This post marks our first every announcement regarding development of Visitant.
Visitant is a passion project being developed by literally two dudes. And, we are working hard to bring you a unique ghost hunting experience.
With time, we will be releasing an official roadmap for Visitant, but for now, our first goal is to create a playable demo with enough content so that you can really get a taste for what Visitant has to offer.
The demo will include the following:
An introduction tutorial scene designed to introduce the players to Visitant's unique mechanics
Multiplayer with at least two maps
Contractor leveling system
26 out of the 78 Tarot Cards
Most of the equipment being completed and fully implemented
Unique ghost types with randomized traits and abilities
Beginning parts of the Visitant story line
I am not exactly sure when the demo will be released, but I will keep you posted on the progress... we would like to use the demo to receive critical feedback about the performance, game-play loop, and multiplayer experience. What am I working on now?
Today I spent time creating original in-game promotional images for the game. Above is the new image for the steam store...but more importantly, I spent the majority of the day working on the performance of Visitant. I spend a lot of time analyzing every component of Visitant after making any major updates. Above is Unity's data analyzer that let's me see, frame by frame, the impact that every system in the game has on performance. Visitant's locations are quite complex. They are filled with hundreds of interactable objects and high fidelity lights - if I am not careful, the FPS will quickly tank. For example, look at this image below (Please keep in mind this is an image directly from the editor...so no fancy post processing effects going on here. Which is why it looks more flat):
Take a look at the number of lights in this house, each of those can be turned on and off. Either by interacting with them directly or via a light switch. Many of you may already see a problem here... lighting is one of the most graphically demanding task for your GPU (more accurately it's the creation of shadows that are expensive). So traditionally, a lot of horror games minimize the number of lights in a game, or make it so the lights are not interactable (That's called having baked lighting). With Visitant, we did not want to compromise on the homes being fully interactable with many lights sources. Immersion is important for us. The homes feeling genuine is important. It allows for richer environmental interactions. So, each light, is carefully placed and uniquely adjusted to make sure their performance impact is minimal. We then do some clever tricks for lighting, for example making it so shadows only update for moving objects, so that large objects like tables, walls, couches, and etc are ignored by the engine, disabling lights when the player is not looking, lowering their shadow resolution when outside of the camera, and even removing their shadow casting abilities.
Of course, allowing the players to adjust as many graphics options in the menu as possible allows them to adjust the game's settings to meet their individual PC's abilities. All of this effort for a smooth and immersion ghost hunting experience.
Follow for another dev post next week for an update regarding the intro scene!
Now I have to figure out where to find some good voice actors...
Now please, get back to work Contractors.
- Condemned Entertainment Team