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

Reworking the Prework