2 Days To Go: Some Behind The Scenes

[p][/p][p][/p][p]As the game's big Early Access release date is in just 2 days, we thought it would be fun to show off some of the work we've been doing to get ready & tools we've developed to make it happen![/p][p][/p][h2]Upcoming Update + Q&A[/h2][p]If technical breakdowns aren't your sort of thing, we're hosting a Q&A on our 18+ Discord. The answers along with all of the updates we've done for the Early Access release will be posted to Steam when the game comes out![/p][p][/p][p]Join our 18+ Discord (Art, Updates, Chat)[/p][p][/p][h2]Editor Tools We've Developed[/h2][p]It's no secret massive projects like this aren't supposed to be taken on by small teams. But thankfully each one of us has been making video games for years! We knew we'd have to build tools to make ourselves more productive.[/p][p]Over the course of the game, we've made hundreds of systems & tools. We picked a few of the interesting ones to share. If you're already familiar with game development, these won't come as a surprise.[/p][p][/p][h3]Game Tools[/h3][p]NPC Spawning[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]This tool lets us sample a part of the map to see where NPCs can and cant spawn. This helps ensure that any spawning logic is working properly.[/p][p][/p][p]Collision & Interaction[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]By default, Unity & most game engines will display collider shapes when you have an object selected. However it helps to write your own tool that displays these shapes constantly. This lets you more easily create & edit collisions for objects. It also lets us define colors so we can tell at a glance what a collider does (Cyan means the player can interact with it).[/p][p][/p][p]Fun fact: Did you notice that the telescope is using 2 cubes for its collisions? This is a common practice in video games from Counter-Strike 2, Team Fortress 2, to your favorite indie game. Colliders are created using primitive shapes (Usually Cubes, Spheres, and Capsules). This is a lot less expensive for the physics calculations, especially when there are hundreds or many thousands of objects in the game. This is a big optimization that helps save CPU usage.[/p][p][/p][p]We use lots of common techniques to reduce CPU & GPU usage. The standard ones are LODs, Frustum Culling, Billboards, and more. But we want to talk about our custom tools.[/p][p][/p][p]World Chunker[/p][p]That's our internal name for the tool we built. The technique in game development exists under the broad category "World Streaming" or "Level Streaming".[/p][p]This tool divides the world into a grid. We call each cell of the grid a "chunk". The chunks closest to the player are loaded and the rest of the map is unloaded. The grid contains map objects that we want loaded & unloaded such as bushes, twigs, plant pickups, and more. This helps to reduce CPU & GPU usage by not having to calculate objects outside of the players immediate area.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Lots More[/p][p]Of course, this is just scratching the surface. We thought these were the most visual tools to show off. We'd also love to talk about more but we're busy preparing for release lol.[/p][p]This post is aimed at those who might be new or beginners to game development. Every game, we ask ourselves the question: Would enough people be interested in a really nerdy technical breakdown of the tech & decisions behind the game? The answer we come to is always a satisfying "Maybe". So let us know if this sort of thing interests you.[/p][p][/p][h2]Our tech stack[/h2][p]For those curious, here are the software/tools we use to make games.[/p][p][/p][p]Engine: Unity 6[/p][p]Programming: Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, Notepad++ (For JSON files)[/p][p]Source Control: Unity Version Control (Plastic)[/p][p]3D Modeling & Animating: Blender, ZBrush, Maya[/p][p]Texturing: Substance Painter[/p][p]Texture/Sprite Creation & Editing: Clip Studio Paint, GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) 3, Photoshop, Paint Dot Net[/p][p]Audio: Audacity[/p][p]Notes, Planning & Task Management: Obsidian[/p][p][/p][p]See you on release day![/p][p]~Captain Cake[/p][p][/p][p](Play the demo & wishlist the game!)[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink](Or just wishlist the game!)[/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p]