Macabre News

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.

Hello fine people, we hope you had a great break. We sure did. Although the year is young, we've made some good progress so far. One of the most exciting and incredibly motivating events to happen was our teaser on TikTok blowing up. Over the break, we amassed over 1 Million views and 185K likes!



Even though it's a bit off-topic, this is a huge win. As an Indie studio with very limited advertising spend, getting the word out on Macabre is our greatest challenge. We've been incredibly humbled by all of the love and support, and we welcome all of our new followers! Now, let's get into the game.


We've recently implemented a development version of Epic Online services in our test environment. Now anyone can jump into a session and explore the map together.



We've begun work on our monster AI with basic senses of sight and hearing. Over time we'll build out its behavioural tree with many randomised behaviours of varying intensity to bring our creature to life and keep the player guessing.

We've also started implementing our monsters animation graph. Soon we'll have our friendly little guy running around in the environment with wonderfully creepy animations. Speaking of...


We've continued to work on our main creature animations. There's a huge list to get through, but it will ensure it has a robust animation set, allowing for more nuanced movement and interactions to really bring our creature to life.




We've been building out a staging environment to test our core mechanics. This includes player items, core game mechanics and interactions. This way, we can play with parameters and dial-in functionality before implementing it into the main game.




Plenty more concept art has been worked on, mainly some interesting collectables players will need to progress through the game. These are currently being built out in 3D.



We've also put together some more environmental concept art to guide the direction of the set dressing of the buildings and environment.




Last week we recorded some test mocap scenes for the trailer, which worked out brilliantly. Some cleanup needs to be done, but overall, we're pretty happy with the result. More to come!




Banjo is our lead protagonist. He'll guide players through the world and deliver key narrative beats. Players will assist Banjo in various quests in order to progress. It took some searching, but we finally found someone who could convey Banjo's peculiar character. We recently recorded our first VO session. We hope you love the results as much as we do! Here's a little snippet of what we captured.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
As always, don't forget to join our Discord and Wishlist Macabre on Steam.

Until next time.


Team Macabre.

Thanks to Screen Australia, we've been able to bring on a few new team members to assist in 3D Art, Rigging, Animation and Cinematics. We've also spent a lot of time planning and scheduling the production of Macabre. The great news is we're starting to make tangible progress that we can actually share with you all.

Moving forward, we will aim to update the community on our progress via monthly Dev blog updates on our Discord. This is also where we'll post more informal but frequent content and updates as we progress through development.

So let's take a look at what the team have been working on over the past month...

Development
A lot of development has been focused on the underlying architecture of the game, and its mechanics. So far, this includes setting up the basics of character movement, animation and multiplayer compatibility, as well as an inventory system, equipment and pickups.

We're developing Macabre with a very modular approach. This takes a lot more time to set up but means we can add and test any new functionality quite easily without refactoring whole systems, saving us a bunch of development time. A big part of this setup is also documenting this architecture visually so that anyone on the team can jump in and start experimenting with mechanics.

Looking forward, we can now begin to utilise these different frameworks together and begin iterating on gameplay to get us closer to our "first playable" build.



Game and Level Design
Until we get to our first playable, a lot of the design aspects are theorised and documented based on what we think will be fun. Obviously, this highlights the importance of our "First Playable", as this is when we'll really be able to put our theories to the test.

Nevertheless, much of this documentation is extremely important as it informs the concept and art team on how the different items and environments should look/work based on the mechanics.

A key aspect of Macabres gameplay is offering a new experience each time you enter the map. Part of this is randomising the lodges that spawn into the map. We've implemented a preliminary system that randomly places a lodge design at the start of the match. The next step will be to have the map scale depending on how many people enter. This will effectively randomise the possible lodge spawns and map access to keep you guessing where to go next.





Concept and Art
We've been busy working on lots of different concept art but the first thing we wanted to update was our portal to suit our narrative. The portal is a key element in our game, and we wanted to make sure it was as immersive and visually stunning as possible.

We first started by getting the silhouette and functionality right before finalising the concept art, complete with our own alien alphabet. From there, we modelled and textured the new design. We still need to finalise the visual effects, but we're really happy with where it's headed.

Without getting into spoilers, we've also been concepting different items which should begin production shortly.



Animation
We've been hard at work bringing our main antagonist to life, and we think you're going to love the results.

So far, we've been focusing on animating the idle, locomotion and transitional animations for our main creature. We've spent a lot of time fine-tuning the details to make sure they feel natural and disgustingly creepy.

Overall, we're really happy with the progress we've made so far. We wish we could share it, but we want this to be something players discover on release.


Cinematics
In order to promote our game, it's super important that we create an engaging trailer that conveys the overall experience of Macabre. We knew we didn't want to stray too far from what it will actually be like to play the game, so we're going for a very authentic trailer that emulates the actual experience. We also wanted to include some narrative elements to set up our world and give players an idea of what they're walking into.

Making a trailer is expensive and time-consuming, so we wanted to make sure we had everything locked in before building it out in the engine. To get the ball rolling, we scripted everything out and then filmed a rough version of the script at a local park. From there, we cut together multiple versions of the trailer before landing on something we think is super strong.

Using our offline edit as a guide, we're currently building each shot in Unreal Engine and starting to dress each scene. Once we have this completed, we'll be heading to the studio and recording all of our dialogue and mocap data to animate our characters.



That's all for now, don't forget to join our Discord and Wishlist Macabre on Steam.


Have a great Christmas, everybody.

Jake Davey and I have been wearing many hats for the past year. Everything from producing to design, narrative and art has fallen under us. But today, we can announce veteran VFX & Concept artist Jake Hempson will be taking the reigns of Art Director. Here's what he had to say.

Soooo… an industry veteran ehy? (yes, yes, I have been around the block). I'm a bit of a mixed bag. I originally studied graphic design in South Africa, then moved to the UK, aiming to get into comics illustration/concept art. I wound up teaching myself 3D/animation, working on the “Aliens vs Predator” game for Rebellion. Several games later, I came to OZ and worked for Krome Studios in Brisbane. Eventually, I transitioned into a 3D generalist for VFX/TVC working at Cutting Edge where I first met Jay.

A few years and several films later, I reconnected with Jay and was excited to learn he'd been working on a multiplayer horror game (Macabre). I wanted in as I love horror and creature design as well as some of the nerd-core sci-tech aesthetics we have in mind (more on that later).



Soooo… The several games/films later part includes (aside from my stealing sponge bob quotes):

Aliens Versus Predator (2000) - game
Concept design and character modelling.

Starsky & Hutch (2003) - Game
Lead artist.

Ty3 the Tasmanian Tiger: Night of the Quinkan (2005) - Game
Cutscene Animations.

Megamind: Mega Team Unite (2010) - Game
Character design Character Lead.

Red Billabong (2014) - Film
Creature Design.

Thor Ragnarok (2016, Marvel) - Film
Concept design, prop/set design.

Shang Chi (2020, Marvel) - Film
Concept design, prop/set design

Occupation Rainfall (2021) - Film
Concept design/Art Direction Modeling and look dev

The Portable Door ( 2021 unreleased) - Film
Creature sculpt

Allen (2021, Netflix, unreleased) - Film
Creature design/ sculpt

I'm really excited to join WeForge on this project, as I want to push myself and move more into Art Direction. Macabre offers me an opportunity to express my passion for horror, design and games, and the role ties in with my previous experience in multiple other areas of digital art production.

—Jake Hempson



We're equally as excited to have Jake H officially join our team. His background and expertise are truly going to elevate Macabre, helping us realise our vision of taking the horror genre to new places.



You can view Jake's recent work on his portfolio and his "random doodles" on his insta.

For as long as we can remember, Jake Davey and I have had a great fondness for video games. It's actually how we met, playing the Arma 2 mod Wasteland (for those of you who remember). We formed a group of friends and would jump on after Uni/work almost every day and play games like Dayz mod, Dota 2, Rust, Hunt Showdown, The forest and Escape from Tarkov. Little did we know, we'd both end up moving to Sydney and becoming good mates in the real world.


While I was focused on building a career in directing, Jake was building his in Audio. We always talked about how cool it would be to make our own game, but it wasn't until about 12 months ago that we started taking it seriously. We realised our respective careers and mutual love for video games was the perfect foundation to make our own.

We knew we wanted to create something different with Macabre, to step outside the typical haunted house or abandoned asylum and instead explore new territory. We also wanted monsters that are scary smart, that felt alive - not just mindless grunts that kill on sight. It's all about creating a unique, immersive horror experience set in a world players haven't explored before, and boy, do we have some cool stuff in store!





Funnily enough, I'm an absolute scaredy cat with it comes to horror, but just like with watching scary movies, it's so much more fun with friends. Not to mention multiplayer horror opens up so many avenues. You can work together, but you can also mess with each other, which makes for a lot of hilarious scenarios.


We reached out to my former colleague Maximilian Rea who had embarked on a similar journey around five years earlier to create his dream game Hell Let Loose. Max has been gracious enough to mentor us through the process of building an indie studio and setting things up to succeed.


Over the next few months, we were lucky enough to begin working with some incredible artists who saw the same potential in Macabre that we did. Rythilian, who was a big part of the Rust modding community, helped us with our landscape and environment. Joshua Culp worked on our creature concept art which is terrifying, BTW. Ricardo Ciaxe did the 3D sculpt, and Morrissey Alexander, who has been building out our lodges and helping with hard surface modelling. We also were fortunate enough to meet Ben Sutherland, our incredibly talented and awesome programmer.


We're all working towards making Macabre the best it can be, and we can't wait to show you more of our progress!