Development Updates

A quick update on the current state of Ouroboros: Prelude.

As the last update hinted at I had to partially rebuild the game. Unfortunately the project suffered data corruption for the third time in the row. How or why this keeps happening is beyond me but alas, here we are. I am thoroughly convinced this game is doing everything it can to uncreate itself - as though the corrupting madness concept of this game has bled into the reality of its development. Regardless, ever shall I endure to work on this game until it is remade, reworked, and released properly as I envisioned it.

There is however a unforeseen plus side to this as it has given me the opportunity to rethink how certain systems are handled and to optimize code and such - which has already shown some positive results. :)

The rebuild is already in its working stages and is almost looking like it did before... with a few visual enhancements. ;)

One of the things I have noticed is that though there already is quite a bit to this game not many get to see it due to the pure randomness of the game, the similarity of some of the levels, and its innate labyrinthine nature of the its style. So, I am going to be reworking each level to feature one major puzzle/obstacle, one major environment theme, and one major maze type - this last one probably only really makes sense when viewing each level while editing but I felt necessary to mention regardless.

As life has not exactly been accommodating towards my development schedule I do not have an ETA for the next release but I would like to say in about a month you all should see the rebuild. It took a LOT of patience just getting this thing back to the way it looked before so hopefully the added bits make up for that.

Things in the pipeline:

• Lighting rework.

• New environments.

• Scare system rework.

• New scares.

• New environmental hazards.

• Madness system rework.

• Texture rework.

• Level layout rework.

• Introductory level - for those who I noticed refuse to read the help section.

• Hint system additions for actions.

Hope you all get to see the fruits of my madness soon....

Stay sane! :D

(Minor Updates)

11/08

The nav-system that creatures use seems to be totally scrapped. Going to have to rebuild this as well. Thankfully, this did not take long to implement to begin with.

1/07

Holiday season is over with and I am back to work. Nearly all my particle systems and materials were compromised. I am almost done repairing most of them but at least three crucial effects have been lost entirely. This will take a short bit to recreate. Something has gone wrong with the physics system (might have something to do with moving to a newer version of Unity) and this more than anything else will determine whether the next release will be sooner or later. I will update as soon as I have news to update with.

I am also considering a rework of the key system which will be explored soon.

For positive notes:

• Player's sanity systems are restored, tweaked and tuned.

• Added a new sanity effect.

• Added a new zoom/FoV narrowing feature that will allow players to examine things far ahead before traversing ahead.

• Added a distance blurring effect that works in conjunction with the zooming feature and the lighting. (Yes, the "narrowing your eyes to see further ahead" feature will not be just for show.

• Tweaked the head movement while moving and standing still to be more "life-like."

• Added some rather creepy-snazzy lighting effects.

• Fixed a bug where sometimes the player would not turn towards a specific direction during a scripted event.

• Fixed and tweaked lighting to where I am fairly positive it will not need tweaking anymore. No more "too dark" areas/bugs and lightning transition from darkness to lighted areas should be nice and smooth.

• Designed a new level type (yet to be implemented).

• Designed a new hazard/puzzle type (yet to be implemented).

1/14

I was able to recover most of the original room configurations. The materials and objects in this configurations need fixing or replacing but this takes a quite a bit off of the "remake-from-scratch" list.

1/17

Physics system major issues have been rectified. The game itself is now back in full working order but with a few of the planned additions. Barring any other oversights or surprise inconveniences the new build will be coming soon.

2/13

Quick update:

Finished replacing the textures and materials that needed replacing. Created a new visual effect for one of the badies that makes them look creepy AF - though it may need some tweaking. Finished designing one of my new environments. Fixed a clipping bug with one of the scares. Fixed a bug where damage sounds wouldn't play. Removed a handful of unsalvageable levels. Just found out that my newer scares and levels from the last working build are all completely lost so I'm going to have to rebuild those.

3/23

• Made the leaning motion feel more natural.

• Added a feature with the dungeon randomization that will probably screw with player's heads a little. You'll all see what this means when I release this build. ;P

• Adding sounds to previously soundless actions (such as climbing).

• Starting to work in scripted events.

• Might have found a way to decrease overall game memory size.

• New monster variant.

• Worked on sound design. Each room and area should have proper echo/reverb/ambiance/etc.

• Greatly expanded the hint system.

5/23

So, my computer decided to go bluescreen... again. I have said it before and I will say it again, this game is actively trying to uncreate itself. I was able to get my computer operational again and thankfully no data was lost this time around - main files or backups. I am going to be launching an update within a week tops before something else "mysteriously" happens. It won't contain all my planned upgrades but considering the amount of time I spent fighting against technology, rebuilding the game, and even adding more on top of that I would think this will be a decent update. I will finish this game no matter how long it takes....

Updates I was able to manage before the bluescreen:

• Remade some particle effects.

• Remade the water rendering system.

• Refined swim. Swimming should be much easier now.

• Created yet another level sub-type that essentially functions as one giant um... let's call it a surprise. ;)

• Tweaked physics engine yet again to reduce calls (IOW, smoother gameplay).

• Adding floating physics for play and objects.

• Added water sound effects to items.

• Added a new level type that utilizes the water system more predominantly.

• Added a cave system level.

To date there are essentially 4 main level-types, each with varying sub-types, that utilizes anywhere from 20 to far over 100 room-types, and each of those room-types having their own numerous sub-types/settings, of which each of these have their own object-spawn-randomness. I am almost tempted to run out the calculations just to see exactly how many permutations an average single level potentially has.

As it stands the game is playable from beginning to end (and according to Steam Stats some of you have even managed to beat it! Congrats!), but I want to add some degree of polish to this monster before I am ready to call it finished.

6/25

Something wicked this way comes... this weekend.