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[electrolyte]

Steam
store.steampowered.com/app/395470


Hi all, I started work on a sort of unnamed fps and also my first toe dip into Unity.

It's an organic process and early days but it contains puzzle solving, treasure hunting, traps and looting! You take the role of Sam - a scavenger and scrap dealer who's on one final job is to loot the most prized of all, the JME Mining vessel Icarus.1

Abandoned for decades, crew MIA, the Icarus.1's job was to store mined minerals from the systems outlying planets. It orbits the local sun to maintain it's solar energy and proved a lucrative business for JME corp. After contact was lost no attempt was ever made to make contact with the stricken station, instead the project was mothballed - a cover up some may say. Many stories about what happened have become lore but Sam isn't focusing on these 'stories', the goal is the cargo and the wealth it will bring.

We pick up the action just as the shuttle pod has docked to the abandoned Icarus.1


- Early shot of access tunnel

I'm working out the work flow as I go as it's a completely different discipline to what I'm used to, 2D -> 3D. I've nailed down some of the mechanics and so far they comprise of Doors, Switches, Unscrewing panels, cutting wires, Picking container locks and Looting!





My aim is to have this all finished in TWO months, so lets see how it goes and come join the ride it you want!
 

[BanzaiBrigade]

Loving the screens.

I've tried experimenting with low-res 3d pixel art kind of look, but I could not get around the issue of far away textures looking like crap.

You seem to have got around that very nicely. Do you mind if I ask how you achieved the look? I assume you got around the texture issue by using flat colours instead of textures, but some of the things look textured and still look good. Something I couldn't achieve.

On a side note your title is terrible.

[electrolyte]

On a side note your title is terrible.

Ha ... I thought it was quite snappy :D

Pixel textures, all you have to do is change the settings on the text to 'Point' rather than Unity trying to smooth it. Turn off the textures compression, and if you can also turn off mini-maps - that will prevent smoothing again in the distance. I'm no expert but you will have to balance looks for performance, also try to make your images power of 2, so 16,32,64,128,256,512 etc etc. Hope that helps!

[Sorsy]

I really like the look of it. Very original to me at least. The cabinets and benches look really nice. On the other hand I'm afraid of that 'Time left' in upper left corner. I hate when games do this but I guess it's a personal preference.

[RujiK]

I agree with Sorsy! This game looks like a lot of fun that I would love to poke around every nook and cranny (Provided there is some incentive!) And a time limit would really ruin it for me.

I want to take my sweet time!

[electrolyte]

Thanks for feeback, I'm still playing with the time limit idea and it needs fleshing out. It would in no way be like a short limit, more like 30mins or so but I know what you mean, it's nice to be able to explore at your own pace  



I started on the 'Operations' room today and this is a shot after some blast doors have been opened on the front of the vessel - all part of one of the puzzles.  I've realized that the game seems to lumber from one set piece to another, this isn’t a great idea if I want to finish it in time. If I can flesh out the three main sections and hub then I need to go back over and do the fancy bits. Must stop getting side tracked with details!

Also learnt how to shift pivot points in Cinema and then make object piviot around them in Unity, such a noob

[electrolyte]

Today was a good day! I finally worked out how you can texture up multiple objects / meshes in just one Atlas. This has reduced the batching from an embarrassing 1756 to 340, I can get it lower

I need to park that optimization until a bit later in dev as I'm still thrashing out game-play, need to make sure there's an actual game in there. 2 months till deadline ...

[electrolyte]

Been able to get away with almost one atlas for the game as the textures are quite flat. Also played around with the pixel density and have upped it slightly as I still want the pixel aesthetic but keep it readable. I've also been fleshing out the actual station with separate sections of processing, habitation, operations and cargo. Each will have their own purpose in the game / puzzle elements.

Stairs have been added to allow the map to fold back on it's self which opens up possibilities. One thing I have come to the conclusion is not to make it sprawling in size but that everything should have purpose. Keeping things lazer focused from a puzzle / game play perspective.







'A glimpse of your doom ...'

[electrolyte]

Had my head down trying to understand batch calls some more. Shifted a number of models into one texture, adding some details. The Habitation section is now fleshed out just need's wiring up. Added a new play mechanic, crowbars!   Added some more details to the shuttle pod that you use to dock with Icarus.1 You're going to be a pretty bad pilot and the docking will be bumpy hence boxes strewn around and the door will have blown a fuse which leads you into the first puzzle / game play mech.

Only a couple of months left to get this finished!



You can see it moving here!
https://twitter.com/16bitsperpx/status/595285359312969728

[electrolyte]

So what started as 10 rooms has now grown in size, Icarus.1 is taking shape with about 80% of rooms in place mocked up. Have the entire cargo section still to build and also need to finish habitation. I've added the jump option back in which meant reworking the collision detection for structures and add it to all the ceilings. I opted for hidden meshes in the end as I can make simple geometry and not worry about snagging. Its starting to dawn on me how much is left to do and with under 2 months of spare time left I'm thinking about down-scaling this.  

[electrolyte]

Back to the 'Secure Zone' Room and re-modelling them. These will lock down once entered meaning you have to make the sure to either leave behind any loot that may be there or stick around as long as you dare before complete shutdown happens! The cargo area will be the main section that has them, but malfunctioning rooms will also be dotted around in the other sections of the vessel.

Had a real faff around with prefabs and attached scripts losing their references. I've still not solved it completely so will just duplicate rooms for the time being as I don't want to slow stuff development down. Outside pressures are making dev times scarer. 

[and]

I really like the art style of this, the particles looked really cool in the twitter video - you need to post more gifs!!

How on track are you to meet your 2 month target?

[electrolyte]

Thanks, yeah I need to work out some more animated gifs as moving this all looks super different! I had a massive low with it a few days ago but I put in some music score's and it's lifted my spirits and the game. Had this idea that you are moving around in your space suit, so am trying this view from within your space helmet that's all bashed up ... could even add heavy breathing maybe.

I think I'm gunna get the deadline met, I just need to really keep focused juggling the dev of this with being a parent and having a full time job, hee.

[electrolyte]

Tweaked the in helmet HUD removing the mouth piece as it took up a bit too much room :D Think I'll stick with this, it reacts to lights as you pass under them which is nice. I've also managed to almost complete the cargo bay section rooms, just need to populate them and that's the space craft almost complete!

Below are shot taken from your shuttle pod, shot two shows an access panel that you've unbolted to get at the tripped fuse switch.

[electrolyte]

I really like the art style of this, the particles looked really cool in the twitter video - you need to post more gifs!!

How on track are you to meet your 2 month target?

30 Second YouTube clip uploaded!

[and]

Yeah the rooms and particles look really nice!

Have you thought about trying a different font though? I know you obviously need it to be readable, but it looks a bit out of place with the art style - I don't know if you could maybe just add a filter to the text?

[electrolyte]

Have you thought about trying a different font though? I know you obviously need it to be readable, but it looks a bit out of place with the art style - I don't know if you could maybe just add a filter to the text?

I'm kinda going for the crisp against the low-fi aesthetic, much like I ended up doing in Reprisal. Also it uses 'real' sound and music rather than chip which would be more in keeping with lo-fi. Using bitmap fonts limits font sizes / legibility and this was a problem in Reprisal. Thanks for the comments though, much appreciated 

Been cracking on with a lot of systems for the game and firming up story etc. Because i'm learning Unity on the go I'm discovering new and better / correct ways of doing stuff. This means going back over older bit's and updating it.

I am concerned that there may be too 'little' gameplay but I'm going to crack on at the moment and try to get a demo together.

In other areas made a title screen, or first pass at a title screen, thanks to my wife for the face :D

[BomberTREE]

Love the atmosphere man! Sweet 

[supermega_peter]

I love the lo-fi aesthetic, your title screen looks great too!

The simplified helmet design is much better, it's clean and I like the sound of it reacting subtly to light.

I had the same initial concern for as And about the font choice, but it's growing on me.

[Quicksand-T]

The unique look is great, but I'm not sure how well the font and style of the text fits it right now.