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[Fenrir]

This thread was lacking of some big animated gifs, so here you go, I made one showing all players animations (walking, running, sneaking):

I'll soon come back with a proper devlog about multiplayer in the game, see you!

[Fenrir]

OK instead of writing a devlog I worked on the menus, what do you think?

What about the font?

[Playaction]

This game looks great.
Feedback on the menu: The first menu looks really good. The left parts are a little far spaced out, i think. It's a bit hard to see which buttons the text is referring to. Maybe move the icons to the left of the label, or add some horizontal lines.

[Fenrir]

This game looks great.
Feedback on the menu: The first menu looks really good. The left parts are a little far spaced out, i think. It's a bit hard to see which buttons the text is referring to. Maybe move the icons to the left of the label, or add some horizontal lines.

Thanks! And I see what you mean, and I think it's even worse in 1080p, I'll do something about it.

[Fenrir]

A quick question, what do you prefer?

[tWayfarer]

This looks pretty good! Nice, clean art style, and mechanics which allow you to show off your level design skills. Level editors always add a lot of value to a game, too.

A quick question, what do you prefer?

First one has more energy, which is better assuming it's really bad to cross one of those beams.

[Fenrir]

This looks pretty good! Nice, clean art style, and mechanics which allow you to show off your level design skills. Level editors always add a lot of value to a game, too

Thanks a lot!

First one has more energy, which is better assuming it's really bad to cross one of those beams.

Erf, I started with the first one, but I wanted to try something else and finally had a preference for the second one, so now you're making me doubting again...

[Fenrir]

Devlog #3 – MULTIPLAYER (you can find it on our blog here)

This time I’ll talk about multiplayer in STEAL, it’s something we have in mind since the beginning of the project and it’s a major part of it. As we’re doing a game without guns or any weapons, I think we can come out with something quite refreshing and innovative for competitive modes. But let’s start by the beginning: co-op.

Co-op
Co-op in stealth games starts to be quite common now, our main influence here is of course Monaco (we’re also planning 4 players max), but we’ll have a major difference, the game main campaign will be solo only. All co-op maps will be made specifically for this mode, it actually allows us to create maps that you can’t complete if you’re alone. For instance let’s say that one player must stay on one side of a door to push a trigger and open it, the second one will then need to hack the door from the other side to allow his partner to go through and reach him. What we also would like to do is when a player is caught, the other ones will need to free him from a locked and guarded room, and of course if all players are caught, you fail and need to restart the level.

Another thing I would like to implement in the co-op mode would be a “traitor” mode, like in all heist movies, in a team you always have someone more concerned by his own interest. At the beginning, one player would be randomly designed as a traitor, of course he’ll be the only one to know, and he’ll have some specific objectives to achieve to win (like locking all other players and preventing them to escape), but at any time all players can vote to unveil the traitor (all votes are taken into account apart the traitor one), but if they’re wrong the traitor directly wins. We’ll see if we have time to implement such modes and if it’s relevant.

Versus
For competitive modes, the current scenario we’re working on is:

• Each player starts in the same area and they all need to reach a common target.
• Once the loot is stolen by one player, he needs to escape by reaching a specific area to win.
• But now all other players can also steal the target from the loot holder, so he needs to be extra careful to keep it with him.
• If the loot holder is caught by a guard, the loot stays at the same position for a given time and then respawn at its initial position.

So as I said, we have no weapons in the game, so how to steal the loot from another player without killing or incapacitating him? Well of course you can set up a trap to make the loot holder caught by a guard and then recover it, but you can also directly steal it if you’re sneaky enough. Actually you just need to be close enough of the holder and press the interaction button to steal it, so it’s easy, isn’t it? Well no… When you enter in the holders field of view, you’re tagged as “spotted” and then you just have a few seconds before being locked and unable to steal the loot, so the only way to steal it is to reach the holder unnoticed and being fast enough to get it before being locked. Once you’re locked, you need to “disappear” (leave the holders field of view for a given time) and then come back by another way and try again.

A player being locked by the loot holder

We came out with this system because we really wanted to keep the stealth core gameplay even in versus mode, your only way to take back the loot is to stay unnoticed and surprise the holder. We started to test this system this week and we actually had a lot of fun with it (and it’s really great to have fun playing your own game, and not just debugging it…), we still need to refine it but it shows great potential, we chained multiple games without being able to stop.

So the current plan is to improve this mechanism, then we’ll probably try other competitive modes like just being the first to reach a given area (and each players caught directly lose, the last one is the winner), and also team versus modes mixing some co-op mechanism like the “jail” for a caught player in a team. And as our objective system is totally dynamic, we can also create totally asymmetric maps with a team trying to reach an objective while the other one tries to prevent it. They are lots of possibilities, so don’t hesitate if you also have some ideas for us!

A last think I have in mind since the beginning of this project, and like all other indie developers around I suppose, is to mix a bit of multiplayer in the solo mode like of course Dark Souls (yep I mentioned it, is there any seal to apply to the game now?). Imagine you’re playing the solo campaign, and after stealing your target, it becomes open to “invaders” trying to steal it back from you. But I saw it as optional objectives, you’ll get a bonus by finishing a level without loosing the loot but won’t have to start again if you don’t succeed. Well, anyway we still have plenty of time to think further about such systems.

Have a nice week-end guys!

[Fenrir]

Hello,

I'm coming back with some screenshots showing the equipement UI we're working on:

Selecting an equipment shows them all


Only the selected one stays visible

Next time with animations!

[Fenrir]

Hi,

I've been working on view cones:

View cone when a light is on


Same view cone but with the light off, it only remains the guards flashlight


When not directly seeing the guard, the view cone is not visible

You have probably noticed the 180° view area next to the guard, do you find it weird? I added this area some time ago as it solved some awkward situations where you were just in front of the guard but not visible as you were not illuminated by its flashlight, it's a sort of proximity awareness. But I am not convinced by displaying it as part of the view cone, what do you think?

[Paul]

The viewcones and shadows looks very nice! I like the idea of the cone adjusting to whether the light is on or off, it's a cool feature.
I see your problem with the 180 degree spot around the guard though, it does look a bit weird. Is it a kind of peripheral vision or can the guard see perfectly in that area? I personally wouldn't display it but I'd like to see how it plays first. Maybe some kind of indicator is necessary

[Fenrir]

I like the idea of the cone adjusting to whether the light is on or off, it's a cool feature.

Thanks! The idea is to be a lot more vulnerable in illuminated areas.

I see your problem with the 180 degree spot around the guard though, it does look a bit weird. Is it a kind of peripheral vision or can the guard see perfectly in that area? I personally wouldn't display it but I'd like to see how it plays first. Maybe some kind of indicator is necessary

The guard can perfectly see in this area. But yeah it's really weird, for now I removed it, I'll probably go for another kind of indicator, I'll come back to it later.

[Fenrir]

Hi,

A small update on what I'm working on: scattering areas for gadgets. It will be used for instance on a smoke grenade, I need to compute for a given position and radius the scattering area available by taking into account all obstacles (walls, doors...).

Here is the current state:

So here is my current and naive method:
- Collect all obstacles segments inside my given radius from the map navigation mesh.
- Loop on 360 degrees with a given step (10 on the screenshot above) and test intersections between the area radius and all obstacles segments, keeping only the shortest radius possible.

=> It gives me a polygon I can use to test if other entities are inside the area or to control effects rendering (for the somke grenade I'll keep the smoke inside the polygon to be sure it won't traverse walls for instance).

It's surely not the fastest method but for now it's working, I'll see later to improve it, but don't hesitate if you have suggestions for me!

[Fenrir]

Hi guys,

Back on equipments UI, here is GIF showing how it moves:



It's located in the lower left part of the screen. Don't hesitate if you have any feedback!

[Fenrir]

This time I've been working on a new multiplayer map (versus mode for 4 players):



The idea for this one is to have quick sessions, and as you need to bring back the loot in the starting area, you still have a chance to steal it back from the holder if you get caught.

[Paul]

Looks good! Is this a local two player map? How does the camera work? Is it fixed in position? Does the person who doesn't have the loot have a disadvantage? Sorry for all the questions!

[Fenrir]

No problem it's a pleasure to answer questions!

Currently it's over the network only (LAN or Internet and up to 4 players), no local multiplayer. Even if it's something I really would like to have, I still havn't figured what to do with the camera and field of views. I hope I'll have time to come back on it later (and see if it's relevant).

And about the loot, actually it's the player having the loot who's disadvantaged, as all other players have its approximate position on their radars making him feel a bit like a prey.

[Fenrir]

Hi everyone,

A quick update about what I'm currently working on: tutorials! I'm planning to make 3 levels:

- A first one with the basis: movements and a first look on guards, cameras and lasers.
- Second one for gadgets with a bit more complex situations requiring to use them (for instance a guard staying in front of a door, and you'll need to use a sound lure to make him move).
- And a last level with a "complete" experience, requiring to steal a loot and escape with it (in this one I'll try to explain how the multiplayer part works).

Here are screenshots of tutorial messages, it adapts to your current input device (gamepad or keyboard/mouse):

[TurboGun]

Looking awesome, really digging the art, and UI elements look great. One thought about the tutorial, is it going to be its own section, or is there a way to smoothly integrate the teaching into single player/story mode (like how Hotline Miami does it)? I've seen it done either way, and can actually see a case for having it separate if you anticipate players just wanting to learn how to play quickly and then jumping into multiplayer mode. Just a thought. Keep it up!

[Fenrir]

Thanks for the comment!

We're currently trying to get a first prototype out for the game, that's why the tutorial part is in its own section. This prototype will only be composed of the 3 tutorial maps + 2 or 3 multiplayer maps and as you said the idea is just to learn how to play quickly before trying the multiplayer part.

But in the full game point of view, we'll definitely merge the tutorial into the whole solo campaign and make it step by step.

And as I'm here, I quick update, we've been rushing currently to get this prototype ready, that's why there's not a lot of new updates lately, we're hoping to finish it by the end of the month.