As planned, we put our shopping cart up on staging and turned it over to Chris, the breaker of all things. He gave it a kick, tried out every option the average person could think of, tried out options only Chris could think of, and tried to break it in general. Thankfully, he was unsuccessful and everything seems to work great. The team is just fixing some minor bugs and layout issues, but it should be up and on production in a day or two.
We have run into a few bugs in the game recently however. Currently, characters are spawning in naked. While this might be fine for a different kind of game, it doesn’t really fit with what we’re trying to do. It’s called Fractured Veil not Free and Easy Veil. Also, as you can see below, Chicken Little’s warnings turned out to be true. For a yet undetermined reason, sometimes the sky is falling.
Terry is working on fixing our build issues, and we talked through some version control concerns, and discussed some possible options. Player stats are now incorporated and are updating as you play. Inventory ui work is still coming along and should be done (at least the initial version) soon. Item persistence is done and the player interact bar is ready. Now a player can drag-n-drop inventory items into the quick bar, and get the gear they need in their hand quickly. We also worked on streamlining trait and talent effects.
Jesse continued work on box art, and he showed off what it might look like. We talked about getting logos for the fictitious game companies finished so we can include things like the Veilcorp logo on the box. We looked at the latest iteration of a new company logo, and talked over some cool animation ideas. The team discussed business cards and Jesse showed off his latest designs. We all wondered how Jesse had access to a time machine, what with the business cards and all.
San did some work plumbing character persistence and talked about experimenting with higher camera resolutions. We looked at some different camera overlay options and talked about different use cases. We continued our discussion about having a live camera on the website to show off the game.
The automated building system took some more steps forward. Buildings are now being populated with props and furniture. Kitchens have: stoves, tables, refrigerators, and other room-appropriate items. The same is true for the rest of the rooms in the automated houses. We did run into a minor issue with asymmetrical pieces, but we hope to have that that fixed soon. The team will be importing all of our game specific furnishings, including much sought after items like: the boar tusk broom, and the shark-toothed frying pan this week.
With the auto-builder basically done, we talked about building placement and how much, or little, we want buildings to be protected from destruction. While we want to use the Lahaina map as a guide, and accurately represent places mentioned in the story, we want to make sure to avoid the cookie cutter neighborhoods that are common in some other games. There was some discussion and debate about a character’s ability to completely level a building as well. On one hand, we want players to be able to use a building for construction materials or as a hideout or base. On the other hand, we could end up in a situation were almost the entire island has been leveled for building materials by early players. We’re still talking through how to strike the right balance for everyone.
Lastly, we’re doing a lot of audio work, including designing a dynamic environmental audio system. When it’s up and running players will hear different environmental noises as they move around. As you get closer to a grouping of trees, you’ll hear more jungle noises. Wander into a neighborhood and you’ll hear background noises appropriate to that area and so on. The larger buildings have their own distinct environmental noises too. In addition to the visual work on the communication tower, the team is working on the noises specific to the building. As you can see from this aerial shot of the rusting roof at night, the tower is sure to make some creaks and groans in a heavy wind.
We’ll be back with more updates later this week.
