Greetings everyone!
I hope your mops are keeping busy!
Another year has passed, and much has happened.
We thought we'd give you a rundown of what exactly this year brought in terms of progress, among other things.
As ever, sorry for the long periods of silence.
Since our last major announcement, a few things happened.
- In July, South Africa experienced a major bout of civil unrest. Rioters burned down buildings, destroyed and looted shops, disrupted vital transportation, ceased harbor operations, and generally caused a great deal of damage across the country, adding to the existing damage caused by the pandemic and lockdowns. Just down the road from us the shops were ransacked, and for over a week things were touch and go. Many parts of the country experienced food shortages.
Fortunately, things returned more or less to normal quicker than expected, but it's safe to say that stuff got very uncertain, and led to many changes in the country. - We've been very hard at work on the two projects mentioned last time; The UE4 Port and the "Other Project"
The other project has been showing great promise, and it is now nestling into a final form.
It's hard to over stress how much this project has been a journey of discovery.
Not just in terms of the tech, as we are making our own engine for it, but in terms of the game it's going to be. - We've been spending a lot of time learning new skills and new tech for what we have planned for the future.
Working on VCD full time made this difficult, what with the weekly updates and regular dead lines, so we're taking the time(what little there is) now to do so.
The 'Other Project'
The time spent since our last word on it has brought a fair bit of progress.
As I say, it is now nestling into a final form. So we're testing and iterating over it.
It has fresh and shiny new content to go with its unusual art style.
It has a fair play time, and it has a feel that's now getting in line with where we want it to be.
That being said. It's still pretty early for where it needs to get, ultimately. But it is approaching the time when we can announce it, with a good bit to show.
It'll be very interesting to see what you all make of it!
One of these days, we might actually have images to show. Hard to believe, I know...
We've talked about it for ages, but yes, it is coming along very nicely now!
It's a culmination of many years of effort in making our own tech, so it's naturally been an exercise in experimentation.
The UE4 Port of VCD
This one has also been coming along nicely.
But it too is a huge undertaking.
Here are some screenshots of where it stands.
We decided to remake Splatter Station, as it's a good test bed for the main mechanics before we move onward.
Currently, we have most of the main mechanics in, and a fair number of starting objects.
But just about everything is going to need significant iteration. Every mechanic is simple and crude and needs work.
- Hands can pick up and hold things. But their animations are not all correct.
- Many sounds are missing, and old content does not always import correctly.
- The UI is extremely basic!
- There is no custom editor tool for placing objects or blood, making level creation very slow until we make it.
- The way blood worked in the original VCD is out-dated and UE4 requires different textures. That's part of the reason why the blood in the screenshots(when it's actually visible) is so faint.
- The networking is likely going to need extensive iteration. It's on the right track, but needs a lot of improvement.
- There are little to no particle FX yet.
- The Camera and world scale are slightly off.
- Buckets don't have a water material. Ghastly!
- The default UE4 lighting system requires a rethinking on how we approach lighting a level. As you can see by the darkness. Alternatively, we may simply use the older method. More work is needed, basically.
- Some of the grimy architecture has not been put in Splatter Station yet.
So, although much needs to be done, it is going very well so far.
It should be said however, that this may be put on pause(at least partially) when our new project is announced. As we'll likely need all hands on deck to facilitate its continual updates and full-time development.
Conclusion
It's been a long year full of some very silent work, and a ton of distractions.
We've been nose to the grindstone so much we forget sometimes to look up and let you all know.
Doesn't help if what we're doing doesn't have nice images to go with it.
Next year should be very interesting indeed! So stay tuned for that.
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday! Keep the mops up and the bins down. There is no rest on holidays for Space Janitors, so we expect you to keep the stations tip top for the executive Christmas party!
EDIT: Thank you so much everyone for the well wishes!
We are fortunate to have such an excellent community of fantastic janitors!
Aerospace Sanitation does not deserve you fine hard working custodians. But don't tell them I said that...