End of Days
I Didn't Make it in Time
Sorry guys, just been working too much to get around to this. End of Days is still alive though, I won't ever give up on this. With every project I work on, I gain more skill and knowledge that I'm excited to use for End of Days.
I'd like to open up a discussion here for anyone who has any questions or would just like to chat about End of Days. Please feel free to chat with me :)
"Starting Fresh"
Jokes aside, this is actually rewrite #7. So so so much has been going on since my last post about updating. I became a full time game developer, if I didn't mention that before, and I've mostly been busy with contract work and what not. End of Days got put on the sideline while I did that and I worked on a smaller side project called "Ryft Raiders". Ryft Raiders is now going to be the sideline project as I've basically hit a wall due an engine bug with UE4.
It's been bugging me for a long time that I haven't posted an update for End of Days in like 2 years. There's has been a chunk of beta branch updates for those who participated from our Discord, but ultimately they never got to the public release side of things. During the time of those beta updates I was struggling with a lot of issues with Unreal Engine 4 and also with VR development being uncharted territory for most people. There was next to no information when I needed to search for answers. Pile on top of all this that I had a lot of junk code and practices in place from the time I didn't know much as a dev... and really it just came out to a mess.
Well, I'd like to state that I'm way more confident as a developer at this point. There's a lot more sources for information for VR development too. I have pretty much all VR platforms at my disposal now as well. All in all it's a good time to get back on this project.
That being said, I'm changing my approach to this. As soon as I get a basis established within the following week or so I'm going to purge the current repositories for End of Days. In other words I'm getting rid of everything that is currently in the public, alpha, and beta branches.
There's several reasons for this decision. The major one being that I don't think you can even launch EoD if you bought it from the store and don't have beta access. There's been some issue with file paths from the old source and beta source. The only way to fix it is to pick one and move forward. Since I'm not using either, I'm just going to junk them and start fresh. The other major reason is that the art from the early version, beta version, and now what I'm currently working on are so vastly different that I don't want to confuse people. I still need to adjust the skybox of my current version to get that same kind of spooky feel from beta branch before I drop any screenies. It's pretty meme worthy how different they all are.
Next up, scope change. I'm not exactly sure how far I will take this project end goal wise, but I'm dialing back my short term goals. I've already gone ahead and revised the store page descriptions and early access info to match this. I'm going to need to change the art work AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, but I felt it important to at least show that there's still stuff going on here.
I'd like to hit as many vr platforms as possible, but for the time being I'm sticking with Steam. I'll put an Oculus store version out as well, but both game versions won't be able to cross play online UNTIL I set up my own system for that. I REALLY want to do that. I think it's majorly important. On the steam side of things I aim to hit SteamVR, Oculus, and WMR. I need a dedicated tester for WMR or I'll get a WMR headset at some point to work it out. I can get access to PSVR, but it's tricky to work with, so we'll see. I have a quest and will also get a quest 2, but at current I don't really know if it will be able to handle all the AI and stuff. So quest may get a standalone version, but users will be able to play through Oculus link still.
Lastly, the major change to my current approach is working on VR, first person, and multiplayer at the same time to keep things consistent. With that being the case, the update won't have all the features the public and beta versions had. An example of this is melee as I have to make decisions on how that is going to work. I'd like to do AI physics interactions like most VR gamers have come to expect in other popular titles, but the number of AI and multiplayer make that a BIG challenge. So for now it will be projectiles only.
I'll make another post in the coming days on what features we do have and what to expect in the coming "update". If you'd like to follow the progress join our Discord and or check out the End of Days Trello page
- Starkium
A Quick Update
Anyway, hey all, End of Days is still not dead. I figured that it has been long enough again that I should post about the current situation. SO, what's going on currently:
- TBH I've had to put off working on End of Days for a little while due to a project for my day job that had me working pretty much round the clock for a while. That project is done now so I've had more time to come back to Life Art Studio's projects.
- On the subject of Life Art Studio's projects, we have a title that is coming to early access soon. Anyone in the test program can get access to it shortly. I've been focussing on that project more right now as other developer's and I have been ironing out some kinks with End of Days in the background.
- We will be having another developer hopping on End of Days with us soon. They are working on one of their own projects right now and some features of that will be used as a basis for work in End of Days.
- In the time between now and the last update we've gained a lot of knowledge, skills, and assets that will help make End of Days a much better game. We're super excited to get back to work on End of Days soon. Something interesting we've been doing for practice and for research purposes is making mods for pavlov zombies. I have to say that honestly it feels really good.
- I'm hoping to update our website in the near future to help engage the community more as well. In the mean time, definitely join our discord if you haven't already.
https://discord.gg/5vsuBkj
ːsteamhappyː Starkium
SUPER CLOSE TO UPDATING
Anyway here's some screenshots and as always I urge you to join our discord. It's super active and always has in progress shots. https://discord.gg/D3av6NF
Staggered release builds
Public branch which is very outdated right now and I believe not working for most people.
Public preview which is a not totally stable release of whats coming in the updates, the password for that is: AlmostStable
Lastly we have the beta branch which is not public and only availble to patreon subscribers and people which I've given the key. This version is the bleeding edge with everything I'm working on and a playground for people to test all sorts of features.
To opt into the branch go to the beta's tab under the properties menu and enter your password there.
Engine Bug Solved
~ Starkium
Having Engine Bugs
I'm not sure what's happened, but I'm having a bug with Unreal Engine that prevents me from packaging the game. I'm trying to work with Epic Games and the Unreal Engine 4 community to figure out the source of the error. I'm also going to try to migrate the files and settings into a new project and see if I can get it to compile. This issue is really frsutrating because I thought it was stemming from the custom engine build so I've been trying to tweak that. The engine can take up to 8 hours to recompile and then I have to compile the project afterwards to see if the edit fixed the problem. I have done this repeatedly for a few weeks now and I have found out the issue isn't coming from the engine. I opened End of Days in a non custom version of UE4 and I still get the same issues.
I'll keep you up to date on the progress as I find things out.
-Starkium
Version 0.2.0 Now In Beta!
- Climbing
- Vehicles
- Human Ally AI
- Human Enemy AI
- New AI system for zombies ( not the one I was showing off before )
- Intractable doors, drawers, cabinets, buttons, levers, and dials
- Updated Pistol Model
- Updated Turret logic
- Ground work for multiplayer
- New skybox ( needs work, but day night cycle is there )
- Ground work for sliceable zombies
- Added Feature Testing map ( called Testers Map )
- Factions system
- Fixed the fire wand
- Ground work for player bodies
- Fixed explosion damage system
- Updated Safe House
- 9 Types of locomotion options ( for experimenting and feedback )
- Support for Steam VR Knuckles controllers ( I got my set of EV3's today)
- improved resolution
- Consistent performance ( still a lot of room for improvement )
- Arrows can be lit on fire!
Plus more things that probably don't matter to you. A lot was fixed, but this was a ground up rewrite of End of Days for the 4th time so some stuff isn't completed and bugs might reappear. For example, shooting the shotgun when it's too close to you face will kill you.
I need to make new animations and I REALLY NEED to make better zombie and human models. The guy I had working on those before went MIA so RIP to that. I'll just take the time to do it myself.
The new pistol mesh was made by one of our community members N1lsson so say thanks to him :)
Gunna have beta testers find out what else is broken, I'll fix it, and then this update goes public. If you want to get into the beta testing group, join our discord server and I'll give you the password to the beta branch https://discord.gg/zzFAhkq
-Starkium
Checking in
Side note, we have a creators page now so you might want to check that out. It has links to our other stuff and discussions on our works in progress. https://steamcommunity.com/groups/LifeArtStudios/
Lastly, I want to say thanks for being patient with EoD. This was our very first project so things have been interesting figuring out this whole dev process as we go.
Status Update
I've been watching reviews for End of Days and listening to feedback and with all that considered I think I am going to drop the price until more content is added. For those of you who paid full price, you should hop into my discord and let me know. I'll give you an access code for the beta branch of End of Days and I'll also figure out some sort of bonus for being an early adopter.
Sorry for updates being so infrequent lately, I recently took some contract work for another game project as well as took extra time to learn more about material system in UE4.
If you want a sneak peak of the new zombie models, go to the discord link above. :)