Project Vault Dev Log 026 (Patreon)

And here is this months Game dev update! This was a super productive month on knocking out some of the last major systems and menu's in the game. Closed out the last few major HUD portions while also finishing off the last gadget code. With all of this done I've sort of hit the turning point on the major prototyping phase of the game and can actually start building up the game proper!

Expendables: One of the last things on my list for the HUD and inventory was the "expendables". These are one use sorts of items such as health, energy, and equipment refill trinkets. I had decided ages ago that I wanted to break these out from the equipment selection which was typical in games such as MGS. For one, toggling between the stuff you were equipped with and health stuff can be a bit tiresome, so having it as a bit of a quick select or one tap usage helps with that monotony. Likewise it allows me to do some interesting stuff like give passive capabilities to these trinkets when actively equipped such as emergency health, energy, ect. Most of the code for all of these (minus 1) has been added and works so far! So at the moment I think I'll leave this be till I come back around for final cleanup on it all.

Equipment Select: This guy has been sitting on the backburner for ages now also! Well now it's finally setup and working correctly :D! Bod can now cycle through and equip any of the passive equipment that he obtains in the game. This will be things like viewing headsets, camera, raincoat, ect. Stuff that can change how Bod plays but isn't an active gadget to be used on enemies. Took a bit to work through all the code and replicate it all from the original Gadget code I did. Especially since a lot of new work was needed for it to account for the Expendable select portion.

Ferric Viewer: One of the first parts of equipment I've worked out for the game! The Ferric viewer is one of two views Bod will have in the game (The second will be the Thermic View mode). This eye piece will highlight any objects that give off a heavier magnetic field in the game. Bod will be able to utilize it accordingly as a sort of night vision or to help with locating points of interest! Although it will use up Bod's energy supplies any time it's equipped.

Bod Harness Updates: So I actually blew through the major goals I had this month and decided to finally do some cleanup on the harness that Bod will wear and unlock in game! One of the intentions I have for upgrades with Bod is to show the gradual build up of his experience and capabilities as a Seeker. With every health/energy upgrade the harness will slowly build out on Bod's model. But to do that... I need to finally get the actual harness built out XD!! So a solid chunk of time went into cleaning up the roughed out meshes, harnesses, straps to get them all looking nice on Bod. Once that was done I went through UV unwrapping... to an insane degree haha. Once the rough UV layouts had been accomplished for the suit, I was able to finally start playing with textures for the actual layouts. This was sort of like working through a puzzle as I stretched, moved, and figured out how all of the chunks could best be presented on my limited texture sheets. As of this update I finally have all the major parts laid out with initial textures! Hoping to spend some time this next month working on actually shading it all so that it blends in with Bod's model shading.

Heat Spike Gadget: and the last major gadget of the game has been worked out! Known as the Heat Spike, this portable pile bunker is Bod's strongest gadget. Requiring a charge up before it can used, the spike can obliterate most soft targets while severely damaging hardier foes. Bod will be able to use this to destroy some of the smaller enemies in the game, or can be used to melt through armored doors and structures that may block the way. Although it will have a very limited ammo count, and everyone is going to know the second you use it....

Now on to August! Going to be spending August as a graphical cleanup month for the game! This is going to revolve around making a lot of the current play experience a bit close to what I want the final look of the game to be. A sort of vertical slice at least on the training mode sort of thing. So lots of work on shaders and just overall polish for what I have right now :3!!