This week, we primarily worked on animation, audio, and AI. We are still in the midst of some design discussions regarding the crafting economy. Iris has taken charge of designing the economy system, and is bringing the next level of polish that it needs. This economy system, once it is fully designed, will drive many other system designs, including weapon stats, fort building mechanics, and how the AI fit into the big picture of the gameplay.

Animation Improvements

This week, I worked on an improved system for blending walking animations. We also implemented a simple ragdoll physics for our characters when they die. Overall, the walking and aiming animations are coming along nicely. I have some new animation software to play with and I will report back when I’ve tried it out. We’re also starting to model a new armor design, which you can see a work-in-progress screenshot of below.

Work in progress screenshot of a new armor design

Audio

Our audio team created some new sound effects this week. We have sounds for footsteps, characters taking damage, and some user interface sounds to work with now.

AI Programming

Chris has continued programming our AI characters. They now react to taking damage and will search for enemies when they can’t see them. Additionally, he refactored their patrol patterns. They don’t take cover yet when low on health, which is a more complicated problem to tackle, but one that we are looking into.

Its been a long week, with many members of our team on the road traveling, including myself. So I haven’t had as much time for the blog as I normally do. However, I should have a lot more time for live-streaming on Twitch now that I’m unpacked and back at my desk. Feel free to drop by and chat while I work on the game.

Until next week,

Silas Talley, Creative Director / Studio Manager