Pig now has emotios: happy, sad, upset, calm, etc.
Fixed Bunnies' AI behavior bug during work.
More picture about Pig emotion.
It is easier to catche Pig emotion change in screenshots than video.
Sometimes Bunny does silly things, like repeatedly watering a plant. This NPC behavior bug is quite subtle and can only be noticed after a long observation period.
After fixing it, I stared at Bunny planting grapes, from growth to maturity, to make sure there were no issues.
Then fixed Bunny in Black's AI logic error of following Pig. Before, they would finish the current action, like playing, before starting to follow.
I can't figure out how to efficiently debug NPC behavior; after each modification, I have to start over, which is frustrating.
Pig can reuse part of Bunny's animations. All animations and seating have been reset, which is time-consuming and uninteresting. I've checked several times, hoping I haven't missed anything.
Only about 60% of the animations can be used by both. Because the two animals look very different, directly reusing some animations may seem strange.
Animating is quite tedious. Sometimes I even wish I could just use human animations.
But the skeletons are different; little short-legged animals don't move like long-legged humans.
I tried using human skeleton animations for Pig, and it looked terrible, like a person walking in a pig costume, not a cute little short-legged Pig.
Pig now has expressions. Some expressions look fine in Blender, very cute, but the lighting in Unity is slightly different. After completing the major shapes, I adjust them while looking at how they are displayed in Unity. It took more time than I imagined.
Another indie game developer I follow seems to be delaying the release of their game too, more than a year later than expected.
During the development process, it's difficult to predict what new problems we will encounter and how much time they will take.
Regarding the new game:
Although I swore I would use URP for the next game, I found myself returning to HDRP several times in the middle of the new game... Because the lighting is just so beautiful.
HDRP games become very slow, and sometimes I can hear the console fan spinning like crazy, so I went back to URP.
As an artist, I would definitely choose HDRP; there's no way around it. We just love good-looking designs, even though the developers may grumble.
Luckily, I am both the designer and the implementer, so I don't have to argue in the meeting room and then decide to give up HDRP.
After a long, deep sigh, I decided to give up HDRP.
However, weeks later, I returned to HDRP...
It has to look good, even if the game is a bit slower...
That's about it.
I've put in a lot of effort, but the work looks about the same as before. Looking at my notes, I remembered that I did try a lot.
Recently, I've been writing a big feature for the new game, which is important but boring, and I keep making revisions. It's been a few months and there's still no progress. It's a bit depressing.
Recently, I started trying to give myself a pep talk every day, emphasizing the importance of the feature, clapping for myself, giving myself a little encouragement, and then starting to write code.
Sometimes, I don't even want to write this game update because it's all just minor tweaks, it feels hardly worth mentioning.
But seeing your heartwarming comments, even if it's a stone's heart, it will bloom a little flower, so I'll continue writing updates.
I'll try to have Bunny and Pig use the same code in the new game. That would be easier to continue update current game.