haracter Builder

Dadaskis is here... This is by far the most serious post here. At least, the one i'd actually wish to elaborate on. For the time being i've been working on a utility tool called "Character Builder". It is supposed to resolve one of the critical workflow issues that this project had whenever it came to creation of characters.

[previewyoutube="1mj7gKSQJ20;full"][/previewyoutube]

How was it made before?

• Create a high-poly model of clothes to combine in one mesh afterwards.

• Making a quick, dirty low-poly with Instant Meshes.

• UV unwrapping, baking, texturing, quick rigging, tada.

In 8 hours i could make one character! Or, not really 8 hours, sometimes more if you had to make quadruple NVGs for example. This workflow was blazingly fast, really. However, it was suffering from issues that were rather offputting for me as a developer:

• Each character would require at least 8 hours of work, of course, it could be less... but it would come at cost.

• There's no possibility to reuse any parts of already existing characters.

• Higher level of detail usually meant going through several circles of hell. Would you like to take a hellish ride?

• Hard surface modelling (forementioned NVGs) is rather complex.

• It is nearly impossible to go back and change one little thing in a model.

• And so on, if you have certain experience in modelling, you might mention even more of these points.

But, why do you need this tool?

So, i wanted to get a change in my life. Here, i would like to elaborate on my logic when it comes to visuals... I should say that i don't really care about graphics, like, really. I mean, it's cool to have something that might look like something-something high-fidelity, high-detail, and so on. It is also an industry rat race that doesn't seem to be pleasing. In this case, i'm not even an artist, but an engineer that says to himself: "If it works, don't touch it". I use the end results as something for analysis, but in the end, i always pay more attention to workflow. If it is painful to work, then it is almost guaranteed to provide bad results. And, of course, optimization is always something i wish to get in first place. Hence why paying more attention to creation of tools for creation of visual content is way, way more preferable to me. Whenever i've taken a look on my older workflow, i saw a mess that needs a fix, even if i was pretty much happy with the end result (nobody else except me btw). However, after numerous prototypes, i realized i need more solid storytelling. Comics renderer and the entire comics system show characters in more detail. This way, i would need to fix 2 problems: More characters, and, of course, more detail in characters. The old workflow was no longer sustainable in this case.

What problems Character Builder is solving?

It provides a solid workflow to make characters of any complexity. In fact, it works like constructor of characters. If you ever played GTA, you probably were using their dressing system at least once to change appearance of your character. In this case, Character Builder is quite similar. However, in this case, it is usable for making of character models, that later can be used for NPCs or comic scenes. In this case...

• Character Builder is providing "character parts" to add parts that have influence of multiple bones. These can be rather complex clothes or equipment.

• "Character details" are objects that are attached to a bone (100% bone weight influence on all vertices), in this case, it can be ammo rig pouches, radios, goggles, minor reusable details.

• Solid preview of a moving character to show how vertex weights are working.

• Possibility to save and return later.

• All assets can be loaded in real-time, you don't have to wait for Godot to import models or textures.

• Subtextures support and material editing for even more visual control.

• Export of GLTFs with minimal amount of materials by creation of combined, optimized texture atlas.

• Due to more modular workflow, work can be split between multiple artists working on different parts/details.

• And probably a bit more.

How does Character Builder affect the workflow?

It is slow now! I mean, don't get me wrong... When you have to create a character from scratch, it might take a while. However, in the end, if you make enough of these clothes, you can change their textures, make more variation, etc etc etc. So, it is slow to start, but the more you work with it, the bigger your asset library gets and then you get faster development of characters. That means more creative freedom in creation of any characters. This is something i wanted to get in the end. And this tool was the only way to get it working. Of course, i was trying to research it for quite a while. The closest thing that worked the way i wanted was "Mixamo Fuse" program. However, it didn't do a good job with combining materials, it was rather complex to set up my own custom content and etc. Creation of this tool was only question of time and the time has come.

[carousel autoadvance="true"][img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/44790093/d777f9b73d7e652e83a5ec6c840ba5bbafede2ca.png"][/img][img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/44790093/ba9bcc09fe344a85438c0d290f1fc7dea86a05b1.png"][/img][img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/44790093/2576c1d1ccf33e038342ede6aaf44f400bfbc95b.png"][/img][/carousel][carousel autoadvance="true"][img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/44790093/0f07a24b39fa7fef4e7a081bddad8b0dc0938d96.png"][/img][img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/44790093/b6cd7e2faaf602887c452202e8b4f59ba00fd656.png"][/img][img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/44790093/42371df3d6bcb3ef6c2ecaaefd43494986cb44ce.png"][/img][/carousel]

Thanks, Cali

During recreation of merc_light_unit0, my friend @00::000C - C4 helped me to create optimized high-detailed parts of the character specifically for the head. In this case, @00::000C - C4 made...

• Recreation of 6B47, both covered and uncovered variants (only covered were used in the end result).

• High-detailed respirator with a lot of fancy straps all around.

• GSSH-01 headphones.

• Knife pouch with an additional pen just in case.

• GP pouch (maybe for medicals, maybe for everything).

Once again, thank you very much @00::000C - C4 for participating in development of this character. [img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/44790093/2d2eb659bd8273474f00f5f89169c4786479a616.png"][/img][img src="https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images/44790093/3be108de696edfcd24ace22a3bdb7502eddb778f.png"][/img]

[ 2025-06-09 07:57:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

- Removed texture quality setting due to sudden GPU bugs.

[ 2025-04-30 17:17:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2989940/Index_Purger_Demo_v11/?beta=1 Patch 1.1.1 changes: - Reanimation of viewmodels (by TNP, Dadaskis) - MessageHUD position is now centered - Location relighting (by TNP) - 2D scope for BSR-10 - More details for m_day1_2 and m_day1_2_post0 (by ostap_bender) - Fixed double props in m_day1_3 (by ostap_bender) - NPC AI logic is improved. [previewyoutube=FJ7Ab2nX040;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2025-04-22 19:42:53 CET ] [ Original post ]

3 years of Index: Purger

Three years ago, i was fooling around in my personal Godot playground in attempt to make some simple First-Person Shooter mechanics, like i did before in Unity. Back then, i didn't even expect what kind of rabbit hole this project is going to be.

Major Milestones

- Steam Page

Of course, Steam is flooded with all games of any kind, to the point when nobody cares. But hey, now we have a page. @ostap_bender, dude, if you wouldn't help me, i'm not sure if this game would ever have one lol. I still owe you this one.

- 1.495 Tasks Annihilated

If i wouldn't have a to-do list, i wouldn't remember what did i do. I have 1.495 untold stories, and... Even if i can tell many of them in detail, i don't think it matters. I just want to tell you that there's a lot of things happening under each little detail of this game. This is labor of my love towards this digital dumpster fire, and i hope i'll make even more *meaningful* tasks next year. I'll try to tell shortly what i did, though.

- Tools

Locational toolset of build 4 was mostly about making static levels. It was fun at first, but the more i was working with game levels for build 4, the more i realized i need more flexible toolset to make more dynamic locations. And... a lot of other things really, such as localization, many other tools to work with this game.

- Optimization Hell and Detailing

Optimization isn't about making existing stuff work better, it is about doing less. You may not fully agree with it, but that was my conclusion when i have added features i wanted to add for a long time, just to find how greedy they can be. That was one of the biggest pitfalls i've encountered in this project. I had to fight literally everything. Fighting for each frame. Fighting loading screen time. Fighting stutters caused by shader compilation. And i'm still not fully sure i've done it well, but at least it runs better now. During this year, i succeeded to add many details, such as particle effects, general-purpose debris on destruction, god knows what else. I don't really want to read through the entire to-do list again, because this application lags when i open my old to-do list with these 1.495 tasks. Just trust me that i had to make a lot of shit to make it into what demo is now, alright?

- The Loadout Rework

Build 4 was the last point when this game had "physical" loadout where you had to interact with props to select weapons. I loved this idea, because it was somewhat original and easy to make. However, it proved to be limiting and i realized i need to add levelling and skills in this game. What's the result? You can now roleplay as meth demigod while playing one of these weird gamemodes introduced by "Mystery" perk. This is one of the biggest changes that turned Purger into what it is now.

- Demo Released

As an actually healthy way to replace "Early Access", i have released demo version. It will represent current state of development. What can i say... I thought this game was well-fixed, but you guys didn't just prove me wrong, you have found the most creepy bugs that were only fixed as soon as 3.6. released. I'm still not sure what kind of anomalies happened, but hey, at least it seems to be stable right now. I'm very, very thankful for all feedback you provided, it was a literal gold mine of it. A lot of conflicting opinions, maybe it all can just burn in hell :)

Thank You

@tipsiey The OG playtester who brutalized my ego and the game into something better. Your sounds, props, and code are all still here. I hope you'll have fun exploding fire extinguishers whenever you encounter them in future locations. @ostap_bender Financial god, playtesting legend, and the reason this project didnt get into mental hospital. I can't even put into words how much did you help me during this year, even if i fully realize that life is changing for you... I just wanted to thank you again for all these moments we had together while playtesting this game with screensharing. @thenetherpug From lightmaps to animation wizardry, you jumped into this mess headfirst and made it shine. At first, when i met you discussing Project-S, i would never tell you'd join this loose collaboration. Despite having a ton of projects to work on, you still managed to do relighting with higher-quality lightmaps, write streaming of resources (and used on lightmaps), write texture quality setting and unlock your viewmodel animation skills to reanimate 4 weapons entirely. You impressed me really much during this year, and i hope i managed to answer all the questions regarding game-dev you might have had. @dooley_21554 You came out of nowhere, took my weird English and turned it into poetry while playtesting like a madman. Respect for this, dude, i hope we'll work more together. @zoltan_szana The "meth update" joke that turned this game into Silk Road. You deserve to be credited for this.

Whats Next?

The demos out, the foundations solid(ish), and the visions clearer than ever. But Index: Purger isnt done yet. Theres more to break, more to fix, and more fun to squeeze out of this hellish development project. Happy birthday, Index-0. Thanks for being here, thanks for reading this.

[ 2025-04-09 10:03:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2989940/Index_Purger_Demo_v10/ https://store.steampowered.com/app/2743010/Index_Purger_Soundtrack/ Happy new cycle, residents of INDEX-0. In honor of this date, we are releasing a relatively major update for the demo, which adds new weapons, enhances the experience and fixes a lot of bugs! In addition, we are releasing the game's soundtrack for sale! List of changes: - Lowered game file size by 2 GBs - Add Bender weapons - Mausie, Scorpion, EMP-40, PDW-B-M2, G-612 - Added a \"Normal\" difficulty - Add loadout closets *everywhere* - Add motion blur - Added invert X/Y mouse input settings - Added \"Sharpen\" option - Added new perks: Hitman, Highlight, Med. Training - Added foodpacks - Footsteps are now more noticeable - Loadout UI is now showing active mystery modes - Voicelines removed - NPCs improvement and optimization - Updating engine version, which resulted in stability - Fix arrangement of save list - Change value for default max fps - Restart the game on language change - Multiple displays support added - Fix variety of bugs related to Items HUD - Variety of fixes related to a citizen day location - C4 explosions sound at Get-Inn Mall section (thanks Mister Twister!) - Bunnyhopping of \"Fast\" perk was tweaked to be smoother - Toggle sprint/crouch/aim option in input settings - Fixed low quality settings softlock - Optimized shader compilation - Tweaked visuals of certain mystery modes

[ 2024-12-31 22:33:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2743010/Index_Purger_Soundtrack/ We present you our game's soundtrack! If you wish to support the developer, this is the perfect way to do it! Besides the developer support, you can hear unique tracks right from our game. It is worth mentioning that you can listen to these tracks for free, in our game's demo, which represents current state of development. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2989940/Index_Purger_Demo_v10/

[ 2024-12-31 21:00:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

It's a little late, but here are the past patches! (By the way, 1.0.7 was released on August 10, 2024)

PATCH 1.0.5

- News window in menu (asked by @ostap_bender) - Fixed a crash related to usage of drugs like meth - Fixed applying of perks affecting firerate or ammo damage - Fixed replicated case of save system bug that broke @youssef_source game session by rewriting certain mechanisms, status of fix is unknown - Removed x16 anti-aliasing option - Limited maximum spread - Fixed positioning of camera on death if you die while crouching - Fixed loadout selection auto-saving - Investigated the case of @thenetherpug and accidentally blown my brains off

PATCH 1.0.6

One anonymous individual reported me a lot. If you are reading this - thank you. - Fix russian news - Changes to processing of modifications - Grenade launcher of AR-131 is launching the grenade with more force - LoadoutSelection became more flexible, but nobody will care about that yet - Removed "Return to Loadout" menu button - Drastically optimized loading times - Changed m_day1_1 a little - Fixed NPC visibility checks - Fixed NPC raycast bullets going through walls - Removed teleportation for allies - Nerfed gas damage - You are now forced to apply changed settings if you try quitting the menu - Default music volume is lowered - NPCs should now move much less - Removed possibility to open game menu when mission ends - Difficulty selection menu is changed - Tutorial scavengers were replaced - Fixed processing of default settings values - Removed special abilities from chemical and explosive units - Sound settings is now applying immediately - m_day1_3_post0 added more enemies - Crackhead now has more chance to pickup something - Fixed saving of difficulty values - Sandbox difficulty is now even weaker

PATCH 1.0.7

- Fixed patchnotes memory - Clean up trash in files - Global values are now saved on closing of game menu - Fixed the reported location chunk crash - Fixed the crash caused by picking up some dropped weapon in weird circumstances - Fixed the crash of loading loadout menu save - Meth is now free - Explosion shaking radius is lowered - Added missing checkpoints to m_day1_1 and m_day1_3_post0 Please, if you can, report any problems that you have discovered yourself, this will help make the game better.

[ 2024-12-26 12:44:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, everyone. I hope all of you had fun with demo of Index: Purger. During these days, i had released 4 patches (and god, i need to get a habit of posting details here too). Patch v1.0.1: - Attempted to fix save system (on player death) crash reported by both @Coypu and @eznoobies. The potential reason of this crash (logs say nothing as always) is related to bugged LocationBase reset function. I tried adding more "safety measures", and i really hope it got fixed - @Youssef reported a weird crash related to switch to last loadout menu, i tried to fix it up according to logs he sent, yet i'm not sure if that fixes it Patch v1.0.2: - Fixing the case of @Unnamed Entity that couldn't kill the infinite wave in ClothMan shop. This update is supposed to... fix it i hope. - Removing gas on save loading. Gas was one of the reasons why spawn-killing has occured as much. - Attempted to fix save system crash once again, with adding even more to logs. - Logs are now stored in ./logs directory and each session creates a new log file. If you have a problem with crashes or something like that - send the entire folder. - Fixed the so-called "Chicken Grandpa" save, now the game should not have problems with processing Not-A-Number values that somehow ended up being character's health. - Fixed a bug that multiplied usage of bandage item by the count of level transitions. Patch v1.0.3: - Adding missing .SO files (and .DYLIB just in case). Doing that mainly for @Tortle | BitFreeze Entertainment, maybe that'll make it easier to launch on MacOS. Patch v1.0.4: - Fixed Linux support with help of @Crynux, now the game starts and has visible weapons - Just in case Linux platform will have debug executable too - Attempted to test the death mechanic more extensively and add more code to fix it up. I hope that players like @Youssef won't have as much trouble in future - One of the Steam players (named 2chainz4bracletz) reported a bug. If you die underwater, after respawning you will have suffocation damage anyway... Fixed now - Reorganized resolution menu to add some missing resolutions (one of which were needed by @Youssef) - Prevent setting of dangerous resolutions into WindowControl (such as 0 values that break the rendering entirely) - Tutorial pre-arena saving (asked by @Coypu) - Version label visible globally in this game (asked by @00::0002 - ) - Fixed the empty equipment slot bug caused by "hidden" dev. armor Please, if you can, report the issues you have found yourselves.

[ 2024-08-13 09:07:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

*A message from the developer Dadaskis in the official [url=https://discord.gg/w3H64jxUh6 ] discord 10/08/2024 Today is the Red Letter Day. Probably the biggest milestone in 2 years of this development mess! The demo is out. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2989940 And, i have to clarify that this demo-version is going to serve as healthy replacement of "Early Access". This demo-version will represent current state of this game and YOU can help to make it better by giving more feedback. It is pretty much experimental decision, of course, i really hope it'll work out. Currently there is version 1.0, i plan to make a couple of minor updates to it (a bit more polishment of existing levels and etc). During v2.0 i want to add more content, such as actual starting citizen location (m_day0_x, i miss you), mercenary operations and etc. I hope you'll have fun!

[ 2024-08-12 11:07:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy New Year, dear citizens.

It's time to show what we've been working on!

Streets near the Get-Inn Mall

With no comms with anyone, exiting this mall barely alive, You will have to find Your way to escape that sector to survive after this failed operation of Omega Security. Technical name of this game level is m_day1_3_post1, for now it is in development.




m_day1_3_post1 is not the simplest game level to make for sure. Before that moment, there were limited, simplistic and brutalistic structures of the mega-mall. In this case, that's a whole cityscape to make, which, of course, requires additional assets to create a more believable experience. Example of such assets are cars:

Stages of development for current time period

• Completion of the streets near the Get-Inn Mall

  
  Mainly it needs new assets to be developed for mentioned believable atmosphere of the dystopian cityscape. That means creation of visual assets, soundscapes and other details.

• Technical maintenance

  
  Stability of work of this game is an important element, which means not only the fix of various bugs, but also analysis of work of the game systems and fix of various flaws in optimization of this game to create a more smooth experience. For the time being the game itself is quite stable, however, there is a good bunch of various flaws that need to be fixed.

• Weapon development

  
  This game has a lot of various weapons, but on screenshots there is only AR-100 because that weapon is the only one that has a nice, textured look, while others mainly being placeholders. The target of this stage of development is turning placeholder weapons to more real weaponry that is possible to show and, of course, which is cool to play with.

• Demo

  
  This stage is important in a way so it gives an actual possibility to show this game to players, or, to be more precise, to show what kind of game it is, how it feels, how it plays, so it is important to make the demo in a way so all mentioned points are possible within limited demo version of the game. Besides that, such public version of the game can help to gather more feedback that will help to improve the game experience of released version of this videogame.

See you soon!

[ 2023-12-30 02:47:19 CET ] [ Original post ]

Welcome, Index-0 citizen!

In this first piece of news, we'd like to touch on the future of this game, as well as talk about the FAQ.

[previewyoutube=I2BDtfySC5w;full][/previewyoutube]

Game Mechanics

In this blog we'll talk about some of the mechanics of the game. Some mechanics are truly gamechanging!

Loadout

Loadout is the most important game mechanic. Here you can choose your equipment, weapons and perks. Customize the equipment for yourself! We are currently actively working on locations and weapons.

Perks

You can also select perks in the loadout. You can choose your own style. Do you want to be a tank or an engineer? The choice is yours alone! And the "Mystery" perk... He can give you new emotions even after completing the game! Will you be able to guess all the combinations?

Enemies

We have a lot of different enemies! From "whipping boys" to heavyweights who need their own approach to be neutralized!

FAQ

• Will there be a progression in the game? Yes, you will have to earn experience and skill points in the main mission or in additional missions. Using them, you will unlock weapons, equipment, and perks.

• Will there be a demo version of the game? Yes, we are planning to make a demo version of the game, which will show the most basic mechanics of the game in a unique short storyline related to the Alpha-0 squad.

• Will there be SteamDeck support? We are considering this option. If Valve issues a devkit, we will provide support for SteamDeck.

• When is the game's release? It is impossible to say for sure, but it is planned for 2024.

• Will there be Russian localization? If there is a demand for Russian localization after the release, then we will most likely do it. I note that we will not touch the voice acting.

• If I'm a YouTuber and I want to get the key, then where should I write? indexproject.bl@gmail.com you can send a request.

[ 2023-12-19 15:11:40 CET ] [ Original post ]