I originally designed them. These weapons are unique in that only the player class will have it. It would basically be an experimental weapon that you start with and upgrade over time to reach to “Legendary” status. In theory if someone wanted to do a starting weapons only run of the game they should be able to finish it without any type of major hinderance.

Here is the starting weapon for the protector class, Main Fire is shock projectiles that can distrupt shields and abilities. switching to alt fire turns it into a shotgun that fires frost projectiles that slow and may freeze characters in place.

For the Technician Character I always had the idea that he would use a magnetic nail pistol. It fires magnetic projectiles that create a field that pulls all other projectiles of the same type in. It’s regular fire Is a fast Semi-auto fire mode that you can carefully aim your shots. but once you do you can switch to alternate fire and go full auto, with the magnetic field up you can curve your bullets and just finish off tough enemies or fast enemies who move a lot. I’m glad that this one is also working as intended.

NEXT STEPS

I am finishing up the base functionality of the Inventory System so my goal this month is to make items you can pick up and add to your inventory. Considering that currency & Ammo will all be auto pick up and those have already been resolved, my focus will be entirely on getting you to be able to pick up weapons and drop them as well as exchange them in your inventory slots.

Finally I will work on being able to equip the item and have you use, I will begin with the weapons because that is the system that is furthest along and I can see tangible impacts and work out any bugs that come out along the way. Once all that is done I think I try to make the base melee weapons, at least the class specific ones in order to work out the melee combat system.

For now I think this was a pretty lengthy update. Not as lenghty as others I admit, but having to redo the whole thing kind of killed my writers mood. Rest assured that I’m still working hard on the game I’ve just been quiet about it.

Until we meet again fellow reader.
Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar
Game Designer
Plasmapunk Studios

Daniel AguilarMarch 31, 2022

Lock and Re-Load

BLOG ENTRY 37 - 12.16.2021

DEV STATUS

Well, I’ve failed with posting more, but that’s ok, because I’ve gotten so much done and I’m so excited to keep going. I know that I’m getting pretty close to finishing traversal mechanics, weapons and inventory systems, but they’re still a lot more to do. And I have to say that despite knowing that there is a lot more to be done, I’m very much hyped to continue working on the game. I might go radio silent for the holidays but here’s some updates I’m really proud of.

RELOAD FUNCTION & DAMAGE NUMBERS

I have finally gotten around to coding the reload function on the master weapon. It now actively consumes ammo and uses a different amount with the alternate fire. It will stop shooting when the clip is empty, but you can reload before.

With the base functionality done and transferable to all other weapons I need to work on the active reload part of the function, as well as set an animation montage so it looks like the character is reloading. I have to design a lot of stuff for the active reload as I know it’s a fun minigame within combat, but I need to make the function worth doing it, and that’s gonna take me putting on my designer hat more often than my coder one.

I think I will continue my work until I finish the coding part before trying to design the fun reward for nailing the active reload. It’s going to take some work as I really want to make the weapons distinct, and there’s a lot possibility space, I can make the weapon fire extra shots, deal more damage, instantly apply elemental damage, stun, penetrate shield, there’s so much that can be done, I have to really study it before attempting to implement them.

ELEMENTAL PROJECTILES AND ALTERNATE FIRE.

I’ve finished the base elemental projectiles for all elements, and finished this gun I wanted to do for a while, a weapon that it’s alternate fire is just to switch element. If I balance it well It could be a gun that could be part of a lot of peoples build, a reliable side arm for any situation. So I have a use for it in the final game, as well as test each individual element and find bugs with a single weapon. Neat right?

I am also having thinking hard about the tangible difference for each elemental effect. I’m already cooking up a rock paper scissor graph to make sure I don’t have unnecessary overlap of effects. but that’ll wait for a bit until I’m done with the base functionality. I already have the code and tutorials that I need, I just need to get around to implementing them.

EQUIPMENT AND INVENTORY UPDATE

I also finished the inventory toggle so now it returns properly, I had a bug where after you returned you could not rotate or fire. With that fixed I will continue working on the individual components so I can keep everything neatly organized. I also have to decide how much inventory is enough inventory. That way I can set a reasonable amount of slots and see if they fit the screen clearly.

I also have to work on being able to pick up things like currency and weapons. but that in itself is a long process, so I’ll try to take it easy and get small wins at a time. I’d rather make sure that all my code is as clean as possible right now so I don’t screw future me too badly.

NEXT STEPS

I will continue focusing on finishing the main bits of the game, as I’m very close to finishing this as an MVP, but I really want to take it further, and that’s going to require some work, and that takes time, but once the base is fully done, I can just dedicate myself to making content and refining combat mechanics.

As I mentioned earlier I’ll probably go afk for a bit but I’ll keep working. I keep forgetting to update the page because I’m hyperfocused on my progress. It’s good though, I can literally see the difference between a few months ago and now and it’s really coming along. It’s nice to feel proud of your work.

Patting myself on the back.

Pat, pat.

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

Daniel AguilarDecember 16, 2021

Getting Closer to the Real Deal

BLOG ENTRY 36 - 10.21.2021

DEV STATUS

I have not posted in the past 2 months mostly because I’ve been busy working on a lot of backend stuff, again nothing shiny. I’ve been improving on my old code and fixing minor issues, as a result I’ve had to iterate and rework/redesign how the features work in the game. One of the main lessons I’ve learned while working on this game is the fact that it’s not as simple as saying “We need an Inventory system”.

I’m not referring specifically to the coding side of things, but rather the micro decisions that you need to make before hand and test to find out if they’re viable. As it stands I believe I’m on my 6th iteration of the inventory and equipment screen.

The problem comes from a simple fact. There is no one right way to make an inventory. There are so many different games with really good inventory systems that choosing which works best for the game has been difficult.

Another problem is the issue of Inheritance. Since this is at it’s heart an ARPG, I’ve had to examine a lot of features that are standard of any game like it. Minimap, Implemented, then realized it was unnecessary. had to redesign. Showing the character on screen in the inventory system. Implemented. unnecessary as well. Another redesign. You get the idea. “Taking what works and redoing it” simply doesn’t work when you’re trying to design something different. Because even if it works for other games. there’s no guarantee that it’ll work for you.

Regardless of the Iterations, I believe I am close to getting it where it needs to be in order to continue working on other features, such as dialog and the attachment system for the weapons. It’s all interconnected. So decisions you make for one feature can impact another in ways you don’t really expect.

This is a Chunky Update so… you’ve been warned.

COVER SYSTEM UPDATE

I have found a few bugs that have been hindering the progress of getting it fully functional. And I know I’ve yet to explore the full possibilities of the implementation. but once I got more actions and animations in place I’ll provide a better update.

LOOT SYSTEM STARTER

After the creation of the Master weapon. The next step was getting an enemy to drop it. I’ve implemented a very basic loot drop code in order for it to drop the weapon. I had to mess around with some physics and stuff but with a few tweaks and some spreadsheet work, I can make custom loot drop tables in order for enemies to drop appropriate loot. The awkward feeling of killing a mouse and it dropping a legendary 2 handed weapon, it’s funny, but it breaks immersion.

I’m still working on the loot beam particle, But it looks pretty awesome too me so far. I just need to work on clarity. My intention is to have the particle effect on the weapon show Weapon element, Faction, Rarity. I may not need to have all of that, as once the player becomes familiar with what factions drop which elements, it might be unnecessary. However for Experimental weapons and Legendary weapons, It might help as the idea is that they break the element/faction rule. Once I start getting more guns designed I’ll see if it’s clear enough.

INVENTORY AND EQUIPMENT V6

As I was mention earlier, I’ve been working on the equipment and inventory system, and the results have been great, It’s very close to what I want it to look like. The main Idea is to have all the information in front of you as clear as possible. Without feeling like an overload of information. That has been quite a challenge because I am not a graphic designer, what has helped me is that I’ve played tons of games, and already have an idea of everything is supposed to look like.

The next step for this is to get functionality into the actual system, so you can click change equipment etc. As it’s shown above I’ve made a lot of UI changes in order to clearly represent everything. I’ve updated the shield and health bar, and they are actually functional! yay!

HOLOMAP STARTER

After realizing that a Minimap in the traditional sense would not work. I’ve been trying to design a HoloMap, I’ve already got some resources to study in order to spawn the map. But I have to learn some vector math in order to map the players location in relation to the HoloMap. So for the time being this is in it’s early stages, but I’m hopeful I can get it working as intended.

CURRENCY AND AMMO STARTER

I worked a little on the ammo and currency. So far I believe i’ve got most currencies, I need to make crafting resources for the crafting system. Right now I’m more concerned about getting the character to register and save your status. I’ve yet to decide how to make the save/load system. But I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

NEXT STEPS

The rest of the month I’m going to be working with getting all loot implemented. Making sure enemies drop different loot. as well as test out damaging the player. Hopefully I’ll have enough implemented for next update to show and not just tell.

Working hard… trust me… no really….

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios.

Daniel AguilarOctober 21, 2021

Constructing Cover and Cover accessories.

BLOG ENTRY 35 9.2.2021

DEV STATUS

Making masters has been quite the adventure, I am tired. But not in a bad way mind you, I’ve come up with some pretty cool stuff. I’m currently working on loot drops, adjusting weapon damage based on rarity, and elemental effects. A lot of it is still getting cooked but once it’s implemented it’s gonna be awesome, I can’t wait to show it off.

COVER SYSTEM UPDATE

I have made a master cover blueprint that currently holds a lot of information regarding the cover itself. It’s a neat little cube with the cover volume attached to it. This way If I have destructible cover, once the cover is the destroyed the volume goes with it. I still haven’t studied the code necessary to make destructible cover, but I’m working on it.

COVER CONSTRUCTOR

I have concocted a cover constructor that I am very proud of. It’s based on a mesh placement vector, so all I have to do is drag the point where I want to make the cover, and it will automatically spawn usable cover, this is going to be such a handy tool for level design. It also works vertically. I’ve still to set up having the player character detect whether or not you are behind low or high cover, but it’s gonna take some serious noodle power, and I think making the weapon and inventory system is more important at the moment.

The best thing about the way I’ve worked in this cover system is the fact that it works with other blueprints as well. So even if the path I made is made up of different components, the player character will still follow the path of the cover. I hope it works the same way when I implement AI that takes cover as well. We’ll see.

NEXT STEPS

I intend to complete the cover system and try to get each segment of the cover constructor to be editable. I’ve already made it so it becomes an array. but I’ve yet to figure out how to edit them. Once I’m done with that I’ve got a bunch of fixes and updates I need to implement before I start spawning weapons. and I have to study and work on the new inventory system.

As I mentioned previously I’ve got a lot of things in the works but they’re still very much in the early stages, I’m trying to take one system at a time so I don’t overwhelm myself like before and end up paralyzed with minimal progress on each system.

In the meantime enjoy a bug on the main menu I can’t seem to fix that turned it into an FPS.

With that I’m out for the day, I’ve got some drawing to attempt and some projectiles to re-parent. I will try to post more often as I’ve left the page a bit blank these past 2 weeks. Real Life man. It’s hard.

Considering boomer shooters.

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

Daniel AguilarSeptember 2, 2021

Taking Cover and Making Masters

BLOG ENTRY 34 - 8.12.2021

DEV STATUS

Everything is peachy, even with the hard work. I have made great strides in the past couple of weeks, clearing tech debt, solving issues, laying ground work for smooth production. It’s safe to say I’m on the right path and getting closer and closer to my milestones.

COVER SYSTEM UPDATE

I don’t know what to say, it’s been a long road to get here. The cover System feature has been core to the idea of the game and I am almost done with a full proof of concept. It feels pretty good to be honest, but there is still more work to do.

At the moment cover is detected, the player sticks to it, If the player gets of the edge of the cover they will stop moving, and most importantly, bullets from low cover work without a problem. Sometimes it collides with the cover if you’re doing complex maneuvers, but it feels kind of good? It gives it a bit of realism that you can really control your weapon that much when you’re flying through the air. If I find it becomes a pain point in testing I’ll try to find a solution. For now I’m keeping it to add to the flavor.

The things I’m currently missing is that It does not detect movement properly when looking down or when sticking sideways to cover. I’m looking to get that resolved within the next couple of weeks. If worse comes to worse I can consult with Ryan Laley at the end of the month and fix all the bugs I come across.

MOVEMENT UPDATE

I have taken Ryan’s Advice and reworked a bunch of base code in order to have things done the proper way. I’ve reparented all player characters to a new Master Character, and with it resolved several issues. The player will no longer be twitching when moving as there is no conflict between the mouse rotation and movement rotation. I will figure out a way to resolve the gamepad rotation and movement when the time comes. For now I will try to focus on having smooth PC controls.

The player now rotates smoothly even with a fast motion. I’ve tweaked it as much as I can right now to get it feeling good without compromising the players ability to turn quickly.

The camera will now lag slightly behind the player in order to reduce motion sickness, I may tweak this further but I don’t want the player to get too lost if the camera can’t keep up with them.

The base enemy’s ragdoll physics now work properly, reacting to the hit direction and getting thrown depending on the damage done more correctly. Further tweaking must be done but It’s currently in a really good place.

Just for comparison this is how it used to look/feel before.

The changes are subtle, but they greatly improve the game feel. And with the ragdoll physics working correctly. I can cross that off my list and just work on making it feel better, without having to worry about glitches.

WEAPON MASTER BLUEPRINT

I’ve been working on a master weapon blueprint so I can do things the right way for the subsequent weapons. I’ve almost got all the functions and information put in the correct place. This work will make it so much easier to add content, maybe even make it easier for modders to make their own weapons and stuff, would be pretty cool.

I have added almost every stat that will be necessary for weapons to work correctly regardless of how it’s supposed to work. This is of course just the Projectile weapon master. I have to make another one for Melee weapons, but I can easily rework this master with a few tweaks. I’m still thinking what information I need to add to the weapon Icon. but so far here’s a quick placeholder I came up with. So far I’ve only thought about displaying it’s rarity and element. Still got a bit of work to be done here, so no rush.

Prototype weapon Icon

NEXT STEPS

With several tech debt issues out of the way, and the weapon master coming together. Once I am certain I don’t need to add any more things onto the main weapon blueprint I’ll move on to the inventory system, In order to be able to pick up weapons and store them on the character. It’s not a complex system, but it takes a lot of work to get right, So I might not be done with it this month, but progress will be done.

I’ve also been watching level design tutorials in order to start making a nice level to test out movement correctly. I want to make a level that’s fun to move around in regardless of class, I know I’m aiming really high but there is no point in a class based game if only one class is fun to play as. I’ll start making the levels once I’m fully done with movement and cover.

Well, that’s pretty much all the updates. I’m looking forward to making more guns and projectiles, as well as implementing elemental damage, I’ve already got them designed on paper, but I’ve got to test them out in game. I hope they work as well in game as they do in my head. Here’s to prototyping.

Parenting and Reparenting and shieeeeeeet

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

Daniel AguilarAugust 12, 2021

Putting the Pieces together

BLOG ENTRY 33 - 07.29.2021

DEV STATUS

It’s been quite a month. I haven’t blogged since the beginning of the month due to life stuff, dentist, home maintenance etc. I have however been working hard on Prototype 4, and am happy to report good stuff has been done. I am very excited because I’m finally tackling the cover mechanic, It’s still buggy but It’s going somewhere great.

COVER SYSTEM

Cover Volumes and spline path prototypes.

Cover has been the mechanic I have had most problems with, considering there are very few comprehensive tutorials out there. Many skip on details or simply make it hacky. Working with the tutorials by Ryan Laley, I have managed to get the base of the cover system working. and I am working on bug fixes and will work on animations and polish as soon as I’m convinced that it feels mechanically correct, as in, not getting stuck IN the cover (current issue), bullets not colliding with the invisible volumes, etc.

I should have a better look at it by the end of next week, possibly with a slide animation, I know I have some, somewhere. I’m just not that good with animations yet, so It’ll be tough to get done for me, but I should be able to get something decent enough for it to look cool.

CLASS HUD PROTOTYPES

I have the idea of making most of the HUD custom to each class, while trying to keep consistency in how things are presented to the player. So far I’ve been working on some things in order to get the hud looking as distinct as possible without committing too much right now as these are marketplace assets and don’t have a coherent visual language. So eventually they will all need to be changed. For now I’m happy that they’re all working properly.

I have also relocated the equipment tab as well as the pause/exit menu. If I had them all active at once it was a mess, it didn’t look good at all. So I’m shifting some things around. and this is still very much a WIP as I still need to make room for the inventory system below the equipment. I feel I need to make some more decisions on where things are going to be placed in order for everything to make sense. Right now I’m more focused on the systems working properly, I’ll worry about style and polish when I get to it.

NEXT STEPS

I am at the point where I have all the pieces of my game, not counting art assets and 3d models, all systems and mechanics are available to me in some shape or form. So now it’s only a matter of making each piece, and making sure I can assemble the prototype in a way that works and is fun. I will finish the cover to make sure navigation and movement are complete, and then I will start working on the inventory and loot system. I also have some skills I need to work with and complete in all classes, so that’s another bit of work as well.

I’m still not sure whether or not to launch a patreon this soon in development. as I have no guarantee that I won’t get stuck and be unable to deliver. but I have already filmed an intro video, where I look very awkward, I’m always nervous on camera. once I skim through the footage and see where the game is as far as being patreon worthy, I’ll start making plans to launch that. In the meantime, gotta keep working on what I’ve got.

Getting Closer to the Beginning.

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

Daniel AguilarJuly 29, 2021

Taking a step back to get a better look

BLOG ENTRY 32 - 7.1.2021

DEV STATUS

I realize I hadn’t blogged since last month, but It has been an interesting month to say the least. I have signed up for Ryan Laley’s patreon in order to get some assistance with the systems I’ve been perpetually stuck on. So in order to be able to explain where I’m stuck I also have to take stock of what I’ve done so far.

I decided that I should do a pass on the entire project, starting with the Game design document. The Main reason is that several things have changed since my 1st draft. I’ve updated it but the last update was in March 2020. Not only am I updating the actual information of the game but I’m also updating the presentation. I am proud of the work that I did with that document, but honestly, It looks like a “boring” document. Even people involved with the game have their eyes glaze over after page 10, and that’s not a good thing.

So my plan is to work on the Document until the beginning of next week. I feel Like I’m almost done, but I have to rework the faction presentation, As I believe most of the information on the document can be used here on the webpage. and It would give a more in depth look into the type of story and universe I’m trying to create, as well as provide more info on the gameplay it self, since most of it is just either located on the document or here on the blog.

MVP STATUS

After I finish Revising the Design Document, I will do a pass on all the functions/features I have done, what is in a work in progress status, and most importantly, what has me stuck. I know there’s still a million things to do, but I feel like I’ve done quite a bit, come a long way from the basic work I started almost 3 years ago. Once I take stock of what work I need to do, I will try to finish task I can get done by myself and set aside anything that slows down my progress, and request help with those specific subjects.

I am hoping that this will allow me to speed up the process a little. I know making games is hard, even for people who know what they’re doing, and I started learning how to make them from scratch with no coding knowledge. So I can understand why it’s taking me so long, but I’d rather not let this idea linger and not get finished. While this is the game I want to make the most. I also want to make other games too. I don’t want this to be my only game. And If I am to achieve that, I need to finish this one first, in the highest quality I can.

NEXT STEPS

Once I have finished reviewing the entirety of the project, I will work in sprints focusing on specific systems that don’t need other systems in order to work. I will begin by finishing the base abilities for all characters and starter weapons. Then I will work on the item and inventory system. Finally the NPC crafting and Dialogue systems. The cover system will continue to be in the backlog until I can consult on how to do it properly. I don’t want to start messing around and finding out I have to redo the entire thing months later.

I will also attempt to polish all the features that I currently have for them to feel better and function as bug free as possible. This is especially important since I’m working with the UE5 early access 2. I want to clear all the problems I have so far and then try to make the most of the tools I’m using, really take advantage of UE5.

For Now I’m going to keep working on the document for the rest of the week and start with the feature review next week. I will post an update on what’s going on in my next blog.

Thanks for reading!

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

Daniel AguilarJuly 1, 2021

SHINY NEW PARTICLES! SHINY NEW PHYSICS!

BLOG ENTRY 31 - 6.3.2021

DEV STATUS

Working with Unreal Engine 5 has not been as difficult a transition as I thought and I’ve been able to work with things quite well. I’ve fixed a bit of the tech debt and the Ragdoll finally works!… Sort of. I have a few kinks to work out but I’m sure it’s nothing a little bit of math can’t fix. I’ve been mostly concerned with making sure the migration has had no hidden side effects, but so far so good. I’ve been using it for the past week and everything is fine. I’ve yet to fully tap into it’s full potential with nanite, and the metahuman animation targeting, and I haven’t even started with testing the full body IK. But that’s okay, that means I still have more end game content to explore and level up.

PARTICLE SYSTEMS STUDY

I have been working with different particle effects and reworking them to fit what I want for the game. Most of them have ended up pretty good. However, they will never fully fit since I have particles from many different creators and packs. So I’ve been learning how to make particle systems from scratch. I’m very happy that the unreal engine 4 tutorials from years ago still work right now. I’ve only made 2 systems this week and they’re far from perfect, but they will give me a good start to create the particle effects for the rest of the elements. I honestly think that while it’s more work, the game will be better in the long run since it will all be custom. Worse comes to worse, I can sell particles on the marketplace.

I started working with the loot beams for the item drops. Since I’m not a VFX artist or a visual designer, I’ve been experimenting with how I want loot to be cataloged. I believe this is a good start as the gradient, however I’m not sure if it is reading properly at the moment. The Idea being the bottom color represents weapon Faction, Teal for the Indies, Blue for the Galactic Union, Yellow for Scrappers (Not pictured) and Red for Prototech (cus they bad, but also cool, it’s a dilemma to be sure).

I believe adding some more effects like a pulse on the ground and some kind of energy pulsing through the beam will provide more clarity as to the rarity, right now I feel the faction reads well, but it’s not enough, I think I also need to create some kind of outline for the item, as it feels a little separated from the gun. It’s still the prototype and we have plenty of time to iterate on it. maybe even after early access since I also have to consider some kind of indicator for people who are color blind. Gradients mean nothing If you can’t tell them apart.

PHYSICS FINALLY ENABLED

After so much time with the enemies just dropping to the floor I was able to create some basic ragdoll physics, and It is already looking way better. The game feel of seeing how impactful your weapons and abilities are is so much more now.

The problem I’ve run into is that it kinda always goes the same way, if you can tell by the gif they keep sorta jumping from the bottom, and I need the enemy to feel like it got hit where it got hit. I know it has to do with using the physics part of the mesh rather than the mesh itself. But that’ll be reworked at a later date. as This week i will continue working with particles as well as readjusting the HUD in UE5 and making custom huds for everyone.

I will also be working on the other classes skills. I’ve yet to make the ultimate abilities for everyone. so I think it’s better that I work with those that I’ve already designed and try to implement them as best I can, Once I do I’ll move on to other systems.

NEXT STEPS

I’ve already been studying the inventory component as per my previous blogs, however I’m realizing certain conventions need to be readjusted. Torchlight 3 does this simple way of closing in to your character and rotating it so it faces the camera. rather than add a completely different mesh and having to deal with persistent levels or out of bounds mesh copies.

I really want to get working on this as looting is a big part of a looter shooter, but I feel the base abilities and making sure moving your character feels good and not janky at all, or at the very least, slightly janky. After that It’s finishing the skills, then on I’ll move on to the inventory and equipment system revamp.

For now Imma call it a day and be happy I made enough progress this week to have a day off without feeling guilty about the work I could be doing. Instead I’m gonna go get fucked up by dark souls 3, or worse, Stardew valley hard mode :V

Absolutely (Loot) Beaming

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

Daniel AguilarJune 3, 2021

Shields Holding, Fire at will!

BLOG ENTRY 30 - 05.27.2021

DEV STATUS

I have successfully migrated the game project to Unreal Engine 5 - Early Access, and Everything works! I’ve tested every character class and ability components and everything works as well as I had left it on Unreal Engine 4.26. The only odd thing I noticed was that the HUDs will need to be readjusted, but as far as mechanics, code, animation and particle effects. They’re all working! Yay! ^_^

Considering that the new engine version is in early access I had to make sure I was doing things the right way. One of the things they mention on the official page is to work with UE5 if the plan is to launch in 2022. I am still so far away from completing so many things that I honestly don’t think I’ll launch in 2021. The Kickstarter may be done later this year, but full on development of the game will probably end up in 2022 if all goes well.

So I’m committing to working with Ue5 through the bugs and growing pains, as every improvement they are doing will greatly benefit the development of the game. It’s a “Cry now, smile later” situation, and I’m all in.

PROTECTOR CLASS UPDATE

I have finished two of the base abilities for the protector, the HardLight Projector (Shieldy boiiiiii), and the Micro Salvo (Shoulder Launcher). Not only did I manage to get the particle effects working but most of the functionality and animations as well.

The shield works great and the animation is working pretty good. The shoulder launcher fires well, and I’m so happy that you can fire your gun, the shoulder cannon, all while holding the shield up. No disrespect to other designers but I really hate it when you have to block OR attack (I’m looking at you dark souls), I dare ask why not both?

I also updated the particle effects on the protectors class specific gun. and It looks great :D

NEXT STEPS

I will be working on updating the project as best as possible to Unreal Engine 5, Once I’m certain that nothing will break later in the pipeline I’ll continue working with the abilities. I’m still trying to make the protectors charge work properly, I’ve got a couple of tutorials to watch, hopefully I’ll be able to finish it.

I will be working on the abilities for the foreseeable future, trying to make sure I’ve got all my class design down. There’s 12 Abilities that I have not finalized across all classes, and that’s considering they are the Base variation of those abilities. I am still designing and tweaking what I want the different variations of those abilities to do.

I also have to implement the interface that will allow the player you swap between the variations, as well as a HUD in order to show it working. I’ve got a looooot of work to do. oh boy. Here I go coding again.

Updates completed. Tasks pending. Many Tasks

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studio

Daniel AguilarMay 27, 2021

Shields Up, Brace for Impact

BLOG ENTRY 29 - 5.20.2021

DEV STATUS

The rework for all the abilities and weapons is working great. Some tweaks are needed here and there but for the most part it’s working as intended. Currently all the skills feel exactly the same, however now they are infinitely more efficient and compartmentalized.

With all the abilities separated from the main Class code, I will be able to assign those abilities to enemies as well. Which means I’ll be able to create really interesting enemies that feel like worthy opponents. This is a huge step for me considering I’ve begun to understand how to do things the proper way. Prototyping quick and Dirty was all fun and good while learning. But doing the things as close to the proper industry standards will really go a long way. If any abilities or damage or resource cost need to be changed, anything about the skills I’ll be able to do it without possibly breaking something else, as I’ve done many many times in the past.

With Git properly placed and my skills improving I’m hopeful that I’ll be able to get a good vertical slice going soon.

RAISE YOUR SHIELD BOYYYYYYYYY

With most of the legwork done on optimizing and fixing up abilities. I can now start working with more of the Abilities I’m missing. I’ve started with the Protector’s Shield. I’ve been wanting to do a Randhart style shield for a while. It is still missing a bit of functionality and animation blending. but for now it looks fucking cool.

I’ve already added the base stats for the shield, the next step is going to be to make an enemy projectile that can fire at the player and test out if it works or not. But that will be for another day, Right now My brain is fried like a potato, So I’m gonna call it a night.

NEXT STEPS

I will continue to work with the Protectors skillset until I’m sufficiently happy or I run into hard coding problems. Once he’s done I will continue working on the rest of the playable cast. I’m thinking about making a small hype video with what I already have but I think I need more skills. I only have mobility and some utility on them. I want to showcase all their powers even if it’s just their base mode. Maybe in a couple of weeks.

HE ATACK BUT ALSO PROTECC

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

Daniel AguilarMay 20, 2021

Reworking the Prework

BLOG ENTRY 28 - 5.13.2021

DEV STATUS

I have not posted for about a month due to a lot of work piling up. I have reached a point where I’ve been learning so much new software that It sort of overloaded my brain. Unreal Engine has a steep learning curve as it is, And I’ve been delving into other necessary software. Blender, Machinations.io, Metahumans, Substance Painter. Quite frankly they are all very different when it comes to the type of discipline that it follows as well as the skills required. It’s been taxing. Rewarding, but really taxing.

I have been trying to focus on the things that are necessary to get the Prototype finished. as I feel I’m very close to finishing it, but that’s just the beginning. I’ve been trying to work on fixing all the technical debt created from my lack of knowledge when I first started coding. I am proud to say that Everything that runs right now, is bug free at the moment. or at the very least Compiling Error free.

3D MODELS

I’ve working with the blender practice, I decided to try and remodel Rene’s Blunderbuss, I was able to get some cool stuff done. The double triggers, guard, barrel and clear clip. It took me a while and I busted my middle mouse wheel (thanks blender) but It really opens up a lot of possibilities.

If I am able to design, model and implement into unreal. Then there’s really little work left to be done. I would just need to decide what type of behavior I want the weapon or item to have, and start working from the bottom all the way to implementation, where the coding would be the heavy lifting, which brings me to my next point.

DEBT AND DESIGN

Due to a lot of my original design being conceived before I had studied everything I now know about game design. I need to rework a lot of my original flowcharts and individual systems. to that end I’ve been learning Machinations.io, a game design tool I’ve barely discovered. It is extremely useful for designing, testing and finding problems before you’re even in the testing phase.

However it’s learning curve is also a bit steep. so it also takes time to study and practice to get stuff done. It was pointed out to me that, it’s going to be useful later on, but It should not be the priority. The true priority lies in my Tech Debt.

So I’ve decided to concentrate on that, and have been fixing things that needed fixing long before I started making a solid plan to finish the prototype. First thing I’ve changed has been being able to use either mouse and keyboard as well as controller. You can now easily use either and it will be immediately recognized. I fixed the bug stemming from the beginning of the game mode trying to access the pawn that didn’t exist yet, so the build is mostly stable.

LOTS OF CLEANUP

I’ve been working hard to get rid of assets that I added that I believed I would use eventually. Now I’m finding I don’t need them and are far to expensive in hard drive space as well as memory due to the high quality of the textures.

I’ve lowered the project size from 60+ GB to 42, however it is still to large for a decent upload to git online. So I still need to make a lot of decisions about what I’m keeping and what I’m getting rid of. So I know that cleanup will take me the rest of the month. I might have to make some drastic decisions and just completely cut everything, but for now I’ll keep combing through it to find useful assets.

NEXT STEPS

I’m gonna be joining Ryan Laley’s Patreon to get some help with all those little things that stop me from completing my systems. Hopefully I will be able to launch the kickstarter this year, If I can somehow manage to get a lot of work done. Here’s to hoping.

Multitasking to get it done.

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

Daniel AguilarMay 13, 2021

Legendary Weapon Prototypes!

BLOG ENTRY 27 - 04.22.2021

DEV STATUS

I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting and learning new software. I’m finally getting into Blender, I might just end up doing some low poly prototypes of loot chests and stuff but it’s something I can continue learning and maybe make some environmental props later on, who knows, Sky’s the limit.

METAHUMAN BETA TEST

I got the Beta for the Metahuman creator, and it is crazy. I know I didn’t quite get all the features exactly correct, but it’s a damn good start. Being able to visualize and express the type of character you imagine can really help solidify the personality and details that you might want to include, like age, grey hairs, the type of eyes. There’s just a lot of options. a Real 3D Modeler could really get some use out of it. I’m glad I’ve gotten the chance to have fun with it.

For now I have decent portraits for each of our classes, as well as the captain. For concept art and design these will be very useful.

LEGENDARY WEAPON THEFT

I had my first foray into Blender and was able to separate a weapon from a Paragon character. Revenant. It was a bit of an adventure but I believe I’m getting the hang of it. I will start some modeling tutorials to begin setting the placeholders on my characters. For now I’m going to steal some more Paragon Weapons for legendary placeholders.

NARRATIVE

I am already done with all the 1st drafts for the Narrative Intros for each of the characters. I am so happy that is out of my head, another tab I can close and focus on other stuff. The next step for this is storyboarding, which I actually feel I can pull of some decent sketches. I’ll have make time to make the attempt. There’s just so many things to learn that It can be hard to keep focus on a single thing.

Everything is useful. Blender. Narrative, Design. It will all be useful at some point in the full production phase of the game. It’s good because I don’t feel like I waste my time by learning it, but again keeping focus is hard. I will Have to make some kind of plan to both learn and set my own workflow, start finding the hitches and fix them before they become and issue. Man. Gamedev amirite?

NEXT STEPS

Once I make a decent workflow I shall start implementing things and make some cool videos and gifs. I intend to make the youtube page soon to showcase the progress and make a monthly video blog. as well as these blogs on the page. Once I’ve got enough progress done I will start checking out Patreon, as I still think we’re too far away from kickstarter, I still have to show the game’s potential before we can attempt it.

For now I’ll keep hacking at it and show progress as soon as I can.

Venturing into unknown territories.

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

Daniel AguilarApril 22, 2021

All the way to the back of the backend

BLOG ENTRY 26 - 4.8.2021

DEV STATUS

Well I haven’t posted in a couple of weeks due to the fact that all the stuff I’ve been working on is not the flashy kind of work? There’s very little that I can “show” that would be of any actual meaning towards promoting the game, still and Update is in order.

PLACEHOLDERS & EARLY DESIGNS

I got this neat little program called Kenshape from Kenny.nl, it’s a really useful tool for making quick prototype assets. I was able to mess around and make an early model of every type of ammo, and currency.

Placeholder Currency Assets - Made with Kenshape

Everything else is accounted for. Ammo from all Factions, Creds, Varos and Scrap. I don’t have a “special” type of currency planned yet, but It may end up being necessary for building special weapons or items. I’m only unhappy with the “Varo” (Indie Currency) but I think I can make something else for it soon.

NARRATIVE WORK

The reason I hadn’t posted anything is because I have been busy studying and working on Narrative introductions for all the playable classes. I have an Idea about using the template used by Warcraft and Apex Legends. Hand painted low frame rate animations that provide enough emotional impact but don’t require 60 frames of animation per second.

It hasn’t been easy considering I myself am not a writer. I like to study writing and art, but I’m not exactly proficient in either of those artforms. So I’ve been learning how to write a screenplay, wrote several first drafts for each of the playable classes as well as the captain. They are very rough and can be polished quite a bit, but I’m very proud of them as now I don’t have to keep them in my head all the time, they’re out and about.

The next step in that is doing storyboarding, I think I can handle that since it doesn’t have to be extra detailed, but it’s still hard to do when you’re a complete novice. Maybe next week I’ll have something to show.

CONCEPT ART

We’ve made quite a bit of progress as we’ve finally established a concept art format that will be perfect for our studio. Once we a couple of them filled we will begin to post some images, for now all I can say is that I think that template can work for other people as well and I’ll be sharing it as soon as I make sure it works as we intend it to.

We’ve also been studying character construction in order to start making the action poses we will use for each skill. I have plenty of animations from Unreal’s Marketplace, I’ve also been studying the Control Rig plugin. It is fucking amazing. With a little bit of practice I should be able to adjust the animations I have to fit something more to what we need. I’m hoping that we can manage to make custom animations for every class and enemy. This way we can communicate the type of threat and how aggressive enemies will actually be. It’ll take some tweaking for sure., but ultimately I think it’s worth the work.

PROTOTYPE STATUS

I was able to troubleshoot a problem that was causing the HUD to not be constructed. The problem was in my character select logic. That I had the HUD being constructed just before I removed all widgets from the screen, which was meant for the Main Menu and Character Select screen. Now the HUD shows up as intended. Still no logic behind it so it doesn’t actually reflect the shield or health. But it looks really neat :D

Another thing I fixed was the Character sheet widget. Before every time you pressed the tab it would make a new one. leading to it always remaining on screen. I’ve added a toggle that I hope is the right way to do it. but for now It works as intended. Still deciding whether or not to keep it to the right or change everything to the left Diablo style. I think that will come down to an Aesthetic choice.

I haven’t added anything else particularly new since the last update, mostly optimizing and cleaning up assets. I have so many assets I’ve gotten from the unreal marketplace that my project is unwieldly. I currently have ONE prototype level where I’m testing everything and the project weighs 55 GB. This is mainly to the high quality of textures sounds and materials that I have from the free assets themselves.

I have to go through all of them in order to see what I’m actually going to keep and what I’m definitely not using. There are a lot of things in the “maybe pile” but I have to make sure that I’m keeping things that might actually be of use later on. This has been a particularly tedious process as every time I choose something to delete. Unreal takes a bunch of time checking the assets and then triple checking you want to delete. I appreciate the protection redundancies in order to make sure you don’t accidently delete something that was important. but it takes so much time.

NEXT STEPS

What I’ll be working on the next couple of weeks is making sure I can get the project to a size that I can upload to github. From there it will be to polish and make sure all the characters skills, animations and hud work well.

I will also be working the storyboards for the Narrative introductions for all the characters, as well as one final screenplay I have missing for the Technician character. After that I will take a break to ensure I’m focused on the right things and begin unreal courses to fix, upgrade and/or polish the essential features of this game.

For now I’m going to take the rest of the day off and continue tomorrow. Therapists orders.

Being as productive as my brain chemistry allows.

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

Daniel AguilarApril 8, 2021