Ultranova Development Update
Hello everyone! If you are curious about the progress of Ultranova, I have some news and videos to share with you. Maybe the best way is to watch the two videos that I posted recently: This is the first "Making Of" DevLog that covers the initial few weeks of development. Last wee
Hello everyone!
If you are curious about the progress of Ultranova, I have some news and videos to share with you. Maybe the best way is to watch the two videos that I posted recently:
This is the first "Making Of" DevLog that covers the initial few weeks of development.
Last weekend, I followed it up with a second DevLog that covers the period from May to November this year:
The initial progress of Ultranova went extremely fast. I was happy to have achieved a playable state after only three weeks, with part of a first level and a basic enemy in place. My initial plan was going to be very aggressive to self-publish the game in only about two months.
New Story and Game Design
Ultranova sparked interest in the video comments and in my Discord, and the path I was heading had two concerns:
1) The story of Ultranova did not hold up well
2) The game design and level design needed improvement
In my Discord, Laura (a.k.a. Jisilra) contacted me and offered to help out with the story and characters. Since then, back in June, I wrote a new Game Design Document to which Laura has contributed immensely. In the new design, there is a story about where Nova is from, what mission she is on, and what will take place in 12 levels and hours of gameplay, which enemies, bosses, and characters she will encounter. The systems and importance of a well-paced, enjoyable progression through the game have received very high priority. I am really eager to make Ultranova a fun and engaging game to play, which is why I am investing a lot more time into its development.
My soon-to-be 14-year-old son, with an extreme passion for space, games, and science fiction, has also shown great interest in Ultranova, and he is helping me out with interesting and fresh ideas that are anchored in plausible logic for things that happen in the game. I am proud to be a father of someone who has no fear in voicing his opinion as he reacts to some of the questionable logic I've come up with.
For the story and game design, we currently work as a team of 3 to balance science and fiction.
Things are getting Unreal
When it comes to technical development, modeling, music, and audio, all is on my table at the moment. I am a long-time Unity developer, but earlier in the year, I began to learn Unreal Engine too. This was before Unity decided to shake the Internet with its new pricing because I had been meaning to learn Unreal Engine for quite some time before that. Since the development timeline for Ultranova got stretched out with the new game design and story, I am also taking the opportunity to switch to Unreal Engine for the game, and I am treating the previous work in Unity as a playable prototype.
Even though development will take longer, I strongly believe that the result will be much better because, in my testing with the art style, the visuals and lighting are superior, and I am very excited about what the end game will look like.
I am sticking to the low poly esthetic, but with the power of Unreal Engine, I am increasing the polygon count for the characters and the environment. There will also be cut scenes in the game. The cut scenes also require some additional detail of the character and environment. Here is a preview of Nova with and without helmet running in Unreal Engine:
The new Game Design Document is nearly finished. All the actions, resources, levels, enemies, bosses, hazards, abilities, characters, and cut-scenes are close to being finalized, and the new Unreal Engine project has begun. I will post more regular updates on my YouTube channel so you can tag along on the journey, and I am very excited about this journey!
Talk to you soon!
Stefan / Imphenzia