Developer Diary 11 A Boy With A Gun

During the last two weeks I implemented a gun system into Lakini's Woods (Rifle) and completed the entire inventory. I also added interact-able items and locations including requirements (for example to start a campfire you will need a zippo and 15 Firewood, to build a shelter you will need Tools and 20 Wood Planks). Requirements are shown on screen when you approach a location that enables you to interact with it. You can also blow up watchtowers, by combining explosives with a zippo or build a raft when you have found woodplanks, a rope and enough cloth.

It's slowly coming together. It took me forever to implement the rifle, I had to do a complete overhaul of Jonah's animation blueprint. Yesterday I built a test track across a dried up river. The speaker in the image above gives you some information about the upcoming track and at nightfall the watchtowers will turn on floodlights and attack you if you are in range. Running through this course was sooooo much fun. I didn't even expect it, but when you start calling the dharmapalas while being chased by giants, spiders and worms turns the entire game into a firework of fantasy action.

My main problem is the fps drop that is experienced through the use of LAM (Landscape Auto Material). It is the most beautiful asset I have ever bought, but unfortunately also the most expensive one when it comes to GPU power. It is said that you need upwards of 70 fps for a smooth VR experience. I'm creeping around 20-30 frames at the moment. The gameplay is fluent, there is no major lag, but my equipment is considerably more powerful than most VR ready Computers so I can't use that for reference.

Last week I had to move out of my trailer, because the roof was leaking in combination with a ton of other stuff that needed to get fixed. Imagine sitting in front of your desk with water dripping on your head...

I have made zero attempts yet to spread word about the game and it is an unbelievable joy, because it gives me the freedom to just abandon the blog for a while and return to it when I can continue my work. When nobody knows about a project yet, you are unbound and free to work on it whenever you have time. But I know of course that as soon as I enter Patreon or Indiegogo that freedom will be out the window.

Two 3d Modelers are currently preparing giant SS-Cyborgs that will roam the woods and look for the player. The first model already looks amazing. To really give the player a battle royale feeling I will implement a much larger number of competitors (about a hundred soldiers with numbers on their backs, ranging from 1 to 100). The player will have the freedom to choose a number for himself and then directly compete with the other soldiers. These soldiers will have the ability to call dharmapalas just as Jonah himself. Most of them will unfortunately have to look quite generic, because I don't have the budget to create so many separate models. But it will certainly add to the overall immersion.

Alright, back to work!

S.M

Developer Diary 10

When you live in a trailer you save a lot of money, and when you have the chance to live close to your parent's house you can save even more money. More money means more budget, less time spent on other work and more freedom to set your own schedule.

Over the last week I fixed the entire folder structure and integrated a new item system into Lakini's Woods. It was exhausting. While moving the folders I felt like I was going insane ... time went by so slowly... I kept counting the hours ... each minute.

I'm so tired. I wish I could proudly tell you: "I have worked XX hours last week, man am I tough, phew". But the truth is, I have no idea how much I work. I sleep, get up, make some coffee, boot up the engine, and on it goes. When it gets too much I take my dog out for a walk, and when I come back I sit down again in front of the screen. I spend as much time with my family as I can, but each day I work longer and longer into the night. I still love every second of it; I just wish I wouldn't be so tired all the time.

Each day I spend some time on facebook, checking out other developers and their screenshots. This can be horribly intimidating at times. Sometimes the entire project can make you feel pretty hopeless, especially when you see groups and entire game development studios working on much smaller games. But I want to work on this alone. I can't stand arguments with other crew members anymore or the inevitable discussions on whether something is a good idea or not. I'm so tired of other people's feedback.

I added a distorted E guitar to the trailer score yesterday night. It blends perfectly with the horn section and the choirs at the climax. I'm so close ... once the item system is finished I'll set up all interactable meshes and locations and then it's all about level design. All it takes for a decent trailer is maybe 5 to 6 great locations with AI and SFX. I'm so close...

I don't want to go to bed. I've been having a ton of nightmares, some of which are perfectly usable as locations in Lakini's Woods. Once I dreamed of an enormous white apartment building with glass ceilings and glass walls. I tried to enter some of the rooms, but all the doors were locked. I was trying to get away from someone. That person was using the escalator to ride up and down the apartment complex to find me, but I managed to stay ahead of him. But then I had less exciting dreams ... most of them involve people that have (at least in my view) betrayed me in the past and I'm having a really hard time letting go of it. It is beyond me how people are able to forgive anyone. A memory pops into my head and I'm as angry as I was on day 1. And I just can't let it go and it drives me insane, because even at night these things won't let me rest.

I have several ideas of how Lakini's Woods will end, but I want to give the actors a chance to develop each character to a point where their interactions automatically lead towards a solution. I want them to forgive one another... but how?

Developer Diary 9

As I am writing this, I am staring at barely moving progress bars in Unreal Engine 4. I have been staring at them for hours, and in less than a minute I will need to click on something again, so it's barely worth getting up. But I estimate I will be sitting here for at least another two days until everything is working again and this is the most frustrating part of this work: During that time I will not be making any progress.

When I started creating the game I just added tons of assets to it and left them in the corresponding project folders. Each time I bought new assets I just left them in those folders as well. So with time, my session grew. I created custom folders, folders within folders, moved folders around, moved assets around and it ended in a chaotic clusterfuck of a project. The game is working beautifully, but now I decided to replace my VR inventory system with a more smooth and less fps heavy blueprint, which in turn forced me to get rid of a large amount of item assets and reprogram others. I am now moving assets and folders into the original engine structure, one asset, one redirect at a time. Of course with crashes in between. Constantly.

This post has no other purpose than to be a warning to other developers: KEEP YOUR SESSION CLEAN! Move your assets to the corresponding folders as soon as you add new content! Textures to textures, Meshes to Meshes, Blueprints to Blueprints. You will have problems if your game gets complicated enough.

Jonah 3

I had forgotten where I was. It looked like a parking lot, and the police was after me. Was it because of what I did? But what did I do? No time to think. Time to run. Run faster. Stay away from the lights. Move ahead, don't look back. He looks weird, don't look at him, keep going. I know this street, I've been here before. I could hide in this garden shed. No, the family is still awake. Find something else. Faster. I'm out of breath. Makes no difference. No time to lose. Fear. Voices. Cars going by. There is a friend. Somewhere, there has to be a friend. I can't be here alone. It can't be.

Horses. Hundreds of them. In pure daylight, on a field and I was a rider. I was strong with heavy armor and a sword as long as a man is tall. They were coming for me, but they had no idea how strong I was. My fire, they didn't know it yet. But they would know it. My darkness, it was everywhere and like a hail of knives I rained down upon them. I burned through every heart and every soul and it felt amazing. And when I was done, I knew that the heads that were still on top of their bodies would soon fall to the ground. I wiped the blood off my blade. The remaining riders watched in horror as their allies fell to pieces. The smell of iron. My fist wrapped around the reigns. I was finally home. Myself again.

But when I woke up I couldn't believe what I had just done. And that I enjoyed it. But I knew that I was still myself and that I could never do such a thing in real life. I found it strange that I felt no regret, but then again: It was only a dream.

Jonah 2

One night, after smoking an herb called "The leaves of god" I dreamed of a strange building. It was like a water park, but much larger in size. Many people were there with me: Families, seniors, children ... it was a place filled with laughter and enjoyment. But it was night time and because I was worried that they would close it down soon, I tried to find the exit. The further I went through the hallways the less people came my way. It was dark outside and the only light was coming from faint yellow lights in the main hall. I jumped into one of the pools, hoping that I could hide down there and stay throughout the night. It wasn't until then that I realized I could breathe underwater.

The only person that was swimming with me was a girl at the other end of the pool. The main hall was circled by a beautiful azure basin, which had stairs on each end so you could get in and out at any place. I remember ... I was so happy... Like a dolphin in the water for the very first time. Counting bubbles rising to the surface I spent several hours hiding inside the blue warmth. She was so beautiful, but I was shy. I didn't want to hit on her and make her uncomfortable. So I just staid at my end of the pool. The water felt like a drug to me ... I think for a while I fell asleep while diving...

But then it got cold. I left the pool and went down a lit hallway, which appeared to lead towards the exit. But instead it lead me towards a balcony. I could see their shadows in the water underneath. I was afraid of them. Immediately afraid. My breathing stopped. My heart stopped. I had to jump. But I didn't want to. The lights behind me began to flicker. The girl was nowhere to be found. This was the only way.

They were so majestic and so dangerous at the same time. Flying, like harbingers of darkness. If I jumped in, would they pull me to the bottom of the pool? "Just do it", I told myself many times. And then it all happened so quickly. They jumped out of the water and flew through the air, surrounded me where I stood and pulled me into the water. It was so dark, so cold. They were eternal and I was not. And when I thought I had found solid ground underneath my feet, the earth began to move and a manta as big as the moon rose in front of me.

Developer Diary 8

Ok, so this is what I've been working on last week:

Watchtowers
When the sun goes down a floodlight and a gun barrel spawn at the top of the tower. The floodlight follows the player wherever he moves, and if he gets close enough, he will get shot. A player can take 3 to 4 shots from the tower before it's too late. Watchtowers can burn and you can light them on fire with a zippo and a gas can or by calling a Fire Dharmapala such as Begtse or Yama.






Bear Traps
They are hidden across the entire countryside. Once a player steps on it, he falls backwards and the trap snaps shut around his foot. He is incapacitated for 10 seconds, but after the time has passed he can keep running again. He also loses 50% health and if he runs into a bear trap while being chased by an enemy it means almost certain death. A Void or Wind Dharmapala can get rid of all traps in the vicinity.






Wooden Barriers
They block certain parts of the environment and can be lit on fire.













Barbed Wire and Chain Link Fences
They are obstacles that cannot be overcome through blunt force. You either need the proper tools to cut a hole into them or call a Dharmapala that let's you evade the entire obstacle in the first place (such as Mahakala to flood the entire area so you can swim on top of it)

Spiders & Two headed Hounds
They spawn at nightfall and chase the player. The spiders are susceptible to fire, the hounds are susceptible to earth and water.

Right now I'm replacing the old Inventory System (almost all BP aspects were connected to the Event Tick, which meant a drop in FPS)

S.M