March 2018, Week 4

+ bug fixing
+ water area is now two storeys
- bug finding

+ 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

+ The C++ rewrite continues (All engine code now complete)
+ Fixed a bug where textures were rendering with full alpha after map reloads
+ Changed view/weapon bobbing to make it a little more bouncy
+ Fixed some collision regressions
+ Currently porting over Particle System

+ for the first time I reached the level where I can post any gameplay on one basic map
- literally everything from UI, textures, levels, sounds, music etc.

+ Continuing to fix stuff.
- There's a lot to do.

+ Redoing super old character sprites
+ Finally finished an event I've been stuck on for a long time
+ Working on new dungeon
+ Planning out new story events, working on details of old ones I had outlines for
- just came off a long break

+ Added final sprites for Sea breed
+ Made Structure Zooids to increase max energy and Consumption Zooids increase energy regeneraion. This gives player a reason to grow larger.
+ Don't despawn enemies at level end, but rather make them very aware of your presence and flee or attack. The former behavior broke immersion as players would assume enemies are still somewhere to be found.
+ AI tries to flank their victim if they're fast enough
+ AI doesn't try to use all their skills at once, but randomly chooses next ready-to-use skill
+ Added imminent Mine explosion animation
+ Added breed-unlocking food pickups and UI-bar indication of collecting one
+ Various fixes and consistency tweaks
- Bosses are still just super aggressive enemies
- Levels feel empty and samey

+ Implemented switches
+ Implemented system to have elements of the game (such as spike traps or doors) that are toggled on and off at regular intervals, or for a limited time after the player activates a mechanism
+ Implemented objects you can pick up physically and drop
+ Implemented blocks you can push and pull
- Had to create some spaghetti code for this, which I'm not happy with
+ Painted some more textures, I think I'm getting better at it
- I'm painting random terrains and surfaces which I don't even need yet
+ Implemented system where the game focuses on something that happened (such as a door unlocking or monsters spawning)
- Got a bit distracted by Small World Jam
- Still haven't decided what to work on this week

+ Air jumps and other gameplay fixes
+ Shadows, reflections
- Small world jam game is gonna be a close call

+ Made decision prompts and a simple branching dialogue system
+ Cleaned up my save/load code so that it's not entangled with anything else
+ Made stage select screen
+ Found a bunch of image effects I can use instead of re-implementing the wheel
- Overall UI design is still questionable

+ Stage 5 boss done
+ Added shrapnel to enemy deaths that scales with how close you are to obtaining a powerup
+ Started on the final boss
- Not gonna show it off,Gotta keep SOME secrets
- Computer is all sorts of busted, being set back for a few days

+ Added 5 or 6 new cards, including status effects
+ Added a basic UI to show character health, block, status effects
+ Implemented a resource mechanic for the player to make it in line with enemies
+ Fixed up a lot of conflicting logic e.g. when trying to play a new card while already targeting another
+ Let the AI actually do something if there's no path to the player
+ Lots of refactoring and general improvements
- Forgot to recap twice in a row
- Still looks like ass

+ Some work on the phone proto
- Really poor progress on game this past week

+ Added NPCs throughout the world which can be rescued and brought back to your outpost
+ Quests and a quest log
+ NPCs can give quests and trade with the player
+ New area
+ Finished up the beginning of the fire spell tree
+ Better location intro text

+ loadout menu
+ new weapons; bees and stickybombs
+ moving platforms, conditional triggers

+ Finished the water world
+ Finished the first level of the city world
+ Finished balancing my new demo's difficulty (It will be ready for demo day).
- Bugs with demo's UI still I need to fix before demo day. (Back buttons don't work in the options, and lowest settings are on by default.

+ killer doors
+ slope semi-sliding
- missed previous recaps due project reorganization and time constrains

+ Added new juicier flip, slash and dash animation
+ Made body models for wallstreet bosses
+ Changed my environment shaders to toon
+ Started replacing placeholder sprites and particles
+ Added juicy destructible environment props

+ More Animation and Rigging stuff
+ Some Basic Mob/Enemy AI working with Neutral, Passive, Hostile, and the general works
+ Rediscovered I programmed my camera to be able to free look at some point and completely forgot.
- Two weeks to get a tech demo ready of what I have so far to export it for a trade show
- Have to learn how to Unity UI
- Was hoping to have game logo done this weekend, how foolish of me
- Still haven't textured trees

+ Done for real with the shadows. They look much better as they no longer extend beyond the range of the light source that made them. Shadows that came from the same light source overlap like real shadows would, while shadows from different light sources stack up.
+ As a side effect from using surfaces for blending the shadows with the light sources, shadows are now pixel perfect. Whatever.

+ botw water physics
+ start on woodcutting
+ start on first shop
+ equiping items
- changing data structures for invent and dialogue stuff to make questing and multiplayer easier

+ Started process of animating mid boss
+ Close to finalizing mid boss attack patterns
+ Already planned out how the rest of the stage will progress

+ Basic Main Menu & Game Menu
+ Basic Settings Screen
+ Camera controller (Screen Border Pan, Middle Mouse Button Pan, Keyboard Pan, Orbiting, Zoom, Focusing on a unit)
+ Unit selection manager (Hover, Select, Deselect, Box Selection, Shift button working with all types of selection)
+ Basic Quick Unit Access Bar (with real time cameras instead of avatar images)
- Spent a lot of time testing and fixing box selection problems when the cursor moved over GUI
- Having problems figuring an efficient way to generate and store avatar images for 100+ units.

+ Started on building a maintenance area for the first part of the level, this way you can get into the restricted area undetected.
- I had three projects due for uni before spring break, so not much progress.

+ Prototype one scope set at last discord meet
+ Blocking, collision and special shot systems completed-Subsystems alld one
+ Water shader first pass complete, needs some retooling for addtl. features
+ Emerald Coast Arena further refined, needs ambient animations and general polish
+ Animations for Vlad in progress
- Character art on Kiera is still pending

+ Storm effects fully implemented with bolts and spacewind
+ Storms can now be destroyed by taking out their rift lynchpins which stops the effects
+ Fixed issue where storms only moved when the map was open
+ Changed asteroid field exterior model to better version so people will stop asking what the giant cage is

+ Did some work with music and shit
+ Made sprites modular so implementing clothes and other shit won't kill me
- Still no scene transitions because I'm a retarded cunt
- Nothing else

+ Almost done porting over all Tonfa's states! Only attacking states left!
- Sadly the above progress doesn't make for good regular progress post webms, but hey, almost done and then I can go back to making new states for Tonfa.

+ [Mophs] Broom concept models
+ [Mophs] Mesh, texture, rig, and animate gloves
+ Better plane climbing controls
+ Changes to plane/broom physics, broom spawning, BP inheritance changes
+ Adding detail to heightmap data with world machine, clamping void data

+ Minor progress on city scene

+ Finished boss 2 completely
+ Added some combat mechanics that influence switching mechs
- Artlet can't make his game look ok

+ made a vertex trail system that has decent optimisation.
+ you can now shoot while in the air (whoopty fuckin doo)
+ worked on explosion fx.
+ html5 bugfix (in browsers, some laptops take up gamepad slot 1 with some bullshit ghost hardware i don't even know the purpose of and set your controller to slot 2. this means your controller isn't read by the game. I created a work around for this.)

+ Been working on destruction, I made a white circle that represents the radius of a explosion, on that certain radius the explosion will destroy tiles
+ Fixed some bugs from weapon selection
+ Made a cannon to test the explosions
+ Cycle of time that can be used for events
- Little progress in the last weeks

+ player controller edits
- not a whole lot of progress

+ Monsters for the level 2 and 3 decks are done
+ Implementation for the mutation system ongoing
- Mutation implementation was more work than what we assumed it would be
- Art guy away for a week

+ Messing with my walking fish, bipedal is tough stuff
+ Read up a bunch about verlet integration, so getting ready to do some test with it.

+ Started working on swimming mechanic
+ Picking up/throwing mechanic done
+ Working on fixing up bugs/bad collisions/whatever in the first world
+ Started sketching out the second world
- Cant decide which element I want to have for the next demoday

+ ECS/Job system seem pretty easy to use, once you get it working
- ECS is a little gimped in that you can't see them in the hierarchy and change their values via the editor
+ ez-pz parallel programming though, holy crap!

+ Skill points can be spent
+ Bandoliers expand bag capacity
+ Control improvements
+ Combat UI improvements
+ Bugs fixed
+ New mechanics are being added with decent progress.

+ Debugging shop and artefact system from last week
+ Can now use multiple condition checks at once instead of nested checks
+ Can now check different condition types (switch, variable, inventory, timer etc.) at the same time
+ Started writing the second half of the story

+ added Flashlight
+ bug fixes
+ hit flash effect (enemies flash when hit)
+ knockback effect
+ first easter egg
+ alpha demo release

+ Lots of unique items partially done

+ Reworking stun state for emergent gameplay
+ Minor fixes
+ Tried to improve swimming controls without success

+ The guts for a player base/headquarters is in
+ Added the ability to summon units (like skeletons, elemental, etc)
+ Added a "cone" target type for breath style abilities
+ Added the guts of cutscenes/dialogue before a mission
+ Added mission select and party management to the player's base/headquarters
- Missed a few recaps due to midterms and spring break
- Progress has been slow
- Still have a lot of cleaning up to do
- Still need to implement some feedback from DD
- Constantly fighting the urge to switch to isometric style

+ 'Finished' the player sprite
- Plan on adding shading details/animations at a later date

+ Updated to UE 4.19
- No free time anymore ;-;