Greetings, tireless cleaners!
Gosh, how long it's been....
We seem to be making a bit of a habit of this.
I thought I'd take the time to let you guys know what we've been up to, and finally fill you in a bit about
our new project.
Are you guys still alive!?
I think it's safe to say this has been an interesting year for everyone, and I hope you're all keeping well out there.
We are well, just -as usual- extremely busy.
While the lockdown certainly complicated things for us, we have at least still been able to work.
Between all sorts of other stuff we've had to contend with distracting us from work, and the lockdown situation, we've actually been up to quite a lot.
So here's what's on the cards for next year.
VCD Update
We've got a long list of things to fix, and some additions that will aid our tireless workshop creators.
We'll be tackling these after the holidays, and hope to improve a few things.
No content additions are planned for this update, so it'll only be fixes.
Sadly, it has become clear that some issues with the game cannot be fixed with the given platform the game is built on. It has been an endless source of trouble for us, and some of these issues are quite serious, as I'm sure many of you are aware. This brings me on to the second bit of news.
VCD Port
Given the challenges and limitations, not to mention just the aging nature of the UDK -upon which is built VCD-, we have decided that an eventual porting of the entire game is the only reasonable course to future-proof and hopefully fix the most stubborn issues the game is currently shackled with.
It's safe to say this will be no small undertaking, and we'll likely have to rebuild the entire game's code from scratch on a newer engine. We're eyeing Unreal Engine 4 for this, but that's not yet locked in.
Having to do things from scratch does allow us a great deal of freedom, and we see this as an opportunity to streamline some elements the game has. It won't just be a simple port, but rather a "gold standard" for the VCD experience. Some things in the current game are chunky, and we see all sorts of areas we could improve. That being said, we're obviously not going to be straying from the quirky oddness that makes VCD what it is, so it'll still very much be the same kind of game, just "better".
However, I must sadly temper your expectations. This is going to take time(likely years), and before we can even commit to doing that full-time(or at all), we have another project we'll be rolling out first!
New Project
"What is it!?" I hear you ask? Sadly, we must be tight-lipped and dry-mopped on this one.
We'd have told you more about it sooner, but it has been as much an experiment as it has been a normal development, and we had to feel our way to something solid before we even knew "what" exactly it would be in the end.
Here is what I can tell you.
- It's not in the Viscera Cleanup Detail universe.
- It'll be a surprise.
- It feels very unique, while at the same time, familiar.
- We're focusing heavily on art-design this time, as well as hand-painted art.
- Atmosphere and world design play a large role.
- Most of all, we're experimenting with our own tech.
Developing the tech for this one has been, in a sense, years in the making.
These are new waters for us, so it's going to be a big undertaking to get the tech stable for supported systems and the like. But, given that it'll be entirely under our control, and we can dig around under the hood, we're confident that with enough time we can solve most problems that arise.
We hope to be able to use the tech for more future projects if all goes well.
I cannot give you much more info right now, but hopefully you won't have to wait long.
We're looking to go public with it mid 2021 if all goes well, so look forward to that!
If it catches on and everyone likes it, we'll continue to develop it. For now it's in a fairly early development state, but already has some flesh on it.
Conclusion
We are very much up to things, all of which will be picking up speed next year.
For now I hope you all have a great Christmas, and keep safe out there!
May 2021 be a far better year than 2020 has been. Hey, at least it can't get any worse!
I should not have said that...now I've jinxed it, I just know it.
Gather your mops! This is gonna get nasty... ːvcdbloodː