Hi hello, its the FIRST of the month again so its time for another devlog!! Like previously stated, devlogs are bi-monthyly now so the next one will be all the way in February next year. These 2 months of development have been split between Mik and my new game which started out as a project for GithubGameOff2024 gamejam. Both because of overscoping and me being busy with exams, I sadly could not finish the game in time for the submission deadline. Its not all bad news tho, more on that later tho!

Level Design

Like the previous months, level design has been once again the main priority. The introduction level was basically finished, although I decided to expand the very first part with more gameplay since the area took ages to create so I dont want it to go to waste. Maybe itll appear again in a later part of the game. All the areas in the previous devlogs are now decorated! Anyways, Ill let the images speak for themselves:

New Object Collision system

The previous collision system for objects (that have physics) has been expanded opon so now theres extra collision particles.

Optimisation

More optimisation! More optimisation! More optimisation!

Better level loading

Im currently implementing the "new" (the one I mentioned in one of the first devlogs) level loading logic for the first level to finally get ready for a cohesive and playable game! On top of that, the level loading system is getting expanded with the ability to also load and unload specific prefabs intead of entire scenes. This just means that the process is less complicated for me, and the game more optimised for you!

New game

Like I mentioned, half of my time was spent on creating a new game for a gamejam. Even tho because of exams and overscoping I didnt manage to finish the game in time, I am planning on continue development and release it on steam. (join discord for indev footage) More info following soon, but trust me, Its epic.

Thanks for reading another devlog!

Join my discord for more news: https://discord.gg/VYUedn5bWE And follow me on twitter: https://www.twitter.com/@stefaaan06

[ 2024-12-01 12:32:09 CET ] [ Original post ]

Heya, its the [strike]first[/strike] second of the month and heres the 9th Mik devlog! First up, some bad news, monthly devlogs will no longer be a thing and will be replaced with bi-monthly devlogs. This is because progress has slowed down because of my school work and me not wanting to make super short devlogs. I post updates and previews to everything you see here on my discord so join that if you are interested.

Level Design

Level design, level design... and more level design. All my work for the past year is finally paying off as the different backend systems I developed are finally finding its usecase! From plants to volumetric lighting, this area will have it all.


Im too lazy to write large paragraphs of text so I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Plants

They are finally here! After teasing them over half a year ago, I am finally using the leaf plugin to generate plantlife for different parts of the first level.

Optimisation

I keep saying this and will say it again, something thats very important to me with Mik is that the game runs as performantly as possible as to enable players with low end hardware to play it as well. I have changed some systems (most notably the leaf shader) to use less system resources and changed up parts of the level to allow for higher frame rates. Thats it for this devlog! I appreciate everyones patience for the release and hope to do a public alpha test soon. Join my discord for more news: https://discord.gg/VYUedn5bWE And follow me on twitter: https://www.twitter.com/@stefaaan06

[ 2024-10-02 16:20:38 CET ] [ Original post ]

Heya, it's the first of the month and I'm back to posting monthly devlogs! This month I mainly focused on completing the introduction level as well as bringing big advancements in optimisation to the game. I do post previews on my discord so join that if you are interested.

Introduction Level

Like in the previous month's devlog, the main focus was on finally completing the introduction level, which so far, is the most complex and time-consuming level in the entire game (There are already other levels finished, I just decided to make a new starting level). This is because of the sheer scale of it, the new advanced lighting, as well as the tons of new assets that came along with it. A big inspiration for this area was both the starting area of Portal 2, but also NaissanceE which has an amazing vibe to it. Essentially, the goal was to create a "grand introduction" with this giant, but still somewhat grounded area. Anyways here are some screenshots.

Optimisation

. Along with the development of the first level. I realized that I was getting more and more lenient with poorer performance (which would be worse on low end devices).

FSR 3.1

. Mik now supports AMD's open source upscaling solution. There will be some more advanced customization for it in the settings menu, but for now it should help boost frame rates.

General Optimisation

Much of the entry level as well as other levels have been changed to allow for better performance. That's it for this month's (slightly) shorter devlog. Stay tuned for future updates!

[ 2024-09-01 17:51:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Its the first of the month... and I might have forgotten to post for the past 4 months, mainly because there wasnt much to even post about since I was kinda burnt out from gamedev, and thing I did code only made it into the discord (which you should totally join). At any rate Ill try to include all the things I have been working on the past months (mainly the last month).

Backend Stuff

My main focus the past months was finally finishing all the systems and feature-completing the game.

Power System

I added a simulated Power System which well... controls how much Power there is available and where it goes, meaning that there can be (scripted) power outages, PCs going out power, Player being able to turn of Power for puzzles... etc etc.

ROS completion

Remember RevelOS from the last Devlog? Well it is now basically featurecomplete and ready to be fully used. The only thing that was missing was a proper - Communication System from it to the game world. Skip this part if you dont want nerd talk: Basically revelOS runs on native C# so i can enjoy all the features of objective oriented programming, but that means that there has to be some sort of bridge to the game world, as every script in Unity needs to derive drom MonoBehaviour. This script now facilitates both way communications meaning that the game world can send and receive information from an application. Example: the Application for controling doors can now show if the doors are open or closed. Sounds kinda simple and stupid but took some time to implement.

updated project to new unity version

Title says it all, I upgraded the project to a newer Unity LTS release. For the development of the (new) first level I made 2 nice tools to help me.

custom LOD system

A custom LOD (Level of Detail) System that gives me more costumisation and control over its workings. An LOD system basically heps with performance by reducing the Object quality the farther the Player gets away.

custom Object placement tool

To place Objects in mass but still making it feel kinda "natural" I coded a script that could do that for me so I dont have to do it by hand.

Shader Changes

Both the leaf and the water shader have been reworked/completed and should now more or less be finalized.

Leaf Shader

Main changes were the interaction with the Player, meaning that if you get near some leaves they move in the air as if you touched them, along with some other smaller changes.

Water Shader

I reworked the water shader and the FX along with it to look more realistic and convincing. Its still a basic 2D surface with some tricks to convince the Player that its 3D to save lots of performance. (dont mind the testing environment)

Introduction Level

Its worth mentioning that the existing areas have been moved around in the "timeline" of the game as to have better artstyle cohesion. For example level 2 is now Level 6 or so. With the previous tools I mentioned, I started working on the introduction Level. I spent a lot of time on this area and will continue to do so as I want it to leave a beautiful first impression and vibe on the Player. Basically its a giant storage room as far as the eye can see, containing hundreds of small rooms, presumably containing testing subjects (portal 2 bootleg), in one of which you wake up.
The outsides have a bunch of variations to not look boring and the room in which you wake up in has some nice decor.

I also started implementing the new Volumetric Lighting system and experimented around a bit, and somehow got this resolt. Not sure if ill keep this but it looks really fucking cool.
That said, this area is in no way finished as I still need to design most of it, finish lightning, finish decoration and add actual gameplay and storyline.

New game

In unrelated news to Mik, I developed a short game in 3 days for the Score Space Jam 2024. Its a 2D Platformer specifically made for speedrunning so check it out if you want to: https://stefaaan06.itch.io/akio Thats it with this Months devlog. Sorry for not posting anything the past months! Also follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/@stefaaan06 And join my discord for more news: https://discord.gg/VYUedn5bWE

[ 2024-08-01 14:24:54 CET ] [ Original post ]

Heya, Its the first of the Month, and with that another Mik devlog! First of all, Mik passed 1300 Wishlists even tho I really neglected doing any Marketing the past few Weeks, which is pretty cool! Also I have discord now so go join: https://discord.gg/R6fAPVCqbw Ive been able to work way more on the game the past Month as exam season is over (still no new Levels tho). Heres a quick overview:

• (almost) finished revelOS (the new custom (but fake) OS for the PCs you can find around the world)
• changed Player Movement and started adding new gameplay elements
• Volumetric Lighting!
• localisation
• leaves, vines & nature!

Revel OS

The custom operation system that Ive mentioned last Devlog is now (almost) finished. The only thing missing is a proper way for it to react with the outside world (open doors, turn on lights... stuff like that). Ive already talked about the Idea/concept behind it so go read that if youre interested. The Hardest part about making this was that I had to write my custom text styling and layout since I decided to do everything on the code side, meaning that the text is changed on runtime and it needs to know where to put text, not to put text over one another etc... This was complicated by the fact that I also worked on a localisation system but more on that later. Heres a rundown on what it can do:

• User System (each User also has their own logs)
• User Perms (cant do anything with perms rn tho)
• Login with different Users
• Menu Navigation
• Launch & Display Applications
• localisation

TL;DR: you can Login and open device specific Applications. The whole Application System is built modularly so each PC can have their own Applications. The only finished Application right now is "Personal Logs". Which allows you to view User associated personal logs (like a diary).
There is the menu page of the App where you can Navigate using the Arrow keys. With Up & Down you can select different logs. Which left & right you can switch the page to view more Logs. Selecting & pressing enter on a Log will expand it and show its entire contents.
The only thing missing functionally wise is the ability to interact with the game world, like open a door or turn on a light (working on it rn tho). Appart from that I want to add actual content to the OS so it does not feel like a waste to have spent so much time developing it. More in-dev Videos on my discord btw.

Player Movement changes

I started balancing&changing the movement as I did not like that you could easily get insane amounts of speed. There is also a differentiation between spriting & walking now. Heres all the changes so far: [olist]

slowed general player speed

made jumps weaker

added sprinting

added wall jumping - difference to wall running being that it can be performed on any wall

added 2 gameplay elements. One pushes you away when clicking on it and the other one allows you to perform stronger wall jumps [/olist]

Volumetric Lighting

I mentioned last Devlog that Im trying to siwtch Render Pipelines, but that didnt end up going anywhere because of bugs with the converter and the fact that Id have to rework tons of shaders, materials, post processing stuff for it to work. But fear not, as I have still found a way to implement volumetric lighting! At first I wanted to code it myself, so I used a 7 year old Github repo as a base but I realised that it would take way too much effort to maintain & optimise it so I chose to use a proprietary system. Theres not much to talk about so just enjoy the screenshots (these are onyl tests btw, the implementation ingame might be different):

Localisation

I have added a localisation system into the game which is a mix of Unitys localisation solution and my own code. I chose to do this now since it would be a gigantic pain to add it later on when im already finished with revelOS and Id have to rework it. It was still hard enough to get it working for the OS now since the text is created/loaded on runtime.

Nature

Last but not least: Nature! Ive wanted to add vines/leaves/grass to the game for a while since the whole theme is this abandoned facility. A large inspiration for this is the start of Portal 2 where everything is overgrown & destroyed. Here are some pictures (once again just tests):

[imghttps://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/44485089/8b3275d39b120142a6be2571e2061823464e9a83.png[/img] You cant see it on the pictures but the leaves move in the air to look more convincing. Im also working on a effect where when you walk into the plants, they move (like in rdr2 or cyberpunk). Currently there is just one type of leaves but I want to add some variation, grass and maybe some different plants. Thats it with this Months devlog! Sadly I cant upload videos here (except embed youtube Videos) so if you are interested in more indev footage be sure to join my discord. https://discord.gg/JXn6Xa4VC4 Also follow me on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/@stefaaan06

[ 2024-02-01 19:13:22 CET ] [ Original post ]

Heya, Its the first of the month, and not only that but its also 2024! The year where this game will (hopefully) be released. To start things of in this years first Devlog: Mik hit 1000 wishlists, which is amazing! Appart of that, I have been working on both Mik and a secret side project of mine yet to be revealed... anyways here we go (yes this devlog is a lot of text):

Code rework

Like mentioned in last months devlog, I started reworking much of the older unstable and quite frankly shitty code to be more modular and not break all the time. Most notably I reworked the whole way levels are loaded but I wont bore you with all the details and scripts I changed (Id also be too lazy to even write all of that down).

Main Menu rework (again)

I added a few new features to the Main Menu: 1. New level loading&loading screen like previously mentioned 2. New Image pixelation fx 3. New scroll bar fx 4. Glow for all text 1. Go to "Code Rework" to read more. 2, Unlike before, where there would be little blocks appear in front of the Images to give the illusion of a pixelation effect, the Images are actually getting pixelated now, meaning that the texture is getting manipulated directly. I did this to make the effect more convincing and versatile to use. Here is the source code if anyone is interested: https://github.com/Stefaaan06/Unity-Image-Pixelator 3. The scroll bar now has animations when loaded in/out (see more on the video linked below) 4. All the UI in the main menu has a nice glow now! Video on Twitter: https://x.com/Stefaaan06/status/1741058018018545802

Custom OS

As you may know, the game had some computers. Mostly just models standing around with text on them and not being intaractable, with a few input panels scattered around in the game to allow for little puzzles. I didnt like that the computers couldnt be interacted with tho so I set out on a journy to create a costum ingame (fake) operating system. Now you might be thinking to yourself that this is largely a waste of time and wont benefit the game that much compared to say... finishing the actual game. Id agree BUT the beauty of being an independent game developer is that I can just do whatever I want! Tho Im aware that making even a realistic fake of an operating sytem would take ages, so my goal is to make it semi convincing and modular. The main goals are: a User system with custom logs for each user. A semi modular application system so I can create different (gameplay related) applications for different locations. And make all of that interactable by the player. Meaning that if the player has access to an Admin account he should be able to delete other accounts, delete logs... etc..... and maybe (very big maybe) even create custom applications? (not sure about this one since it would take even more time to create).

Switching render-pipelines

This is more of an "experimental" thing, but I have started the process of switching from Unitys built in, to Unitys Universal Render Pipeline (URP) which is one of the Scriptable Render Pipelines. I made this decision after yearly Unity-event where they announced new features for URP which could be quite useful for this game. Some older features are also not available on the built in render pipeline like Decals or custom render calls. I said that this is an experimental thing because I dont even know the results of how the project will look yet. To convert a project from one render pipeline to another one must use a tool to convert many assets, which can take ages if your game is moderatly large, so I have been stucking converting for 100 hours (I wish I were joking...) TLDR; I started switching Unity render pipelines to get new updates, better optimisation, some new features and a scriptable render pipeline.

Year In Review

As you all now, 2023 has come to a close, so I decided to make a little edit documenting my gamedev progress over this year: [previewyoutube=vuQ7qs9rfuY;full][/previewyoutube] Thats it with this Devlog. Lets hope that by the end of this year the game will be out and stay tuned for new sneak peeks regarding my rework of a certain old game of mine.... If youre interested in the game follow me on twitter and join my discord: https://www.twitter.com/@stefaaan06 https://discord.gg/JXn6Xa4VC4

[ 2024-01-01 20:57:35 CET ] [ Original post ]

Heya! Sorry for the delay but here is Devlog 4. There wasnt a lot of progress made because of some other projects I had but well come to that later. First: The game passed 200, 400, 600 and almost 700 Wishlists all in one month! We went from 191 to now 668 Wishlists which is amazing!

More Polish

Ive spent a bit of time continuing to polish the levels so there can be a Demo soon.
This time I reworked the last part of Level 1, which you may know from older pictures (it was the one with the Green atmosphere but i scrapped that). It now fits the theme of the game better and a I also added a few new areas. ...and thats it with the progress this month

Plans for the Future

So how will the development continue? Here is the stuff planned for the next month: Migrate the Game from Unitys VCS to GitHub - simply because it is cheaper and it has more features. Rework most gameplay systems. - essentially all important gameplay systems are outdated and not modular at all (for example I have like 3 Scripts for opening doors). Continue polishing levels The goal is to get out a Demo of the game in the near future, while also allowing me to quickly expand the Game with new levels by having modular code.

GithubGameOff2023

This month I participated in the GithubGameOff2023 gamejam, where I developed the game Aeterna. "Embark on a non-Euclidean odyssey in Aeterna, a puzzle-parkour game set in an endlessly looping world. Explore mind-bending landscapes, solving puzzles, and going trough parkour challenges." The game turned out really cool and I learned a ton of stuff, including how to ride proper modular Event Systems, meaning that I can just incorporate them into this game.

Play here: https://stefaaan06.itch.io/aeterna Source files: https://github.com/Stefaaan06/aeterna

Mono Space

As a side note: I have been helping to develop this game, and its on steam now! Consider wishlisting it if youre interested in puzzle-platformers https://store.steampowered.com/app/2710430/MonoSpace/ Thats it with this months Devlog. Hopefully there will be more to talk about next month, Cheers.

[ 2023-12-02 16:33:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Heya! Its the 1. of the Months so its time for another Mik Devlog! Theres been a lot of progress this Month so stay tuned

Level 3 finished

The last part of the Level 3 is finally finished and now the only thing left to do is to polish up the gameplay and add lore / sfx-
The last area is a large, open and almost completely empty room giving some scary vibes and should leave the player asking "what the fuck is this". Not sure yet what gameplay elements I should put there. Also the elevator to said elevator is now fully working and you can enjoy a nice longe ride (evangelion reference)

Level 1 polishing

With the completion of Level 3, my current goal is to add a layer of polish to the first 3 Levels to make them playable, and more importantly reviable (Youtubers, Newspages etc..)

- level design

I have started redoing and polishing gameplay and design elements of Level 0. There have been some changes to the gameplay & puzzles but the most noticable things are the visuals:

- sound design

One of the most important things for a game is the sound design. There is now a wider variety of sounds which are placed around the world.

- lens flare & lens dirt

A cool little effect to make the game look better is Lens Flare & Lens Dirt. Every object in the game with any Luminescence will have this effect applied to the player camera:
Some lights which should be highlited for their brightness / importance will have this effect applied.

- lore

Continued working on writing and implementing the lore in the game trough PC screens, easter eggs and notes.

optimisation

Along with polishing I started doing some general optimisation for the game. Im far from done since I have a lot of other stuff written down to do (like FSR & DLSS) but the most important ones are in the game now (wont bore you with the details tho) [previewyoutube=ZpxPQtn_6DU;rightthumb][/previewyoutube] [olist]

GPU instancing

static batching

vfx occlusion

prebaked mesh collisions [/olist] Thats it with this Devlog. Follow me on Twitter for more sneak peaks and information around the game. https://www.twitter.com/@stefaaan06

[ 2023-11-01 14:43:44 CET ] [ Original post ]

Heya! Its the first of the Month, and that means its time for another Devlog. While there has been less progress because of school starting, there are still a few cool new things.

New Water System

The entire water shader has been reworked: - waves - better lighting - better optimisation - Interactive water (it reacts to your Movements)

Heres a full video: [previewyoutube=IZAZqXQahpw;full][/previewyoutube]

Level 3

1. The entire look for the second half of the level has been reworked:

2. Theres now an epic elevator for an dramatic entrance to the last part of the level

Performance & Bug fixes

This goes without saying but I have been once again been working on fixing bugs and more imporantly, making the game run more smoothly. Thats it with this Devlog. Follow me on Twitter for more sneak peaks and information around the game. https://www.twitter.com/@stefaaan06 Cheers, Stefan.

[ 2023-10-01 17:39:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Heya, This if the first of the devlogs that [strike]will [/strike] (i forgor to post) should be coming on the 1st of every month documenting the progress on the Game!

Level Design

For starters, the largest focus so far has been to finish up the remaining levels, more specifically finishing up the first 3 Levels & Polishing them to get a demo out for the next steam next fest. So far there are currently 3 levels implemented with 2 of them already polished a bit and the last one missing dialog and polish. Along with that there is now wallrunning & even more lore in the game. Heres a gameplay preview: [previewyoutube=cGMfK92uiKs;full][/previewyoutube]

Level Selector / Stats Menu

Since an important part of the game should be speedrunning, there will be an stats system integrated into the game along with a level selector & leaderboards.

Dynamic Cables

Cool little effect for the enviroment to seem more alive. Showcase: https://twitter.com/Stefaaan06/status/1691465158101803009?s=20 Tutorial: https://stefaaan06.com/html/blogposts/dynamiccables

Other Changes...

Here are some more minor changes that didnt fit in the other sections:

• Movement changes
• Bugfixes
• Even more Bugfixes
• Optimisation
• Elevator for epic entrance in some levels

Thats it with this Devlog. Follow me on Twitter for more sneak peaks and information around the game. https://www.twitter.com/@stefaaan06

[ 2023-09-02 16:31:10 CET ] [ Original post ]