Hi hello, its the FIRST of the month again so welcome to another bi-monthly devlog! Last devlog I said: ".. these were probably the most successful months of the game... ever" , but let me take that back - the past 2 months were EVEN BETTER. Mik hit 3300 wishlists which is amazing and progress on the game has been strong as well.
Before starting with the actual devlog I want to talk about the....
Roadmap!
The next obvious milestone is Playtest 2, which will launch alongside version 0.2. This update brings a TON of changes, including level 2 of the game.
Content-wise, the demo will be feature complete. The only major things left are a full settings menu and getting more user feedback. Because of that, Playtest 2 will likely be much shorter than the first - and it’ll also be the last one.
If all goes to plan, both the Playtest and Demo will launch before the next devlog Both will have new trailer drops so stay tuned.
After that, it’s all about finishing the remaining levels and preparing for Steam Next Fest in October/November.
If you want more updates and stuff join my discord.
Playtest 1 Recap
Thanks to everyone who played the playtest, reborted bugs and gave feedback!!
More than 3 months ago the first Playtest opened and during that time I have gathered a lot of feedback and improved the game. Id like to talk about some of the most important changes here:
Movement
At the start of the playtest, movement was fast-paced and oriented toward open spaces. I quickly realized that this didn’t fit the game - Mik is a precision platformer, and speed made playing the game frustrating as you would often overshoot your target or slide off edges. So I reworked the movement to feel slower and more deliberate. There’s also a slow walk option now for even more control. The new level features wallrunning which should make things feel more interesting.
There is also vaulting now. Its primariraly meant to help the player be saved from falling to death but is also integrated into the gameplay. On top of that, coyote time and edge detection have been improved to make movement feel more forgiving.
Checkpoints & Codes
Another problem was that there were some parts of the game where the player would just die a lot of times and the last checkpoint was too far away. Now there are new "save points". For the player these are the same as checkpoints but they cannot be loaded in directly from the main menu and dont hold any data except their own index (meaning that there are some development side limitations).
Also, when you respawn now, the codes you find to progress no longer reset. Each playthrough is tied to a unique seed, generated at the start of a new game - so codes remain consistent in a playhtrough.
Difficulty
This ties in with the last point, some parts of the game were just too frustrating to play. Especially the first 2 parkour sections have been greatly improved and along with vaulting and save points its much less frustrating.
revelOS
This was probably the least expected complaint for me, but at the same time it was the one I got the most. Lots of people complained about the readability of the ingame computers. Previously they had way stronger post processing effects but I tried to clean it up as best as possible along with improving the font a bit.
Another complaint was that you couldnt navigate them with WASD which I implemented as well.
This is how it looks now:
Bugfixes
Goes without saying but there were tons of bugfixes as well!
Polish
Along with the things mentioned above, there has been a LOT more polish work. The existing first level is much "smoother", both visually gameplay wise. There have been lots of tweaks to all kinds of systems and areas and It´s pretty hard to write a text or show a screenshot summing this up so im just gonna mention the coolest things.
Titlecards
If you played Lorn´s Lure you might recognise this: I added a bit Titlecard right when exiting the starting area. I actually found the exact same font that Lorns Lure uses on google fonts lol.
I thought that it would look cool and make the game feel more cinematic, although im unsure where and how I should use it in the future since only using it once would feel weird. It appearing too frequently wouldnt fit either so im trying to find a good compromise.
Here is a small showcase on youtube:
Watch on YouTube
Player UI overhaul
I changed both the falling and loading UI. Theres also a new "checkpoint" UI indicating that you entered a checkpoint or savepoint. I dont want to upload a full video to youtube about this so im just gonna put a screenshot here:
You can see the falling UI changes and the loading UI in the bottom right. (ignore the test world)
Here is a link to a showcase in my discord: https://discord.com/channels/1189265056563732570/1191082278500180139/1363586549182235046
Stronger wind effects with moving plants
Just like the title says. The start of level 1 has stronger wind effects now, along with some new sound effects. The foliage there now also moves with the wind (if on high enough quality setting)
Here is a link to a showcase in my discord: https://discord.com/channels/1189265056563732570/1191082278500180139/1363940241819435408
CCTV cameras
This is something that I wanted to add for a while, ripped straight out of Portal - cameras that follow you! I think its a nice touch to the realism and believability of the world. The cameras can only be found on old testing tracks and designated areas since their function was to gather testing data from people completing the tracks.
Here is a small showcase ( along with footage of Level 2 and wallrunning!)
Watch on YouTube
Material changes
I changed lots of existing textures & materials, mainly by adding secondary textures, to make the entire world of Mik look older, more rusty and more abandoned. The previous textures felt too new for the setting of the game.
Usable Radios!
You can listen to music on them. You can break them.
What more could you want?
Here is a link to a showcase in my discord: https://discord.com/channels/1189265056563732570/1191082278500180139/1363586549182235046
New Music
Of course there will be also new Music when the second level releases. There will be a couple of new tracks and many of the old ones will be changed / reworked. I also moved the location of some of the music and im thinking about changing the main menu music.
Optimisation
Even more optimisation?? Yes, even more optimisation!
The start of the first level runs MUCH better now due to a couple of important changes, first of all I made a small script that helps me clean up & optimise foliage quickly, so face count and overdraw has been greatly reduced. Along with that I finally fixed the background: those big distant buildings used to be made up of thousands of tiny boxes, which absolutely tanked performance.
On top of that, I optimized some high-poly meshes, added more LODs in certain areas, and generally cleaned up object placement. Honestly, the easiest way to optimize is still just... delete stuff.
Level 2
I spent the most time working on this - and ironically it is the shortest part of the devlog. The second level features wallrunning and more complex parkour / puzzles in general.
The enviornments are also more varied with new colors and widely different areas. I dont want to spoil too much but here are some images.
The tons of pipes you see in these images are created with an amazing tool by Eugene Radaev on github: https://github.com/leth4/InstantPipes
Basically finished:
These are still indev:
PLAYTEST 2 SOON
Music I listened to while writing this: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGfuzA9DIZHESr5KpZ5brncUGPbug2zA2
- Stefaaan !!