Vol.70 - Ready or Not Development Briefing

Thank you for joining us for the 70th edition of our Ready or Not Development Briefing, March 15th, 2024.

This week we’ll be covering work that’s being done regarding animation as well as an outline of our community feedback integration process.

In other news, the Steam Spring Sale has just recently sprung, so you can now get Ready or Not at 33% off from now until this March 21st!

Please keep in mind that everything in this development briefing is work in progress and subject to change.

Vol.70 Development Briefing summary points: (not a changelog)

• We are building out our own comprehensive animation library filled with animations and movesets for future potential additions. WIP examples below:
  • Tased character collapsing animation
    
  • New ‘heavy’ animation movesets for suspects with light machine guns
    
  • 5 animation loops for perimeter NPC patrol officers
    
  • Higher fidelity shield animation movesets
    
• Lip sync animation system being implemented for increased immersion
  
• Outline of our community feedback integration process with four main stages:
  • 1) Player feedback on social media platforms
    
  • 2) Initial internal documentation of community feedback, organized and centralized
    
  • 3) Directors/leads assessing and delegating tasks to address community feedback
    
  • 4) The creation of development tickets for tasks to be fulfilled and implemented

[h2]Animation: [/h2]

Our animation team has been working hard at building a motion library and fleshing out a lip sync system for voice lines, including heaps of animations that can be mixed, matched, and modified according to our needs post 1.0.


[h3]Motion Library [/h3]

Formed from the motion capture and other animation work we’ve done, our RoN motion library is massive and comprehensive in a way that will help take the game to another level. The library is filled with animations and ‘movesets,’ a.k.a. numerous strings of interrelated animations, that serve as a foundation for potential future additions.

Keep in mind that there are many steps that must occur before each of the motion library’s WIP contents can be properly implemented into the game itself.

Some WIP pieces included in this motion library are additional taser reaction animations, perimeter officer animations, higher fidelity animation movesets for shields, and a ‘heavy’ moveset that could be applied to suspects with light machine guns.

The new taser reaction animations in our motion library span several different outcomes when a character is tased, notably including instances where the target physically falls over. We have 5 variations falling forward and 5 variations falling backward for these scenarios alone where the target falls over. We plan for these collapsing reaction animations to simulate physics once they are falling to allow for appropriate environmental collisions.

(GIF Below: 2 of the 10 WIP potential variations for the collapsing taser reaction animation, showing falling forward and backward)

Seeing patrol officer NPCs maintaining a perimeter for your team can enhance immersion and worldbuilding. Therefore, we currently have five new dedicated loops of animations in the library that are intended for NPC perimeter police officers to use. A combination of these loops timed at different intervals would provide for a livelier police perimeter.

Our updated shield movesets in the library offer a high-fidelity representation of movement across many actions and directions. One thing to be aware of is that the speed of movement for these animations is adjustable within the game engine in order to fit gameplay. This means situations where the motion capture actor moves too fast, for example, will be adjusted to an appropriate speed.

(GIFs below: Higher fidelity shield animation movesets)

Last but not least from these examples, the new heavy animation moveset would entail different walking gaits and ways of moving about the world that more appropriately reflect the heavy weaponry a suspect may be using. This sort of application would be primarily noticeable in levels like Brisa Cove or Neon Tomb where suspects often wield LMGs.


[h3]Lip Sync System[/h3]

We are working on implementing a proper lip sync system so that voice lines from characters in the game will match with corresponding facial movements. This system, like many other of our animations showcased here, serves to increase your immersion into the game world. Currently we’re transferring the lip sync animation system onto in-game models and adapting them to look more natural.



[h2]Community Feedback Integration Process: [/h2]

Our community feedback integration process is ongoing following 1.0! For transparency and in response to community interest on the topic, in this section we’ll outline how it functions at a formal level.

The feedback integration process follows a linear path along 4 main stages. The process goes through 1) player feedback on social media platforms; 2) initial internal documentation; 3) directors/leads assessing and delegating tasks to address community feedback; and then 4) the creation of development tickets for tasks to be fulfilled.

1) The first stage is feedback gathering, which is done across various social media platforms in locations such as YouTube, Reddit, Steam, and our official Discord server, among others. The Official RoN Discord server’s feedback forum channel is one of the most effective ways for us to keep track of feedback. This is because it is searchable pure feedback in one place, with each post inherently formatted via required categorical tags, titles, and body content.

2) Feedback is then organized onto an internal document where it is assigned a general estimate of community sentiment prevalence, general date of initial prevalence, category (e.g. AI, UI/UX, Level Design), title, and description, among other factors. Prevalence is an important factor but not the singular guide of feedback applicability or substance, as some feedback might simply not be suggested as often as others.

3) Directors and departmental leads then discuss the feedback on the documentation to determine how it can be best addressed, and how the tasks should be delegated.

4) For the fourth and final step, the departmental leads most associated with the feedback assign specific tasks to relevant developers in their departments/themselves, working to address the feedback through implementing game changes.




Aside from continued bug fixing and optimization of the game referenced in the past couple development briefings, the work in progress on the animation additions mentioned here will hopefully add to your in-game experience.

The community feedback integration process outlined will also continue to aid us in identifying key opportunities to better meet player expectations. You may in fact recognize taser collapsing reaction animations, improved perimeter officer set pieces, and more realistic/fair elements of suspect movement with the heavy movesets among some of the community feedback we've received on animation.

Once again, the Steam Spring Sale has also begun, so you can now get Ready or Not at 33% off from now until this March 21st!



This concludes our 70th development briefing. Be sure to tune in next time for more development news!



Make sure you follow Ready or Not on Steam here.

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[h3]Stack up and clear out, [/h3]
[h3]VOID Interactive[/h3]