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

Expanding The base Arsenal