Graffiti Bombing: Development News 2022 #2

Since the last update I've been head-down working hard on the road-map. Overall making good progress and really happy with how things are shaping up. Although some features are taking a bit longer to develop than expected, due to additional code complexity and a strong desire to make the VR interactions reliable and a more enjoyable experience.

Hopefully the wait will be worth it! Read on to get more details on the progress, including a few exciting new features coming to GB in 2022!!

Image above - improved quick color panels for paint tools.

Road-map Progress Update

Completed quite a few of the items that were listed in the previous community update, also have added a few new things that were unplanned at that time, but required as I discovered along the way.

The following items are now mostly complete, or at least working in a fairly usable state.

• Completely new VR system, for more immersive movement and interactions.

• Reworking the player models hand system, re-rigged and improved physics.

• Interactive objects support multiple grab points and full gravity grab action.

• Re-working paint tools like the paint roller to be more user friendly, less glitchy.

• New inventory system will let you store a lot more objects, and easier to use.

• New interactable objects to stack and climb, also ladders and platforms.

• Integrate new / URP render pipeline to improve performance and customization.

• Rebuild paint surface shaders and integrate system for new render pipeline.

• New lighting system for more physically correct baked lighting with specular.

• Relighting all current scenes for the new lighting and rendering pipeline.

• Day / night improvements with new environment FX and street lamps etc. at night.

• New terrain vegetation rendering system, for better quality / performance.

• New player home area, first version that will be improved / added to over time.

Note: these features are not yet publicly available, there will be an official launch announcement!

Video Updates

See the videos below that demonstrate some of the new features and improvements. You can also see these videos and more on the GB YouTube channel. Subscribe for new videos coming each month!

Better Interactions and Physics!

Integrated a completely new physics based interactions system for 2022. Better physics and other features like different hand grab positions, climbing, gravity grab, and more realistic interactions with doors and other objects. Less glitching and more immersion!

Improved Spray Can Quick Color Panels!

Major improvements to the quick color panels. You can now grab and re-arrange them next to where you are spraying or painting. Also can have multiple panels open at the same time, which makes for a better workflow when working on a big piece!

Player Home MP3 Jukebox!

Created an interactive MP3 jukebox for the player home area. You can add the music files to a specified local folder, edit the playlist text file and then it will get automatically loaded next time the game starts. Customize your favorite playlists to listen to while you paint!

New Backpack Inventory!

The new backpack inventory is a big improvement - it looks better, is easier to use, and you can stash more items than before. Plus you can also stash items whilst wearing it, by dropping them into the backpack over your shoulder!

New Climbable Objects System!

Adding a new climbable objects system - a simple inventory belt on the player for stashing spray cans. A way to resize bigger objects like ladders and platforms, then stash them in your backpack. Take climbable objects with you when you paint. Arrange them, lock them and then climb up to reach those high spots more easily!

Improved Paint Roller and New Marker Pen!

Much better physics and interactions makes the paint roller feel great, no more glitching out and it's quite fun to use! The new marker pen also feels pretty nice to use, and this is an early version... so more updates, pen and tip variations coming in the future!

Day and Night Improvements with Weather Systems!

First test of day / night cycle with some simple weather patterns. Stuff gets wet too!

What's Being Worked On Now?

At the moment I'm currently working on the following items, which should be completed in the next 1-2 months, all being well.

• New menu system for game setup, quality and other settings.

• New ways to play the game, open world roaming vs. single level painting.

• Various minor bugs and improvements gathered from the playtest feedback.

• End to end testing of all game systems, balancing and improvements.

• Open world level optimization and level streaming finalization.

• Preparing game build for private beta testing (more details coming later on this).

After the above items are done and tested - I'll be looking to publish an updated playtest on Steam and then will start getting ready for releasing GB back into Early Access.

There will of course be more challenges to overcome along the way. However I hope you can see that some good progress has been made since the last update, and we really are getting closer to a public release later in 2022!

Community

As always - you can interact with us via the Steam community features. We do read all posts, and reply where and when it makes sense.

The Graffiti Bombing group on Discord is also open. So you can jump on there if you want to speak with the development team directly, or meet other potential players and graffiti artists.

Discord server: https://discord.gg/ZVkByeVyQG

// Wildstyle @ Graffiti Bombing