HeavenX Devlog 0017

ART

I'm still pushing the desktop UI to the finish line. I don't have much to add on that topic that hasn't been said in previous devlogs. If you know a decent pixel artist (Or you are one, and you're reading this) consider reaching out to us on discord

In other news... I'm still tossing the idea of a lower poly approach to the 3D office around in my head. Its about 10x more practical for our team size. I was quite attached to the idea of a visual disconnect between the "ingame" (shooting) part of HeavenX and the office environment that the story takes place within. I wanted the office to be presented in a completely different graphical style to drive home the contrast between the two environments.

My background in 3D is not in game development, so I'm quite comfortable making high fidelity 3D assets. Getting photorealistic assets into a game was something that, while new to me, wasn't a complicated process in my head. Flash forward to today and I'm realizing that moving through the # of assets required for our high fidelity vision was looking like a bottleneck to the game coming out before we all die of old age.

6 months ago Unreal (Lead Dev) suggested this might be a problem. At the time I plugged my ears and waved it off -- but here we are. I'm in the process of testing the asset pipeline in the new style. More to come. Steam post image

DEV

We briefly mentioned doors in a past dev log, and really they're emblematic of a lot of game dev work. I mean, it's just a door. Who's thinking "wow, that game really handled doors well?" You just walk through it and that's it.

Yet a fully featured door touches on a lot of game systems. Any door is going to be tied into an interaction system. Most doors are going to need some kind of animation and sound. Moving doors mean you need to be careful about players not getting pinched in collision, and more realistic doors need at least some form of physics so they can be nudged by the player. Locked door need extra triggers, conditions, and or an inventory system involved.

Even the model can be an issue. You might think "it's just a box, what could possibly go wrong?" We encountered an issue where the door model looked correct, but when we tried to rotate the handle it spun diagonally through the door. Effectively the rotation values were corrupted, and it was just because of a formatting issue.

The joys of coworking ːsteamhappyː

All of that's to say, even if something just does a silly little animation when you click on it, maybe take the some time to appreciate that. Oh, and the office has doors. Hopefully they work well enough you don't even think about them.

WRITING

I have a complicated relationship with technology. When I’m not writing the narrative for HeavenX I’m troubleshooting technical issues. That is my day job. Computers are simultaneously the source of my livelihood and a beast to be slain. Thus have I learned to hate and love the machine. My relative technical knowledge keeps me and my fiancee fed, happy, housed. On the clock, however, I’m tormented by the idiosyncrasies of these infinitely complicated machines.

I’ve always considered myself an extrovert. I love people. The wrenching transition to information technology from assistant teaching at an elementary school was initially quite difficult for me. I had gotten used to solving problems flexibly, sculpting guidance depending on the particular needs of the students. There was room to impart wisdom through anecdotes, conversation, and jokes. Computers don’t find jokes all that funny.

When dealing with issues specific to machines, personality gets you nowhere. All that you’ve been trained to know about de-escalation and incentivization is totally useless. Whereas once I could adapt, and improvise a livelihood, now I must conjure one where the fruits of my labor are measured in absolute success. There are no vagaries. The problem is solved, or it isn’t.

Bringing Zhaoxing Heavy Industries to life has been an exercise in merging my experience in the field of information technology with the more people-first professions I’ve held. The game itself is divided into two seemingly disparate halves that form one coherent whole. The social roleplaying experience of the office simulation surrounds and permeates the frenetic FPS gameplay of HeavenX.

It is no mistake that the bulk of socialization with our game’s NPCs is done on the computer. You read Vince’s messages, you do not hear his voice. What you type has the potential to build up or ruin your relationship with him. There is no inflection, no subtle facial changes à la L.A. Noire. You talk to Vince, but you do not TALK to Vince. This is true for all of your colleagues.

The human, the machine, and the ways that they conflict and complement the other form the meat of this story. What is lost and gained when we cede the most intimate aspects of humanity to computers for convenience? Is there any room for ambiguity when absolute certainty is possible? We’ll just have to find out, together!