animations Archives - Page 3 of 5

Maps and Mechanics

This week marks the beginning of sprint 25, and the team is busy filling in the new map, as well as finishing up some features, and hunting down bugs found in the previous sprint. After stripping down the previous map, and rebuilding it literally from the ground up with topographical data of Maui, we’ve started to place some of the game’s unique buildings. The Thorcon Power Plant, and the Lahaina Armory will be added to the landscape this week, and if all goes well, we plan on moving staging and production to the new map. We’ve fixed some of our weather problems. Rain, fog, and storms look better, and we’re working on the lighting, ensuring that the game looks good morning, noon, and night. Below you can see the VNN drone’s eye view of the Communication Tower as the sun goes down.

The team wrapped up a lot of work on the group play system too. The healing others mechanic is getting some attention. We’re adding medkits, and the ability to target specific limbs, so you can fix a friend’s injured leg and get out of trouble when your about to be overrun. Much of the party ui is being finished this week too. We’re adding a blocking feature to safeguard you from annoying players, and a way to remove players from your friends list in case you decide they no longer have the kind of qualities you look for in a survival buddy.

The first round of weapon attachments are in, and we fixed all the bugs we ran into with oversized scopes and suppressors. Weapons now have a limited set of specific attachments for their type, bad news for fans of bipod compound bows and laser sighted machetes. The next round of weapon attachments including extended mags, and stability grips, are being worked on now. The group is finishing up the last few bugs in our loot drop scenarios, but need to test them in the game to make sure they are fully functional. We talked a bit about loot distribution across the map, and adjusting loot and looting times based on container size.

Monster AI moved a few steps forward. We continue to work on the first iteration of wave/group combat, so the horrors of the jungle don’t bunch up, or queue in a doorway when the whole group attacks at the same time. We added better senses to our monsters this week, so they can not only attack on sight, but zero in on anyone stomping through the underbrush too. We talked about adjusting senses up and down to make theoretical cave dwellers with limited sight, but phenomenal hearing and sense of smell, as well as other combinations.

We’re almost done moving everyone over to Git, and discussed at length the pros and cons of moving over to UE 4.20. We’re fixing some issues that leave players in limbo when spawning in, and the Veil News Network (VNN) drone is getting some final touches to make it fully functional. Nelson is working on a few HUD tweaks to improve look and functionality.

Lastly, we’re adding a few new animations, and making some icon improvements to better highlight equipped items. The art team is working on completing a final Wash Bench design, so players can fix clothing, and change the color/look of certain items. Last sprint’s audio work is wrapping up, with weapon updates and some new character audio being added. We’re giving our monsters a voice too, so we can finally ask the age old question, “if a trophy hunter screams in the forest and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”

That’s all for now. We’ll be back later in the week with more updates.

July 10, 2018

Filling In the Map

As we close out sprint 24 , the group is busy hunting down bugs, and adding finishing touches. We’ve been having some trouble with the Veil News Network’s (VNN) live broadcast on the front page crashing. We’ve identified the issue, and the team is putting in a fix that should keep the drone’s feed playing as it makes its way around the game map, highlighting key areas and capturing gameplay in real time. We’ve set a prerecorded fallback video in place as well, to ensure that the feed always displays a tour of post-fracture Lahaina, not static.

The web team fixed a few layout issues, and made some improvements to player and House cards. We worked on some icon improvements to make things look more consistent across the page, and made some animation improvements as well. Jesse completed the Paddle Creek Games bumper trailer, and it looks fantastic! He uploaded a version with audio last night, and the whole thing is a few iterations away from being ready to go.

The tech team is wrapping up the last of the weapon attachment bugs we discovered a few weeks ago. After fixing a really bad Aiming Down Sight (ADS) jiggle, we opened up a Pandora’s box of weapon add-on issues: bad sights, crooked scopes, and wrongly-sized attachments. We’ve worked through most of the problems, and just need to test the fixes in the game to work out the kinks.

Our 3rd loot drop scenario is finished, and ready for testing too. Players will have to take an item safely from one location to another, while being hounded by enemies, in order to claim valuable cash and prizes. If you think that sounds suspiciously like a quest, you’re right. We briefly discussed building on this to start a quest system in the very near future. Mindlessly rampaging through what’s left of Lahaina can be a very rewarding experience. However, there comes a time in everyone’s life, even a bloodthirsty gamer, when you long for some direction and purpose. Quests can help fulfill that need, even if it’s just bringing a bag of shark teeth, and some coffee to the armory in the morning without getting killed along the way.

Our monsters got a little smarter this week, as the team’s AI work continues. We are fixing a few of their battle tactics, and have added a bunch of new animations to make them, and their reactions look more realistic. We made some improvements to group play as well, including the ability to heal others in your party, and finding friends to fill out the ranks, or replace underperforming party members.

We made some crafting refinements, and are working out some drag and drop, and stacking issues. The HUD got a few ui tweaks, and layout updates to make it more helpful, and easier to use. We’ve fixed some lingering problems with the rain, and are working on the fog to make look better now.

Lastly, one of our biggest projects recently has been redoing the game map. We’ve stripped the whole thing, and started to rebuild the play area using topography data to make it look and feel as real as possible. We’ve finished importing the roads around Lahaina, and have replaced the foliage with more native plants, improving both performance and look. This week we’re clearing out the areas where our buildings and ruins will go, and started work on adding the effects of a global catastrophe to the roads and paths in the game area. If all goes as planned, we’ll start adding buildings next week, and filling out the map with key areas, and places to explore. Below you can see a bird’s eye view of the play area as it stands now.

July 6, 2018

Throwing Things and Headshots

The team started the week by fixing a number of weapon attachment bugs. Previously, a player trying to use the sights on a weapon felt like they were in a truck speeding down a dirt road. We addressed the ADS (aiming down sights) jiggle, so iron sight fans can take a steady aim. However, that exposed a number of other attachment issues. We’re fixing the overlapping scopes, improperly sized suppressors, and other broken add-on problems as they arise.

Guns weren’t the only weapons that got some attention. Last sprint we added a throwing mechanic for weapons, and expanded what items could be thrown to include the resource harvesting tools. We’ve added a number of animations including ones for your axe, and pick. A few of us spent time this weekend: throwing axes into creatures, pulling them out of their bodies as we ran past, and hurling them again at any remaining monsters who gave chase. It may not be the best way to stay alive, but it is a lot of fun! All that throwing weapons into heads led to a conversation about adding a staggering effect when something survives taking a flying axe to the face.

We continue to iterate on the HUD, fix bugs, and add minor tweaks to make it as useful as possible to players. The team made some improvements to the Friends and Party systems to make it easier to find your friends, and keep tabs on the people who have agreed to help you survive the horrors of the jungle. We made some more improvements to the healing system, so it’s easier to keep your friends alive when things go bad for your group too.

The web team is spending some time improving user flow, and ui. We’re adding some hover animations to help users navigate through the page, and tweaking a few layouts. Jesse demoed the latest iteration of a company intro trailer, and it looks fantastic. We gave our feedback, and started talking about what audio elements we want to include.

One of the major points of focus this sprint has been on map improvements. We’ve rebuilt the entire game map for both development and performance improvements. Last week we brought in all the topography data available about the Lahaina area, making accurate shorelines, valleys, and mountains. This week we finished importing a layer that contains all of the roads, so the art team can build a makeshift network of crumbling highways, and overgrown residential streets based on the actual roads of Western Maui.

While rebuilding the play area, and adding foliage, we ran into a few (software) bugs. For some reason certain plants will no longer produce fruit, and none of the trees can be harvested for wood. We have some people fixing those problems now before the lumber shortage tanks the already fragile post-fracture economy, or some interprizing furniture maker becomes the island’s first end table billionaire.

While Terry tackled some package editor issues, the team made some improvements to creature AI. Our monsters don’t run in perfectly straight lines anymore, helping to shield them from sustained bursts of automatic fire. We plan on adding some additional defensive movements and tactics soon, but it’s a start. In addition, we’ve added some new animations giving the terrors new interactions with players as they try to tear your throat out, and a host of new reactions when they notice prey in their area.

Lastly, we’ve done some additional illumination work, and are focusing on water improvements too. The ocean has never looked better in the game, and we’re trying to find the right balance of light at night, to let players to sneak through the foliage, and still allow the stars to subtly illuminate the jungle. Here are a couple shots of beach areas after the sun goes down.

We’ll be back later with more updates.

June 27, 2018

Measuring Mountains and Securing Trade

The web team is working on a few tweaks and improvements to the notification system. We discussed ways to streamline and limit messages to avoid being bombarded with notifications, but still stay up-to-date with things like friends joining the game, and House members being online. Jesse is making a number of layout improvements including subtle hover animations to player cards, and various other areas that could use some sprucing up. We also looked at a complete list of craftable items, talked about recipes, and discussed what we’d like to add down the road.

While Terry was busy doing some minor server maintenance and fixing a few bugs, the art team was finishing up their work replacing the foliage across the map. We’ve stripped out much of the old forest, and are replacing it with a jungle that has more native Hawaiian plants, and is much less demanding on your GPU. With all the old forest gone, the team is working through the map, dropping in plants and animals across Lahaina.

Our attention then turned to player interactions and we discussed what we’d like to see in a player-to-player trading system. Very few things in life can feel as uncertain as waiting for “StealMaster6” to leave the crafting reagent you need on a rock, after he’s picked up the pile of money you threw on the ground for it. We want a simple, and secure trading system to avoid such scenarios. We then discussed various achievement awards. We came up with a few examples of obscure ones that would quickly identify the most hardcore players, and talked about the pros and cons of daily or login rewards.

We worked some more on expanding the attachments available for weapons, crossbows and compound bows in particular, and continued to work through a lengthy bug list to make sure your rifle add-ons work correctly. Armor has been working in the game for some time now, but your armor’s “health” isn’t displayed anywhere in the HUD. We decided to add an indicator there, so you don’t have to flip to your inventory screen to find out if your vest is in tatters before you start taking fire or fangs.

Jesse has been working on Paddle Creek Games animations, and trailer intros with great success. He demoed a few options, and we chose our favorite. He’s adding the finishing touches now, but it is looking terrific already. It wasn’t just the company logo however that got some animation attention. Our Trophy Hunter mutants got some new moves too. We’ve added a number of animations that make them look more realistic, and much more terrifying as they run around with their bags of heads and other trophies.

Our major map overhaul is just about complete. We’ve updated our height map of Maui, and have finished importing all the existing roads. The game map now has a solid backbone that is built on the actual topography, and infrastructure of Lahaina. We have a clear starting point now, so we can continue work building a game map for the website. The team is busy filling in the play area with our structures, special areas, and foliage, as well as adding years of overgrowth, and the effects of a global catastrophe to the two main highways that run through Lahaina. Below is a satellite view of the entire game area.

As usual, we’ll be back next week with more news and updates.

June 21, 2018

Erratic Movements and Dancing

As the first full week of sprint 24 comes to an end, the team continues their work on smoothing out any remaining crafting issues. We’re giving crafting icons some attention so it’s clear what your working on, and the images match what’s in your inventory. We discussed timers, and contemplated making adjustments to the length of time it takes to make a bow, a new shirt, or leg splint. We also went over prompts and messaging to help people while they are crafting a new survival item, or just something nice for mom.

We’re making some improvements, and expanding available weapon attachments. Fans of using compound bows to bring down the horrors of the jungle, will have a few new fancy options for sights, making their arrows a bit more accurate. The group discussed healing other players, and talked through the mechanics of patching up your friends. We even discussed adding force-feeding for a party member unlucky enough to be starving and bleeding out at the same time.

We decided to make the time it takes to auto-loot a container dependent on the container’s size. Now clearing out a shipping crate will take a little longer than emptying a shoebox. We banged our heads against merging the game map with a “points of interest” map we have been using to place various key locations, and buildings across Lahaina. After a lot of teeth gnashing, and metric to imperial conversions, we were successful, and have a working reference map to help with development.

The web team moved some error messages to make them more prominent, and are busy refining a few layouts. Audio work progresses across all areas of the map. We talked through what certain areas should sound like, and adding just the right amount of echo in our large buildings. We found a bug that wouldn’t allow your game audio to be adjusted in the settings menu, and are fixing it now.

While AI improvements are being made across the game, we’re focusing on monster AI this sprint. Right now our creatures only fight in melee, run in straight lines, and fight to the death. While that’s a start, we’d like to add a bit more finesse to their tactics. We talked over adding different roles for monsters in combat and adding: the ability to fight at range, attack and retreat, moving in semi-erratic lines, and utilizing cover, sometime down the road. For this sprint, our goal is to have monsters do their best to avoid bullets as they charge towards a player.

We fixed a few bird animations that saw our avian friends fly without flapping their wings, and sometimes hover like a balloon when they ran into an obstacle. We reviewed a number of character animations including: deaths, jumps, punches, throws, and even a bunch of different dances. Now, the Tappers can not only tap across player corpses, but they can shuffle, foxtrot, and lindy across them too.

Lastly, our lighting and weather work moves forward, with special attention paid to environmental lighting at dawn/dusk, and with the stars at night. You can see the progress of that work in the shots below.

We’ll have more updates next week.

June 15, 2018

Buildings, Boxes, and Birds

As we begin the final week of Sprint 23, everyone is busy finishing up projects, and hunting down bugs. The web team has upgraded to the latest versions of Webpack and React, and are fixing some lingering layout issues. We’re improving our autocomplete feature to make it a bit smarter, and making some improvements to player/friend search as well.

We completed some more work on the crafting ui, and discussed adding a few more recipes to the already impressive list of apocalyptic arts and crafts projects available to players. The team fixed a bug on the loading screen, and updated the settings ui to make things easier to find, and adjust your game-play preferences. The HUD received some attention with a few new updates to make things less cluttered, and improve your field of view.

We’ve updated the team ui, fixed a few bugs, and included some new functionality into group play. A number of group features were added like messaging and auto-rejoin. In addition, we’re making it easier to find your friends and House members to help you rampage across the countryside, or whatever you’re in to. We’ve adding a few new weapon animations as well. Running a spear through your enemies, or throwing a club at their head has never looked better.

The team made some improvements to our second loot drop scenario. Players can claim buildings to defend against hordes of mutants and other survivors, in order to cash in on the prize when time runs out. We talked some more about the overall game economy, and distribution of loot and wealth. We’re spawning most of our loot in containers and boxes now, instead of just sprinkling weapons and goods across the map, exposed to the elements.

The team is almost finished with lighting and audio improvements in the respawn area, and our Hawaiification work continues with artwork, graffiti, and new furnishings in the underground haven. We have a basic recycling system in place for some items like empty beverage and food containers, and the art team is working on animations for turning trash into a usable resource.

We’ve made some AI improvements that have not only made things more interesting to fight, but have led to a huge increase in performance. We’re replacing many of the birds in the game currently to make those increases even greater. We talked some more about the map, and finalizing a backbone of surviving highways and trails to keep players moving. We want to make sure that players have a reason to travel over the entire map, and not get caught in a bottleneck, or congregate in one area.

Finally our lighting, weather, and foliage work continues to improve performance, and make the landscape look as amazing as possible while you struggle to survive. As you can see from the shots below, endeavoring to persevere has never had a more beautiful backdrop.

We’ll be back later this week with more updates and screenshots.

June 5, 2018

Hunting Bugs and Bouncing Clubs

We made a lot of progress on team ui, and a team page over the weekend. Jesse showed off some wireframes, and we talked over some potential user flow issues regarding playing with a group. We discussed numerous filtering options for finding Friends and House members who are playing the game, and quick ways to invite them to your group. We talked briefly about some of the mechanics involved with trading, and worked through some potential issues.

We’re finishing up some team related mechanics this week too. Soon, you will be able to heal team members, and others with healing items. You could splint your own leg previously, but we’re expanding the healing gear, and allowing players to extend medical help to others. We discussed some future goals for our crafting system, and the possibility of making specialty rounds down the road.

Progress on our second loot drop scenario continues. Players can now claim a building, and if they can keep control of it for a set period of time, a loot area filled with gear and survival equipment will open to the them. We discussed our ingame money, Rai, a few loot distribution goals, and the overall game economy. A few weeks ago we added the ability for a player to throw a melee weapon in combat. This week we added some animations to make it look better, and physics rules so weapons can now bounce around after you hurl them. There are very few things cooler than throwing a shark-toothed axe at someone, but bouncing one off of a pillar before sinking it into an opponents head is one of them.

The web team continued their work on a game map for the web page. We’re still having some trouble lining up key landmarks with the ingame map, but we’re making progress. We’re busy squashing bugs as they appear, and making some performance improvements to the page. We’ve optimized images across the site, and fixed some icon rendering issues.

It wasn’t just the web team bug hunting over the weekend either. We addressed a loading screen issue, and fixed a bug that was crashing staging. The HUD got a lot of improvements and tweaks as we close in on a final look and ui design. The Settings ui received a lot of attention and updates too. Changing your game preferences should be quick and easy now, even if your trying to play at work.

Finally, we’ve added audio support to a number of areas, but have a few more to go before every area sounds as unique as it looks. We added a few quality of life improvements to the game as well. A fire does more than just look pretty now. A player standing near one will warm up faster than normal, and it will even dry off your clothes much faster than usual. Our spawn area expansion and facelift is nearing completion. We could still use a few decorations to draw the eye away from the wet brick and mildew, but the spawn area is almost ready for newly restored players.

We’ll be back later in the week with more updates.

May 15, 2018

Drone Improvements and Getting Parties Started

The end of the week marks the beginning of sprint 23, and the team is busy going down the list of new goals. San added a QR code to the Veil News Network (VNN) live stream. It shows the coordinates of the camera and time, so we can compile a searchable index of drone footage. This allows us to pull scenes from specific areas and times so we can put together videos like, “Today’s Bloodiest Kills On Baby Beach.”

Jesse showed off some mockups of the upcoming Live Feeds page. He’s working on a few layout issues, but progress is good on both Player and House streaming pages. Jesse added some neat wallpaper and background image options too. We’ve made some ui improvements, and are working on an improved drone HUD as well.

Jared fixed a number of bugs, including one that was serving broken images with invite emails. He added a feature that allows you to send a brief message with invites, and friend requests too. We’ve made significant progress on a House theme gallery, and it’s almost ready for production. It will allow House leaders to quickly choose various banner styles, and set a color scheme that looks great automatically.

We made good progress on a Party section for group play. Players can: filter a list of players for friends and House members, search for groups, or create a new party. We’ve added some party controls including kicking a member from a group, and appointing a new leader. Now your group doesn’t have to break-up when your leader’s boss catches them playing the game during work hours. We plan on adding a minimap on the page so you can see party member locations, and are working on some party ui improvements.

The web team continues work on a game map for the web page. We’ve created a height map of the play area in Western Maui, but ran into some trouble lining everything up with the ingame map. We talked through some possible solutions, and discussed some overlay options that would be useful for players on the website.

We added some new weapon animations. Spears will now travel beautifully through the air at their intended targets, instead of teleporting, and we fixed the aiming issues on our M1A for all you fans of iron sights. We talked over some SCM issues, and have a new plan for going forward with less headaches.

The art team is working on filling in the map with new structures, and areas to explore, section by section. We looked at a number of new concept drawings, and discussed the best use for already existing structures like bridges and overpasses. Finally, work on the new respawn area is marching forward. Most of the main structure is built now, so much of the work going forward will focus on styling, and “the Hawaii-fication” of the underground sanctuary. Below are a few of the latest shots.

We’ll be back next week with more updates and pictures.

May 10, 2018

Playing Well With Others

This week marks the end of sprint 22, and the team is busy adding finishing touches and hunting down bugs. We talked over issues with the live VNN feed and discussed what features we’d like to add next. We’re building out a “Live Feed” area in the Media section, and Jesse showed off some wireframes for different feeds and options. We worked on user flow for both House and player streams, and worked on a few different stream overlays as well.

We made a few more ui improvements to the HUD, and the Settings section. We fixed a few minor icon issues in the inventory screen, and we discussed the possibility of allowing players to access their inventory on the web page. The team discussed what that would entail, and to what degree a player would be able to do things with their items while not in the game. We also made a first pass at our ingame currency, rai, and talked about different ways players could find/earn rai in the game. Game economies are a tricky thing to get right. We talked about the flow of resources, and how that interplays with money. The last thing we want to create is an artificial shark tooth bubble on the island, and have the whole market collapse.

We made a bunch of animation improvements too. A bug that would keep a player trapped in a calf and shoulder burning ladder-limbo has been fixed, so players should be able to climb up and down with ease. We added numerous other player and weapon movements, and are fixing long-standing issues with how iron sights work. We’re adding an audio cue when an item breaks, so you don’t charge into combat with a broken machete, or a gun with a heat-warped barrel.

The art team continues work on the newly improved respawning area. As you can see from the shots below, players now have a bit more room to run around when coming back from the dead.

Jared did a bit of maintenance and is hunting down a few bugs in the shopping cart. We added improvements to a House theme editor, and did a bit of ui work to player and House cards. We started work on a “Party” section on the Community page for group play. The team talked about easy ways a player could let his friends know that they were available to play, and simple ways to invite others into a group.

Numerous performance and material improvements continue with really good progress, as well as AI improvements to animals and creatures alike. We want to make sure the horrors of the jungle act in horrific ways. Lastly, all the lighting and environmental work we’ve done is really paying off, as you can see in this shot of a dock, and the crystal clear water below.

That’s all for now. We’ll be back later in the week with more updates.

May 8, 2018

All Over The Maps

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.

May 3, 2018

Tag: animations