Mik News

Heya, it's the first of the month and I'm back to posting monthly devlogs! This month I mainly focused on completing the introduction level as well as bringing big advancements in optimisation to the game.

I do post previews on my discord so join that if you are interested.


Like in the previous month's devlog, the main focus was on finally completing the introduction level, which so far, is the most complex and time-consuming level in the entire game (There are already other levels finished, I just decided to make a new starting level).
This is because of the sheer scale of it, the new advanced lighting, as well as the tons of new assets that came along with it.

A big inspiration for this area was both the starting area of Portal 2, but also NaissanceE which has an amazing vibe to it. Essentially, the goal was to create a "grand introduction" with this giant, but still somewhat grounded area.

Anyways here are some screenshots.



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Along with the development of the first level. I realized that I was getting more and more lenient with poorer performance (which would be worse on low end devices).

[h3]FSR 3.1[/h3].
Mik now supports AMD's open source upscaling solution. There will be some more advanced customization for it in the settings menu, but for now it should help boost frame rates.

[h3]General Optimisation[/h3]
Much of the entry level as well as other levels have been changed to allow for better performance.

That's it for this month's (slightly) shorter devlog. Stay tuned for future updates!

It´s the first of the month... and I might have forgotten to post for the past 4 months, mainly because there wasn´t much to even post about since I was kinda burnt out from gamedev, and thing I did code only made it into the discord (which you should totally join).

At any rate I´ll try to include all the things I have been working on the past months (mainly the last month).



My main focus the past months was finally finishing all the systems and feature-completing the game.
[h3]Power System[/h3]
I added a simulated Power System which well... controls how much Power there is available and where it goes, meaning that there can be (scripted) power outages, PCs going out power, Player being able to turn of Power for puzzles... etc etc.
[h3]ROS completion[/h3]
Remember RevelOS from the last Devlog? Well it is now basically featurecomplete and ready to be fully used. The only thing that was missing was a proper - Communication System from it to the game world.
Skip this part if you dont want nerd talk:
Basically revelOS runs on native C# so i can enjoy all the features of objective oriented programming, but that means that there has to be some sort of bridge to the game world, as every script in Unity needs to derive drom MonoBehaviour. This script now facilitates both way communications meaning that the game world can send and receive information from an application.
Example: the Application for controling doors can now show if the doors are open or closed.

Sounds kinda simple and stupid but took some time to implement.

[h3]updated project to new unity version[/h3]
Title says it all, I upgraded the project to a newer Unity LTS release.

For the development of the (new) first level I made 2 nice tools to help me.
[h3]custom LOD system[/h3]
A custom LOD (Level of Detail) System that gives me more costumisation and control over it´s workings. An LOD system basically heps with performance by reducing the Object quality the farther the Player gets away.
[h3]custom Object placement tool[/h3]
To place Objects in mass but still making it feel kinda "natural" I coded a script that could do that for me so I don´t have to do it by hand.



Both the leaf and the water shader have been reworked/completed and should now more or less be finalized.
[h3]Leaf Shader[/h3]
Main changes we´re the interaction with the Player, meaning that if you get near some leaves they move in the air as if you touched them, along with some other smaller changes.
[h3]Water Shader[/h3]
I reworked the water shader and the FX along with it to look more realistic and convincing. It´s still a basic 2D surface with some tricks to convince the Player that it´s 3D to save lot´s of performance.
(don´t mind the testing environment)




It´s worth mentioning that the existing areas have been moved around in the "timeline" of the game as to have better artstyle cohesion. For example level 2 is now Level 6 or so.

With the previous tools I mentioned, I started working on the introduction Level. I spent a lot of time on this area and will continue to do so as I want it to leave a beautiful first impression and vibe on the Player.
Basically it´s a giant storage room as far as the eye can see, containing hundreds of small rooms, presumably containing testing subjects (portal 2 bootleg), in one of which you wake up.

The outsides have a bunch of variations to not look boring and the room in which you wake up in has some nice decor.

I also started implementing the new Volumetric Lighting system and experimented around a bit, and somehow got this result. Not sure if i´ll keep this but it looks really cool.


That said, this area is in no way finished as I still need to design most of it, finish lightning, finish decoration and add actual gameplay and storyline.

[h2]New game[/h2]
In unrelated news to Mik, I developed a short game in 3 days for the Score Space Jam 2024. It´s a 2D Platformer specifically made for speedrunning so check it out if you want to: https://stefaaan06.itch.io/akio


That´s it with this Months devlog. Sorry for not posting anything the past months!
Also follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/@stefaaan06
And join my discord for more news: https://discord.gg/VYUedn5bWE

Heya,

It´s the first of the Month, and with that another Mik devlog!
First of all, Mik passed 1300 Wishlists even tho I really neglected doing any Marketing the past few Weeks, which is pretty cool!

Also I have discord now so go join: https://discord.gg/R6fAPVCqbw

I´ve been able to work way more on the game the past Month as exam season is over (still no new Levels tho). Here´s a quick overview:

• (almost) finished revelOS (the new custom (but fake) OS for the PCs you can find around the world)
  
• changed Player Movement and started adding new gameplay elements
  
• Volumetric Lighting!
  
• localisation
  
• leaves, vines & nature!
  

The custom operation system that I´ve mentioned last Devlog is now (almost) finished. The only thing missing is a proper way for it to react with the outside world (open doors, turn on lights... stuff like that). I´ve already talked about the Idea/concept behind it so go read that if you´re interested.

The Hardest part about making this was that I had to write my custom text styling and layout since I decided to do everything on the code side, meaning that the text is changed on runtime and it needs to know where to put text, not to put text over one another etc...
This was complicated by the fact that I also worked on a localisation system but more on that later.

Here´s a rundown on what it can do:

• User System (each User also has their own logs)
  
• User Perms (can´t do anything with perms rn tho)
  
• Login with different Users
  
• Menu Navigation
  
• Launch & Display Applications
  
• localisation
  

TL;DR: you can Login and open device specific Applications. The whole Application System is built modularly so each PC can have their own Applications. The only finished Application right now is "Personal Logs". Which allows you to view User associated personal logs (like a diary).


There is the menu page of the App where you can Navigate using the Arrow keys. With Up & Down you can select different logs. With the left & right keys you can switch the page to view more Logs.

Selecting & pressing enter on a Log will expand it and show it´s entire contents.


The only thing missing functionally wise is the ability to interact with the game world, like open a door or turn on a light (working on it rn tho). Apart from that I want to add actual content to the OS so it does not feel like a waste to have spent so much time developing it.
More in-dev Videos on my discord btw.

[h2]Player Movement changes[/h2]
I started balancing&changing the movement as I did not like that you could easily get insane speed. There is also a differentiation between spriting & walking now. Here´s all the changes so far:

1. slowed general player speed
   
2. made jumps weaker
   
3. added sprinting
   
4. added wall jumping - difference to wall running being that it can be performed on any wall
   
5. added 2 gameplay elements. One pushes you away when clicking on it and the other one allows you to perform stronger wall jumps
   

I mentioned last Devlog that I´m trying to switch Render Pipelines, but that didn´t end up going anywhere because of bugs with the converter and the fact that I´d have to rework tons of shaders, materials, post processing stuff for it to work.

But fear not, as I have still found a way to implement volumetric lighting! At first I wanted to code it myself, so I used a 7 year old Github repo as a base but I realised that it would take way too much effort to maintain & optimise it so I chose to use a proprietary system.

There´s not much to talk about so just enjoy the screenshots (these are only tests btw, the implementation in the finished game might be different):


[h2]Localisation[/h2]
I have added a localisation system into the game which is a mix of Unitys localisation solution and my own code. I chose to do this now since it would be a gigantic pain to add it later on when im already finished with revelOS and I´d have to rework it. It was still hard enough to get it working for the OS now since the text is created/loaded on runtime.


Last but not least: Nature!
I´ve wanted to add vines/leaves/grass to the game for a while since the whole theme is this abandoned facility. A large inspiration for this is the start of Portal 2 where everything is overgrown & destroyed.

Here are some pictures (once again just tests):


You can´t see it on the pictures but the leaves move in the air to look more convincing. I´m also working on a effect where when you walk into the plants, they move (like in rdr2 or cyberpunk).
Currently there is just one type of leaves but I want to add some variation, grass and maybe some different plants.


That´s it with this Months devlog!

Sadly I can´t upload videos here (except embed youtube Videos) so if you are interested in more indev footage be sure to join my discord.
https://discord.gg/JXn6Xa4VC4

Also follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/@stefaaan06

Heya,

It´s the first of the month, and not only that but it´s also 2024! The year where this game will (hopefully) be released. To start things of in this years first Devlog: Mik hit 1000 wishlists, which is amazing! Appart of that, I have been working on both Mik and a secret side project of mine yet to be revealed...

anyways here we go (yes this devlog is a lot of text):


Like mentioned in last months devlog, I started reworking much of the older unstable and quite frankly shitty code to be more modular and not break all the time. Most notably I reworked the whole way levels are loaded but I won´t bore you with all the details and scripts I changed (I´d also be too lazy to even write all of that down).


I added a few new features to the Main Menu:

1. New level loading&loading screen like previously mentioned
2. New Image pixelation fx
3. New scroll bar fx
4. Glow for all text

1. Go to "Code Rework" to read more.

2, Unlike before, where there would be little blocks appear in front of the Images to give the illusion of a pixelation effect, the Images are actually getting pixelated now, meaning that the texture is getting manipulated directly. I did this to make the effect more convincing and versatile to use.

Here is the source code if anyone is interested: https://github.com/Stefaaan06/Unity-Image-Pixelator

3. The scroll bar now has animations when loaded in/out (see more on the video linked below)

4. All the UI in the main menu has a nice glow now!

Video on Twitter: https://x.com/Stefaaan06/status/1741058018018545802


As you may know, the game had some computers. Mostly just models standing around with text on them and not being intaractable, with a few input panels scattered around in the game to allow for little puzzles. I didn´t like that the computers couldn´t be interacted with tho so I set out on a journy to create a costum ingame (fake) operating system.
Now you might be thinking to yourself that this is largely a waste of time and won´t benefit the game that much compared to say... finishing the actual game. I´d agree BUT the beauty of being an independent game developer is that I can just do whatever I want!

Tho I´m aware that making even a realistic fake of an operating sytem would take ages, so my goal is to make it semi convincing and modular. The main goals are: a User system with custom logs for each user. A semi modular application system so I can create different (gameplay related) applications for different locations. And make all of that interactable by the player. Meaning that if the player has access to an Admin account he should be able to delete other accounts, delete logs... etc..... and maybe (very big maybe) even create custom applications? (not sure about this one since it would take even more time to create).

[h2]Switching render-pipelines[/h2]
This is more of an "experimental" thing, but I have started the process of switching from Unity´s built in, to Unity´s Universal Render Pipeline (URP) which is one of the Scriptable Render Pipelines. I made this decision after yearly Unity-event where they announced new features for URP which could be quite useful for this game. Some older features are also not available on the built in render pipeline like Decals or custom render calls.

I said that this is an experimental thing because I don´t even know the results of how the project will look yet. To convert a project from one render pipeline to another one must use a tool to convert many assets, which can take ages if your game is moderatly large, so I have been stucking converting for 100 hours (I wish I were joking...)

TLDR; I started switching Unity render pipelines to get new updates, better optimisation, some new features and a scriptable render pipeline.


[h2]Year In Review[/h2]
As you all now, 2023 has come to a close, so I decided to make a little edit documenting my gamedev progress over this year:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



Thats it with this Devlog. Let´s hope that by the end of this year the game will be out and stay tuned for new sneak peeks regarding my rework of a certain old game of mine....

If you´re interested in the game follow me on twitter and join my discord:
https://www.twitter.com/@stefaaan06
https://discord.gg/JXn6Xa4VC4

Heya!

Sorry for the delay but here is Devlog 4. There wasn´t a lot of progress made because of some other projects I had but we´ll come to that later.
First: The game passed 200, 400, 600 and almost 700 Wishlists all in one month! We went from 191 to now 668 Wishlists which is amazing!

[h2]More Polish[/h2]
I´ve spent a bit of time continuing to polish the levels so there can be a Demo soon.

This time I reworked the last part of Level 1, which you may know from older pictures (it was the one with the Green atmosphere but i scrapped that).
It now fits the theme of the game better and a I also added a few new areas.

...and thats it with the progress this month

[h2]Plans for the Future[/h2]
So how will the development continue? Here is the stuff planned for the next month:

Migrate the Game from Unitys VCS to GitHub
- simply because it is cheaper and it has more features.
Rework most gameplay systems.
- essentially all important gameplay systems are outdated and not modular at all (for example I have like 3 Scripts for opening doors).
Continue polishing levels

The goal is to get out a Demo of the game in the near future, while also allowing me to quickly expand the Game with new levels by having modular code.

[h2]GithubGameOff2023[/h2]

This month I participated in the GithubGameOff2023 gamejam, where I developed the game Aeterna.

"Embark on a non-Euclidean odyssey in Aeterna, a puzzle-parkour game set in an endlessly looping world. Explore mind-bending landscapes, solving puzzles, and going trough parkour challenges."

The game turned out really cool and I learned a ton of stuff, including how to ride proper modular Event Systems, meaning that I can just incorporate them into this game.



Play here: https://stefaaan06.itch.io/aeterna

Source files: https://github.com/Stefaaan06/aeterna

[h3]Mono Space[/h3]
As a side note: I have been helping to develop this game, and it´s on steam now! Consider wishlisting it if you´re interested in puzzle-platformers

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2710430/MonoSpace/

That´s it with this months Devlog. Hopefully there will be more to talk about next month,

Cheers.