A sad anniversary
Today the development of the remake of OLD makes 2 years! Just in time with some bad news though... First, the good news If you peek on the Trello page of the game, you can see that finally the first milestone is almost finished and there are just a few things to fix and to add s
Today the development of the remake of OLD makes 2 years!
Just in time with some bad news though...
However, the development will be briefly paused to see how these events unfold.
Original post First, the good news
If you peek on the Trello page of the game, you can see that finally the first milestone is almost finished and there are just a few things to fix and to add some content to be released. Among other new features, the new main changes until today are - Bows are back! And now you can craft multiple type of arrows (pew boom explosive ones) - Crafting automation. Starting with just melting ore or cooking, these are going to be working on their own while you are far away if they have enough fuel available. - "Potion" making. Mix some herbs and minerals to get cool effects. Put in into a regular flask to drink it, or in a throwing flask to craft grenades with different effects. - Buoyancy physics, and not only for objects, sail the ocean with your own boat or raft! - Friendly NPCs are on the work now! - A thousand of QoL features not listed here
Unity, the very bad news
As you probably know, One Last Day runs under Unity, and they recently announced some controversial measures to avoid financial losses. While these measures don't affect directly to this game, it does to the reputation of the engine, and thus some people wont be willing or comfortable to play a game that runs under this engine anymore. As a developer, it happens just the same, since the trust is broken and I wonder if I should continue using it. After 4000 hours of development in the last 2 years, probably porting the game to another engine is not an option either, so OLD should be finished under Unity, this might be the last time I use it outside my job though.
However, the development will be briefly paused to see how these events unfold.
The goal is to at least show big buildings on the distance, but for now only terrain is visible.
To make combat a bit more dynamic, enemies can now be parried and staggered. Also hitting to certain parts will cause more or less damage.
Of course there will be more enemies, and the farther you travel, the harder they will be.
2015 (current published)
2020 (remake experiment)
2021 (current alpha remake, early version)
2022 (alpha remake, today)
As for the state of the development, I'm doing something that was planned for the next stage. Let's say that AI is being improved and don't expect just plain "zombies", got something else coming.
At some point in the following couple months the experimental build will be accesible for everyone who wish to test it, but beware of this lack of content at first!
Today let's talk a bit about the design of One Last Day and what's about to change.
And then there are workbenches you can place at your base and craft more advanced stuff with up to 6 materials. Also made easy, but eventually workbenches will get a bit complicated.
Also, something that I wasn't planning to finish for this stage but I already made is base decoration. You can change (paint, or wall paper) walls and place furniture, since now every voxel has now extended functionallity. A voxel can be now just decorative or have further properties. Not many decorative elements are done yet , but it's time to do them! Also, stairs and ramps... yeah I know, it was about time.
However this changes with hard resources. You will need to hit them, but don't try to cut down a tree with your fists, it will take forever (still possible tho... your choice). As instead you will be able to use a specialized tool, so yeah, to cut down a tree use an axe, to break some stone use a pickaxe, to demolish a wall use a hammer, you get it.
So here's where the global weather system kicks in. Now there are a few weather presets that will change randomly and affects weather, lighting, fog, visibility, sounds and even the wind. And yes, wind is something that will become really relevant in OLD. In this stage this weather is truly global, which means that when it changes it does for everyone in the server, regardless where they are.
However, it wont be the same a storm in the forest than in the snow. Also, it wont be the same hunting under the rain than in a sunny day.
And a small bath at a... puddle?
See you on the next post!
She's the new and hopefully last character iteration for the game. To avoid extra iterations and useless work, I just made the female version of the character until I reach the first playable alpha milestone. So yes, just women in the game for now, I'm still learning art and I'm a bit slow on it yet. The male version will be done lately.
This new character iteration includes cool things, such as face expressions, configurable skins and eyes, and even body parts. So yes, this means in-game character editor, better than the last one I hope!
For the first version, a very limited set of clothes and hairstyles will be present, which will get larger as development goes further.
The world will have biomes, which might be quite different of what you may expect of a survival game. The land is infected and everything is changing, weird stuff happens.
So far just a bit of two classic biomes are half implemented. Also I'm working of sub aquatic exploration
biomes.
The world is going to be huge. Actually right now is infinite, but I'm trying to limit it for a better gameplay design, but still huge.
Just take a look to a portion of the world map (raw pixel render, very WIP)
Looking too small? This piece of map is equal to 10404 km2. Don't worry, you will have vehicles available to explore it. And also expect more biomes to be present, of course!
As you can see, One Last Day characters are changing a lot (they have knees now!). A full humanoid character is now playable and customizable, either men o women.
After many iterations and many tries (we went from cartoony characters, anime like, to even a more realistic approach), this is the design that keeps the feel and fits with the original idea of the game.
Clothing, shading and other details are still on the work but the main base is done. So keep in mind that how they look may change in a future, but the style will remain.
The new model
Characters are now cut and separated in layers, meaning that head, torso, arms, legs and other pieces are separated and can be combined into a single layer. By default there are headsets, hair, face accesories, torso, hands, legs and shoes. And this can be expanded with as many layers as we want add, this is important when we reach to talk about modding.
Modding
Modding will be a thing, allowing everyone to add custom content to the game. Starting with clothing or even character parts, if you know Blender and Unity you will be able to add new clothes, hairs, whatever you like or even a whole new character model. We'll talk about this a bit more in depth in another post.
Animations are also going to be moddable, but this is something in early development at this moment.
More coming
I'll talk a bit more of the characters and show more of them when talking about new movement system, but for now, I hope you like them as much as I do.
Oh and yes, the landscape you see on the background is just a new biome called "highlands" that is on the work for the new procedural system, just a bit empty right now, but I thought it looks cool for a background, lets hope we can talk more about the world really soon! It's getting really huge.
Be safe!