Hi folks! For a little over a year, we were doing weekly reviews to tell you about our progress on various aspects of VirtualSociety. Over time, we realized that this format was no longer appropriate, because it was too frequent, and didn't allow us to write enough posts on specific and interesting topics. So this year, we're changing the format with:

• A monthly update, which will appear here, as well as on Patreon (for free subscribers too!). For those who follow us on Patreon (for free or not), this also means you'll receive an email with each monthly review to keep you informed!
• We'll continue to do comprehensive articles (on character, building editing, social interactions, etc.) as we did last year, again on the site and on Patreon.
• Finally, we'll continue to offer a live Q&A every two months or so, with a live demo of the game at the next one!

So, for this long post of the year, let's take a look back at what's been keeping us busy over the last few months!

Setting up our studio and funding applications

The end of last year was marked by the creation of the company (Cats & Foxes SAS!) which signals the concrete start of the studio: we are now a company! Of course, financing a whole team requires a lot (a lot) of money, to rent premises, pay for lawyers, accountants, insurance, equipment and, of course, salaries. So we spent a lot of time drafting funding applications (grants, loans, etc.). I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have supported us on Patreon. It's an invaluable help that allows us to spend more of our time developing VirtualSociety, which means a lot!

Finalizing construction

We can finally build houses in-game! Of course, there's still some work to be done on the exteriors (terrain editing, lakes, grass, roads, etc.), but our construction tools have made enormous progress. Jimmy has also reworked the tools and camera to make them much easier to use. For example, you can now select several objects to move, resize or delete a group of objects at once.

A whole host of functions return

The game takes a big leap forward, with a number of new functions, and also the return of a lot of things that had worked for a while, and had temporarily disappeared with the addition of multiplayer and functions like undo/redo, or the new interface. Among the big returns are clocks that indicate the time of day in-game (depending on the world configuration, real time, a fixed time or a day/night cycle set to a specific duration), floor and wall textures with skirting boards and configurable patterns, or weather effects with rain outside, player tracks in the snow, trees that move more or less according to the wind, and so on. To keep up with the changes to VirtualSociety, check out our changelog !

Interface redesign

The game's interface has been completely overhauled, from the phone to the world selector, from the character editor to the developer tools. Weve overhauled everything from the in-game phone to the world selector, character editor, and developer tools. The goal was to make the experience more fluid, intuitive, and enjoyable to use, and were really happy with the result. Plus, its much more in line with the games artistic direction!

Over 350 new items!

We worked with six contractors, who used Chlo's concept art to create a huge number of objects, all of which have now been integrated into the game! By the way, we regularly share glimpses of these objects with you on our social networks. We now have everything we need to build our homes and exteriors in terms of objects, and with quite a few different choices for many of them.
Of course, all these objects keep our graphic style, and our system of masks to let you choose their colors and patterns :) We're trying to update our roadmap as we go along, with the various additions and objects we'd like to add. If you have any special requests, please let us know, for example on our Discord!

Working with healthcare professionals

Finally, we met with a number of healthcare professionals who shared their expectations and ways of working. We went to see psychologists, psychometrists and occupational therapists to ask them all kinds of questions, and to understand how their patient follow-up and sessions went. It was really interesting, and now we're going to be able to co-construct our first healthcare experiences with them at VirtualSociety! Thank you for your support, and see you soon!

[ 2025-03-07 13:46:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Today, for our second Q&A with the team, we offer you a retrospective on Vandoeuvre In Game 2024! [previewyoutube=3XnK8aMmbZc;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-09-25 13:09:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=XtczBNqAbxg;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-09-06 13:39:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

As promised, we had our first live Q&A session with the community on YouTube! Missed it? We have the replay! Sorry for English speakers, we've done it in French for this premiere. We have, however, reworked the subtitles, and introduced a new video presentation of the game in English! [previewyoutube=6oVTIe6qKHI;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-08-31 15:36:27 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks! This week, it's Jimmy summarizing our progress!

Mlissa and the christmas spirit

This week, Mlissa brought a festive touch to VirtualSociety by starting to work on Christmas objects. She designed decorations and accessories that will add a warm and joyful ambiance to the game. It's amazing to see how she integrates the holiday spirit into our virtual universe!

Jimmy tackles the walls

On my part, I continued my work on the walls, focusing particularly on integrating doors and windows. It's a technical and aesthetic challenge, but the results are starting to take shape, and I'm really excited to see how this will enhance the gaming experience.

Chlo's fresh take on the UI

Chlo has restarted the design of the game's user interface in a style inspired by a "sketchbook." This artistic approach brings a personal and creative touch that makes the interface more user-friendly and attractive.

Nico to the rescue with presets

Nico has been busy this week with editing presets in the object editor, as well as generating icons for the game objects.

Game presentations by Jimmy and Nico

Finally, Nico and I worked together on presentation files for the game. Our goal is to share our vision and progress with potential partners. It's an important task that helps us secure funding for further development. That's it for this week! It's always a pleasure to share our progress and adventures with you. Stay tuned and see you next week!

[ 2023-12-15 15:50:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks! This week, Nico is here to update you on our progress. Today, we're finally giving you a sneak peek at Paul's work in images, featuring an initial draft of characters that can grow and shrink. Of course, this is just a glimpse, and there's still plenty of work to be done before the final integration into the game.

Crystal Wings!

Last Friday, I had the opportunity to pitch the project at the Ailes de Cristal event, which rewards businesses. We were invited as winners of the Ppite 2023 award, allowing us to present the project to an audience of around 900 people in a live-streamed event. It was also a chance to connect with other local projects.

Interface and Icons

Chlo and I continued working on the game's interface. We brainstormed a new way to present weather choices and discussed how to add more color to the interface. Gradually, I'm incorporating visual changes throughout the game interface (not just in the world editing section), while Chlo is designing new icons.

Meetings and Progress

As usual, this week was packed with meetings. On Monday, we discussed potential future collaborations with several Inria services on an educational serious game project. On Tuesday, we focused on communication and strategized about our outreach. Wednesday saw Jimmy and me presenting VirtualSociety to guests at Inria. Thursday, we met with the HopeValley AI team, a startup project also supported by INRIA, aiming to use serious games for women's health, particularly breast cancer prevention. We share many values and are excited about the prospect of collaboration. Finally, on Friday, I attended a training day with the Lorraine Incubator.

And Some Code

To wrap up, Jimmy improved various parts of the VirtualSociety code to make it more user-friendly, while I made changes to other sections related to the appearance of the game interfaces. That's it! Thanks for your support, and see you next week!

[ 2023-12-08 09:09:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

On the menu: A brand-new tool for walls, improvements to the editor, new visuals, and a character that is nearing completion!

Top-notch coffee shop!

Melissa is focusing on a new theme this time: shops, and more specifically, a lovely little coffee shop ^^ She has started thinking about the different objects to create, the style of the place, decorations, and has produced a beautiful visual that has won us all over! We're eagerly awaiting your opinions and feedback on social media :P

Look at these beautiful curves... made of concrete!

Jimmy has finished the new curved wall creation tool, a much more advanced and permissive system than the previous one, allowing much more freedom in creation and customization! So, everyone, a big "Thank you, Jimmyyy" ^^ I'm looking forward to the same tool for roofs, but one thing at a time :)

Better navigation, clearer visibility!

On their side, Nico and Chlo worked hand in hand to improve the game world editor. On one hand, Chlo created brand-new icons for the different categories of the editor; they are now much simpler to understand and more visible than before! On the other hand, Nico integrated these new icons into the game and added several features to the editor. (In addition to fixing some bugs, which were obviously unwelcome!)

Happy? Not happy! Small? Big!

As for me, I'm progressing on the future character of the game! This character is now much more customizable and deformable than before, thanks to what we call "morph targets." This allows for changing its morphology, facial expressions, and many other things! I'm also integrating the character directly into the game with Unreal Engine, which is not necessarily an easy task, quite time-consuming, and not as simple as I would have wished haha. ^^' But you'll be able to read and understand everything in detail in my next Patreon post about creating such a video game character! ;) Thanks for taking the time to read this little summary of the week! Have a great end of the week, and until next time!!

[ 2023-12-01 09:45:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello everyone! Cllie here to summarize the studio's week!

Coffee in progress

Mlissa completed the creation of assets for the child's room. You can admire one of the renders on the homepage of our site. She is now diving into concept art for the next environment, a cozy caf!

Unreal Integrations

Paul finished the morph targets for the player character and started integrating them into Unreal (retargeting and animations). He will explain everything in an upcoming post on our Patreon.

Icon Redesign

Chlo created new icons that better align with our artistic direction for the construction and decoration interface of VS. They are currently being integrated into the game by Nico, along with the assets for the child's room.

Work in Progress

I (Cllie) finalized a first version of the Game Design Document for the planned update of Running Guys. A well-crafted GDD will later enable us to develop the new version of the game (code and artworks) without wasting time. Jimmy continues his hard work on the VS wall creation tool. Once completed, the tool will allow for detailed wall creation, from curvature to thickness! He also participated with Nico in numerous meetings and presentations to prepare for the future of the studio. That's all for this week, see you next week!

[ 2023-11-24 09:36:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks, today Melissa is taking care of the weekly update!

The Biggest Challenges Are Behind Us

Paul continued his dedicated work on character design, focusing on various 'morph targets' that will allow players to customize the morphologies of their characters during the creation process.

Meetings and Gatherings

This week was filled with meetings and gatherings for Nicolas and Jimmy. They had several follow-up meetings with their incubators and are working on securing funding for the studio, ensuring we all have enough to eat next year. Nico updated the website to include a captcha and started integrating Chloe's new interface into the game. On my end, I've nearly finished crafting the child's bedroom, hoping you'll like it! We also met Julien, who will be able to assist us with communication and concept art early next year. Excited to show you more about VirtualSocieteam, and see you very soon!

[ 2023-11-17 09:38:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello! We completed our year at Inria Startup Studio about ten days ago. This departure signifies a lot for our project: we are no longer funded and supported by Inria, we are about to create our company in the coming months, and it's time for us to stand on our own feet. A year ago, we knew nothing about starting a business, but we knew we wanted to develop video games that help people, whether for fun, social interaction, combating anxiety and phobias, or simply improving daily life despite individual differences. This year has been a rich learning experience for us. Instead of narrating our week, as we do every Friday, I decided to provide a retrospective of our journey at Inria Startup Studio.

November 2022: Joining ISS

On November 1st, we officially joined Inria Startup Studio. This marked the beginning of dedicating ourselves full-time to the project, a welcome change from evenings and weekends. It was an opportunity for us to familiarize ourselves with the program and start a blog with more regular posts, including our "weekly review."

December 2022: Becoming Doctors, Game Progress

On November 18, Nicolas obtained his Ph.D. in computer science, followed by Jimmy on December 1. With our studies behind us, we could now fully focus on the project. At this stage, our efforts were primarily directed towards game development, with Nicolas working on data synchronization and Jimmy finalizing weather integration.

January 2023: TV Appearance and Office Return

January brought some exciting developments. Nicolas was invited to participate in the "Le Saviez Vous" program on France 3, prompting us to update our website and reconsider our project communication strategy. The TV appearance went well, and it marked the beginning of presenting the project in the media. At the end of January, we returned to our offices at Agora, following renovations by Loria and Inria. We now had motorized sit-stand desks, new chairs, and storage, significantly improving our working comfort.

February 2023: First Exhibition at Fru des Sciences

In February, Inria's communication team connected us with Fru des Sciences, organizing a gaming expo. We showcased our games, VirtualSociety and Running Guys, and engaged in scientific outreach about video game development. It was gratifying to see children enjoying our games, providing valuable feedback and expressing interest in game development.

March 2023: Joining Incubator Lorrain and GDC Participation

In March, we explored Incubateur Lorrain with the intention of applying for their program. Our initial meeting with Natacha and Marie went well, leading us to quickly join Incubateur Lorrain and Peel. Anne-Flore and Hadi provided consistent support, and the incubator's assistance proved invaluable over the months. In the same month, thanks to Inria, we attended the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2023 online.

April 2023: F101 at EM Lyon, Joining EastGames

April was a busy month. We attended a business training, F101, at EM Lyon, funded by Inria. This training was incredibly useful for us, providing insights into various aspects of entrepreneurship and helping us define our project better. We also joined EastGames, an association of game studios and developers in the Grand Est region. During this time, we continued progressing on the game, including implementing curved walls. Aurlie joined the ISS team in Nancy, becoming our CPPI.

May 2023: Game Progress, SpringCamp, and Indie Game Night

In May, significant progress was made on the game, including the implementation of smart object snapping and color editing. We also connected with psychologists through their children, who played our games at Fru des Sciences. They expressed interest in collaborating with us in the future. In addition, we participated in Indie Game Night in Strasbourg, invited by EastGames, where we shared our story and received valuable feedback. We also attended the SpringCamp in Lyon for three days.

June 2023: Participation in Nancy Expo Fair

In June, we participated twice in the Nancy Expo Fair, first at the France Bleu booth (arranged by Inria's communication team) and the second time with the support of the city of Vandoeuvre and Pandoor Concept. Our setup included more computers, supports, screens, and people, enhancing our presentation.
At the end of the month, we also attended GameCamp in Lille, providing an excellent opportunity to meet French game studios, attend conferences on game development, and engage with the French gaming ecosystem.

July 2023: Studio Naming and Team Expansion

July brought significant changes. We finalized the name of the studio: Cats & Foxes! We distributed the ordered goodies, allowing us to take a group photo with many individuals who regularly assist us at Inria. But the changes didn't stop there! The team expanded from 3 to 6 members: Mlissa joined as a new 3D artist, thanks to Incubateur Lorrain; Paul joined as an Inria contractor, working on game characters; and Chlo offered her assistance in her free time, focusing on 2D graphics.

August 2023: Finally, an Artistic Direction

In August, we finally had an initial artistic direction thanks to Mlissa! She proposed a "hand-painted" style that captivated us all. The transition from three to six team members significantly changed our daily routineteam meetings became longer but more interesting.

September 2023: Vandoeuvre in Games, Regional Support

In September, we showcased the game at Vandoeuvre-in-Games, thanks to an invitation from Pandoor Concept. This event, focused specifically on video games, allowed us to incorporate feedback from previous expos for a better presentation. For the first time, we offered a multiplayer version of the game, which was well-received. During this period, Chlo redefined the game's 2D style and proposed a new logo. Additionally, the Grand Est region granted us a Start-Up grant, significantly increasing the company's initial capital.

October 2023: Focus on Peel and Euratech Lille

In October, we presented the project, supported by Incubateur Lorrain, at Cap sur le Peel. We received the Ppite Award, providing visibility and financial support for studio creation. We returned to Lille for a week, attending another F101 training, this time with Euratechnologies. It was an excellent opportunity to refine our pitches and gain perspective on our project.
We loved our year at Inria Startup Studio. We learned a lot, met many people who helped us with our challenges (a big thank you to Anne-Flore, Aurlie, Hadi, Natacha, Herv, and everyone else!).

[ 2023-11-10 13:44:59 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks! This week, Chlo is here to tell you what's been happening in the studio!

Happy Halloween !

Since it was Halloween this week, we continued to work on its preparation. Mlissa created Halloween-themed assets and made desktop and phone wallpapers for our Patreon subscribers. After finishing that, she got back to working on the child's room, which is nearly complete! There are just a few small items left, handling the lights, and integrating everything into Unreal. It's awesome!

Intensive Research

Cllie has been focused on researching the health aspect of the game this week. She mainly delved into literature about serious games and phobias, as well as their visuals, which will greatly assist us in the future. Jimmy also did some research in this area, and soon we'll be able to tell you more about what we plan to integrate into our game!

Animations on the Horizon

Our character is finally complete! Its skeleton is now attached to its body, and it's about to come to life! We'll have to wait a bit longer to see it, as it still doesn't have clothes, textures, or hair. Stay tuned...

Organization

Nicolas, on the other hand, has been focusing on the studio's schedule, which is no easy task. Thankfully, he's here to handle it! Thanks for your support, and have a great week, everyone! See you soon!

[ 2023-11-03 14:23:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks! This week, it's Nico sharing the updates. Once again, we all gathered in Nancy, where we had the opportunity to present our project at "Cap sur le Peel", attended training sessions at Euratech, and made significant progress on the game's UI/UX.

The Whole Team in Nancy

Last week, we were able to come together in Nancy once more. If all goes well, all six of us should be based in Nancy full-time next year! We took advantage of this in-person meeting to engage in extensive discussions and exchanges, which are always more challenging during virtual meetings.

"Cap sur le Peel" Event

On Thursday, the 12th, "Le Peel" organized its "Cap sur le Peel" event at the Nancy Jazz Pulsation. All the Ppite prize laureates, including us, were invited to showcase their projects during this evening. Jimmy, Mlissa, and I had the opportunity to attend. I presented the project in coordination with Natacha Hausser-Costa, the director of Incubateur Lorrain, and Laure Morel, the director of ENSGSI.

UI/UX Developments

While we were together, we took the chance to have discussions and whiteboard meetings to brainstorm various aspects, with a primary focus on UI/UX. We redefined the game's launch screen and the world selection interface. Chlo is currently working on the overall style of the user interface, and we can't wait to show you the first visuals of these screens!

Visit to Euratech in Lille

Jimmy and I spent a week in Lille at the startup incubator Euratech to attend more training sessions and meet various individuals from the startup ecosystem. As our year with Inria is coming to an end soon, it's beneficial for us to challenge our strategy for Cats & Foxes. Thank you for your support, and see you next week!

[ 2023-10-20 08:44:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks! Today, it's me, Paul, who will summarize the progress of the last two weeks for you, and there are things to talk about!

Is it a plane? A bird? No, it's a wall!

Jimmy has been breaking walls with his head for a while now (or breaking his head over making walls, I'm not sure anymore), but the wall system is now taking on a whole new dimension! It will also allow us to create extremely customizable hedges, using the same tools and options as our beautiful walls! It's not an easy task, but I believe in him! At the same time, Nico is greatly improving the game editor! Several issues have been fixed, and improvements have been made, making it much more enjoyable to use, with the bonus of adding some new features!

Beds, beds, and... the entire bedroom!?

Mlissa is stepping up her game in object design and has modeled lots of objects for a bedroom! Many items have been added, such as lamps, bean bags, (all fluffy) and shelves (less fluffy)! And of course, like other game objects, these can be customized as you wish to create beautiful rooms that reflect your style!

Buttons, yes! But which ones?

Chlo and Cllie, with Mlissa's help, have been working on finding better interfaces for the game than what is currently being used. In summary: although it's not an easy task, there are many ideas, good ideas, and especially a lot of changes to make haha, but it's for the better!

They're helping us, and we're thankful!

I would like (and not just me!) to take this weekly review opportunity to thank the Grand Est region for supporting us and believing in this project! They have provided us with significant financial assistance that will aid in the development and realization of this game, so a big thank you to them! Thank you for your support, and see you next week!

[ 2023-10-16 09:21:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello team! I'm Melissa, and this week I'm taking care of the weekly review.

Your Experience: Our Mission!

We're reaching a new milestone in the graphic overhaul of VirtualSociety. This week, Chlo and Cllie have started working on the UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience). Cllie is in charge of the UX part, which involves creating an accessible and user-friendly interface. To achieve this, she has created diagrams to propose an ergonomic UX for object customization and the main menu. Nico will then take these diagrams and implement them in the game for testing. Chlo has started brainstorming on the graphic aspect, creating mood boards to offer a pleasant and practical UI in line with the game's artistic direction.

Sturdy Walls: They're Back!

Now, let's move on to Jimmy. This week, he continued his work on wall customization, and it's looking fantastic. The goal is to give you as much freedom as possible when it comes to creation. You'll be able to manage wall corners (rounded, triangular, flat, etc.), create stair ramps, or even modify thickness on different sides. This configuration will allow you to build castles, whimsical houses, or anything that comes to mind.

Express Your Personality!

Now, onto our beloved character. Paul is working tirelessly to offer you a completely customizable character. This week, he focused on a new version that allows for more deformations.

To All Those Who Support Us!

Chlo is handling the graphic overhaul of our Patreon. To achieve this, she has created a new typography in line with VirtualSociety's artistic direction, which she has used to modify various titles and icons. Her goal is to create appealing visuals to provide you with the best possible experience. Nico took care of integrating the new logo everywhere, and soon, all our sites will be refreshed with the new artistic direction.

A New Banner!

As for me, I've worked on a new banner for the VirtualSociety website. I used in-game objects to create an outdoor environment. It was a pleasure to play with colors and customization. My aim is to provide you with a maximum of visuals to give you a sneak peek of the game's graphics. Thank you for your support, and see you next week!

[ 2023-09-22 09:46:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello team! Today, Nico is here to tell you about our week. We all continued to make progress in our respective domains, and we will be reunited in Nancy again next week!

Walls, Grass, and Flowers

This week, Mlissa tackled the landscape and revamped the grass, flowers, and various types of outdoor terrain (rock, soil, grass, and road). Subsequently, she began revising the textures of exterior walls and creating her first functional doors and windows that work with the game editor!

A Moving Character

Paul continued work on the new character and managed to rig it with a skeleton, allowing us to start animating it. This is a delicate step that requires defining how each bone affects different parts of the character, ensuring that everything appears natural with various possible movements.

Fashion Parade in the Making

Chlo prepared a few mood boards for the game's future logos, and we all discussed them during our weekly meeting. She's also starting to brainstorm the clothing for the future player: she will propose clothing concepts, Paul will handle the modeling, and Mlissa will take care of their textures a true team effort!

Multiplayer Progress

Jimmy continued his work on the multiplayer aspect. The creation and editing of walls are now synchronized, and all players connected to a world can see real-time edits. There's still a bit of work left for all editing tools to function in multiplayer, but overall, things are progressing well!

Game Design Challenges

Cllie delved into several game design challenges, such as the object cost system in the editing mode. In a world where everyone can add and remove objects, it wouldn't make sense to spend money to place a piece of furniture and regain money when removing it, for instance. Conversely, in other worlds, players could buy/sell land, only build on their own land, and furniture prices could work differently. Different systems need to be defined to anticipate a variety of scenarios.

Bringing It All Together

Lastly, I continued to enhance the building editor, fixing bugs, streamlining tool usability, and considering the game design and UX choices made by Cllie and Jimmy. Alongside this, I'm gradually integrating Mlissa's work, as she's replacing our old objects and textures with her own. In the upcoming weeks, I'll also be able to incorporate the new character designed by Paul and enhance the appearance editor to include all the new options! Thanks for your support, and see you next week!

[ 2023-08-25 13:02:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey folks! This week, it's Jimmy taking care of the review ! Big updates this week: the character just got the green light, new assets are in, more advanced settings for objects, and the groundwork for multiplayer editing is in the works.

Guess who: Character details coming together

Paul fearlessly dives into the retopology phase, a crucial moment in modeling where every edge of the model is finely tuned to ensure smooth and realistic movements once animated. It also means the character's basic shape is approved by the whole team! (Can't wait to play with it !!!)

A good environment

Meanwhile, Melissa keeps bringing life to the outdoors by modeling new stuff like benches, balloons, and grass. Once she finishes an object, she passes the baton to Nico, who excitedly integrates them to see the whole thing shaping up. (Honestly, if I could also add physics to 500 traffic cones and make the character jump in, I'd do it enthusiastically too ^^).

Physics rolling smoothly

At the same time, Nico has pushed the boundaries of the world editor, now offering a bunch of new options for object customization. Cool features like applying physics to objects and gravity are just a click away now! (Luckily, I'm not in charge of this, physics is so fuuuuuun I couldn't stop playing!)

When tools don't play nice

On my end, I'm racking my brain to create a strong, flexible code architecture that allows collaborative multiplayer world editing. My endgame? Providing you a seamless simultaneous editing experience, with the ability to undo/redo changes. This way, we can all confidently edit worlds while experimenting creatively. Thanks for all your support, and catch you next week!

[ 2023-08-18 09:25:05 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey folks! I'm Paul, and I've been working on character design for VirtualSociety for some time now! And today, it's my turn to write this weekly review! There have been quite a few updates since last week, starting with Mlissa, who has been working on creating room props in recent days, especially beds! She came up with a lot of different shapes and styles, and I love the visual appeal of her objects! Although I must admit, I'm not a big fan of the mattress under the bed... But the bug should be fixed soon (otherwise, it might be a bit painful on the back)! As for Cllie, she's restructuring and adding to the Game Design Document, which provides a precise idea of the game's future features and elements. It's like a specification document, it gathers all the important information of the game like its different mechanics or non-player character behaviors! She's trying to organize all the ideas into a cleaner format, so that we can all use the document. Nico has also made many additions to the game's editing mode, such as saving the different objects placed in the map, their colors, as well as several improvements in the wall editor! By stacking Mlissa's beds, you can now create and save some magnificent 100% sleep skyscrapers! On his end, Jimmy has spent several dedicated hours on his computer improving the game's multiplayer! We can now goof around together on it (just need to find some bed-skyscrapers enthusiasts to join me)! Some bugs and other issues still need to be sorted out, but it shouldn't take too long. As for me, I've just finished the 3D model of the future character! The shape seems to appeal to all the other team members (and particularly Nico, I believe). A clean and suitable model for this character should be finished in the next few days, with maybe a few visuals for the next review. Thanks for all your support, and see you next week!

[ 2023-08-11 13:21:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks! I am Mlissa, and I work on the artistic direction and environment of VirtualSociety. I am delighted to share my feelings about last week with you. I am often in Bordeaux, and a few days ago, I had the opportunity to meet the entire team in person in Nancy. I finally got to meet Jimmy, Nicolas, Cllie, Chlo, and Paul, and we started the week with an onsite visit. I discovered the communication, catering, and management teams at Inria, and everyone welcomed me with a big smile. I immediately felt the warm, friendly, and joyful atmosphere at Inria. We had our first meeting with the whole team and were able to discuss many points. It was very pleasant to have easy discussions about the characters with Paul and Chlo, to talk about technical constraints for the 3D, and more. This week led to significant progress in the graphics department, especially concerning the characters. Not only were we able to clarify many points, but it was also an opportunity to get to know each other. After work, we participated in various activities, such as a virtual reality Escape Game, numerous board game sessions, and a show of images and sounds at Place Stanislas (it was magnificent). We also had a guided tour of Nancy with our wonderful guide, Cllie. These activities helped break the ice and strengthen the bonds among the members of this fantastic small-sized team. In conclusion, this week, I met people who are not only wonderful professionally but also personally. I am thrilled to be part of this fabulous team, and I look forward to new adventures soon.

[ 2023-08-04 11:03:31 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks! This week has been a bit special because the whole team gathered in Nancy! It allowed us to make progress on many fronts and finally meet each other in person.

Artistic Direction and Graphic Design

With our three graphic designers, Mlissa, Paul, and Chlo, being together this week, we were able to make significant strides in choosing the artistic direction for the characters. Ensuring that all the game's graphical elements are cohesive with each other is quite challenging. So, we had to create numerous mood boards again to guide us in the right direction. To assist us, Mlissa completed the diorama she started last week, which already helped establish certain criteria. We opted for a painted texture style with stylized and rounded shapes. Mlissa's work completely won us over, and we hope you'll love it just as much!

Progress on Characters

Now that Paul has joined the team, we will finally see some advancement on the characters! Currently, he is only at the stage of graphic research and character design. It's not an easy task given the level of customization we would like to achieve.

Virtual Society gets a makeover

This week, Nico worked on redesigning the Virtual Society website to align it more with the game's graphics. The website's overhaul will provide better visibility for news and everything related to the team. Chlo will gradually add illustrations to make it closer to the game's graphical style. The new version should be coming very soon!

Multiplayer Interactions

For several weeks now, Jimmy has been diligently working on the code for managing the game's multiplayer features. Currently, he's focusing on the ping system. The idea is to create localized notifications in multiplayer.

Advancements in the Quest System

Meanwhile, Cllie has made good progress on the quest structure. She is developing a comprehensive description of all the necessary elements for the proper functioning of this system and how it should work in an editor. Thank you for your support, and see you next week!

[ 2023-07-28 05:56:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Art Direction

Over the past few weeks, Chlo and Mlissa have been working on the art direction, proposing mood boards, and we've had several meetings to discuss the direction to take. We had many choices to make, such as the level of realism in the game, object proportions, and more. We still have some work ahead, like defining the level of detail we want for the in-game characters. This week, Mlissa started modeling and painting a diorama to test out the artistic choices, and we can't wait to share with you what the game will look like! In the meantime, in the article's image, we're sharing one of the first objects Mlissa worked on to define the art direction.

Networking and Multiplayer

On the coding front, Jimmy has been busy with networking and multiplayer management. In recent weeks, we were able to run our first multiplayer tests with Unreal, and now Jimmy is integrating various social functions within the game to enable easier and faster communication.

Quests and Dialogues

Lastly, Cllie is working on quest and dialogue editing tools, and Nico is preparing their integration into the game, making it easy to modify everything while providing a system that allows players to have as much freedom as possible while offering a user-friendly tool. Thanks for your support, and see you next week!

[ 2023-07-21 12:56:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey folks! After a few weeks of being less consistent with our weekly reviews (we were busy preparing various funding applications, which didn't provide much interesting content to share), we have some good news to announce this week!

Finally, a studio: Cats and Foxes

Since joining the Inria Startup Studio, we've been trying to come up with a name for our studio. As it has been 8 months now, you can easily imagine how difficult it was for us to find a name! But today, we can finally say that our studio will be called Cats and Foxes! And that's not all, we have started building the studio's website, and you can check it out here: https://catsandfoxes.com

The team is growing!

The team is finally expanding, and it's about time because since the project's launch, we still didn't have a 2D/3D artist on the team. Up until now, Jimmy and Nicolas have been handling the graphics, but it's not their area of expertise, and the results didn't meet their expectations. Luckily, three people are joining us and should greatly support us in these areas!

Melissa

Melissa has joined the team full-time starting this Monday and will work with us on the artistic direction of VirtualSociety and the game environment. We have started defining the game's artistic direction, and we should have some exciting things to show you in the coming weeks!

Chlo

Chlo cannot join the team full-time yet, but she will assist us, like Cllie, in her free time. She will provide advice on the project's artistic direction and will work on illustrations as well as character animations.

Paul

Paul will join the team in two weeks and will work on the game's characters and their customization features (body type, facial features, etc.). By going from 3 to 6 people (and from 2 to 4 people working full-time!), we will be able to progress much faster and, finally, have a proper artistic direction! We are also thrilled to have a studio name at last :) Thank you for your support, and see you next week!

[ 2023-07-14 08:11:36 CET ] [ Original post ]

Our arrival at the ISS #2 Life at Inria

After our article about joining the Inria Startup Studio, we're continuing the series on our workplace by talking about the people around us at Inria! And with all that, here are some group photos featuring everyone wearing a VirtualSociety t-shirt at Inria! We may be a large group in this photo, but our project team still consists of only three members: Jimmy and Nicolas full-time, and Cllie, who works on game design in her spare time. Some time ago, we ordered t-shirts and got a few extra ones to give to our colleagues who have helped us throughout the project. In this article, we'll talk about them.

The Inria Communications Team

Right next to our offices are the offices of the Inria Communications Team. In the photo, you can see Justine, Anne-Lise, Vronique, and Virginie from the communications team. They have been incredibly helpful in various areas, whether it's getting the word out about our project, connecting us with different opportunities (like the Foire Expo de Nancy, the gaming event at the science enthusiast fair, or the article about VirtualSociety on the Inria website), or providing advice on our communication materials and publications. We were thrilled to be able to give them VirtualSociety t-shirts! There's Justine, always energetic and smiling, supporting us daily (including on Twitter!). Vronique, who has offered us numerous opportunities and has an eagle eye for finding typos in texts. And finally, Virginie, who always brightens our day (and we especially enjoy hearing her grumble, I swear, when we spend hours trying to find the cause of a bug, a smile goes a long way). We're really happy to share our workspace with them and interact with them daily. And when we don't see them enough, we organize some activities outside of work (by the way, Justine once wanted to sacrifice herself to save the team in the last escape game we played), and Jimmy and Justine are planning a karaoke soon.

ISS and STIP Teams

Our supervision at the Inria Startup Studio is managed locally by a CPPI (if you want to know more about what a CPPI is, there's a great explanatory video here!). In Nancy, Aurlie has been in this role for a few months, and she has been immensely helpful in guiding us through all our processes and advising us on various aspects of starting a business. With her previous experience at Peel (Ppite de Lorraine), she is well-versed in supporting startups. At Inria, many processes can become complicated and require the approval of numerous people, but Aurlie is super efficient, and our processes have been going smoothly since she joined. We'll talk more about this in the coming weeks, but the team is about to expand, and it's largely thanks to her that it's possible! Also featured in the photo is Sabrina, the assistant of the STIP team at Inria (to which we are attached), the Lucky Luke of problem-solving; she resolves issues faster than her shadow. She also manages a wide range of administrative and logistical tasks (our travels, contracts, expense reports, some purchases, etc.). In recent months, we've been busy with missions, purchases, and events, which means Sabrina has had a lot on her plate. In summary, a big thank you to Aurlie and Sabrina for everything they have enabled us to achieve.

The Cafeteria Team

It has been a couple of years since we joined Inria, starting as interns, then engineers, PhD candidates, and now engineers with Inria Startup Studio. Over the years, we have built many relationships, including with the cafeteria and restaurant team, who bring so much positivity to the lab. For our group photo, we also invited Caroline (#MonLapin), Isabelle, Floriane, and Tarek, who make sure we have a delicious lunch every day! Caro is like the mascot of the caf area; she knows everyone and their preferred lab drinks (and there are many of us!) by name, although she calls us all "mon lapin" (my rabbit). She had been asking for a VirtualSociety t-shirt for years, and now she finally has one! And on the restaurant side, Floriane and Tarek assist Jimmy every day in choosing the main course (yes, decisions aren't his strong suit), and Isabelle (who prepares amazing desserts) manages the cash register with a melodious voice.

Engineers and PhD Candidates from the lab

We spent many years in the Larsen team (Nicolas) and MFX team (Jimmy), and we formed strong bonds there as well. Even today, we (almost) play board games during lunchtime with other PhD candidates and engineers from our former teams. Among them, Jacques and Alexis helped us at our booth during the Foire Expo de Nancy, and they'll likely be present at Vandoeuvre in Game in September to showcase the project! We've been playing games together at lunch for over five years now, and it's a moment we truly adore! We also want to warmly thank Yassine, Jacques, and Alexis for their assistance. At the expo, they did an exceptional job explaining our games to the public, with great energy and enthusiasm.

Paul, joining the team soon

Lastly, Paul, who previously lent a helping hand during the VS Online era by creating character and object animations, will be joining us at the end of July to work on the game's characters. A few years ago, Jimmy was his teacher. Today, Paul possesses various skills in development, graphic design, and animation, and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with him!


It was a special moment for us to gather all these individuals from the lab who have supported and helped us throughout the years. We are incredibly grateful for the joy they have brought us and their unwavering support. And a big thank you to Jrmy, who shares the open space with us, for taking the photos. Now you have a better understanding of our work environment and the people surrounding us at the lab! Thank you for your support, and see you soon!

[ 2023-07-05 11:47:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey folks! These last few weeks have been very busy for us, with the F101 program in Lyon, followed by a lot of meetings, then the Indie Game Night in Strasbourg, and finally the Inria Startup Studio Spring Camp in Lyon again.

Indie Game Night #19

On Friday 12th, we went to Strasbourg following the invitation of East Games to participate to the Indie Game Night #19, where we presented VirtualSociety and all the history of our adventure during about 30 minutes. We were then able to exchange during a question and answer session, and then chat with many participants during the break that followed. This very nice evening was the opportunity to meet many people and to exchange around the video game, a big thank you to East Games for the invitation! There is a chance that the event will be replayed later on YouTube, we will keep you posted if we have any news!

Spring Camp

From the 15th to the 17th, we went back to Lyon to participate to the Inria Spring Camp. This event gathers most of the startup studio's project leaders, allowing us to exchange with each other, and to attend many testimonies and presentations from people who have created successful startups, from business lawyers, investors and other actors of the startup ecosystem.

And plenty of meetings

Between all these events, we also had a lot of meetings, especially with companies and associations working in the health field, and with whom we were able to talk on the potential interests of VirtualSociety for neuroatypical people, isolated people, people with communication disorders, etc. These very enriching exchanges allowed us to better understand what we can bring to different profiles of people with social difficulties. Thank you for your support, and see you next week!

[ 2023-05-26 14:48:29 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey folks! After a busy week in Lyon with last week's F101 training, we were able to resume development and contacts in this slightly shorter week (with a public holiday on Monday). On the agenda: our progress on the building editor, discussions with healthcare professionals, and new furniture!

Moving and modifying objects

We have been thinking about different essential features of the editor, including editing objects placed in the game. Nico developed a first version of the object editing menu, and we improved snapping (you can learn more on our Patreon). We will soon create more video previews to show you all of this, and a video that brings together all these aspects in the coming weeks.

Discussions with psychologists

We also discussed with psychologists about VirtualSociety, and what video games can bring in terms of health and social relationships. This exchange was extremely rich, and they talked to us about many health issues where our project could actually help. We will share all this with you very soon, with a bit of perspective on all these possibilities.

New props

Finally, Jimmy has designed new furniture for the game, which in addition to adding more objects to the game's collection, will allow us to test new customization options, and different issues that we had not yet addressed, such as the placement of sinks (and therefore the on-the-fly creation of a hole in the work surface to place the sink). This week, Jimmy focused on different kitchen furniture, which we will show you soon! Thank you for your support, and see you next week!

[ 2023-05-05 13:13:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey folks! This week, we were mainly networking and chatting with people, but that's not all! We're still working on walls, and we hope you'll like what we're creating for you!

We join EastGames

We had planned to join the EastGames association for several months already, and we finally filled out the membership form last week. On Monday, we received confirmation that our membership had been accepted, and we met a second person from their team. EastGames was founded in 2016 by a dozen video game industry players and aims to promote video gaming in our region (Grand Est), with three pillars: unite, support, and develop industry players. We are thrilled to join this group and hope that our exchanges will create opportunities for both them and us!

Recruitment of a 3D graphic designer

We are making progress in recruiting a 3D graphic designer to help us with characters. We mentioned this a while ago, and it should all happen fairly soon. Since we are incubated by Inria Startup Studio until November, we have to follow many rules for this type of project, and it takes a lot of time for everything to fall into place. Fortunately, in a short while, the graphic designer we have chosen should be able to start working with us. We can't wait!

Exchanges with modders and health professionals

We have continued to exchange with modders and contact others, as well as health professionals. These exchanges help us better define our tools and some specific game design directions to take. We will do a series of articles on this subject, summarizing the various exchanges we have had (when the people interviewed authorize us to quote them) and explaining the decisions and conclusions that result from them. Thank you for your support, and see you next week!

[ 2023-04-21 11:20:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hey folks! This week, we kept on coding the world editor (for Nico) and vehicles (for Jimmy), while Cllie put her thinking cap on to figure out the different gameplay types for each game mode. Just like last week, we kept chatting with modders to better understand their needs and make sure we keep them in mind when developing the game's modding features.

World editor

Nico made some serious progress on integrating curved walls into the game, making sure not only the geometry was spot on, but also that the collisions were just right (to avoid trapping players or, on the flip side, letting them sneak into places they shouldn't). He also nailed the proper projection of materials on the walls. That being said, we're not completely done with curved walls just yet we still have some tweaks to make for specific situations. Including curved walls indeed requires adjustments on many aspects, like floors, roofs, and so on. We had already introduced the option to round floors and walls a few years back in VirtualSociety Online, our previous game, but we weren't using Unreal Engine at the time. Plus, we decided to rethink the way these elements are built to make creating buildings a piece of cake.

Vehicles

One of the main challenges we're currently tackling is the scalability of vehicles. In a nutshell: we'd like each vehicle we offer to be duplicable and modifiable, so we can generate other types of vehicles, especially through mods. For instance, we'd love for players to be able to add a hot air balloon, a flying broomstick, or even a jet ski, starting with the vehicles we'll initially provide in the game and then tweaking their animations, settings, and appearances. To make this possible, we tried to group a bunch of vehicles (whether we planned to make them or not) into different categories based on their technical similarities. For example, can you do stunts with them? Are they affected by gravity? What kind of surface does the vehicle work on? After several meetings, we managed to define our vehicle organization more clearly, making it easier for future modders to create a wide variety of vehicles according to their desires. We can't wait to cruise around the game's cities with different vehicles, and we're even more excited for you to give it a go!

Meetings and greetings

To wrap things up, as it often happens lately, we've been swamped with various meetings, trainings, and emails to send out. You see, creating a startup is a lengthy process that requires tons of communication. In general, we're trying to connect with many local players (associations, other game studios), we're organizing our participation in different events (we'll be attending several conventions again soon!), we regularly attend entrepreneurship trainings with Inria Startup Studio and L'Incubateur Lorrain, and we're also getting in touch with many people to gain different perspectives on the game (psychologists, modders, etc.). Having all these opportunities is incredibly interesting and educational for us, although, of course, it also limits the time we can spend programming or drawing new objects. But everything's moving forward! As usual, a new preview of the editor will be posted every Saturday on Twitter and YouTube. Thanks for your support, and see you next week!

[ 2023-04-14 09:12:34 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks! This week, we tried out the Unreal Engine 5.2 preview with its even prettier rendering engine and met with some local game industry actors including Pandor Concept and Mist Studio !

UnrealEngine 5.2

Last week, Epic offered a first glimpse of Unreal Engine 5.2, which brings many improvements. These include better global illumination with Lumen, and more detailed reflections and shadows, various optimizations for control rigs (used for character animation), and more. We tested VirtualSociety on UE5.2 (although we won't switch versions until it's finished). The transition required several changes in the code, especially for character control where the Unreal code has changed a lot. Currently, Lumen no longer works on macOS (for Apple processors, with Unreal 5.1), but seems to be working again on version 5.2, which is good news.


You can see above the same scene in three cases:

• On the left, Lumen with UE5.1 on macOS. We can see that there are many lighting and shadow errors, which have made us stop using Lumen on macOS until now.
• In the center, the same scene without Lumen (with ray tracing on the processor). We can see that reflections are calculated for the elements present on the screen (such as the ground), which works quite well for ground reflections, but very poorly for reflections on walls.
• On the right, Lumen with Unreal 5.2, capable of generating reflections of buildings behind the camera, even on a computer that does not have a graphics card capable of ray tracing.

It's exciting to see the advancements being made in game development technology and we can't wait to see what new possibilities Unreal Engine 5.2 will bring. Despite some challenges with the transition, we're confident that VirtualSociety will continue to thrive on this powerful game engine.

Meeting with Pandor Concept

On Monday morning, we met with one of the managers of Pandor Concept, who co-organizes the "Vandoeuvre in Games" event that takes place every year on the first weekend of September in Vandoeuvre. We were introduced to them by the communication team at Inria (thanks again to them, we have lost count of the opportunities they have given us since we joined the ISS!), and we will be able to participate as exhibitors at this trade show! The idea will be, as at the "Fru des Sciences" event, to have participants try out VirtualSociety, as well as to lead several workshops on the game design, coding, etc. Our contact at Pandor Concept, Guillaume, presented our game to the Vandoeuvre town hall, and received very positive feedback, especially regarding the values we promote! The event will take place in September, and we will definitely tell you more about it before then!

Meeting with Mist Studio

On Thursday, the Lorraine Incubator offered us the opportunity to meet with the director of Mist Studio, which is actively working on "serious games" that address various health problems, such as relieving pain caused by burns during bandage replacement. Since the ethical and health dimensions of our games are central to us, it's a huge asset to be able to discuss these issues with other local studios! The meeting was very enjoyable, and Matthieu and Bryan have a very similar background to ours (we have some of our studies in common) and a vision of the industry that is quite similar to ours. We were therefore very happy to meet another independent studio that shares our values. Finally, as every Saturday, you will have a new preview of our editor tomorrow on social media, so be sure to tune in! Thank you for your support, and see you next week!

[ 2023-03-31 09:45:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks! This week we added some new items, thought about the interface of the different game modes and continued to work on our world editor. Let's get started!

Object modelling

This week we continued to make objects for the bedrooms, including desks, toys and toy chests. Jimmy has also been working on trees and vegetation, and you can actually see a first glimpse in this week's photo!

Brainstorming on the interface of the different game modes

We also had several meetings about the different interfaces for our four game modes: adventure, life simulation, roleplay and serious-game. The idea is to minimize the information on the screen in the adventure mode (minimap outside, and display of contextual information), to give a little more details in the life simulation mode, to emphasize the chat in the roleplay mode, and to allow more flexibility for the serious game modes.

World editor

Finally, we continue to improve our world editor, and add features to ease the creation of all your ideas. We won't tell you much more about it, because as for the previous weeks, you will be able to see a new preview every Saturday on our social networks! Thanks for your support and see you next week!

[ 2023-03-24 13:52:13 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks! This week we have been working mainly on our world editor, and adding new props. As we announced last week, we will post a sneak peek every Saturday.

Object Modeling

We continued to model items for bedrooms, including a lot of toys, plushes and decorations for children's rooms on different themes. Our editor is now advanced enough that each object has indications of the different predefined styles, editable settings, how it can be magnetized to other objects, etc. We also take a lot of time to define many styles for different objects, to give them multiple appearances and allow maximum customization! We have also dealt with various specific situations, such as ticking clocks (for the alarm clock for example), or lava lamps.

Registration for the Game Developers Conference 2023 (GDC)

Next week, the GDC 2023 will take place in San Francisco. It's kind of the "event of the year" in the game development world. At this point, we don't have the budget to attend (tickets are expensive for a small studio, and just the trip to San Francisco for a week would drain our travel budget), but we were able to purchase tickets to attend online, so we'll be able to attend the conference next week! We are also continuing the trainings and exchanges with the Incubateur Lorrain, which, in addition to giving us a great welcome every time (besides being nice, they always have great tea and cakes!), gives us really useful trainings!

World Editor

Finally, we continued our progress on the world editor. This week we've been working on snapping objects, especially in specific cases of objects that need to fit together in a particular way, but we won't tell you more about that right now, you'll find out over the weeks in our videos! Thanks for your support and see you next week!

[ 2023-03-17 13:31:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

Files and applications

As we had already mentioned, if we know well the creation of video games, the creation of a company is less part of our skills. Since we want to create our own video game studio (which involves creating a company, as well as producing and distributing our games on different platforms), we need help and advice on these areas. In November 2022, we joined the Inria Startup Studio, which is a first significant help for all these elements. However, we are still looking for other complementary help (incubators, grants), which can help us on other aspects of business creation, help with the hosting of the future company (once we leave Inria), as well as allow us to get the necessary funds to continue the development of the game (in addition to the crowd-funding you can join on Patreon). So we spent a lot of time this week on these points, we won't tell you more for the moment (until we have answers), but having access to different incubators and programs could be an inestimable help for the future!

Modeling and editor

We've resumed work on the building editor (which is one of the most complex parts of the game), and we've added several useful features, such as filtering objects by tags, a better placement system, as well as new objects for rooms, and children's toys. We'll show you a first sneak peek of all these new features very soon!

Textures and materials

At the time of VirtualSociety Online, we used very few textures because of the constraints of a browser-based game (in order to limit the weight of the game to the slowest internet connections). Now we can afford to use many textures to define the way materials react to light (details, reflections, etc.). We will probably do a more in-depth article on this subject. We've been designing and preparing a lot of materials this week, which you'll be able to see very soon in the upcoming previews of new features in our building editor. Our goal is to have a consistent and complete collection of materials and patterns that can be reused in the object predefined styles. We would have liked to show you a bit more this week, but the many applications we've been working on and the various meetings have taken up some of our time, but we can't wait to show you more! Thanks for your support, and see you next week!

[ 2023-03-03 09:08:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks! This week, we worked mainly on interaction animations, especially to place the player's hands correctly during certain interactions, such as opening a blind, picking up an object, etc.

Animations and inverse kinematics

After a busy week with the 'Fru des sciences', we worked on procedural animations, used for example to make our characters grab objects correctly, turn handles, or align itself correctly on the ground. In general, the player plays different animations mixed together depending on the context: when he walks for example, several animations are mixed together depending on the direction he is going, other animations are played simultaneously for other details (such as breathing, or to change his gait depending on his mood, level of fatigue, etc.). Finally, the player's bones are moved in code to respect certain constraints, for example to adjust the height and angle of his feet according to the ground.
In the example above, the player's left foot is moved up to match the height of the ground. This type of adjustment is not so simple, because you have to transfer the movement of the foot to the rest of the leg to get a natural and consistent pose, and that's where the inverse kinematics come in. Without going into details, it is a matter of allowing a part of the skeleton (here the foot) to move "freely", and to propagate this movement to the other parts while respecting different constraints (which correspond globally to the possible movements of the human body). Luckily, Unreal provides very good and numerous tools to manage complex animations, and the animation of the character thus involves many systems that coexist and provide the final animation of the character. Briefly, the following steps are performed:

• State machines determine the current state of the character (falling, walking, running, stooping, standing, sitting, or carrying something with one hand, two hands, etc.).
• Depending on its state, different animations are played (blend space), depending on different parameters (e.g. walking speed, direction).
• In some cases, no animation is played and the physics determines the state of the skeleton (with a simplified physical model of the character). This is the case for example when the character falls, or for hairstyles with long hair, where the hair has a skeleton (yes, we do that in games :D), and the physics allows to move the bones according to the movements, as if it was a ragdoll.
• Additional animations are then mixed to modify the pose of the character (breathing, fatigue, etc)
• We then adapt the size and position of certain bones to adapt the character's morphology (certain parameters of size and build directly affect the bones)
• Finally, we apply the inverse kinematics to adjust the player's feet and hands (depending on the state of the ground, if he has to hold an object or grip somewhere, etc).

This week we adapted our interaction system, so that actions on objects can easily set constraints on the player's hands, for example to make the character grab a handle at a specific point. Our system isn't finished yet (this kind of thing needs a lot of tweaking), but it's a good basis for future interactions! Skeletons are not only used in characters and hair, we also use them to constrain many physical systems, like cars. We didn't show it publicly at the time, so I'm going to take this opportunity to show you a playpen horse that Jimmy modeled a year ago, which we put a skeleton and physics constraints on to make it react properly (this was early on in our Unreal Engine experience, so we were trying to get a handle on different aspects that we were going to need for VirtualSociety).

Small fall and night in emergency services

On Monday night, while leaving work and going to the choir, Jimmy fell on his scooter, and we had to spend the night in the emergency room to make sure nothing was broken. Fortunately everything is fine, and Jimmy was able to return to work on Wednesday (with a splint).
Above is an illustration of Jimmy's condition after his fall ;) (by the way, the picture is a good illustration of what the "ragdoll" mode looks like. Take care, thanks for your support and see you next week!

[ 2023-02-24 10:27:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks! As we previously announced, this week we were at the Fru des sciences for a two days event about video games. The Fru des sciences, former museum of iron history, is now a scientific and cultural space that offers to discover different scientific themes in family. A few months ago, the communication team of Inria, who works in the offices right next to us, and with whom we interact a lot, put us in touch with the team of the Fru so that we could participate in this event by animating a stand. Obviously, this is the kind of event that we would have loved as children, and it is with great pleasure that we participated. We spent part of the week preparing our booth, and Wednesday and Thursday hosting our booth at the show.

Our workshops

We prepared several activities to try to show different aspects of game creation, and to show what we are working on.

• We prepared a workshop on materials in video games, to explain how the use of different textures can define how a material reacts to light, with normalMaps, roughnessMap, metalnessMap, etc. We of course adapted the explanations according to the age of the participants, and this stand sometimes allowed to interest parents a little more while their children were participating in the other stands.
• Cllie animated a workshop on gamedesign, by proposing to the children to build levels of video games from different subjects proposed (for example: the player can fly, the player is not allowed to touch the ground, etc.), and asked them different questions to bring them to explain their choices of gamedesign, and the different problems of the level design
• We proposed the game Running Guys developed by Jimmy and Maxime Gourgoulhon about ten years ago on Blender Game Engine. It's a game played by two people, where a policeman has to catch a robber who tries to outrun the policeman.
• Finally, the "Feru des sciences" team provided us with a video projector, on which we proposed our current version of VirtualSociety. Not all actions in the game are yet achievable with a controller (we mainly use keyboard/mouse to develop the game), but players could still try out a part of the current game.

At the beginning of the show, we weren't sure if our booth would attract much traffic; we were right next to a "video game museum" booth that offered games on different consoles, from the oldest to the newest, and their PlayStation 5 was right next to our tables. We quickly realized that kids were coming anyway, many of them passed by Cllie's gamedesign booth, and several kids played VirtualSociety and Running Guys for a long time!


The audience of the show was very interested and friendly, and we had many interesting exchanges with the participants. On VirtualSociety, we had left a controller control to switch to ragdoll mode (ragdoll, which makes the character collapse). This control is obviously not meant to stay in the game, the ragdoll mode is simply triggered when the player takes a big fall (falling from a height, or falling while skateboarding for example), but for this show we thought it would be funny to leave a control to trigger it manually. Many children played with it a lot. One of them, after about 30 minutes of running, jumping and falling in the game, came to ask us about the game concept. After explaining it to him, he told us that he had a completely different idea, and that for him, at night, there should be zombies, and that he should hide and fall down to pretend to be dead and escape them. We also met several kids who want to create their own video games. So we gave them different tips and a few hints so that they can progress on their own. On the second day, several children from the first day insisted with their parents/grandparents to come back on the second day and came back to our booth. The average audience was a bit older, and Science Fester apparently broke its record for an event, with nearly twice as many people. We talked a lot with parents or grandparents while the kids were having fun. Some were worried about the future of video games, but there is no doubt that the entertainment and emotions of video games have a long way to go. Others were more there to encourage the children, more or less shy, to interact with us. And sometimes, after a few exchanges, the tongues were loosened and we learned that they already knew which schools they wanted to go to, even though they were only 10 or 12 years old (it was so cute ^^).

The event

The event proposed many very different exhibits, including Captain Lee who proposes to draw the sets, characters, objects and map of a game on a sheet of paper before digitizing it to make a video game level, the regional conservatory of Greater Nancy came to interpret game music, a virtual reality space proposed by Inria, a museum of video game consoles, etc.


This event was also the opportunity to meet other local actors in the field of games, with for example Olivier Ageron who teaches at the Ecole des Mines and the Ecole d'Art de Nancy to push his students to think and design games within the Artem Game Lab. We also met several musicians who are very interested in small independent studios like us, and we will be able to contact them again very soon. A big thank you to the communication teams of Inria and Le Fru, the good atmosphere and the smiles are already quite important, but their motivation to make science and games known and discovered in a playful and accessible way made us spend excellent moments! See you next week!

[ 2023-02-17 15:57:55 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi folks! This week we reworked our object interaction menu, started the visual redesign of the phone menu and prepared to hire a 3D artist for the game characters.

Action menu

This week, Nico reworked the look of the action menu, and added new icons and interactions! The current design (pictured in the article) is not final, but it already suits us better than the old one. Don't hesitate to give your opinion and suggestions! We also thought about how to adapt different actions according to the game modes (adventure, life simulation and roleplay), as the controls are very different (cursor for life simulation mode, TPS in adventure mode), and the immersion is not the same. Different options are also possible for the action icons. Colored icons might be easier to identify, but the current monochrome icons have the advantage of being easy to reproduce (for players who will want to add mods and new interactions), and easily adapt to different themes (light and dark, specific themes to compensate for some visual impairments, etc.).

Characters

So far, you've been able to catch a glimpse of some of the game's characters, but their appearance is still far from final! We've had several meetings with Florian, Cllie and Jimmy to discuss the look of the characters, and Florian has started making some sketches (we'll show you them soon!). In the next few weeks, when we have everything well defined, we will hire a 3D graphic designer to help us make the "final" 3D version. This will be the opportunity to update our appearance editor, and add some customization options that are still missing (face morphology, etc.). As we are still in the pre-incubation period in the Inria Startup Studio, we will go through Inria to hire the freelancewho will take care of the character realization. We can't wait to introduce you to our new characters!

Phone menu

As you may have seen in previous devblog articles, the in-game menu is represented by default by the player's phone. This presentation will be fully customizable in the world options, to fit the different themes and universes (a phone would obviously not fit a medieval world for example). This menu will be able to have several appearances, and contain or not some applications, depending on the choices of the person(s) who manage the world. This week, we started to redesign the phone menu, and Solne started to draw the new icons for a more polished result to more closely fit with the spirit of the game. Thanks for your support, and see you next week!

[ 2023-02-10 09:40:49 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello folks! This week, we're back to C++ development, and we're preparing a scientific mediation event around the video game!

Back to C++

After a heavy week of meetings, we are back to the game development. Currently, we are working on two essential points of the game: the multiplayer and the edition and customization of objects. We are starting the first multiplayer tests. Unlike many games developed with Unreal Engine, we are using, as with VirtualSociety Online, NodeJS for multiplayer. Our goals at the moment are to display the other players connected to the world and to synchronize the animations correctly. In a second step, we will focus on actions, the use of objects and the synchronization of dynamic objects (which can move, change state, etc.). We have set up a whole system to synchronize values and triggers between the different players, and after a while spent defining the system, we are finally starting to test it. The challenges are many:

• Allowing players to extend our system, so that user plugins can add network-dependent functionality.
• Handling the communication interval on different criteria: importance of the synchronized element, platform, distance to the players (the animations of a distant player do not need the same precision as the one of a player right next to it). The challenge is to have a smooth result, and minimize the amount of data exchanged.
• Resolve conflicts when several players have different values. For example, when a player kicks a ball, all players must see the ball in the same place.

We are looking forward to provide you with a first preview!

Science mediation

In mid-February, we will be participating in an event at the "Fru des sciences" about video games. The event will last two afternoons and will be aimed at children. The objective is to show the backstage in the field of video games, and to explain in an accessible way the different techniques used. Nico and Jimmy will lead workshops on different technical points such as how textures and materials work, physics engines and character animation, while Cllie will discuss gamedesign and how to design rules and levels in games. We have met with the organizers of the event twice to talk about the organization of the workshops, and we are starting to prepare these two days. As children, all three of us dreamed of creating video games, so it is a real joy for us to be able to share what we have learned, and to introduce different aspects of game creation to the younger ones.

Social networks

After updating the site and resuming more active communication with you, we have been working on other channels where we can be found, including Steam, Discord and Patreon. Regarding Steam, we now publish public devblog articles on Steam as well, in French and English. We will update the game images as we go along, and we have reworked the game description. Regarding Patreon, we have thought about redefining the different rewards associated with subscriptions, as well as the description of the page. Thanks for your support, and see you next week!

[ 2023-02-03 13:06:11 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hi! After many weeks focused on code, we have, for once, spent very little time on C++ this week. On our ToDo list was: object modeling, meetings about privacy and updating the website.

Item modeling

Nico modeled some nice 3D objects for the game. Jimmy usually does the modeling, but sometimes we switch things around (especially when he is busy ^^). This week, we added some content for the bedrooms, with several bedside tables! In VirtualSociety Online, we had several systems to edit the objects in game (their textures, colors, dimensions, change the handles, etc.). For VirtualSociety, we will rethink this whole system to allow more options, and make it easier to integrate the objects you will create.

Website home page

Last week we added the roadmap and updated the devblog. We'd like to finish our site update with the homepage, to try to better explain the principles of the game and our vision as clearly and succinctly as possible, so that they can be understood as easily as possible on a first visit. It's not ready yet, but we've been working on the graphics and text on the page, and the new version should be up soon! We also wrote a nice article about how bad loneliness is, and why it matters so much tous. Jimmy worked a lot on the look and feel of the homepage, trying to match the colors with the ideas they convey, and creating icons and nice transitions. Maybe he is too picky because we still wait for a draft :P.

Data protection and beta-testing

As previously announced, we are supervised by Inria Startup Studio for one year. This implies a follow-up from them, and help for a lot of legal issues. So we had a meeting with several lawyers and security managers from Inria. This will allow us to make sure we are in compliance with the laws on the respect of personal data, as well as to have the agreement to carry out a first series of beta-tests during our incubation.

TV show "Le saviez vous ?"

Finally, today Nico was invited to the TV show "Le saviez-vous ?" on France 3 Lorraine ! He went to the France 3 studio this morning for the shooting. We'll make another post a little before the broadcast of the show to tell you more! Thanks for your support and follow up, and see you next week!

[ 2023-01-27 13:37:50 CET ] [ Original post ]

Promoting positive social interactions is at the heart of our project. In this article, we will detail why we care about this, and how we hope to positively influence the interactions within our games! During the first lockdown, we decided to do everything we could to work full-time on VirtualSociety and build the game we dreamed of. In this difficult period, renewing the social link strongly affected by the health situation was one of our main motivations.

Loneliness is a problem

The social dimension is central to the experience we propose. Loneliness is a real problem in society today, with almost one in two people in the world feeling lonely(1); with a public health impact greater than obesity(2).

• The body feels social distress! (1)
• Chronic loneliness stress is very bad for your health (2)
• Loneliness is twice as deadly as obesity (4)

Social networks make it worse

Sadly, social networks don't address this, and often accentuate the problem by not creating real interactions, and by promoting rewarding reactions through the race to likes to keep users on their platform.

• The "race to like", plays on the reward, like a casino. Under these conditions, most of the posts on social networks do not contribute to social bonding, and only aim at creating addiction to social networks.
• Many people spend a lot of time on social networks without really interacting or communicating with others.
• As a result, social networks end up isolating their users in time (5)

This negative effect is not a coincidence. Social platforms aim to keep their users on their platform in order to maximize advertising revenues, not to create social connection.

Games can reduce it

On the other hand, video games can do this(3), and interactions in video games influence players' behavior in real life. So, designing social interactions well, and encouraging real, positive exchanges can help improve the social lives of our players. The work of designing and thinking about the precise functioning of social interactions in the game is thus crucial.

• Video games can positively influence the social behavior of their users, even in the real world (3)
• Well defined interactions can promote real communication,well-being and caring interactions

For example, Disney's Toontown Online was designed to restrict actions to positive interactions, and many players reported changing the way they played all games as a result of their experience in Toontown. The initially constrained, positive-only actions thus permanently influenced how they interacted with others in social games, with new positive social dynamics. Moreover, loneliness is often a vicious circle, where the lack of social interactions can produce a feeling of distrust towards others, reinforcing the feeling of loneliness. (6). Thus, promoting positive interactions within a caring community in a video game can help break this vicious circle to recreate social connection, including in the real world!

Our goals

Our goal is to create a safe space, in which exchanges are positive and benevolent, and can have a positive impact on the well-being and social life of our players. To do so, many points of the game design are thought in this sense.

• Encourage interaction, , with objectives requiring collaboration, rewards for positive interactions and mutual aid.
• Promote creativity, with a sandbox game that allows everyone to create their own world, but also the possibility to add user content in many aspects of the game (furniture and objects, quests, dialogues, new game modes, etc.).
• Avoid anything that might produce a race to the likes, and promote real exchanges.
• Do not look for addiction, avoid reward phenomena that cannot really contribute to the well-being of our players. Suggest to players to take a break after a long time spent on the game.
• Produce positive and satisfying emotions through creativity, learning and social contact, rather than through short-term rewards.

We hope to have explained our position on social contact and our ethical goals here. We will be doing another article soon on our ethical commitments, to detail other aspects outside of social contact. If you want to know more, feel free to read the sources above!

Sources

1) Cigna U.S. Loneliness Index, 2018 Loneliness. Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection, 2008 2) Social Relationships and Health: The Toxic Effects of Perceived Social Isolation, 2014 A Longitudinal Analysis of Loneliness Among Older People in Great Britain, 2012 3) The Art of Game Design, Jesse Schell 4) A Longitudinal Analysis of Loneliness Among Older People in Great Britain, 2012 5) Alone in the crowd: The structure and spread of loneliness in a large social network. Cacioppo, J. T., Fowler, J. H., & Christakis, N. A. (2009). Alone in the crowd: The structure and spread of loneliness in a large social network. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(6), 977991. 6) Video about loneliness - Kurzgesagt In a Nutshell Kurzgesagt In a Nutshell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3Xv_g3g-mA

[ 2023-01-25 15:54:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

This week, we wanted to better inform you about our progress, and we added a weekly update category to our devblog, to make quick articles about our progress, and here is the first one ! We worked together on three points:

Design of the main world

We met to brainstorm on the structure of the city that will be the main multiplayer world of the game (the one we will provide at release). Cllie worked on how to integrate different game mechanics and movement modes in the city, include enough verticality in the landscapes, etc. In the last few weeks, we had created a moodboard together to gather the different styles we like for the future city, and Florian started to draw different visual elements. You can see in the image of the article a first glimpse of our work to try to define the visual style of the future city.

Website and new roadmap!

We have been thinking about how to better communicate with you, especially by updating our homepage to better describe the future game, and by bringing back the devblog. To better share our progress, we are also making part of our roadmap public! It's based on our GameDesign document, and we'll be adding to it as we go along so that it's more detailed and keeps up with our progress.

Network and multiplayer

Finally, Jimmy and Nico worked on multiplayer and networking. This week, we had several difficulties with macOS, on which our C++ implementation of Socket.IO does not work properly. Jimmy spent many (very very) long hours looking for the differences between Windows and macOS ... See you next week!

[ 2023-01-24 14:46:46 CET ] [ Original post ]