This week we have started prototyping an important weapon for defeating the smaller A.I. foes. It will be one of the first of our 'makeshift' items that can be constructed from found materials in the world, before you are able to build gather up the materials to make fabricators and construct more complex tools.
Lauren has all the info on that in her write up! Here’s what we’ve all been upto:
John - Lead Designer
The newer creature classes have undergone scrutiny by the A.I. team, so we’re now more confident that the system will be robust when we introduce the new types planned. I’ve mainly been putting this into motion by getting the visual process rolling.
There are a lot of solid designs in the background for the rest of the game systems as you’ve seen with some of our major blog posts (and what is currently playable) Although the improvement work is taking time, this thorough approach is ultimately going to making the game far more enjoyable for everyone. Again, we really appreciate the patience on the communities side.
Matt - Art Director
Mainly working through task planning for the vehicles and new creature models this week. Some modelling updates coming up for those soon! Me and Tom have also managed to get the level work in place to start adding in Lee’s revised spawning system. So expect to see lots of visual progress on the lead up to Christmas.
Lee - Technical Director
This week I have been trying to refine some of the AI’s perception so that they can now pick up the points of interest that they are only interested in. I’ve also made a few optimisations to how often the perception updates run.
I’ve also been working with Marcin this week trying to get our turrets working correctly with the AI and trying to understand a crash we are having with destructible foliage.
Sam - Concept Artist
Working on some silhouettes for our new ‘Mite’ critters. We want a variety of forms for a variety of behavioral archetypes, but the key is to make them distinctly different in silhouette.
Olly - Junior Programmer
This week I have been refining the feel of vehicles, working with the design team to make the controls feel right. Initially the entering and exiting mechanic will be simple but we’re already making plans for there to be a walk in back entrance to the cockpit for the larger vehicle/vehicles.
Marcin - Designer
I know I am making progress with the AI, and a lot of it at that, but whenever I am to talk about it I always draw a blank. What did I accomplish since last week? And is it interesting enough to even mention. It’s usually a 50/50 situation. We had a few meetings, we gathered references for the new creatures we want to see in the game, discussed ideas, revised, and started the task breakdown from implementation and animation work. Riveting, I know :)
However on the “lots of progress” side of thing, Lee and I have integrated the AI to interact properly with turrets, finally. The creatures vs structures combat is very important part of the game and it was broken in our development for far too long, so it’s good to see it back.
Oh yeah, there was another thing - target switching. I wanted to improve that logic for ages too, so I’m excited it’s finally working. The logic you know from the current version of the game on steam is gone. Now the creature can switch “aggro” between entities attacking it according to damage received, priority and distance. The goal was to give you more control over the AI so you can be more effective at protecting your base by “tanking for your turrets”.
Lauren - Lead Animator
This week I have been getting stuck into more AI designs with Marcin. We have several of the base enemy archetypes nailed down with designs for the base behaviours, attack sequences and animations. The next step will be creating these new animations and getting them into game.
I have also been animating and prototyping the new spear weapon this week, a simple melee weapon that can be used to jab and stab enemies at close quarters or be thrown for a bit more of a range.
Andy - Lead QA
Testing plans going in for next week as we introduce some additional craftable content (the spear). All early game stuff including some of the new creature classes, but it has to feel good before we can check it off against the designs.
See you in the fray!
-Team Flix
November Development Update 4!
Greetings Pioneers!
So we’ve crossed a bridge and the foundations for our vehicle system are fully in place for designers to get a handle on it. After much deliberation in the art department over the islands surface details, decisions have been made to add a more realistic selection of material types and blends.
We’ve also been putting some serious time into making our placement system more automated as whole (especially for foliage) to help speed up further development and make eventual modding of islands more user friendly.
Here’s what we’ve individually been upto:
John - Lead Designer
Working on Enemy Archetype designs in between managing projects :P - Again, I’ve been looking how this can be tied into progression. We’re working on systems to make sure that the variations of AI can meet a set number of modular systems that we already have in place. We have a number of the team who will be working hard to get these functional over the next 12 weeks.
Matt - Art Director
Finishing our review of surface types for the island. Wanting to make sure the details we go for are excellent quality and feel believable in both first and third person views (que more realism with surface photogrammetry). Tom has been piecing these together mainly.
A lot of the re-population of the surface will be done with more automated tools so as to speed this process up. When we’re ready to hit the go button you may notice the world is a tiny bit larger than before due to these systems..
On a final note we’re in the process of getting the blocked out spaces for the vehicles refined!
Lee - Technical Director
Galavanting n stuff like a boss. I’ve been working on the AI planners for the turrets and cleaning them up. I’ve also been trying to fix up some engine issues to do with our foliage where trying to damage them would cause the game to crash after our engine update.
I am all for Tree preservation but seems a bit extreme in a virtual world when the nights are cold and the natives don’t seem very friendly.
Tristan - Lead Developer
This week I have spent most my time reviewing code and telling Lee to let us mine trees again.
Carlos - Developer
First blog in a long time!
I’ve been working on the selling functionality to be inline with the new tool module system that we’ve implemented. This should allow us to only attach this module to any others that we want to be able to sell and keep any other modules free to do another action should they not implement it!
Olly - Junior Programmer
So I reached the magical point (code climax) in time where I’ve committed the base of work for our vehicle system. The new designers can now get their hands on the basic tools to adjust stats and spawn vehicles with a variety of variables which can be modified to change the feel and look.
Marcin - Designer
This has been a rather eventful week. First of all we’ve had some additional meetings and designs for our AI, which with the new system almost done can properly take off the ground.We are solidifying the set of archetypes we want to focus on in the first place, and we are referencing games such as Halo, Dishonored, Half-Life and Doom to help us with that. Secondly, tis the season to get the common cold, so I am currently all about that and writing this from my bed. I should be back up and running on Monday.
Tom W - Designer
Hey guys, I’ve had a pretty busy week. One the one hand, it’s been full of meetings about our ai and animation pipeline, and on the other, I’ve been busy working on our base material layers for the more barren/desert portions of our landscape, which you’ll all hopefully appreciate!
Previously, I was having issues where we’d have a great looking sand material, and some lovely rocks, but when it came to combining them they didn’t look particularly natural or cohesive. To solve that, I’ve developed a workflow which keeps everything much more grounded in the same core biomes. Once they’re all combined in engine, all this hard work should result in a much more photorealistic world for you all to explore!
Thomas W - Designer
This is my first blog post for Eden Star but I have been working behind the scenes for a while on overhauling the crafting system. I'm still in the early stages of planning as and have been looking at how a player progresses throughout the crafting system to try and make the mining and initial crafting stages is more streamlined, but also try to keep the depth and creativity possible in the later stages.
Right now that means consolidating the basic raw materials required for simple base building, but making significant upgrades and buildables required key materials that are much rarer in the world. Hopefully this should mean you can get up and going quickly and spend less time mining and more time exploring for those key materials.
I want to make sure that the direction we're heading with crafting feels right, and more importantly fun, with the rest of the upcoming additions and changes. So you can view my ‘wonderful’ ideas and planning spreadsheet here (many aspects are work in progress or ideas and not final) to take a look at what we’re doing.
Sam - Concept Artist
I’ve shifted from vehicles and started producing some silhouettes for different mite versions with a variety of abilities. There are a bunch of other plans for variations of creatures but I’ll leave that to speculation ;D
Lauren - Lead Animator
This week I have been planning the archetypes of AI we will have in the world with the rest of the guys, taking references from all the games we love. I have also been experimenting with sharing of rigs for multiple characters so that we can get more use out of a single skeleton into multiple AI varieties.
Andy - Lead QA
We have had some fixes made to both multiplayer and turrets that I had the chance to test this week and I am happy to report that the turrets are working as expected and multiplayer, though there are still a few issues, is coming together nicely.
On a slightly different note I would like to thank all of the members of the community who take the time to post on the forums. I know Early Access can be a slow and sometimes arduous process, but all the love and support you show us each week on the forums is massively appreciated and I would encourage you all to keep posting.
See you in the fray!
-Team Flix
November Development Update 3!
Greetings Pioneers!
More in the way of progress this week as we continue to fix up AI bugs and pull more of our new systems together. We are designing the layout of encounters and interactive elements for the new map while we go back and make some basic iterations to the layout.
There are now a lot more smoother sloping areas that make it easier for vehicles to traverse but also make it easier for walking AI to reach you. That's right, be scared, because you will truly only be safe in your bases when we unleash this beastly revision.
John - Lead Designer
Decisions must be made, a lot of my time right now revolves around breaking down the parts of the design into manageable chunks for the team. So currently i’m working miracles to get people onto the right areas of the game, and it's always a bit of a juggling job as tasks exchange hands.. I did always want to perform in the circus and in a way production is pretty close to that ;)
Matt - Art Director
I’ve gone back to paper based design with the guys after our initial playthrough to fully flesh out our location placements and general layout on the island. This will always be important as a reference point for the designers who get stuck into the details. The finished layout will be handed off to teams which will develop each area in more detail.
The process will be driven by purpose and meaning behind every outpost in these areas, which in turn will then tie into our single player discovery based storytelling mechanics.
Lee - Technical Director
This week I have been reviewing the turrets in-game and making the changes where needed to start using the more designer friendly AI system. I’ve also started reviewing the Biomes ready for them to be places into our new map
Tristan - Lead Developer
This week I have been checking over a load of the development work with the other devs and looking into some of the new bugs we have gained after updating the engine. Super fun. I have also been fixing up some interaction logic as it doesn’t work for every situation currently.
Olly - Junior Programmer
I’ve been continuing on with my work for the vehicles, this week looking more closely at a boost function that will give player that extra little “umph” to traverse the steeper terrain. I’ve always been honing my tea and coffee making skills as my perpetual dabbing around the office required a punishment. In the form of making hot drinks for the team it would appear.
Marcin - Designer
I have been doing a lot of reviewing, fixing and generally tying of loose ends. I’ve had a good look at the level in terms of system being properly in place, such as: is the navigation mesh everywhere it’s supposed to be? Are the perception and flying volumes covering all the space they should? How about collisions? Can you build and walk on the appropriate surfaces? When making a game level it’s so easy to only focus on how it looks and feels and forget that it has to work too.
Moreover I’ve been fixing more creatures to work with the new systems and identifying where we are missing animations. We have a working stalker, cerberus, and I am working on the ika now. The new tech we are facing with the first 2 are leaping attacks, which still have some bugs. Those are the melee attacks that can begin from far away and where the creature jumps into close range to deal damage. I am still making my mind about how much the creature can turn or steer during.
Tom - Designer
I’m continuing the work on the macro level for out terrain, following some curation from John and the gang after a play session. Looking forward to showing everyone the progress we’re making very soon!
Sam - Concept Artist
After further reviews with John, Matt and Andy we have finalised the overall shape of both the heavy and light chassis vehicles. From there I’ve been working on a top down view for both of the vehicles so the modellers have all the proportions to make a start on it.
Lauren - Lead Animator
This week I have been refining locomotion for the stalker now that we are having the ability for all AI to strafe (though not all in the same manner). I have also been continuing with the axe and finishing moves.
Andy - Lead QA
It’s been a week of meetings and conversations regarding next steps for Eden Star, some ended in a peaceful while others ended like a scene from Mad Max Thunderdome. On the whole though we got a lot sorted, fixed and tested a few of the bugs remaining from the engine update and ended the week positively.
See you in the fray!
-Team Flix
November Development Update 2!
Greetings Pioneers!
We have begun the extensive process of bring the new landscape to life, this involves re-integrating all the world systems into the newly defined areas.
We'll be putting a series of development updates out that give everyone a better sense of the scale we're aiming for. To say a lot has gone into the planning before committing to this layout is an understatement.
Having a world that truly compliments the game features new and old is exciting, and we believe the time we're taking to do this will improve the game for the community vastly. So again we very much appreciate your support and feedback that allows us to continue working through these changes!
John - Lead Designer
I’ve been talking to Olly about how we improve the initial vehicle setup and polish gameplay. In addition to this i’ve been reworking the fuel designs to meet with what Tom has been working through on the material/resource setup.
Matt - Art Director
Copious amounts of detail have been going into the design of the terrain generation for the new design. We’re toying with expanding the world, and making resources more sparse to encourage more travelling for those feeling adventurous. It also very much justifies the use of vehicles when they are introduced. So you can expect for exploration with faster journey times.
Lee - Technical Director
This week I have continued to add more functionality to our new ‘Point of Interest’ component. They can both attract AI to interact with them or different types of AI can be repelled so they will avoid them. The component can also hold multiple scripts which are passed out to the AI with instructions for the AI to follow and complete tasks.
Tristan - Lead Developer
This week I have been helping out with a few engine bugs as well as getting the new interaction working and tested. I have also been overseeing some of changes to the tool modules so that they behave more like weapons which should make for a more customisable loadouts.
Yves - Senior Developer
Thanks to our huge new landscape, I’ve reworked the objective system to help guide players in the initial stages of the game, as well as hint at nearby points of interest to investigate with your friends.
Tom - Designer
“Pharus 7 isn’t a place, it’s a people.”
Cheesy references aside, I’m happy to present our shiny new landscape!
There’s still plenty of work for us to do, like adding roads and likes for you all to explore, but this should serve as a solid foundation for the new terrain. As usual, any suggestions for any particular biomes you’d like to see in the world are always welcome!
Going forwards, you should be seeing much more in the way of pretty new screenshots, now that it’s properly in engine and all our wonderful artists can sink their teeth into it.
Olly - Junior Programmer
Hey everyone! I’ve secretly working behind the scenes on some fancy new vehicle controllers for the game, which should hopefully lead to some fun vehicular shenanigans when they get released down the line. Most of my time has been spent doing R&D as to the best way approach them, such as whether to write them completely from scratch, or build upon Epic’s vehicle templates.
Sam - Concept Artist
Following further feedback from John and Matt I have been tweaking the look of the heavy chassis vehicle to give the player a greater field of view while in the cockpit. We also decided that a door on the side of the vehicle would be beneficial to game play.
Lauren - Lead Animator
This week I have been continuing with axe finishing move animations and the kill move system. This will be a pared action between AI and the player with animations based on the height of the AI along with variations so that there are slight differences each time.
Andy - Lead QA
I’ve been testing the game as a whole this week to make sure that we have caught all those pesky bugs that came running in with the engine upgrade. I also got to play around with the new voice chat in multiplayer. It see needs a little work but I can at least now talk to other players instead of trying to type all the time.
See you in the fray!
-Team Flix
November Development Update!
Greetings Pioneers!
Proper footage has crept out of the studio showing our revisions to the AI behaviour systems today, and it's right below for your eyes and ear holes to consume! Feast on the work in progress that now allows parrying and stealthy approaches to sticky situations.
https://youtu.be/ZBqEVvKTQ3g
Here’s what everyone else has been upto:
John - Lead Designer
They call me the Juggler, the bouncing man, the forwards and backwards walker. I’m there, then i’m here, then i’m there again. Never in one spot at any given time. The transporter, the transmitter of information, I’m now in your mind, and you had better get that work done or I’ll be in your house.
Matt - Art Director
We’ve been moving our designs into world machine to get a feel for the new island layout. This incorporates sections of the previous layout and topology so it won’t be all that unfamiliar. The main brain bender is getting the points of interests to work well within the new styling of the environment.
New locales must be visible from others and so forth, so journeys can be visualised and planned by players to these new and mysterious places.
Lee - Technical Director
This week I have been debugging a few issues with the code that manages Hives in the world. Seems to be working fine now. I’ve also been putting some more work into the ‘Point of Interest’ component. This will enable us to add extra functionality to our AI by marking items in the world which will get their attention. This component will also be able to give instruction to the AI to perform certain tasks.
Lauren - Lead Animator
This week I have been continuing working on some satisfying axe melee kill moves for finishing off enemies with a crunch. I have also been working on some new tiny Mite varieties, I think i will need to add some stomp finishers...
Olly - Junior Programmer
I’ve been continuing with my coding of the new vehicle system. I added some optimized traces to the front of the prototype so that players will be able to knock down trees or destroy them completely if they hit them with enough speed. It was also discovered that this new feature, when used on other players causes them to go flying into the air like a ragdolled superman.
Tom - Designer
I’ve spent most of this week inside World Machine and the Unreal Material Editor, taking lots of inspiration from the open worlds found inside AC: Origins and ME: Andromeda. It’s been a slow process, but I’m confident that we’re approaching.
Sam - Concept Artist
I’ve been continuing with my work for the vehicles. After a few reviews this week and a lovingly positioned pioneer silhouette from Lauren I feel we are pretty close to the finished product.
Andy - Lead QA
After a few teething issues with the initial update of the engine to 4.17 we have been cooking and compiling like mad but managed to get into the game and begin our all encompassing tests. There are a few issue with turrets not attacking AI which we believe is down to the new AI logic Lee has been working on, but other than that is it all looking good.
See you in the fray!
-Team Flix
October Development Feature - AI System
Greetings Pioneers!
Looks like all you wonderful people will be getting two updates this week! As this update is a few days overdue (technical difficulties ;) ).
So we're shaking things up a bit with an AI feature! As you may have heard in previous blogs our AI has been getting major work to add some variations in behaviours, decreasing their zombie-like *move towards player in a straight line and attack* and making that move towards a little more interesting, introducing some flanking behaviour into the mix and generally giving them a bit more life.
Now to pass on to Marcin and Lee for more information:
There are a number of changes we made to the way AI work, some for optimisation and some to make the design process easier.
Spawning optimisations
We are in the process of creating all the AI we need in the game at the very start and not actually destroying creatures anymore because of the hits we were getting on the garbage collector. We will have a pool of creatures ready to be used and returned to the pool once they are no longer needed.
Faster Iteration
The underlying code for the AI has been streamlined so we can have a base AI blueprint which then allows designers to change and tweaks settings to create any type of AI they require in the game from flying and walking to swimming creatures. Entire families of creatures can now be created where different specimen inherit the basic functionality of the archetype, but are able to add their own flavour, such as different visual, different attacks, different animations and reactions.
AI Perception
The perception component has had some improvements and tweaks to the way it detects objects within its field of view to make it feel more real. An addition which has been added to this is to allow the designers to place points of interest within the level or on objects which will pique the interest of any passing AI. The AI can investigate sounds and look for nearby food. We have also re-designed and streamlined how the AI picks its targets and what it does when it cannot reach it.
Modular code
The planners which govern the decision making of the AI have had an overhaul which makes designers’ lives a lot easier to modify and reuse the AI code across multiple creatures. Characteristics of behaviours can be tweaked or changes to the way a behaviour works per creature can now be made from the planner blueprint. This allows us to add a lot more variety to behaviours very quickly and easily.
A side effect of the work to do with planners has enabled us to create a mini planner which we can use for one-off scripted events or in situations where we want AI to run a few set tasks with minimal overhead and processing.
Fun Combat
The most important thing of course about all this AI work is to make sure killing them is fun. Dealing damage is only one aspect of it. We want to make sure the full experience is engaging and rewarding. The combat we’ve had so far was just so relentless and repetitive it got old very quickly. There was no room to breathe, no sense of control, no reward for doing well, and no depth. We have tried very hard to make sure the player has more options and more control.
Combat improvements
You are no longer immediately attacked the instant the creature spots you. The creature will now try to scare you off first. You can back off and leave it at that, or you show them who’s boss.
Creatures now take some time to respite after attacking giving you both an opportunity to consider your next move.
You can block with melee weapons. If the combat feels overwhelming, you can stop swinging your weapon wildly and block instead. You will have the room to breathe and assess your situation.
You will be able to parry with melee weapons. If you time your blocking just right, you can parry the creature attack. Not only does that interrupt the creature’s attack but also makes them vulnerable for a time. We are still sorting out the details of what exactly that means, but killing a vulnerable creature should be easy and rewarding.
You can run. Sometimes you don’t want to fight, either because you don’t feel you can win or because ain’t nobody got time for that. You can now run away and the creatures will eventually leave you alone.
Stability. AI creatures now have a secondary stat, called stability. It appears as a blue bar below their health bar. Being able to send creatures flying with the Blast module was fun but overpowered. Now you need to deprive the creature of its stability for it to ragdoll, which is a little harder than a single click of a button, although not by much in most cases. Some creature are easier killed than staggered, some the exact opposite. You as a player should consider the right tool for the job.
Hit reactions. Your melee attacks are now able to interrupt the attack of the creature if it’s weaker than you. Wildly flailing your melee weapon at a bunch of enemies is no longer suicidal but sometimes just what the doctor ordered.
Overall these improvements should allow us to keep AI interactions fun and rewarding while keeping it easy for us to manage and put together different behaviours for a variety of circumstances. When we're done AI should feel more reactive to what you are doing and feel smarter without it being overwhelming.
As for when you will see these in game, it is a matter of getting it up to a level of polish that we are satisfied with and making sure we iron out the remaining bugs!
We would also be looking to deliver these changes as part of the wider feature release.
In short... when it's ready... ;)
See you in the fray!
-Team Flix
October Development Update 3!
Greetings Pioneers!
Progress is developing nicely as always! We've made a choice to move to a new sky system that allows us to be more dynamic with weather and atmospherics. Vehicles and AI and still at the top of the list, and we've been testing our new modular behavior structures, where we have created three variants of the ‘mite’, each of which with a different attack type, more about that below...
John - Lead Designer
This has been another hectic week of balancing the materials and crafting with Mr. Whittemore, hashing out the finer details of the multiplayer designs with Tristan and Andy, and looking longly out of the window waiting for Matts return.
Matt - Art Director
Back in action, mainly catching up with the team and getting focused on the additional vehicle design work that has been done, a lot of which is focused around getting a scale that feels good set in stone.
Lee - Technical Director
This week I have continued to work with identifying bugs we have with the new version of the engine. I’ve also been working on some designs for controlling AI so you can command them to work for you.
Tristan - Lead Developer
This week I have been working on tweaking the interaction systems with Eden star to make it so that we can interact with the world easier. I have also been fixing up some multiplayer interaction issues as well as helping to design our new multiplayer experiences and systems.
Ricky - Senior Developer
Continuing fixing bugs from the engine update. I’ve potentially found a network replication mismatch and a problem with getting stuck on the loading screen which looks so far like we have to optimise the game to fix it fully, though I found a temporary fix for the time being so the rest of our fair and growing team can continue unhindered.
Olly - Junior programmer
With the help of Tristan and Tom I have continued my work on the vehicle system. More specifically moving our initial prototype into code.
Tom - Designer
I hate sand, it's coarse and rough and gets everywhere. It’s also been a lot of fun working on some lovely new sand dunes for our more arid sections of landscape. The next stage is working on nice, natural looking transitions between the areas, which should be an exciting challenge! Really looking to showing you guys the final results!
Marcin - Designer
I’ve spent the week fixing bugs with the new AI behaviours and attacks, such as:
Additionally, I’ve started working on the stalker creature, reworking it to fit the new system. Right now I am expanding how we are manipulating the Ai speed for various behaviours and how more complex attacks, such as ones involving custom movement can have additional conditions between phases. For example, a running attack can skip a telegraph phase if the creature is already running, but include it if it’s not.
Lauren - Lead Animator
This week I have been helping Marcin out with some of the AI locomotion animations and their native speeds. I have also been continuing with the finishing moves and 3rd person animations for the Axe.
Andy - Lead QA
I’ve been continuing with the multiplayer design documentation, making sure that all aspects have been considered and accounted for.
We also got a new merge for the updated version of the engine so myself and Jamie managed to get into a multiplayer game and test and report issues that we found with Multiplayer.
Sam Russell - Concept Artist
A single seater vehicle is pretty much a must for an exploration survival game, this is where I'm at with some of the basic shapes.
See you in the fray!
-Team Flix
October Development Update 2!
Greetings Pioneers!
Apologies that this one was a little late! We uploaded is last night at the office before we left but unfortunately Steam didn’t want to post it :P
This week we have some shiny concepts for our new vehicle designs for you to feast your eyes on, It’s looking good! The first vehicles we are working on is a single person hovering speeder and a much heavier transport with 6 large wheels. You are welcome to suggest some names for these! Bring on ‘Wheely-Mc-Wheelface’ :P In other news, we are making good progress on the environment work and the AI. Check it out below:
John - Lead Designer
This week we have been working through the first vehicle designs and refining the details for progression within crafting for both single and multiplayer. It’s a LONG back and forth, but I think we finally have a curve that includes “Makeshift Items” as the craftables on the player and the basic materials that you need to craft the “Replacement Build CPU”, “Makeshift Optical Laser Array”, a Makeshift Spear (I know… bear with me - it makes sense when you see it…) and a Shiv! :P In time this will all make sense, and yes, you can still build the Anti Grav Module (Smash!).
Matt - Art Director
With my holiday looming ever closer I spent the start of the week on a slow down, the middle of the week on a complete stop and now I'm actually on holiday. I wish I was there in gloomy old England to see all your wonderful faces, but...well….ok I'm lying! Later peeps!
Lee - Technical Director
This week I have been working to resolve issues with the new version of the engine which were preventing us from building and running the game. I’ve also been helping with the discussion about new AI we would like to introduce to the game.
Tristan - Lead Developer
This week I have been fixing up some multiplayer bugs, engine bugs and also ironing out our updated multiplayer design with Andy and John.
Yves - Senior Developer
Working with the other devs to help fix an issue we have been having with traces that enable the player to interact with items in the world. Before it was using the same trace that the weapons and the RMD Tool modules used, but as we are changing what the player starts with we’re having to alter this.
Ricky - Senior Developer
I’ve looked into various crashes and issues from the QA Team - specifically ones to do with changes to weapons and what’s come along with engine updates.
Marcin - Designer
I am continuing with the AI combat work, but more specifically on all the parameters that make each behaviour unique and yet part of the same system. Examples of that would be: whether the attack can be executed while moving or does the AI have to stop to do it. Another one would, how closely in front of the AI do you have to be for the behaviour to trigger, or does the behaviour even care about that? Or when we request a new move, how fast should the AI be going, should it slow down before it reaches the destination, if we are already moving, which one should take priority? Rules and options, all of it. At the end of it the “leaf” tasks of the “behaviour tree” should have enough variety that each creature should have its own character even if they follow the same “trunk” behaviour behind the scenes.
Landscapes have taken a back-seat this week, with most of my focus being on our brand new vehicle prototypes, working towards optimum bounciness. We’ve got some really great variants up and running now, so can’t wait to show you guys our progress in the coming weeks!
Once we’ve updated our engine version I should be able to start adding some really cool new features to our environments.
Alex - Designer
I’ve been a busy little beaver, working my fluffy tail off at getting the inside of our new interiors textured and up to scratch!
Lauren - Lead Animator
This week I have been continuing with the third person animations and the Axe. It's coming together. There are some tweaks still to come, still blocking animations and various pared actions such as finishing moves left to do but it's getting there.
Olly - Developer
Vehicle prototyping has been the order of the day/week! Mostly working on getting physics to feel right and sorting bugs with wheels not behaving how they should.
Carlos - Developer
I’ve been looking into co-op bugs with not being able to equip modules after our system changes to separate the modules from weapons. I also found a few issues with our use and interact systems that I’ve been beating into submission (using the ancient power of code).
Jamie - QA
This week I have been testing the new engine version and checking what works and what doesn’t work in the latest build. I’ve encountered a few bugs that I’ve been working with the team to sort out :)
Sam - Concept Artist
Bring on the vehicles!
Andy - Lead QA
I’ve spent the week testing the new version of the engine with Jamie to ensure that it is all working correctly and there are no huge problems before we merge it with our main branch. I’ve also been in design meetings with John and Trist working on our new plan for multiplayer which, after discussing with the rest of the team we are all really excited about.
See you in the fray!
-Team Flix
October Development Update!
Greetings Pioneers!
This week we have been making more awesome progress on various areas of the game.
The new areas of the landscape make traversing via vehicle a breeze. That's right.. we have been working on prototypes and designs for vehicles! We have also been continuing work on our early objectives system for single player.
Here's exactly what we’ve each been up to:
John - Lead Designer
This week has been full of exciting design meetings. We finally have a direction plan for multiplayer that will encompass all our current systems (along with a few new ones) in a fun and interesting way.
Matt - Art Director
Whilst myself and Alex were working through lighting benchmarks for the bases last week I’ve been helping the guys out with vehicle setup and design over the last several days. The final visuals will be dictated by the function of these different vehicle types, we’re pretty happy with the different purposes and already have some nice looking silhouette/concept work to go with it.
Tristan - Lead Developer
This week I have been discussing and planning out the game type details for the next stages of multiplayer with John and Andy. It is all very exciting. I have also been reviewing the objective system for the game so that we can get some objectives set up in the world for some fun direction to the game.
Tom - Designer
I’ve been busy working on creating some shiny new vehicles for our intrepid pioneers to explore the world of Eden Star in. Hopefully you guys will appreciate them in all their bouncy glory!
Now that we have some sweet new vehicles, we need a nice new area to drive around in, so have spent the week generating some new landscapes to explore.
This is a more fleshed out example of the final quality (pre-vis) of what we're aiming for..
Ricky - Senior Developer
Looked into progressing the latest engine update, some new and rather handy features will be made available for the art team when this is done.
Marcin - Designer
I am continuing the work on the AI behaviours and attacks. I’ve implemented the first area attack and the first ranged attack that work with our new combat behaviours and perception. I also implemented the system for attacks to be able to use supporting visual actors, which will come in very handy when we need an attack to create or manipulate any objects during its execution.
Alex - Designer
Continued with asset unwraps for the base sets! They say UV unwrapping is like a jigsaw puzzle of chaos that can strike fear into the hearts of men! But not this day!
Lauren - Lead Animator
This week I have been continuing with the third person axe animations, there’s still some work to do to get them looking like they are hitting the objects you aim at (also you can't interact with anything in 3rd person yet) but it's getting there!
Sam Russell - Concept Artist
Hey there people! I’ve been brought on board to kit bash together some important visual design work for our vehicles. We’ve been focusing on two types, a speeder and 6 wheel transport/shuttle bus.
Andy - Lead QA
This week has been a massive push for finally getting vehicles in the game. We have had our new artist getting some cool concepts together and our new programmer getting a working prototype into the game.
See you in the fray!
-Team Flix
September Development Update 5?!
Greetings Pioneers!
Several serious development scrum meetings later.. More progress fleshing out artwork for the bases and the overall layout of the terrain across the environment. Previously we had discussed the potential system the vehicles would use and the designs behind those, we’re now at a stage where we’re putting concept art together for the final vehicle types we have defined.
Here is what everyone has been upto:
John - Lead Designer
Whilst the team are well into polishing off a lot of the existing playable structures I've been organising game mechanic reviews and milestones for missing content. This just means everyone will get a more focused experience at the end of development as we focus on the core of what makes Eden Star different and enjoyable! Big thank you to everyone who is sticking with us through this quality shift.
Matt - Art Director
There’s a distinct lack of pretty pictures for this weeks blog.. never fear however! Lots of things going on behind the scenes, so there will be plenty to come. We’ve started piecing together vehicle concepts and massive landscape improvements that we’ll cast upon your eyes when they are better developed.
My main focus for the week has been guiding the continuity for the the new vehicle artwork, terrain and the lighting re-adjustments for the new artwork passes. everything is being designed to surpass the quality we’ve already set to date.
Lee - Technical Director
This week I have been continuing my work on testing and tweaking the spawning code so it can handle all the eventualities we want it for. I’ve also begun work on merging the UE4.17 version of the engine into our code base.
Tristan - Lead Developer
This week I have been working through production tasks with John and Andy in order to work out what features we want to start getting in for our next set of releases. Exciting stuff.
Yves - Senior Developer
I’ve been working on the objective system, there’s a lot to get done, we’re only 85% the way through.
Alex - Designer
Carrying on from last week, unwrapping and texturing the maintenance modular set, now i’ve almost completed the set It’s easier to see what models need tweaking and having more detail added to them. Especially running around them with the characters in the scene.
We're doing this to make sure we are using all our poly’s to maximum effect. Once this task is finished i’ll start on doing a roughness and metalness pass so that everything looks a little less uniform.
Lauren - Lead Animator
This week we have been continuing with the 3rd person Axe melee and discussing designs and animations for the finishing moves that will be able to be performed when the AI you are attacking is at low health.
Andy - Lead QA
I’ve been working in editor on the terrain changes in order to form the quarried lake behind the dam which has been fun, but slightly problematic.
Midweek we had a really productive design meeting which covered all aspects of Eden Star and formulated the MVP for our next release.
![](https://i.imgur.com/R6JrNSD.jpg" )
![](https://i.imgur.com/u8smEp1.jpg")
