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