This week no build will be pushed for you to test. I’m working on the narration process and there is no point delivering small chunk of it.

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Narration is a lot more time consuming than I want it to be. Not only I have to set up the camera, the protagonists pose, the dialogs, the player’s choice and a lot more, but I want it to be the more fluid, easy and fast to implement too. I want to be able to create sequences as fast as possible, so the story can be written, tested and tweaked easily.

To achieve this goal I use the Sequencer which is a really powerful tool delivered with UE4. This tool allow you to create cinematics in few minutes. You can add any actor in it and trigger its functions, all of what an actor can do, the sequencer can triggers it (I mean all, be it the camera(s) transform, aperture size, focal length, a character, or you can even switch a light). So the natural way to achieve my goal was to create an actor that implements all the function I’ll need often and implement an interface between it and the Sequencer, eh? I called it StoryTeller.

The storyTeller can start at BeginPlay (seen in the first sequence when you create a character) or on Player Overlaping its Box. It implements all the usual functions needed (Start, Pause, Jump to Frame, End, Update Journal, ect.) so the sequencer just have to call them. And it performs some optional checks like StoryState, PlayerState, ect.

So I’m not only writing (improvising mainly, to build up the system) the story, but also setting up a system to do it fast. The goal being able to pull 10 complex sequences a week. I want the writing process to flow as smoothly and fast as possible, so if any idea comes to mind it’s a matter of minutes to implement and test.

Hopefully yall see it in action next week! Till then, shoot some villains in the current build. Share feedback and ideas and stay tuned!

Play the current version : ShootOut

Hello!

This week update isn’t gorgeous, I had some business which took a good part of the week. I mainly played the game previous build as part of the DoubleTrouble Contest which is, I can say, a total failure, as there is not a single participant 😀  Whatever, I used the event to experience the game as a player, to get an overall feeling of the experience. I would have loved to see a couple of streams from you guys’n gals, playtesting is really a big part in the process of creating the game.

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You know there is still the whole day to score one single point, make a 1min stream and be the proud winner? –> DoubleTrouble Contest!

I added the Smoke Grenade to the game, once thrown it will create a quite huge smoke area that occludes visibility. The perfect tool to retreat from an unwanted fight, or avoid it altogether. The few tests I did with it whispers that it needs some tuning, or some counter like the scanner drone. I’ll also do some test occluding the player vision to be fair. In any cases, I feel that the system is more balanced between aggressive and sneaky tactics now.

In the future some more weapons are planned, I mean big stuff like

•  rockets, miniguns, missiles, exo skeletons

 Sneaky tools and technics are also planned : 

• stealth kills, traps, lures… 

And of course a lot of work is needed on the AI, party members must adapt better to the player’s actions and tactic, enemies need more complex tactic moves like retreat, regroup, flank…

But other parts of the game need some love now :

•  Story / Choices / Narration / Consequences  / Meanings / Emotions / Reward / Exploration / Character Development

just to name a few.

Play the current build, share some feedback, ideas, opinions, it is never useless!

Play the current version : ShootOut

And stay tuned!

play the game for a chance to win 20$ worth on itch.io as gift!

Hello!

This week a new tool arrived: an infrared sensor for the drone. It provides a pulse every 5s up to 30m, allowing the owner to detect life thru walls!

I worked on making it possible to embrace a more subtle way of dealing with villains. While crouching the player will be almost invisible up to 15m. Almost only, the bots will see something and move toward it to be sure. While in squad, each member will add 4m to this undetectable distance. That means a squad of three guys will only be stealthy at 27m! You’re warned, live hidden, live lonely.

A great news, you should no longer experience crash! yeehaaa! …I know I say that each week… but this time I promise!

Another great news !

DoubleTrouble Contest!

Play the game and win 20$ worth of any product on itch.io! Click that link for all info!

That’s all folks! Take care in these strange times!

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With some knowledge one can program it to perform useful tasks.  For now only one (lot more to come): it will generate a kinetic shield every 60 seconds for the whole squad. With such a tool, your longevity on the battlefield is considerably longer!

But, beware, your foes could well possibly own one!

It is very fragile, few hits will destroy it, though… And upon destruction, not only you loose its benefits but it also explode… better run, then!

Here we can see Jack and his squad using it :

As usual, a lot of bugs fixes, tweaks, improvement… and new issues. I’m particulary happy to have tracked down and killed an old crash… Thanks the drone, with it I could test some shootout against dozens of baddies, that made easier to reproduce the faulty method!

No really sexy screenshot to show this week! 

Thanks everyone who read this, and everyone who play! Don’t hesitate to share impressions, feedback, ideas, bugs, hugs and anything you wish! It really helps!

Until next week!

Play the current version : ShootOut

The Syringe Gun

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Hey !

Today a new toy has arrived, both for player and Bots. Be it friendly or not. It adds a good amount of survivability!

The Syringe Gun can totally turn the tide, silently applying various chemical effects (for now poison and heal)!

How to use it:

I’s like a gun, with 40m range, it launches a dart with chemical in perfect silence. To switch betwin the diferent toxins Reload while already loaded(this will cycle the toxins). To perform a heal to self pull the trigger whithout aiming.

Also I removed the ability for bots to perform headshots, was not really fun to be one shot! Even if it was quite rare. The counterpart is I augmented the chance for ennemy spawn in dungeons by 10%.

As I had to dive into the AI logic for it to use the new toy, I did a lot of tweaksand cleaning there. There is still some work to perfect it though!

Please, enjoy the current version, send me some feedback, opinion, ideas, reviews, hug or kisses!

Until next week!

Play the current version : ShootOut