Mik - Legacy News

Heya!



After some time, I have decided to post another devlog about all the progress I have made in the past months (which is actually a lot). You can see all of the new Stuff in a short preview Video linked below. I´ll probably forget a lot but here are the most important ones:


[h2]New Main Menu[/h2]
I made a completely new Main Menu, which now fits the theme of the game more, and also integrates Steamworks. Meaning that you can now for example see your achievements, stats and username in the ingame menu, I plan to add more Steamworks integration with for example global leaderboards and things like that.



On top of that I have also reworked the animations, which are now typing animations & highlighting which should work without any issues. I also reworked the general structure of the menu, making it more simple. You can see for yourself in the Preview Video i linked at the bottom!

[h3]Loading Screen[/h3]

I have now added a loading Screen which comes up... well when loading a new Scene. It is also quite simple, just showing the loading progress and a text saing "loading".


[h2](A lot of) New Models![/h2]

I have added a lot of new Models to decorate the scenes more. There isn´t much else to say so see for yourself:[


[h3]Object Pickup[/h3]
You are now able to pick up basically any Object object you see. This also means that now most Objects have rigidbodys (aka they use Physics), meaning that you, and other Objects can Interact with them.


[h3]Lighting, Effects & Post Processing[/h3]
I made some more tweaks to the Post Processing to fit the Atmosphere more. I have also added shadows like you have seen in some pictures. (you will be able to turn them off for Better Performance). And last but not least there are some more Particle effects like leaking gas and dust which you can see in the preview Video.

[h3]Game optimisation[/h3]
Like previously mentioned you will be able to change some stuff in the Settings so the game doesn´t run so performance heavy.
I have made a lot of changes to the hitboxes of Objects, to make them just basic shapes and not complex ones which lower the performance significantly. I have also reworked (and documented) all my Code, to work more efficiently.

[h2]Sounds & Music[/h2]
A large part of what i´ve been working on is Sound Effects and Music! There are now 10+ tracks that switch during Playtime.
There are also new, dynamic, Footsteps for different Surfaces. Meaning there are different Sound being Played for different Surfaces you walk on.
I also added an ambience sound system, randomly playing Sound (like the Minecraft Cave Sounds) and different rooms also have different ambiences.
And lastly there are generally more sound effects for leaking gas, water etc.

What I´m currently working on is Sound effects for Object collisions, which you can partially see (hear) in the Preview video.

[h3]new Player menu[/h3]
There is also a new Player menu following the style and animations of the Main menu.


[h2]Bugs Bugs Bugs...[/h2]
Since the entire old code and scenes are basically gone now, you could say that all the old Bugs are gone, but obviously there were... a lot... of new ones.

The biggest change that will affect you is that I fixed the incredibly buggy crouching (for example you could "teleport" yourself trough objects if you Uncrouch right below them).


This is it for today! Obviously this is just the tip of the Iceberg and the actually finished/showable stuff, meaning that next time (I dont know when yet), you´ll probably see some more new Stuff!.

For the release date of the new Update, I can say that it will most definitely come this year, and I aim for releasing it before or during the summer vacations but I´ll make no promises.

Anyways, here is the Preview Video: [previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

-Stefaaan, hoping to continue working on the game

Heya!


This is the first of a few Devlogs I plan to make until the actual Update releases to keep track of my work, keep you guys engaged and I just feel like doing it.
I made a lot of progress during the last few weeks, as well as before that so I´ll try to list most of the important things.

[h2]Sounds,Music&Ambiance![/h2]

Something that the game has been lacking for a long time is actual sounds in the game! In the last Update I did introduce music and various other sound effects for the main menu but that was it. No walking sounds, no ambiance... just a blank computer generated voice (which will be changed as well)

Now we do have that kind of stuff (well most of it). I added:
-walking sounds (normal, In water and while crouch-walking)
-jumping sound
-a looot of ambiance sounds
-multiple ambiance sounds that play randomly throughout the game

Tho obviously we still need sounds while sliding, at high speeds and various other sounds which I will probably implement at some point.

I sadly can´t embed sound files into steam, but at some point there will be a video about the new features.

[h2]Lighting,Rendering&Performance[/h2]

I have once again tweaked the lighting a bit, which makes the game a bit more spooky but also gives it the "destroyed facility" vibe for which I´m now going, instead of a more portal like game. The scenes are darker now and the lighting comes from actual game objects like light bulbs instead of some invisible source.
I also tweaked the post processing values a bit so it once again gives more of a "destroyed facility" vibe.

Picture of new lighting&Post processing:



I also added something called "Occlusion Culling" to the game which increases the performance drastically. It basically makes that the game only renders what you can actually see. Meaning that for example a room locked behind a door, is not rendered anymore.
If you don´t understand it just look at these pictures:

Before Occlusion Culling:


After Occlusion Culling:


(please note that the scene in the pictures is not an actual finished level, just a testing scene.)

For better performance, I also removed most mesh colliders from the game and replaced them with box colliders because they were dragging the performance down a lot. You may ask yourself what a mesh collider is, and it basically is that the entire actual surface of an object is a collider. This uses a lot of processing power and is not really useful for the game either because you don´t interact with the objects a lot. I replaced them with the box colliders which are just a large box around the object, which does not change the gameplay at all. (objects like vents keep their mesh colliders so you can crawl trough them).

And finally, for better performance as well, I limited the Fps of the game so the game does not try to use as many as possible.

[h2]Movement&Camera Shake[/h2]

I once again rewrote some of the movement code so you can now walk while being crouched. I also made the player a bit heavier because the jumping felt off.

Another thing that the game lacked, was camera shake, which I also added.
Currently there are 3 different versions for when you:
jump
walk
and walk while crouching.

but the potential is endless and I will surely use it for other situations as well.


[h2]MainMenu animations and other stuff[/h2]

I have added animations to the Main Menu as well as the scene which comes up when you start the game (which I reworked completely as well). In the Main Menu, there is a level selector now.
There are also a lot of new props and models for the game and I plan to make the game generally way more detailed(like in level 4).
I also rewrote some old buggy scripts and generally re-organised my unity workspace, but this does not really affect you.


I probably forgot some stuff I did a long time ago but I did not publish back then.
I hope to be finished with the new game mechanics in 1-2 weeks so I can start redoing the whole of chapter one.
I´ll post another Devlog next week, if you have any questions about the new content ,about any of the code or want to make a suggestion, feel free to write a comment!

-Stefaaan, actually active again.

Surprisingly, this game is actually popular. wow. We still get new Players, Reviews and even Videos so i decided to come back from the dead....

Many of you are asking: "Stefaaan, when will you finally release a new update for Mik". I can´t lie that I haven´t done too much programming for it but i do have some unreleased stuff like general polishing and a LOT of optimisation since the game is running quite badly. I planned to release the stuff with a compelte overhaul of the first chapter (cus i dont like it, and i made it a loong time ago [my skills have increased]).

So here is a question for YOU:

Should i release the stuff i currently have? It would take some time because i am on vacation and i would still like to add some stuff like actual sounds and some other polishment.

Or should I wait and release everything in a big update which includes an overhaul of the complete first chapter.


Let me know your opinion by writing a comment.



Thanks for reading trough this,

-Stefaaan, Sole Developer of Mik, back from the dead.

All achievemnts work now!

Achievementes fixed. You can now actually get them.