Howdy y’all, we are probably (definitely) well overdue a new devblog update! It’s been a busy time in the Semaeopus offices (I mean when is it not!? We are making a big video game after all...and funding it by making other people's videogames in parallel) but these last few months have been especially packed on the OFF GRID front. We’ve built new mechanics, polished art, been on international adventures and welcomed a host of new talent onto the team. Here’s some highlights:
Time For a Quick Vent
While we've always talked about trying to focus on realism, and are perfectly aware that air vents rarely are large enough for a person to fit in, what would a stealth game be without being able to crawl through some air vents?
We've had this feature planned almost from the first versions of the game, but now that we are trying to get more of the game levels completed it was the time to make sure it all actually works, and that our designs for air vent dimensions etc are usable.
This has meant a fair bit of adjusting things as far as our character controller and camera behaviour goes while crawling. The movement was fine for hiding behind some cover in more open spaces, but the tight spaces and corners inside air vents are a whole different issue so a lot needed to change to make it easier to navigate your way through the vents. We've adjusted both the movement code (and controls), tweaked our animation setup, and locked the camera more tightly close to the player to avoid clipping through the air vent walls and to make sure the player has good visibility in front of the character while moving.
...and talking about good visibility, it turns out air vents are really, really dark. And keeping things feeling suitably dark for hiding, while at the same time having enough light for the player to see what's going on, can be a bit of a challenge to balance. So we've set the camera to adjust more to different lighting conditions, just like your eyes would adapt in real life, and also cheated a tiny bit by adding some light around the player. This works reasonably well, and we'll certainly get things to look and feel even better in the long run. Same goes for the movement and control.
The main thing is that from now on you can finally do what every action film hero and stealth game main character has been doing for ages, crawl your way through the air vent networks in buildings to reach different areas conveniently out of the sight of the guards.
CCCamp 2023 and Modding in Off Grid
Stef headed over to Germany this year to get stuck in at The Chaos Communication Camp, which describes itself as ‘a five-day open-air event for hackers and associated life-forms’.
While there she did a talk about Off Grid’s development history and the modding options we have available in game. You can watch the talk here.
Following the talk Stef held two workshops where she walked people through the modding and setup process of Off Grid, the Level Kit tools and how to get involved with a CCCamp specific mod built by Mcfly of the Milliways Village.
We are very excited to see this mod coming to life as people populate it with all the things they love about CCCamp. We can’t wait to see it grow as more CCCampers get involved and add themselves to the project. Details on the Mod and how you can get involved, are on our wiki.
Modding with unity…on the Steam Deck!
A highlight of the CCCamp was when two campers, who wanted to take part in the workshops but didn’t have their laptops with them, managed to get everything up and running on their Steam Decks instead. Yeah, including a full download of Unity! That’s dedication to modding.
Once again thanks for your continued support friends! Lots of things are speeding up now in OFF GRID development, and with Semaeopus as a whole, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled for new and more regular announcements.
