Vampire Syndicate: Gangs of MoonFall News

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[p]Hi everyone![/p][p]
I’ve had my head down and cranking away at a large number of systems, including UI, inventory, the save system, character customization, quests, chargen, and skill trees. These are very important systems and provide the backbone of the game along with combat and dialogue.[/p][p]I’m pleased to say that the following systems are finished and awaiting content to be added or expanded (in case I want to add more to my current scope, which common sense probably tells me I should reign myself in):[/p]

• [p]Chargen is complete[/p]
• [p]The save system is complete[/p]
• [p]UI is complete (although currently using minimalist/placeholder graphics)[/p]
• [p]Character customization, which is one of my biggest worries about development as it is probably technically one of the harder things to do, is complete! [/p]
• [p]Inventory is complete [/p]
• [p]Quest system is complete (will probably be called “Tasks” in game)[/p]
• [p]Skill Tree system is complete[/p]

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This was a lot of work! Doing it in about a month was insane! I gained a lot of insight into how the engine works and I think this will make the rest of development go much smoother. [/p][p]I’m sure a lot of you are wondering how the “RPGMaker novelist dev with no experience in UE5” situation is working out, and it’s going really good! However, I will say that I am relatively experienced with visual scripting (even if I probably wouldn’t say I’m good at it) and various other things from long years of gamedev, so it’s not quite that surprising. I wouldn’t have launched the Kickstarter and made these promises if I didn’t think I had a very good chance of actually achieving it.[/p][p]So anyways, onto the exciting part: when is this game actually coming out, at least in an Early Access release?[/p][p]I’m planning for Q1 2026.[/p][p]That is a very aggressive timeline for a project of this scope that has remained a solodev production, but I think it’s very doable at the pace I’m going. [/p][p]I would also like to put out a new version of the demo, but this depends on how much time it would take from development, as not all time spent towards making a demo is necessarily directly transferable to the main game. I will probably take down the current demo soon, as it already is very outdated by now, so download it if you want to try it out![/p][p]Okay, that’s it! I’ll probably put out a quick video running through chargen and the character customization options you get at the start of the game, sometime next week. [/p][p]Thanks, [/p][p]ManlyMouseDan[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]
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[p]https://www.pcgamer.com/best-cyberpunk-games-on-pc/[/p][p][/p][p]Very cool, not sure if I deserve it, but I sure do appreciate it :D. Memoirs of a Battle Brothel is of course, the game that Vampire Syndicate is a direct sequel to.[/p][p][/p][p]Just thought I'd share. [/p][p][/p][p]Also in other news, I am currently building out a massive update to the demo that will incorporate all the systems I'm working on. Not sure when it will come out, but it should be a "full vertical slice" including the first story mission. [/p]

[p][/p][p]Hi everyone, here's a look at the in-progress inventory screen. I'm pleased to say that even though it's far from being final (the aesthetics, number of slots, etc, will change through development), the image is not a mockup but a fully implemented screenshot taken from in-game.[/p][p][/p][p]Right now I'm not too sure about the background image. I would like to cycle through a series of nice artworks, perhaps even randomized, but that might impact readibility so I might default to a more neutral background. Additionally, the stats are organized as a functional, but not exactly eye-pleasing block on the left, which will change later on. I also forgot to add that the shotgun scales with Perception. [/p][p][/p][p]Hopefully this will give you some insight into how the game works, and itemization as well. At this point I'm leaning towards not directly tying armor with what the character is wearing visually. This is mainly a budget issue (paying for custom meshes at the quality I want would be prohibitively expensive), but is also due to gameplay design as I would like to divorce the visual customization of the character from stat bonuses. This allows for more flexibility in the player dressing up their character, as well as allowing me to implement more unorthodox slots in the future. Equipping different weapons will still result in a different visual weapon during combat. [/p][p][/p][p]Inventory is a shared pool for all party members, but each character will have their own equipment page. There will not be weight or durability in the game, but there will be a limited number of inventory slots for each item category that you can upgrade as you progress through the game. [/p][p][/p][p]The current item categories I have are Equipment (weapons, armor, etc), Mods (equipment add-ons that give new skills and other benefits), Cargo (trade goods and possibly used to furfill certain missions), and Critical Items (which are just quest items). [/p][p][/p][p]That's it for now, until next time![/p]

[p]Hi everyone! Just thought I’d let you know what’s currently going on with development on Vampire Syndicate. [/p][p]Right now I’m tackling a large amount of game systems, notably UI, inventory, the save system, character customization, quests, chargen, skill trees + progression, and more. [/p][p]For the most part, these systems will be very familiar if you’ve played an RPG before. There may be some surprises, but I would like to stick to a “simpler is better” approach, as the game is already aggressively scoped (I don't think I'm exaggerating in saying this is one of the most ambitious solodev projects currently in development). [/p][p]And as it might sound, it’ll take me a while to get all of this under wraps.  [/p][p]I am currently still flying solo, outside of one programmer who occasionally helped with the combat system. Solo development has its pros and cons, but as I’m learning the engine and getting more comfortable with how it works, it’s not that hard! [/p][p]The bad news is that it’s still very hard. [/p][p]I am doing a lot more work from scratch than I anticipated, but it remains manageable. In some ways I'm glad this is the case, as I now understand the underlying systems much better. [/p][p]Hopefully I will have something to show pretty soon. As a teaser, here’s a random screengrab from character customization in development:[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]
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