Lmst

#MireGame

Finally got around to finishing the basement blocking for the A and B buildings.

Map blocking has taken a lot of steam over the ~84 hours I've worked on the level. I am putting off making the lower level sub-basement for a later time. (That will end up being another 8-10 hours of in-engine work.)

Next thing I am working on is my optimized (and complicated) elevator system.

#mire #MireGame #gamedev #gamedevelopment #IndieDev #indiedevelopment #solodev #wip #workinprogress #blocking #placeholder

A screenshot of the basement for my game's world. There are many complex corridors and rooms stuffed into the footprint of the building here. Various departments are labeled, such as occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, radiology, pharmacy, pathology, EKG stress labs, and the kitchen.

(A wall may have accidentally been hidden in this screenshot, but we won't talk about that. That's going to be a secret between me and all the cool people who use ALT-text.)

Finished blocking in my Sergal base mesh for my game's character. All these shapes will be merged together to make a sculpting base where I can add a lot more intricate detail.

As head/facial features vary among different ethnicities of Sergal, I'll be making a Southern and Northern head mesh to graft on later, just as I'll be making the hands and feet separately to graft on in place of the mitten hands and sock feet.

#mire #miregame #IndieDev #indiedevelopment #gamedev #gamedevelopment #sergal #anthro #3d #blender3d #CharacterCreation #character #wip #workinprogress #anatomy

A screenshot from a 3D modeling software of a colorful menagerie of different shapes that come together to form a Sergal; a fictitious bipedal species. The different colored shapes are each a major body part or a major muscle of the character. This view is a 2/3 view of the character facing towards the camera.

The same subject as described in the previous screenshot, but with the character facing away from the camera.

The same subject as described in the previous screenshot, but with the camera capturing a high-angle shot, looking down at the character.

The same subject as described in the previous screenshot, but with the camera capturing a low-angle shot, looking up at the character.

Very early work in progress of the base mesh for my game's character. Lots to do still and lots to fix, but I need to get some sleep for today.

The idea will be to tweak proportions and broad muscle details, merge everything together, then sculpt in more details and niceties while tweaking anything else that needs it, make him some clothes, retop him, and then texture and rig him for animation.

I needed a break from the 2.5 month grind of whiteboxing my game's world.

#mire #miregame #gamedev #3d #blender3d #sergal #workinprogress #wip #gamedevelopment #IndieDev #indiedevelopment #anthro

A screenshot from a 3D modeling software showing an amalgam of different colored shapes in the form of a Sergal; a fictitious bipedal species. Each colored shape roughly corresponds to a major body part or major muscle. The character is t-posing in a 2/3 view, facing the camera. His legs aren't done and are just thin sticks with spheres where the feet should be.

The same screenshot from a 3D modeling software with the same character made of colored shapes, but facing 2/3 view away from the camera.

My final progress update for May; I'm about 80% done with blocking in a floor plan for my game.

The overview screenshots don't look too impressive until you peel away one of the roof layers of a building and realize that the entire building is as crazy and as complex as it is.

There is still a basement and sub-basement to go for the two largest buildings. Both basements and sub-basements will add about another full floor's worth of explorable space to their respective buildings.

#mire #miregame #IndieDev #gamedev #gamedevelopment #indiedevelopment #solodev #wip #workinprogress #planning

A screenshot of my game's main level. It features three huge buildings with three or four floors each. Walkways connect the buildings.

A bird's-eye view screenshot of one of the floors of a building in my game. Pictured is a complex cluster of rooms and hallways.

Just did some loose photogrammetry calculations with screenshots of the old map for my game and the new map I have been working on. I calculated approximate floor space by knowing exactly how large each of the courtyards were in each map.

Calculating the floorspace of the main building in my new map, looking at ONLY the first floor, the entirety of my old map (4 floors and a basement) would fit inside of it.

This means that the main building of the new map is 4.8x larger than the old map.

This calculation also doesn't take into account the two other buildings that I have connected to the main building.

Suddenly, I don't feel bad that I've been working for 5 weeks on blocking the new map in and only being about 55% done.

#mire #miregame #solodev #IndieDev #gamedev #gamedevelopment #wip #workinprogress #blocking #placeholder #indiedevelopment

An aerial overview of the old map for my game. This screenshot shows only the first floor. Every room is labeled with what its intended purpose was.

An overview screenshot of the new map for my game, which is very much incomplete. The nearest building is B-building, the one in the middle is A-building (the main building I am talking about in this post), and the one on the right is the C-building.

There is also a copy of C-building in the background which should be disregarded.

I've got a small gamedev server on Discord for Umbral Forge! I post a lot of updates on my own development and talk about steps of the whole process as I am going through them.

I'd love to have more members stop by and share their projects, ideas, and feedback.

If you're a new developer or are thinking of trying your hand at gamedev, you're just as welcome! Being surround by helpful people passionate about gamedev could be useful if you run into a hitch.

Even if you're not into actually developing and are just interested to see projects progress or learn about how video games work, we'd love to have you too!

Why not stop by?

https://discord.gg/mPztDCBDWp

#indiedev #gamedev #gamedevelopment #indiedevelopment #discord #community #umbralforge #uf #mire #miregame

Hot-glued a placeholder flashlight to the side of my character's head because I don't want to put test lighting in some areas as I am focusing on level layouts.

It is embarrassingly simple, but I have a whole design document full of tests I want run when I get around to it. Those tests will help me decide on what to do to make the system (hopefully) very immersive.

Right now, I have it set up with a polish feature I came up with. I haven't seen in other games; the audio/visual feedback from your keystroke to turn the flashlight on or off syncs up with the button press of the flashlight. That means you can press and hold the flashlight key, hear a click, and nothing happens. Then when you release the key, you hear another click and the light comes on.

It's the small details I am enamored with. Just that alone makes the flashlight feel surprisingly good to use, even if it's taped to the side of your head.

#mire #miregame #gamedev #gamedevelopment #indiedev #indiedevelopment #solodev #wip #workinprogress

A screenshot of my game during runtime featuring a dark room illuminated by a sole light source; the player's flashlight beam. The light function that simulates the lens of the flashlight is apparent as the projected light is not uniform in intensity.

A screenshot of my game during runtime featuring a dark hallway with some doorways scattered about, illuminated by a sole light source; the player's flashlight beam. The light function that simulates the lens of the flashlight is apparent as the projected light is not uniform in intensity. A secondary light projection is obvious as well, simulating scattering inside the lens medium to project a wider and dimmer cone of light.

A screenshot of my game during runtime where the player is shining their flashlight out a window, through the hospital's courtyard. This screenshot shows how far the flashlight beam can travel before it becomes ineffective.

Sometimes I back up and look at the size of the map I am making and marvel in its complexity. I am about 15% done with it and every area feels unique.

It would be so nice to explore a level like this when it's done with a fresh set of eyes.

(As a reminder, or first notice to anyone seeing my project for the first time, the nearest building needs another 2 floors designed, the middle building also needs a basement and lower level, and the far building needs another 2 floors, plus a connecting basement and lower level to the main building.)

#Mire #MireGame #gamedev #gamedevelopment #solodev #indiedev #indiedevelopment #wip #workinprogress

A screenshot of my game's world which is very much incomplete. Missing floors, walls, and roofs reveal a labyrinth of corridors and rooms. The bright green text in the corner of the screenshot isn't important; it is just some technical rendering stats.

Made some good progress on blocking in a nursing floor for my game. The floor itself is about 25% planned.

I am loving how everything is coming together; every area of the level is visually busy, but still interesting and organized because everything has a purpose.

#Mire #MireGame #gamedev #gamedevelopment #solodev #indiedev #indiedevelopment #wip #workinprogress

A screenshot of my game with placeholder assets and lighting. This scene is of a nurse station in a hospital and a long corridor of patient rooms and supply rooms. The ceiling is falling apart and there are wires hanging from it.

A screenshot of my game with placeholder assets and lighting. This scene is of a patient room in a hospital. The ceiling is falling apart and there are wires hanging from it. It is currently night in this screenshot, so nothing can be seen outside.

A screenshot of my game with placeholder assets and lighting. This scene is of a different nurse station in a hospital. The ceiling is falling apart and there are wires hanging from it. There is a central core group of rooms, surrounded by doors to patient rooms, offices, elevators, and a stairwell.

Realizing I am a little out of date with posting to Mastodon, here is a screenshot showing debug console messages for my interaction system.

The system uses a custom trace response to define interactive items in the world and an interface to allow actors to override different functions the interface supports.

By allowing our player's character to be able to find objects that are "Interactive," we can trigger any of the functions that the interactive object overrides. The system currently supports events for looking at an interactive object, when an entity stops looking at an interactive object, and of course, when an entity tries using an object.

#mire #miregame #indiedev #gamedev #gamedevelopment #indiedevelopment #solodev #wip #workinprogress

A screenshot of a white cube in my game that has been set up as a test object. Thin lines that look like crosshairs show that the player is looking at the cube. In the top corner, small text from printed debug messages have been highlighted.

The messages read (in chronological order from bottom to top):
"Nothing to interact with."
"Something is looking at a test object. (BP_TestInteractive.)"
"Something stopped looking at a test object. (BP_TestInteractive.)"
"Something is looking at a test object. (BP_TestInteractive.)"
and
"BP_FirstPersonCharacter0 tried using a test object. (BP_TestInteractive.)"

More demo screenshots: I finally have a lighting solution for my game that is fully dynamic and about 80% more performant than traditional dynamic lighting while also giving me nice soft shadows that I need.

In a stress test with 100 point lights on cinematic quality, I am losing between 10-15fps.

In the same area with cinematic rending quality enabled, I placed 200 actors emulating dynamic point lights. This only cost me between 2-5fps.

I am further optimizing performance by storing parameters on how the light should render in custom primitive data on each of my light actors. This allows the engine to dynamically instance these actors, reduce needed memory, and also reduce draw calls.

The lights work with interactive light switches to turn on and off. These switches also work in-editor to control lights, so if you need to work in a dark area, you can click the lights on to work and click them back off if the player is supposed to find the area dark. All lights and corresponding light switches are updated correctly so any other light switches that are used on the same circuit will behave as expected.

#mire #miregame #wip #workinprogress #gamedev #indiedev #gamedevelopment #indiegamedev #solodev #lighting #light

A screenshot of my game, Mire. This is a cafeteria area that has been blocked in with placeholder shapes and shows one overhead light turned on that has a slight orange hue.

A screenshot of my game, Mire. This is a cafeteria area that has been blocked in and shows the same blocked in cafeteria scene, but other lights have been turned on. The other lights do not have an orange hue to simulate that they don't run constantly.

A screenshot of my game, Mire. This is a test room made for testing interactive lights. Its significant features include a ceiling full of lights and three light switches in different areas of the room. I've enabled a debug feature I programed on one of the light switches to draw green lines between all connected lights that the switch controls and a blue line to all other light switches that are able to control the same lights.

"Just add elevators. You push a button and they move up or down. It's easy."

Meanwhile, the whiteboards I just hung so I can plan rough overviews of systems for my game:

#gamedev #gamedevelopment #indiedev #indiedevelopment #Mire #MireGame #planning #wip

Two whiteboards almost full with far too much tiny text to transcribe. All text relates to planning how elevators will work in my game and how I plan to implement them. A small portion of the text has been redacted in some areas.

When I did my walkaround, I set my world to night with a full moon.

When I was done, I turned up the cloud cover just to see how that would change the mood of everything and got giddy over how the environment was immediately more unwelcoming.

#Mire #MireGame #gamedev #indiedev #gamedevelopment #indiegamedev #wip

A screenshot of the first floor of the building in my game with a lot of rooms visible. It is night time and there are clouds visible in the night sky. There is a fair amount of lighting from a full moon, not pictured in the screenshot.

A screenshot of the first floor of the building in my game with a lot of rooms visible. This time there is heavy cloud coverage that is blocking out a lot of the moonlight. It is significantly gloomier looking and lacks the hard shadows cast by the moon when the weather wasn't overcast.

I was worried about my map being too small, so I took a walk around it to all of the areas I made on the first floor.

The good news is that I feel like I was exposed to a more than fair amount of placeholder content and the love I poured into each area is noticeable.

The really good news is that I also found the distance between floors that I want to use. That means I was able to visualize the final size of the building better by just copy/pasting the floors. (And hoo boy, is that some floorspace. This doesn't even include the basement and lower level under the basement.) If it took me 5 minutes to get around to every room on the first floor with a faster walk speed than I want for the game, it should take about 20-25 minutes of walking to visit every room in the complete building.

#Mire #MireGame #gamedev #indiedev #gamedevelopment #indiegamedev #wip

A screenshot of a large building from the game I am making. The first floor is complete and multiple floors have been added above the ground floor to help visualize the overall size of the building.

Creeping along with more progress. I feel that the ground floors are the most time-consuming to block in because they need to be the most dynamic and interesting for visitors and guests.

I am thinking the upper floors of these two buildings will be much easier and faster to make. I should probably work on the first floor of the third building first before adding more, but I need to do that planning on Monday because I haven't really thought about that building's design.

I am starting to realize how massive the space I am giving the player to explore will be, and this is exciting.

#mire #miregame #gamedev #indiedev #UnrealEngine5 #indiegamedev #wip

An overhead-view screenshot of the main level for my game showing two large buildings connected together without any ceiling or roof so that the entire internal structure is visible.

Tall spires stand dotted around the buildings; these are stairwells and elevator shafts.

Level blocking is going well and I am happy to say that the initial design of the main building's first floor is done. This took about 10-11 hours to tweak and get things looking okay.

I can still make massive changes if I need to, but for testing the layout, gameplay mechanics, lighting solutions, and AI, this will definitely work.

Figure if this took me 10 or so hours to do, that means the additional 3 floors, basement, sub basement, second building's sub-basement, basement, and floors 1-3, and then a third building's floors 1-3 should only take me another 90-110 hours.

I am so happy I made myself a gamedev schedule to follow because I am gaining confidence and motivation in working on this project again.

#Mire #MireGame #gamedev #indiedev #indiegamedev #UnrealEngine5 #wip

A screenshot in Unreal Engine 5 of my game's world. Currently, it is a single floor of a large hospital that has been blocked in with placeholder assets. Tall spires stand in the corners of the map; these are placeholder elevator shafts and stairwells. There is no other environment other than a skydome.

I've come across a much needed performance saver that is absolutely required for my game, which takes place indoors and requires fully dynamic lighting.

I am able to make what should be very cheap fill lighting that gives me soft diffused shadows at, hopefully, barely any extra cost to having Lumen with global illumination in my scene.

There are some adjustments I need to make for behavior and quality, but the test scene I have inside a placeholder stairwell is showing promising results. There is a lot of trickery going on to get this working, but it looks good and shouldn't even come close to impacting performance the same way normal lights with dynamic shadows will. Plus, this lighting method will look more natural because most of the artificial lights in my game will have diffusers on them.

#gamedev #UnrealEngine5 #gamedevelopment #wip #MireGame #indiedev #indie

A screenshot of a stairwell in Unreal Engine 5 that is made of placeholder assets and contains red, green, and white shapes.

The lighting setup is casting soft shadows from the shapes. The shapes are both reflecting and receiving colored bounce light from the environment and the other shapes.

Map planning by blocking things in with placeholder assets is going well. I have a few areas I'd like to re-work, but I've been making good progress.

Not really looking forward to rebuilding the map with production assets, but it will be nice to have a fully working version of my game in an approximation of the final environment; I'm making a dollar store bootleg version of my game where everything is untextured blocky placeholder assets, including enemies.

I can make large changes to the environment faster, and develop mechanics and AI more effectively by focusing solely on them and not getting distracted on fussy art asset issues.

#gamedev #UnrealEngine5 #gamedevelopment #wip #MireGame #indiedev #indie

#MireGame

Client Info