Another somewhat unproductive day. To be completely honest I don’t remember what exactly I worked on, but in general, I spent time planning out the backend for storing written logs, and began to implement that. This shit has really ground my workflow to a halt honestly… if this lasts longer than tomorrow, I think I’m just gonna move on to something else for the time being.
Went to bed early last night around 2200 hoping I’d wake up earlier. Well, when I woke, it was still completely dark. I figured it was around 0500 and that I’d just lie in bed and think over some stuff for an hour until sunrise – then I looked at the clock and realised it was only 0100. I ended up not only completely failing at what I initially intended, but I actually managed to fuck up my sleep schedule even more, as I wasn’t able to fall back asleep until, ironically enough, 0500.
As a direct result of that, when I finally got out of bed (around 1300), I felt listless and couldn’t bring myself to work on anything, especially something as technically involved as trying to figure out a save system. Instead I spent the rest of the day working on revamping a number of assets for the Steam store page. I think the changes I made were improvements across the board… but you never know with these kinds of things, maybe I’ll wake up tomorrow, look at them, and feel like they’re total shit.
That’s how it is with this kind of stuff: every few months I’ll take a look at a graphic or something I made earlier and suddenly something will stand out to me as needing correction, and then I’ll have to go back to every single public instance where that graphic occurs and update it accordingly. It’s a real pain in the ass. I wish I could just get things right the first time.
Made a number of minor improvemenets and changes to the log experience, the most significant of which being the addition of a fully functional main menu screen that allows the player to write new entries, access stored entries, upload any local entries to cloud storage (which can only happen in a specific window of time during the day), and exit to the home page.
As I just mentioned, I also implemented a day counter into the game finally, as well as a global variable tracking the status of the outpost’s connection to the satellite server, which only becomes stable enough to sustain full networked activity for a brief, semi-randomised period during the day (anywhere between ten minutes to two in-game hours, occurring any time between midnight and 0300). This way the player is constantly given the choice of whether it’s worthwhile to keep Avery up pretty late into the night waiting for the signal to come online so she can upload her logs (and save the game for the player), which will cause her to sleep longer and thus waste daylight the next day.
I’ve been thinking a lot more about timekeeping in the game, and I think at some point – maybe tomorrow if I get tired of this interface stuff – I’d like to experiment with the idea of implementing a mindmap of sorts, that allows the player to direct Avery to “reflect” on certain concepts (ie, how she feels overally, how hungry she is, etc). Amongst these I think I’ll add a prompt that allows her to estimate the time based on the available light, within a range of the actual backend time. When she’s indoors, or where there’s little meaningful natural light such as when it’s raining, this will be more difficult, if not outright impossible, for her. I’ll start drafting all that tomorrow I suppose.
In the meantime I still have to figure out how to store logs. I’m thinking I’ll just take the easy way out and keep two copies of each log – one finished, and one to-be-finished – that get synced up once Avery submits them. I’m too tired right now though to think through it properly, I’m just gonna go to sleep and hopefully it’ll come much more clearly to me tomorrow.
Didn’t get as much work done today as I would have liked, but I managed to definitively solve a pretty major issue that kept on populating the ds_list storing all the separate log entries, which caused them to repeat. It was because, for whatever senseless reason, I’d placed the ds_list_add command in the Step event, causing the list to be refilled every single step. The solution was extremely straightforward once I figured it out but I’m not sure why it took me this long to figure out. I also added a word counter to the log entries themselves.
Tomorrow I’m gonna focus my attention on trying to save, store, and access entries, as well as a window prompt that appears when the player attempts to manually exit the log prior to it being completed.
Not too much work today, just spent time writing new entries and fixing some bugs that prevented suggestions from being displayed properly in the console. I’m gonna try to get some more substantial work done tomorrow, hopefully in saving and storing written logs. I want to be able to finish up all of this stuff with the log system by the end of next week.
Started working today on the text input backend for the log entry UI. I’m not sure if I’m entirely satisfied with my current implementation – I imagined it was gonna be a bit more like a traditional text editor compared to what it is now, which is more like… a longform messaging service? – but maybe a good deal of that has to do with the fact that the overall visuals are pretty unsatisfying currently.
It includes audio, which I’m not sure how to handle: I initially had it so that each keypress input one letter, but the overall process was incredibly slow and taxing upon one’s fingers after a while, and on top of that, the audio for each keypress played too quickly so that it sounded really robotic and not lifelike at all. As a solution to both issues I’ve currently implemented a solution which involves having the player hold down a key to advance the text automatically (as opposed to manually typing in each key), which then loops a prerecorded audio sample over it. It’s still rather tiring in the way that I initially intended as the player has to sit there and “manually” enter the text in a way, without being overly taxing to the point of frustration. This also makes it easier for me to implement controller support later on as well in a very straightforward manner, as opposed to individual keypresses.
Well, I’ll continue experimenting with it moving forward.
Tomorrow I’d like to try to implement a system for it to save/load written entries, as well as the ability to read previous entries. Hopefully I won’t have to build an entirely separate object for it and I’ll be able to keep it all pretty contained… but we’ll see.
Finally got to work on the workstation UI: completely finished the login/logoff animations and started implementing the foundation of the command prompt, which I’m gonna try to fully set up (at least visually) by the end of tomorrow. Today was a pretty productive day and I’m satisfied with both the rate of my work, as well as my overall mood and ability to stay concentrated.
Started the day off intending to work on the UI for the computer, but ended up almost immediately switching over to writing some more logs. I got a pretty substantial amount done today: two full entries, and a bunch of revisions and edits on some former ones as well.
Jacob released ITTA today! So far it seems to be doing quite well, both commercially and critically. I hope the rest of the week goes well for him…
Making my entry a bit early today: I woke up very late, around 1400, and just felt incredibly tired, so I decided to take the day off to refocus my attention and recuperate some energy. Tonight I’m gonna review my list of priorities and write up a new task list for this week. I’m also going to try to go to sleep earlier so I can wake up back on schedule tomorrow.
Finished and submitted the Ludum Dare Entry, called “First Love / Late Spring”. I’m quite satisfied with how it turned out, although we could’ve used a bit more time fixing bugs… All in all Ludum Dare was a very good experience, and I’m glad I participated.
Tomorrow it’s back to work as usual. Even though it’s just been a weekend, it still feels good to return to schedule.
Thought the submission deadline for Ludum Dare was tonight, but it’s in fact tomorrow (Monday) at 2100, meaning we have an extra day to work. We finished up all the fundamental framework – for better or worse… – meaning that all the work tomorrow will just be spent on whatever additional content we feel like adding for fun and flavour.
Working on all this has given me a lot of experience and motivation to get back to work proper, especially considering that just before I started this side project I was struggling to find a sense of structure while setting up the diegetic UI for Work. This detour has definitely improved my sense of confidence in myself and my ability to work quickly and with great intent; not to mention my mood in general.
Woke up at 0700 and spent the rest of the day working basically continuously on the Ludum Dare entry with Nate and Jacob. It’s the most productive I’ve both felt and, in virtually every sense, been in over a year now I reckon. I’m quite surprised not only how efficiently I was able to process the tasks at hand – which admittedly I underestimated pretty dramatically, to put it one way – but also how consistently I was able to work throughout the day and stay focused. It really helps to have good friends to work alongside, as well as the brevity of the overall project. I have high hopes for the project, and it’s already turning out considerably more impressive than my initial expectations allowed.
Woke up late today around 1400 even though I specifically made sure to go to bed on time last night… I struggled for about an hour to figure out what to do, before starting work on building the framework for the computer. I got the basic animation for accessing it ready – it shifts in from the bottom into the centre of the view, and then zooms in until the in-game screen fills the actual screen (probably gonna have Avery log off every time she finishes using it so it reverts to a static screen that can be used every time the animation plays instead of having to fuck around with a dynamic surface) – so next time I work on it I’ll probably design the login screen, with an automatic password fill animation, with a login sequence.
In the meantime Jacob, Nate and I are participating in Ludum Dare Jam this weekend, so the next two days’ work is cut out for me. The idea we came up with is very interesting to me and I’m excited to see how it turns out.
Woke up on time for the first time in a while today at 0630, and spent the morning until just after 1300 recording foley for the washer-dryer and implementing 3D audio in-game, after which I fell asleep for some time. It sounds pretty good now and the 3D audio works well to sell the effect. Although it’s not really the most interesting or important thing by any means, I’m still satisfied with the effect and consider the day’s efforts to have gone well.
Woke up late around 1300 and didn’t work on anything in-engine all day. I spent most of the afternoon writing up the update for this month, which you can read on Kickstarter here as usual. It felt a bit more taxing to write than usual but maybe that’s just because I haven’t written anything meaningful in a while. Tomorrow I’m gonna try my best to start working on something more substantial: maybe more interface stuff, or some more environments (which I haven’t really touched in what feels like over a month now). It’s still a bit early to say for sure but I have a feeling I’ll probably work this Sunday again too.
Implemented JSON-based save/load system for room-based objects (ie, fire structures, the bivouac, etc). It was surprisingly straightforward and went without any major issues whatsoever.
As part of this, I also switched the initial player spawn from an actual in-room object, to an independent instance_create call that runs in the room’s creation code, and checks to see if the player object already exists (which it should, as the player object is persistent). This functionally means that the player can now return to the starting gorge area.
I spent the rest of the afternoon working on this month’s Kickstarter update. It’s not anywhere near done yet but I think I’ll be able to get it published at a respectable time tomorrow: the article itself is pretty straightforward in terms of topics (UI stuff, the outpost), so I don’t foresee any potential blocks.
Woke up at nearly 1400, then spent the rest of the afternoon more or less responding to emails. By the time I was finished I wasn’t really in the mood to do any in-engine work so I spent some time working on conceptual stuff.
The most major decision I’ve come upon is the implementation of a world clock, which will start ticking as soon as the game is loaded, and track changes and events across every part of the world. This means that the player can at any given moment be “missing out” on one event or the other, and that it will be impossible to experience every possible thing in the game in a single playthrough. This not only is a more realistic solution I imagine – seeing that in reality, events occur entirely agnostic most of the time of one specific observer – but it also encourages multiple playthroughs to experience “everything” the game has to offer. The idea originally came to me after seeing a video of a Dead Rising playthrough recommended to me on YouTube.
Easter. Implemented interactions – audio and visual cues – for when Avery interacts with locked doors. Nothing fancy, but work is work. Also spent some time cleaning up the overall project structure.
Built the foundation for viewing documents, starting with the poster for decontamination procedures in the outpost washdown room. Graphics such as documents will now be displayed at full-resolution, preserving the crispness and legibility of text. They can be panned vertically using both the movement keys and the mouse wheel. I didn’t add horizontal motion given the aspect ratio of the screen; I don’t think it’ll be necessary but if it is for whatever reason it should be very easy to implement.
I went to bed almost at sunrise yesterday (or perhaps today…), I stayed up all night playing Modern Warfare for no particular reason and woke up some time around 0200. I really need to rein myself in and regain some control. My work schedule this week has been pretty poor so I think I’m gonna continue working tomorrow as well instead of taking the day off as I normally would. Hopefully it’ll make up for some of the work I lost this week due to my inefficiency.
Finished up the audio for the shower and implemented functionality for the toilet. Tomorrow I’m gonna draft some interior graphics – various diagrams and posters and such – which will the player will be able to view. I’m not sure yet how I’m gonna handle the resolution issue; ideally I’d like the player to be able to zoom and pan the image but depending on how difficult that is to implement (I imagine it’s gonna involve some bullshit with views), I might just not bother. We’ll see though tomorrow…
Completely finished up the toilet, and implemented several QoL changes to the action menu UI that improve its flexibility universally. I still have to work on the shower tomorrow but it’s not too much work; I’ve just been lagging behind for no particularly good reason.
I’ve been waking up later and later this week: today I didn’t get out of bed until 1300. I’m not exactly sure what it is. I’ve actually been feeling pretty okay lately, and I don’t feel particularly tired or lethargic during the day either. I’m also not going to bed at unreasonably late times. I guess my discipline has just loosened for whatever reason.
Finished up the audio for defecating in the outpost toilet. I still have to make audio for urination and implement the appropriate excretal mechanics but neither of those should be particularly difficult and I imagine I’ll be able to get them done quickly tomorrow. I’d also like to get the audio for the shower done tomorrow as well, and implement the basic foundation for hygiene.
Implemented basic interactions for interior toilet and shower modules. The player can now enter and exit them properly. I held off working on them for a while because I thought I’d had to do special animations or whatever but the solution was thankfully much more straightforward in reality. Tomorrow I want work on the audio for them and hopefully get them finished up proper.
Woke up late today around 1100, and felt a complete lack of motivation to do anything, let alone work. After answering some emails shortly after I woke, I spent the rest of the day just playing video games, without any real sense of purpose or even desire. I thought about perhaps making up some work tonight… but honestly, I don’t feel like I’d be able to get anything done anyways at this point even if I did make an effort. Hopefully I’ll have a better time tomorrow…
Took the day off. Finally picked up Modern Warfare for PC – it’s quite good, it feels a bit different in pacing from what I remember of what I played on PS4 (although I’m not quite sure if the $45 I spent has really justified itself yet).
Finished up the initial pass for the whiteboard today, and got it uploaded for #screenshotsaturday. The idea is that it’ll gradually change over the course of the game to reflect events and thoughts; I’m not sure how many variants I plan on making yet but it shouldn’t be too difficult to implement once I do manage to figure out.
My goal for the end of this month is to completely finish up the outpost, and all of the miscellaneous player interaction animations such as smoking, and variations for eating different sizes of rations. The outpost interactions are coming along quite nicely and most of the remaining ones are not too bad; the most difficult ones I foresee are gonna be the computer and the food printer, both of which require extensive UI frameworks to be built.
I think once I finish all the basic animations – I think all that’s really left are the shower and the toilet, although I’m yet not sure if I’m gonna add anything else – I’ll start dedicating work to diegetic interfaces. The three biggest ones are the computer – which itself is at least two different systems – and the food printer, as I just mentioned; and the PDA, which is already partially built but not fully implemented in a satisfactory manner yet. I’ll most likely start with that lattermost one. Hopefully I’ll be able to finish up the basic interactions by the end of next week.
I’d like to start formally writing in-game documents some time soon as well… hopefully I’ll be able to reach that stage by next month. If I can hit all these goals by then, I’ll have mostly recovered the progress I lost these past two months and be on track again towards my initial schedule.
Implemented basic functionality for the whiteboard (no longer a corkboard…) and started designing the layout for it. Also started working on a basic fog effect, whose purpose will remain obscured for now. Tomorrow I’m gonna finish working on the layout of the whiteboard so I can get it up for a post, and maybe start tuning the appearance and behaviour of the fog so that next week I can integrate it fully into the weather and time system.
Worked on some new furniture. Implemented a locking mechanism for the outpost which allows the main door to be locked from the inside, as well as a “corkboard” containing the map and a bunch of objective-related documents (which I’ll work on tomorrow). I hope the latter will be able to give the player a vague sense of direction in terms of what to potentially investigate over the general arc of the game.
Worked on a bit of interior decoration for the outpost today. I felt oddly tired throughout the day, and my thoughts felt a bit languorous. I should start heading to bed a bit earlier, I reckon…
+ Added a bunch of miscellaneous background clutter and objects to the outpost, with particular focus on the washdown room (for now)
? Fixed the receptacle behaviour for the outpost storage bin: now opens and closes properly
? Fixed up the pack’s interaction text to display more consistently using the new interaction UI
Not much work today. I fixed the behaviour of the receptacle for the outpost’s storage bin, and beyond that, spent most of my working hours this afternoon editing a release for the full transcript of the interviews I did for the recent Rock Paper Shotgun article. It’s now available for access on Medium or Google Docs.
I can’t believe March is already over… this month has felt simultaneously very short yet also almost impossibly long, to the point where even the beginning of the month feels like it was years ago. Time has truly become fluid in a way that I haven’t felt in a real long time, maybe since university. Even then though, I had a daily schedule to look forward to (or not), a weekly schedule of classes to ignore, a semester to parse the passing of the seasons. Now, though, not only has time collapsed, but the whole idea of schedule, too: it seems like the idea of the world is collapsing in real-time, the effects dramatically accelerated beyond the usually glacial rate behind which all decay can be normalised and concealed.
In a way it’s kinda liberating actually: I haven’t felt this utterly free of any expectations in a long time, realising that, at least for the moment, all the things that weighed down on me so much before – finding a job, a partner, an external sense of self and meaning – have completely evaporated in the midst of crisis. And to be completely honest, I must admit that I think I’m deriving some genuine satisfaction from all of this: at seeing the frustration and anger, even desperation beginning to build as people start getting restless, start being confronted with the magnitude of their own impotence and irrelevance in face of all that’s happening. It’s not glee I feel, or superiority, or even spite: just a sense of profound calmness and relaxation, knowing that their power over me has begun to unravel and weaken. That, maybe for just this moment, we’re living in my world now.
