Sprint 34 began this week and like the previous sprint, we will be spending a lot of the next 30 days focusing on polishing up current features, and hunting down any remaining bugs that are having a negative effect on gameplay. Specifically we will be improving AI capabilities and actions, adding more world spaces, adding some finishing touches to the drone, making performance improvements, installing a crash logging system, enhancing the game loop and making a player path progression that can keep our first set of players actively engaged for a few weeks of play.
The first tier of our pinging system is finished. This should allow players to ping various items like food or ammo to quickly communicate to others in their group the location and type of loot they’ve found. We plan on adding more features to the system soon to make communicating with others fast and efficient. We added a “hold F to eat” mechanic when picking food up off the ground so players can eat on the run if they need to. We also fixed bugs with containers not being able to be equipped in your inventory, and one that would keep you from looting a weapon with no ammo.
Our homepage got a big update this week too. We’ve added numerous navigation and style improvements, as well as a number of slides that better explain the game. Users should be able to get to various sections easier, and learn more about the game, the development process, and upcoming contests/events. Check it out and let us know what you think on our discord server.
Our performance improvements continue as well. We’re taking another optimization pass on procedural buildings and breaking down levels to get a boost. While we have had some crashing issues in the last few play tests, we’re working through them and still have logged some quality play time. Below you can see a video from a recent session that shows a player trying to keep his distance while filling some mutants with a few arrows. Everything is going as planned until a surprise bear decides to join in the fun.
