Mik News

Hi hello and welcome to another Mik devlog! A lot has happened since the last one, like Mik hitting 2600 wishlists and of course the public playtest.
These were probably the most successful months of the game... ever - both in terms of wishlists and improvement of the game itself.

I got a lot of feedback and bug reports both on the public and closed playtest so most of the past 2 months were spent on preparing for the playtest release and polishing the game after that.


Like I said above - the game is now fully playable (yay), meaning that all the systems and areas I developed over the past months have finally come together, which feels very satisfying.
The playtest is available for everyone to play, just go to the Steam page of the game and click on "Play Now" and you will receive access.
Along with that there is also a completely overhauled Steam page and new trailer (which wasn't that good ngl)!

[h2]Lore[/h2]
While preparing for the public playtest release I also finalised the important aspects of the lore and implemented them in the game through the computer logs and notes. There have already been some changes and extensions to the lore through new secrets and whatnot but it's still lackluster. Especially the lore on the computers can often be "useless" to the greater picture and boring to read.
There will definitely be a lore rework before the demo release where I'll somewhat "linearise" the lore experience so that you can experience the story without reading through every log (tl;dr - the logs should be additional lore, not always the main source).

[h2]Movement[/h2]
This is the thing that probably changed the most during these 2 months. Even during the closed playtesting the movement was the most frustrating thing about the game - by far. Luckily I fixed it (to some extent) for the public release but those who played probably know that it was still lackluster (to put it lightly). A few days ago there was another large update for it which should be an improvement. Tho it's still a work in progress so there will definitely be more changes to come.

Along with that I also added dashing and wallrunning (which will be introduced in the next levels) as well as vaulting which has been added in the latest update!

[h2]Leaderboards[/h2]
I was planning to only add this later in development but I decided to implement it sooner because to give players actually something to do in the game and push retention

(ignore the 0 second entry there were a few.... bugs)

[h2]Polish, Bugfixes, Optimisation bla bla bla[/h2]
I'm getting LAZY to write more so here is just a short rundown of some smaller new things that have been added

• Discord integration
  
• Steam achievements
  
• Subtitles
  
• Full localisation
  
• Started working on full settings menu
  
• Breakable glass
  
• Prettier computers
  
• Polish interactions with computers (they glitch if you hit them too hard)
  
• Level selector
  
• Lots of secrets!!!
  
• optional upscaling for the AI slop enjoyers
  

Here are 2 cool screenshots of some new secrets:

There was also a lot of optimisation work which helped lower the performance requirements again

[h2]What's Coming...[/h2]
The big goal is to get the next 2 levels and collectibles so I can release a full demo. I already started working on the second level:

Besides that there will of course be more polish and bugfix updates, but development might slow down over the next few weeks because I'll be busy with irl stuff.

If you want to give feedback on the playtest please do so either on my Discord or the feedback form
(completing this will give you a super special role in the Discord)

Thanks for reading
- Stefaaan !!

Hi hello everyone!

It´s finally time - the Mik Playtest is open for anybody to enter now. Just press the "Request Access" button on the games steam page and you are in!

Please leave feedback and bug reporting either in the Playtest Community hub or on my discord!

https://discord.gg/VYUedn5bWE

Thanks for the continued support. I hope some people can have fun with the game even if its just a small Playtest.

Hi hello, it's the FIRST of the month again, so here we are with another devlog!! The last one was all the way back in December since I'm posting these bi-monthly, so first up: Happy New Year!
Thanks for all the support and 2000 Wishlists!
There was a LOT of progress, so get ready for some eye candy and also some more info on a roadmap.


As always, new environments have been my main focus, and there has been BIG progress! The first level has been expanded with more content, as well as polish (VFX, SFX, etc.) so that it's fully playable!




Along with that, I started working on implementing the reworked systems in all the other exiting levels.

And last but not least, I have been working on this new level:



[h2]More oomph[/h2]
Polish is important. Making the game feel better and more polished has been the second big focus during these two months. I reworked the entirety of the Player Sound and VFX system, so now there are better sounds, camera bobbing, and a new collision system. Depending on your speed (and airtime), there are now different collision sounds and camera shakes, as well as UI indicators for your speed (and airtime) to gauge whether you will die from fall damage during your jump.
Speaking of fall damage, yes, there is fall damage now, along with a reworked/tweaked movement system that should feel better and includes a few new gameplay features that I'll keep secret so as not to spoil the next levels :)

Also, there is now a reverb system where different areas have varying strengths of reverb!

[h2]RevelOS[/h2]
There were a few updates to revelOS (the computer operating system in MIK), since it's quite an important part of the game, especially lore-wise. There were tons of backend changes, along with new user types for different scenarios, as well as changes to existing applications. A user can now be a part of a "department" that has shared logs across all users. Logs can now have nested pages, meaning that when opening a specific log entry, it can have multiple pages.
There are also new applications for controlling various things throughout the world, like doors and the new turbines.

[h2]Level Loading[/h2]
And last but certainly not least, I have fully implemented the new level loading system along with a reworked checkpoint system to make the game fully playable!

[h2]Backend & Code Debt[/h2]
"...is the implied cost of future reworking because a solution prioritizes expedience over long-term design"
Lots of old systems have been reworked and changed. And, as I mentioned, there's a new checkpoint system, as well as a new Music and Ambience Manager.

[h2]Optimisation[/h2]
We all love optimisation! For now, it seems like the game is hitting the performance goals, but there's still more to be done. While there is support for AMD's FSR3.1 upscaling, I do not want MIK to be another upscaling slop game that can't run on its own.


Considering that the game is in a playable state now, there will be a closed playtest, and shortly after, an open playtest in the near future! (Hopefully before the next devlog.)
The playtests will probably feature the first level of the game and should finally allow me to get some proper feedback.
Along with the first public playtest, I want to (finally) post a second trailer, as well as a Steam page overhaul, since it is quite old and outdated.

Beyond that, I hope that a demo will be available in the foreseeable future containing the first three levels.

Thanks for reading another devlog!

Hi hello, it´s the FIRST of the month again so its time for another devlog!! Like previously stated, devlogs are bi-monthyly now so the next one will be all the way in February next year.

These 2 months of development have been split between Mik and my new game which started out as a project for GithubGameOff2024 gamejam. Both because of overscoping and me being busy with exams, I sadly could not finish the game in time for the submission deadline. It´s not all bad news tho, more on that later tho!


Like the previous months, level design has been once again the main priority. The introduction level was basically finished, although I decided to expand the very first part with more gameplay since the area took ages to create so I don´t want it to go to waste. Maybe it´ll appear again in a later part of the game.

All the areas in the previous devlogs are now decorated!

Anyways, I´ll let the images speak for themselves:


[h2]New Object Collision system[/h2]
The previous collision system for objects (that have physics) has been expanded opon so now theres extra collision particles.

[h2]Optimisation[/h2]
More optimisation! More optimisation! More optimisation!

[h2]Better level loading[/h2]
I´m currently implementing the "new" (the one I mentioned in one of the first devlogs) level loading logic for the first level to finally get ready for a cohesive and playable game!
On top of that, the level loading system is getting expanded with the ability to also load and unload specific prefabs intead of entire scenes.
This just means that the process is less complicated for me, and the game more optimised for you!


Like I mentioned, half of my time was spent on creating a new game for a gamejam. Even tho because of exams and overscoping I didn´t manage to finish the game in time, I am planning on continuing development and release it on steam. (join discord for indev footage)
More info following soon, but trust me, It´s epic.


[h2]Thanks for reading another devlog![/h2]
Join my discord for more news: https://discord.gg/VYUedn5bWE And follow me on twitter: https://www.twitter.com/@stefaaan06

Heya, it´s the first second of the month and here´s the 9th Mik devlog! First up, some bad news, monthly devlogs will no longer be a thing and will be replaced with bi-monthly devlogs. This is because progress has slowed down because of my school work and me not wanting to make super short devlogs.

I post updates and previews to everything you see here on my discord so join that if you are interested.



Level design, level design... and more level design.
All my work for the past year is finally paying off as the different backend systems I developed are finally finding it´s usecase! From plants to volumetric lighting, this area will have it all.


I´m too lazy to write large paragraphs of text so I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

[h2]Plants[/h2]
They are finally here! After teasing them over half a year ago, I am finally using the leaf plugin to generate plantlife for different parts of the first level.


[h2]Optimisation[/h2]
I keep saying this and will say it again, something that´s very important to me with Mik is that the game runs as performantly as possible as to enable players with low end hardware to play it as well.
I have changed some systems (most notably the leaf shader) to use less system resources and changed up parts of the level to allow for higher frame rates.





That´s it for this devlog!
I appreciate everyones patience for the release and hope to do a public alpha test soon.

Join my discord for more news: https://discord.gg/VYUedn5bWE
And follow me on twitter: https://www.twitter.com/@stefaaan06