Blind Descent News

Hello everyone!

It's been a busy two months since our last monthly update. We've been working hard on the technical backend and introducing new combat features as well as new creature designs. Here are some highlights of our progress:

[h2]Multiplayer Improvements[/h2]
In multiplayer games, latency almost always affects the player experience. The farther a player is from the host, the more lag they will experience. If this isn't taken into account, it leads to a poor player experience where actions can't be observed until the information travels through the network.

Imagine you want to shoot someone, but the gun fires 0.2 seconds after you pull the trigger. Even though this delay seems short, it is very noticeable in games where responsiveness is expected.

So, how do some games manage to feel lag-free? This is where "prediction" comes into play. Since information travel is limited by the laws of physics, games often predict the results of actions based on the current local data. This is what we've been implementing in Blind Descent recently.

In Blind Descent, you can now swing your sword and see the animations play out immediately, regardless of the ping. The bow fires an arrow as soon as you release the input, making everything feel very responsive most of the time. Your grenade explodes and you see the enemy receives the damage immediately, despite of the lag. This was a challenging process, but it significantly improved the multiplayer experience.

[h2]New Combat Features[/h2]
Exploration and combat against creatures are core to the Blind Descent experience. We’ve added new features to enhance combat.

You can now find explosives in the game that you can detonate from a distance to harm nearby enemies. We’ve also introduced weak walls that collapse and can kill anything nearby. This allows you to use the environment to your advantage and take down foes strategically.

[h2]New Creature Design[/h2]

Meet one of the new creature designs you'll frequently encounter in the game. It's a great food source if you can catch it!

[h2]Wrapping Up[/h2]
It's been a busy two months, but development is progressing smoothly. We also have some exciting developments that we can't share just yet, but you'll hear about them as soon as we can reveal the details.

Thank you for being a part of the Blind Descent community! Please don’t hesitate to drop a comment and let us know what you think.

—The Pokuch Team

Hello, everyone!

The underground world is packed with creatures: some minding their own business, others guarding their nest, and some looking for an easy prey. As a survivor navigating this dangerous landscape, you're guaranteed to cross paths with these creatures, leading to inevitable confrontations.

This is where improvements in AI were required, which became the main focus of this month's development.

[h2]Better AI Behaviors[/h2]
During the private demo event with our community last year, one thing that kept coming up was how players struggled to predict when a creature would attack. In game development, it's not just about making the AI smart or hard; it's about making it readable for players so they can pick up on patterns and adapt their strategies. When behaviors are unclear, it often leads to frustration and makes players feel like the experience is glitchy and disjointed.

That's exactly what we were dealing with for some of our AI creatures. To fix this, we've completely overhauled how behaviors are handled. We put more emphasis on giving players visual cues to anticipate attacks, which was a significant improvement we recognized based on our recent internal tests.

While we are unable to share footages of these improvements right now, stay tuned for the upcoming updates where we will be able to share more.

[h2]Improvements in Other Areas[/h2]
While our main focus was on fine-tuning the AI, we didn't stop there. We've made some significant improvements in other areas too. Now, when a player joins a multiplayer session later on, they'll still be able to see world changes like collected foliage and built houses. It wasn't the case before – you had to be in the session at the same time to see those changes. This was one of the most important milestones for the multiplayer integration which we recently completed successfully.

Overall, it's been a very busy month. We plan to put more time on the AI to keep improving the combat experience even more, and we'll have more updates to share in the coming months regarding these improvements.

Thanks for being a part of the Blind Descent community! Don't hesitate to drop a comment and let us know what you think!

—Pokuch Team.

Hello, everyone!

This month, we've added plenty of new gameplay mechanics to Blind Descent.

Crafting forms the backbone of many survival games, and it's no different in Blind Descent. As a player, you find yourself stranded deep beneath the surface of Mars in a completely unknown world. With limited gear at your disposal, you will need to take control and craft makeshift equipment to survive, find your team, and get back to the surface.

Given the unfamiliarity of this world to the player, our crafting system aims to mirror this reality. This means that crafting often requires elements that are alien to you, which requires your investigation to be able to make sense of it, and craft new items out of it.

[h2]Scanner System[/h2]
Scanners play a crucial role in uncovering unknown resources. Your scanner helps you understand potential food side effects, provides new crafting recipes, and uncovers story elements as you scan environmental remnants. So, before indulging in what looks like a delicious fruit, it's wise to scan it first to ensure there are no toxic elements that could harm you.

[h2]New Crafting Stations[/h2]
Plenty of new crafting stations have been added to the game. Mud Mixers, Pottery Tables, Carpenter's Benches, and Smithing Stations are all new crafting stations that will directly contribute to the gameplay progression.

[h2]Codex System[/h2]
Codex system is another feature we've added this month. Codex system will provide information about what you've scanned, background events, and more. It's a databank containing many information for players who love digging into the details or need info about certain things.

We're also hard at work on concept art and other aspects of the game's development. In the next monthly update, we will share some of them with you as well.

Thanks for being a part of the Blind Descent community! Don't hesitate to drop a comment and let us know what you think!

—Pokuch Team.

Hello, everyone!

As we ramp up our efforts in development, we're excited to share more updates from the game development itself!

Following last year's private demo, we received valuable feedback from you all. This feedback helped us prioritize what matters most to players, so instead of rushing out new features, we've spent the past month refining existing ones that caused some challenges. We believe these refinements will significantly improve the gameplay experience.


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Melee combat is at the heart of Blind Descent and we're committed to getting it just right. We've started by upgrading the swing animations, sound effects, and camera moves to make each swing feel more natural.

But there's more to melee combat than smooth animations. Having smart, challenging enemies is key to keeping the fights interesting. We're early in our rework efforts for better combat, but rest assured, it's on our list and we're excited to bring you updates in this area soon.


[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Another important improvement has been done on Campfires. Setting up a campfire is crucial in Blind Descent, not just for cooking but for surviving the night and the dangers that lurk in the dark. Based on playtest feedback, we realized our campfire system was a bit awkward. We heard your feedback and completely revamped it for a smoother experience. While we're still polishing things up and the current UI is just a placeholder, our changes mean you'll spend less time fighting the interface and more time enjoying the game.

We're also improving other aspects like camera bobbing, climbing mechanics, and more. Plus, we're working on a big update for our inventory system, but it's not quite ready for the spotlight. Keep an eye out for more news on these updates!

As always, your feedback is incredibly valuable to us. We appreciate you being part of the Blind Descent community!

—Pokuch Team.

Hello, everyone!

We hope you're all having a great start to 2024! We're excited to share monthly updates with you again.

It's been quite some time since our last Monthly Update—precisely 10 months. Since then, we've completed our demo, conducted a private playtest with our Discord community, received invaluable feedback, and began preparing for pitching and documenting our game. Over the past two months, we've shifted our focus back to development. As we entered the new year, we thought this might be a good opportunity to start sharing news from the game as well. In this monthly update, we would like to talk about the Game Design Document.

[h3]Documenting Blind Descent[/h3]

One of the most important things in game development is having a Game Design Document (GDD) that defines basically everything. While we had one when we first started, it was lacking some important aspects. During this period, we put significant time into improving our design document, which led to a better defined scope, and a more precise timeline. It also helped us realize certain things wouldn't work best, so we changed these things in the game and in our plans.

Previously, we've been using traditional methods for our documenting process: a single Google Document that contains everything. Imagine something like a huge Word document with many sections. We transitioned from that to something more like a Wiki. We used Notion for this, which ended up being a really good knowledge base for both the team and others who needed to get onboarded. The new approach also saved us a lot of time in communicating things, as it had many powerful tools that our team could utilize.

When we were working on the documentation, we defined many things, such as every single item, story, quests, characters, creatures, dungeons, points of interest, and many more. We also created new concept arts for the art team, so they could have a better idea of what needs to be created.

[h3]Concept Art[/h3]

Creating concept art for our creatures was a significant part of this effort. As creatures are important for both storytelling and gameplay, we needed to have all the details about their backgrounds, why they were inhabiting here, why they looked the way they do, and so on. We used these details to finalize our design, and we will use the visuals to help our 3D artists and animators finalize these creatures. As a player, you will initially see these creatures in the world, but you will also have an opportunity to answer the questions that we just asked. Having all this work in harmony requires these efforts, and we truly hope to provide the best experience in the end.

We are excited about the future of Blind Descent. In our next monthly update, we will share more details about the gameplay.

What are your thoughts on this update? Would you like to learn more about the hidden aspects of game development, or are you more interested in the gameplay itself? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!

Thank you for being part of our community.

—Pokuch Team.