Project Prison News

Hello, last month was productive. I finally managed to settle on the fight system, which is something I think I can build upon nicely during early access and will also be good enough for release after some minor tweaks.

I apologize for not being able to release the playtest last month. I feel I spent far too much time on mundane stuff that particularly no one's going to notice, like the I added with random flickering to searchlights. If you keep looking at it for a few seconds, you will notice it.


I talked about nighttime rendering last time, and one big problem I mentioned was with shadows and moon position. While I'm not aiming to do an accurate day and night cycle, I did spend some time fixing issues with the rotation of the moon so we can get nice shadows at night.

Another point I touched upon last time was color grading for different weather presets. I'm adding some GIFs here, but due to size constraints, they are compressed. Somewhat better quality GIFs are available on Discord if you want to check them out. I'm also adding culling for lights at night, so overall, we will get better performance.







The fight system, which I think is ready, has one design problem. When the player keeps hitting the AI, the AI's chances of dodging or blocking the next attack increase, which creates a loop where the player definitely gets hit after a few successful hits. To solve that, I added feint attacks, so now the player and even the AI can feint an attack, which will force their opponent to react (either dodge or block) and give you an opportunity to attack. Another functionality I'm trying to add is sidestep, which is not completely ready yet but looks like this.

I also experimented with the camera. I want fights to be intense and brutal, so camera movement is important. I'm looking into different games, and keeping the camera over the shoulder seems to give such an impact, but I'm thinking of giving the player an option to disable camera animation in the settings.



What I'm thinking is keeping all these things for now and removing them after feedback during the beta and demo. Sorry for the delay, but I'm sure it'll be worth it.

I've been working on the fight system for the last 3 months and have remade it from scratch 4 times. Sleeping Dogs, Mad Max, and RDR2 are my biggest inspirations for the melee combat. My idea is to make it feel less arcadey/beat 'em up and more realistic, with importance given to strategy. It makes the fights lengthy, but let's see once I get more feedback in demo/beta, I will make necessary changes.

In the fight system, there are a few stages:

1.Approach
2.Attack
3.Block/Dodge
4.Hit
5.Disengage
6.Knockout
The fight system is based on the distance and direction to the target. If the target is not in eyesight or is too far, pressing the attack key won't have any effect, as it doesn't make sense for the character to swing in the air. You will notice a small placeholder animation when this happens.



When the character is in the attack zone, if he is too close and in the front direction, the player will push. Or, he will make the character look towards you and then attack the player.




Attack: There are uppercuts, punches to the gut, jabs, hooks, and a few kicks that the player can perform. Based on the distance and direction, the player will play that attack animation. One important part is that I've tried to avoid the sliding thing. If you play similar fighting games, usually the game slides both characters to make them stand at the exact position and then plays the animation. It makes sense, but what I've done is that rather than sliding, the player will walk to that position and then attack his target. Also, I'm using IK for attacks, so even if the distance is greater or there is a change in direction, IK will try to ensure the attack hits the target body part.


Block: For each attack, there are block animations for the player. They are time-based. I've added an outline that changes color so the player can perfect block, but I've removed it and added a block stance instead. The block stance will block any upcoming attack, but it consumes stamina. You can also block attacks, although some are hard to block, like jabs, but they are time-based and not impossible.



While playing against AI, I noticed that it is extremely difficult to block the AI's attacks as they are time-based. To make it easier, I've added an indicator. Now, you will notice that there's an outline around the AI when it tries to attack the player. The outline has different colors at different stages of the attack, which will help players block attacks more effectively


Dodging: I have implemented dodging mechanics. Some attacks, like quick jabs, are hard to block. For such attacks, dodging is the perfect solution. After a successful dodge, the player can also perform a counter-attack.


There are still many things which I can add in the fight system but I feel like this is a solid foundation for now on which I can build upon during early access. Big problem is with animations as I need to create them manually so plan is to hire animator to fix these animations during EA. Also I'm trying to post dev update every day or two on Discord so you can keep track of current progress.

Hi, sorry for the delay. I wasn't able to post last week as I've been working on creating the fighting system again from scratch for the past two weeks. This is the 4th iteration of fighting system. I made all new blocking animations and removed a few features(front grappling and slam animations). The goal is to make it less beat 'em up/arcadey and more challenging. I had to create some animations (especially for the block). I will write more about it later once I feel it is at a better stage to show.

I've added weather presets to the game. In the past, I've already written about rain, but now there are 4 different presets, and the game will simultaneously transition between them. The sky system also received a new update. Now it will be physically accurate with cloud shadows for better visual fidelity. Also, with the new weather presets, the color grading system will change.
I've reduced the transition effect between weather in gif

Now there are 4 different weather types: Rain, Misty, Sunny, and Overcast.

I've tried to make this system as immersive as possible (at least for now). For example:

The ground will be wet even after rain, and the wetness will gradually reduce.
In the rainy season, you will hardly see any other prisoners on the ground, etc.
I'm considering adding a splashing effect with footsteps (but I will probably skip it as I've noticed that I keep polishing things, and I need to get the game out as soon as possible).

I'm not fond of how video games typically handle smoking and drinking they often portray it as cool without showing any consequences. The approach I've adopted involves an 'Addiction' trait. If you start smoking or drinking, your character acquires this trait. Once addicted, you need to continue buying cigarettes and alcohol to maintain your character's mental sanity. Otherwise, the character's boredom will increase rapidly if contraband items are not easily accessible. Moreover, smoking and drinking can be fatal for your character. Exceeding a set limit increases the likelihood of your character developing cancer. The game will alert the player once a certain threshold is crossed, advising them to cut back. Additionally, drinking too much will give the player a 'Drunk' trait, which will be represented by a post-processing effect and reduced visibility.



Both the player and AI can perform certain actions like eating, drinking, smoking, etc. The key feature is that these actions can be carried out while performing other activities. For example, player can smoke while running, walking, sitting, or lying on the bed, etc. The only limitation is that the player cannot sprint, but jogging and walking are perfectly fine.
PS: As the game nears its public beta phase, I've decided to post updates once or twice a week. Apologies for the default character in the gif. I have the 3D models of the prisoners ready and integrated, but I'm currently working on some optimizations to reduce draw calls while the build is under review. Thus, I captured the gif with a default character.

I spent the majority of last month improving the visual fidelity of the game. The game now has a day and night cycle that is integrated with the prison regime system. Other prisoners will react to weather conditions for instance, if it is raining, they will stay in their cells instead of going outside to the yard. Interactive objects like exercise equipment, chess tables, and benches get wet. If you're playing a chess against another prisoner, they will stop the game if it starts to rain. If the player's entertainment stat is already low, then rain could worsen it, especially if you go out in the rain to use the exercise equipment, as your clothes will get wet.

I've also integrated volumetric clouds, cloud shadows, and redesigned the yard terrain. There are now mini-games for exercise and workshop jobs (like cleaning toilets, laundry etc.). Environmental effects include birds flying, leaves falling, and fog, among many other things. I'm planning to submit the game to Steam for playtest review by the end of next week. Hopefully, it will be approved quickly so I can start playtesting by the end of this month. If you have any questions, feel free to ask I'll be happy to answer them. Thanks.