BLOG ENTRY 25 - 03.11.2021

DEV STATUS

I spent most of the week messing with more animation stuff and I made a small breakthrough in animation Montages in Unreal Engine 4, and the results are very promising. They’re still not 100% how I want them, but that’s polish for later stages of the game since these animations are just placeholder. Even if we did keep them I’d like to modify them enough so they fully feel done.

LT CLASS ANIMATION UPDATE

Wrist Weapon + Plasma Charge Animation Update

Considering the Rocket boots animation already looks really good, I updated the Wrist weapon and Plasma charge animations and I feel very proud of these results. It’s a simple flick of the wrist but it clearly communicates the difference between both skills.

It has been an interesting time considering that her current animation set is an inverted version of a left handed paragon character. So both the animations used are set for the right hand, but since the character itself is inverted, they just fit the left hand flawlessly. Serendipity I guess. I still haven’t decided what animation to use for the ultimate skill, there are a lot of animations I still have to check so I can find the right one.

PROTOTYPE MAP UPDATE

Test Map Update

I have started a prototype map update so I can start kind of placing and getting the feel of where NPCs should go. These are currently just placeholders but Once I start setting up the NPC dialog and shop system, They’ll be able to provide gear and weapons and such for the tests.

It’ll also allow me to make sure that all the inventory and weapon systems for the character work as intended and I can start clearing out bugs as I find them. It’ll also allow me to work on each individual NPC to start setting up some signifiers so you can tell each one apart. currently it’s just a simple set of animations but I think just adding hair and some features will help with the readability of who is who.

MAIN MENU UPDATE

I’m starting a Main menu update where I will try to make camera animations depending on what option of the menu you’re in. I’m really inspired by the Bioshock Infinite Main Menu as well as the Gears of war 5 Menu. It’s a simple thing but it really makes the game feel better. It’s going to take me a bit since I would have to try to open the door with the camera to truly make it look cool. So it’s several systems working at once. the Main menu blueprint. the Camera system and the actual level itself. So yeah, I’ve got some studying to do.

That’s really all for now, Learning new stuff takes time and implementing also takes a bit so it’s a small update but I hope that what I learn will allow me to work faster and update the animations for the rest of the classes. I want to update the grappling hook so it looks cooler. Lets hope I can get it done.

Galaxy Braining my Walnut processor.

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

BLOG ENTRY 24 - 03.04.2021

CLASS IDENTITY

Playable Classes - First Screenshot

Something that has been very important to me from the inception of Galaxy’s End has been to develop classes that feel unique from one another. Not just looks, but gameplay, equipment that they use, their own story going through the main campaign, they’re personalities and how they interact with the different NPCS. This obviously sounds like a tremendous task and it is. (see image all the way down there)

However all those years playing class based RPGS and looter shooters have actually helped me understand what makes players choose different classes. Why pick a tank when you can pick a damage dealer? or a stealthy character over the healer? It really comes down to the fantasy of the character you are choosing.

You pick a tank because you want to feel like an unstoppable force. You pick the damage dealer because you want to take down enemies as quickly as possible. I’ve been designing this game for the past 3 years and making each class their own character has been an interesting challenge. Skills have been moved around. Weapons have been adjusted. But without a doubt I can honestly say I’m almost there.

There’s a few skills I need to adjust and debug, and a few others that need to be made from scratch. but once I do I’m gonna try to make a cool class intro video. Might go with the borderlands style. I dunno yet. We’ll just have to see what strikes the mood when I get to editing that video.

NPC PROTOTYPES

I’ve been working with the Ryan Laley tutorials trying to make the base NPC interactions. I’ve managed to make a cool transition from the main player camera to the NPC camera where I will add the Armory, Equipment Lab and Workshop. I also intend to have a “Shady Dealer” NPC type character as well as a Customization station of some kind. but those will have to wait until I actually have full model construction finished.

NPC Interaction Camera Transition - Sup’ Foo

So far everything works mostly as intended, with the exception that it’s an automatic camera transition, I’m still working out the kinks as it should do it when you press the interact button or key, however, it when I apply this logic to the transition it does not work properly at all. I’m going to have to do more research but it should be a somewhat easy fix. once that is done I’ll start making the HUD widgets to actually do something when you interact with the NPCs and make sure that each have their own dialogue and function. that means 3 different types of inventory/huds, you’ll forgive me if I haven’t done them yet, Still figuring a lot of this out.

DEV NOTES

It’s always a bit hard to come up with something interesting to say whenever I work on basic things like cleaning up assets and organizing tasks. Since I haven’t added any new features or interesting mechanics I figured I would try some stuff in Unreal. I ended up just doing housekeeping and clearing out a whole lot of assets that I do not intend to use and are only making the game take longer to load since it’s trying to load the playable stuff as well as all the unused guff. So It’s been a productive week but not on the coding front.

This is only the Coding tab of things… oh wee…

I do feel like things are going to move forward a little more smoothly now that I have everything planned, It’s a huge relief not having to have a 130+ things to keep track of relying only on your memory. I think this will help me focus on one thing at a time without having an open tab in my brain reminding me that there’s a 100 other things to do.

I hope I can get some more cool stuff done this coming week, at the very least finish a few things so I can check them off my list. If not we’ll just post another stylish group picture.

Hanging with the Squad ready to save the Galaxy

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

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

Railbolt Alternate Fire Ready

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…

Wraith Prototype Stealth

-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

BLOG ENTRY 22 - 02.19.2021

The groove has mostly continued. except for a day where my body just told me to take a 12 hour nap, but I’ve been really productive getting some polish in to be able to work off the intended look and feel and not have to adjust a bunch of things later as I’m having to do now. I’ve already been researching a method to attach weapons and gear to the player character but it’s not done yet, so I had to do some hacky solutions. It is what it is.

Hands where I can see them

ASSET MANAGEMENT

I was able to import a bunch of the paragon assets into the project. I have a few that I’ve been trying to get in for a while, but last time I attempted this I completely busted the build beyond belief. Fortunately since then I’ve been introduced into the wonderful world of source control so I’m a little more confident when it comes to experimenting since I can easily roll back.

Thanks to this I’m being able to set up some cool animations for each character so they can start having not only class identity but also readability. I have a couple of plans on how to start setting up diegetic skill components. I’ll start doing the setup work for that later this weekend.

NEW ANIMATIONS

Lt. Class New Hair and Animations

First off I added a hair mesh from an asset pack that I got from the Unreal Marketplace a while back but hadn’t even done a project to try and get the assets out of it. To be quite honest I don’t think I had the skills before to even be able to export the mesh correctly let alone apply it and make it look good, but here we are and she’s got her new hairdo, and she looks great IMO.

Second I used an animation set from a Paragon character named Revenant. I made a whole new animation blendspace for her to be able to use the new animations. Retargeting animations took fucking forever, and I’m certain is because of my PC showing it’s age, not much I can do to speed that up until I get an upgrade. As long as I’m able to get something done I’m gonna keep working.

Nanoweaver Weapon Prototype

I started working on the Nanoweaver class weapon prototype. Going with the space mage archetype I retargeted some animations from Paragons Phase. I know a lot of people use her animation sets but they are really well made. I did have a weird bug when first retargeting where the idle pose rotated the shoulders and hands in a very strange way, but ONLY the idle animation, everything else worked fine. Once I fixed that she started looking way better.

I made a makeshift weapon with some knife assets and had a whole day trying to align them correctly so the projectile would shoot at the right height, it was quite an adventure but it’s done for the time being.

I’ve started doing the ground work for the alternate fire which will be a constant beam. rather than forcing you to stand still to cast the beam I’ve decided that It would be way less punishing to slow down your move speed to 30% for the duration of the beam cast. You can see in the gif how the speed changes when the alt fire is pressed and released.

It’s still very much a work in progress but I’m already getting the right feel and at the very least the line trace where the beam is going to be is working as intended. I have to do some research on how to do beam weapons in general as well as implement the constant damage, see how long you should have to hit an enemy in order for it to feel satisfying. Too long and you’re going to get bored. Too short and might as well use regular fire. Still a long way to go for that to get done right.

MORE WIP

I still haven’t finished the Technicians homing weapon because I got distracted doing all of this. Between the asset importing, animation retargeting, and setting up the weapon offset so they fire in the correct direction took quite a while of my week.

I have also researching customization and how it works behind the scenes has been quite interesting, at first I thought it would be way too much work but I think there is a possibility that I could make a system to just change a few things. like gear color and hair style. I haven’t decided if I’m going to have the option to recolor the hair as I think it’s kind of part of the character design. but then again everyone likes different types of hair so… yeah… have to make that decision, because having that level of customization really does increase the workload quite a bit, have to make sure it’s worth the effort.

For now I’ve got to keep the character build and weapon system as my main focus as I’ve realized it’s definitely the hook of this game, and I have to pay a lot of attention to what works and what doesn’t. in any case I’ll be posting the Lt. updated animations on twitter tomorrow for screenshot Saturday. I’m really proud of how she’s coming along.

Strutting my stuff

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

BLOG ENTRY 21 - 02.11.2021

It feel like I’m finally getting into a decent groove without having to be watching tutorials in order to get stuff done. I know I’m using the same base for the weapon and I need to make a proper pipeline but goddamn these guns are turning up way cooler than I intended.

WEAPONS

First off I reworked the base pistol to finally fire how I Imagined it when I thought about alternate fire in the first place. I’m also reworking projectiles so they don’t actually have a physical mesh and is more just a blank collision sphere. It sounds boring but the results are fucking awesome.

Valentina’s Ol’ Reliable

Ol’ Reliable. This will be the signature weapon for the Lieutenant Class. Ol’ Reliable. A Double Barrel pistol that converts to a short barrel sniper. It’s technically a 6 shooter but it fires 2 shots at a time, giving that “double tap” Feeling The alternate fire consumes the same ammo for 2.5 x Damage, A sweet high powered shot that currently kills tier 0 enemies with a single hit. I’ve added some decent sound effects from the Unreal Marketplace and it does give it some pep. I’ll post it on my twitter later this week for screenshot Saturday.

I have yet to fuck with animations in order to get the right feel of it changing from pistol to rifle. but That’s still some esoteric alchemy I’ve yet to wrap my head around. I know once it clicks I’ll be able to start adding a bunch of animations that will make the game feel more like the vision I imagine.

Robbie’s Custom MagNail

MagNail. The Technicians trusty tool. It fires low damage nails in standard semi-auto mode. The Alternate fire mode is a Magnetic charge that will tag an enemy to have projectiles home in on them. The magnetic homing component hasn’t been completed. I banged my head against unreal for a while until I gave up for the day. I’ve got some ideas on how to fix it, but I think I’m gonna have to look for tutorials to get it done right.

SKILLS

Due to a lot of iteration I’m changing some skills around. The Plasma charge for the Lt. is currently a contact/timed explosion. but It seems to me like having a Wrist weapon that fires a high power projectile AND the explosive seem redundant. So I might end up reworking it so the charge is a variation of the wrist weapon. which leaves a skill open which I cannot wrap my mind around for now.

Flawless Grappling Glove

I was able to fix the Grappling Hook skill as it had been buggy since I first made it and I could not figure out why it didn’t work. I put in a debug line trace to find out what was happening. and It turns out that every time I used the grappling hook it shortened the distance. and if you didn’t hit a surface, It would not end so you were unable to use it again. It was a bunch of bugs but now it can be used with no problem and it feels really cool, not spider man cool, but still pretty cool. I know I have to fix the cables tension because it looks a little wobbly, but I don’t know which settings I have to mess with in order to get that looking how I want it.

As far as the rest of the different Class skills I have to start working on prototypes. I believe they will be pretty clunky at first, but I will try to rework into a more organized workflow and not have things so messy. I do think however that proving that the skills are fun is pretty important, As I’m figuring out class identities more and more I really want them to feel like they play differently, even if they use the same weapons.

I’ll get working on that this coming week as well as some cool diegetic ui options as I have to redo the HUD for now. Since I also learned a little bit about how to set the luminosity of objects recently, I’m going to try and set up the cooldown of the skills to affect the luminosity of players equipment. so even if you’re not paying attention or should you want to turn off the UI (you crazy player you) you would still know what is going on with your skills.

DESIGN DOCUMENT & WEBPAGE

I haven’t done the soft reset for the page, because I want to be able to fill it up with something rather than just leave it blank. I’ll try to squeeze in some time in the weekend to think about what I want to do with it and see if I can add some flare to it. right now It is pretty bare bones but what can I say, I’m game designer not a webpage manager. I’ll watch some tutorials maybe get some ideas on how to make it flashier. For now, outdated info and art will remain.

I am also working on revamping my Design Document as so many things have changed, and I believe I have more proof of concept than I did before and can actually use that information to show off the skills in the document. I wonder if you can use gifs… hmmm…

In any case I am burned out so I’m going to call it a night. I’ll work on more stuff tomorrow. and post some cool vids on saturday.

Have a nice weekend and a lovely Valentines day.

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

BLOG ENTRY 20 - 2.04.2021

I had not realized I had skipped on 2 posts. Whoops. Sorry. I’ve been rather busy and actually have a bunch of stuff to report. I don’t even know where to begin ‘cause it’s all really cool, but by far the coolest is the concept art for our flagship vessel. Home away from home and where the player will spend a lot of their off time.

DESIGN

Valkyrie Concept Art by Vitaliy Ostashchenko

This beautiful fucking ship has been in the works for about 3 years. Ever since we barely started thinking about the possibilities of what type of game we could make, The Valkyrie has been at the center of our game. The concept of a medical combat vessel with high mobility really resonated with us. Growing up with shows like Star Trek: Next Generation and Voyager, Firefly, Babylon 5, just all things Sci-fi, I’ve always liked smaller vessels instead of the giant war cruiser type of ships.

Maybe it’s the underdog narrative of the crews in these smaller scrappier ships, or just the idea that I wouldn’t wanna be stuck on a giant obvious target, but I’ve really fallen in love with the concept of the Valkyrie. Seeing the ship outside of my head after all these years really is a hard feeling to describe, It’s been quite a ride to get here, and there’s still a long way to go.

The artist who we commissioned was great to work with. If you’ve got a sci-fi concept you want to get done Valahor is your man. I’d been following his ship designs for a while and having him work on the Valkyrie was a pretty cool experience. When you have a concept in your head some things can get blurry or muddy. He was able to give clarity to a lot of the finer details that can get lost when working with concepts like the weapons and shield design were his ideas.

We’re going to be working on the interior where the player will actually hang out, we just gotta make sure that we balance things out between Aesthetic, Narrative and Level Design. Trust me, It’s a lot harder than you’d think. Once we do we’ll try to work with him again so we can show off the crew quarters, armory and bridge. There’s still a lot of the Valkyrie to see.

WEAPONS GAMEPLAY

Prototype Rifle Placeholder - Free UE4 Marketplace Content

The next big thing I’ve been working on is a weapon with a functioning alternate fire mode. This rifle has been on paper design for a while as well, so actually getting it working was quite a milestone for me as well. I can’t upload the video here for whatever reason but here is a tasty gif of the Prototype Rifle

Primary Fire - Shock Rifle
Secondary Fire - Frost Shotgun

I was able to implement a different sound for each firing mode as well as play a cool sound when switching between regular and alt fire. I’m bummed I couldn’t upload the video but I’ll post it on my Twitter Account with this blog post share. Some of my finest work yet and it really represents what I want to do with the game.

I actually made this in a very hacky way and need to make a proper workflow because making individual weapons is gonna take a bunch of time If I keep doing them this way. I think for prototyping elements and weapon effects I think I’ll continue working this way for a bit just to get that proof of concept done. Once I’ve got that done I’ll start setting up some proper code to get weapon spawning and loot to function correctly.

GLOBAL GAME JAM 2021

Another thing I did this past week was Participate in the Global Game Jam 2021. I didn’t finish my project in time because I misread the delivery date. I could have sworn it was Feb 1st but I was a day late… Literally. However I had a lot of fun considering I was able to make a bunch of functions and skills working, I also got multiplayer working really well on both controller and keyboard. I don’t have a gif of that in Action but here’s a cool screenshot.

Global Game Jam 2021 - Theme: Lost & Found

I was able to implement a Double Jump, Dash and Wall Slide in a couple of days. It really boosted my confidence as a coder. It wasn’t clean and it wasn’t optimal, but it worked. I think I’m finally understanding the quick and dirty prototyping method. I’ve been too focused on learning best practices that I’ve slowed down my own progress. Sometimes you just got to hack it together with spaghetti code.

Once I do a couple of levels for some low pressure level design practice and package it I’ll share it on Itch.io. It was a fun idea and I’m happy I got to participate in the Jam. I think I’ll start joining more jams for that creative rush. I just didn’t think I’d be able to get anything done before. Now I’m a little more confident. so… why not?

In any case. Progress has been done in the past couple of weeks. Concepts are coalescing into reality and I couldn’t be happier. I hope I can keep finishing things to clear my head. The less I have to keep in my memory banks the easier I can work. I’m not a robot but goddamn if that isn’t how my brain works. Beep Boop Sucka.

Wired and/or Chilled

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

BLOG ENTRY 19 - 01.14.2021

This week there is not much to report. I was able to get the new weapon model into the game and place it as a Mesh. I was also able to adjust the materials so they looked more or less how we expected it to. and for a placeholder weapon it looks really fucking nice.

Plasma Blunderbuss in Game - Modeled by Rene Meillon

It looks great, it is comparable to size to the other assets, so I don’t think I should have much trouble working with the animations. The true challenge is going to be to make it’s code. I have an Idea of what I want it to do, but I have to get some tutorials in to get it’s functionality right, and I am a bit sick, no ‘rona but a flu that is just making me feel like the worst. "must… work… on… game… bleh”

I did commission some art for the ship, even if it’s from the outside and not what it’s going to look like inside. It’s still an important part of the story and game. If you don’t feel at home on the ship you’re not going to enjoy spending time there. Something that Hades has taught me is that the Idle time should be just as entertaining as the action packed pew pew sections of the game. I already have some initial NPC place holders but functionality is still a bit out.

I Don’t know If I put this in the last blog, as said, kinda sick. but I intend to do a bit of an overhaul to the page. make an interesting codex of all the information. A few things have been retconned since I first started designing the game. Skills have been shuffled, Identities have been solidified but ultimately a little different. and so I gotta update that as best I can.

For now I’m just going to chill (I have a cold, get it?) and try to get some work done over the weekend. I’m writing this while feeling like mush, so paying attention to tutorials while coding and such is not gonna happen.

The weather outside is mildly uncomfortable

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

BLOG ENTRY 18 - 01.7.2021

Well I’m technically back and sorta refreshed. Been taking a little bit of stock about what needs to be done and prioritizing what I need to work on. I have a metric fuckton of work to do and I need to make sure I work efficiently as it will be important moving forward. I have been working too chaotically and have too many pieces are at some incomplete percentage.

My goal this week will be to try to standardize things that will improve workflow for multiple people involved. Thus far it’s just been 2 of us and it hasn’t been as necessary, but having more people be involved in the project makes it necessary for everyone to be in the same page. There can be room for creativity but that has nothing to do with the concept art format that everyone can read and understand. We have a bunch of concept art but all in different format and/or medium, so we’re going to do some research on industry standards or make up one for us.

I’m happy to say that our 3D modeler has had some free time over the holidays and has been working on getting the hang of the blender to unreal workflow. We haven’t added it to the game but it looks promising for prototype purposes.

Plasma Blunderbuss - Modeler: Rene Meillon

I’ve already got a good idea on what type of weapon behavior I want the rifle to have. so I gotta watch the tutorials to get to code that. I hope next week I can show progress with this gun, for now I’m just really happy that it looks very much what I had in mind. But again, it was with one on one talk in order to get there. I did not provide a proper brief or concept art, hence why I’m so interested in just making a smooth pipeline of creating the concept art, getting the model, and putting it in the game.

If we can get that steady workflow. I believe we’ll be able to speed up development and have more to show soon, hopefully getting closer to that delicious vertical slice. Alas Planning is one thing, and getting it done is another. I hope we can do it.

Well, here’s to getting shit done.

Happy 2021

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

BLOG ENTRY 17 - 12.21.2020

There has been little progress due to the holidays coming up but there is some good stuff. I’ve begun the process of the cover system. To make it clear, and In case I forget, the system will require 4 components. The first being a line trace coming out from the player. one being a Spline that the player will attach to so they can walk next to cover. Box volumes to set the player in low and high cover so animations can transition properly. and Vertical line traces coming from the top down a set distance from the player to check what kind of actions they can take, like vaulting or yanking an enemy.

Cover Spline Prototype

Due to the fact that my productivity on the game has been very low lately I have only managed to set up the spline and test out the spline points. It’s rough but it looks promising. I’ve already checked out a couple of tutorials on how to attach the player to the spline movement, so that’s the next step.

I’m also retooling how some of the skills are going to work on paper before I continue making the ability system. There are just some things in the games design that I need to readjust to more modern mechanics. Given that this is mainly an ARPG in the style of diablo, the resource based skill system feels dated and it would probably end up being a detriment to the game, as currently testing it out with just cooldowns it feels great, I’m not sure if adding a whole class defining resource like diablo 3 would actually make the game more tactical, or if it would become something that just kills the players groove.

So that’s some on paper design stuff that needs to be updated before I continue working on those skills. the plasma charge itself has changed like 4 times from paper to current iteration, and it’s current form is still really fun to use. So I’m guessing there’s things like that we need to look into.

Another thing I want to look into is how we’re going to work out the individual weapon abilities. We’re being conservative with designing only 10 weapons per faction, but that’s still 40 individual weapon designs that need to be well… designed. We already have a faction specific weapon behavior. as well as specific elements tied to each faction. We have a general idea of the weapon archetypes for each faction as well. who uses burst, who uses charged up weapons, precision weapons. etc. but playing games like gears of war and borderlands really gets my mind going on what I’m looking for in this game. So there’s a lot to work with but first we have to narrow down what is doable in a top down shooter. Ruiner is a great example of how weapon variety can be used in a top down game, I very much like the feel of their weapons. The difference for us is that our weapons are permanent, so reload times, ammo, alternate fire are all new areas that we have to venture in.

Hopefully the next update I will be able to show off some of that in practice. but for now I’m going to take a couple of weeks off as it’s 3 days for x-mas and I’ve got a lot of cooking to do. I will try to be back by January to give some kind of update, in the meantime I’m going to play the new Stardew Valley Update 1.5.

Insert “See you Next year” Joke here

Happy Holidays and I hope 2021 treats us all a little bit kinder.

-Sometimes taking some time off can be more productive in the long run-

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

BLOG ENTRY 16 - 11.19.2020

Bug Squashing, Explosives and Ragdolls. Hell of a week.

So I was able to fix a bug that was being caused when the main menu started, the controller kept calling the movement inputs even though there was no pawn made yet. I got help from Ryan Laley on his livestream yesterday and was able to completely eliminate any runtime errors. It was glorious considering that bug had been going on for a week or so.

On top of that I reworked the Plasma charge to feel more like a grenade, and It feels awesome. The direct hit Instakill is really satisfying. Something about chucking the charge that makes this skill feel more fun than just laying it there on the ground. I’ve got ideas on how to use that type of plasma charge, but that will be for when I start applying Variations for the skills, but for now I’m satisfied with my progress.

New and Improved Plasma Charge

It wasn’t easy, but It is now an explosive that will explode when it hits an enemy or after 3 seconds, and bounces off walls, there is a ton of possibility space for this type of projectile. Direct hits are obviously the easiest but still satisfying, but those corner bounces to subvert cover will feel like a well earned skillshot. I haven’t tested if it is being launched at the appropriate height to go over cover, but I can test that later on.

I Also fixed the Lieutenants ultimate skill. I applied a timeline and now after a few seconds the ult stops. It’s not a lot but it’s honest work. and will save me a bunch of trouble later on.

I’ve been polishing some weapon design and selecting which weapons will be base Legendary Rarity, as I really don’t want to clutter the loot table with useless guns. I’ve come up with some more interesting things so I’m happy about that too.

What I wasn’t able to get to the point where I wanted is the ragdoll physics for the enemy when they get killed, for now they just plop to the ground. I attempted a bunch of things but wasn’t able to get it working, I’ll keep checking out this weekend but for now my mind is fried.

Ragdoll Freaky

Done for the Day

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

BLOG ENTRY 15 - 11.12.2020

It’s been a week of good progress, oh yeah… it’s all coming together.

I worked on the mobility skills for two other classes. The Protectors Propulsion charge, Its final form should be able to knock away targets and smash through weaker cover, once I get to making that I’ll start testing. For now It works mostly as intended, had to reduce the turn rate by a quarter to make it feel good because going so fast would make it difficult to move around, it still kinda is as evidence by the gif below, but with a little practice you can get pretty good.

Propulsion Charge Prototype

I still need to add an animation to make sure it’s visible that you’re charging, but for some reason I wasn’t able to get it working. Need to learn some more animation retargeting stuff, at the very least make it clear. Another thing I tried adding but kinda bugged out was like a jetpack sound, but it would sound bugged like it was playing multiple times, so I just removed that for now.

The other mobility skill I worked on was the Technicians Grapple Glove (tm), It’s somewhat buggy and sometimes doesn’t register the distance between the player and the hook end, as well as not casting after a few times. I gotta check other videos to see how to fix that. Even then, It still feels pretty good, and I believe I have a good distance and speed.

Grappling Glove Prototype

I also have to fix the cable, for some reason it looks wobbly, but oddly it’s not always. so like… wtf cable? I will eventually make it possible to hook on to enemies, the design question is, Do I make the enemies come to you like Scorpion? or do I pull the player to the enemy like spiderman? I think that might end up being the variations for the skill itself. Have the player choose which one they prefer. I can see both ways being fun even with the same weapon, like pull them in and melee, or pull to them and shotgun in the face. They’re all good choices.

And last but not least, I was able to integrate the camera animation I did a while back with the main menu, AND I was able to make the class select screen. eventually it will be for your saved characters. but for testing purposes it is fantastic.

Class Select from Main Menu

I apologize for the gif it if looks choppy, I use a free page online to make the gifs from the video capture and it was too long so it ended up at 10fps. still you get the idea.

There’s still quite a few things to finish before I can call the prototype done. Make the rest of the skills, create the technicians companion, Make some enemies that shoot at you and of course… the cover system. Still I’m closer than ever and I can keep up this productivity I’ll be done before I know it.

Still a long way but on my way.

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

BLOG ENTRY 14 - 11.5.2020

This week I had more backend work to do to continue the inventory system. I have most everything prepared inside of unreal 4, so I can start making the Master Lootable Item. Continuing from last week was the design process for the items themselves. I believe I have come up with some really interesting items and effects. It wasn’t easy but I was able to create items that on paper seem very different from each other in a good way.

My theory is that if I make the base items interesting, even finding a common rarity item will feel rewarding and even push the player to experiment. So far from all the items I designed I think there is a LOOOOOT of possibility space when it comes to combination and play styles and that’s not even counting the base ability variations or weapon types or elemental damage type. All of this is just the armor pieces, shield and health pack.

I’m trying to make sure that it’s not too many items so scope doesn’t get out of control. But I think I’m still within a workable threshold, it’s just going to be a good amount of player customization. Considering it’s an indie game I think we’re good with just a small amount of items compared to other games, like diablo, torchlight, borderlands ETC.

So based on my previous posts, I’ve come up with interesting design solutions for each item. Head provides base armor, crit resistance and elemental resistance, but depending on the piece of equipment It will highlight different things on the screen, to sell that idea of sci-fi scanners. Implementing should not be too difficult If I can add one type of post process effect, the rest should be a piece of cake.

Sensors Visors and Lenses.

Chest items provide same base stats but also provide a sort of “toughness effect”. Granted these effects will still need to be coded, but I’m hoping that If I finish the ability system, it can greatly reduce the amount of work needed to implement these effects.

Base Armor and it’s effects

Leg armor will provide bonuses to mobility, shield will provide a temporary bonus besides the base protection of the shield. health packs will provide bonus over time, temporary armor, etc.

So when it comes to design I still have all the weapons with their respective effects, and finally the weapon modules to allow for further customization. It still seems like a lot. But it’s becoming less each time I progress. I’m trying to keep myself motivated the same way I do when I’m playing a game. Progress comes as long as you’re trying. I’m starting to feel like I’m getting there.

Halfway between crazy and genius

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

BLOG ENTRY 13 - 10.29.2020

Inventory system still being worked on. Had some good advances, but there is still a lot prep work before I can get to the shiny bits of making loot drops. Spent most of the week making structs and enumerations for all the weapons and equipment I want to make, as well as all the possible stats in the design right now, though I’m certain some “invisible” stats are going to pop up sooner or later.

Currently I have completed all the slots for all the equipment, so the next step is to provide functionality, as well as make the struct that will hold all the information for the player character. but that would be the save file system in itself, a whole other beast to tackle.

Visual Design wise I’m still going with the standards in the tutorial series that I’m following, I think I’ll need to modify it somewhat so it gives the right feel for the game. I’m still looking into UI animations to make it slide into view a cooler way rather than just pop out of nowhere like “sup” and leaving like “k bye”, It doesn’t seem to complicated, so I should be able to pull it off soon.

Empty Armor and weapon slots.

Following the trip from last week about making interesting armor. I’m still working with the idea that each piece of equipment should provide tangible benefits, while remaining exclusive so it’s not like, helmet gives you 10 health, chest gives you 10 health, yay you have 20 health. That really is quite boring when it comes to itemization.

I think I’ve come up with plenty of stats that will feel different. It’s going to come down to testing and iteration to get to some really interesting gear. but for now I think I’ve got plenty of stats that will matter regardless if we add more versatility later on.

That’s a lot of stats!

And finally, I have come up with the solution to the grand problem of the cover system. I have been watching tutorials on how to make a vault over cover mechanic. And it brings some really interesting solutions to the entirety of the cover.

Now the reason it’s taken so long is because I really didn’t have knowledge on the inner workings of things like this. But now I’m a little more seasoned as far as how things are done. I know I might be approaching this incorrectly, but I’m going to use a linetrace to see if it hits cover, after that I will make a spline with different points where the player can hit. According to the vault tutorial video, you use another line trace a set distance from the player to check if it’s the same height as where they currently are. If it hits you are able to vault, if not you can’t.

So many arrows.

So it’s going to be a collection of those line traces, along with if they hit an enemy what actions can you take. I want to make it as robust as I can, with all the trimmings gears of war has already made standards. yanking the enemy, kicking them and stunning them. being able to counter that kick. For now I’ll settle with the player getting stuck to the cover and moving along the spline, I still have to study splines in general but I feel like it’s something I can wrap my head around. Here’s to hoping that I’m right.

Pointed in the right direction

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

BLOG ENTRY 12 - 10.22.2020

I have continued working on the inventory and equipment system, It has been coming along quite nicely. Last week I had a placeholder mesh, now it actually references the current player character with what it has equipped, I also adjusted the image size so it’s no longer squished. added a sizebox to start placing the equipment and weapons. I still need to make the struct so it registers the weapon, but it is functional and getting to a point where I will soon be able to start making loot drops and have the player equip them.

Equipment tab in progress

So far I’m building it so it’s a very clear inventory system with very few equip able items, right Now I believe I am at 10 including weapons, armor and shields, I don’t want the inventory to become unwieldy and overwhelm the player with worthless stats. As I was finishing up the backend work, setting up the items properties, it hit me that I needed to work deeper with the item design.

There are some rules I’m trying to establish about loot, specifically, what benefits will your equipped armor pieces provide. It’s easy to say it should go beyond the standard RPG armor that provides simple flat stats. Designing those armor pieces. not so easy. The way I see it, I need to design each piece of armor so it provides tangible gameplay effects.

I’m still working them out but I believe I’m getting to something cool. Without getting too into it, Head equipment will upgrade aim, be it distance or maybe even aim assist TBD. Chest armor would provide a solid damage reduction stat (armor duh) as well as some kind of benefit to resource management. I’m thinking either a flat increase to your resource, or cooldown for your skills again TBD. Legs armor could increase your mobility skill in a way that affects gameplay substantially, right now I’m thinking flat distance and movement speed, but yet again TBD.

I’m aware that this is a lot of theory and once I’m able to implement these things, iteration will be required. I still believe that is important to plan out the design as much as possible so scope doesn’t get out of control. I’m currently working with 0 budget, so changing things is easy, but once I am able to get funding, that money will need to be well spent. and I can’t waste it on switching things that should have been obvious from the paper design.

I am really close to getting to the point where I can start designing enemies and their loot table, getting to the juicy bits of a looter shooter. Once that is done, the prototype will be basically done. Polish here and there and design the NPC interaction system. Damn it’s scary, but in a good way, I’m getting to where I wanted to be. Slowly but I’ll get there.

Me asusta pero me gusta

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

BLOG ENTRY 11 - 10.15.2020

This week I had set my mind on working on the Inventory system, as loot is obviously one of the more important parts of an RPG. Since I am but one Man, the number of items and weapons I’m going to design is small, compared to other similar games like Borderlands, Destiny and Diablo. Those are games with AAA budget and staff, that can work on making a bunch of items to fill up with content. I however intend to make each of the small number of weapons feel different in some way. There is no point in me making 3 different rifles that feel exactly the same. So I have to maximize my possibility space by really thinking about the Risk-vs-reward for each weapon, what kind of mechanical test is each weapon providing, and so forth.

But before I can do that, I need to work on the backend of the inventory and equipment system. I am working with the Ryan Laley tutorial series on youtube. It is so helpful going step by step and learning how things work. For now I am working on the render for the player character before I start creating all the items. Hopefully I’ll have some more progress in the coming week

Inventory Starter - Mesh Capture

Another thing I was working on yesterday, while not as important as the inventory in it’s current prototyping stage, was adding a little bit of polish. I started learning how to add camera shake and Sound FX. I wasn’t able to upload a video but there are sounds coming out when I dash and shoot. Just imagine it goes “pew pew pew” and “Whoosh”

Camera Shake Basics and Sound FX - Pew pew pew! Whoosh!

For now I really don’t want to overdo it with the camera shake. It can make you dizzy and even give you headaches if it’s too much, our eyes aren’t designed to move like that. It’s gotta be just enough to make you feel the action was taken. I’m actually quite happy with the dash, it looks sufficiently shakey without making you nauseous.

I’m trying hard to finish all the bits this october. If I plan to look for support or funding It should look and feel a little better. I’m hoping to at least have all the essential pieces of the game in a working state, even if it is just in greyboxing.

The things I want to finish are the loot and inventory system, as well as my ultimate foe, the Cover system. I have attempted several UE4 Marketplace assets, but they aren’t as good as I had hoped, so I have to really make it from scratch for it to work the way I want it to. DIY I suppose. I believe my understanding of line traces is improving So I’m getting close, but as I’ve been told several times, It’s a complicated subject.

Well I’m gonna sign off for now and keep going with the inventory tomorrow. All I need to do is follow the tutorials and hope for the best.

Pew pew pew… Whoosh…

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

BLOG ENTRY 10 - 10.8.2020

Damn I hate it when I fall behind on stuff that I like. I Had some advances last week but I didn’t post since I lost track of time. To top it off this week I got a wicked case of food poisoning which has completely obliterated my productivity this week. But all is not lost.

I Was able to work on the menu systems and they turned out alright. Mind you they are not the most polished or visually attractive menus, but they’re functional which in gamedev apparently is a triumph, so I’m gonna count it as one.

Main Menu Game Start and Pause Menu Exi

This is great because now If I package the game as a standalone it is playable and can be exited without the need to hit alt + F4. I am not a professional coder by any means but I’ll be damned if I share my game without an option to quit. “It is unacceptable” - Sir Reginald

I was also able to start working on an intro menu sequence so it looks all fancy and shit. I was however unable to make it work as intended in the main menu, hence the black screen. But if it had work it would have totally looked cool.

Intro Camera

Once I get it fully working on the Main Menu, I’m gonna fuck around and try to get an interactive menu in the style of Bioshock Infinite. So each section of the menu takes you to a different part of the intro map. I honestly thought that game was awesome, but that’s a discussion for another time.

For now I’m glad that I got the basics of sequencer enough to do that, like I said, functionality is a triumph, but this was not short of success. Making the rest is just rinse, repeat and polish.

I hope next week I can make some deeper functionality, like making the inventory and equipment system, but I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew. I know that what I’m trying to accomplish with my UI/UX design is some higher tier shit, so I want to make sure I build everything as clean as possible. I don’t want to create too much technical debt in case I can’t get funding to hire a pro-coder, and even if I do, nobody likes rushed, sloppy spaghetti-code.

In any case that’s all from me for now, still not feeling 100%. I’ll share this post on twitter tomorrow. For now I’m gonna go play some salty league matches. clear my head and rest.

Menus are back on the Menu Boiz…

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

BLOG ENTRY 9 - 9.24.2020

Well I didn’t post last week, it’s the first update in weeks I have missed. But oh boy let me tell you…

So unfortunately I kinda fucked my build, I was attempting to clean up my project to make sure I didn’t have a mess of things. I started cataloging the things in my project that I’m actually using to clean up assets I’m not, BUT FOR SOME REASON, I apparently had 2 instances of Ue4 open. so when I renamed my project folder and saved, and then closed it and saved again because I thought It hadn’t closed. I saved 2 instances of my entire project, under a different folder. And then I attempted to merge the folders and ended up with 4. Long Story short the references for everything got fucked and broke. And when attempting to delete the duplicate folders UE4 just up and crashed, I tried a few times but every time, a crash.

To make matters worse I have not set up source control properly and my last working copy was before I had added to assets so technically 4-5 versions ago. So my options to get back to the current version were limited. Either I tried to clean up the messed up version or I re-did all the code I’ve been doing over the past couple of months. I was able to work around it and opted to attempt a migration from the code I have already done to a duplicate of the last working version. So I was able to get it working on that version and imported all the assets that I did plan on using immediately.

I also worked on the HUD and I’m proud to say I was able to make a minimap, It renders everything and it’s a little buggy, but it works. The health/shield bar and Action bar aren’t connected to actual blueprints yet and that’s in part of the problem with the fucked build. The break happened while I was working on a Blueprint Ability system. I was already connecting it to the wrist weapon but then when it crashed I lost all the references and parents with the migration. So the wrist weapon currently doesn’t do damage, however, I think I can finish the ability system and plug it to the HUD and we’ll have a fancier version of the game.

UI + Minimap

So far so good considering the setbacks. There’s something else I need to address from a design point of view. Rene mentioned that he felt like there was no point to the minimap if it’s providing less information than you current top down view. And reluctantly after I had finished it I realized he’s kind of right. I attempted to extend the view enough to get more of the size but it basically looks just like a smaller version of your current view port.

The function of the Map is to orient you and I believe that this type of minimap is not going to cut it. I’ve since found a resource to create a “holographic map” of the surrounding area. It is a bit old but I believe I got the source for that working, If I can adapt it to my game it should look really cool, plus it would reinforce the sci-fi world/aesthetic that I’m going for. I Hope I’m able to get it done.

The cover system is still a bit to go and I also have to make an inventory and loot system, but I have some really good resources to try out, just a little closer to that full MVP, I feel Like I actually see the finish line for the first time, and that gives me hope.

Alright time to rest and keep working tomorrow. I’ll try to update next week with the holomap and see how far I get with the ability system.

Trying to keep it together.

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

BLOG ENTRY 8 9.10.2020

Good News Everyone! I have managed to resolve the animation kit problem, and the player character now holds the gun! Turns out the problem with why I was unable to add the animations to my character is because there are several instances of the SK_Mannequin in Unreal Engine, that while near identical, If the animations are not parented or targeted to that skellington, you simply can’t use them. Once I selected the correct one though, voilá.

Animations + Jump Fix

So now the player holds the gun instead of the gun just floating around, I was able to attach it to the hand bone, had to do some offsetting but it looks and feels pretty good now. I need to learn how to do the Animation offset so the legs move more realistically and move backwards too. I am pretty happy that I was able to reverse engineer the animation cycle from the standard animation blueprint and add the jump animation for when you use the rocket jump. I feel like it actually cycles really well as the character lands with the feet in the right way.

I’ve gotten a better understanding of the Animation State Machine and will be able to edit to my hearts content. Now I just have to browse through a hundred + animation assets to choose the correct one for when you use the other abilities, it is a lot of work, but I think I’m going to enjoy myself thinking about the possibilities.

Starter Animation State machine.

It looks pretty simple right now, but I get the feeling it’s gonna get really complex real quick, I have to make sure I’ve got all my logic right so I don’t end up bugging anything. We’ve all seen how weird games feel when this breaks and it’s not pretty.

So now with the animations working as intended. My next step is making a functional UI, at least to have a better way to check the cooldown on the skills other than debug text. I’ve gotten some drafts to use as placeholders, and I’m hoping I can make a nice portrait overlay with the Health and shield bars. I want to have something that feels a little like Halo:CE but I don’t want to directly rip it off. I’ve got a UI asset pack from a few months back so I’m gonna try it see if I can find something there that fits or at least gets close to what I want it to look like.

I don’t have that much else to report this week, It’s not much but It’s honest work. :V I’m hoping by next week to have the UI set up even if it’s functional, as long as it looks pretty. Until then I guess.

Working Hardly

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

BLOG ENTRY 7 - 9.3.2020

Man this week went by fast. Usually I have time to get something else ready but I really didn’t sit down and fuck around with Unreal as much as I wanted to. Fortunately I did get SOME stuff done, A little goes a long way.

I managed to make the Plasma Charge actually do damage to the test dummy. It’s still got some issues but I think it’s because I did it by myself without using a video for reference, and I’m certain there’s a more efficient way to achieve the same effects, but for now It actually explodes and does the thing.

Killer Plasma Charge

It sometimes doesn’t apply the damage to the enemy and if I spam too fast It’ll spawn the charge below the floor, So I have to fix it so it places it nearby without clumping the charges together. That’s going to be important for when I polish the ultimate ability.

Speaking of which I also got the ultimate ability done… Sorta… Kinda… The idea is that you’ll be the fastest Plasmapunk this side of Stillrock, and you’ll be able to Rocket Jump all over the place spamming the wrist weapon while dropping plasma charges everywhere. It woooorks (Channeling Samuel Hayden), However, again I did this by my lonesome and I’m certain there are some more elegant ways to get it done.

300% Efficiencty - Ultimate Ability

So the ability is working as intended. The problem is that it doesn’t shut down. I set a timer for it to stop after 9 seconds but It wasn’t doing anything. I looked for other solutions inside but couldn’t find it. So I guess it’s back to the youtubes and watch some tutorials. Once I’m done fixing these two skills the full kit for the first character will be finished.

I’m looking forward to having it done, not so much doing it, game dev amirite? The next 3 things I have to get done are the HUD, Make an animation blueprint that fits what I’m trying to do, and Start an Inventory system. It honestly seems like a lot but since I’ve seen a couple of videos on it I have the general Idea of what I have to do, so it’s not that bad.

Overall Progress was made so I’m happy, I wish I could get things done faster and better, but I guess that only comes with experience so, gotta grind that XP with Unreal Engine 4 until I can just implement without that many hitches, hopefully soon.

Grinding like Gears

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios

BLOG ENTRY 6 - 8.27.2020

Well, I wasn’t able to get the animations working nor the cover system, I DID however make a nifty little bomb. While reworking each classes skills, We came to an agreement that the original plasma charge which empowered the other skills is now and ultimate ability. Which I will be working on this week as I’ve already got an Idea on how to implement it in UE4. It’ll basically allow you to spam your skills for a short amount of time, In theory, it should be a lot of fun to dash around the map dropping bombs and instakilling dudes with your wrist weapon.

So the current 3rd Skill which will keep the plasma charge name will be like a plantable explosive. I used a mesh from a set of free steampunk assets that were available a few months ago. I changed the materials emission color to a nice teal. Had to scale because it was tiny but now it’s sufficiently visible without feeling clunky. I also placed a couple of particle effects, one to give it an aura for visibility and a sort of timer, I haven’t truly timed the particles to the life time of the plasma charge itself, but it looks okay. I also added an explosion particle effect in the end to give it a nice explosion. I used another set of particle effects and I had to get into it’s guts to learn where to change the color. I was able to figure it out and it turned to a nice teal color that really matches what will be the characters color scheme for all skills.

The only thing I need to do now is create a collision sphere so it can do damage to enemies and maybe cover? hmmm… Maybe could be interesting. Right now though it feels good to spam, has a 3 second timer and a functional cooldown, you can also use it while mid air with the dash, which opens a whole lot of possibility space. Plus it goes boosh… :D

Plasma Charges

I’m pretty proud as it’s another thing I figured out by myself. granted I’d already done actor spawns but figuring out how to do it where it didn’t mess with collision and stuff and spawned at the correct place really gave me a boost of confidence that I’ll be able to make the entire class as I picture it.

I’ll be working on an ability UI soon as well, though I just have so many tutorials I have to watch, absorb and actually get done. It’s overwhelming but considering I’ve made significant progress lately, I feel like if I finish certain ideas, once they’re done that’s another thing I don’t have to be thinking about, sure bugs can come up later, but this is a work in progress and so far, I’m liking that it’s shaping up quite nicely.

For now I really don’t have much else to report but knowing that once this class’ kit is complete I can start experimenting with the other classes. I’m also working on a class selector for testing purposes, to be able to switch between them and make sure nothing is broken when making new skills.

Lotta stuff to do, but anyway, Lets see how the ultimate ability turns out. and I’ll update next week.

Tired and/or Wired

Daniel “Freaky” Aguilar

Game Designer

Plasmapunk Studios