[Hey folks! Morse is now approaching the end of the development period with the UKGF and there's been a tremendous surge in progress. Here's what we managed to achieve in March:]

Hey folks! Morse is now approaching the end of the development period with the UKGF and there's been a tremendous surge in progress. Here's what we managed to achieve in March:





+ Spline based units: With the help of Tom Kail, we now have the ability for units to travel in 3D space rather than purely in a straight line. Soliders now climb in and out of trenches, submarines emerge and sink and naval transports weave across the grid. This opens up a whole realm of options for level design, particularly since this can be integrated into the prefab missions.

+ Multiple strike points: Rather than purely relying on isograms, we now have the ability to target an extra location if there are duplicate letters on the map, so words such as GUNNER or DEMOLISHED can be used without error, and double letters result in double artillery. In the current build of Morse, this only sees usage in the final mission as a means of showing the future potential of this system.

+ Height based terrain: For the final mission and the earlier trenches, we have different heights of terrain. To factor this in, we added a sensor to detect the height of ground and adjust the reticule and artillery. It isn't perfect yet but makes it a lot easier than the previous iteration. Having terrain options gives us the ability to design much more exciting dioramas, such as trenches, hills and craters.

+ Territory markers: Previously it wasn't clear where the borderlines were on the map so I added a flashing victory/defeat bar when units crossed it. This system in particular is still quite early on and may in time be replaced with something a lot more clear and robust, as one of the common complaints is not having a clear gauge on victory states.

+ Further refinements to shooting: Some of the earlier playtesters pointed out a lengthy wait for some of their simpler entries, so an elegant solution was found: If the player presses fire and there's a compatible coordinate loaded in, it will immediately move and fire. This gives more advanced players the option to catch enemy units before they slip out of range.

+ Artillery Aesthetic Upgrades: We also made some aesthetic refinements to the artillery strikes, such as adding a trail for the path of the shell which as an extra easter egg uses the Morse coordinates of the strike. The multi-shot strikes were also staggered slightly with their timing to create more of a familiar feel to the creeping barrages of the First World War.

+ Cinematic Remaster: The opening cinematics are now fully overhauled, Katy did an incredible job in updating the assets and we worked together to integrate the new assets with extra flair and style. Another technical feature which Tom provided help for was the text to spline renderer. This allowed us to draw morse code moving in arcs and zigzags in 3D space, which will be used in a variety of areas in the project.

+ Ida Remaster/Asset Production: We also noticed that Ida needed higher resolution graphics, since being closer to the camera caused more artefacts to become clear, so Katy remastered that element. She also continued work on the house and finalised the graphics for Kitty, the final character we needed doing for the current build.

+ Putting in elbow grease: With the majority of content constructed, the focus of the project in this last month has been heavily oriented around polish. Small things like adding couriers ferrying supplies to the rail depot, biplanes releasing propaganda on the FLYERS mission and adding drifting slow embers on the final mission. These small refinements help give each stage their own look and feel and really bring up the production level.

With this month marking a year since I started my journey working on the project with the team, I'll be following this video up with a brief reflection on my experience of the project so far, my time with the UKGF and aspirations for MORSE.

Thanks again for checking out the project, I'll be continuing these development videos beyond the UKGF as they're a good reflection point on measure of progress. Stay tuned for more soon.

Hey Folks!

Got a bunch of new stuff implemented today, here's one of those things: the u-boat escort mission! This one was a lot of fun to design and I really got to put the new spline editor to use (More on that tomorrow), check it out:

Hey Folks! Just a quick update (which I'll follow up tomorrow) is I've got some really cool features working! Artillery now has a trail behind it when it strikes (which is made of up dots and dashes of the transmitted message, see in the second gif), units are now controlled with a spline tool (which allows them to climb in and out of trenches) and I've got a line to visualise the territory control in the trench!

More tomorrow!

Hey Folks!

Here's the latest update on the project for work done in February! Stay tuned for more soon!

Hey Folks!

Had a super busy day of work on the project but just wanted to post this cool thing I made: U-BOATS! They're a new unit you'll face on the third day of gameplay. It's going to be really great when I get the combat functionality in, they're going be initially visible to the player, dive, switch rows then fire, at which point you have to spot which of your ships gets hit then target that location in relation to where it struck. There'll also be a random interval where it'll come up in which you can land a quick kill on it.

More content soon!

Hey Folks!

Going to be doing a series of smaller updates to keep myself in the routine of posting regularly! Here goes:

After several rounds of iteration, we’ve settled on an aesthetic that Katy has been implementing. I had my reservations about increasing the colour palette (at the risk of bloating the scope), but the designs Katy has done adds a whole other layer of polish and character to the project and also gives a level of contrast between the gameplay and narrative segments. Having updated these assets, Katy will now work her way through the rooms and animated sequences.

More coming soon! We're approaching the end of the UKGF period (Final month) so updates will be coming thick and fast!

Hey Folks!

Just a quick post to show you the 3D models I'm working on for MORSE! In one of the upcoming missions, you have to destroy a German railway depot, here's the train that'll be parked in there! Below that is a veeeeeery rough implementation of the train in the level (the current level layout is incorrect, one of the earlier levels). As part of the game I'll be doing very basic 3D models and trying to standardise them as much as possible to keep the project relatively cohesive in aesthetic! Stay tuned for more soon, have a variety of exciting updates in the pipeline!

Hey Folks!

Apologies for another lapse in posts, 2021 is proving to be an extremely busy year! Nevertheless, I'm managing to get work done for the project!

Main thing I wanted to do a quick update on is that the writing is done for this section of the project! We have 3 "days" of gameplay, which consists of around 8-9 narrative sections each day, which includes jokes, drama, historical richness, character development and poetry! I've integrated it into Unity/Ink but as the narrative has become more complex, I need to build more complex tools to adjust characters present on screen! For this, I'll be building an animation set where I can fade/switch characters displayed and more specifically switch these in the script.

One very exciting development is the writer from the project, Danni has successfully secured work at Ubisoft in a narrative design role which we're all incredibly chuffed about!

I'll hopefully have a more visually exciting update soon, but I just wanted to show something to keep the devlog above water! More soon.

Hey folks!



Just a real quick update to show the aerial combat for MORSE, still don't have shooting between planes but do have them occupying the same airspace! I need to figure out if I want them to be flying directly at each other or whether they'll shoot at each other as they fly past, not 100% sure yet (There's a lot of places where this can go wrong with planes intersecting one another, especially if put in the same lanes).

In terms of what I'm doing atm otherwise, just compiling the remaining work from the team, overhauling the notifications functionality/window, working on a loading screen and revamping the raycasting functionality. Should hopefully be another update relatively soon!

Nice update/summary of things you already posted here!

It would be really cool if MORSE or VICTORY was spelled out in morse code alongside the actual letters, although I guess it would be a bit too cramped, right?

This is actually on my list of stuff to implement, I'll be adding a subtle underline similar to the intro graphic (also possibly adding to the menu/pause buttons when you hover over!)

Hey Folks! Apologies for the radio silence on my end, it's been an extremely busy month (been absolutely buried under a pile of marking/admin) which has made updates on here hard to prioritise! Nevertheless, I've got most of the admin done and there should hopefully be some more updates in the pipeline out before the end of January!

In the meantime, here's the progress update video for December!

We're aiming to produce an update for the demo on itch.io end of the month/early February which we'll be then actively starting to promote (First build was more of a soft launch) stay tuned for more on that soon!

Hey folks!

Just a quick post showing off some exciting new elements implemented: Air combat! We now have the sky battlefield in very early stages and biplanes which arc across the map. It's been a delight designing this so far and I'll be having more info on it as things increase in depth, but here's a gif so far:



As a heads up, I'm going to be doing 70 projects of marking over the next month so updates might be a little less frequent for a while, but we'll see!

Thanks for the heads up on this! I'm mulling over submitting my game MORSE for it. We have polished a 30 minute demo releasing early next year but it's likely to be at least another 12 months till it's a full commercial release. Does this void me from submitting it to the competition?

Thanks again!

Implementing some new UI for the main menu and title screen!

Check out the main thread/devlog here

Hey Folks! Hope you had a lovely Christmas, I'll be doing a bit more work on MORSE before the new year, just wanted to show you the new title screen and update to the main menu. It's really strange that the title screen took so long to update, it was one of the first elements I created for the project (at a time where I didn't really understand Unity), so now that I've spent a lot of time in the engine (and with the animation tools) I was really able to go to town. I broke the higher resolution version of the title card into individual letters and animated them separately in the editor, then used a black mask to cover the underline and reveal it in sync with the letters.

For the main menu I originally wanted to get a network of pipes/splines all interwoven and have messages travelling along said strings, but it proved too complicated for me to implement at this point (Have got the contact of someone who can implement it if I decide to go ahead with it). Instead I opted for an explosion of dots and dashes, which looks tasty and also is thematically relevant with the game content (Explosions called down by Morse code commands).

I'll be working on the air battlefield tomorrow, excited to do so and cautiously optimistic! Stay tuned for more soon.

BEFORE


AFTER


Hey Folks! Just a quick post to show the revamped overworld view! Was torn between doing a diorama style overview of the mansion and doing an announcement board. I opted for the latter since it was more grounded in the player perspective, allowed for more narrative texture in the form of information attached to the board and was less demanding from production (Just need to make documents, rather than entire scenes of animated characters/rooms/furniture).

For the layout of the map itself, I used the blueprint of Audley End, a manor house in East Anglia which was home to the remnants of the polish airforce during the Second World War.

This is still a first pass of the design but it's significantly more compelling than the placeholder setup I had before!

This'll likely be my last update before Christmas, but thanks again for following the project this year, really appreciate the support.

Hey Folks! Here's the latest monthly video discussing the latest features we've integrated and what we've been up to. Hope you find it interesting! If you're wondering where the October video is, not only did we produce a metric tonne of video content/media, we also took most of that month off to recover from the push for Indiecade.

I'll be doing a little bit more work on the game before Christmas, so hopefully will squeeze in another update before then!

Sounds like the game plays faster now. How do you balance the "speed" of the game with the inherent limitations on speed for giving command in morse code? I imagine that reaction time works a bit differently in this game, even if you're really fast at telegraphing (?) commands

It's a really tricky balance! It may turn out what I have above is too fast for regular users. Other stuff that should hopefully make things less harsh is taking less on an absolutist state for the win/lose states. At the moment, if any enemy reaches the British lines, you lose. Having instead a threshold/healthbar of 3 or 4 may be more appropriate and give a little more wiggle room for players with less experience. Alternatively, having players not instantly win for getting 1 unit across might also be a good idea (showing what the winstate is) may be a good shout.

[+ Split the health logic into its own block:]

Hey Folks!

So it's been an absolutely bonkers month, hasn't really relented yet but figured I'd get a post in to keep things flowing on here! (Approaching a month without content!)

I'll be trying to post more frequent smaller blogs rather than the behemoths I usually accomplish as it's less pressure on my end to produce them at a time where I'm knackered! Having said that, this one should be a decent chunk!

One of the areas in serious need of improvement has been the units. previously the units were quite deadpan, slow and lacked interactivity. The unit tool I've created too was bloated and meant basic destructible objects/specialist units had a bunch of unneeded settings (Speed, halt whilst firing, range). The health systems were also pretty simplistic, each unit taking one basic hit because of the rigid animation setup.

Here's what I did to address these problems:
+ Split the health logic into its own block: This means it can be used more broadly for obstacles, decorations and specialist units without loads of reference errors/unassigned variables.
+ Death flashes now set by material instead of animation: Infantry were defaulting to their death animation of receiving the first hit of damage (which disables their collision), so to remedy that any damage above 0 health will trigger a flash. Because this is built into the now separated logic block, it'll apply to any object damaged with a flash.
+ Replaced the infantry unit animation: It was something I wanted to previously implement before Indiecade but I ran out of time. This was done courtesy of @SinclairStrange in time for the event which was appreciated. Because the units looked ridiculous running whilst moving extremely slowly, I made the following change...
+ New unit movement speeds: As mentioned above, I needed updated speed logic for the units to match the animations, so I increased their speed. Because I'm using forces it looked really sloppy (characters accelerated slowly into a run instead of bolting into it) so I added an initial burst of acceleration when they started running which then tailed off with a lerp. This was good and all, but I now found myself with a new problem: The units were moving really fast and even me with a lot of time in the game couldn't hold off their attacks.
Suppressing fire: To remedy this, units will spend a lot more time standing and shooting (I have a loop that once the unit has opened fire on a soldier in range, there's a 3 in 4 chance they'll fire again). This means there are a lot more bullets zinging around the battlefield and also means targets are actually easier to hit than before (And actually differentiates the combat tempo from the naval fights).

+ Machine guns: This was one of the features cut for Indiecade because it wasn't crucial, but I've finally managed to get them implemented again. It was important for me to get them working because to be blunt, trench warfare is over too quickly without them countering the now rapid charges from no man's land. I was a little apprehensive about implementing them (with raycasting deciding where they'd shoot) but for now, I've instead opted for a constant peppering of fire with the barrel of the gun pivoting back and forth across a 40-degree range. What's nice is they mean that combat can actually have a lot more going on and when they're destroyed it massively raises the stakes.
+ Sniper: This is very early on, but basically it's a static unit that sits in no man's land and will emerge to fire and be visible temporarily before disappearing again. They'll kill most units in one shot if not destroyed before they fire. Still very WIP but can see missions of clearing out sniper nests or countering ambushes. May have them scurry onto the battlefield then disappear when they find their hide.
+ Added extra health to units in the trenches: To give a tactical advantage to being in a trench, units spawned/stationed in trenches will get +2 health (Meaning they can sustain multiple hits). In time I'll have units move/react to where gunfire is being bought down, but for now, it'll do.
+ Adjusted the fire point: Until this update, units fired from their stomachs. I shifted it to a child object at the end of their weapon barrels.
+ Simplifying animation states: I also standardised the animation sets for the various units (Now have idle, firing, moving and hit), putting them in folders specific for the unit type but keeping the animation names simple (E.g. Not EnemyInfantryIdle, but Idle in the folder EnemyInfantry).
+ Grid Adjustments: As a subtle last fix too, I've cranked the opacity of the grid waaaaaay down as it was making it hard to see the characters. Definitely an improvement.


Here's a before and after of the land combat:

BEFORE


AFTER


That's all for now, I'm mid-way through doing this new integration so should hopefully be more updates soon as I populate the battlefield!

[+ Pause Menu:]

Just sat down to watch the video, very nice summary of the project!

(Love that you already got one salty downvote... gee I wonder what provoked that... totally not suspecting it's a man with very fragile masculinity at all )

Haha, indeed, pretty pathetic.

Another quick update:
+ Pause Menu: Still very much work in progress but coming together, really looking forward to refining it into delicious UI (Staggered button spawn, sliding bits). The settings menu is currently in the mockup phase, where I'll be adding features such as auto-send sensitivity and a bunch of configurations for Morse enthusiasts!
+ Main Menu: Takes you to the main menu from the splash, giving you the option to go to training mode, adjust settings and quit! 
+ Source control implemented: It's long overdue, but now the project has protection with source control! I had a scare with setting up controllers and broke mouse and keyboard input, so got it set up after with the help from Alex Rose!

That's all for now, should hopefully get most of Friday to work on the UI further! Stay tuned for more soon.