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[Thaumaturge]

In and of itself, I really like the "miner flash" effect. I still feel a bit iffy about having actual people there,but would likely be happier with more-obscured faces; scratched out so that no face is visible might work well, I think.

While I was at it I expanded on the "damage type" system that I had started a while ago. It now supports a "terror" type, which is used in the above. Eventually I'll expand it to include a "toxic" damage type as well which, at the very least, will change the visual feedback, and may eventually form the basis of a toxic status effect.

Interesting! So does that mean that you essentially have multiple health-bars--or rather that you have multiple resistances (as in some RPGs)?

[Cosmocat Games]

In and of itself, I really like the "miner flash" effect.

Thanks, I'm pretty happy with it too! It's disorienting and distracting--which is what I'm going for--but not to the point that you can't keep playing. I could see it leading to some mini jump scares if you got hit with one of these at an inopportune time.

I still feel a bit iffy about having actual people there, but would likely be happier with more-obscured faces; scratched out so that no face is visible might work well, I think.

That's fair. I'll ask around/give it some more thought.

While I was at it I expanded on the "damage type" system that I had started a while ago. It now supports a "terror" type, which is used in the above. Eventually I'll expand it to include a "toxic" damage type as well which, at the very least, will change the visual feedback, and may eventually form the basis of a toxic status effect.

Interesting! So does that mean that you essentially have multiple health-bars--or rather that you have multiple resistances (as in some RPGs)?

Probably a very "light" version of that, i.e. if you take more than X seconds of toxic damage you would incur a status effect penalty (perhaps reduced stamina), similar to how "stress" currently works.

[Cosmocat Games]

So I finally got around to implementing proper multi-surface footsteps. I'm pretty happy with the results. Hear for yourself!



While I was at it, I also added the same support for the "landing" sound.

The logic is based on performing a downward raycast and mapping the physics material name to a corresponding "index" in the FMOD event. Currently I support the following material types: dirt, concrete/rock, metal, wood, mud (will probably be used mostly for "gore"), and water, though the latter is a special case that doesn't actually use the physics material and simply looks at whether or not the player's feet are underwater.

Of course this will require adding a physics material to all meshes that have a distinct surface (so far I've only done this in a test scene) but I can figure I can just pick away at this over the next little while. At some point I'll need to do something similar for the mutant miners, but this is pretty minor as you really only hear their footsteps when you're quite close.

I'm debating whether I implement the same for the "power slide" SFX (currently, it's a rocky/gravely kind of sliding sound), but this is primarily meant to be used when entering tunnels and as of now they are all the same surface anyway. (Though there's nothing stopping the player from executing a power slide it on any surface.)

I may do a rundown of the implementation on Saturday's stream for anyone who's interested.

[Thaumaturge]

Thanks, I'm pretty happy with it too! It's disorienting and distracting--which is what I'm going for--but not to the point that you can't keep playing. I could see it leading to some mini jump scares if you got hit with one of these at an inopportune time.

Indeed! I think that it could be a pretty effective source of scares--especially with the ghosts sneaking up behind you to do it!

That's fair. I'll ask around/give it some more thought.

Fair enough! That seems like a good idea. ^_^

Probably a very "light" version of that, i.e. if you take more than X seconds of toxic damage you would incur a status effect penalty (perhaps reduced stamina), similar to how "stress" currently works.

Ah, I see! That sounds like a neat system, then. ^_^

So I finally got around to implementing proper multi-surface footsteps. I'm pretty happy with the results. Hear for yourself!
...
While I was at it, I also added the same support for the "landing" sound.

That does work rather well indeed! Nicely done. ^_^

Of course this will require adding a physics material to all meshes that have a distinct surface (so far I've only done this in a test scene) but I can figure I can just pick away at this over the next little while.

Hmm... If it weren't for the multiplicity of surfaces that you seem to have, I might suggest what I did: have a "default footstep sound" that corresponds to the most-common surface, and then in general only tag surfaces that use other footstep sounds.

[Cosmocat Games]

Playing around with some rippled masking:



Alternate darkened version:



I think it looks pretty spooky, like those ghastly camera artifacts you see sometimes. (and then the person claims it's because they caught a ghost on camera...)

Bonus: these images are being handled through a particle system texture sheet, so it should be easy enough to add a basic animation (i.e. a jerky kind of flickering between different variations of the ripple, and maybe some subtle noise/visual artifact differences.).

[Cosmocat Games]

And here's what that would look like:

[Cosmocat Games]

And putting it all together, now with improved (less obtrusive) SFX for the ghosts:

[Thaumaturge]

I like that, I think; for one thing, the animation helps to draw attention to their lack-of-faces, so that it's less-likely missed. ^_^

[Cosmocat Games]

As promised, a rundown of the above from today's stream:

[Cosmocat Games]

<nostalgic>Taking a little stroll down memory lane in preparation for an upcoming dev interview with Dragon Blogger in which I'll speak quite a bit about TOXICANT, as well as my process in general. Stay tuned for more details on that!</nostalgic>



In the meantime, I'm just plugging away at preparing a new trailer that highlights the work from the past few months (...years?). It's mostly just the usual capture footage -> find bugs -> fix bugs -> capture footage loop. Once I've got enough decent footage compiled, I'll start cutting the trailer in Davinci Resolve. I might actually do part of that on stream, if not one night this week then Saturday morning.

[Thaumaturge]

Congratulations on being so interviewed! I hope that it goes well! ^_^

As to looking back... It can be quite strange, I find, to look back over the course of a long-running project; to see where it came from, what it was back then, and compare that to where it has reached, what it has become. It's an interesting thing, looking back like that, I feel. ^_^

As to the trailer, I'm enthused to see it when it's done! ^_^

[Cosmocat Games]

Congratulations on being so interviewed! I hope that it goes well! ^_^

Cheers!

As to looking back... It can be quite strange, I find, to look back over the course of a long-running project; to see where it came from, what it was back then, and compare that to where it has reached, what it has become. It's an interesting thing, looking back like that, I feel. ^_^

I don't particularly love having a project so long-running that I can look back years, but hey, at least it's moving forward!

And finally, here's something resembling a trailer!



I wasn't able to capture everything I wanted to (among other things, it's missing: multiple weapon and beacon types, rats, toxic mutants) but hopefully I can use some screenshots to supplement this stuff. I do think it does a decent job at representing the ambience, which was my main priority, and it certainly won't be the last trailer I make so there will be other opportunities.

[Thaumaturge]

It does look pretty good, I think. ^_^

You might want to prepend a warning about flashing lights, given that, well, you have flashing lights in your video (and right at the start, too).

[Cosmocat Games]

It does look pretty good, I think. ^_^

You might want to prepend a warning about flashing lights, given that, well, you have flashing lights in your video (and right at the start, too).

Thanks! And fair point, I will add something like that in the next edit/version. It does make me wonder, though: would somebody with a (known) photosensitivity watch game trailers, and one for a survival horror game no less? (not trying to be insensitive, I'm genuinely curious)

[Thaumaturge]

I don't know; I can imagine that there might be such people who do like horror, and might be looking for games that they can play. In addition, there's always the possibility of someone stumbling upon it--perhaps they watch lots of videos about caves, and YouTube thus decides to recommend your trailer to them, for example.

[Cosmocat Games]

Well, I think it's finally time for another closed beta! There were a million more things I had hoped to do before running another beta, but that's just the way it goes, and locking it in will hopefully light a little fire under my ass and really help me prioritized what's most important.

To that end, I'll be kicking off the beta in the next few weeks. As with all my betas, you get to keep your Steam key in exchange for filling out a post-play survey. Here's the sign-up form if you're interested.

[Cosmocat Games]

It still needs to be unwrapped and textured, but the beacon launcher is finally getting a proper model!



This is mostly being done in support of adding a proper tutorial intro/level, which I spent some time on over the weekend and will share some video of soon. Basically, the idea is to introduce the most essential items and mechanics, though I still hope to have some be discovered through playing rather than overt hand-holding.

[Thaumaturge]

The beacon-launcher looks cool thus far, and I like your approach to tutorialisation, as you describe it! ^_^

I'd be tempted to sign up for that closed beta--save that I don't maintain a Steam account. (I may still have one from the days of the Orange Box, but I haven't used it since then.)

(I don't know whether I might end up getting a new one as a dev eventually, but even then I likely won't use it as a customer.)

[Cosmocat Games]

Save that I don't maintain a Steam account.

I gotta ask... what's the rationale? Are you making some kind of a stand, or is it merely that you just don't use it?

I don't love that they're able to maintain their monopoly, but it is arguably a decent platform, and I say that both as a gamer and a developer/publisher.

[Cosmocat Games]

Well, first pass at unwrapping and texturing. A bit bland/generic so far but the layout is solid and free of stretching.



This was also the first time I successfully used "project from view" to unwrap a model. It actually worked out quite well! The trick was using orthographic mode to keep the scale consistent.

There are some minor artifacts down the middle from the mirror modifier I'm using but easy enough to correct.