Developer Diary 7

During the last week I added three additional Dharmapalas (Hayagriva Pegasus, Garuda & An Enormous Snake made out of stone to represent the element Earth). But what really killed me during the last three days, was the blueprint for Mahakala the Manta... when you call him, he will cause the oceans to rise and flood the forest and everything in it.

I created a separate Actor Blueprint, that would slowly rise on Event Tick as soon as the player calls the Dharmapala. But Jonah was constantly forced to the bottom while swimming ... at first I thought it had something to do with gravity ... but the problem was the physics volume. For one reason or another it never triggered the boolean value to turn it into a water volume. Therefore Jonah's blueprint never received the info that he is now actually swimming and able to move up and down. The value was triggered as soon as the physics volume stopped moving, but was set to false again when the water started to rise again. Then there were of course hundreds of overlaps with other physics volumes in the area (lakes, puddles a.s.o). And the Post Process volume only triggered when the actor stopped moving. No idea why.

The solution was to create a singular, gigantic actor blueprint, containing a physics volume, a post process volume and particle FX. But since the volume was so enormous (it had to cover the entire map with all 16 landscapes each with the highest landscape resolution and maximum number of components) the border of the volume always triggered two events instead of one as soon as Jonah set foot into the water, which showed as him walking up and down in space...

The solution was to check Jonah's position in relation to the shape plane: If Jonah's Z value was higher than the shape plane it would trigger walking animations, if his Z value was lower than the shape plane's value (-float 100) it would set the water volume inactive and activate swimming animations (so he doesn't collide with the surface constantly, starting to twitch back and forth between animations) and below shape plane Z - 100 it would trigger the water volume physics.


Now Jonah was still behaving weirdly when getting close to the surface, so on top of the shape plane branch I incorporated the basic "BeginActorOverlap" system. Both systems seemed to complement each other surprisingly well and each time one of them misfired, the other forced the correct animation and physics behavior.

Now regardless of where the volume is, it will always trigger swimming animations, particle FX and the underwater Post Process Volume.

Days of Fucking work.

S.M

Silber 2

Dear Sarah,

It's been a week I know ... there's nothing out there. It's almost as if every creature has left the woods for good. I caught a hare two days ago, but that's about it. You don't need to worry about me though, I'm used to worse out here.

I've been thinking about Sonnenstein these last couple of days. I know you said I shouldn't go back there, but I just can't let her go. I'm worried sick about her ... I still remember the look on her face. She didn't wanna leave ... of all places. She was not herself. It kills me to think what they might do to her. I will burn this place down and take her home again, when this is over. I miss home. You probably do too ...

You would like it out here, it's peaceful. Sometimes I walk for hours and all I hear is the sound of my feet in the snow. Last time we spoke you told me about heaven, remember? You said that it's all around us, all the time, hiding in plain sight and that if we'd only listen to the silence all around we'd know it. I'm starting to feel it a little too. But it's hard, it's always hard, but you know that.

I miss you. I'll be back soon with something to sink your teeth in, I promise.

Silber

Developer Diary 6

I integrated Begtse yesterday (Fire Dharmapala), but this is not why I'm writing this post. I spent the night reading the news, browsing facebook, reading comments. I felt this surge of rage inside of me.

Nothing in our culture makes sense:

I am supposed to get mad at refugees and immigrants? People who have lost everything instead of the ones who hide their money away on the cayman islands?

I am supposed to admire celebreties and Hollywood, producers and directors, who need proof of their existence by the amount of followers on their social media site, their name on IMDB so they know they exist?

I am supposed to get jealous, compete with friends on social media platforms, so that I can too rise to become a first grade consumer and piss my money away by buying the newest, most awesome, coolest ....

I am supposed to enjoy videos of animals getting ripped apart? Laugh at comments that suggest to "Call PETA to save animals from themselves" while eating chicken McNuggets and click on the next flashy buzzfeed article while the grease is dripping from my fingers?

I am supposed to constantly be in a relationship, at best married with children, or if I don't have or want any of these things be terribly ashamed of myself?

I am supposed to believe in manipulated studies, that have faked peer reviews, more often than not no true scientific basis whatsoever and at the same time let go of all my spirituality because it's "not real"?

I am supposed to find values in pride, accomplishment, appearance, money, status, follower numbers, sales numbers, awards, a job, a position and at the same time find no value in compassion, love, selflessness, serenity, nature and generosity?

There is no forest far enough, no ocean deep enough to get away from this society. If you believe in any of this, act in full awareness of the damage that you do to your environment and vote for people who support this way of life, then you have failed at the only thing a human being is capable of exceeding in.

S.M

Developer Diary 5

Here is a very early rough cut of a trailer containing gameplay material:

I could write about the thousand things that are still wrong with it, but I force myself not to. The great thing about the video footage though is, that it showcases very well how the dharmapala system works:

You call an entity associated with one of the five elements: Space, Wind, Fire, Water, Earth

This will now transform the entire environment dramatically. You could for example call Mahakala ("The great black one", aka Manta) and flood an entire canyon, so that you can swim from point A to point B, or you could call another water entity afterwards and freeze the mass of water.

The Unreal Engine 4 Blueprint system is a godsent, but the particle effects associated with each entity kill the framerate. Today I incorporated Begtse (element Fire): When you call her a forest fire breaks out, and a huge shadow behind you turns into an enormous rider that leaves a trail of fire behind.

I made all fires from Begtse into separate blueprints, so that after a player calls Begtse, he would be able to call Mahakala and extinguish the fire, before it becomes a hazard.

For now the trailer is waaaay too long, with too little AI and enemy scenes, flickering lights and a shaky camera at certain times. And damn .... I need to record those choirs live and the strings as well ... I can't release this yet to a publisher, but it's a start and it demonstrates a little what the game is about.

Back to work then,

S.M

Developer Diary 4

I did a major overhaul of the environment and added meshes for Watchtowers today. During the day they will appear empty, but at night...

Tomorrow will be all about the item BPs. Jonah will need a source of light in the woods (Flashlight? Lamp? Zippo?) and he'll need to gather firewood, water and some food. I'll also need to implement some form of defense (weapons?). He'll never beat the hunters out in the woods, but at least he'll have a tiny chance of getting out alive, once they corner him in the darkness.

I love the idea of incorporating extreme weather conditions, that correspond to the elements of the Dharmapalas (Forest Fire, Thunderstorm, Flood, Hurricane, Earthquake a.s.o). The Dharmapalas will only be accessible during these extreme weather conditions. Let's see how far I can go with this.

S.M

Sarah 1

"I'm scared, I'm scared"

Don't be scared. I'll take care of you.

"I'm scared, I'm scared"

Would you please stop moving for just one second?

"I'm scared, I'm scared"

Come here, I'll put you in that.

"It's night, It's night"

Shhh. I'll take you to my room, where I can have a look at you.
You don't need to be afraid.

"It's night, It's night"

Now. It's Ok you can come out. Let's see what's going on...

"It's day, it's day"

Something is stuck to your wings. Almost ... looks like ... a small flower petal ...

"It's heavy, it's heavy"

Stay right there, I have tweezers around here somewhere. I think I can get it off.

"Go away, go away"

It won't hurt I promise. I'll get it off.

"Go away! Go away!"

Just hold still for a second, will you?  There ... got it ...

"I'm light, I'm light"

You probably want to go home now. I'll take you to the window. There you go ...

"I'm free, I'm free"

Take care, little bee.

Developer Diary 3

During the last couple of days I incorporated the day and night system into Lakini's Woods. I think I lost myself these last couple of months, while working on the engine.... when you see so many big trailers with epic content you try to make things epic in your own work, that don't need to be.

A year ago, when I first had the inception of Lakini's Woods, I created a complete gamedesign based on a hardcore survival system. The game is level based, each area is cut off from the rest of the woods. The player has until sunset to gather supplies and food, to build shelter and defend himself against the Dharmapala servants and the soldiers in the woods (yea, yea I know, it's like minecraft, at night the creepies come out! But it's totally different I promise you! Or at least I keep telling myself that).

I've been playing a lot of guitar at night lately (I suck at it), but nonetheless I love the sound of an old, rusty, strumming guitar. Makes me want to change the score entirely. What if Jonah is just sitting by the fire, with this old guitar music in the background? The sun goes down, he puts out the fire, because he knows they will be looking for him soon. He takes shelter in a cave or in an abandoned hut nearby: waiting, abiding his time and then .... at the right moment .... he RUNS.

S.M

Developer Diary 2

I'm currently getting in contact with concept artist Jakub Rozalski:

http://jakubsan.tumblr.com/

He is one of the most mind blowing concept artists I have ever seen. I would love to incorporate two giant metal soldiers depicted in his work 17.IX and have them recreated by professional 3d modelers. I earned a bit of money from the Unravel trailer, that I scored for EA recently. Maybe it's enough to pay Jakub and the artists for their work.

For the last six years I worked as an underpaid composer, which of course is normal when you start out. At one point I was hired to work on a project for more than 12 months, and I delivered the full score only to find out that the head director had fired the other programmers. In the wake of all this, the music was never used and consequently I was never paid. I swore myself to pay my crew members from day one, when I started all this.

If I can't get the rights to the concept art, I will ask the 3d artists to create Russian Helicopter models from the 1940s -Yakovlev EG comes to mind (but that one wasn't built until 1947, so it's kind of out of the question, since Jonah and Sarah escaped in January 1945). A helicopter at the time would have more looked like the Bratukhin Omega, but I doubt the Sovjets would have used this model at the vanguard. But it's not impossible either.

A combination of helicopters and guard towers... it fits.

S.M

Developer Diary 1

I've been working on the texture blend for each foliage instance today. In order to make them blend into each other in a naturalistic way I changed saturation/ brightness curve and overall brightness of each texture. For some reason UE4 has some issues with texture streaming so I had to disable it on each foliage model. Relying 100% on dynamic lighting was the best thing I ever did. But I expect to run into performance issues sooner or later.

S.M

Silber 1

Why can't I just answer the world with love?

Probably because I can only empathize with them when I'm happy. Strange though. Not much empathy going on at the moment.

I should feel guilty and mortified. He was just some guy. Like me. Came out of his mother's womb at one point. And then the world fucked him over so badly... I wonder if he ever wanted to kill himself ... his eyes look tired. And he was married.

God I don't know why I do this. Maybe it's because I can't stand the feeling of having someone tell me what to do. He was always so pompous, one of those people that like to tell you who you are, what you are. And I turn into a shivering baby every time. It's like I'm trapped in their world, in their values and I can't get out. And then I'm here and their world is gone and none of it really matters anymore. So strange.

It's so serene around here. I love the wind in the trees. I wish this night would never end. Why am I only happy when I'm here? I really hope they're coming. It can't be much longer right? I wonder how long I can keep this up. Last time I went insane after just one week. Maybe I can keep a bit for later.

"You are disgusting."

You think so? You know, the real tragedy is, that if I was brilliant or amazing, I would never knew it because of you. My loyal voice of misery.

"Is it my fault you kill people?"

Maybe it is. I don't know you well enough.

Sometimes I wish I could just fly away and leave you behind. Maybe I should become an owl, I could keep hunting, but I wouldn't have to drag you around with me.

This smells amazing. I can't wait. Maybe I should just eat it raw. It's so strange: When I'm in their world, I think I'm a monster, but when I'm here I'm just myself. Nothing more, that's all I am. I'm free. But of course it will pass ... sometimes it feels as if I'm dragging the bodies around with me, wherever I go. I need to stop one of these days.

"It's not like the Wehrmacht will suddenly show up..."

This is the best thing I've ever eaten. No competition. It almost tastes like her voice:  Hits me deep inside my heart, as if her hands would reach inside of my soul and tear out pieces one by one. Too much to handle, too much to feel and savor, and you die in each moment you're alive. It feels amazing. As if I was meant to be here. Even though I probably was not and it is all random and confusing. And if I'll start shaking from each bite then so be it. I've tasted the universe and everything all in one night. Wow that was poetic. I should write this stuff down some time. I wonder if I would make a good writer...

"How do you think this will all turn out? You can't keep going like this, you know that ..."

If things go south, we can still stay at the farm. Would be a great place to raise a family. Maybe I'll take her with me ... we could have kids. I could teach them about the woods. And we'd all just go out scanning the area like a pack of wolves. It will work out fine in the end. I've been through worse after all. This is so good...

One should not be this relaxed and happy while doing something so vile. But then again, why does it feel so natural? I don't understand this. We're all fine. It's all fine. It's life, it's all part of life and death for that matter. But this is alright. This has to be alright. It feels alright. It has to be. It has to be.

Jonah 1

After I fell asleep, I found myself on the top floor of a large building. It was late at night and the bright light in the hallway made it impossible to recognize any shapes outside. But I heard screams from the dark floors underneath and they scared me. Some of them were howling, some were singing: "On the head of our creation we dance, we dance". It didn't even make any sense. I yelled out to them but my echo just repeated itself endlessly, like a broken record. A strange transformation took place inside: My limbs fell to the floor, my body began melting and before I could even realize what was going on I turned into a blob of green. The beings underneath slowly crept up the stairway. To hide my terror I laughed frantically.

I was without form, without substance. They frightenend me, but as much as I would like to pretend otherwise, they were a part of me. No, much more than that: They were me, at a different time, in a different place. And as it turned out I wasn't so much afraid of them, as I was afraid of turning into one of them again.

But they took no notice of me and passed me by. I grew more and more curious about my body. To my surprise I was able to jump. Up and down. Up and down again. That made me giggle. I wobbled back and forth and twisted myself into the oddest shapes I could imagine. I turned into a seashell, a mouse, an otter, a dragonfly, a snake, a jellyfish ... it went on like this for quite some time. I enjoyed this game more than anything. My forms grew larger and larger in size: A bear, a shark, an eagle, a lion and finally ... a human child. When I turned into a child another child appeared to be stuck to the back of my head, unable to move. I tried to reach out for it, but I couldn't.

"Now, pay attention! This is important". From nowhere these words suddenly flashed in front of me and the room began to twist around with an ever growing pace. Numbers and signs, forms and shapes of all sizes, in all colors, swirling around me a like a hurricane... I wanted to pay attention. I wanted to figure it out. But it was too much. Too many symbols, too many numbers, I was so confused.

I woke up knowing that something strange was about to happen. I pushed closer to the fire and felt the warmth burning through me. But even though I couldn't see them anymore, I could still hear them singing. And my resistance grew weaker, and my eyes fell shut, and my sanity went right along with them.