I'm finishing the version 0.5.0 update and preparing to release a public ultra early access demo. The demo will be available to everyone on GameJolt.
I have reworked the game a lot. I was mostly focused on overall graphics improvement and optimization. There are hella lot of changes:
- I made a new characters models with a new armature, which is based on blender's metarig. Which means now I have to learn to walk again. I have to retarget and rework all the animations. Now I'm working on a new clothes sets for a new characters.
- The player's Finite State Machine (FSM) was rewritten and simplified a lot.
- I made a new custom shaders (including cel shading) for Render Pipeline (RP) and reworked the RP's stages and plugins. Now I have a separate stages for rendering characters and environment.
- I has switched to modular level design and working on a new level editing pipeline.
- The game physics, networking and reconciliation logic was splitted into two separate processes, which gives +50% FPS gain.
- I have finished the first version (offline) of the game HUB system.
- The game's main menu was removed and replaced with a game HUB level. So when you select your character you instantly enter the game HUB level.
- The game's authentication was switched to GameJolt service. If you run the game with a GameJolt launcher you even don't have to enter your username and game token, the game will authenticate you automatically.
- B3 game level was removed, which mean I have 0 (zero) playable game levels for now. I have to make a new game level using a modular level design and make a better textures for it.
- Slide mechanics removed. This move could be overused/abused, so I decided to remove it.
Some stats: 2.5 months of work, 205 files changed, 10431 insertions(+), 5483 deletions(-).
Ultra early access demo limitations:
- No character customization. Almost all customization options will be locked at the start, because I'm doing an overall graphics replacement.
- No inventory, no item store.
- No online multiplayer matches, no bots. The only available game level will be HUB's placeholder level, where you can test the core gameplay's mechanics.
- Only 1 type of weapon is available atm.
- Wallrun mechanics disabled. I need to rework the animations to enable it again.
Thats why it's called an ultra early access xD
What is left to finish version 0.5.0 update:
- Make a few game level modules with a texture placeholders.
- Finish male character clothes models and textures.
- Finish weapon texture.
Future plans on the next 0.5.x version updates:
- Switch to content making.
- Make a new game level. This is a top priority. When I have some game level with a better graphics I can open a multiplayer matches again.
- Add some more weapons and clothes. Focus more on quality less on quantity.