Devblog Week 3: (01/11/2021)

So, time for another little update.

We're happy with the progress we've made on bits and pieces but over the course of the next week it should all come together more to form a cohesive whole.

So, what was worked on this week? Well we've started work on the player character model and it's beginning to take shape and should be done for next week. Other models being worked on are some enemy models but sadly they've been delayed until thursday, so we hope to show you next week on those too. We did get a gun model done however which we're super excited about. We designed it to be modular as the player gets upgrades, this gives it more believability as to how the player can carry so many guns and gave us the chance to experiment with blendshapes which are a super cool way of morphing models and cuts down on the animations we'll need for the game by working already.

So as for what we can show, we have a grand total of 59 building pieces fully modelled and you can see some of them attached. They've been designed in such a way as to allow us to modularly create structures to reduce memory capacity and allowing for many unique constructions to be seen throughout the game. We hope to write a script that allows us to combine the meshes and UV's to reduce calculations for lighting and materials. Following from last weeks post this should enable us to create a large array of buildings from very little and allow us to make the world more believable.

We have also began work on the AI for the enemies in the game, currently having behaviours programmed but are working on getting them to work correctly with our combat system. These behaviours are super basic at the moments and will definitely need some love and care in the future but for our current testing it's looking very promising. This is just a placeholder while we work on the other mechanics and will need a lot more attention and development in the future to really make the enemies come to life.

The plot has also been written and going through drafts for the moment but we can share what we imagine the opening to be for now as well as the plot premise:

You take control of a female construction worker working on a serious of renovations in an older part of town for the Elmsmith construction company. As one of the constructs used in the renovations goes wild it's up to you to use your steam powered tools to take it down, wondering why it happened a loud wailing of a siren is heard, it seems the rest of the city is under some sort of assault, you must rush home to grab your family and try to escape the city before it falls completely. We felt making the character a female would allow us to take an interesting spin on the classic storytelling trope of needing to find/save/get back to your family. As well as allowing our character designers to work on a steampunk work outfit which they were super excited to try their hands at.

The start of the game as we see it now:

"The player is working on a wall framing, checks steam valve and attaches the final panel to the wall. A bell rings signifying that the workday is over. As she’s descending the scaffolding stairs, the cart construct (tipper lorry esque) they use to transport materials backs in and she comments on their utility and the last two years causing businesses to boom and the city to flourish. She moved up in the worl since and can't wait to leave the city behind soon and move out to a small town where she and her husband can raise their son well. After turning aay and refilling her steam, the construct whirrs and lets off a small bit of smoke, then throwing the tipper back, hurling supplies in the players direction and attempys to crush her. During the fight a wailing claxon can be heard in the distance.