BLOG ENTRY 23 - 2.25.2021

DEV NOTES

Sometimes you got the juice, sometimes you don’t. I spent Monday trying to fix the magnetic projectiles, but It appears I have had no luck. I know I’m missing something or placing the magnetic component in the wrong spot, I’m so close but something isn’t clicking. So It was just me banging my head against the wall for a while.

However the next day my Non-Neurotypical brain went into enlightened mode and I made the wraiths base skillset and signature weapon. I didn’t realize it but I did get hyperfocused and worked for like 10 hours straight. In between Duct taping two knives to a shotgun to make a sci-fi crossbow, making it’s mechanics, setting up 2 of the wraiths base skills and adjusting particle effects and sounds for most of it, I really didn’t notice how the time flew by.

I believe I have learned quite a bit in the past couple of years, I never thought I’d be “coding” without tutorials holding my hand. Not too shabby if I do say so myself. Hopefully I’ll be able to work out all the Janky bits enough to make a really good demo, incur as little technical debt as I can and lay the groundwork for the full game. It’s gonna be a wild ride.

WEAPONS

Wraith’s Custom Railbolt was a lot of fun to make. I’m really trying to balance the different weapons out so they feel different enough but still feel balanced. For this weapon I’m going with a one shot kill but long reload time. As well as having the Alternate fire Mode pierce through cover and have a long range.

So far it feels really good to one shot enemies with this. I do believe tougher enemies will be more difficult to take down and might require a couple of shots, but I think it’s current damage + fire rate should be good enough, assuming you hit your target of course.

Railbolt long range piercing mode + Short range blast

CLASS SKILLS - WRAITH

-Teleport/Blink

The teleport originally intended for the Liutenant Class (formerly the officer) has been reworked for the wraith class. Being that the class identity is that of a stealthy sci-fi Infiltrator, this skill fit naturally in the Wraith skillset.

I added a cool particle effect from the countess paragon character. Recolored it to be mre of a pink/fucsia color that matched the temp model being used. I think we might end up using that color scheme for the Wraith, Neon pink Cybergoth. Could really make the character stand out. Except when you don’t want to…

-Stealth/Active Camouflage

This skill is actually from a marketplace blueprint called space and time. Since there aren’t any time bendy abilities in the game, I only took the stealth component and applied it to the main character. So far it works flawlessly, except it doesn’t stealth the weapon too. I honestly don’t know what it’s going to take for the weapon to apply the same component.

But you know what? That is a matter for another day. For now I am happy the stealth works and it feels really cool to activate it, snipe a dude, and come out the other side. I intend to have the enemy AI have a look at last known position kind of deal in order for them not to track you instantly. Maybe have an offset and shoot to where you could have gone, kind of panicking and taking blind shots. That would be cool.

MVP STATE

Overall the game is coming along really nicely. It’s just hard to juggle so many parts. I actually took too long writing this blogpost due to the fact that I was exploring more assets I have stored in my library. It’s stuff I knew would work eventually, I just figured it would be so when we had a coder who knew their shit I could just point to the assets and explain what I wanted done.

Honestly I never thought I would be that coder. Before I started making this game I had zero coding experience, Now I’m able to design and implement ideas on the fly. I believe this is the perk of being an Indie dev. I don’t need to run everything by 3 - 10 different levels of management to get anything done. Sure I’m all by my lonesome, but I don’t have anyone breathing down my neck. Pros and Cons I guess.

I believe that once I finish the entirety of the base class skills and weapons to fully work as intended. I’ll be able to start hunting for funding with more confidence. I have a few polish Ideas that implementing now would mean greatly reducing my headaches later in the future. So I’m gonna try and work on that while I fix some of the bugs I still have pending. Like the magnetic projectiles not working, or beam attacks simply not damaging the enemy.

I was able to fix the grappling hook that before had me baffled beyond belief. So I’m certain that with a little more practice and more knowledge I’ll be able to get things done much faster. At the very least. Get them done, that’s what matters at the end of the day.

Getting stuff done a little less slowly.

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

Now you see me... Now you... Damn not again...