Early 2024 dev log: environments, quests and more!
We’re well into the phase where the game starts to feel pretty cohesive. Here’s our new “forest hallway” environment that I haven’t yet added to the Steam screenshots:
Some of the tasks that went into making our new environments included:
The challenge is getting these environments to work well on lower-end computers.
I’m testing on my old Nvidia 1060 laptop and they’re stable at >30 FPS; I wonder if anyone with a lower end rig will be wanting to play? Luckily there is still some low-hanging fruit left for optimization.
[h3]The quest system[/h3]
The other major feature we’re working on polishing right now is a quest system. After some back and forth about how to code the quests, we settled on a pretty powerful system using a visual scripting system, via a 3rd party package.
We've successfully put together a quest that involves grabbing a hat for the Queen Ant. Maybe you'll get to wear the hat afterward...?
Finally, a grab bag of other things we’ve been working on:
Is a demo ever coming? Well, the game is nearly ready for it! … but, we kept putting off final polish on the movement system. Early playtesting surfaced a few bugs in that area, so we’re spending time stomping those out before doing a fully public demo.
I think we’ll be ready in a couple months (probably after Steam Next Fest, because releasing a demo in that time frame without being in the Fest is a bad idea). That said, if you want in on pre-public playtesting, DM me or join the Discord.
That’s all for today, thank you for reading and following Strange Seed!
Some of the tasks that went into making our new environments included:
- A fully featured lighting and shadow system
- New shaders for all vegetation and environment objects
- Completing the climbing system
- A bunch of new vegetation models made in Speedtree
The challenge is getting these environments to work well on lower-end computers.
I’m testing on my old Nvidia 1060 laptop and they’re stable at >30 FPS; I wonder if anyone with a lower end rig will be wanting to play? Luckily there is still some low-hanging fruit left for optimization.
[h3]The quest system[/h3]
The other major feature we’re working on polishing right now is a quest system. After some back and forth about how to code the quests, we settled on a pretty powerful system using a visual scripting system, via a 3rd party package.
We've successfully put together a quest that involves grabbing a hat for the Queen Ant. Maybe you'll get to wear the hat afterward...?
Finally, a grab bag of other things we’ve been working on:
- Set up permanently flying creatures (like bees)
- Implemented a wrapper scene and sub-scene switcher that should both ease our workflow and make the game more stable
- Investigated and fixed various weird results from unexpected part combos
- Added a “treasure chest” feature tied to completing enemy encounters
Is a demo ever coming? Well, the game is nearly ready for it! … but, we kept putting off final polish on the movement system. Early playtesting surfaced a few bugs in that area, so we’re spending time stomping those out before doing a fully public demo.
I think we’ll be ready in a couple months (probably after Steam Next Fest, because releasing a demo in that time frame without being in the Fest is a bad idea). That said, if you want in on pre-public playtesting, DM me or join the Discord.
That’s all for today, thank you for reading and following Strange Seed!