DEV BLOG 05

Hello all. We are making fantastic strides towards our first playable, which will eventually become our demo. This will be a single-player experience that establishes the world of Macabre and its lead protagonist Banjo. You will embark on your first quest for Banjo to help him acquire alien fragments for his research. Even though the demo will be single-player, we guarantee you won't be alone. Overall the Macabre demo will give players a taste of the story, atmosphere, mechanics and spookiness we're working towards.



Many things are being worked on under the hood that can't be conveyed in pretty pictures or videos. So we've decided to include more granular detail in bullet points. Here's what we've been up to:

Development
Overall, a lot of work has been going into building our first playable, but ultimately, these features will end up in the final game.

Features:

• Finalised multiplayer integration using P2P networking
  
• Prototyped Atomic Space Shifter
  
• Prototyped Seeker C
  
• Added scan ability to seeker C
  
• Added indicator fades out when out of scan angle of Seeker C.
  
• Added pickup and drop with physics
  
• Added throw ability with physics
  
• Added equipment cycling
  
• Added footstep cues
  
• Added demo voice lines
  
• Added tutorial widgets
  
• Added interaction widgets
  
• Added lootable items
  
• Added prototype demo menu
  
• Refactored stamina regen
  
• Refactored gameplay tags
  
• Added torch toggle and overdrive effect
  
• Nativised animation code and set up initial monster animation framework
  
• Added monster locomotion animation cycles
  
• Added IK to monsters feet/legs so it can walk over objects
  
• Added advanced camera modes
  

Bugs:

• Fixed issue with default editor module
  
• Fixed scan VFX
  
• Fixed physics simulation
  
• Fixed character null aim offset.
  
• Fixed character camera clipping into player model
  
• Revised camera and cleaned up speed toggling for smoother movement
  
• Various fixes to player movement and clipping
  
• Fixed level streaming bug in the demo level
  
• Various fixes to monster movement and IK
  
• Various other performance improvements
  

Animation
We've continued to work on our main creature animations. Here's what's been completed so far:

Idle:

• 1 Neutral breathing Loop (Idle)
  
• 1 Stalk breathing Loop (Stalk_Idle)
  
• Transition from neutral Idle to Stalk idle (Stalk_Entry)
  
• Transition from Stalk idle to neutral Idle (Stalk_Exit)
  

Walking:

• 1 Walk forward loop (Walk_Fwd)
  
• 1 Neutral idle to walk forward start transition (Walk_Fwd_Start)
  
• 1 Walk forward stop to neutral pose transition (Walk_Fwd_Stop)
  
• 1 Neutral idle to the right start transition (Walk_Right_Start)
  
• Turn in Place Right 90 degrees (Walk_TurnRight_90)Centre Centre
  

Aim Offsets:

• (AO_CC)
  
• Centre Up (AO_CU)
  
• Centre Down (AO_CD)
  
• Left Centre (AO_LC)
  
• Left Up (AO_LU)
  
• Left Down (AO_LD)
  
• Left Backward Centre (AO_LBC)
  
• Left Backward Up (AO_LBU)
  
• Left Backward Down (AO_LBD)
  
• Right Centre (AO_RC)
  
• Right Up (AO_RU)
  
• Right Down (AO_RD)
  
• Right Backward Centre (AO_RBC)
  
• Right Backward Up (AO_RBU)
  
• Right Backward Down (AO_RBD)
  

Stun:

• Stunned from each direction - 1 Cardinal
  

Emotes:

• Smile
  
• Laugh
  
• Intimidate
  
• Roar
  
• Scream (in pain)
  

Game and Level Design
As mentioned, we're deep into our first playable, and a lot of design time has been focused on ensuring this experience is as polished and enjoyable as possible. We'll continue to iterate as we build out all the features.

Concept and Art
Many of our collectables are being modelled in 3D while we've also been concepting our unique tools. Here are a few snippets of our progress.



Cinematics
Mocap was implemented and cleaned up across the majority of shots. Currently finalising camera moves and timings. From there, we'll do a final dressing and lighting pass.



As always, remember to join our Discord and Wishlist Macabre on Steam.

Until next time.

Team Macabre.