+ misc environement stuff
+ implementing animations and making sure they transition correctly
+ found a way to properly impart velocity from root motion
+ started using trello
- trello makes me properly realise how much stuff I have to do
- actually going through exams
+ engaging maximum speed next week
+ one new animation, tweaks on some others
- that's it, unless you count unfinished stuff
- someone please kill exams
+ Messing around with flowmaps for water shaders
+ New combat animations look nice in game
- Flowmap implementation is dodgy, no way to generate the map easily so far
- worked on a feature that's extra polish that might not even get in the game instead of something meaning
- Need to fix a bunch of stuff in the animations to make them better for gameplay
- please bomb my uni so I don't have to suffer exams
+ almost one more attack animation
+ progress on the MC basemesh
- modelling hands is hard
- missed on potential progress this weekend because I had forgotten my mouse at my appartment
- dropping out of the Demo Day race, even disregarding exams it's not going to be possible.
+ New control scheme in melee range (thanks again un-named Anon)
+ Small progress/tweaks on the new camera
+ Working on the MC/Some bosses' basemesh
- Probably gonna skip DD20
+ First animation set for the grunt almost complete
+ Couple placeholder animations for MC/Placeholder
+ Misc modelling/Rendering practice
+ New Camera idea works perfect for melee combat
-(?) Fucking oops I was actually using the CPU to render stuff when I thought it was the GPU
- Regular controls are confusing with the other camera perspective so I need to make(and figure out) a whole exception in the controls for that case.
- Details' normals are barely any visible in game, hopefully colours will make them come out. If not I'm throwing them away fucking again
- Starting to get overwhelmed with uni stuff (exams in about a month, barely know half the stuff I need)
+ Detailed most of the grunt
+ Rigged it
+ Started animating it
+ Found how to proceed with the close range camera
+ More rendering practice, starting to have a good idea of how to do clouds.
- Bar the camera, no code progress
- Modelling progress is restricted to the grunt
- oopsie doopsie I want to change the story
+ Still changing the bullet pool, component works now, only need to update shooting functions and AI
+ Shooting at a target can finally be limited to a maximum angle properly instead of coming out straight.
+ Detailing part by part and baking works nicely for mechas
+ More concept art
+ Decided grunt went through enough iteration/small variations, shape/outline is now final
+ Learned about smoke/fire simulation and cloud rendering in Blender
- Rewriting stuff to account for the new pooling is tedious
- Spent a lot of time "practicing" rendering because shit's slow
+ Have more or less an idea of what the first level's going to be, started modelling some parts of it
+ Slight work on the grunt, it now has crappy hands
+ Changing the way bullets are pooled
+ Have a concept for the next enemy, started modelling it
- (?) spent a bunch of time practicing
- still no concept for the MC-Mecha
- not focused enough
+ recapman is not dead
+ "Worked" on re-making the grunt (again and again and again)
+ Found out you can get normalmaps from greyscale textures out of blender
+ misc concept art and story writing
+ practice
- made less progress during a week of vacation than during a week at the uni
+ "Finished" a level
+ Demo for DD19 released
+ Some new placeholder SFX
+ Demo gave me a precise idea of what's wrong
+ Misc concept art and minor refactoring
+ Got emission working with cel shading
- Quite honestly didn't do much this week
- Holy shit there's so much stuff to fix
+ rigged, animated and partly implemented new enemy
+ finally devised a proper workflow to make levels and import them
+ simple level geometry and basic textures look better than I expected
+ couple more VFX
+ found out the camera math used the wrong transform, camera works far better now, adjusted its movements
+ misc gameplay fixes : limiting rotations to not go past 45/-45 pitch, shooting spread on AI
+ have no error messages after playing for the time in months
- Missile collision is broken again
- Need more misc items to decorate levels
- need SFX for demo day
- Didn't do too much overall last week.
+ Tested AI against some scrubs
+ More changes to AI, it is now a little more fair against the player when in groups
+ Almost finished modelling a new enemy
+ Placeholder version on the input buffer in place for DD19
+ Finally found a way to limit a rotation to an angle within another rotation
+ Miscellaneous VFX (bullets, particles, crosshair...)
+ Placeholder melee system now works as it should, attacks can be chained together, queued if the button press is too early
+ Made a twitter
+ Made a bunch of modular assets
+ Concept art, laying down some of the story's keypoints
- Level blockout with BSPs just led to terrible results
- Spent too much time trying to fix the exported BSPs
- Not happy with current modular assets, still need to find a proper workflow/standard so they all fit seamlessly without any trouble
+ More animations
+ VFX for animations
+ Standardized some shaders so I can use material instances instead of an unnecessary amount of materials
+ Tested the basis of the new melee system, way more accurate and easy than the previous one
+ Melee hits now have special proprieties like breaking shields, knockback, and so on
+ Characters now recoil when knocked back
+ Might have found the right way to buffer attacks
+ Grunt behavior is mostly done, just need to change the way it moves around
+ Came up with an idea on how to do grouped attacks between different AI characters
+ Started blocking out a level
+ Have the concept and started modelling a new enemy (ranged support unit)
+ Fixed the game's overall blurryness caused by engine settings
+ Mechas now fully rotate towards each other instead of just rotating on pitch
- Can't find a way to limit the angle projectiles are being shot
- Forgot to take care of twitter/tumblr again
- Locking a character into an animation montage (for melee/recoil) is currently super wonky and probably has a lot of bugs
- Haven't found a way to standardize the way melee is written for the player, so I currently just have a bunch of spaghetti
+ started working on animations
+ more AI stuff - blocking, preventing it from unleashing a bullet hell when it's out of view, kamikaze attack for drones
+ neat explosion effect I can expand on
+ minor gameplay tweak
+ found an even better and more sensible way to do melee attacks
- terrible at animations
- root motion gives nothing but issues given scaling skeletal meshes happens in UE4
- need to rewrite the melee system again for the third time
- wasted a shitfuck of time
- really need to do again the whole topology of the grunt mecha
- said grunt's rig is fucked on several parts
- I won't even talk about texturing/uv maps
+ Sculpted and started retopologizing another take on the grunt design I had, almost done with retopo (pic rel)
+ Also started another mecha, but it didn't fit the aesthetics of a weak grunt
+ Found an easy way to do hard surface details on walls
+ Done with the design of the basic drone, got an effect for its only attack
+ Modular set wasn't actually so bad, adding it to a scene gives a lot more perspective
+ Implemented the basis of the new Input buffer, might have a solution to queue actions
+ Learned some stuff about VFX design and packing textures/noise in a convenient way
+ Camera adjustments
- Need to re-do the rig and texturing on the drone
- New melee function is a mess that takes in a fuckload of arguments
- No gameplay changes
+ surprise it's not actually dead
+ done with exams and current uni timetable isn't garbage
+ completely remade and overhauled the camera to support faster action
+ player can use arrow keys to lock the camera on an actor to the left/right
+ missile multi-locking system based on what's on screen
+ shitload of refactoring
+ planned an input buffer that should hopefully be much better than the current one
+ might have found a workflow for mecha modelling that doesn't involve my terrible ability to do concept art
+ taking a break has renewed my interest in the project and allowed me to get slightly better at art
- worked on a modular set, but hate it
- didn't do shit on the project for almost two months
- current recap is multiple weeks worth of progress
- fuck images we roguelike now
- Dropping the project for multiple reasons, namely because art has been burning me out, and because I want to go back to an older, more manageable project with different ideas
- Stay tuned next week for new project
+ New placeholder mecha based on an actual design (needs to be refined and textured)
+ animations for the new mecha skeleton: flight cycle, dashing, shooting, heavy knockback
+ missiles suffered yet another terrible change and function on another system, much easier to tweak
+ learned some practices concerning UE4's animation handling system, animtrails and animation events, which are going to cut down a lot of spaghetti
+ huge cleanup in the base class for characters, have a good idea how it's going to work now
+ started working on the new melee system, have a plan for how it's gonna work
+ wrote some story drafts that don't completely suck, as well as a main motive behind bosses and levels
+ scribbled a design, turns out it fits with an enemy I want to do
+ there's a skeleton option now
- spent way too much time on this missile bullshit
- might add a couple bones to the new mecha, which means I'll have to re-do the anim bp again
- had completely forgotten about Demo Day
- little actual new and interesting content for Demo Day, none of the changes I wanted for dynamics/speed of the game
- still want to release a meaningful demo
+ HDD failed. But my files didn't sink with it.
+ Refined the input buffer and made it more clear to me
+ Cleaning up some AI stuff
- Wasted an afternoon fetching the new HDD
- Wasted another one copying files and replacing it
- Progress machine broke
- I thought the ghost would be much cooler and there's no skeleton.
+ Reworked the missile homing, they now home back onto their target if they miss, instead of getting stuck in a circle
+ Multi-locking system for firing volleys of missile towards multiple enemies
+ Changed how hit stops work
+ Small input buffer
- was sick for part of the week, busy with school for the other, less progress than expected$
- "worked" on visuals again
- HDD really about to fail
+ Fixed missiles collision, again, hopefully for the last time.
+ Theorical knowledge
- Worked on a model for a week, still no model
- No real progress, no time to do real progress this week either
- So little progress I forgot what was the other thing I fixed
- HDD about to fail, let's hope it holds up until I get a new one.
+ Added a fleeing state for enemies so you can now play hide and seek
+ Fixed the lock-on aiming so that it can't shoot at impossible angles anymore
+ Added a buffer for the Lock-On so that it will always cycle between every enemy in range before going back to the first one locked
+ Might have for the first time an enemy design that isn't complete garbage
+ The quest for eternal cleanup continues
+ Projectiles will auto activate/deactivate their children components (e.g. particles)
+ Fixed missiles so that they properly collide now
- Didn't try modelling said design, it might actually suck
- No idea how I actually fixed the missiles. Then again, no idea why they weren't colliding in the first place.
- No tangible content
+ started working on "cross AI relations" in order to make them act more like a group
+ AI can now fly in a drone-like pattern with multiple drones next to a target
+ refactoring and reworking the class hierarchy
- Fell into the trap of trying to make visual assets again, without succeeding to make one
- Not much proper content
- Started new Uni semester, "less time to work" and city atmosphere has got me down