Aloha Thrivers!
Since the last update, we have been working nonstop on your feedback, prioritizing performance optimization for Early Access so that the game runs better and smoother. While this might slow down the implementation of some cool features, we all agree it’s the number one thing we have to focus on right now. We’ve got the whole team working on it.
Since building with your friends and running around the island killing mutants (or other players) is a core part of our game, we want it to be accessible to more PCs across the board.
In this month’s update, we’re going behind the veil and chatting with some of the folks on the team to hear what they have been working on!
First up is Sam, our amazing Director of Media who is the creative genius our new trailer!
Behind the Veil
Q: Hey Sam, can you introduce yourself to the community and tell us the single thing you are most excited about the game right now?
Sam: Hey everyone! I’m Sam Steffanina – a lifelong content creator and gamer. I’m insanely excited for everyone to see the trailer we’ve been working so hard on and for the emotes that are being implemented. Giving people even more ways to express themselves in this game is what makes it special to me.
Q: So, in the last few months we have started working on the new trailer for Fractured Veil. How do you go from the idea to actually making the trailer?
Sam: Taking a step back and looking at what makes the game unique is always step #1. We have such beautiful scenery and such creepy horror elements. It’s a great juxtaposition to build from and I think people will see that in the trailer. I hope it shows all the most exciting and enjoyable parts of the game.
Q: In the Marketing Team we talk a lot about “Kill, Chill and Rebuild” being the 3 pillars of Fractured Veil. Can you tell us more about the role of those 3 pillars in the trailer?
Sam: Killing… well that’s pretty obvious, you’ll see plenty of that. Chill is represented by the beauty and exploration, and rebuilding from the aftermath of what our island’s inhabitants do to the things you’ve built can be both quite stressful or relaxing depending on the time of day, hahah.
Q: Can you share a very cool shot with us?
Sam: Absolutely!
Surviving Together
Fractured Veil is all about playing together and making new friends. One of the features that will allow just that is our Quest System.
In this section we speak with Ryan, our Project Manager, and Rob, our team Lore Guide, who has been working on the story for the past 7 years!
Q: Quests are a vital part of Fractured Veil. They introduce new players to the world and help them move the first steps in the game. What are the main changes being worked on this system?
Ryan: The team is currently working on revamping the way our quest system works to include multiple types of quests. Currently, our system allows us to check for just a few conditions such as checking if you built something or if you have obtained a specific item in your inventory. Once we are done expanding these, we’ll be able to track a multitude of game actions, allowing us to start building more complex quests that go beyond the tutorial ones. Another interesting system is our shared quest system. While it won’t be ready for Early Access, one of our priorities is that players can share quests and progress, and get equally rewarded for completing them.
Q: I’m aware we won’t have too many quests at launch, but what’s the plan for after Early Access?
Ryan: Our goal for early access is to have a full starter quest line to help with on-boarding, as well as some quests available from NPCs. Later, players will be able to discover hidden locations, explore dungeons, learn cool features that might not be that obvious, and uncover clues about what caused the Fracture and the end of civilization.
Q: And speaking of the Fracture… Rob can you introduce yourself and talk a bit about your work?
Rob: Hi I’m Rob Rozeboom and I wrote the story for Fractured Veil, and work on integrating the lore into the game. I make sure we are incorporating as much Hawaiian vibe into things as possible, especially the harvesting and crafting systems, by using authentic island plants and resources. You can find bits of the story from recovered emails, newspaper archives, and found journals on our website. https://fracturedveil.com/story/ When I’m not compiling lists of native plants or uses for mutant body parts, I help out with marketing.
Q: What are you working on right now, and is there anything cool you can share with us?
Rob: Right now I’m helping to finish up some of our dungeons, making sure that they follow storylines and have a few neat surprises, expanding our crafting system to include more items and more ancient Hawaiian uses for native plants. As far as something cool to share goes… let’s just say that players are pretty close to being able to spend some lazy survival time harvesting the bounties of the sea. So stock up on bait!
Q: When can we experience the story you have written in-game?
Rob: Up until now a lot of our focus has been on performance and game mechanics. While we’ll always be working on those things, we’re in a pretty good place now and can start expanding out to include more lore and story elements in the game. I’m excited to see more buildings, forgotten places, and mutants pop up for players to loot, explore, and survive soon.
Expanding the world
Q: Back to you Ryan, How is the game world changing right now? Anything exciting the team is working on you’d like to share?
Ryan: There are plenty of structures and points of interest that we are rebuilding and expanding, some of these are the Armory and Veil building areas. The rest is more performance-related and art for the moment. We’ll share more when the time comes!
Q: The world of Fractured Veil is always changing, what can people expect to see soon after Early Access?
Ryan: I’d say the thing that most people will notice is just “More” being added to the game. We have plans about adding AI settlements and interesting places to explore. While the game world might be less populated during the first months of early access, we expect it to be filled with structures and interesting loot-filled places sometime after that. Our plan for the game is way bigger than that, new dungeons, new biomes and even new features like fishing are on the horizon, but they will take time to arrive and at the moment it’s pretty hard for us to foresee what our priorities will be after early access.
Improving Performance
Q: Last but not least, as we said performance is playing a bigger part of what we are doing and working with a limited amount of resources and a very small team can make things a bit complicated. What are we doing to tackle performance?
Ryan: The good news about performance is that we have identified many improvement opportunities so it will get significantly better over time. As per what we are doing right now, the main focus has been Nanite. Most of our assets are currently being converted to support this UE5 Tech, and with that process, we also have to check that everything is working correctly again. Stuff like transparency and textures end up being glitchy or not working at all, making that process a little bit more complicated. Another improvement has been generating HLODs and moving our Dungeons to their own dedicated server and level so that players don’t have to load them unless they are on them. That’s obviously just the tip of the iceberg, we’ll share more in the next updates.
Squishing Those Bugs
Q: Hey Brandan, can you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you do?
Brandan: Hey! I’m Brandan Abbott, a huge survival game fan that has racked up more deaths in the genre than I’d like to admit. I’m the lead QA on Fractured Veil and I’m a bridge between the development team and the players. I’m responsible for managing and guiding the testing process, ensuring issues are identified and tracked. I also collaborate with the dev team to prioritize and address critical issues through patches or updates. I routinely play and work with the community to gather player feedback and suggestions to communicate to the team to make sure their voices are heard.
Q: Games have bugs, but I feel not everyone knows how many get fixed for a game our size.
As we get closer to early access, what’s the number of bugs we have fixed so far? Anything cool worth sharing?
Brandan: We really don’t have much new data, but I can share what we had for last year.
We are talking of about 792 player-found bugs fixed and 131 implemented player suggestions as of 11-11-2022. Almost one year later, that number is much higher than that, so I’ll leave it up to your imagination.
Q: Speaking of bugs/issues, which are the ones we are really focusing on?
Brandan: The bugs we are really focusing on now are major bugs that greatly affect our player’s experiences in the game. These include client crashes, server crashes, item persistence issues, poor performance, or issues that inhibit or block major gameplay systems.
Q: What’s the funniest one in your memory?
Brandan: The funniest bug in memory was a bug that occurred when the player logged out of the server and rejoined too soon. A clone of the player’s body would stay standing in the world for longer than intended so when the player logged back into the server they would see a copy of their character standing beside them that they could kill, and had their own loot in it.
Another bug was explosive damage causing placeable items like a smelter or crafting bench to fly off into the game world. This was not intended behavior, so once discovered members of the community would place those structures next to explosive barrels, stand on top of the structure and destroy the barrel. Launching themselves into the air and different areas of the map.
There is also the one below, which is pretty recent:
Last but not Least
August is an important month for Fractured Veil with tons of stuff to get done before everyone can play the game. We just want to say thank you to every one of our backers and testers who have been so patient with us. We know you’ve experienced different issues related to performance and we’re committed to getting those issues resolved that we haven’t been as regular with updates.
Keep an eye out for more regular updates in the coming weeks and even a sneak peek at our new trailer!
Also, just as a reminder, if you already have the game, head over to our Discord Server, say Aloha, and join us for some gaming sessions!
