Devlog 19

Hi hello its time for the 19th Bi-Monthly Devlog - with a moderate amount of new stuff (getting closer to being finished!)

I tried to condense this devlog even more than the previous ones because they have gotten way too long by now, if you want some more details checkout my monthly patreon updates which are partly free: https://www.patreon.com/posts/mik-progress-may-159552471

New Creatures

TWO new creatures have joined the megastructure ecosystem... (although they both dont have names yet)

Flying Critter

I talked about this one in the previous devlog already - i finally got around to giving him sounds and alive/dead states so now he has a system where he will continue flying with 3 or even 2 wings (if theyre on opposite sides), and die with no wings. His wings fall off if you throw him against things too harshly so treat him well!!

View store page Steam post image^not sure where he will actually appear yet

Big Walking Thing

This big robot, which was almost scrapped from the game, can be found in multiple places throughout your journey and used to serve some sort of transportation purpose - although by now their work is most likely meaningless.

Credits to SULEFUR for modelling it !!

^very old original concept for these things (yes it was inspired by GLT)

I cant add videos here but check this one out on twitter: https://x.com/Stefaaan06/status/2059002932058566966

Level 4

(i still dont have names for any of the areas)

The Bottom

You might remember this area from the last devlog.

^in this picture you can also see the new water system (which i will explain later)

I continued working on the gameplay idea which i mentioned in the last devlog, namely these 2 transport lines going in opposite directions.

On the one hand there is this deactivated thing which you will need to turn on the power for, so you can hop in one of the containers and get carried over to another part of the area.

On the other side there is this wall running section where you have to dodge the moving containers, so you can turn on the other transport line.

For both of them, the containers are automatically populated and spawned by script, and their movement can be activated and deactivated.

Theres also some progress on the actual visuals, like some new models, and of course the inclusion of the big robot (and a dead version of it)

Flip City

This is an area which i havent touched in quite a while, which you might remember from the "gliding minigame" i mentioned a few months ago.

On the visual side it now has cables (which i still need to balance the actual amount of) and some new models and decoration for the actual gameplay..

Before you get your hands on the gliding system, theres a short parkour section.

It introduces both the air mechanic (technically you already see this one in the big dropper section) and these platforms which periodically extend and retract (and can kill you if you get caught in them being retracted)

Lore fun fact: These platforms create something akin to sound waves and are placed in order to stop NET corruption & anomalies in base reality.

After some more parkour you unlock the gliding ability for the length of this area, and after some hidden tutorial on its use, you get access to the best part about the system - the boost rings, which actually allow you full 3 dimensional movement for a while (and give you a lot of momentum)

The gliding is sometimes interrupted by some short parkour/puzzle sections, where you can see even more megastructure infrastructure systems (in addition to the big robot)

^cargo ship - the rings original purpose was to accelerate and launch them

I also started working on the gliding system itself, changing the code and tweaking the values as im still unhappy in how it functions. Right now you can barely gain any height and will instantly stall when moving upwards, but i want it to be more like the minecraft elytra

Big Pipes

This area starts off with a sliding section where you need to dodge some obstacles as well as trash tumbling down alongside you.

This area is right below the Flipped City, and functions as a giant junk yard. You can also find another big robot walking among the trash down here:

^trash was dumped down here for millennia

Level 5 (the end)

Talking about this section is hard without spoiling stuff - so i will have to leave out a lot of stuff (even more than for previous levels)

The Wall

The first area of this level is this big wall, which i worked on a few months on already.

Not a place of honor

Right after the wall, this place warns you of something lying beyond.

The geometry is directly taken from this real life project to preserve nuclear waste:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_nuclear_waste_warning_messages

Bridge

leading somewhere ???

^yes its inspired by NaissanceE

???

UI, Optimisation and Everything Else

Like mentioned in the previous devlog, I started working on some new UI ideas (even if just a bit) - this includes a new distance display to zooming. Theres also this WIP load(in) animation inspired by the Marathon UI:

Also plimbos got an optimisation update, which switches from using the plimbos 7 Rigid Bodies (needed for the jelly physics) to just 1 when its far enough away. There were some minor complications tho...

New Water System

For the Bottom area, where the waves are really high, i wanted the player to die exactly on impact with the surface, not on some set hitbox before that. The problem with that is that the water is manipulated by shader, and the options for reading back values from the gpu are limited and a complete performance killer (especially if done every frame)

For that reason most games simply replicate the shader displacement math in code for a specific point, this proved hard to do with my previous system as i was using noise which is kinda tricky to perfectly mirror in my code.

The solution is pretty simple: just use some good old sine waves added together - which can be trivially recalculated in code so i can get the height of the water at any given point.

I might sound like i know what im doing but all the shader stuff is stolen from this great tutorial: View store page This new system also allowed me to add splash FX for objects thrown into deep water!

Music

Music is coming along somewhat nicely (?) - i still have no idea what im doing but i feel like i found some footing on the style and the new direction it should go in.

Thank you for reading

-Stefaaan!!