What is wrong?
Over the past year we've learned a lot, both from mistakes and successes, and now that we are a year into development of Disinfection we've started to realize something important:
Though the current engine has been great for us to start game-development in, being easy to use and very comfortable for us personally, it has slowly but surely become a major crutch for us.
This has become a major cause in us either not implementing features/content or implementing them in a simplified format. The current engine simply either doesn't support or doesn't have features we need for Disinfection. There have been attempts on implementing these things ourselves but this has proven to be a major challenge. Too major. So we knew for sure that we needed to tackle this sooner or later.
Jeroen had set out to find an alternative and had found a great one in the form of Godot. This engine has all the features we need, plus it is fully open-source so it is much easier to implement anything we are missing. It is also a much more modern and well-maintained engine, which supports many of the latest features you can find in modern games. Jeroen already has been working on a side-project (called 'Keep it Running') in Godot for over a month now and the results have been very pleasing.
How will this transition play out and can I still play the game?
The current version of the game will be temporarily feature-locked, meaning that no new features will be added to it until the transition is done. However the current version will remain playable until the new version of the game is ready to replace it.
The 'Testing Beta' version of the game will first be replaced with the new version so we can do public testing. You can choose yourself if you want to opt into this new Testing Beta or not via Steam.
Feedback will help us a lot, so feel free to opt-in and let us know what you think of the changes once the new version is live and during its development.
How long will this take and will there be regular updates?
Initially it will take a longer time before the new Testing Beta goes public, as we need to port over all assets and code over to the new engine. This will probably take about a month. After that we'll be returning to the regular updating schedule we've had so far, so every week or every 2 weeks.
During development of the new version we'll make sure to make regular News posts with progress, you can also join the Discord for regular updates with screenshots and videos.
What will be the biggest changes?
Naturally with changing engine there will be many aspects of the game that will change/evolve as well. Since we need to take a new look at everything, we will polish many (small) things along the way such as code and assets. There will be no new features though, until the transition is done.
Here's a rundown of the biggest overall changes that are currently planned:
New graphics:
Disinfection will get a huge overhaul graphics-wise, as Godot uses a modern renderer with full support for things like dynamic Global Illumination, volumetric lighting and fog, etc.
We're going to overhaul some of the assets too to fit the new graphics, making everything look much prettier and atmospheric.
New sounds system:
Godot has a fully realtime and fully dynamic sound system, which is something we really wanted for Disinfection as the game uses sound a lot to build atmosphere a lot and to give ques where things are. We always wanted sounds like footsteps to realistically echo through the spaceship, or sounds to get muffled behind objects. We also needed special sound effects for the ingame voice-chat, such as radio/distortion and pitch effects, which is all possible now. Jeroen has already done some initial testing in 'Keep It Running' with very good results.
New animation system and updated animations:
The animation system in the old engine was rather limited and clunky, and didn't allow for some of the animation and interaction features we wanted. The current animations are also not that great, mainly due to our own inexperience. With the new engine we should be able to more fully realize our vision of dynamic animations (and Inverse Kinematics) with better animation transitions.
We are also going to tackle the player animations primarily, as those affect gameplay the most. The headbobbing and swaying is a bit much right now and the transitions are very jarring, so this can be improved a lot still. There are also still some animations missing for monster attacks.
New Lobby:
The current Lobby is a bit too big, forcing players to walk and being a little confusing for new players. Some of our (planned) ideas also didn't work out for the Lobby, such as the Store and Leaderboard, so we need to change things a little. Most of the design will stay the same but some parts will be removed and overall the Lobby will be much more compact.
Visually the Lobby will also get an upgrade, with more decorations and polish on existing decorations.
Our thanks go out to everyone who has played the game and everyone that has provided feedback so far and we are looking forward to hearing what you think of the new and upgraded Disinfection once it becomes public.