To finish off the week, the web team is working on a few performance issues, and cleaning up a few bugs that have popped up. They’re focusing on image optimization across the page. House and merchandise images are all being resized, and Jesse is addressing a couple minor layout issues. In addition, work on a company Paddle Creek Games page has begun.
Jesse and Jared are making progress on a game map for the web page too. Jesse showed off a height map that he’s been working on, and we talked about ways to line it up with the ingame map. This map can be synced with game weather, and time of day. We have to place a few key places, and buildings yet, but we’re making good progress.
The art team was busy adding and updating a number of animations. Bows look good whether you’re standing tall, or crouching in the bushes now, and you can now longer bend your back like a contortionist to shoot arrows if you’re prone. We added new pickaxe animations to make harvesting minerals look more realistic, and make even the most cantankerous mining enthusiast happy. Our materials switch continues as well, with more furniture and fixtures getting a facelift. Below you can see before and after shots of an engraved table.
Progress has continued on our underground respawn area. Meant to be a safe sewer sanctuary from the terrors of post-fracture Lahaina, the one room area has grown into a sprawling three room compound to relax and regroup. We don’t want to throw players right back into the same situation that killed them in the first place, so the respawn area is the perfect place to collect your wits or rally the troops. We also looked at a few different concepts for roadside areas perfect for ambushes, and emergency caches.
The team talked about the interactive “machines” we’re adding in the game: fireplaces, work benches, and washing machines. We talked about how these would work to craft or repair items. Buffs and debuffs to items, (specifically weapons), were discussed, and we talked briefly about how much different types of repairs would cost. This led to a conversation about the game economy in general, and ways to avoid out-of-control inflation, and crashing the market. Should the washing machines be full on oxy-clean dispensing, blood from cloth removal machines? Good question. Or not. Maybe that’s a bad question.
A bunch of ui work was done this week too. We took a deep dive into the live VNN camera overlay. We added some polish to the team ui, and discussed other features and bits of information that might be useful to people playing in a group. Inventory screens, and the HUD got a few fixes, and tweaks too.
Finally, it wasn’t just the web team working on maps this week, the art team is working on the ingame map as well. We talked about ways to make it a useful tool for players, and what other features, (like a special team map), we’d like to integrate down the road. We looked at a few design options, and how the map would work in the game. Below you can see one of our favorite designs so far.
