DevBlog #30: Happy Halloween!
[h2]FTessaro - Lead Programmer[/h2]
Hey everyone, I spent most of this month continuing the development of the Migration & Diet systems, participating in several long design meetings throughout the month, with even more to come as we hash out and test the final details.
Besides the Migration System and New Diet system with slot combinations, I also implemented a variety of new food items for Update #6. Such as: Fiddlehead, Dulse, Russula, Papaya, Jackfruit, Cashews, Banana & Brazil Nuts, they will spawn in specific areas of the map depending on their main biome. A new class of interactable actors will be introduced in Update 6, insects. Two types; Flies that spawn close to corpses and bees that provide juveniles with a nutritious treat... Though adults will receive quite the nasty sting!
Carnivores will be receiving a special mechanic for Update 6, it is called the Thrash Mechanic, or Corpse Shake. I can’t spoil the details just yet, but I think the names alone will provide you with all the information you need to get a good idea of what this entails. Besides that, the Troodon received some more love this month as I made improvements to its Venom Pounce to significantly increase its visual smoothness. We’re also experimenting with a locked camera adjustment for when you’re eating/drinking, aimed at making the game more dynamic & immersive, so you’ll no-longer have eyes in the back of your head while stuffing your face with food or drink.
[h2]dmIV - Programmer[/h2]
This month I made some changes to how logging in works. We often had different behavior whether the user did a quick or a safe log, with quick log generally having more issues. So I changed how that works and now it uses the same system as safe log, making it significantly more reliable.
Climbing is something I keep coming back to. It’s an interesting process because every time I make progress I feel very satisfied, but then I come back later and notice new things that need improvement. So I ended up polishing it further and also set up a few animations for testing. The visuals are in an early stage since our animators are busy with other tasks, but here’s a quick look at where things are:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Then I went back to the human character. The first time we made him publicly accessible I didn’t really have the time to make the code as clean as I like. So now I moved everything from Blueprint (Unreal’s visual scripting solution) to C++ (actual code). I also improved a few things in the background to make some of the human-specific movements work better. This isn’t really something that a player would notice, but it was important for making future extension easier.
[h2]VisualTech48 - 3D Envirovmental Artist[/h2]
As we followed the prop month, we went into another one. This month my focus was on not only props but bridging a collision update to a group of objects, for a specific reason. Hehe.
You’ve seen the container last week, well this week we bring forth the Military PDA, which will be used by humans, as a specific way of interacting and using it in the world. We will delve further into its use down the line.
Second less noticeable object is a “simple” stool, which has a few minor variants:
Third one is the HAM Radio, which in the future, “may” have specific intractability, and you’ve seen it perhaps in the Phase-Three section of our Official Discord.
Lastly for this month, I’ve wrapped up and finished an important part of the human future building system, the Portable Generator.
And that is it from me this month. Enjoy!
[h2]Wedge - Sound Designer[/h2]
This month I started out by finalizing ambiences I was working on last month, refining them to achieve the atmosphere we are aiming for on a clear day, both coastal and plains ambience as well as one instance of cave ambience have been added to the new map. Some new layers and one shots have also been introduced to the Jungle and swamp ambiences to expand on what already was heard in these areas.
I’ve also made some changes to ensure all animals have a vocal call for their idle and/or movement animations and created attenuations for them so they can be heard at range to help players locate them through sound.
Another addition to the soundscape will be heard through the buzzing of fly swarms that spawn on rotting corpses. Alongside this I have designed a few sounds for bee swarms.
The remainder of my time this month has been aimed at adding sound to Beipiaosaurus. I started with ensuring both its on land calls and underwater calls, once implemented, are only heard within the correct contexts and at the right pitch and volume. I then went on to add the majority of its foley sounds and created some new sound effects including webbed feet footsteps, claw swipes and jaw snaps. Finally I’ve started working through the supplementary vocals for Beipi. The sounds for all attacks and pain animations are complete or near completion and I will be moving on to the rest over the next month.
I’ve also had a focus on a large amount of minor enhancements and bug fixes – replacing or editing sounds that break immersion and ensuring they are heard and functioning the way we intend (e.g balance and quality of footsteps sounds, replacing leg break sounds, etc.)
[h2]Tapwing - 2D Artist[/h2]
Returning to the stage is one of our loudest creatures on the isle, Parasaurolophus.
This one has been tricky as it’s more of a looker than a fighter; not that it can’t slap away smaller animals, but when the big predators roll in, it’ll need to pull out a different bag of tricks to make up for its lack of weaponry. Its agility is its first asset. being surprisingly nimble for its size on all fours, it can make those ambushing attempts that much harder to land. Against more endurance style hunters though, its voice would give it a second chance. As an ear bleeding yell might stagger the predator long enough to give Para a good head start in running away.
All in all they are sociable singers and get the most benefit from being around others. 2’s a party and 3 is a crowd is not a sentiment the Parasaurolophus shares.
[h2]Seiza - Video Editor[/h2]
This month we presented you with our latest video format, The Isle Guides. As the game grows, it gets more and more complex, one of the ways we would like to explain new mechanics is through guide videos so that newcomers have an easier time getting started. Keep in mind that in future we will also have tutorial resources in-game as well.
The goal of the guide videos is to answer as many questions as possible related to the new mechanics. I hope this goal has been achieved in the Nesting Guide. Your feedback is very important here, because these are certainly not the last videos of it's kind.
Also this year we want to share another special Halloween video. In line with the upcoming Gore update, I was already able to use a few of the new Gore assets in the video. For this, Bryan also created exclusive "zombie" animations for the video, I hope you like them as much as I do.
Happy Halloween everyone!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Hey everyone, I spent most of this month continuing the development of the Migration & Diet systems, participating in several long design meetings throughout the month, with even more to come as we hash out and test the final details.
Besides the Migration System and New Diet system with slot combinations, I also implemented a variety of new food items for Update #6. Such as: Fiddlehead, Dulse, Russula, Papaya, Jackfruit, Cashews, Banana & Brazil Nuts, they will spawn in specific areas of the map depending on their main biome. A new class of interactable actors will be introduced in Update 6, insects. Two types; Flies that spawn close to corpses and bees that provide juveniles with a nutritious treat... Though adults will receive quite the nasty sting!
Carnivores will be receiving a special mechanic for Update 6, it is called the Thrash Mechanic, or Corpse Shake. I can’t spoil the details just yet, but I think the names alone will provide you with all the information you need to get a good idea of what this entails. Besides that, the Troodon received some more love this month as I made improvements to its Venom Pounce to significantly increase its visual smoothness. We’re also experimenting with a locked camera adjustment for when you’re eating/drinking, aimed at making the game more dynamic & immersive, so you’ll no-longer have eyes in the back of your head while stuffing your face with food or drink.
[h2]dmIV - Programmer[/h2]
This month I made some changes to how logging in works. We often had different behavior whether the user did a quick or a safe log, with quick log generally having more issues. So I changed how that works and now it uses the same system as safe log, making it significantly more reliable.
Climbing is something I keep coming back to. It’s an interesting process because every time I make progress I feel very satisfied, but then I come back later and notice new things that need improvement. So I ended up polishing it further and also set up a few animations for testing. The visuals are in an early stage since our animators are busy with other tasks, but here’s a quick look at where things are:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Then I went back to the human character. The first time we made him publicly accessible I didn’t really have the time to make the code as clean as I like. So now I moved everything from Blueprint (Unreal’s visual scripting solution) to C++ (actual code). I also improved a few things in the background to make some of the human-specific movements work better. This isn’t really something that a player would notice, but it was important for making future extension easier.
[h2]VisualTech48 - 3D Envirovmental Artist[/h2]
As we followed the prop month, we went into another one. This month my focus was on not only props but bridging a collision update to a group of objects, for a specific reason. Hehe.
You’ve seen the container last week, well this week we bring forth the Military PDA, which will be used by humans, as a specific way of interacting and using it in the world. We will delve further into its use down the line.
Second less noticeable object is a “simple” stool, which has a few minor variants:
Third one is the HAM Radio, which in the future, “may” have specific intractability, and you’ve seen it perhaps in the Phase-Three section of our Official Discord.
Lastly for this month, I’ve wrapped up and finished an important part of the human future building system, the Portable Generator.
And that is it from me this month. Enjoy!
[h2]Wedge - Sound Designer[/h2]
This month I started out by finalizing ambiences I was working on last month, refining them to achieve the atmosphere we are aiming for on a clear day, both coastal and plains ambience as well as one instance of cave ambience have been added to the new map. Some new layers and one shots have also been introduced to the Jungle and swamp ambiences to expand on what already was heard in these areas.
I’ve also made some changes to ensure all animals have a vocal call for their idle and/or movement animations and created attenuations for them so they can be heard at range to help players locate them through sound.
Another addition to the soundscape will be heard through the buzzing of fly swarms that spawn on rotting corpses. Alongside this I have designed a few sounds for bee swarms.
The remainder of my time this month has been aimed at adding sound to Beipiaosaurus. I started with ensuring both its on land calls and underwater calls, once implemented, are only heard within the correct contexts and at the right pitch and volume. I then went on to add the majority of its foley sounds and created some new sound effects including webbed feet footsteps, claw swipes and jaw snaps. Finally I’ve started working through the supplementary vocals for Beipi. The sounds for all attacks and pain animations are complete or near completion and I will be moving on to the rest over the next month.
I’ve also had a focus on a large amount of minor enhancements and bug fixes – replacing or editing sounds that break immersion and ensuring they are heard and functioning the way we intend (e.g balance and quality of footsteps sounds, replacing leg break sounds, etc.)
[h2]Tapwing - 2D Artist[/h2]
Returning to the stage is one of our loudest creatures on the isle, Parasaurolophus.
This one has been tricky as it’s more of a looker than a fighter; not that it can’t slap away smaller animals, but when the big predators roll in, it’ll need to pull out a different bag of tricks to make up for its lack of weaponry. Its agility is its first asset. being surprisingly nimble for its size on all fours, it can make those ambushing attempts that much harder to land. Against more endurance style hunters though, its voice would give it a second chance. As an ear bleeding yell might stagger the predator long enough to give Para a good head start in running away.
All in all they are sociable singers and get the most benefit from being around others. 2’s a party and 3 is a crowd is not a sentiment the Parasaurolophus shares.
[h2]Seiza - Video Editor[/h2]
This month we presented you with our latest video format, The Isle Guides. As the game grows, it gets more and more complex, one of the ways we would like to explain new mechanics is through guide videos so that newcomers have an easier time getting started. Keep in mind that in future we will also have tutorial resources in-game as well.
The goal of the guide videos is to answer as many questions as possible related to the new mechanics. I hope this goal has been achieved in the Nesting Guide. Your feedback is very important here, because these are certainly not the last videos of it's kind.
Also this year we want to share another special Halloween video. In line with the upcoming Gore update, I was already able to use a few of the new Gore assets in the video. For this, Bryan also created exclusive "zombie" animations for the video, I hope you like them as much as I do.
Happy Halloween everyone!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]