Project Vault Game Dev Log 019 (Patreon)

Bit of a smaller update for Project Vault this month due to my vacation. There are a couple bugs from the latest update that Unreal pushed out, so I'm keeping the engine closed as I type this up (so no teaser/posed image for this month ;o;!). Wanted to spend this month focusing on a bit of engine cleanup mixed with some graphical updates! Got a whole handful of my placeholder meshes updated to actually look closer to a finished state while starting on some actual textures. Outside of that, some placeholder menu UI for the testing levels was another focus

Mesh Updates: Spent a hot minute cleaning up and making some new meshes this month! Off the top of the head, the piping system, crawlspaces, Goal Marker, Salvage Pile, Pushable Blocks, Conveyor Belt, Railings, and Door all got new models or updates. Still a lot of work needed to finish up the textures on them now, but overall they were some of the last few things that needed finishing for my next demo build.

UI Updates: Been starting to get a bit tired of the placeholder menus that I've setup in all the testing levels. Got a few sketches worked up for how I'd like them to look so that I could start sizing and planning out the long term vibe on my testing levels. Really can't wait to get back to these next month and really get them working on my build.

Crawlspace Tweaks: A fair chunk of time was also spent doing some cleanup on the crawlspace tools I used. The original system had been a bit clunky to use on the maps, so I spent a bit of time reworking the meshes and tools in Unreal so that I could more easily setup crawlspaces in the future. With the mesh rework came some much needed texture updates also so that it looks like a more finished product! Lastly I revisited some of the code to make the first person zoom in's happen a bit more naturally for the controls.

Camera Tweaks: Next up I spent a bit of time adding in some much needed camera updates. First and foremost was player controlled camera movement. Using the fixed/spline camera system has been fantastic to work with and definitely gives the vibes I'm looking for. But one inherent flaw especially for a stealth game is the inability to see enemies off screen. To help with this I've added a small bit of movement that can be done to the camera to help see things that may be at the edges of the screen. Overall it's made the game feel a lot more forgiving when it comes to sneaking and enemy sightlines. In addition I spent a bit of time working on my dynamic camera zoom in's also. I've sort of figured out a method that works pretty well for zooming in on Bod whenever he performs specific actions. Thankfully it's setup as a modular system which helps me a ton for tweaks down the road also! Next up for that will be some further cleanup on the transitions so that returns from the zoom in aren't as jarring.

Textures Updates: One of the major learning experiences this month was the realization that I've been making textures that are way too big. Artistically I've wanted Project Vault to have a feel like the PS2 era graphics. Things having a higher fidelity and lighting compared to PS1, but still limited by the texture sizes that could be used. Spent a bit of time doing some studies for this while also revisiting some of my previous textures to resize and clean them up. For example this is the wall texture I used in the testing rooms. Originally this was a 1K texture and I was able to rework it as a 256 pixel texture instead while still maintaining the visual clarity I want. Lastly here is a screen shot of one of the studies I did for how I'd like backgrounds to look down the road.

That pretty much covers November! Going to be continuing the model and texture cleanup into December also with one caveat, Bod. Model, rigging, and texture tweaks have been on the menu for ages with Bod! Going to be spending the month of December really giving Bod a facelift with all of the knowledge I've gained since I last worked on the model! It's time to start getting him to a game ready state so that I can actually focus on cleaning up animations and interactions with him :3!!